empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

Entry tags:

!mod,
*test drive

TEST DRIVE: NOVEMBER

— 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.

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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.

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.
Flying equipment. The various medical equipment has also taken life, scalpels and needles flying everywhere and stethoscopes ready to strangle.
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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hazel's very busy watching his feet, thank you, but not so much that he won't look up to defend himself from sass.]

That it is. How's yours? I'm not seein' any particularly pretty spots from here.

[The slime... bubbles a little, thanks to his passive-aggressive annoyance. Ew.]

I cleaned up the other side and came all the way here to help out.

[Gosh!! Jae-Ha is confident, reaching into his robes to somehow pull out one of those little green balls. He holds it up for Hazel to see, and the wind kicks up around them a little in his excitement. That kind of ruins the big reveal, but whatever.]

Have you tried one of these yet?

[Where's the proof...!! Hazel peers at the ball, uh-] A big marble?

[So, no, he hasn't been down here long enough to mess around with those. Just long enough to nearly fall off the damn island, no big.]

Try for yourself. [He holds it out like he's ready to drop it into Hazel's palm if he'll take it.]

Toss it far out into the slime.

[Well... alright, why not take weird stuff from strangers? Hazel holds out his hand and then holds the little ball up to look at more closely, hmm, it just looks like a ball from here...]

Well, it ain't a marble. [His perfect analysis. He doesn't actually throw it far, though, since someone did not tell him what they do - he tosses it underhand a couple yards away and waits.

And then it explodes, be thankful for his brilliant decision making!!]

[HE SAID THROW IT FAR, YOU ASSHOLE...

He doesn't really want to be hit with this explosion, as harmless as it is, so he reaches for Hazel's shoulders and shoves him down... But they're still in range. This is probably for the best, since the slime they were slipping all over before is now mostly gone from beneath them.

...Surprisingly, there's no anger at his wussy throw now, though. He just blinks out at it.]

...I did say to throw it far. [But admire the pretty grass, now.]

[DID HE SAY WHAT IT WAS!! When Hazel so confidently thought it was a marble, and then not a marble... He's innocent.

He's also less annoyed than he expects to find himself shoved to the ground, since there's slime there— or there was. There's just enough left that his hand lands in it when he pushes himself up to sitting, but... well, that's alright.]

Do ya have more of those? [hazel]

A couple.

[Tucked in his robes somewhere, but he doesn't take either of them out just yet. He releases Hazel's shoulders, glancing at the slime still left between them, and the rest behind them, in the still-messy area.

Maybe it wasn't so bad that he threw it so close, after all!]

Was it more fun than you first thought? Here. [Now he'll pull one from out of seemingly nowhere, holding it out for Hazel to take.]

I wouldn't say fun, necessarily. Exhilaratin', maybe?

[He sure does appreciate this next not-marble as he takes it, though. Something about the air around them seems to... shimmer excitably, despite the remnants of slime still left behind.

Hazel looks around them briefly, and picks whatever part of this landscape looks the grossest. Oh boy!! He points.] Let's try hittin' that.

[Oooh, that is a gross spot, isn't it? Jae-Ha glances around at the air as if he catches some of those shimmers, standing tall again and gesturing out to it.] You could surely hit that from here! Go on, let's see your best throw.

From here, we'll even be able to see the explosion itself.

[His best throw... Good thing he was once Good At Sports, as that will now help him wind up and throw the ball toward that extra gross spot. His aim isn't perfect from this far and with the last bits of weird goop on his hands, but he hits just about the intended spot.

Look at it explode!!!] —It's different when you're not gettin' it in the face.

[he says like it wasn't his fault...]

It's a bit impressive, isn't it?

[Look at it go! The slime seems to dissolve into thin air. Jae-Ha pulls out the last little bomb he has, rolling it between his fingers idly as he scans the rest of this section of the island.

Honestly, he's appreciating this technology a lot more than he thought he would be! The wind kicks up at their heels again, an anxious sort of energy that's just passing through the air thanks to his emotions.]

Now, where should I throw the last one? I'd like to have a go myself.

[It's definitely satisfying to see a job well done, Hazel thinks... The air shimmers with satisfaction again, even in the little breeze, while Hazel considers where to throw this last ball.

Eventually, he looks up.]

What do ya think happens if ya toss it up in the air as high as ya can? [he's 5]

[Oh... height, he says?! Jae-Ha glances up as if to consider this. He can get it pretty high up there, and he knows exactly how...]

Are you prepared to find out? I'll be able to have it reach amazing heights.

[He's actually going to do it—]

I'm watchin', so let's see it.

Brace yourself.

[Because it's still an explosion, they could slip before the slime melts away! But he... jumps. Straight up, incredibly high, and that's not normal at all. When he's at his peak, he chucks the thing straight up in the air, falling down with a gust of wind before it. It's so much lighter, it takes another moment or so before falling...

Not too far away. It was carried a little by the wind, but now it explodes, and Jae-Ha covers his face with his arms. Nice.]

[Where the hell— Hazel is still looking up, as it happens, not wanting to miss the throw, so when suddenly he's looking up at this guy he can't help but double take. What-??

He has just enough time to shield his own face from a second blast of magic cleaning feelings, watching the resulting slime disappearance before looking at this jumping bean.]

I'm impressed but I don't hardly know what for. How was that lil trick ya pulled even possible?

[What a nice explosion! The slime is gone from all over, and Jae-Ha is really loving how handy those little things are. The wind from the blast is only exciting, right? And now it's brought him company, too! This is all turning out better than he thought cleaning up slime would.

He smiles and offers a wink like he's the most mysterious guy there is.]

That's a secret. [A little.] We've cleared this area, so why don't we move on a little more? Even if I'm out of those little balls, I'm sure we beautiful men could find some way of handling it.

[Like, a bucket.]

[A goddamn secret, is this guy for real, god. Hazel raises an eyebrow, but he supposes it doesn't really matter... He jumps high, wow, a great mystery.]

Why don't we try findin' more of those things instead? Where'd ya get 'em?

There were tubs of them set around the island. At the time, I hadn't been sure what they could do, but I took a few just in case.

[Who does that... Well, they were labeled as free help, so.] There may be more around here if we wander.

[Better question: who wanders around in slime pointlessly? Ew. Hazel looks off into the distance, considering this, then looks back at Jae-Ha.

He points up, again.] Can't ya save us time and take a look while you're up there?

[Oh. That does make sense, but that's a lot less fun than bugging people for their time... He glances up at the sky still, tapping his chin.]

...I suppose I could. [He has to do all the work... gosh.] Well then, give me just a moment.

[There he goes... Jumping off his right leg again.]

[Get ready to do all the work Forever, new buddy. Hazel shields his eyes to look up and watch him this time, hmm... There he goes. Cool.

He'll just wait, and then-] So, how's it look?

[He touches down to the ground elegantly, of course, and immediately flips his ponytail over his shoulder.]

Rather disgusting, past our cleaned area here. But there are a few tubs. This way, this way... and over there as well.

[He points these out, his free hand resting on his hip.] Why don't we head this way for now, so not to slip off the edge in any close calls?

[Well, he has no real options here other than going wherever the cool bombs are, so.]

Sure. Lead the way. [He'll be here, Struggling once they get into filthier areas again. He's not equipped for nature at all, sigh. Ignore his undignified grumbling back here, it's fine.]

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