TEST DRIVE MEME: JANUARY

[simpathis]

— TEST DRIVE: JANUARY —

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, December 25th and Applications open Friday, January 1st.
  
  
• 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!

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


PROMPTS

• Prompt A: Things are a bit out of control right now, and that includes your emotions and the elemental cores. Just the slightest feeling will be exaggerated. You were only smiling a little? You're now a walking light bulb. Just a little pout? Strong torrential rain is now over the entire block.

• 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.

• 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: Empatheias is currently experiencing an island-wide blizzard. Several thick inches of snow covers the landscape, and with the city's unusual architecture, falling snow from the eaves of roofs is an actual hazard to be wary about. So what can you do with it? Do you play in it? Throw snowballs? Try to help clear the roads? Or does your mood actually worsen it by creating your own mini blizzard or make a large patch of melt or even turn to rain and pools of water?

• Prompt E: The city is worse for wear and needs help getting fixed up. This can be done one of two ways: physical labor or using positive emotions to help speed the process a long. Which do you try?

• Prompt F: Empatheias doesn't celebrate Christmas, but quite a few of the PCs have decided to celebrate it amongst themselves. Will you help spread the season of joy and free will? Or try to ruin it? Don't forget your emotions will reflect your mood.

• Prompt G: Make your own! It can even involve pigs or a bucket of paint.

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

[steel_over_blood]

[ At least someone's taking him seriously about this even if not for the exact reason he wanted? ]

I haven't confirmed it either way, but those candies are too suspicious. They look normal at first, but if you suck on the end, it sharpens over time. A hidden weapon in every household...

[ Bulat maybe you've been an assassin for too long. ]

...You could even eat it after the murder, if you were willing to go that far to dispose of evidence.

[teigu]

That's unacceptable! Although I commend the thought of cleaning up after a murder, to use candy as a weapon is going too far...if you're going to go so far to remove the evidence, I hope you would at least clean up all of the blood as well.

[Although he too is an assassin, he seems so caught up in this completely hypothetical situation that he's forgotten assassins don't clean up after themselves. Even though it pains him. His efforts to maintain cleanliness in all things are a struggle.

For the record, he does mean all of the blood. If you're going to do something stupid and get your candy cane covered in blood by stabbing a guy, the least you can do is lick it clean and eat the whole thing. Anything less is just adding insult to injury.]

[steel_over_blood]

[ Bulat is clearly the senpai here; Susanoo won't ever be a top tier assassin if he's so fixated on the wrong details. Is being a top tier assassin something anyone should even want? It really isn't but look a man's got to have pride in his job now and then. ]

If you're cleaning up all of the blood, wouldn't you take care of the body first?

Usually, when someone sets an assassin on someone else, it's to make an example of them instead of leaving their fate unknown... Sometimes you'd want to move the body elsewhere to make a point, but this Santa, those legends say he goes after children fast asleep in their beds, while visions of sugarplums dance in their heads...

[teigu]

If he goes exclusively after children, what kind of master assassin is he...?

[Certainly you can make a name for yourself as an assassin by just killing a bunch of people regardless of how powerful they are, but...]

The last time I was active, people just called that child murder, not assassination. The purpose of our trade is, as you say, to make an example of our victims, but we're usually hired out of a sense of revenge, or perceived injustice...for people to take contracts out on children makes little sense.

[Wait a minute. The only people who could possibly feel threatened by children are...]

...Could it be that children are hiring Santa to kill other children, and that's how he determines their unworthiness? What kind of holiday is this, exactly, and why does everyone seem so happy about it?

[steel_over_blood]

[ Well if you look at the White Brows gang... actually let's not think about the White Brows gang, that particular can of worms was opened and closed long before Su's time. ]

It's not uncommon for us humans to celebrate being alive after a harrowing ordeal, whether or not they've gained anything but another day of life. Although in this case, gifts are involved. I haven't gotten any clear leads on whether Santa's involved in that part or not. It could also be that they're glad to have been worthy, some people might view that honor as worth the risk of winning it.

...But if children are the ones hiring him in the first place, then singling out the most vicious and cunning might be how he chooses his successors.

[ He'd already figured out there was more than one Santa from previous conversations, but he'd been mulling over the question of recruitment up until now. Susano, you clever devil, you may have uncovered the dark truth behind the Santa conspiracy once and for all...! Maybe. It's another option, at least. ]

[teigu]

[Don't be silly, he was just taking a nap during the entire thing. And also several months before. And after. Possibly more.]

I see...so they go to bed on Christmas Eve fearing for their lives, and when they wake up in the morning, they exchange gifts with everyone else who survived.

[That makes sense! Humans have such short lifespans, after all, so for them to celebrate being able to live a little longer seems logical. There's something bothering Susanoo about certain gifts, though.]

...If exchanging gifts with one another is a celebration of life, does that mean the ones left under the tree are meant to honor those who Santa deemed unworthy, like a grave offering? As far as I can tell, they're opened the next day with the rest of them...

[Which is a relief, because it'd be irritating to have a bunch of unopened presents lying around. Especially the badly-wrapped ones.]

But since they weren't considered worthy, their gifts are given as sacrifices to the people who were allowed to live as an act of Santa's favor. Or perhaps they're the gifts that the unworthy had intended to give, and now, with no one to hand them out, they're just taken from the tree.

[So far, we've got a master assassin named Santa, hired by children to shank other children with candy canes while they sleep. He chooses his successor and hands off his name to the most wicked child he meets, and systematically rids the world of the people who he considers unworthy on one night of the year. Everyone considers this a time of joy and jubilation.

...Susanoo isn't exactly an expert on holidays but this one seems a little weird.]