TEST DRIVE: JANUARY

[empevents]

— 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!

Comments

[illequipped]

[He didn't, it's safe!! Unlike Lalli's everything, which is not spared from Emil's fretting for another minute or so when he's determined he really is fine.

And when the logic catches up with him, because-] Okay, you're going to tell me how that's possible, right? I am pretty sure he wasn't sneaking around before he showed up in a box.

[lalliho]

Mmm...

[Considers this... Will he? Hmn.]

I was sleeping. Trying to contact my cousin Onni for Tuuri.

[So no, not really, unless you're Lalli, because he obviously thinks this is acceptable, stretching out his arms and legs and then relaxing more bodily against the bench.]

[illequipped]

Oh.

[Okaaaay... Emil considers this and how stupid and impossible it sounds, and so there is only one conclusion-]

This is going to be a mage thing, isn't it? [And then,] Reynir does mage things?

[that's even more stupid and impossible!!]

[lalliho]

[Oh good, Emil understands. Although... His head lolls to the side so he can give him a blank look.]

Yes? He's a foreign mage. Did you not know that?

[Like, it's pretty obvious as long as you had firsthand evidence of that fact.]

[illequipped]

[It's at this point Emil snaps his cookie in half. Lalli. Lalli, no.]

Why would I know that? He only speaks sheep people language.

[lalliho]

[Huh.]

...He's very, very bad at what he does. [No spirit guiding to be seen. Do your fucking job right, loser. Make it obvious to everyone else!

Also which one is sheep people language? Argh.] You all sound the same to me.

[illequipped]

I have no idea what you mean, but I believe you, I think. [Sheep people language or no, it's not hard to tell Reynir is helpless and kind of, mm. Dim, maybe. Emil thinks so, anyway.]

And that's... so strange to think about, [because it's so wrong? Ah.] Tuuri and Sigrun are just fine, but Mikkel sounds like he's speaking around a mouthful of rocks all the time.

[And Reynir only speaks sheep, as discussed.]

[lalliho]

[Good. Join his anti-Reynir club, friend. At the...complaint? Lalli shrugs. He guesses it was a thicker accent, but it didn't change the fact that it was all the same nonsense day in and day out. At least Emil and Mikkel sometimes used gestures to emphasize their words properly, whereas Sigrun just kind of emphasized everything. It was too much.]

[illequipped]

[Now they can both stare judgmentally at him, as if they weren't already doing it before but separately. Emil is probably more lowkey about it, though.]

Hmm. [Okay, he did figure that meant nothing to Lalli, just because. That hunch isn't hard to get.

He looks at his snapped cookie and holds one half out in offering.] Here, I'm not that hungry.

[and the cookies are for Lalli!! quit regifting his gift.]

[lalliho]

[Neither of them are lowkey about anything, don't kid yourself.

Also it isn't a gift if he's going to overpay him back later? After a moment of staring at the cookie, Lalli accepts it with a tiny hum and shifts his body to face Emil's more, the back of the bench still being used as a pillow. He nibbles at where the break was, savoring this one more than the ones eaten in his haste to quiet his stomach.]

Th'nks.

[Oh look, he'd sort of picked up on manners! It wasn't more than a mumble and he'd forget to bother with them within the day, of course, but it's something.]

[illequipped]

[Emil thinks he's lowkey, to be fair. Just like he thinks this is a Real Gift even though he's going to take Lalli's money with no real hesitation. Ha.]

You're welcome. [Manners are good! He lapses into a content silence after that, looking away from Lalli and out across the area they've stopped to sit in. This would be the time an ordinary person would think about nothing in particular, or reflect on the day, or literally anything besides think about all the tiny annoyances they've incurred since morning. Those people are not Emil, and so after a few minutes he comes back with:]

Did any children try to give you coal at all today? Just curious.

[lalliho]

[He's actually enjoying the silence, and is bringing the cookie back up for another bite when -- ]

Ngh?

[No??? What are you talking about?]

[illequipped]

No? Oh. Alright then.

[Why must he suffer?? See how he's suffering again.]

In that case, I'm definitely insulted. What attitude!

[lalliho]

[That answers nothing. And -- mmm... Well, assuming Emil lets him, he'll be opening up that mental communication again, a questioning prod getting sent over. And maybe a vague apologetic feeling coupled with the excuse of wanting to actually be able to understand, and it was just easier this way.

If not, however, then he'll just have to put up with Lalli's staring until he continues.]

[illequipped]

[Emil accepts the switch back to mental communication if only because it's too embarrassing to describe out loud where other people (all those people around, sure Emil) might hear. So Lalli gets the event in split-second image summary: a little gaggle of children handing out "gifts," Emil's overblown appreciation nosediving into confusion when it's a goddamn rock, the children laughing. Shame......

That's it, though, really. Though this may have been a contributing factor for why he was so reluctant about watching over kids before. He drags a hand down over his face and gives Lalli an imploring look; understand his loser plight or don't, but don't make fun, please.]

[lalliho]

[Uh. Well that was...strange.]

I still don't understand, [he admits, so he's definitely not about to make fun of Emil anytime soon. Instead, he holds his cookie in his mouth, brushing crumbs free from his fingers before he reaches over and gives Emil's head a reassuring pat. Poor friend. It wasn't his fault kids were weird.] I try not to go by them.

[That's probably his way of explaining why he didn't get any coal.]

...What did you do with it?

[illequipped]

[He is tormented. Obviously. He sighs, giving Lalli a look meant to convey that he's clearly the lucky one when it comes to the local children.]

... I threw it away when no one was looking.

[lalliho]

Muhhh...

[No? He wasn't. He was just better at dodging them. If he wasn't, then he was sure he'd be tormented more than Emil was. Children...

His hand settles on Emil's head instead and he looks thoughtful.]

We could have burned it. [...] You know, for heat.

[Not because of Emil's weird hobby or anything.]

[illequipped]

[Okay, okay. Maybe Emil just needs something to pout at. That's certainly what he's doing when his head gets patted.]

Oh. [damn!!] Well, I didn't think of that.

I could find another rude child and get some more.

[lalliho]

[Lalli sighs, but it's one directed inward as he continues along his train of thought.]

I should, too. [The thought is accompanied by an intense MRRRRH of complaint, as well as a little reminder that should didn't mean would.] We'd be able to ignore people for longer, after.

[he dun wanna]

[illequipped]

[... And they can burn stuff, which is now a tiny spot of hope on the horizon.]

I'll go with you. [Please, he won't abandon Lalli to deal with children by himself. He is not a cruel person.

And yet. Getting up from this spot isn't super appealing at the moment.] Not right now.

[lalliho]

[That's...a little relieving. Maybe. He still doesn't want to, but Emil had at least distracted his cousins for like two seconds when they were there.

What's even better is the pushing it off until later. He lets his hand slide off of Emil's head, though he's careful to not mess up his hair in the process, and brings his legs back up to occupy the space between them.]

Okay.

[...Sounds like he's considering a nap anyway, unless Emil entertains him. His cookie half is almost gone now, and he's slept in worse places...]