TEST DRIVE: February

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: FEBRUARY —

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 25 January and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on February 1st. Apps will only be open for four days!
  
  
• OC Reminder! Just a quick reminder that original characters are 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!
  
  
• Transfer to in-game. If accepted, you can assume threads made on the Test Drive happen in-game if the scenario can reasonably fit. For new characters, these threads do not count for activity check. However, these can be supplementary threads for players already in-game.
  
  
  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: Years ago, there was a short lived collectible card game fad in Verens called Magical Arehtei EX, combining Empatheias lore, the Arehtei and a convoluted rulebook to bring joy and confusion to Otherworlders and locals alike (the convoluted rulebook might be a reason why it fell out of fashion). And the brains behind it have decided now's the perfect time to relaunch it, both bringing back the card game itself, as well as a bunch of merchandise to go with it since even if the card game's confusing, maybe people will buy cool looking toys of the Arehtei and other various fantastic creatures (most of which are basically two or more animals combined together such as a sharkraffe or crabbear).
  

  1. The Gathering: Like before, there will be demos of the game in the city's parks. Anyone around will be invited to try out the game with a partner. Marvel at the artwork, stare in confusion at the still confusing rulebook (simplifying things was not part of the relaunch), or just do whatever with the cards. The event runners want this to be a success so they're not going to frown on people for making up their own rules (it's possible they don't understand the rules either). So long as people are enjoying the game, it'll get people to buy cards and assorted trinkets or so they hope. Either way, emotions are sure to be all over the place as people try to figure this one out!
     
  2. Bug Catcher 1, 2, 3: As mentioned there are toys of the various creatures in the card game (with some artistic liberties taken to make sure the Arehtei aren't going to file suit about their likenesses used). And they've even partnered with a reputable Verens toy company, responsible for such hits as the FeelSpring and other toys from the city's past that had a habit of coming to life. And this is no exception as the toy creatures are now running amok through the city! Instead of being asked to continue playing cards, Otherworlders will be given nets and asked to go collect the wayward toys from all around the city.
     
  3. Pedometer GO: Once all the figures are collected, the event organizers realize they have a way bigger hit on their hands than their weird card game, releasing the creatures into the park again and branding it as their newest hit, Magical Arehtei EX Go! As in go out there and get them. Otherworlders will be paired into groups of two and given a time limit to recover as many of the toys roaming the park as possible and trade them in for fabulous prizes! Which turn out to be a bunch of unsold cards from the relaunch.
     

  
  
  
  • Prompt E: Arumon, a renowned keychain designer, has promised the public that he plans on releasing one more design before he retires for good. If anyone hasn't heard of him until recently, it's because he made that promise 3 years ago, and most of the public has either forgotten about him or just accepted the fact that the final keychain design is never going to be released. Now, after years of delays and being side tracked with other projects (he's also a zipper designer!), he's finally ready to unveil the ultimate keychain! Naturally, the hype train has started to pick up at full-pace again, making this an event not to be missed. All accessory enthusiasts as well as security detail have been invited to the keychain museum, where Arumon's final keychain design is going to be unveiled at 9 o'clock. Are you HYPED?!
  

  1. Passion: Although it's called a keychain museum, tonight it serves more as an event function, encouraging all guests to mingle with one another. Aside from having Arumon's previous keychains on display, there are also free snacks and drinks being served, as well as merchandise shops or even stations where one can create their own keychain using various arts and crafts. Those who arrive will also receive a free random keychain of their own - did you get one that you like? If not, trading with each other is encouraged! And that's not even the best part... the keychains are infused with special crystals, which supposedly act as a compass to your heart. If someone is at the party who is destined to be your friend (or more?), your respective keychains will react to each other by glowing. This is not scientifically proven and the glowing might just be the cause of something else... but hey, who doesn't believe in friendship?
     
  2. Face My Fears: Later in the evening, an unfortunate side effect is discovered from having all of these keychains infused with emotion crystals. Anyone who harbours any negativity in their hearts, be it malicious or the more personal kind (fear, anxiety, sadness, etc), that negativity is fed into the crystal of everyone's keychains. The more the negativity festers, it in turn begins to affect their owners, influencing their behaviour in an even more negative way. Eventually, some crystals become so full that they start to come to life on their own, which results in pet-sized shadow creatures running amok. They're not strong on their own, but a group of them can make them very dangerous! Only those who don't have malice in their hearts can defeat them - if someone doesn't fit the criteria, their options are to either run or hope someone with a good heart helps them.
     
  3. Don’t Think Twice: With the shadow creatures largely dealt with, it's now time to unveil Arumon's final keychain! It's been a long wait, with many years of speculating what it could look like. The crowd couldn't be more ready! Unfortunately, the shadow creatures have spooked Arumon's confidence in his design, not to mention it's infused with the same type of crystal as the one that feeds on negative energy. He can't in good conscience release this to the public, which means he just announced there is going to be another delay. Naturally, the crowd feels cheated and disappointed for letting themselves get hyped up over a keychain. The whole function now starts generating negative energy, which is all being channeled into the box that contains Arumon's final keychain. Anyone who realizes the real danger here is quickly called to the stage and put on a different show for the crowd. Can you dance? Tell jokes? Put on a two-man improv show? Anything will do as long as it keeps the negativity in check! And should you fail? A large shadow creature emerges from Arumon's box... it looks like his final keychain has taken on the form of a boss battle! Once again, rely on those who have good hearts if you plan on fighting it!
     

  
  
  
  • Prompt F: Yet another unusual craze is sweeping over the city of Verens this month, spawning from a popular play that has taken Theasthai by storm. It involves blindfolding oneself and trying to accomplish everyday tasks successfully, and, as usual, people are getting carried away with the idea, creating entire events and gatherings around the phenomenon as its popularity grows and spreads. Known colloquially as “The Puzzle Box Challenge”, everyone seems to be getting in on some of the action, whether that’s participating, or attempting to stop others from getting themselves killed stupidly. After all, this has the Enforcers quite concerned! Which side of the line will you fall on?
  

  1. Password, Please: In the city park, Puzzle Box Challengers have gathered to play an unusual game. Participants are, of course, blindfolded, and are then led at random around the crowded park by event organizers to stand somewhere well away from where they entered and told a secret codeword. Once the bell sounds, participants must find the one other person in the park who has the same codeword as them. Only then can they remove their blindfolds! To make this a bit more difficult, however, participants are only allowed to whisper. Move about carefully, find your partner, and win the game!
     
  2. Anything You Can Do: Certain groups of Puzzle Box Challengers have formed rivalries with one another and are mostly concerned with one-upmanship, to the point of putting themselves in extreme danger. At their next public demonstration of superiority, one group plans to fly an airship while blindfolded, while the other group is aiming to build a barn while blindfolded. Both ideas are ill-advised, of course, and the Enforcers plan to try and stop them, and in response, both groups are recruiting new members to help them complete their task efficiently. Where will you end up? Helping one of the rival groups, or putting a stop to all this nonsense with the Enforcers?
     
  3. Senseless: Yet another extreme group of Puzzle Box Challengers have decided that blindfolds alone are not enough. The real PBC endgame is wearing a blindfold and earmuffs at the same time. Of course, most people aren’t crazy enough to try this without some incentive, so the group is offering a thousand sylvs to anyone who spends a day with both their ears and their eyes covered. And it won’t count if you just stay home, either. Get out there, go grocery shopping, trip over everything and most of all, have fun! Assuming you don’t get yourself killed, anyway.
     

  
  
  
  
  • Prompt G: Make your own! It could include a baseball cap and/or getting the wrong order at a restaurant.
  
  
  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

[ulaulakahuna]

Reciting the guidebook isn't going to make me think any higher of you, boy.

[Just one big ol' verbal shrug from the king of not taking egotists' shit. Not that he would have taken any shit if the kid wasn't, but dude, Blue, tone it down a notch. ...Or don't. Nanu will just walk away sooner in that case.]

It'd also do you good to actually listen to folks when they speak. I said we have a League now, not that it replaced our traditions. [He's now looking at Blue's Eevee as he talks. It helps to remind himself that a trainer's pokémon are alright regardless of how they act. Plus it's a nice snub technique?] Besides. We're proof that a League doesn't need Gym Leaders.

[blueser]

That’s why I’m asking about them. [Blue rolls his eyes, as if he wasn’t being snotty enough.] I’m listening just fine. And what I say has nothing to do with a handbook. It’s my own experiences as someone who’s been through the Indigo League at every level.

But, whatever. If you don’t wanna talk about them, I guess whatever benefits they have over the League format don’t matter, right?

[Typical old-timers, he thinks to himself. Always think they’re right without asking anything about a younger person’s experience...]

[Eevee, in the meantime, quirks his ears to and fro between the trainers before hopping back up onto Blue’s shoulder. Better to be at eye-level or ...closer, anyway, while the trainers are speaking. He can tell neither of them are in a good mood. Not exactly the distraction he’d been hoping for... Maybe he can appeal to some other instinct in them. He bats at Blue’s shoulder and gives a few urgent chirps.]

Huh? What do you wanna battle a geezer like this for? [Blue frowns at his partner, then scrutinizes Nanu.]

[ulaulakahuna]

[Blue's not the only one who likes being difficult.]

The League tests trainers through gyms. We test trainers through trials. [And then slowly, as if talking to a small child,] Does that make sense to you?

[Okay, so he's starting to passive-aggressively jab back a little more. But given at how deadpan he stays, it's hard to tell; either he's annoyed because of the gym leader, or he started that way. It doesn't seem to matter much in the long run. His eyes follow the Eevee as it moves about, quirking a brow when it alerts its trainer to its own mood. So far, the pokémon hasn't been worth the human visit, so anything it does catches his attention. Before Blue responds, Persian seems to agree with whatever Eevee's signalling, and that in turn clues Nanu in.]

[He turns to Persian with a deeper frown.] No.

[blueser]

Isn’t it basically just the same thing? [Blue huffs, pinch in his brow ever-increasing.] Whatever, so what kind of ‘trials’? It’s not just a battle, then? What’s the point of that?

[Eevee looks sympathetically to Persian as the dumb humans duke it out, and sighs. Well, at least Blue was distracted from his personal angst for— whatever this argument was.]

Yeah, well same to you! I don’t need to waste my time battling an old fart.

[ulaulakahuna]

Trial captains create their own tests. It ends with a pokémon battle, but battling's not the whole deal. It's as much for the kids as it is for the trainers. [He pauses with an appraising tilt of his head.] Then the head of each island gets their turn.

[Persian just huffs, like she expected this outcome. Understandably, but still; it's been a stretch since her last battle. Aaaand for the 1,060,704th time today, Nanu resists the temptation to roll his eyes. Really hard.]

Do you have enough healing supplies for both our teams after the battle? Supplies for every status condition for all ten of 'em two-times over, just in case? No native pokémon means limited power to heal them. [He's not going to mention that Steven Stone has his own berry farm for just these occasions; or that Nanu and Anabel have their own stash pooled from what was on them when they came. Or that they grow a few berries of their own. Nor does he mention how he knows Blue can only have a team of five on him. At the moment, it's more about making a point.] Don't challenge anyone until you know you can fully revive your team.

[blueser]

‘Their own tests’...? [Blue frowns, frustrated at the lack of detail. Sheesh, if only this was at home and he could just go look up the information himself. What kinds of tests could that be? Some kind of certification, like for HM use...?]

[Whatever it is, by this point in his time on the island, he’s at least figured out the battling situation, so Nanu’s taunt doesn’t rile him up like it might. He’s already had to start taking careful stock of his items, and limit his training. What a pain...] Yeah, whatever. I can take care of my own Pokémon just fine, don’t worry about me. [With the scoffing implication that he’d be doling out the hurt. Besides, Exeggutor was always happy to farm his own stock of berries.]

Save your lecture for someone that’s green, geezer.

[ulaulakahuna]

[He's a young man. Surely it doesn't need repeating for him.]

[Nanu's actually fine with that reaction—it wasn't meant as a taunt, but a warning. Blue may be a jerk, but the old man would give the same caution to any new trainer who tried to challenge him. The denial only came after his own, after all. And he can't blame the Eevee for wanting a battle, either.]

I'm not worried about you, boy. Your pokémon are a different story.

[punk!!]

Most of the trainers in the city have enough of our own stock. One owns a berry farm. My partner and I grow poké beans. Try not to go and out-ego everyone else if you're in need of supplies.

[blueser]

[Blue frowns, not liking the insinuation that his Pokémon were at risk even if he wasn’t, but— was Nanu wrong? Not that Blue would ever admit it to a stranger... Whatever criticisms he deserved, he was too proud to hear them from someone that didn’t know what they’d been through.]

[He decides to let it roll off his back, at least to his face. Besides, he’s put more off-guard by what he views as a sudden and incongruent offer of information- and aid- that follows. His brow furrows, half confusion and half stubbornness, as he tries to pick out a motivation for the help, but none come to obvious light for him.]

Someone owns a berry farm? [It comes of interest to him, not for himself, but for his Pokémon’s hobbies. Maybe Exeggutor would enjoy a place like that...] Don’t get me wrong— I’m not desperate for help, but it’s not like I’m here trying to pick a personal fight with everyone else just cuz I’m not gonna take some crap from an old geezer like you!

[ulaulakahuna]

[His motivation isn't too hard to figure out, if Blue thought about what Nanu just said. Pokémon first, especially in new-arrival situations. And snot-nosed trainer situations. But it's mostly a golden rule, and whatever other pokémon Blue has on him besides the Eevee deserve the same level of care as the rest stuck in this world.]

Yeah, I'm sure you're a real pecha to everyone else. [Dripping with sarcasm, of course.] You're real uppity, for an Oak.

[blueser]

Whaaatever. You shouldn't judge a Butterfree as a Metapod. [Blue shrugs both hands dismissively- doing his best not to be outwardly bothered by that implication- then pauses to kneel again and dig through his bag, producing a fluffy baked Poffin from a container inside.]

Here. My sis made this- it'll help your coat stay real silky. [Two can play at the pamper-Pokémon-and-ignore-the-trainer game, old man!!] She knows a lot about that kind of stuff.

[ulaulakahuna]

[Are you kidding? Nanu prefers this. He'll happily let the conversation turn into pokémon interaction, especially when he can tell someone like Blue treats pokémon well. As opposed to other people.]

[But hey, he can't really complain in that regard.]

[Persian sits up straighter, sniffing the poffin not so much for caution but to determine what flavor it might be. She takes it from his hand in one bite, relishing the delicious fluffy bun and licking her mouth when it's gone. As far as she's concerned, as long as Blue continues to treat her right, he's okay in her book.]

[Before the part, Eevee should get something too, so Nanu picks out one of the more delicious, crunchy patterned beans from his stash and offers it to the vulpine. Wordlessly, of course, though his face lightens up when he switches focus. He's just not going to let this turn into some pissing contest.]

[blueser]

[Most of Blue's Pokémon prefer Spicy flavors, but this Poffin has some milder, Dry flavors blended in with it- just enough to bring out a Pokémon's Beauty. Given Daisy's Contest history, she always knew how to bake Poffins especially for individual Pokémon... Which Pokémon was this was baked for?]

[Blue gives a little grin as Persian snaps it up, happy to let her be as greedy as she likes with it, then giving the back of her ears a little rub when she's done.] Meet your approval? Heheheh.

[Eevee meanwhile, huffing jealously, is sufficiently distracted by the proffered Pokébean, a treat he's never seen before. He gives a few careful sniffs before sinking his teeth into it, snatching it out of Nanu's hand with a leap off of Blue's shoulder to the ground so he can bite into it properly.]

How about those? [Blue pipes up, watching with his chin in his hands as Eevee trills happily at the taste and tears in.] You grow 'em? They're Alolan plants, right?

[ulaulakahuna]

[Though she likes to play picky, Persian enjoys most any flavor except sour. She hasn't had poffins in quite some time, but remembers them from their time abroad and will always happily snarf down a treat that enhances her beauty. When Blue rubs hear ears, she straightens up to her tallest and closes her eyes in contentment, giving a mild purr.]

[Nanu watches both of them with equal contentment; happy that Blue knows how to treat pokémon right, and that both of theirs are enjoying their little snack. Eevee seems delightfully thrilled by the bean, so the whole experience actually brings a hint of a grin to Nanu's face.]

[A hint.]

Poké beans. They're Alolan native, yeah. Only had a few on me when I got here, but we figured out how to grow a small plant of 'em just fine. [Eevee enjoyin that cromnch... He directs this next one to the taste-tester; ] Not bad, huh?

[blueser]

[The arching purr earns another chuckle from Blue, glancing away to watch Eevee greedily snarf down the Pokébean. So even their treats differed... Blue didn't know all that much about the Alola region, except that it was very far away and tropical, and that Samson had been there to research alternate formes of Pokémon for some time. Just what other kinds of Pokémon were there, in a place like that? Where even the vegetation and trainer culture was so different...]

[Eevee wags his bushy tail and gives Nanu a spirited cry. Blue snorts and dusts his knees off as he stands.] Tch, good luck. He's never going to leave you alone, now that he knows what he can get outta you... Well, your problem, I guess.

[Said greedy little gremlin just seems to smirk as he licks his chops up of bean crumbs.]

[Blue holds an expectant hand out as Eevee finishes his bean off, signalling for him to hop back up.] Well, pops, it's been real. I'm gonna go track down that berry field now, so I don't got time to fart around here anymore. [He holds two fingers up, shooting them off in a smugly dismissive salute.] Smell ya later, if you ever find the guts to battle!