empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: JANUARY

Entry tags:

!mod,
*test drive

TEST DRIVE: JANUARY

— 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 Friday, December 25th and Applications (Canon | OC) open Friday, January 1st.
OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are currently allowed. Those interested can also use the test drive. OCs do not need to be reserved.
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. We have also 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?

• 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. Creating jobs for the purpose of the test drive is absolutely doable.

• 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: A new card game is sweeping through the streets of Verens: "Magica Ex Arehtei." Players take on the role of an Otherworlder and form battle decks out of minions, monsters, dunamis, and even the Arehtei themselves. It’s insanely complicated in its details, but this hasn’t stopped a seller from handing you a starter deck and all but pushing you into a chair to face an opponent… who may have just been conscripted themselves.

• Prompt E: After a long period of quiet (something about ‘emotional and physical harm to Empatheias’ and ‘manufacturing plush weapons without a Class E(X) license’), toy manufacturers have flooded merchant stalls and storefronts with a new offering, the hyper-cute stuffed Thras. No negative emotions, they promise! Plush Thras is so full of bravery, he’ll inspire anyone who holds him to new heights of courage and valor!

Naturally, magiscience has gone too far, and picking up the doll instills you with vigor, energy, and fearlessness past the point of recklessness.

• Prompt F: Thundersnow! A phenomenon in which a snowstorm is accompanied by lightning and thunder, and not a terribly uncommon one in Empatheias. But today’s thundersnow is more like an apocablizzard -- lighting lashes through the sky and lances down to catch buildings and trees with its fury, all hidden behind whirling sheets of billowing snowflakes that have blanketed the city in a foot of snow with no sign of stopping.

The outside is cold, windy, miserable, and potentially dangerous. Are you trapped in a building you didn’t expect to be in? Or perhaps you’ve joined up with an emergency emotion squad, trying to impose calm or cheer on the raging storm?

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include lumps of coal or moose.

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Out loud, Lalli makes a thoughtful noise, looking over to Emil and then down to his hands. The approval thing he still doesn't get (though he can accept that as fact if that's what Emil thought it was -- he was the one with the friendly punches, after all) but the other thing... That one makes sense to him, probably more than it would have if Emil had tried to actually put it in words.

Absently, he reaches over and tucks some of the other's hair back into place from where it had been mussed up at the wind earlier.]

I wonder if it's better to make the pushy Empatheians not approve of us. They might ignore us faster.

[Emil takes the hair-fixing as a sign he's explained himself thoroughly enough, somehow, with this impossible mental talk thing - or at least enough for Lalli to understand, which is the point. He gives him a brief, small smile before his expression grows more serious, and then--

well, how does one make their mental voice sound more low and conspiratorial... give him a moment, then,]

Or we could ignore them first and not do anything weird.

[Because that's been working well so far.]

[...Yeah, no, that's earning Emil a flat stare.]

We've been doing that.

[Or at least he had been.]

[Excuse you rat boy.]

You were up a tree!

[Give him a second to follow along, because he's pretty sure staring at a cat-sized rat didn't interfere with his ignoring of the locals.

Ah. It was the other thing.]

That's not weird.

[Guess which thing Emil cares more about between vague annoyance and his Reputation. No points.]

No, it was very weird. I'm telling you this for your own good.

[that's dumb tho]

Psshh.

[It's a hiss, though not a sharp one, just a signal of his disagreement and the irritation that came with it. He's about to point out that it isn't exactly the first time Emil's seen him climb a tree and hang out there a while, but then he remembers that the other teen had seemed pretty distressed over that time, too. For some reason.]

They didn't see me in the tree.

[are you saying he's dumb]

You can't spend all of your time in trees.

[Matter-of-factly, like this is a perfectly reasonable and necessary conversation to have. He's not entirely unconvinced otherwise, honestly, considering...]

Fine, what was your idea?

[maybe]

I'm not. [There's a stubborn indignation there. He's very much on the ground right now, after all!

At Emil's question he sighs loudly and falls back, hands folding over his stomach.] I don't know how to make people not like me enough to stop bothering me. It just happens eventually. Mostly.

[The expedition crew was an exception, and it's possible that was due to Tuuri's intervention. Or maybe just the fact that they were forced to occupy the same space so often.]

They like emotions. You could try not doing...that.

[That's normal, right?]

[Ah, that's the most words Lalli has ever said at once since they've met. How exciting. And they're not even technically being "said"-- Regardless, Emil scoffs like he's going to protest some more about exactly how much time Lalli spends in trees, but the rest gives him pause.

He doesn't really get either of those points, for one reason or another. He's confused and kind of bothered enough for that breeze to pick up again, this time ruffling his hair enough that he reaches up to hold it down himself while sorting through his thoughts.

First of all,] Ooookay, that plan is very dumb, no offense. Everyone has emotions.

[Like, what is he supposed to do, take out his feelings batteries? Be reasonable, Lalli.

... And a longer pause follows that, as Emil can't quite figure out whether he's overstepping a boundary somewhere by fussing over Lalli's casual acceptance of people disliking him and leaving - or encouraging this to happen?? Why?

hmph!!]

... I like you. We're friends, are we not?

[He shrugs, which is a little awkward from his position on the ground, and raises a hand to gesture vaguely at the air and start to point out again that these things didn't happen that much around him when --

Ah. Um.

Lalli's back to staring, now, his own silence more like a train screeching to a halt, as paradoxical as that was. The nearest tree creaks and groans, though there's something...assuring about it, rather than the protesting it would normally sound like. Its branches extend themselves ever so slightly, like they're reaching out. Like reaching out wasn't so bad, maybe.]

...I think so. Yes.

[Still an uncertainty there. It was weird to admit, even if he basically already had to Onni.]

[This time Emil's twisted slightly to stare back, though not because he really wants to - he's stuck between wanting to get as much of Lalli's muted reaction to what he's said as possible and not wanting to witness the crushing, horrible rejection-- maybe. He worries, that's all; though the agitated breeze betrays him more than his tiny frown.

But, good - he'll take "I think so" over total friendship failure. The breeze doesn't stop, but it lessens to something calmer, more soothing.

okay but the tree creaking at them is weird, that's definitely on the Weird List and he's going to give it an odd look for a sec here-]

--Yes, alright. Good.

[... hmm.]

As your friend, I have to remind you that your plan is stupid.

[He lets Emil's emotional effect overtake his, breathing slow and listening to the soft breeze while he still tried to puzzle out...feelings. This was why he ignored these things, honestly. At least the wind is there, and it really is calming.]

Hrm. [Back to neutral, now, eyes closing.] You could do what I do and leave the city all day.

[Speaking of which -- ack. Emil gets another wordless prod, this time along the lines of food, food, food.]

[Get used to them, buddy, because with Emil around they're going to get everywhere.]

... And do what?

[Genuine question, he has no idea what there is to do out in the middle of nowhere alone besides look at stuff, and trust him he doesn't have that much patience. As for that nudge, he gestures with a hand for... getting up and going somewhere, if they're going to find something to eat. Yes/no??]

[Climb trees, he might say if he had a proper sense of humor. Instead, Emil is treated to another series of images, this time in quicker succession. There's Lalli, running, stopping, and inspecting his surroundings with a critical eye. When the locations run out, he switches to a scene from back home, instead -- or back in the Silent World, at least, of him rejecting path after path in the cold, dark night and making note of signs of the illness.

It isn't lonely, though, assures the unspoken part of him that conveyed the emotional part of these messages. Instead, there's some frustration and mostly...satisfaction. He was doing his job and doing it well. He liked the exploring he did here.

As for the other thing...

Lalli grumbles softly, rolling over onto his side to move closer to Emil while he weighed the pros and cons of this. In the end, a complaint from his stomach is the deciding factor and he drags himself up to his feet again. He supposes he must...]

I don't do any of those things, [comes his reply to the images. He's definitely not built to be a scout in any capacity - complete lack of physical stealth aside, he's not nearly patient enough in the first place. And that sense of satisfaction--well if he got to start fires, maybe.

He gets to his feet in turn, dusting himself off.]

And you can go back to lying on the ground soon! [like if that's what you really want to do, sure]

What do you do?

[Which probably sounds rude, but... Hey, come on, Lalli spent time sleeping when he wasn't scouting or dragged along with Sigrun and Emil. That usually was screaming and getting injured, which didn't really seem like a hobby.

Lalli deadeyes him. It's not about the ground, though, yes, laying about was what he liked to do.]

A place without so many people.

[That is the issue.]

Ah. [With a tilt of his head, as if to acknowledge that he put his foot in his mouth with that assumption but not actually correct himself. Hm. Hm!!

Well, in any case- follow him to look for cheap snacks.]

Usually I pretend we're not almost dying every two days. Or wonder what the rest of you are doing. [Worry, but he's not embarrassing enough that he'll come out and say it.]

[That's fine, that's how he deals with these things, too. With a sniff and a bit of a haughty uptilt of his chin, Lalli follows along without actually paying much attention to where they were heading in relation to his mental map. Lead him to the good things, Emil, he trusts you with this task.]

That's weird.

[It's...slightly less judgmental-sounding than it could be. Like, he doesn't hate that that's how Emil occupies himself, like he hates how the ugly rats here look.]

I don't think you can do that here. Maybe the second one.

[Emil will find the good snacks, or at least the okay snacks that they can afford. "Dirt poor" is so familiar, isn't it... ugh. Lalli will have to deal with plain bread, probably.]

Says the boy who just told me I'm going to get moose killed. I haven't forgotten that, you know.

[But he doesn't want to get moose killed, so. A sigh.]

I'm going to be checking trees when I can't find you, from now on.

[He could argue, but... Eh. That takes effort, so instead he just makes a slightly disgruntled noise. Moose killed isn't even the proper term though, like come on.

Lalli stops his staring into nothing to glance over at Emil, lips flattening.]

But you can reach me through the amulet.

[Don't make things harder than they have to be???]

[Lalli, you just don't understand. He's sensitive.]

Hm, maybe. [He waves a hand, like telepathy is unreliable and he doesn't trust these amulets to work all the time. Which actually is a pretty good summary of Emil's thoughts on the weird little things, but who's counting.]

I don't have to. They're strange.

Pfh.

[For a moment, that seems like all Lalli's going to say on the matter, but then, with a tone almost like he's offended, but not quite,]

I like them.

[Emil waves both hands this time, slightly more exasperated, but only just.]

I'm playing along with them right now, aren't I? You're welcome!

Mrrrrh.

[He is Displeased. UP GOES THE WIND, sorry, not sorry about your hair.]

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