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

[shadowsandflame]

"I don't know much about horses. I lived most of my life in a city. But staring is incredibly unpleasant so it's probably best any living thing try to avoid it."

[hands4healing]

"My village has horses. And sheep, a lot of sheep." Winry shrugged. "I don't like to see anything go without."

[shadowsandflame]

"I'm not actually sure I've ever seen living farm animals up close…"

[hands4healing]

"Sheep smell funny. It's the lanolin in their wool. Horses smell better."

[shadowsandflame]

"The only animal I really have any experience with is cats…" And even then, she had never been all that good with the family cat.

[hands4healing]

"I have a dog back home but she's the only pet I've had." Winry missed Den. She was a good dog.

[shadowsandflame]

"My son…" Her head turned slightly, looking away as her posture became awkward. Did she even have any right to still call him her son? "…He has a cat."

[hands4healing]

"My best friend loves cats. He wants a whole...lot of them." Winry wasn't sure the word for a lot of cats. But Shroud seemed a little sad or disturbed, something, when she talked about her son.

[shadowsandflame]

"My children loved that cat. I guess it was all right to adopt it…" Her hands went back into her coat pockets and she continued to avoid looking in Wonty's direction. "He lives with my son now."

[hands4healing]

"I guess you miss your family." It seemed an appropriate thing to say.

[shadowsandflame]

"It's… complicated." There was a small shrug of her shoulders. "What about your family? It must be hard for someone your age to be so far from home…" It wasn't until she said it that she realized that it probably wasn't an appropriate question.

[hands4healing]

"I left home at fourteen to start my apprenticeship. Oh, well...not really start my apprenticeship, I had to help one of my customers, and then he took me with him while he traveled, and I wound up earning an apprenticeship."

Complicated, but that's Winry's life.

"But I came back home recently. Before I wound up here, I mean!"

[shadowsandflame]

"Fourteen?" The awkwardness left her posture, replaced by surprised. How far had she traveled? And to assist a customer. At that age, all Shroud had done was get into trouble. "You seem to have already seen quite a bit in your life."

[hands4healing]

"I guess." Winry's smile went bittersweet. "I built my first automail limb when I was eleven. It's all because of Ed. He needed my help. But there were other people who need help, too."

[shadowsandflame]

"Ed? Your partner?" Maybe that wasn't the right word. It was hard not to think of things that way. "It's good that you want to help people. That's what that skills like yours should be used for." Shroud knew all the ways that the best intentions could go wrong, and she prayed that this girl wouldn't see her work go down the same path Shroud's own work had.

[hands4healing]

"My best friend." Though Winry blushed at the 'partner' question. "And that's what I enjoy doing - making people's lives better. Easier." Even having grown up with war all around, Winry still had hope.

[shadowsandflame]

Her weight shifted and her posture relaxed. She would have smiled if she could have. Her response would have been the same at that age, she was sure. "You'll go far looking at it like that. Try to never lose eight of that goal."

[hands4healing]

"I hope I never do." Fervently.

"Tell me more about your work!"

Because surely there was something intersting there.

[shadowsandflame]

"I'm sure that you won't. You seem like a very bright girl."

She cocked her head slightly. "My work?" Her hands went into her pockets again. "I… also wanted to help people. It was nothing as direct as prosthetics. My former husband and I… We started a foundation to help advance society. It just… didn't quite go as planned."

[hands4healing]

"Oh, I'm sorry." Because Shroud doesn't sound happy about it. "What happened? If you don't mind telling me."

[shadowsandflame]

"We wanted to help people. I wanted that anyway… We had discovered a way to catalogue all of the information within the Earth. We had acces to everything." She sighed and took her left hand from her pocket to adjust her sunglasses. " Then things got complicated… The short of it is that the source of our funding wanted to weaponize it and convinced my husband that it was a good idea. It all got out of hand from there."

[hands4healing]

Winry didn't have anything to say about that for a few seconds, then shook her head. "That's awful. I'm sorry you...had to go through that."

[shadowsandflame]

"What I've been through is nothing compared to others that have been affected by it." She shook her head. "I'll find a way to atone for what I've caused."

[hands4healing]

Winry didn't ask if Shroud meant in this world, or her home. Either way, it was a mess.

[shadowsandflame]

Shroud took a few moments of silence to compose herself. She was fine with suffering through it on her own, but there was no need to drag Winry into it.

"I also... worked as a detective briefly... Sort of." It was a weak subject change, but it was better than nothing. She didn't know how to divert things to small talk anymore.