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:

• 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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.]

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.

Comments

[reyofsunshine]

[... Oh no.

No no no no, this is not good. She played his game. Gave him exactly what he wanted. Why did she do that??

Rey's grateful at least that she doesn't have anything like damn flowers growing at her feet to worry about giving her away—since the tiny hitch of joy at the way he's looking at her would obviously be what this stupid planet would decide to show rather than how much she'd like to throttle that expression off his dumb, irritating, nerf-herding face!

She focuses on that, sets her jaw, and squares her shoulders stubbornly before looking away from him to, uh... show that she doesn't care. Right! Let him be difficult, if he's so keen on it.]

Last I checked, there's plenty of other people here for you to annoy.

[But none of them are you. She knows what his reply will be—or something to that effect, probably—before she's finished speaking, and she refuses to give him the opportunity. She whirls around to point an accusing finger at him furiously.]

And before you say anything else, let me make something clear. You? All of... this? [She waggles her finger at him—all of him, those clothes, that face, those flowers—with a disgusted curl of her lip.] It's fake. A mask. I didn't see through it before, but now I do. You're a liar.

[lostapprentice]

[He already does have his mouth half open to make a remark to the effect she's predicted when she whirls around, and he stops and closes it with a look of mild surprise. Kylo only takes a moment to consider her words, and it just seems so easy to slide back into the dynamic they shared when their connection was first starting. It's even easier now that he hasn't had any galaxy conquering to worry about in two years.]

Is that really what you think of me?

[Even on his path as the Supreme Leader, he can't quite see himself turning to that. Perhaps he's worn masks to cover his true feelings, but he isn't wearing one now. And lying isn't what he does; it never has been.]

When have I lied to you?

[reyofsunshine]

You said I wasn't alone!

[It bursts out before Rey can stop herself, an anguished, furious scream that comes through the crystals and their bond as much as her throat.

She hadn't meant to lose her composure so quickly. She wanted to remain strong and unaffected. Cut him down with biting words and make him hurt the way she's been hurting. Maybe feel in control of her miserable life for a brief moment.

But it's too late for that now, and the long breath she puffs through her nose is shaky. There's probably sand at her feet, but Rey doesn't care enough to look. Her hand lowers back to her side, but her fists are clenched, shoulders shaking from barely contained rage and pain pent up for months of Jedi stoicism.]

You're not but lies, so many you don't even see them yourself.

[lostapprentice]

[The grief in her words would strike him even if she hadn't practically shot him with it in every way she could. The amused curiosity in his eyes fades to regret and sympathy, and he takes a slow step towards her, keeping her gaze with his own if he can.]

I'm sorry.

[He doesn't know that the words alone mean much. For now they're all he can offer her, as long as it's been, and as little as he knows.]

I don't know what I've done back there, but I know I regret it if it's hurt you.

[reyofsunshine]

[There it is. The hollow apologies, the sad eyes, all the things that fooled her the first and second and every other time. The reason for all the galaxy's suffering. Her sympathy.]

You regret??

[Rey meets his eyes without wavering, because he has given her one gift with that reply. Showing him her pain is the best way to hurt him. He's all but admitted that.]

You regret not coming with me, back on the Supremacy, when I asked you? Hunting the Resistance across the galaxy, killing without mercy? Making me shut you out to protect them? I don't feel the Force the way I could. Do you regret that too?? I can't... can't focus properly! [She takes a step towards him too, but hers comes with an unspoken (as of yet) threat.]

I've lost the one thing that made me special, and all you can say is you regret?!

[lostapprentice]

[He deserves it, he knows—but even if he felt otherwise, he would want to know Rey's feelings, to hear it straight from her. So Kylo follows her with his gaze, his voice appropriately quiet for the short distance between them.]

I do. What else would you have me say?

[He's spent too long thinking about it to come to any other conclusion: Rey will never join him as long as he's Supreme Leader of the First Order. It's a position that will only lead him—and both of them, and all the galaxy—into misery. From here, there's nothing he can do to change it. He's had a hard time coming to accept that, but he's made strides towards it, so the answer came without hesitation.]

Your power isn't the only thing that makes you special.

[reyofsunshine]

[She... honestly didn't expect him to agree. It's disarming, and for a moment she pauses with a look of angry confusion.

It'd be nice to hear if it actually changed anything. If it made any difference whatsoever to those who had already died and the hero she was failing to be.

Rey's frustration swells again, and she acts without thinking, flinging her hand out in his direction with a snarl and a powerful shove through the Force. Her focus may be an issue, but her power with emotion-driven actions has never been questionable.]

[lostapprentice]

[He sees the push coming a half second before it hits him, but he's not on edge like he used to be, and too focused on his concern for her anyway to do anything to block it. It knocks the wind (and a noise) out of him as he flies backwards.]

Hrgh—

[He's flung into a storefront, knocking over a sign and a rack of goods that crash down around him, and the spectacle is plenty to catch the attention of the few people nearby trying to go about their business. A few gasps and murmurs escape the passersby as they try to decide whether to leave with haste or wait and see what happens.

... Well. That hasn't happened in a while.]

[reyofsunshine]

[... Oh.

The loud crash and sudden attention of people is more than enough to make Rey realize with shock what she's done. She slowly lowers her hand in stunned silence.

What should she do now? Go taunt him? Finish him off? She should feel victorious, but she just has a lump of budding horror in the pit of her stomach.

Okay, then maybe she should go check on him? No, she can't. Not after what she said. She can do nothing but escape this awful encounter as quickly as possible. So that's what she does.

Rey turns abruptly and flees.]

[lostapprentice]

[Kylo regains his senses and sits up just in time to see the look on her face before she turns to run, and he abruptly tries to get to his feet when he sees her leave as fast as she can.]

Rey—

[Unfortunately, there's debris in the way of that goal, and he curses as he stumbles over a piece of wood and a slippery porcelain shard, calling out after her as she continues into the distance.]

Hey!

[He watches her retreat for a few moments, but then surveys the scene around him and reconsiders his intent to follow. There's a mess he'd be leaving behind, and his reputation is such that people are probably already blaming him for it. ... that's fine, anyway. If he has to clean up for her sake, he'll do it, and besides—the only real reason the Enforcers have been leaving him alone is that he's been compensating for any property damage. He doesn't want her to have to deal with this.

He'll just have to find her again later. Maybe then she will have calmed down and they can talk more, but he'll have a lot to consider until then.]