empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: JUNE

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!mod,
*test drive

TEST DRIVE: JUNE

— 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!

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She's seen expressions like his after the war, broken men who had seen more than they ever have to. Given that this was a man assumed dead, the term applied.

"We, well yes. I worked with you and the rest of the Howling commandos briefly before," Yeah awkward conversation here. So with as much tact as possible she carried on. "Before you were lost."

Shook his hand with a bit of wonder. "I don't know how you can be here, but I remember Captain Rogers' best friend clearly," she hadn't missed him, he was too handsome to overlook, but her attention had been fixed elsewhere.

He nodded, filing the information away carefully. She'd be a useful resource indeed, so it would be better to get on her good side--or stay on it, rather, if her relatively positive reaction to him so far was any indication.

"I survived the fall," he explained, sticking his hands in his pockets. "It's complicated. I don't remember most of the war."

He didn't remember most of anything, but he figured that was a good enough explanation for the time being. He was curious, however, as to how she might react that Steve also managed to survive a long fall into a very cold place.

"How long has it been since Steve crashed?" he asked, wanting to get a frame of reference. He spoke with a noticeably neutral tone, given the event was his best friend's apparent death, and that lack of emotion manifested in small dots of grey appearing on the ground underneath him, like drops of paint. They may not have been entirely noticeable just yet, given that Peggy's focus may have been on odd question.

Clearly he had survived, but how was the question. He didn't remember, again she had seen the same effects on other soldiers and she nodded compassionately. War had changed and destroyed so many lives that the scope was unimaginable. She had only begun to see Agent Sousa beginning to reclaim his life.

"Complicated is a common state for lives after the war. I understand, but for what it's worth I'm relieved to know you survived." They lost too many good men.

Shock ran across her features, frankly the sky could have turned pink and she wouldn't have noticed. The question threw her off her mental footing, for a number of reasons. "How did you..." Barnes had fallen before Steve, his passing was the impetus for the Captain to headlong charge into things and take a personal reckoning with Hydra. But the how wasn't as painful as the subject itself.

"Steve, Captain Rogers went down with The Valkyrie the fourth of March, nineteen forty-five. That was one year and almost three months ago." It took her that long to bring what remained of him home to Brooklyn. The vibrant color around her started to fade, the color leeching out of everything around them.

It was hard to miss the fading color around her--the idea must upset her, that Steve had, for all anyone knew, died. It made sense to him. He was someone that inspired a great many people, and he wasn't exactly unfriendly to the people he worked with.

As such, the soldier endeavored to make his voice a bit softer. He wasn't completely a machine, despite HYDRA's best efforts.

"It's been a lot longer than that for me," he replied. "This place... it takes people from different times. Not just worlds."

The man paused, eyes going from Peggy's face to the nearby shops, scanning them until he found a nearby tavern.

"We can sit, if you want. To talk."

It would probably be better to have her sitting down when he did finally tell her that Steve was alive and here.

"I see." She nodded, she couldn't offer more than that to him at the moment, but she could at least keep her chin up and her eyes clear.

There was no rhyme or reason, she shouldn't even be here in the first place so who was she to judge was was possible and who could be here? it would explain much of his appearance as well, she found herself bitter at the lack of empathy she was showing him.

"I'm sorry, I know you were very close and he spoke of you highly and often. Of course we can talk." If he wanted to hear about things she would tell him, she owed Steve that. And Rogers would be at peace to know his friend was alive if not entirely well. Much like bringing him home this was another chance for her to honor the life and memory of the best man she'd ever known.

Peggy laid a hand gently on his arm, the touch was light enough to be guidance and company but not force, even still she could feel it was not flesh. He'd lost his limb, again she thought of Daniel and it made her grip on his arm more stable. No fear, no worry and surely no shame, a false limb did not mean he was less of anything she was determined to show that in her demeanor and actions.

Arm in arm she accompanied him to the tavern.

The admission that Steve mentioned him often shouldn't have surprised him, given the man's actions here, but he still found himself speechless. The touch on his left side drew his eye for a second, but he didn't react to it otherwise except to move towards the establishment.

Once they were inside and seated, the former Sergeant only asked for water and a snack; it wasn't as if drinks had any effect on him anymore. He planned to pay for whatever Carter ordered as well, given the fact that he'd been there for likely a lot longer than she had, although he wouldn't argue if she insisted on taking care of her own tab.

He wondered how to bring up Steve again without her emotional reactions causing something to break. That was often what happened whenever he was shocked by something, so despite the fact that he wasn't good at conversation or social skills in general, he knew he had to try. After taking a deep breath, he finally returned his eyes to her and spoke.

"It won't make much sense, but," he started before biting his lip for a moment. "I'm from the year 2014. I got... frozen, basically."

He decided it would be better to just keep the brainwashed HYDRA assassin parts under wraps for now.

with the way her day was unfolding Peggy didn't trust anything stronger than tea, so she ordered that. Her eyes remained on Barnes, so filled with gentle compassion for him and his losses.

Aside from things fading they had not lost cohesion, for that was the effect of Steve Rogers. The man might be gone but he was never forgotten. Shortly after things had started to look hopeless in the search for Steve, the war was ending and she had been recalled to the S.S.R. and shoved into her niche. She'd allowed herself in those days to be maudlin and melancholy. It ended when Howard, of all people damnable Stark was the one who gently lifted her chin and asked her what Steve would have wanted her to do. He would have wanted her to go on, to go on for him and for every soldier who wasn't coming back and those who lost so much when they did.

Peggy had no choice but to go on, to find a way to be stronger because he might be gone but the weight of that mantel was left behind for all their shoulders to carry. She was not about to disappoint him again.

"You're from seventy years in the future." She listened but now began to wonder about the poor man's mental state. "Frozen? I don't understand."

His eyes left her face as he tried to formulate a proper answer. He simply nodded for a moment, understanding her confusion, taking off his right glove so he could get to some of the snacks. Eating helped him think in some ways.

"Cryostasis," he eventually said. He really hadn't intended the conversation to focus on his own state. "It's, uh. I don't know how it works, exactly. They freeze you, in a way you can be... thawed later. So you're still alive." His ungloved hand went to the back of his neck to scratch it as he tried to segue into what he was meaning to say.

"When Steve crashed. He got frozen in the arctic. Same kind of thing, just. The serum did what was needed to keep him alive."

Halfway through his last sentence, he began to watch Carter carefully to see how she would react.

She wanted to comfort him, and if he needed to tell his story for that to happen she would give him all the time he needed.She sat, hands resting in her lap and letting him set the pace.

Cryostasis? Cryo was cold, if she recalled her Latin and stasis was an unchanging state, so it made sense, to a degree. He was somehow held in time allowing him to look young and vital some seventy years later. She nodded and let him continue, perhaps there were scientific advances she had not been a party to in her work with the S.S.R. and Erskine.

She stiffened slightly at the topic of Captain Rogers, but she didn't flinch. "We had hoped the serum would allow for survival in a multitude of conditions. But Sargent, we never found him. Howard and I looked for a year. When I was reassigned to New York, Howard continued to look on his own. But eventually we had to call it off." She reached out her hand to lay it atop his.

"I'm so sorry, but we never found him." Still believing this to be the conversation he needed to have where she explained about Steve.

"You didn't," he agreed, eyes on their hands for a moment before he turned his gloved hand over to hold hers properly. He wasn't the one who needed comfort right now, though the reaction interested him. She truly did seem to be sympathetic.

He raised his eyes to meet hers. The tone of her voice spoke volumes as to what she thought of Steve, and he shared that kind of feeling. If he'd been forced to think he died for such a long period of time, only to discover he'd survived... he doesn't imagine her reaction will be very subtle.

"Someone else did. An organization. Steve was thawed in 2012. He's been on this island for three months."

Her hand tightened on his as he continued. This was not a meeting where he had questions or needed her to offer comfort. He was trying to tell her something and it was not an easy thing to hear.

She squinted and looked down, lines furrowing between her eyes. "I'm sorry, you're saying..." She swallowed hard and her voice came a little breathlessly. "You're saying Steve is alive in the future. And that he's here?"

Thank God she was already sitting or she might have found herself on the ground in that moment.

He did his best to put forward some kind of calming presence, but he wasn't exactly good at channeling his emotions into much of anything but violence. The most he managed was to project a stillness in the air--not likely very helpful. He kept his eyes on her face as he answered.

"Yeah. He came out of the ice the same state he went in. Nearly died again a few times since, but." He shrugged with his right shoulder. That was typical Steve, he'd managed to relearn. "He's as good as he can be."

For all he was trying, and the effort would have been appreciated if known, the intensity of Peggy's reaction would have overridden it. There were too many of her own emotions racing through her and wrecking havoc around her. Shock, elation, fear, anger at least with herself and Howard and all the men who made the decision to quit looking. The environment reacted in kind, though it shifted with the speed of her own feelings.

"He's safe." That brought the flashes to an end and Peggy's ramrod posture melted. She fell heavily back into her seat and exhaled a shaky breath. "He's safe." She failed him but he had made it somewhere alive. Perhaps long after she herself was gone. A lifetime later, maybe literally. He had a life, one that existed without her. "As good as he can be and nearly dying are not exactly the same thing."

Well, at least nothing was broken. It was about as much as he could ask for. He nodded in a way that was sort of a shrug, eyes moving away. Those were indeed not the same thing, but it wasn't as if Steve ever stayed out of dangerous situations.

"He recovers from one thing and jumps into another," he replied. "He wouldn't really be Steve if he didn't."

As much as he hated that, he was resolved to it. He just did his part to look out for the captain.

That saving grace was possibly due to her rigidly held composure. Peggy had faced Steve's death with a poise that made even her wonder how she was capable of it.

"That is very Steve." She sniffed, refusing to cry or be otherwise betrayed by her emotions.

"He was never one to stand back and let others take a risk for him, damnably stubborn some times." She shook her head at that. "And damned heroic." she concluded.

Heroic. That certainly was a good word to describe the man. As stubborn and stupid and reckless as he could be, he was a hero to a lot of people--hell, in some ways, he was a hero to Bucky, too.

But he was still a stubborn, stupid, reckless hero.

"That's why he needs people to drag him out of it when he gets too deep." The soldier shook his head at the thought with a sigh. "He forgets he's not invincible."

The soldier leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of his water.

"He'll probably have a lot to tell you."

"He always finds his way, it's one of his strengths." Of course hand in hand with that was the weakness that he would, of good intention, get himself in over his head to begin with.

"He's near it, but no, not invincible." She'd faced that fact herself, Steve's mortality had hit her hard knowing what it had taken to end him.

Peggy drew her hands together again, flat on the table in front of her.

"If he has survived, he's surely gone on with his own life." She stared at her still fingers. "Seventy years is a long time, if so much has changed then seeing me may not be the best thing for him." The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.

"I think that's his decision to make."

The soldier wasn't one to typically consider taking away someone's choice a positive option. Not to mention the fact that the more he talks with Carter, the more he gets the feeling their connection is more than just that of fellow soldiers, and he's not willing to keep something this important from Steve in the first place.

Not to mention that if she was going to be around for any length of time, they'd likely find each other eventually anyway, and if they could arrange a (slightly) calm meeting, it would probably be for the best, both for them and everyone around them. It's really only due to the emotional effects of the island that he even considers offering to wait for her sake, but it's better than not offering.

"I can wait to tell him. But I'm not going to keep it a secret."

"I don't believe it is, his alone."

And that was something Bucky would need to understand, this wasn't just his decision or Steve's. Especially since Steve was here and had been for some time. He'd made his way without her and who knew what effect thrusting her back into his life might have.

"Steve and I had," She hated to be pressured into these sorts of declarations, she felt it cheapened her memories. "We had grown close. There were feelings involved and given how things ended it could be complex or painful for him."

She wasn't hiding but surely the idea of disrupting Steve's life for her own feelings wasn't fair, was it?

Maybe it wasn't Steve's decision alone. But like he said, he wasn't going to keep it a secret.

"So what happens when he sees you anyway?" he replied calmly, leaning forward to meet her eyes and resting his left arm on the table with a muffled thump. "You can't avoid him forever. Am I supposed to wait until then to tell him we met? Then have him get mad at me for not saying anything?"

"There is that." She could concede the point, but it didn't mean she could just walk in on his life.

"People change, I just want things to be easier for him." But how to make that work? She had had an easier time planning missions on massive Hydra bases than having any inkling of how to go about this. "If you would perhaps ask his feelings about his life and his situation we might know better how to move forward."

The soldier took a quiet breath before nodding a few times. He wasn't opposed to making the meeting easier if he could--and given the fact that many of his conversations with Steve centered on the past, it wouldn't be suspicious to occasionally come out with a question about who they'd worked with during the war.

"Alright."

He wondered, however, what kind of information she was looking for, exactly. Steve was sure to have more than a few thoughts about how his life was going.

"What kind of feelings are we talking about?"

Men. They were never good at talking about feelings and in their time this was not looking at getting any better. But she could allow that the question was a fair one. Just how would they ascertain Steve's feelings on the matter.

"I suppose what he is doing with his life now, if he regrets the past." He might look back on their time and wish it hadn't happened. Or his feelings about her in general may have changed, there was no way to know he would welcome her. "If he has been involved with anyone." She tried to make that sound casual, as if just listing another pertinent question but it was more than that.

Involved--the soldier was perceptive enough to know what that meant, even with her attempt at brushing it off. He tilted his head and peered at her curiously a moment, wondering. If Steve did have some kind of lover or something, he sure wasn't aware of it. He'd think that might be important enough to come up--he'd spoken some of the friends he'd made, after all.

"I don't think he has," he replied, zeroing in on the question that really seemed most relevant, "but I'll ask him."

It was important to gather accurate information before planning anything--that applied to personal situations as much as missions.

"As I said we had been close, and I would hate for that to cause him problems with his current situation. Whatever that may be." It was true, if delivered with less emotion than she felt on the subject. Feelings could be such awkward things, especially in times like these. As if there were ever any other times like these.

Peggy tried not to look too relieved at the confirmation that Steve was not, to his partner's knowledge, seeing someone. "I think it might be best, to avoid conflict or awkwardness."

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heismymission - 2015-06-17 05:39 (UTC) - Expand

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