Test Drive: AUGUST

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: AUGUST —

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 July and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on August 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!
  
  
  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: Mystery boxes have begun to turn up not only on people’s doorsteps but also anywhere they go - at their workplaces, dropped off on their cafe tables, even falling out of trees or windows right in front of them. There is nothing special about the boxes themselves - nothing is written on them and they are made out of generic cardboard - but they may contain items such as a set of cute furry animal figurines, a ring of old tarnished keys, or a fancy but stained secondhand fedora. Others, however, have more sinister, mysterious contents, such as a black coat with a muddy hem, a blood-spattered kitchen knife or even what looks like a severed bloody finger. Ask around about who has been leaving these boxes all over the place, and you will get conflicting reports. Otherworlders lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a person suddenly in a hurry to leave the scene will learn that this person behind the mystery boxes can appear as a man, or a woman, or neither.

• Prompt E: Receiving a mystery box has its pros and cons. Some items give so much emotion and energy to a person, exaggerating everything they feel and think. It's a good thing at times, because when one is happy, they truly are HAPPY! When one feels like they're on top of the world, they may end up floating! However, there are instances in which the other person feels like they're drowning due to sadness, in which case, they may feel like they're underwater and need air to breathe. Don't worry! In times like these, all you need is a slap in the face to make you feel better! Or if that's too physically hurtful, others have discovered that crying stops the hyperbole of emotions, too.

• Prompt F: Investigations eventually lead to the founder of the cryptocurrency EmoGold who goes by the pseudonym "Sato" to be the one sending out mystery boxes to people. It seems the emotional currency has taken a dive in terms of exchange rate between EmoGold and Sylvs that he thought giving out mystery boxes to people would make them want to learn more about EmoGold and mining… sadly that didn't work and only proceeded to creep people out! "Sato" is now under custody of the Enforcers, and all the furniture in his house (strange and unique as they may be) is now up for auction! A lamp that looks like a cow and shoots light out of its eyes for 5,000 sylvs going once… going twice… SOLD!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include forks and/or snow.

Comments

[justpastdawn]

Very suddenly, Kevin is making a familiar face indeed. It's the face that Xerxes Break always used to make when he was trying not to make a face.

"...despite my best efforts, I did find myself frequently in the company of certain individuals who could not be persuaded that I was not at all in the mood for interaction, yes," he drawls after a moment. He is not going to call them "friends" in this moment because if he did it would mean they have won, but at the very least, no. Kevin did not consider himself alone, at that time. "My wound was...well, I had the good fortune to fall on a little red witch upon my arrival. She was able to heal it over with her magic, and later, conjured up my blade for me. I haven't seen her since. Given a circumstance like that, the whole thing is rather like a fairy tale, honestly."

But he's logging the similarities away even as he says it. It's not a surprise at all that his food cache habit holds true in both realms -- going homeless is traumatizing in very specific ways, and although he's been settled for several years now, it's not entirely out of laziness that Kevin has cookie tins and candy bowls scattered in various obvious places around his house. That he hid when he could checks out; that he was too aware of his manners to be overtly rude to a noblewoman who held his life in her hands despite his pains does too. The process of coming in out of the cold was a long and slow one, and it's food for thought to start to get a glimpse of how much of his recovery was due to persistent people who just wouldn't let him be, even if they were gentle about it. Mostly.

[smallkindnesses]

Oh, she knows that face, and she knows just what it means. She can't resist laughing, especially after his evasive answer. Too late, Kevin--they win whether you admit it or not. It's clear in the fact that he's sitting here, all covered in purple instead of black. It's clear in the merry way he'd popped right into the middle of the room, nattering delightedly about apples, instead of being off in some corner hissing at anyone who got too close. Here as in her world, he had been loved despite his best efforts, and this fills her with such joy that the customers around her will find their tea suddenly sweeter than it had been, a moment before.

She locks eyes with him, the sort of knowing, loving and triumphant gaze all mothers seem to be equipped with, that says you don't fool me a BIT, young man!

"So," she says, raising a rosegold eyebrows, "you had friends."

She'll take no shit from you, Mr. Regnard! You'd better get used to it.

"Tell me all about them. Tell me about your favorite ones!"

This, more than anything, is what she'd meant about what had changed things. What and who had lifted him up from the man he'd arrived here as--a man she remembered all too well-- and made him into the man he is? The man she doesn't quite know. You can tell a great deal about people from the friends they keep, even if they like to pretend the don't have any.

[justpastdawn]

"Feh."

Shelly doesn't have to take the shit but Kevin's gonna give her shit anyway. When she meets Shiro, she will understand Kevin's immediate knee-jerk reaction in this regard. Kevin loves him dearly but he is disgusting.

...but he does tell her. He starts off with Lady Kaihime, an eighteen-year-old general who wielded a fantastic sword that would unhinge itself and go flailing about like a whip. When they sparred she uprooted a whole tree with it and of course it's no surprise that this one would manage to win his favor...despite the fact that she was incredibly noisy, and may or may not have once tracked him down by asking directions from a bear, he's still not clear on that actually. And, she was the first person in Verens who managed to make him laugh -- by way of barging onto the amulet network to recite to all and sundry a poem she had written, about how love was like rotting food. She hated to be so unladylike and yet never seemed able to stop herself and honestly it was high entertainment.

There was Miss Sanae, a literal and proper goddess, who made him a miraculous never-ending milkshake once after he won her spicy food challenge. He still has some of that milkshake with breakfast most days. Although she was very dear to him, he says, they quarreled often in those early days, neither one understanding the other very well. Mm, but -- it was Miss Sanae who said to him once that even if he couldn't have any hope for himself, that didn't mean he couldn't inspire it in others, during a time when everyone was in danger and he was certain he would fall. Knowing what this world is like, he's lived by those words since, something Shelly will see immediately in the way everyone else speaks about Kevin. He's a menace, to be sure, but he's always spoiling all of his loved ones, always insistently throwing parties during times of trouble. Sometimes he even makes a speech, he's that far gone into his self-imposed position as a fussy positivity generator. That's the fault of a lot of people, really, but Sanae was the first person who ever spoke to him as though she believed he could really be what he's become. A few glimmers of silvery light wisp up from him when he talks about her, the love he wasn't at all equipped to handle, and who couldn't have handled him.

Miss Edea was one of Kevin's Rainsworths here in Verens. He doesn't say as much explicitly because he has no idea that's the case, but it will be evident to Shelly almost immediately. She was and still is his favorite boss, he says, just as much of a cake and sweets fiend as he is and insistently unrepentant about her snarky sense of humor and her passionate interest in other people's love affairs. But also -- ruthless in the way she valued every member of her team. Kevin had joined the Enforcers thinking he'd be little more than a hired sword, punching where he was pointed. Actually, he was scolded by his other boss almost immediately for deciding an order he was given was stupid and thus ignoring it. But Edea made it a point to actively chase him down and wheedle his thoughts out of him at the end of every meeting. It was she who gave him the confidence to speak up when he feels a need, and the fact that he's a captain himself in the force now is something he attributes directly to her encouragement and trust. Princess Celestia was another Rainsworth, calm and serene in the face of every single quibble he threw at her, always welcoming him when he popped into her magic shop for a visit and always willing to let him take shelter under a wing if he was feeling poorly.

Celestia was a magic talking pony with a unicorn horn and great big wings, you see. In her own world, it was her job to make the sun come up.

Of course there are scads more; he's had five years to stick his nose in other people's business, after all. Bulat, his husband, who came up out of the canal steaming angrily one winter's day. Kevin immediately called him over so he could heat up his lunch on him. Shiro, his official best friend, who travels with his companions in great ships that fly through space. Keith, his beloved apprentice, who reminded Kevin so much of himself when he first met him -- a scruffy, angry young thing and a prodigy with a sword, who Kevin loved like a brother while he was here. Over the course of three years, Kevin watched him grow up into a beautiful brat of a swordsman and a leader so sturdy that Kevin sometimes obeyed his casual day to day orders entirely on instinct, and his colors flicker terribly when he speaks of how he's off having grand adventures in his own world now that they've won that stupid war. The loss of Keith in particular is still something raw and painful for him and he has yet to find anything to fill that shitty brother-shaped hole. Oh, but there are others still. Gabriel, his recently acquired father, working back in the kitchen now with his extra shadow limbs. Eleanor, who mothers the lot of them, but especially Hibiki; Kevin is eternally grateful for this. Kylo Ren, who we hate because he will not let Kevin play with his light saber, among other things.

They will need a whole pot of tea to get through this conversation. And, when the time finally comes to head home, probably they will need to be pried from the table.