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

[warriorscribe]

[Paranoia isn't in Enoch's nature. The emotions slowly trickle back into the connection, with a hint of relief. That explanation didn't seem shady to him. He thinks he'd have felt it, at least, if the person didn't have the control yet to avoid showing this survey of the area to everyone who would have it.]

There isn't very much trouble to avoid here, though I suppose it's best to be prepared for it all the same. To be honest, I've never given it very much thought before.

[lalliho]

Hrmn.

[He's still...doubtful. But it's good to hear all the same. He can't fathom why anyone would lie about that, after all.]

That kind of thing is what I do. Not thinking about it would be weird.

[warriorscribe]

"What you do"? [Lalli might get the sense Enoch is curiously tilting his head as he thinks about this. His curiosity has definitely been piqued.]

...What is it you do? Are you a scout of some sort?

[lalliho]

Yes. [He says this blankly, like it's such a simple, obvious thing.] A night scout.

[Not that people have been letting him be just a night scout, lately.]

[warriorscribe]

[That's twice the night has been brought up with such distinction.]

Are nights where you come from dangerous?

[That would fit why he put such emphasis on staying away from trouble, wouldn't it? The momentary (and unspoken) misunderstanding is all but forgotten now.]

[lalliho]

Mrrh...

[There's a bit of a lull as Lalli gets distracted, making a note of the nearby structures and prodding them with his foot to test their stability. Once satisfied, his attention swings back around fully to Enoch, though he hadn't seen the point in breaking their connection while he investigated.]

In some places. If you aren't careful. [Which is why he's important -- especially since he was good at his job.] If I can steer us away from the problem areas, then I will.

[warriorscribe]

[A pause. He can make this a useful venture for Lalli, he's sure of it. He knows there's something he can do.

There's no lightbulb moment, as his thoughts come through the moment he realizes.]

Evacuation routes! That's what your scouting expertise can do for everyone. When trouble strikes, it is often from outside the city coming in, with destruction on a larger scale in its wake.

[lalliho]

[Hmmmn.]

If that's what people want to use the information for, that's fine. [He doesn't sound entirely invested in the idea either way, nor is there a wistful feeling for some other deeper meaning. For putting in the effort, he sure doesn't seem to care much about the overall result...] You'd think those would already be in place.

[warriorscribe]

Well, the trouble I'm talking about didn't happen quite so much as it did before we arrived. I'm not surprised they weren't thinking about it, either.

[But, come to think of it, why were these things not put in place after their presence had started messing with things?]

[lalliho]

You should always have a way out.

[Lalli doesn't exactly think very highly of the Empatheians, if those feelings across the telepathic tether are anything to go by. What a bunch of weirdos.]

[warriorscribe]

Even if you don't have any reason to believe you'll need one?

[That's...a little confusing. Lalli's world must be extremely dangerous. For the most part, his underlying emotions are mildly baffled and worried.]

[lalliho]

[That's weird. Lalli has to wonder if he said something wrong, with that kind of reaction. He did that sometimes, and didn't always understand it even when Tuuri was there to explain where he'd taken a sharp turn leftward into unusual territory. Being prepared wasn't a bad thing, though, and...shouldn't you always have an escape at the ready? Even if you didn't know what was ahead, it was best to consider all options. That's just what you do. After a pause, he still seems confused but also a little uncertain.]

Yes?

[warriorscribe]

...I suppose if one has to live a guarded life. It's not so different, really, than what I had to do, but much shorter term. [He's halfway talking to himself, here, as well as Lalli.]

Did you need to...hide or run from someone? If the question isn't too personal to answer, that is.

[lalliho]

[He's a little curious at that, but not enough to break out of his shell and ask what it was that Enoch meant. Wasn't really his business, anyway.]

No. I'm fine.

[The problem wasn't his specifically, and he's not bothered by the question. It was looking for them, but... That wasn't really something to talk about.]

There are trolls?

[warriorscribe]

Trolls?

[The originating folklore being far too far north on the map for him to have even heard of, and never having encountered the word here in Verens, there's only one possible response to that.]

I've never heard of them. [But they may be a familiar concept going by an unfamiliar name. It's best to check.] What are they?

[lalliho]

[SIGHHHH well. Lalli isn't feeling up to talking that much, so the answer is less of a coherent, structured lesson and more of a concept beamed over through jumbled words and with feelings and images attached for clarification.

"Trolls" was more shorthand than a hard rule, since there were three types of carriers for the illness and only one was labeled as trolls. The other two are beasts -- animals, obviously -- and giants -- monstrously large trolls, as the name suggests, made up of a slurry of parts. They were all hideously deformed, fleshy sacks of death only desperate to spread the Rash to humans and animals that had managed to remain healthy. While it's hard to pin a specific meaning to the next thought, especially given all the mystery that still surrounded trolls and the illness, Enoch might be able to parse that Lalli thinks of the things as an evil spirit taking hold of one's body and corrupting it beyond belief, with moments of clarity few and far between. The original spirit needed more care and guidance after death, if one was lucky enough to die near someone who could provide that.

They were more active at night, which Enoch probably could have guessed given the scout's clarifications, but most of the populated areas were relatively safe through cleansing out the creatures and a growing number of those who were immune. Like Lalli! Good for him.]