TEST DRIVE: JUNE

[simpathis]

— TEST DRIVE: JUNE —

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 Monday, May 25th and Applications open Monday, June 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! Reminder: We only require one sample and it can be done in either format.
  
  
• IMPORTANT! We have 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? The following emotions will have more effect than usual: hope, despair, fear, and bravery.

• 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: The latest entry in the hot 'Forgefires' series is about to come out, and lines in front of bookstores are blocking the streets! How will you get to your destination when your path is full of frenzied cosplayers who don't dare move lest they lose their spot in line? You might want to be careful, too—some fans are getting into heated arguments about their favorite characters so things might start literally flying if left unchecked!

• Prompt E: Things have been getting a little gloomy lately, so a group of youths have designed the first ever Verens Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament. Somehow you've won through the lower ranks, and are now a finalist. The state of the city is riding on you (or so they claim), so face your opponent and somehow manage to make this farce exciting enough to lift the moods of the spectators (mostly kids). Just be careful. If you do poorly, you might find a tomato or two thrown at you.

• Prompt F: Welcome to FEAR FACTOR! An exciting new brand of entertainment where contestants participate in various challenges that touch home to the most innate fears humans share. Lying in a pit of creepy crawlies; climb up high, precarious structures; go one-on-one with wild animals—can you handle it? Are you brave enough to go for the 1 million sylv prize? Or will fear cripple you and leave you with nothing!? Only one way to find out! Oh, and one more thing—your emotions will definitely effect everything, so if you're climbing up that rusty, half broken steel tower and it starts shaking, that's probably because you're scared out of your wits. Don't let it crumble!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include giant cheese wheels and/or bucket of nails.

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

Satori Komeiji | Touhou Project

[unpleasantries]

G. [Satori, still relatively new to Verens, is buying a large quantity of headache cure. Between the telepathy networks and her mind reading firing off at the same time, she's got a serious, serious echo chamber going on. She's already not the healthiest-looking person, pale and scrawny, but her headaches have been so bad lately it looks like she's dying a little on the inside. She's not asking anyone for help, of course, but it's difficult to get much of anything done when it feels like your head's going to tear itself open from the sheer amount of noise.]

E. ["Somehow" she won, alright. The "somehow" being mind reading. Empatheias naturally has telepathy networks, but Satori's third eye allows her to see even the thoughts that aren't meant to be broadcast. Of course, she hasn't mentioned this to anyone involved in overseeing the contest - she'll more than likely be barred from any other Rock-Paper-Scissors tournaments after this, so she might as well have fun crushing her opponents while she can.

Are you an opponent, or perhaps a spectator who's figured out something's up? In that case, you might want to find something to distract her with.]

E (Have an Empath for your Telepath, and some shounen-level bullshit for an R-K-S game)

[zetahatsudo]

[Being a Newtype was not without its perks, but Kamille never saw himself using his strengths for something like this. He had to do some practice rounds with some of the other kids, to make sure it was possible, but now, he was certain he could sense the opponent's move as they made it. It all came down to this last round, but the way this girl was beating the competition made him suspicious. How would he hold up?]

["I should open with rock, but will she do what I suspect?" His move was primed... right? His entire game was based on his 'cold reads', so why was he getting a bad feeling? When it was time to put up his fist for the count down...

Kamille Bidan did nothing.

The air was starting to get warm around him, concentrating as he stared at Satori.]

i would read a shounen series about rock paper scissors actually

[unpleasantries]

[Satori, on the other hand, plays paper. There's no hesitation in her play, and she seems annoyed and upset when Kamille doesn't do anything. Her third eye strays very briefly toward the crowd, but resumes staring right at him as quickly as it stopped.]

...Oh dear. Are you forfeiting?

It would be something else, no? Let's make this shit as pretentious as possible

[zetahatsudo]

[No hesitation, in spite of his not making a play. The exact move needed to beat his own move, had he actually done something. His suspicions were coming together, however...]

The rules state that participants can skip their throw three times in the tournament, in the event they feel uncomfortable making a throw due to extenuating circumstances. That was my first.

[Passes were all well and good, but it didn't actually progress the game if he made no throws, and passing the next throw would draw suspicion. If he couldn't get two wins over Satori, it was game over for him. He needed to make a move.]

I feel good about this next one. Let's do this. ["She saw through me without making a move! Paper, no, I'll fake her out with Scissors!"]

[Kamille made his throw, and in the seconds counting down, it looked like he would keep his hand in the chop for paper, but by the time his hand met the threshold, he had curled his pinky and ring fingers inward and opened his index and middle fingers, signature of scissors.]

this might be the best test drive thread i've ever done

[unpleasantries]

Extenuating circumstances, hmm...? If you say so.

[She smirks. He's right about the rules, at least...if he passed, he passed, and she'll have to leave it at that. She's still confident she'll win, so it doesn't matter...

Her smirk takes a bit of an edge when Kamille thinks about faking her out, though. So that's how he's playing it, huh? Well, she's not about to let her flawless win streak get tarnished by something like a fake-out...so she throws rock. Again, there's no hesitation in her movement, even when it looks like Kamille is about to throw paper.]

I know, right? I feel giddy typing this stuff

[zetahatsudo]

[Satori was on her way to victory, already. It seems her streak would remain unbroken, her steady hand not wavering once.]

[So then why did Kamille Bidan smile as she threw?]

Yeah, looks like I was right. That was a good throw on my part. [The hell was he talking about? He lost the round, why is he so damn happy about that?]

["I'm going to have to throw rock again." He's prepped his throw already, and why is he smirking like that? The air's starting to spark with electricity around him, what kind of pressure is he exerting?]

[unpleasantries]

[A good throw? He was right? He must be up to something.

...It couldn't be that he's copped to her strategy, could it? She wasn't hiding it very well, but she didn't think anyone would be able to figure out what it was, either. Well...if that was the case, maybe she should try throwing him for a loop.

It'd tarnish her win record, but she's decided it's more fun to screw with him a little. He's going to throw rock again, is he? Well, then...

...She plays scissors. A collective gasp can be heard from the audience - this is the first mistake she's made the whole tournament.]

[zetahatsudo]

[It would have thrown him for a loop... had he not seen it coming himself. Some would call it clairvoyance, others would call it arrogance. But the result was clear that this round was...

a tie. Kamille had played Scissors. The crowd is in awe, so sure he would play rock with the way he was projecting. But how? It was one thing to know your mind is read, to purposefully throw the hand in this kind of manner-]

Trying to throw me off my game by failing on purpose? I'm impressed, but it'll take more than that to beat me.

G

[former_endboss]

[Headache cures? Well, there's nothing finer than that for the products of this pharmacy. Unfortunately, that's just asprin. Medical technology here lags behind even Satori's home town, but he cures here are almost magical.

The owner seems to have some sort of protection wrapped around her brain as well, so there's an extra reason to hang out here.]

[unpleasantries]

[Actually, the quiet is rather nice, and Satori's third eye has been staring at the only source of silence it can find for quite some time now. Still, her interest is piqued...]

Excuse me. What are you?

[Tact isn't her strong suit.]

[former_endboss]

The direct and personal questions?

I'm a Reyvateil. Will that do for an explaination?

[unpleasantries]

It's a waste of time to not just ask a question if I'm curious.

[It's usually even a waste of time to ask the question if she is curious, but she can't exactly pick this brain for the answers she's looking for.]

I've never heard of a Reyvateil before, though. Are all Reyvateil incapable of having their hearts read?

[former_endboss]

That's fair enough. But some people are too prideful to ask even if they don't know.

[Jacqli is a bit surprised at that question. ]

Does the word 'firewall' mean anything to you at all? I can best explain this by way of an analogy.

[unpleasantries]

I live just above the fires of Hell, so I'm familiar with walls of it.

[So, no. It doesn't mean anything to her at all. And technically it's Former Hell, but Satori's not about to start a history lesson...]

E

[shanghaiworld]

[Alice had entered because she was bored, this was simple and she was confident she could show up Marisa by doing so. Alice was bad at people, but she has managed to reach a rather rocky position. Satori. She never really KNEW that girl, but she knows full well what she can do... especially because it was her name. Who the hell named themselves after what they are? It'd be like if Remilia was actually named Vampire, or Yuyuko was... wait, shit.

And she's willing to bet she's one of the few that can do something about that pesky thing she can do.

Nothing in the rules said one couldn't have someone, or someTHING play in place of a contender, as long as they are cleared to do so.

Alice has played a doll on the field. While herself and mind are quite a distance away. Can you read the mind of something that has none and is merely being operated remotely?]

[unpleasantries]

[SHE SURE CAN'T. Damn you, Alice, her flawless victory is no longer a guarantee...!]

Ah, this is the puppeteer's doll, isn't it?

[She can't do anything about it, though. It's been cleared as a legal move in the tournament.]

I wasn't expecting to see her here, but I guess this could be interesting.

[It's not often she comes across someone with the opportunity to completely evade her skills like this, at least.]

[shanghaiworld]

Master is determined to win! I shall win it for her! Let us battle with our fists!

... In a show and tell kind of way.

[If you expected the dolls to act like Alice herself, you are clearly mad. They are cute therefore they need to be cute in how the act.]

[unpleasantries]

[The doll might be cute, but it isn't an animal. Satori's heart is cold and unmoved.]

With our fists, hmm? Does that mean you'll only be throwing rock, then?

[Just because she has no way of knowing what Alice is thinking doesn't mean she can't be a huge pain in the ass, at least.]

[shanghaiworld]

[Next time Alice will use a cat plushie.]

No, that'd be mean.

[So overly literal it hurts.]

e

[photoshot]

[ spectating! Aya... figures out the gig pretty much as soon as she sees Satori participating. that isn't very sporting, is it?? not that she particularly cares who wins or loses or cheating, but shh.

that said, satori gives her the creeps.

but this is for the story.

she pops up behind Satori in a burst of speed during a break between matches. ] Miss Komeiji, hello! You really do seem to be dominating the upper bracket.

Care for an interview before you sweep the finals?

[unpleasantries]

Mind your own business, Shameimaru. I'm busy.

[Busy doing what? She's definitely not doing anything.

No one gives Aya's newspaper any respect, even if it's not in Gensokyo anymore.]

[photoshot]

With what, strategy? At your skill level? It's intermission! [ YOU DON'T LOOK BUSY let her bother you. botherbother. she's definitely not going to be shaken off easily, creepiness or not. ]

[unpleasantries]

I'm busy ignoring you. It's a lot more work than you might expect.

[Ignoring her while not ignoring her at all. Amazing.]

[photoshot]

Then why not save some effort by giving it up?

G

[plied_magic]

Sandry was in the pharmacy, but more for magical supplies than anything she needed. She looked at the girl examining the medicines, and glanced over. "Are you all right?"