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

[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.]

Ack- [RIGHT in his luscious locks, stop that! As he desperately tries to hold his hair down,]

What? What did I do? You-- oh, for- [He is windswept and tragic right now, please hold.]

[That's just fine because Lalli is being a stubborn child and refusing to explain his feelings on the matter, anyway. Nope, he's just continuing along, eyeing up some stores.

He's cranky now, feed him.]

[uuuggghh. How is he supposed to feed anyone in this state? If he's stuck in an endless cycle of fixing his hair every thirty seconds, everyone will know whose fault it is.

Still, they came here for food, so during his latest pause to fuss and tut over his bangs, he points ahead at a cafe of some sort with a small display of a variety of sweets in one of its windows.]

I passed by that one before.

[He could always just not fix -- ahaha, nah, I can't finish that sentence.

Lalli allows the breeze to settle a bit, switching to focus on the display.]

Grmmmn...

[Acceptable. More than acceptable, really, because now he's poking insistently at the glass where a set of assorted cookies are.]

[Aw, sweet mercy. Emil comes to a stop beside him, using the reflection in the window to properly fix his hair before he turns his attention to what Lalli is pointing at.]

Are you going to-? [lmao, oh yeah] No, I suppose you wouldn't. Alright, wait here.

[He figures it's easier to leave Lalli be by the window than try and drag him inside the cafe. See, he's learned some things. But with another idle wave he doubles back to the cafe door and heads in. It's going to take some clever sweet-talking (hah) to get those cookies on an IOU for being relatively new to the island, and since it's Emil it's less clever and more annoyingly persistent, but it's not more than a few minutes before he returns to dangle a neatly wrapped and tied tiny bag of cookies in Lalli's face.

Look. Look what he does for you. Be responsive again.]

[By the time Emil comes back out, the scout no longer has a tiny whirlwind around him (nor is his nose pressed against the glass, as it had been to watch the exchange.) He accepts the bag and sets off again, waiting until he's munched through his first cookie before he does the words thing. Er, thought-words thing.]

You can have the money when I finish my first task thing.

[And Emil falls into step with him easily enough again, unfortunately stuck somewhere between miffed he didn't get a thank you!! and still wondering what he did that was so bothersome before. The comment about money comes just in time to pull him out of slipping into a Mood, and he looks sideways at Lalli as they walk.

Urgh. Well. To his credit, he's doing the thoughts thing still, because Lalli is...]

I truly don't think you'll need all of it to pay off a bag off cookies.

[but. do pay him back. he's not that generous.]

What "task thing" are you doing?

[Sometimes you just gotta look fickle and petty when you're always right. Surely Emil understands.]

Hrmn.

[There's a vague stubbornness there, too, because it wasn't like there was going to be anything he needed, aside from food and...probably a softer blanket. But that was about it, for now.]

One of them mentioned patrolling and making sure people don't die. [So: his life.

...

Mrrrrrr -- ] One mentioned watching kids.

[NOT FOR HIM, OBVIOUSLY, good gods. But if Emil was bored, maybe.]

[Emil gives him a look to convey his Doubts that that particular task was really advertised as "make sure people don't die," but he doesn't poke at it. Whatever, make it sound weird, that's fine.

He nods instead; yeah, that sounds like a Lalli-grade task...

The other one takes him a second.]

... Oh. Really? That's interesting. Honestly, I didn't look.

[He gets the hint, but - and the thought radiates off him in a brief chill - what if the kids don't like him????]

[Honestly, "make sure people don't die" is somehow less disturbing than "make sure people don't go plunging off the edge of this floating island", to him. Brevity had its worth.

Lalli leans away with an audible pssht! hissed through his teeth. Don't be dumb? It's not appealing. But also don't care so much.]

It will keep you far away from moose and gross rats.

[This is exactly why Emil doesn't read things like task boards that ask him to do things or be aware of other things that he should probably be aware of. All of this.

And too late, he Cares.]

I wasn't planning on going looking for those. [huff] But I suppose you have a point.

[At least they balanced each other out.]

Huhhm.

[Of course he does. Still, Emil gets an offering of a cookie for admitting it.]

I'd take the moose over the kids.

[...Maybe not the cat-rat, though. Yuck.]

[Hmm.

... He'll take that cookie, thank you.]

Well, you wouldn't be moose killed. Probably. I've never encountered any moose, either!

[But please don't get moose killed doing that weird job??]

[Both very good points!]

You were right earlier. [He should probably let him know that, just in case he did wind up running into a moose.] It's better to avoid them before they get threatened. Don't freeze up because they might see it as a challenge.

[Oh, look, the key to talking is don't die, please. It was a good thing for them to be in agreement on, though.]

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