TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER —

Welcome to empatheias' test drive meme. This test drive is to help interested players test their characters in the game's environment. We've included a few prompts that incorporate specific elements of the game, though you'll find all of them have a lot of leeway for players to get as creative as necessary. Before diving in, here are a few things we'd like to remind everyone about the game in general:

• Date reminders. Reserves open Tuesday, October 25 and Applications (Canon | OC) open Tuesday, November 1st.
  
  
• OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are allowed. Those interested can also use the test drive. OCs do not need to be reserved.
  
  
• Emotions are key! Empatheias' premise focuses on how anyone's emotions can affect their environment, be it big or small. While not every emotion will cause a reaction, significant ones definitely will. How much effect a character will have will ultimately be up to you, the player. Also, while we're giving a lot of leeway for the test drive, keep in mind that there will be some limits in the actual game.
  
  
• Everyone has an amulet. All characters have a unique amulet that is specialized for them. It will contain all of their emotion drops and it serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic. Otherwise, it works basically the same.
  
  
• Assume the character is already in the game. Because "OMG WHERE AM I IS THIS REAL LIFE" threads aren't going to be very helpful in this test drive! Plus those are going to happen in-game, anyway. So to make things easier, just assume that they've been around at least a week or so. Still learning the ropes, but not a complete "first day" experience.
  
  
• First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. Remember, these threads can also be used in your application for samples! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format. We have also made a change to our sample requirements, so look over the Applications page!

Now with that out of the way, here are some prompts you guys can work from!


PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try?

• Prompt B: Refer to the Task Board and choose a task your character may be interested in taking up. For this prompt, you could have your character ask for help, already be in the middle of the job, or react to it in some way. Perhaps they were an unfortunate victim or want to create a job countering an existing one. You could even have a prompt making a job request. Creating jobs for the purpose of the test drive is absolutely doable.

• Prompt C: How about giving the amulets a go? Start a telepathic conversation and see how it works. Remember, the amulets are sending out the owner's thoughts so might want to be careful about how the stream of consciousness goes...

• Prompt D: The Boreas Harvest Festival is fast approaching, and the farmers are trying hard to work through the bleak weather conditions to get their crops in before they go bad from all the apathy. All hands on deck—but there may be too many unwanted hands roaming around.

1. Scarecrows. The scarecrows that have been set up as a festive reminder of the time of year have unfortunately come under the influence of some errant strong emotions from the farm hands that work in the fields. Unfortunately that includes trying to ward off anyone who enters the fields with pitchforks and is one of them carrying a torch? Maybe if they can be convinced that you are trustworthy they will calm down.
   
   
2. Invading rabbits. There are ton of rabbits ravaging the carrot patches. They're easily frightened, but some are more tenacious than others. Beware of the white rabbit with red eyes.
   
   
3. Save the crops! Several batches are already starting to spoil! The only thing that can save them is dumping as much positive emotions into them. Joy of good food, hope for a bountiful meal, love of eating—whatever will work. Just be careful. Too much and those things might grow and explode…

• Prompt E: Aiada, the Arehtei of appreciation and jealousy, has sent a personal request for those who are interested. There is a small island just beneath Empatheias that she has been cultivating over the many centuries. She wishes to contribute to the Harvest Festival with some seeds and spores. However, the recent atmosphere has also reached down there, and now it's all a mess! Giant mushrooms replaced the trees and there's slime and mold everywhere. The cure? Aside from getting a lot of heavy duty cleaners and pushing it off, appreciation will go a long way to help.

1. Goop brigade. Grab that bucket and shovel and clear the goop out! Just be careful not to have too much get on you—jealousy might take over.
   
   
2. Appreciation balls. To help hasten the effort, Aiada has given several tubs filled with light, green orbs. Once channeled with enough appreciation, they can be used as mini-grenades to help explode and wash the area with more positive energy. Those caught in the blast won't be harmed. If anything, they'll just be very thankful.
   
   
3. Watch the ledges. Careful, it's a fairly small island and the goop and slime has made things slick. If you fall… That's not a good way to go, let's just say that.

• Prompt F: Various parties are interested in the emotion shards scattered all over Thera. But this time around, the focus is on the medical laboratory as the equipment and potential research there is also of interest. For three days those who volunteer are sent back to try and gather as much as possible—but of course this won't be easy.

1. Skeletal Scientists. The remains of the scientists who once worked in these rooms are still lurking, ready to protect their work. Fortunately they're relatively weak nerds, so not too difficult to dispatch. Just be careful.
   
   
2. Flying equipment. The various medical equipment has also taken life, scalpels and needles flying everywhere and stethoscopes ready to strangle.
   
   
3. Questionable liquid. Most of the easy shards have already been taken, leaving the more difficult to retrieve ones left. In particular they're found in strange, dark pink liquid. It's mostly harmless—except that upon contact intense waves of grief and suffering will course through. The longer the exposure, the worse it is. So hopefully a bucket full of it doesn't fall on you…

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include feathers and/or confetti.

For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're also welcome to use more than one prompt for respondents to choose from. If you have any questions or want to brush up on the game information, refer to the Game Information entry. Otherwise, tag around and have fun!

Comments

ii

[sobored]

[You know, even limiting it to just one of the two worlds Junko has lived in, she's seen an astounding amount of baffling sights. This however...doesn't quite take the cake, sorry Mr. Brando, but it's unique enough that it grabs her fleeting attention.

And that look he's giving people is just icing on the cake, really. She can tell exactly what kind of person this guy is from all that (well not exactly, her ability to analyze a situation only goes so far in these sorts of situations). But this is very much a person who looks at the world and expects it to orbit around him, like an accessory attached to that questionable outfit of his. And the people on it? Please, with that look, they're beneath his notice if he notices them at all. He's even got his own personal...whatever the hell his parasol carrier is to follow him around. It's a fun picture that all that paints, there's just one problem. One hopelessly wonderful problem that Junko finds oh so delightful because she knows he'd never even begin to consider it. And it's such a simple to state problem too, just a few words, really, that's all. See, the problem here is the fact that...

The world revolves around her, not you, Dio.

So she'll place himself in his way, just to see what he does when she doesn't move out of the way from being glared at. Because all she's got for him is a big smile because she has absolutely no idea how he'll react to that. With these types, she can guess, but with the lack of data she has, it's way more fun to let things play out to their natural despair filled conclusion.]

[malignans]

[She doesn't move. That's the first thing Dio notices.]

[The second is her obnoxious smile.]

[He looks at her for only a few seconds, his expression remaining entirely unchanged, and then he steps around her, and carries on as though she never existed in the first place. The World follows his master's lead and avoids sparing Junko any further attention than what Dio's distributed to her.]

[What Dio chooses to do, however, should not be mistaken for acquiescing. If he had stopped to speak with her, argued the point that she should move herself out of his way, grown frustrated, and then moved around her or moved her depending whether she managed to strike hot with his temper, that would have been one thing. But in his cursory inspection of her, that smile speaks of someone who was desperately craving attention immediate attention. Whether it would have been good or bad attention would have been irrelevant to her so long as in the moment, his attention was centered on her. Rather than setting himself up for such defeat to a blatant ploy, he takes a different route by denying her any significant attention altogether.]

[#byefelicia]

[sobored]

[She's going to spend a few seconds staying in place, still grinning while he gets ahead of her. It's fine, she doesn't mind at all that he stepped around her. Nope. It's so hopelessly perfect that she tried to force a confrontation and got nothing in return, so why should she mind?

Oh wait, sorry, she changed her mind about not minding. She doesn't mind the despair of being confronted with her own irrelevancy, she doesn't mind despairing over that at all, which is causing the pavement to crack as the smile fades. It's more that she's decided she minds being denied the despair of what could ensue from a conversation. Which of course she despairs over, but if we spend the time to talk about all this neverending despair train that comprises her mindset, this tag will be a million comments long and never get anywhere.

So since she's decided she minds, she'll continue to let him get a little bit further ahead and then suddenly, she's there again, behind, not ahead of him, she's not magic or anything, she just took a few shortcuts here and there to close the distance. She knows all the good ones in town anyway.]

Hey! You with the parasol! Seriously, you're not even going to say excuse me or anything? Just shove past me with your one man entourage like I don't even exist?

[She sounds and looks offended, but she's also injecting just enough into her tone to sound pathetic too. Like a kid whining for attention. Please notice her banana senpai. Or don't. If he doesn't, that's fine too. She'll just continue despairing over her own insignificance. And all that negativity's got to go somewhere (or would if this weren't a test drive), so it's not exactly like being ignored is a bad thing for her.]

Totally not going to win any popularity contests with that one. Or maybe you will, but either way, you are so not earning any points with me today.

[Who is she kidding, he ignored her and refused to engage in her bullshit, which means he's off to a great start with how she views people.]

[malignans]

[In the few seconds that she remains in place, Dio continues on. He continues on and side-steps one the cracks that manages to travel along the pavement quickly enough to catch up with him. And then he's gone. Or at least so he thinks. That illusion is tragically cut short when Junko appears behind him, demanding his attention.]

[He stops again, turning halfway towards her with The World dutifully moving aside so as not to block Dio's view of her.]

I imagine it occurred to you that there's a reason I walked away from you, but seeing as how you're here complaining now, you're not clever enough to infer what that reason might be. Allow me to shed some light on the matter: "earning points" with you is far from a priority for me. Find someone else to pester for attention.

[And with that he turns, intent on continuing on his way.]

[sobored]

Whoa, scary.

[Except not really, there is not a trace of fear in her voice or expression here. She doesn't care in the slightest.]

But hey, you can't exactly blame me. Who wouldn't want attention from somebody like you?

[She's following along, opting to not sneak ahead this time. It'd be boring if she did it again, wouldn't it?]

Not everyday you find someone managing to wear ridiculous well, and the parasol and silent manservant just make you all the more interesting. I guarantee you, there's not a single person watching you walk by who isn't wondering what your deal is or hoping to strike up a conversation with you, even if your attitude leaves so much to be desired. But of course, people like you don't care about things like that, not in the slightest.

[Like she's thought before, she knows the type.]

Wouldn't say I'm not smart enough to know your reasoning either. Let me guess, it's something like oh, I don't know, someone like her isn't going to force someone like me to do anything I don't want to do. So the hell with her. Something like that, right?

[malignans]

[She continues to not inspire anything more than the bland expression on his face. He glances down at her as she chatters out of the corner of his eye, but doesn't orient towards her any further than that. Most of what she's saying is just noise to him. Her assessment of him just doesn't matter much to him, after all. By the time she's seeking confirmation for her hypothesis, Dio's gaze is forward again.]

Why ask if you believe you already know?

[sobored]

Because it's boring if I keep everything in my head, I'm not the type who can just sit there and glower at people, keeping everything I think about everyone locked away like you're doing right now. I guess I could try, but I'd look kind of ridiculous, don't you think?

[She's almost expecting an answer, but...]

No wait, I got it, you don't care what I'd look like trying to do that. Our personality types are so completely opposed, you couldn't think anything else. In fact, I'm just wasting your time and you'll write this off as a bother, if you bother to even write it down in the first place and you probably won't do that.

[Nobody ever walks away thinking she's someone to write home about, not from their first meeting anyway. That's just not how it works.]

Wow, when you think about it that way, I've wasted my time too because this conversation's totally one-sided and not going anywhere. Huh.

[She doesn't think that at all, this guy's fun. She's convinced of that, she just hasn't quite decided how to direct that fun into her kind of fun. That's all.]

[malignans]

[Casually and in a seamless motion, Dio raises a hand slightly behind himself to take the handle of his parasol from The World as she rambles on and on and on and on. The longer she speaks, the more the mere sound of her voice is enough to agitate him. It carries too much energy and bounce with it, giving the image of thoughtlessness. Whether thoughtlessness is characteristic of her or not is a moot point; Dio can't stand it. A nearby window creaks for a moment before a crack appears in the glass. It stays within its frame, but it's impossible to see through the crack's web.]

Then perhaps you might consider running along.

[sobored]

But I finally got a reaction from you.

[She's not actually looking at him anymore, her gaze has gone over towards that window. It's such a slight thing really, it could've been caused by anyone or anything, but Junko, being such a perceptive little shit, tends to pick up on these things.]

So why would I run along now, huh? It seems like things are just starting to get good.

[She's grinning again, but it's more of a smirk than the stupid sappy grin she had on earlier. Took her a while, but everybody can crack if you just work at it. That's all.]

[malignans]

[That's the trouble with this place. While Dio isn't particularly perturbed about no longer being so dependent upon blood or the slight changes in his weakness to the sun, he does mind how quickly and easily it can be for others to read his mood. On the surface, he is somewhat irritated by her. That much is obvious with the amount of disdain he holds in his voice when he speaks to her. But it's another to have it shown to run deeper than that.]

[Well then, if the proverbial cat is going to be out of its bag...]

If you value your life any at all, you will. I'm not here to entertain you.

[sobored]

[If anything her smirk just widens at the threat. It doesn't entirely match her tone though, as she's gotten quite a bit colder about things because you know what? She really doesn't have much to lose if he were to make good on that threat.]

Hey, if you want to go for a hat trick here, don't let me stop you. In fact, I probably couldn't stop you if I tried, so...

[She just shrugs, not a lot she could do here. Okay, yes, she could probably try and analyze any attack patterns or predict what he'd try to do, but it'd be infinitely more despair inducing to just let things take their course.

Besides, she has a pretty good guess of how this is going to turn out anyway. And she's probably not going to be adding a third to her death count.]

You just do whatever you're going to do, okay?

[..and back to being annoyingly casual because well, why not? She tries to be friendly with everyone who indirectly or directly threatens her, so it's not like he's going to get a pass on this one.]