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

[lothrat]

[Ezra opens his mouth, then aborts with a cough. Oh. Right. The glitter. Darn, he'd hoped she would have been sidetracked from that.]

Uh...

[What's a safe way to put this that won't just tick her off?]

Practicing? You know I'm training to be a Jedi, right?

[He's actually not sure if she knows that, at least not in so many words. He knows she knows he can use the Force, since he used it right in front of her when they were stealing her ships, but did any of them ever actually get a chance to explain the situation? Things got a little tricky there at the end when they were trying to keep the Imperials from figuring out that Leia was working with them, what with... you know... shooting her and flying off...

Wow, he's so glad she gave him permission.]

[oratorical]

[Her brow furrows a bit at that question, just momentarily. She knew, looking back on it, that he could use the Force, and now she supposed it made sense that he was training to be a Jedi, but she didn't consider it at the time. As far as she knew, the only other Jedi alive before... well, all this mess, was Obi-Wan.]

You are? But... the only other Jedi I knew lived on Tatooine, not on Lothal.

[other Jedi besides Luke, that is. The unasked question here is, of course, who was training him.]

[lothrat]

[Tatooine? Whoever was hiding there must have been desperate. That's a Hutt world. Even so, Ezra makes a mental note of that little piece of information, right before he promptly gets distracted.

She doesn't know? Ezra opens his mouth, then stops himself. No, it might be more than that. Seven years, she said, and the implications of that are only now sinking in. And that still leaves him feeling a little bit stunned, but...

Maybe she forgot? It's weird to think of someone forgetting something that happened so recently for him, but there it is. He hesitates again, just because it's not exactly something he and Kanan advertise.

But, well, she knew some of it once, and it's not like the Loth-cat's not already out of the bag. Ezra scratches his head, then finally shrugs it off.]

Well, you can count one more Jedi, then. Kanan's teaching me. He's the one who had the lightsaber, remember? [Ezra quirks a smile.] He didn't just pick that up somewhere.

[oratorical]

[It's unsettling to Leia, as well, especially considering she hadn't seen Ezra, Kanan, and the rest of them in person since that trip to Lothal. Heard of things, sure, but not seen them in person. But that was no reason to jump to conclusions; it was a big galaxy, and it was easy to hide if you really didn't want to be found.]

You have to admit him picking it up somewhere isn't an unreasonable assumption. [what, you mean he made his first lightsaber and wasn't just given a child-murder-saber from the man that cut off almost all of his dad's limbs?]

There are other Jedi here, you know. Have you met them?

[/makes vague handwave motions toward continuity with other threads]

[lothrat]

[Considering they just found a place that had uncounted numbers of lightsabers just lying on the ground? No, he can't fault her too much for that idea. And who knows what sort of horrific deeds any one of those lightsabers did?]

No, I guess not. Still, that one's definitely his.

[At the question, he tilts his head, trying to think back to who all he's met. Has he...?

He ends up shaking his head. He can only think of the obvious one.]

I met Master Kenobi. How many others are here?

[oratorical]

At least two others.

[Anakin was gone--not that she counts him as a Jedi--and she's not exactly sure where Galen would fall in the Jedi spectrum, if he even wants to be considered one.]

I'm sure the names Qui-Gon Jinn and Luke Skywalker mean little to you.

[lothrat]

[The first name draws a complete blank from Ezra. The second, well... He shrugs, because no, he doesn't know that much.]

He told me a little bit about Luke? [A beat.] Wait, he's the one you were talking about on Tatooine.

[Because surely there's not more than one Jedi that crazy.]

[oratorical]

[she shakes her head at his question. Sure, Luke had lived most his life on Tatooine, but he wasn't a Jedi when he lived there, as far as Leia sees it.]

No. Luke lived on Tatooine, but he wasn't who I meant.

[lothrat]

Oh, no, I meant Master Kenobi. Though Luke, too, I guess.

[Could have been clearer with his pronouns there, oops. Oh well, easy enough to clear up.]

I still think he's crazy for picking there to hide. I mean, even on Lothal, I've heard about the Hutts. If they'd figured out who he was, he'd have been lucky to be blackmailed at best.

[oratorical]

[it's the best place to hide when hiding from someone who hates sand

Leia frowns, scrunching her nose at the mention of Hutts and what they may or may not have done if they knew Obi-Wan and/or Luke were Jedi way back when. Because she can imagine, and it's not something she wants to think about.]

I don't think there is a best-case scenario when dealing with Hutts. Assuming they would even believe that in the first place.

[because while she knew Jabba knew what Jedi were, how much Jabba believed Luke was one, or even actually cared about it, was questionable.]

[lothrat]

[Plenty of other desert worlds to pick from. Maybe he should have picked Jakku.]

Would it really matter what they believed? If all they knew was that the Empire wanted him, that's still bad enough.

[Definitely no best-case scenario here.]

[oratorical]

[she raises an eyebrow at his claim. Sure, Hutts could be persuaded to cooperate when needed, but she had little idea where that line was drawn, especially considering her own experience.]

I had a considerable imperial bounty on my head, and Jabba the Hutt saw no need, to my knowledge, to turn me over to the Empire.

[her, or Luke, really. Jabba had to know the Empire wanted the both of them, and he wanted to execute Luke anyway.]

[lothrat]

But would you really count on the Hutts not to-

[Ezra cuts off abruptly, eyes widening with alarm.]

Wait, Jabba the Hutt captured you?!

[oratorical]

We were intending to rescue someone, but it didn't go as planned.

[to, you know, say the least. There was their main plan, then the number of contingencies planned for, and Leia would've preferred if things had just gone to the original plan. But it all worked out in the end, and that's what mattered.]

It's nothing to worry about now.

[lothrat]

Now, you say.

[Obviously, she made it out alright if she's here and talking to him now. Still, Ezra knows all about plans blowing up in your face. There's clearly more to it than that.]

That still sounds like a story and a half. You gonna tell me more than that?

[oratorical]

Perhaps later.

[Because "story and a half" is putting it lightly, really, and parts of it are still things she doesn't like to revisit. Besides, there were more pressing matters than all that history for her.]

Out of curiosity, what was the last thing you remember from home?

[lothrat]

[Ezra eyes Leia at the evasion, but it's impossible to say what prompted it. Maybe it's a long story. Maybe it's a sore subject.

Or maybe Leia's grown up to be one of those adults who push kids' questions off because they just don't feel like answering.

I'll ask her again later, he promises himself. Her answer when pressed about it a second time will be a lot more telling.

Though speaking of telling...

His expression drops, mouth forming a line on his face. How does he even answer that? How much does she even want to know? If she's just trying to place him in her mental timeline, details probably won't matter that much - which is just as well, since he doesn't know exactly how much he even should say. It's hard to know that when they haven't even finished the mission yet.]

Did we ever tell you about Malachor?

[If the answer to that is no, then he has another way to tell her what his time frame is.

It's just not something he really wants to bring up if he doesn't have to.]