memepatheias | Test Drive: May

Entry tags:

*test drive

Test Drive: May

— TEST DRIVE: MAY —

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 24th of April and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on May 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.
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!
For any concerns or questions, head over to this top level.

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: Perhaps one may have heard that Verens used to be a floating island, and it was! When the island then ended up on the surface, creatures which explorers have called "Dinosaurs" (quotation marks included) were discovered inhabiting the plains and the mountains in a far off area. It's time to go back to the jurassic world for a very important mission: gather as many Amaranthus Rubus, red pearl-shaped fruits that heal any and all wounds on one's skin. The hospital needs it! As such, one needs to prepare.

Explorers do not wish to harm the "Dinosaurs", as they are afraid the "Dinosaurs" would go extinct should any danger be placed unto them. This means that one's option when encountering volatile and aggressive "Dinosaurs" is to run away. A fun run is now being held in Verens a few days prior to the trip to the "Dinosaur" plains, where 50 sylvs and a t-shirt that says "I successfully ran away from a 'Dinosaur'!". The colour of the shirt is random, though, but there are as many as the colours of the rainbow. Maybe trade with somebody else who's finished the run if you don't like yellow so much.

• PROMPT E: Once the preparations have been made, it's time to set forth into the land of the “Dinosaurs”. As you enter their domain, it may be difficult to resist the temptation to interact with these rare and unusual creatures, and some of the “dinosaurs” are indeed tranquil and herbivorous. Go ahead and feed the long-necks leafy branches and if you're feeling daring, climb up on their backs for a ride! However, many of the “dinosaurs” are quite a bit more dangerous, and they are very territorial. If you cross paths with the a pack of raptors, prepare to run, fight, or distract. All explorers have been supplied with strips of alluring jerky to placate the beasts. Who knows, you might even make a friend! Be careful not to lose and hand, though.

The Amaranthus Rubus is thickest near the home of the most terrifying “dinosaur” of all, the "Tyrannosaur", and if you are daring enough to approach the lair of this creature to reap the fruits, you may not even have the chance to run away before the creature corners you, roars, and...wiggles his sad, little arms. It seems poor old "Tyrannosaur" just wants some kind of tool to extend his reach! Help him out and he will let you go. Or refuse, and he'll eat you. Sounds reasonable, right?

• PROMPT F: It seems like the land of the "Dinosaurs" isn't so bad after all! Perhaps "Dinosaurs" and man can co-exist, but for that to happen, much research will have to be made regarding a "Dinosaur"'s way of life. Now aboard the ship to head back to the city, researchers are talking about another excursion in the future that's solely for researching on "Dinosaurs" - various species, what they eat, their excrement, and the like.

The trip back to Verens is a little long. Perhaps you're just resting in one of the rooms when there's an explosive sound that can be heard. Oh no! It looks like the engine's running out of steam! Luckily, there's a steam generator in the ship, but steam can only be made through cooperation, anger, and sadness. The entire ship needs your help to get back to the city safely, and if you have to hold someone's hand, slap them, and yell at them to get them to manifest their emotions tangibly, then do so!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include swords and/or stones.

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Got it. On my way.

[Good enough. Aloy can see them, above the trees. She heads that direction, triggering her Focus as she does so to keep track of distance and direction.

Tall trees are a little harder to see from the ground, when surrounded by them, so she hefts herself up into the canopy for a bit to get her bearings before continuing on, but she arrives soon enough. As she enters the shade of the tree, she reaches up to turn off the Focus--she's found it hasn't been too reliable in scanning other people here, so she doesn't bother trying anymore.]

You're the one that called?

[He’s ever patient, though he doesn’t have to wait long. When he notices Aloy approaching, his manner is skewed into something quietly polite. A hand once more adjusts the bag slung over his shoulder, not currently weighted down with fruit — but above their heads there’s a veritable swath of the stuff hanging from this tree. They sway in the breeze and catch the light against round forms, practically begging to be picked.]

I am. Thanks for lending a hand. [He draws her attention upwards with his own gaze, to denote both the fruit and the intermittent stretch of branches that would act as their path up. From ground level, it’s something of a tricky start to plot the right route, but if they can get some momentum going, the rest shouldn’t be as difficult.]

That branch there. [Out of reach for one person alone; for Markus, at least. He points to it.] If you can boost me up so I can grab it, then it’ll be easy enough to continue the climb up. As long as we watch our footing.

[It’s turned into “we” now, because why not? He can’t pick all of this by himself.]

[For Aloy, the tree looks relatively simple to climb. Probably will involve some awkward twisting and jumping. But she supposes not everyone had been climbing mountains without anything but their bare hands since they were 10.]

Yeah, alright.

[She positions herself under the branch, fingers linked to provide a foothold. Not the first time she's done this.]

[Aloy is probably a distinctly better climber than Markus, that’s true, based on pure experience alone. The android does possess the advantage of a precisely planned upward path once he does ascend into the branches, but they have to get to that point first.

No hesitation, then, in his short jolt forward to put some momentum behind his effort. Utilizing her makeshift foothold, up and over he goes, gaining enough height to grab onto the preferred branch with a tight grip. (It shakes under his weight, but holds steadfast.)

He's balanced on it a second later, impressive in his own fixedness, and couches down just enough to offer her an extended hand.]

Your turn.

[She grunts and staggers a little under his weight--he's heavier than he looks, for someone not wearing armor.

She shakes her hands out and jumps to grab his offered one, then springs lightly to another branch so the particular one he's on isn't strained under their combined weight.]

Thanks.

[She offers him a little smile and nod, then looks around for the best way up further--after a moment of evaluation she jumps another couple of limbs up, easy as climbing stairs.]

[He nods after her, appreciative of her instinct to move quickly to another branch as to not overburden the one he’s on. Markus doesn’t say anything at first, allowing her to head start to clamber up the tree — and in this pause in-between, he watches her swift and easy ascent up, up, up. How instinctual it seems to be, how very close it adheres to his pre-constructed trail he had calculated in his own programming, minutes before this moment.

Once she’s a fair few branches away from him, nearing a height close to where those fruit sway, Markus follows. There’s an ease to his own efforts, a focus that comes from knowing exactly which branch he wants to hop or grab or balance onto next, though his movements are oddly purposeful, surreally precise. Even the shudder of branches under his weight seem more minimal than they should be.

Even so, he volleys an implied question to her as he moves.]

You must do this a lot.

[Climb, he means.]

[Aloy jumps to a branch that's just out of easy stretching distance--almost out of easy jumping distance, but she catches it and hauls herself up.]

You're right, I do.

[She glances back, with a little lopsided smile.]

Mountains are harder.

[She balances on the branch, crouching and swinging her bag back around to the front, so it's easier to pick the fruit off the branch and drop it in.]

You're not bad at this either.

[Markus ends up settling into a stand on a branch, near the trunk of the tree. From this spot, somewhat near Aloy, he can balance himself with one hand wrapped against a steadying, neighboring branch, while the other plucks fruit and places them in the open bag still slung across his shoulder.]

I wouldn't know about mountains. Not exactly many of those in my city.

[Not many mountains to climb in Detroit. Not many trees like this, either. Plenty of skyscrapers, though, dizzyingly high.]

I had a minute or two to think about how I wanted to get up here, while I was waiting for you. I'm not much afraid of heights, either, and I think that's half the battle alone.

And not a lot of cities in my mountains.

[Well. Not anymore at least. Shattered ruins of the communities of the Old Ones, sure. Nora settlements, yes. But none of them come close to how big Meridian is, and she's realized by now that Meridian isn't very large either.]

You're right, it is. And you learn to see the best branches. That one up there looks solid, but is weakening. If I went on it, I'd probably be fine if I stayed close to the trunk. It'd probably fall out from under you.

You even learn how to fall out of a tree safely eventually.

[There’s a faint rustling of his bag as it very slowly begins to fill with fruit. Markus reaches over to snap one off its stem a bit farther away, causing leaves to shiver.]

You’re right.

[About the branch that would break under his own weight. His programming, subroutines for real-time pre-construction had informed him of that much on the way up — though he found, blessedly, that he didn’t have to climb upwards quite that far.]

Though let’s try to avoid any falling this time around. [He offers with an uptick of his mouth, a small application of humor.] So what had you climbing trees so often?

That's fine with me.

[Falling is overrated. Even if she knows how to do it without breaking her neck.

She works on filling her bag up as she thinks about how to answer that question. It's an easy answer for her, but she knows the context.]

I was training to survive in the wilderness, and to be a Brave, a hunter. They keep dangerous people and machines out of Nora territory.

[Used to be "all people", and she has no idea how fraught the concept of "dangerous machines" is, considering the current company.]

[Considering the current company, indeed. It's wording that stills his hand, just for a fraction of a second while he's tossing another fruit in his bag. But Markus, only weeks into his new life in this world, does not make a habit of announcing his synthetic heritage to all those around him. While it is nothing to hide — and certainly nothing to feel shameful about, oh no, not for this stalwart revolutionary-type — it’s inherently difficult to know where people stand when it comes to the concept of artificial intelligence. Different walks of life, different experiences, different worlds possessing a whole array of changing variables.

He adjusts the strap of his bag again, glancing over at her with blue-and-green eyes.]

Dangerous people and machines. The two working in tandem with each other, or you mean they’re separate entities?

[She doesn't mean it, honest.

She doesn't pay any mind to the break in rhythm--they're in a tree, it's probably to be expected as he regains his balance and reaches out. Not really worth noting.]

Well, they were in tandem for a while. A machine pretending to be a god, letting people control other machines. It's a long story, and explaining it to people where I'm from doesn't always work so well. They listen, but I can't really make them understand.

[She looks down at him as she swings up to another branch and edges out along it--she'd seen images of people from before, and he looked like he might be from a place or time that was similar to their past. Would he know? Could he begin to fill in those gaps? She feels like she needs to know so much more than she does, and it's frustrating.]

It doesn't help that I know the words that they used for these things in the past, but I don't know what they mean.

[Oops, does she sound mad about it, she's kind of mad about it. She hates it when she doesn't know something.]

[The way she explains it sounds exactly like that -- an explanation. There isn't any ill-will that he can garner from her, despite the words of "a machine pretending to be a god", which settles in his processing with a small amount of discomfort for his own personal reasons.

Even so, with the fruit placed neatly in his bag, he pauses from his task of collecting more to look at her questioningly, an arm leaning against a large branch to keep balance, same as before.]

What kind of words? [He can swing back around to this untold story -- these strange circumstances of her home -- in a bit. For now:] I'm familiar with technology. [SO TO SPEAK.] Maybe I can help.

[Well, she does mean it very literally.

She smiles brightly, looking...excited. So it's pretty obvious that she wants to learn. Maybe if she does, she can fix what's wrong.]

There's...a lot. Like I said, I know more than a lot of people where I'm from, but only because I'm not afraid to go into the ruins, and I have this...

[She gestures to the Focus on her temple.]

...that can help me. But I need to learn how to do...so much, if I'm going to try to fix GAIA.

[He's not sure he expected the glimmer of excitement, and Markus makes the decision to heft himself up to a higher branch so that they can have this conversation at an eye-level. He does so, branches shaking gently in protest.]

What is that? [He means the Focus on her temple, a mimicking her gesture to indicate at it. It's tech that looks dissonant from the rest of her, and definitely from how she's describing her own world. Markus could quietly scan it himself, just to satiate his curiosity, but he decides to wait for an explanation at first.]

[She shifts over a bit, but they both seem to be in a good position. She's not worried about the tree breaking under them.]

It's called a Focus. It was used by people in the past for...sending messages, interacting with holographic displays. Things like that. There's a limited number of them left, only the ones that are in the ruins...no one knows how to make them now.

[Sylens knows how to repair them, but he's gone off to do who knows what, and it's not like Aloy wants him on speed dial anyway.]

CYAN explained it all to me the best she could, but...she said that she was made for a very specific reason, so she doesn't know everything.

[Markus eyes the Focus curiously, brow still at a slant.]

It doesn't sound like anything particularly out of the ordinary for me.

[That's something of an understatement, given that he's an android. But Markus means it by way of referencing his home more than his person; Detroit of 2038 long possessed a way of sending digital "messages", and holographic heads-up displays were certainly nothing new, either.

Still, she continues to speak as if this all lay in the past for her, which presents its own sort of question.]

What happened to these people in the past?

It didn't used to be for us either.

[She drums her fingers against her thigh, thinking of how she wants to explain it all. The sheer magnitude had been a lot to wrap her head around, and she's a thousand years or so divorced from what happened.

But for him, this technology was familiar. Maybe not exactly like this, but similar enough. She stills speaks slowly.]

Almost a thousand years ago, a company made machines to be used for war. They could make more of themselves, take control of other machines, and...power themselves by consuming biomass.

[She shakes herself a little, remembering seeing it happen at Meridian.]

They weren't supposed to do it all the time. But the people that made them lost control of one swarm. Couldn't get it back. The problem spread, took control of all of them, and they ate everything alive in the world.

[That sounds…

Well, it sounds like a nightmare.

Especially to Markus, with a tale that begins with making machines to be used in war. It makes the curve of his mouth officially slant down into a frown, disapproving for more than just one reason.]

I’m sorry to hear that happened to your world.

[That is a sincere statement from the android, despite all that he’s hearing.]

But these machines, were they sentient? [It’s difficult to judge if this story is being told by only one side — harder still, probably, since it seems like Aloy is only relaying what she’s learned.]

[She shrugs.]

It was a long time ago. And not really my world either, nothing was left in the end but ruins.

[Judging from the wistful tone in her voice it bothers her more than her flippant phrasing implies. Thinking of everything that was lost...it's staggering.]

No. The Old Ones had rules against that...it didn't stop them all the time, but these...they were more like a hive of ants. Organized under whatever was their queen, following their orders.

[Markus is an observant android, a consequence of housing both empathy and carefully-applied charisma, and it's impossible to miss that mote of wistfulness. He can view it as a tragic loss, after all, and he doesn't even hail from her own world.

Her response about a hive mind and a queen, however, isn't much comfort; though he's not certain what kind of answer would've constituted one. Maybe in a situation like this, a war with and against machines that still exist in a thrall of sleep, running on old commands and subroutines, there's not a "good" answer to any of it.]

'Rules'. [Rules based upon fear of change, fear of what might actually be created; it seems like it still did little good for her world.] But the queen herself was only working on what had been pre-programmed into her, nothing more?

[Well, it wasn't an artificial intelligence run amok that destroyed everything in the end, it was human hubris--one short-sighted man thinking he knew best.]

As far as I know. That was just a little before my time.

[She tilts her head at him, curious and just blunt enough to voice it.]

You seem really concerned about that. Any reason why?

[He considers her for a moment longer, just a hair short of actual hesitation. But Markus isn't the sort to steep himself in trepidation, wanting to exude pride rather than shame in what he is. Even in the midst of strangers, or a woman whose experience with AI is difficult to pin down, and probably not all that flattering.

And so, finally-]

Because I'm an android, if that word means anything to you.

[She tilts her head at him, but doesn't seem to be aggressive at all. Just curious.]

Not really. I can guess, though...you're a machine? An artificial intelligence? Or is that rude to call you, CYAN never minded it...

[See, we can get along, it's fine.]

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saviorexe - 2019-05-08 15:09 (UTC) - Expand

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