Test Drive: April

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: APRIL —

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:

• Thread carry overs. All threads can be carried over in some way upon officially entering the game. Although the prompts are centered around the Flower Festival, threads can be tweaked to be more generic to fit the current timeline if a character comes in after the festival has passed.
  
  
• Application reminders. Reserves and Applications (Canon | OC) are always open!
  
  
• 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. (Note: this should be used under the assumption that the character has been in the game for a little while)

• 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: The Flower Festival is just around the corner, and chefs everywhere are preparing a variety of delicious dishes, desserts and snacks for the occasion! Unfortunately, a call has been made for Otherworlders to help the chefs and cooks find their ingredients, many of which have suddenly gone missing in the middle of the night. Help them, and receive some free food as a reward!

1. I didn't do it! Some ingredients may wind up in the oddest of places - bags of flour perched up on trees, sugar bowls sitting on apartment windowsills, and oh, you don't remember buying that sack of potatoes yesterday? Well, it's now in your kitchen. What do you mean you didn't do it? That's what they all say! Retrieve the ingredients and bring them to the cafes and restaurants of Verens - but beware of some overeager Enforcers (or Otherworlders) who are now eyeing you as a suspect!
   
2. Jumpin' java beans! While the food collection and retrieval operations are ongoing, a new phenomenon shakes up the city. That's right, the ingredients and the dishes finally being prepared are now jumping and running all over the place, climbing trees, sprinting up and down stairs, even barging into houses. Chase them down, but the best results are achieved if you channel your emotions of hate and anger; the food will avoid anyone who is overeager, has too much love in them, or is simply...hungry.
   
3. The cake is not a lie. Verens thanks you for gathering up the food for the Flower Festival, but there is a new problem. Several gung-ho pastry chefs have baked a huge cake - as big as a building - and placed it in the middle of the city as thanks to everyone who helped them round up the rogue food items. Your job is to help finish it, so take as much as you want! The cake magically becomes your favorite flavor the moment you take a bite, and fills you with feelings of trust. Careful, you might just trust that stranger next to you a bit too much and suddenly spill your tragic backstory to them...
   

• Prompt E: What's a festival without a little - or a lot of - music? The musicians for the Flower Festival are out practicing in full force, so don't be surprised if your shopping trip or your peaceful walk is interrupted by a set of upbeat songs. At least most of them are pretty good? The rest...uh, yeah. Never mind.

1. The soundtrack of your life. Some of those instruments, however, have minds of their own and are liable to follow people around as they go about their daily lives, pumping out some appropriate music for the occasion. You can try to shoo the instruments away, but there's no guarantee they'll stop giving your life a spiffy soundtrack.
   
2. The music of the night. It's nighttime, but some musicians are still hard at work practicing their tunes for the festival. If you ever wanted to pull an all-nighter, now is the time, because their music, no matter how loud or soft, can and will keep you awake! Suddenly you feel too energized to sleep, and the only way to combat the effects...is to go head-to-head with the musicians in a musical duel! Or just try and block out the music as best you can.
   
3. Mood music. Some music will elicit certain emotions from you when you hear it, depending on your mood. People who are feeling down will hear music that will lift their spirits, while the excitable ones will be calmed down by some gentle classical. And if there's someone you should probably fight but haven't gotten around to...prepare for some epic battle music!
   

• Prompt F: Not all the new flowers from Elios' lands with the alternating blue and red petals have been processed into perfumes, scents and purported "love potions". These flowers are now being sold in the streets and in flower shops for anyone who wants to decorate their home with some rather unorthodox blooms.

1. Love me, love me not, the sequel: Are you feeling lovestruck, or struggling with a difficult decision or two? Some city folks claim that the flowers can help you make choices. Simply pluck the alternating petals of the flowers, and if the last one is red, it means you should go for it! Whatever it is you wanted to do. After all, if the last petal you pluck is red, you get a small boost of confidence.
   
2. Petal power: With the sheer number of people plucking petals from these flowers, this means...yes, a lot of stray petals all over Verens. They're on the roads, they could blow through windows, even wind up in your food. Try not to get them in your mouth or up your nose, because the red petals may give you a short burst of assertiveness or affection, and the blue petals, a brief episode of withdrawal or shyness. At least these episodes last less than half an hour?
   
3. Flower fracas: All this longing for love, all this dithering over important decisions, and all the incessant petal plucking have one not-so-logical conclusion. Monsters made entirely out of these flowers have begun to terrorize the city, destroying anything in their path and leaving many more petals in their wake. If you can get close enough, yelling something you are absolutely, 100% sure of (like, ahem, your love for someone) into their faces should be enough to dissolve them into harmless flowers.
   

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include tickets and/or bookshelves.

Comments

[agemofchange]

Steven does chuckle at her attempt to channel some kind of Earth saying. "I know, I'm not afraid. I swear. Just, a little nervous I guess!" He speaks as he scoops some more groceries back into their bags, while assuming a more convincing smile.

He does take note of the mention of Earth, though. So she has to at least be from after she started running the colony... Slowly, the timeframe is narrowing down.

"So, about that! We're kinda really far from Earth and with no way back. ...Or to get to any other planets!" Just in case, hypothetically, someone happened to be thinking of another planet as well. "I know this sounds weird, but time doesn't pass back at home when we're here. So one day you'll be able to go back as if this didn't even happen." Voicing that does hurt a little inside. Because Pink doesn't know that this has already happened to her future self.

"This town's called Verens, and it's on a floating island called Empatheias. Oh, and I should probably give my name too! ...I'm Steven." He opts to leave his name as that for now, while he figures this out.

[practicemakesimperfect]

"Oh, that's a relief." She rolled her eyes with a sigh and a bubble of laughter, raising her hands and letting them plop back down on her lap. "That makes everything so much easier..sort of. At least you're not running! It usually takes a while for humans to even come near me when they have all kinds of amazing stories to tell!" Oh, she could go on for hours about that, which would probably help Steven narrow down how many thousands of years have passed, but as it were, conversation had moved on along, thankfully!

Fear, excitement, anxiety--all of it coursed through her like lightning and something cold settled in her chest and felt like it was starting to squeeze her. On the one hand...was that really true? Was it impossible to leave? Surely gems could devise a way to get to her. But oh, if it were true? She could just exist here and no one would have to know, no one could find her or make her leave! But then, she did already start to miss them, and she started to worry for Earth. Without her there..Without her there, and having gone missing..they could..

No.

She listened, blinking like a deer in headlights again when he mentioned time didn't pass.

"So we're..essentially in a trans-temporal pocket dimension?" That's right. She'll go home, and one day become Rose Quartz, bequeathing her gem to him without ever knowing that for a while, she got to live with whom she would one day become a part of.

"I..well. I guess the Peridots are gonna go wild about this one." She rolled her eyes and huffed with a knowing, dismissive laugh as she said such. There was SO much for her to unpack, but she didn't want to deal with all of that right now. She was so sick of the what-ifs she could shatter. Pink just wanted to be here, and not worry about it.

"Hi, Steven! I'm..!" She cut herself off, wondering if she should be honest with her introduction. But a stern pout set on her face, and with a little huff, she sat bolt upright and trucked forward. "I'm Pink Diamond!"

That look of determination was quickly replaced by a big, toothy grin of relief. It felt good to just be able to introduce herself like that, such that it never got old any time she spoke to the humans. She took her little bouquet of flower in hand, stood up to her present height of eight feet, and brushed off her bloomers.

"But you can just call me Pink! You know, these structures remind me more of homeworld than anything I've seen humans build on their own. Or any clothes they've worn.

"Gosh, this is just..so surreal! What kinds of things are there to do on Empatheias?

"Are there any animals? Does the whole island look like this? What do the other towns--can we leave the island and see what's below!?" Everything else seemed to fade away for right now, leaving behind only her excitement to explore and indulge in this moment of maybe-freedom. In the wake of her excitement, greenery started to crawl up through the cracks Steven made in the pavement. Or maybe their diamonds were just that good at coaxing plants out of the ground? Who knew.

[agemofchange]

As she sums up the type of dimension it is, he smiles and points a finger gun towards her. "That's... yeah, that would be one of putting it!" He chuckles while gathering up the last few groceries. One good thing about explaining this to gems is that they can be familiar with the terminology. Especially when she's talking to someone who had a pocket dimension in a lion's mane! if not yet.

Steven pauses as she introduces herself. The size difference that Diamonds get in this world is something to get used to, although at least he's not particularly used to seeing Pink Diamond in person. There's just another small crack or two in the ground as she introduces herself, but even so, Steven waves at her. "G-good to meet you, Pink! I'm... glad things look familiar to you!"

She really is full of curiosity, and Steven can't help but chuckle some more at her eagerness. "Okay, where do I begin?" He starts counting off on his fingers as he addresses her questions.

"There's plenty of things to do here! There are also lots of animals, some like Earth ones and also lots of fantastical ones! There are parts of the island that're different, like a lake and mountain and forests and all. And yes, leaving the island is... possible, but we gotta be careful. That's the other thing - a lot of this world is kinda ruined and can drain the life force of... pretty much anyone, no matter how powerful they are." Even a Diamond.