empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: DECEMBER

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*test drive

TEST DRIVE: DECEMBER

— TEST DRIVE: DECEMBER—

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 Thursday, November 24 and Applications (Canon | OC) open Thursday, December 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 in full swing, but like its previous iterations, things aren’t exactly going as smoothly as they should.

Bouncing bounties. It seems the locals’ anticipation is affecting their products and grange displays—watch out for any excitable fruits and vegetables that might be jumping around! Or maybe you could help catch them and return them to their displays.
Giant pumpkin vines. Some children wanted a really big pumpkin and hoped and danced with all their might, but that led to not only making a huge pumpkin that's now rolling all over the field, but huge vines as well. But they're mischievous things, aiming not to hurt but just pull pranks, like drag people down or hold them up upside-down.
Smells like feet. It seems some people are rushing to ripen their products to their peak—which seems to be pushing them into overripe and even plain-out rotten territory. Not to mention the fact that if the larger vegetables are moved even slightly, they’ll explode and get slimy, gross veggie guts on everyone who’s around…

• Prompt E: A few intrepid jewelers are interested in the jaded water that can be found in the jungle below, so take a trip to the surface with your fellow Otherworlders while the excursion still has funds and check it out! Just be careful; the area’s rife with negativity and bad mojo, among other things…

Plants vs. Everything Else. The vines hanging around are ready to catch on people’s arms and legs, stopping them from continuing ahead… or from going home. This land seems to be mighty possessive after so long of being abandoned and doesn’t want anyone to leave, not again. There’s flowers and giant pitcher plants that’ll do the same thing too, with the latter definitely being more dangerous, seeing as they’re big enough to catch a whole human.
Pools of jade. After a few right turns, there’ll be a wide area of pools waterfalling into each other… or they would be, if they were moving. There’s shards from them scattered near the banks; picking them up will trigger a thought of something you’re jealous of, and if you turn around, chances are the jaded pools are going to be showing glimpses of that, too. If you’re pulled into them, the jade’ll start creeping up on you, so watch out and find something (or someone) to appreciate!

• Prompt F: Stuffed animals have always been popular around the island, especially since they usually respond and move to emotions. The dunamis users of Shaarnath and the perfomancy artists of Theastai would like to combine all three elements to put on a special "puppet" show. But they need volunteers and those willing to learn.

Make those furry butts wiggle! One of the greatest challenges is making the stuffed animals dance in a way that doesn't make them look like creepy possessed dolls. Perfomancy artists will suggest channeling fun, positive emotions and perhaps even try dancing yourself. It's more likely the stuff animal will mimic the movement.
Test of flight. There are a few bird plushies that are to fly around the stage. This can be more difficult to achieve and requires great concentration and a free spirit type personality to succeed. The loftier the hopes and dreamy thoughts one has, the higher they will go. But heavy thoughts will just keep the birds grounded.
Not the stuffing! On a less emotionally driven side, these little plushies will get worn from use. They may even limp and seem as if in pain. A bit of new stuffing, needlework, and perhaps a little kiss on the nose will make it feel better! ...And maybe make you look a little weird, but tender loving care, right?

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include thumbtacks and/or bowling balls.

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!

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Oh, I'm plenty dashing, chica. I just ain't stupid.

[ He manages to give her a smirk as he ducks under another tree branch. There, through another thicket, he can see the still jade waters. He'll give her the warning about LOOKING into the stuff later- after all, after exploring that mess with Reyes? There's no way in hell anything in this jungle isn't cursed.

All of a sudden, his left leg is pulled out from under him, and he swears loudly as he claws for a flashbang. A stun should be enough if she does the honor of taking the damn thing out-! ]

[Okay, that does get a chuckle as he passes under a branch and as she follows him, she can't help but wonder how much of this is actually him or a front he puts on. Sixty million for a bounty is nothing to sniff at - so he either shot the wrong man or knows the right answer for a very important question.

But the idea of how to start working such an answer out of him goes out the fucking window when he's yanked by one of these awful devil plants. But she knows better than to think he was entirely defenseless - not with the way he was fingering those flashbangs- and Sombra is already training the shot, shielding her eyes for the blast.

There's a bang and she fires, two precise and tight patterns; one to loosen the vine and the other to take out it's owner. She's next to him and pulling him up to his feet, still trained on where the vine came from.]

Orale, Vaquero. Back towards the water, yeah?

[ Somehow, they manage to pull it off seamlessly. She shoots the pitcher plant the moment the flashbang goes off, and it retreats immediately, shaking once or twice before falling completely limp. Hopefully, the thing is dead. But there's always more where that came from.

She pulls him up, and he dusts off his serape, pulling his peacemaker out. Better stay at the ready until they're in the clearing of the great jade lake. ]

Yeah, come on, this way-

[ He leads her forward, keeping his eyes peeled for slithering vines and shooting a couple off as they finally break through the cover of the jungle.
The lake sits before them, wide and glimmering, frozen, the color of jade, and he immediately averts his eyes to look at her face. ]

Wouldn't recommend looking at this stuff for too long. Things in this place seem t'be cursed.

[It's easy enough to follow his lead, aiming at vines he fires on just in case they get pissed off instead of retreating.

She feels him look at her as she stares at the pool and for a split second she smirks. Purple against a sea green, she likely cuts a striking image -- almost as striking as the one she sees in the reflection of the water for a split second as the sound of heels on metal echoes all around her. There was the whine of static again, potent and heavy on the air around her.

A woman who was molded to fit in to the world around her: first by choice as dutiful wife to one of the best Overwatch agents to exist and then simply molded, carved into murderous perfection by some of the best tech and brainwashing money could buy. Despite gaps, that woman would never desire more than the hellish life she lead, no thirst for control, no hunger for something greater.

Sombra shivered, electricity discharging in sparks along her spine. Diverting her eyes from the water, looking for something - anything- that wasn't the image of La Araña, the woman who wanted for nothing - save for a clean kill. ]

Yeah. Got it. [She met his gaze for a scant few seconds, wondering how spooked she looked as she holstered her pistol once more, straightening her jacket and rolling her shoulders.]

Let's get out of here before this tierra maldita shows off any off any other tricks.

[ He swears it's just a trick of the implant in his bad ear, the one that had been concussed by a blast from long ago, but he almost hears the whine of static. He shakes his head, looking her over- and she looks damn spooked. Whatever was reflected back at her in the water was something that she didn't need to see much of. ]

Hold on a tick. Gotta get what I came here for.

[ He bends down and starts gathering up chunks of jade from the shore, trying not to look into the depths of each shard. Where the mirror, plain and simple, had shown him and Gabe, these chunks of jade seem to reflect something else. Squinting, out of morbid curiosity, he tries to discover what.

Ana. And Fareeha. When Ana was still Captain Amari, when Fareeha was still a girl. A child who grew up in the middle of a war and still had her mother. And when that was gone, she had an extended family. She lived up to her mother's expectations, made something great of herself-

He shoves the chunk into one of his pouches. ]

They're payin' a small fortune for these. Two or three should be enough for you to get your ammo replaced.

[She watches him gather a few rocks and after he mentions the payday she sighs, rolling her shoulders again. No point to all this trouble if there was nothing to show for it.

The moment her fingers brush one of the stones, she sees the reflection of an image.

Hand on shoulders, the epitome of pride - McCree in the pictures is just barely a man, surrounded by operatives all grinning. It wasn't much different than the pictures she would get as she bounced from church to orphanage to hostel. Another girl or boy, adopted by some fresa couple, stealthily bragging that they'd been cute enough or sweet enough to get some couple to snatch them from a life they were too weak to live.

Let them have four walls, a bit of false security. Los Muertos had been enough for her and when they weren't, she had herself.]

No puedo querer lo que no necesitas.

[Sombra managed to get a respectable two and a half chunks of the shards into various pockets before she'd had enough of the pictures got to her. Maybe the images had touched a nerve, but it was meaningless here. It's a flash of useless sentiment, just like the words she hissed at the jade pool and just like the way she spat and crossed herself.

Straightening up, she sighed and fixed her coat and rolled sore shoulders once more as she looked to her rescuer once more. There was another snap of static as she regarded him, wondering what had happened in the time between that photo and the man before her.]

You ready, vaquero?

Edited 2016-11-22 21:39 (UTC)

[ He holds chunks of rock in his hands. His fifth, and each one is working under his skin. Envious of Pharah for having her mother, alive, even if they had not spoken for years. Envious that Ana was still fighting the good fight, and Reyes walked the line between mercenary and murderer. Envious that others from Overwatch were still called a hero in the streets, while he was on the run everywhere he went.

He may have torn off the tattoo of Deadlock, scrubbed off the soot of Blackwatch, but as far as the world was concerned, the bloodstains of his past were dyed into his wool, red as the serape he wore around his shoulders.

He keeps that last chunk clenched in his fist, unable to move the fingers from a vice grip, as he turns to look at her again. ]

Yeah. Let's get outta here. Transporter's this way.

[ He doesn't notice the green slowly starting to creep up his fist as he strides off into the jungle. He's too focused on the memory of how he ended up with Blackwatch, the judging eyes of Morrison staring him down in that interrogation room as he doesn't budge. As he's sold out by every other member of the crew and he keeps their silence.

He'd been a damn fool then, and he was a damn fool now. ]

[Some things remain part of you, she knows that better than most. It's not just the upgrades, the push to make hacking as instinctual as it felt, but other bits of the past. She still knows the lines 'Los Muertos' tag and she could probably apply her paint in her sleep. But all that didn't even matter, when the wrong people took notice of her. All the protection in the world, all the connection, didn't mean shit if you couldn't use it when you needed it.

So she vowed, a long time ago, to be on the right side of things when a wall went up or an axe came down.]

Ay. You're gonna cut your hand on that thing.

[She says nothing of the green creeping along his hand, instead opting to watch. If the crystals were tainted with something, then no payday was worth being messed with further.]

Huh?

[ He sounds like a man half asleep when he answers her, like being called back from a dream. Morrison hadn't liked him. All he saw was the list and the litany of his sins. But Reyes. Reyes had given him a chance. The envy and the bitterness starts to melt away as he thinks of his mentor, who had sat across from him and given him a choice.

Blackwatch, or jail. A way to atone for all the blood on his hands, or life sentence, no chance of parole. The man had been tough, but he'd been fair, and he'd found a family there. He'd found a way to wash some of the blood from his hands, some of the red from his ledger.

He manages to release the jade piece, shoving it into the pouch on his hip. ]

... Never did get your name, chica.

[ A change in thoughts, in conversation, would do him good. Perhaps he can find out more about this stranger. ]

You didn't.

[Teasing now as she smirks, a coy flutter of lashes as she eyed him once. There was no likelihood of him having knowledge of her previously, so any harm by giving him even that little scrap of information could be neutralized. She offered a hand and smirked.]

Sombra.

Sombra.

[ He repeats the name like he's tasting it on his lips, tilting up his hat to look at her again. She seems high tech, and if those are implants in her head, the technology of wherever she's from is on par with his own. And that name, Sombra. It sounds like a code name to his ears, like Tracer.

Like Widowmaker.

Whoever this woman is, she isn't to be toyed with. Not without putting up defenses first. ]

Beautiful name to suit una bonita senorita~

[ Flirting seems like a bad idea, but hey, it'll keep her in the dark on his suspicions. ]

[The repetition doesn't give her much pause, but when he moves his hat to get a better look she can't help but tip her head at him. McCree, from what her information told here, was brash and quick to decide on courses of action. The pause before the line, and Cristo what a line it is, fills in quite a few gaps. To think, she'd nearly made the assumption that he did not think. It was obvious, from the flurry of bad choices and poor judgement calls that had to be how he earned such a high bounty.

No, it seemed that Jesse McCree just came to his decisions very quickly - a decidedly different and infinitely more fun set of issues.]

Smooth.

[Teasing him again, with a wink to match. He is going to have a fit when the details come out and she decides to try for a new record - five seconds of stunned silence at the revelation. It'll be hard as it seems like he has a mouth on him.]

So tell me Guapo, is everything here trying kill me or do I just have bad luck?

[ He doesn't trust her as far as he can throw her, as far as he's concerned. But they need to stick together in this hellish jungle least they end up plant food. So he keeps leading her around the circle of the lake, holds up a branch where he had marked his exit- a way back to the teleporter. Unfortunately, this also means having to keep an eye out on the foliage, the slithering vines and hungry pitcher plants that come up to his chest and then some.

Perhaps he was wrong, and she was no one to fear. That the name was normal, wherever world she hailed from. But he'd been on the run for too long to lower his guard an inch, even for a pretty young lady. Paranoia and suspicion were better armor than the chestplate strapped to his chest, protecting flesh and bionics alike. ]

Bad luck, I suppose. Verens is a lot better than down here. Surprised you ain't been to the city yet, that's where most newcomers end up. So. What's your world like?

[He's a smarter man than she gave him credit for to be so unswayed. The number of things she'd got access to with a friendly smile and batted eyelashes could best be described as 'embarrassing' and it's a better game when folks don't go for easy bait.

However, of all the things that she has to deal with at the moment, priority goes to these crazy plants. The are a few moments that her eyes are drawn to the ground, a flash at paranoia after having come so close to knowing what the inside of one of those things looked like.]

I was in the city. Thought making a little scratch before settling in would make things easier. [ The pause at his question is slight, slight enough that she hopes he doesn't notice.] Busy. This place is real plain.

[ Busy can describe a lot of places. He's heard whispers of worlds that aren't worlds at all, but galaxies, vast and infinite in possibilities. All the same he swears he's seen people walking around in armor. But then again, as a walking anachronism, he's hardly one to talk. ]

Yeah, suppose it is. Don't have a lot of tech like that here.

[ He gestures vaguely to the suspected implants in her head with his left hand, making sure that she can see he's got his own advanced technology that he'd be in need of repairing if things go too far south. What she doesn't need to know, however, is how it creeps up past his shoulder, into his lung and down his chest, replacing muscles and organs long since damaged. ]

But we'll get by, I'm sure.

I noticed.

[It's a little curt, though more at the circumstance than at him specifically. At his gesture at the implants, she reaches up and runs her hand over it - self-conscious move that she tries to play off into preening and arrogance. After all when you're outdated, it's time to upgrade.]

Sure will. Two's better than one, after all. How much further?

[ Has to say, he admires the tech worked into her skull, wonders if it goes down into her spine. His own tech was ahead of its time, mechanical plates and wires that made him feel, that interfaced with his own nervous system as if the limb was an actual extension of his body. True, he couldn't be as nimble with his hands as he was in his youth- the days of dual wielding his pistols were long gone- but now he was strong enough to bend metal with a clench of his hand. He'd done patchwork to his body over the years, added in some hydraulics here and there that give him that gargantuan strength.

Had to take advantages where he could when he was a man on the run. ]

Not too terribly long. Should be another clearing up ahead.

[ His eyes flick back over her shoulder, where he sees another vine moving as if to grab her by the back of her jacket. ]

Duck-!

[ That pistol is in his hand instantly, and he fires quite possibly before she even moves. After all, he's never missed a target. ]

[ As the kind of kid who would of been described as 'precocious', she'd been all nerve and boldness. Her technique as a hacker was similar, the power trip of teasing and outwitting her pursuers blinding and addictive. The implants had been the obvious choice in her mind - with such tech she could code scripts with breath-like ease.

The tech is almost purely an extension of her will, just as 'Sombra' as her smirk and dexterous fingers.]

Alri-

[She sees the way his eyes look to something behind her, brows knitting in faint confusion before his reaction. No stranger to sudden gunfire in small spaces, she drops and has her pistol out in a heartbeat's worth of time by the time he's lining up his shot.]

Starting to think these things like bullets as much as they like us

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TEST DRIVE: DECEMBER

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