empatheias_ooc | TEST DRIVE: JANUARY

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!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

[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.]

[Too bad he has a mouthful of cookie right now, or they could both enjoy his insistence out loud that he totally knew he was right, despite all odds. Too bad.

So, instead,] I'll--keep that in mind? I can do that.

[He says... reassuringly? He hopes? He's not sure if that's what he should be going for at this precise moment, but it's an attempt.]

Thank you, then. For the moose trivia. [ah-] And the cookie, even though I got them for you.

[he was doing so well]

[Okay, but you can eat while talking (sort of), how can you not like telepathy?

Lalli hums, shrugging. He wasn't really used to being thanked by anyone other than Tuuri, and that was...different. It happened mostly when he had been exhausted and she made him do something, not when he was offering things himself.

So weird.]

They're better than Mikkel's.

[Well, when you love the sound of your own voice and anything out of the ordinary makes you Nervous...]

So is dirt. [tbh... he daydreams about real food.]

I'll get you more sometime.

His weren't bad.

[...Lalli didn't like most food, but cookies had been a really good reward after his first scouting mission out in the Silent World. Everything else after that, though... Yeah. Good thing he didn't eat much out of habit.]

...Okay.

[He isn't really sure how else to respond to that second bit, at least not in words. Instead, he nibbles at the edge of the cookie and projects an awkward sort of appreciation in Emil's direction.]

Edited (wow sorry i'm trash) 2015-12-20 03:23 (UTC)

Everything else, then.

[If it's liquid or trying to be liquid in some capacity, it's gross. He'll stand by this.

He quirks a small smile in response to the little nudge, then looks around them more pointedly than he had been doing.]

Where are we going, by the way? Back to that place from before, or what?

Ah.

[Lalli stops in his tracks then, looking around with wide eyes.]

I...don't know. [He hadn't really been paying attention, still confident that the area around them was safe (which was what mattered), and distracted by Emil's presence. Even after the time spent with everyone else, it was still unusual to actually be around someone, communicating with them.] I guess? There's nothing really left that way.

[But for Lalli, there was nothing really in any direction. Weird scary place was weird scary place all over.]

[Oh... okay, stopping. And raising an eyebrow, since he did assume Mr. Scout Guy had some kind of awareness of what he was doing. Like, long-term. Long-term meaning five minutes from now, maybe, but still.]

Do you want to go sit on a bench somewhere? I could sit on a bench.

[The facts he'd known had been good enough for him??? Now he was far more aware of their surroundings, even if his expression remained just as blank. Still no plan, though, because he never really did much outside of eat, work, sleep.

Two of those were checked off, and... Well, seeing as he wasn't doing the job of three fucking scouts at once, he didn't quite need to take a nap yet.]

Okay.

[Benches... Emil will now be treated to several bench locations around their area and their relative distance, though a few come with a sense of BLEH based on their proximity to highly populated areas. One seems relatively quiet, but it gets disapproval as well on account of the cat stretched across it.

Even though that was probably two hours ago.]

[Aaaa he thought they were done with image blips today, that's a surprise. Enough of one that Emil actually reacts out loud, though just with an "oh, okay." Hnnn, moving on--]

Well, come on.

[Strained, but with the mingled sense that he's trying not to seem bothered anew by all this telepathy stuff for Lalli's sake. Don't get mad at him again, please.

Without further dawdling he starts walking again; he's going to that maybe-cat-maybe-not bench, if only because one cat is easier to shoo away than a crowd of people. If it's still there.]

[It isn't, as it turns out, much to Lalli's pleasure, and so he goes over at a brisk pace before plopping himself down. Of course he can't sit like a normal person and so his legs are brought up, heels digging into the bench's edge to keep them there as he tucks his arms between them and his body. He'd be just as content to sit in silence, but...

Lalli takes a deep breath, and though his voice is clear and at a normal volume, there's something stiff about it.]

Is it really that strange, to you?

[Emil isn't going to rush this bench, filling in the (relatively) normal person role here as he takes a seat in a normal way. He still has a little less than half of his cookie left and it's halfway to his mouth before he fumbles it and drops it on his lap.]

Aaaauh-? [jesus] Uh, well, that is...

[He coughs. Picks up the cookie piece. Gives it a look.]

Yes. I don't understand why it's bad to think someone poking around in my head is strange.

[Lalli watches him, nose wrinkling a little bit. If you wanted him to do the thing, you couldn't react more when he actually did it. After a pause, he offers out his hands, one with a new cookie and the other with a gesture prompting Emil to hand his street cookie over.]

I'm not poking around. I'm not Reynir.

[UGH.]

It's just talking, but easier.

[It was sudden, okay? Emil is surprised by deer that don't make any noise at all, so, shush.

He shakes his head as he holds his hands out to cookie swap, although he's going to give the new one the same look. Hmmm.]

I didn't say you were. I talked to you all afternoon like that! I'm trying, aren't I?

[That's tiptoeing around childish, but it's all he's got; he's trying despite all his doubts about how practical it really is for people to have direct access to his--brain? Or something? He doesn't even know how it works!!]

It would be nice if these pushy strangers would ask first.

[hmph... and wait] Ah-- hang on, what does Reynir have to do with anything?

[He doesn't respond at first, frowning and trying (not very hard, mind) to squash that feeling of annoyance threatening to rise up again. It wasn't like he was doing anything to inconvenience Emil -- he was being helpful! And communicating! It didn't feel fair to hear his efforts judged as...suffering, he supposed, in that way Emil often suffered. Worthy of dramatics. Weird. At least he manages to not kick up the wind this time.]

Mph.

[It's good, too, that he didn't, because as the other continues he can feel his shoulders relaxing. Having permission was... Yes, he can understand the importance of that. Still, that only makes his eyes narrow all the more at the question.]

Mrrrh. [Ah, that wasn't an explanation, was it? Oops. He sighs loudly, and then pops the mostly-eaten cookie into his mouth without a second thought.] He's rude.

[...Also not really an explanation, Lalli.]

[That... all doesn't exactly convince Emil that Lalli has gotten his point or, more importantly, acquiesced to it. There's still some Moodiness here and he hasn't figured out the magic words to say to placate the both of them. "It's fine for Lalli to do this but no one else!!" is so... dumb. He realizes this.

But he did okay? Maybe?]

I got the impression he was a bit-- Don't eat that-- [aaa WHY??]

... Well, he doesn't do anything, does he? I haven't seen him do a thing but bother the others and eat our food. And I think he's a gossip.

[Which Emil definitely isn't. No way. But he gives Lalli a look like this is the part where he gives a real example of ginger rudeness, maybe, please.]

[TOO LATE, it's eaten, and he opens his mouth to prove it's already gone. Waste not, want not.

And those things were already real examples of rudeness? But fine, with a heavy sigh and a tilt to his head, Lalli considers how to put it into words.]

He goes where he wants and I can't keep him out. [Grumble grumble.] I'm pretty sure I almost died because of him once. He's very bad at what he does.

[Whatever that was.]

[He needs more examples because... because he does. And that one makes him nearly drop the second cookie, too.]

What? When?! Where was I?

[And why didn't anyone inform him so he could have a Strong Word with his mortal enemy that he wouldn't even understand?? It's the principle of the thing, really, and even though Lalli hasn't expressed any kind of discomfort or injury or anything this whole time, Emil is abruptly leaning over to scrutinize him. Maybe Reynir is really the worst and he'll suddenly find some evidence of that now, while he makes sure Lalli is definitely okay.

He fixes Lalli's hair, too, while he's at it. He's been lax in his vigil.]

Sigrun kept saying we should have put him back in his box and wished him good luck shipping himself home and I'm inclined to agree-- [he will keep muttering things like this until interrupted, yes.]

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