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

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.

[unpleasantries]

[That confirms it. By accusing her of losing, he's more or less admitted that he's realized what she was doing. Now it's finally getting interesting.]

Of course it'd take more than that to beat you, though. Isn't throwing the match, by definition, not beating you?

[The usually-stuffy atmosphere surrounding Satori has all but vanished. She's having fun, and that almost never happens. She almost never gets to play mind games - not ones where she and the opponent are evenly matched, anyway - and it looks like she might just get that here.]

...I'd suspected it, but it sounds like you did figure it out. I didn't think I was being that obvious, but maybe it's just that everyone else I was up against was stupid...? I have to commend you.

Yesterday involved me dead in my bed :P

[zetahatsudo]

Don't be so quick to commend me now. [The sparks were flying, quite literally, around Kamille as he stared down Satori, that glint in his eyes taking on a predatory form.]

After all, I might have figured it out, but can you tell me how I knew? I mean, you seem to enjoy this sort of thing, right? A challenge on this level must be hard to come by for someone like you.

[He has a point. It's not like she was letting people know she could read minds on that kind of level, so how was he able to figure it out?]

[unpleasantries]

The only options are that I made a mistake somewhere, or you've got some kind of ability of your own. I wasn't hiding it, but I wasn't being especially obvious, either...so if I had to guess, I'd say there's something about you. I don't know what, yet...you're not thinking about it, or trying not to think about it, so I still have a few theories.

[She knows for certain that his ability isn't the same as hers, though. If it was, he wouldn't have had to test out his theory, because he'd know exactly what she was doing from the get-go.]