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

[gardenboxed]

[She laughs a little, lifting a finger up to her cheek to scratch it sheepishly.]

Not very much... [She feels bored most days stuck inside. Or rather, it's not that she's stuck in there. But she's uncomfortable leaving on her own still when Zero goes off to work.] I wonder why they don't have school. [At least then maybe she could meet some people her own age.

. . . Then again she doesn't have a lot of luck making friends back home, either.]

Cookies? Whoever is receiving them is lucky. [She wants some sweets.]

I didn't expect that you would deliver things... [Vampires are super important individuals, right? It's strange to see someone who is a vampire working like an ordinary person.]

[romanticlove]

Me too. It must be very lonely, not having very much to do all day while others work. Unless you have a job?

[His head tilts a bit, trying to puzzle it out. She's awfully young, isn't she?]

Hmm. Well, maybe when I am done we can find cookies too. Would that be fun?

[Hopefully it wasn't too forward? He couldn't help but feel worried that he was being too persistent. Surely, to a child like her, a vampire might be frightening. He wished that he had Ai with him to smoothe this sort of thing over. It was strange trying to figure all of this out on his own when for so long it had always been himself and Ai.]

Oh- really? Don't other adults work? [He smiles amicably, knowing she means to refer to his status as a vampire. He thought vampires worked very hard, though it was mostly for their own affairs. His mother had been very hard working in that regard.]

[gardenboxed]

I don't have one yet. [She isn't sure where she would fit in well.] But if something pops up on that board and they don't mind my age, I might try that.

[She can't do some of the missions. But she could do something like chase away bunnies, probably. The invite widens her eyes however, and her cheeks flush. He wants to do something like that... with her?]

I... [Of course it would be fun.] I don't have very much money right now. But I...! If we get some right now, I can pay you back later. [Cookies... <3

Of course she can't help but to smile pleasantly at the prospect. Ren's a vampire, but he's never been scary around her. And she...

Well. She tries not to think of what she saw last back at home. Even the memory is enough to cause her smile to falter after a moment. At least until they move on.]

Oh-- [D...Did she just say something silly? She stumbles over a response, flustered.] I-It's just because Ren-san is... [A vampire.] is from a special heritage. [She's careful not to voice what he is aloud, of course.] Just like Kaname-sama. S-So I always thought that... it would only be important jobs. Like... CEOs. Or important business men.

[romanticlove]

[Somehow it makes him feel just a slight bit unhappy being compared to Kaname. Granted, he was only just getting to know him, but he didn't want to imagine the impression he had on his mother even from such a young age. In his mind he'd built Kaname up to be someone who had crushed his mother's heart, sacrificing himself as he had. It had been for the good of others but where had that left his mother? And still she'd given up her life for him.

Unconsciously, while he thinks of a good answer, he plays with the chain around his neck that now held the strange trinket he had been given. ]

I'm not the same as Kaname-sama. I want to do things that help people like Yuuki-chan smile.

[Mostly, it was for his mother that he continued this charade. He wanted her to keep living the peaceful life his grandmother had given her.]

Besides. Kaname-sama isn't always nice, you know.

[He pulls a face, not caring if he's saying bad things and would most assuredly be punished if Ai ever got wind of it. ]

Though, I guess I'm not either if I can say things like that.

[He smiles a bit, though the light doesn't quite reach his eyes.]

[gardenboxed]

[She's always expected Zero to disagree with her on a subject like this. But somehow, she feels surprise hearing it from Ren. For some reason, she had expected him to agree with her, and then to hear him say otherwise, she feels... somewhat defensive of him.

Brows knitting, she holds the boxes within her arms a little more tightly.]

That's not true. [Her heart pounds, saying something that she isn't sure she has the right to say. Will he get angry at her for it?] Kaname-sama is gentle and kind. [She smiles then, a gentle expression as some pleasant memory plays through her mind.] Even though I'm just... a plain girl [human] and there's nothing overly special about me, Kaname-sama saved my life. It's because of Kaname-sama that I'm alive. [Her entire existence today was only preserved because of what he did for her that snowy night in the snow.]

I would do anything for him.

[romanticlove]

[Ren was holding his packages too, tension filling him up ever so slightly. He didn't want to be upset and he certainly didn't want to change her feelings for Kaname. It was because of them that Ai was born.

Still, he felt a mixture of rejection and grief when she speaks of herself and then Kaname. It made his chest hurt. When she puts herself down, that seemed to be the thing that snapped that bit of tension holding him silent.]

You- you should value yourself more!

[It was as if the color had gone out as the shock settled in over him from his outburst. If he looked around him he might notice that plants had wilted somewhat, that the grass had turned a yellowish brown and the plants had shriveled. Instead he looked only at her, feeling the horror of his outburst like the crack of a whip.]

It's- it's just... you're not a plain girl. You're special to everyone you meet. You smile and you're kind and- and Kaname-sama most definitely doesn't realize how generous your feelings are for him.

[Flushing a bit, he adjusts his boxes so that he can hide behind them a bit, propping them up on one shoulder.]

Don't waste your life for someone who doesn't see that.

[gardenboxed]

[The outburst is unexpected when it comes. A wave washes over the area, and everything wilts. The shock of it temporarily freezes her and she stares up at him, wide-eyed and blinking. Even after he readjusts the boxes and his face disappears from view, she feels at a temporary loss for words.

What had just happened?

Ren has always been kind toward her, doting even. But, she hadn't expected him to defend her against herself so passionately. To start, she doesn't know what to say. There's an awkward, prolonged silence. A question hangs in the back of her throat, spinning through her head.

Why? Why does he care so much? But in the end, she doesn't ask. Gaze shifting from him she faces forward again, but similar to him, she buries her head against the boxes she carries.]

Thank you. [Her voice is quiet and soft, a gentle reassurance.] No one has ever said something like that to me before. So thank you. [For worrying. And for caring. For thinking that she's special. She doesn't have any friends at home. Only Zero and the chairman, and Kaname who comes to visit her. She can't remember her past, or if her parents had wanted her at all. She doesn't feel sad about her life. She's grateful to have the chairman and Kaname. And she likes Zero, too. But she's never had someone passionately defend her before, either.]

I still... don't feel differently about Kaname-sama. Even if Ren-san dislikes Kaname-sama... [She can't change her heart. Though curiosity lingers over why he seems to dislike him, it doesn't change how she feels. But it does have her take into consideration his feelings.]

But... [She blushes a little, and ducks her head further, the cool air around her warming just slightly.] It makes me happy. That you think those nice things about me. Thank you.

[romanticlove]

I'm s- [He'd been about to apologize when she speaks and it cuts him off short. Lowering the boxes again and tucking them in front of him, he listens to her.]

I understand. I apologize for being disrespectful.

[And still he can't help but feel sad and lonely, probably causing more plants to droops and wilt subtly. It was hard enough adjusting to a new place but being somewhere without Ai and somewhere his parents had no idea who he was was harder. They had always been a family and to have to learn another way to interact with them was hard. After a thousand years habits like that were hard to break. He wanted to reach out and hug his mother, maybe ruffle her hair as she did with him as a child so often. He couldn't be reassuring or think of a better way to apologize than to stutter out words with awkward formality to distance himself from her.]

I only have Yuuki-san's interests at heart, even if it may not seem so.

[gardenboxed]

[ . . . He's unhappy. Even if he doesn't say so, she can tell. It's in the subtle shift of formality, the quieter tone, and the apology. What she can't understand in the moment is why. Ever since his arrival, he's been so nice to her. But he rarely talks about the time that Yuuki apparently knows him from the future. Inquires are usually side-stepped, or answered in a way that doesn't really reveal very much what their friendship is.

It is a friendship, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't seem to worry over her.

Or maybe, it's just that he genuinely doesn't like Kaname. But if that's the case, she can't really understand. He's only ever been kind and incredibly doting on her. The gentle vampire who saved her, and has done so much for her over the years, must surely be respected and well loved even in the vampire world. Right...?

In the end, she doesn't know what to say. She suddenly feels a little awkward, as though she's ruined the mood. Falling into silence, she walks beside him, brows knit while she struggles to think up something to say. Maybe just a distraction in general?]

Do you... Do you have a favorite cookie, Ren-san?

[romanticlove]

Hmm. Have you ever had a monster cookie?

[He doesn't actually consider one his all time favorite, off the top of his head, but those were loaded with different flavors. His mother should enjoy such things. If he talks about something he knows she might like this means she wont worry so much about making him unhappy, right?]

They're very good - chocolate chip, candy pieces, oatmeal, and peanut butter all rolled into one cookie.