memepatheias | Test Drive: January

— 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:

Pre-Intro Log. For the Test Drive, we are using parts of it as a "pre- intro log," which means not only can players go ahead and use the prompts as if the character is arriving into the game for the first time, but this setting will be adapted and continue in the official Intro Log. For TDM purposes the prompts are a little more generic and vague than what will be on the actual Intro Log, but they're relatable enough that can be easily transferred to the official log with a few minor tweaks. For those who do end up applying and entering into Emp, these threads are considered "forward dated" to the Intro Log.
Date reminders. Reserves open December 25th and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on January 1st. Apps will only be open for four days! Because we're on a bi-monthly schedule, the next app cycle after this is MARCH.
Emotions are key! Empatheias's 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. 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 to collect their emotions and serves as the network device. Remember, communication is telepathic, but it works basically the same as most other network devices.
First or third person allowed. Your threads can be in either first or third, but we'd advise being flexible about it. If you have a preference, be sure to specify. 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.
For your threads, put the Character Name and the Canon in the subject line to help readily identify them. You're 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!

PROMPTS

• Prompt A: How about giving the emotions a try? Is your character feeling particularly wound up upon finding themselves in a new place? Or perhaps they're finally getting to live out the fantasy dream and are overjoyed! Or they just stubbed their toe and are in a lot of pain. Whatever it may be, this prompt is your catchall "let's try these emotion effects out" for any miscellaneous situation you may think up.

• 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: It's winter in Verens, and the festivities are alive with some new gimmicks. As always, emotions come into play, so be careful where they take you! Try not to destroy the city.

Beware the Snowmen: Do you wanna build a snowman? All snowmen are affected by the emotions around them, and it doesn't take too much to make them come alive. They have imbibed different emotions around them, so you'll find lovey-dovey snowmen who have no respect for personal space, snowmen jumping up and down with joy, sad melting snowmen, and irate snowmen trying to lob their coal and carrots at you. A few snowmen have managed to get hold of murderous tendencies and will now try to kill you when you pass by. Good luck? It's kill or be killed.
Bittersweet Chocolate: For those looking for a way to warm up, many cafes have begun to offer hot chocolate which is said to be the best in all of Verens. It tastes delicious, with the right amount of sweetness...except to those who hide their true attitude or personality behind a facade. To people who aren't true to themselves, the hot chocolate will taste terrible depending on how much they conceal, not feel. It'll also burn their tongues pretty quickly no matter how long the chocolate has been sitting around.

• Prompt E: Candles of Remembrance for Selenium, a holiday for mourning and grief, are always going through different changes for each year and the prototypes are distributed to see if it works. Normally, when lit, the candles create an image of a person sorely missed, whether they are dead or still alive. But something went wrong with the candle-making process this time. Various scents and aromas were infused into the candles to help improve moods, but the complete opposite is happening.

Well, This Stinks: No images are produced from the smoke and flames, but instead, they exude horrible and disgusting smells from memory. They can range from recent events like burned cookies from last week, or the stench of a bloody battlefield from years past. The scent of the candle depends on the character lighting it, so everyone will be able to smell whatever they smell from it. It's very strong, so it's possible someone could actually feel nauseous either immediately or from prolonged exposure. But that's not all. The aroma will elicit varying feelings of regret, disgust, hatred, rage, and overdramatic despair.
Counter Whiff: On the other end, a different kind of aromatic candle is producing far more pleasing scents, but it's way too strong. It's like getting a bottle of strong, "mature" perfume shoved up one's nose. The scents from these candles have even stranger effects, such as actually knocking someone unconscious; soothing them to sleep right on the spot; or even have strange hallucinations believing that the person in front of them is the one from their memories. The candles also make those affected strangely happy with extreme exuberance, and the emotion effects from their displays of joy are just as extravagant.
Take a Walk on the Wild Side: Both candles have a troublesome side effect: their scents attract a variety of wildlife from the woods. Deer, skunks, chipmunks, foxes, all sorts of birds, you name it, they've begun to invade the city and zero in on those lighted candles, lingering around them or worse, actually taking the lit candles, which can (and will) potentially start fires. The fires can be put out normally, but strangely enough, after they go out, it is as if the affected structures and items were never burned in the first place. Now they just reek of candle scent. Attempts can be made to remove the scent, but it'll take either a lot of scrubbing or somehow creating emotions that produce a more pleasant scent.

• Prompt F: Boreas, or winter, is in the air and this month the city suffered from a number of wintery effects, partially due to the Arehtei Peromei. Some like the blizzard and mistletoe could be considered typical holiday fare. The werewolf flu sweeping the city, not so much, but that still hasn't stopped the citizens of Verens from celebrating the holiday season. [Note: Scenarios pulled from our current event, and the full details can be read here. Due to the timing, these threads cannot be carried over into the game.]

Hibernation: A despair filled blizzard has taken the town by storm, bringing a strong urge to hibernate with it. Characters with strong negative emotions will be hit the hardest, but most everyone will feel the urge to take a nap right then and there at some point. There are ways to ward off the emotionally induced drowsiness though as roving bands of carolers seek to keep people's eyes open and spirits light. In addition a number of hope infused lanterns have been strung throughout the city to guide travelers to safety and keep them from dozing off in a nearby snowbank.
Mistletoe:t's not just the snow either, the town is also plagued by a particularly invasive species of mistletoe brought to the island by Peromei. To citizens' dismay, it isn't ordinary mistletoe or even ordinary magic mistletoe. No, instead this awful plant that lurks in corners and on ceilings is influenced by a combination of Peromei's and Elios's influences to make it aggressive and mobile. It now prefers to slither around and attach itself to moving targets. Once attached to someone, it induces a terrible longing for the sort of love and affection one secretly hopes for the most -- anything from a simple hug to a mom to fuss over you to a new friend you can always have lunch with -- and it won't let go until its victim has found someone who can fulfill that longing.
Wereflu: In addition to the mistletoe and blizzard, there's also the aforementioned werewolf flu sweeping the city. Thanks to a foolish researcher, the infected are suffering partial or in some cases full transformations into wolflike creatures. The main cure for it is positive attention as like the mistletoe, the afflicted will be driven to seek it out and the more they get, the sooner they'll be back to normal. If left unchecked, it can lead to more feral aggressive behavior, so Otherworlders and natives alike have been warned to be cautious when attempting to help those affected.

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include paper snowflakes and/or cinnamon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

D-1 | Attack of the Killer Snowmen

[ You'd think showing up in the same place for the third time, one would become accustomed to the weirdness of this place. But, no. No, Glitch was not because there are now tiny little snow men trying to jump on him and stab him with icicles.

Currently he's up a tree, trying to kick the snow men from climbing up towards him, an occasional lightning blast being thrown down. With the canopy barren of leaves due to the winter cold it's not hard to spot the flailing boy. ]

God dammnit, can't anything be normal in this stupid place?! [ He has to look about and all he can do is yell; ]

Hey! Is there anyone around!? Need some freaking help here!

E-1 | That stinks

[ He immediately regrets lighting this candle. He has to plug his nose at the awful stench that seeps off from it. It reminds him of the life in the domes on the assembly lines. Not just the working machines but those days when other kids' hands had gotten stuck in the machines or some gruesome accident. Blood and death usually soaked the air on those bad days.

He has to take a step back from the candle and raise a sleeve to his nose, to try and cut off the smell. His face contorts in disgust as he looks to it.]

Whoever thought these candles were a good idea clearly had their damned had cracked.

C | Network
[ Well, no time like the present he supposes. It doesn't take long to get in tune with the amulet again, to focus on it and send his thoughts out. ]

So, Glitch again. Did you all manage to blow yourselves up while I was gone or have things just been normal? Well, as normal as things get around this stupid place.

[ ooc: feel free to PM or contact me on plurk

christhehost if you want a custom pompt. ]

Edited 2019-12-29 23:44 (UTC)

[Ah. Another familiar voice.]

[Qui-Gon can't help the smile that crosses his face when he responds. Dare he say it, but he misses having some sort of bratty teenager presence around. It makes him feel like he has a Padawan again, sometimes.]

Relatively normal, as far as Empatheias is concerned.

Welcome back, again, Glitch.

[ When he feels that warm, gentle presence enter his mind he can't help but freeze a little. Not that he actually dislikes Qui-Gon in any way. The man had been pretty helpful the last few times he was here.

He's just not exactly use to warm and fuzzy so he doesn't really know how to react other than awkward. So, Qui-Gon is definitely going to feel that bit of hesitation on Glitch's end to respond before finally; ]

Uh, yeah...hi. It's nice to be back. I guess.

[ Because really, that's kind of how it felt right now. Coming to this place always had a strange dual fold nature for him. ]

[It's okay, Glitch. The awkward doesn't faze Qui-Gon one bit, and it rolls off him like water off a duck's back.]

[He waits patiently for Glitch to respond, and is kind when he answers in turn.]

Do you need a hand?

[ Being asked if he needed a hand gets a pause from Glitch. His usual response might be to refuse. But, he's currently outside in the winter in what he wore when he was at home; which isn't meant for cold weather. ]

I need warm clothes.

That won't be a problem.

I still have some of Ezra's. Where are you? I'll bring them to you.

[ He thinks to ask if the "big nosed" kid would mind if Qui-Gon was handing out their clothes to people. But, he thinks better of it. There's that implication there that Ezra might not be here to even argue it. ]

I'm in the town square. Just sitting on a bench.

[Glitch's instincts are correct, and it's still a source of pain for the old Jedi. It sucks to lose people!!! Who knew!!!!]

If you can, warm yourself up in a shop while you wait for me. I'll pay for anything you happen to eat or drink once I arrive.

Test Drive: January

Glitch | Original

C

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