memepatheias | TEST DRIVE: April

Entry tags:

*test drive

TEST DRIVE: April

— 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:

Date reminders. Reserves open March 25th and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on April 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. These threads do not count toward AC.

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: The Verens Emergency Response Teams are running drills to make sure that the Verens populace, natives and Otherworlders alike, are prepared for any and all emergencies. This means large scale obstruction of public areas, traffic delays, businesses closing their doors temporarily in the name of professional cooperation... and, best of all, Otherworlder participation!

Alpha Lava: If you asked Team Alpha, they would say they drew the short straw. They are in charge of the volcanic eruption preparedness drill! This includes cordoning off sections of the merchant’s square and residential district to conduct the following tasks: evacuation drills, where random houses are the "willing participant" of loudspeaker announcements telling them they have thirty seconds to escape their homes before they die; dunamis training exercises, to determine who would be most able to hold back or freeze incoming pools of lava; and, most helpful, the role of victim mannequin. Posing still as a statue for several minutes at a time to simulate being encrusted by molten lava is a thankless job, but someone has to do it.
Epsilon Epidemic: Team Epsilon's emergency preparedness drill is outbreak of a deadly disease! For this simulation, they will be rounding up helpful Otherworlder volunteers and distributing signs for them to wear around their necks. Following that, instructions are varied. Perhaps some people end up in quarantine, informed that Team Epsilon will shoot to kill anyone who escaped. Perhaps some people are under strict instruction to act out their sign to the best of their ability, and will be penalised if they don't! (What's the penalty? It's quarantine, or no gift bag, or both.) Perhaps they are simply dead and have to lie in the street all day. Yes, that's very boring. No, they don't have a choice. At the end of the simulation, all participants are given a gift bag filled with handmade cookies (courtesy of Team Epsilon's very own multi-talented Agent N) and gift certificate for a spa day for two. Most importantly: have fun!
Gamma Grandstanding: Team Gamma ended up with the newest preparation drill. Its official title is "People With Indeterminate Motives" (PWIM for short) to keep from throwing a wrench in the Briarlan trade deal and offending sensibilities, but make no mistake: it is about knowing exactly what to do if pirates invade Verens and conduct a hostile takeover. Some Otherworlders will be placed specifically in local business - restaurants, independently owned shops, even the zoo - and trained how to protect them from PWIM. Some businesses will be targeted; others will be ignored entirely (hope you brought a deck of cards!). Other Otherworlders will be asked to play the pirates - sorry, PWIM - themselves, complete with lame costumes (eyepatches, fancy hats, fake parrots to sit on a shoulder, itchy peglegs) for the sake of immersion. Arr! Aye, avast!

• Prompt E: Despite the rain and everybody coming down with colds during the month, everyone in Verens is still doing their best to get ready for next month's Flower Festival. And Otherworlders are definitely expected to help with prep work. After all, it's everyone's festival, so everyone should help make it the best it can be! So here's a few ways to help!

Sign Me Up: The Festival needs signs! Lots of signs. And lots of signs need lots of painters! Or one incredibly overworked painter, but in this case, they've decided to go the teamwork route, pairing up Otherworlders and having them make signs advertising various games at the festival! Sounds easy, right? But with emotion based paints in play, be careful. Too much negativity between partners and the wording will change, the paint could run, go too far in the other directions and the signs will be practically glowing, but possibly lead to claims of false advertising!
Special Delivery Flower Festivals need lots of flowers, and people to transport those flowers! And thanks to handy tech exchange with Briarlan, this year there's some fancy containment units for transporting them. They're really just crates with some fancy looking meters attached, meant to open up when they reach the festival grounds. Unfortunately, these new inventions probably could've used some additional testing and are prone to opening randomly sending flowers all over the place! Try and collect as many as possible and bring them back to the grounds, the festival organizers would appreciate it.
Flower Round Up! Or maybe painting signs and boxing flowers aren't your thing, so how about...corralling them? With all the good vibes in the air, it seems some of the flower arrangements have literally pulled up roots and are running around the festival. And you can't have a flower festival without flowers, so do your best to try and get them back where they belong before they run off to start some sort of flower civilization in the woods*.

*They probably will not form a flower civilization in the woods, but you never know.

• Prompt F: With Verens trading with more and more cities out there, some shopkeepers have gotten an idea to try and increase sales by encouraging both citizens and Otherworlders to shop local by promoting a tour of various business in the merchant district! Though the crystal has been a little negative, they're still hoping the tour goes off without a hitch! After all, it's too late to postpone it.

On the Clock: The first stop is Click, Clack, Clock, a clock shop that offers delivery to anywhere on the island! Unfortunately, due to the poor weather, all of the delivery staff are out with colds, so they're looking for volunteers! And yes, you're on this walking tour, but don't be surprised if you're handed a bicycle and a clock and sent on your way to deliver a clock. Hopefully they remembered to tell you where to go before shoving you out the door.
Shine On: Assuming you haven't been conscripted into the clock store's delivery force, the next stop is at Verens' very own Restoration Works, an establishment for restoring old antiques and making them look good as new. They've set up an interactive demo for everybody, so partner up and practice using your emotions to bring some shine back to some dull scraps of metal! Sorry guys, they're not going to let you work on anything really valuable during the tour, but if you show some promise, maybe they’ll hire you on in the future!
Polg-Oh No: Finally, the tour will end with a nice relaxing meal at the Sweethearts Cafe. Or it was intended to be relaxing, anyway (who would've thought the antique store would be the calmest part of the tour?), but it seems no place is safe from the Polgo plague. Better keep an eye on your plates, otherwise the second you’re distracted, the small kitten-sized blue bugs might scurry up the table and try and run off with your food!

Even if you’re paying attention, they might give it a shot anyways. So be on your guard and ready to give chase if it happens!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include blueberries and/or buckets.

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ah.

Regis squeezes his eyes at the sound of that voice in his mind, then makes a note to go seek out Noctis as soon as possible. ]

Not all who are here are exactly strangers. Chancellor.

[First Noctis, now Regis. Ardyn is starting to learn that time and timelines seem to mean very little in this place. But that flicker of questioning, threatening to rise and pinprick at the surface of his thoughts, are quickly reined in. He adopts his usual tone, and that should not at all be surprising.]

Your Highness. So it would seem, though I did not expect such an expedient welcome from those that I might know.

[“Welcome”. That’s hilarious.]

Nor did I expect that I would have the pleasure of speaking to you again, in any sort of circumstance. Life is so full of surprises.

[ It is a thing. And Regis is no more pleased than Ardyn...

Then again. Perhaps a little less displeased. Considering what Regis knows. ]

This world rather specializes in challenging the concepts of 'possible' and 'impossible,' it seems sometimes. [ You don't know the beginning of it, Ardyn. ] And yet... [ Carefully. ] There are some things that may stay out of one's reach.

[ There is no Crystal, here, nor the throne room. What Regis (thinks he) knows Ardyn wants most of all... cannot happen.

How will Ardyn take that. This time. ]

[Well, Regis might be in for a surprise. For the last thing that Ardyn remembers is so much light enveloping him, tearing him apart in the afterlife. The Prophecy, come to fruition, all neatly sliding into place as it should. And finally, that great, yawning void of nothingness, which was all that was left to meet him.

And now? He’s here, and there are those from Eos that should not exist in the way that they do, speaking to him through their minds. You see, he takes issue with a multitude of things in this particular circumstance, but perhaps none of them aligning to what Regis might think exactly.]

Is that so?

[The question of how much he wishes to say is guarded quite carefully already. No images of that particular revelation to slip through, not when Ardyn feels that he’s at the disadvantage upon arriving here. The best gets is this:]

That may be the case; but you’ll find I’m more concerned about what’s already slipped through my fingers, more so than what might remain out of my reach.

[Cryptic and unhelpful. #ardyn]

Would you permit me to ask you a question or two?

[ Regis is all for surprises, so long as they mean that Ardyn won't attack his family anymore. By blood or by choice, from Eos or found here. If that's on the table, Regis will do much to keep it there. ]

Please, ask. I will do my best to answer, unless I have reasons not to.

[ He's not promising what he can't deliver, and he is pretty sure that lying would just make things more difficult for all. ]

[He still possesses zero love for your (his) family, Regis. Only time can tell exactly how this might manifest in this new situation; needless to say, one should never give Ardyn too much credit.]

How generous of you.

[But he will take advantage of Regis’ willingness to cooperate, however tenuous it might be at any given moment.]

What was the last you remember from our star?

I have far fewer reasons to withhold what I know than others.

The last thing I personally remember is the night that Insomnia fell. Or, rather, in a way almost its dawn. There is existence within the Ring.

Although, in various ways, I have learned what has come to pass years beyond that point. Which I rather suspect is where your interest may lie.

Edited (I meant to do the subject line GAH I AM TIRED. ) 2018-03-19 20:49 (UTC)

[An existence in the Ring. That does tell him nearly all he wishes to know, what he was truly fishing for — just how aware was Regis of his death back on Eos. The death of his mortal shell, at least.]

Keen of you, though I should expect nothing less.

[Another amused noise, or is it a feeling? Still, it remains surface-level at best.]

You’re right, my interest lies more in sorting out how time has wound itself up in a knot in this place. What manner of sentiment I should expect from those hailing from Eos, who remembers what. You understand, surely, wayward thing that you must be.

[ Very, very aware. Especially after Selenium when he got to relive it.

But that is neither here nor there.

Regis hesitates a moment, but in the end decides that concealing information will not give any sort of advantage but can instead cause harm. ]

I should say that not all of these are guesses. You have been in this world before, for a few months. Not all who visit again remember what they experienced before, but...

We had a couple of occasions to talk, then.

[And that…. That actually incites pause from Ardyn, the link between them going still for a few precious moments. A purposeful detachment, because that is not at all something he expected to hear.

It tosses him more into disadvantage, after all. If he had been here once before, was there proof of it? It would be possible, what with how strange this place was, how already many things did not add up in his mind. But if that were the case, what had he done? What did he say?

Regis claims that they’d spoken once or twice before. What did he divulge to the other man?

Ardyn’s telepathic voice is soon heard once more.]

And what did you learn?

[ The thing is, Regis's conversations with Ardyn were informative in some ways, but the advantage was still heavily in favor of the eldest Lucis Caelum. So lording the supposed knowledge over his head will only be making Ardyn angry, eventually.

And, yes, there is some record. If nothing else, Ardyn's name on the Wall of those otherworlders who returned to their worlds. If there were not, Regis might have tried to avoid the subjects. As it is, secrecy will do none of them favors. ]

You were, at the time, extremely vexed that what you wanted was denied to you, in this world. Delayed further. And I had, by that point, become aware that your vexation can be rather disastrous.

Though I do believe that this star, tortured as it has been by disasters, proved interesting enough to you that you did not attempt to scour it, in the few months that you spent here.

I do suppose the absence of the Astrals may have aided the benevolence.

[Well. Credit where credit’s due — that does sound like him.]

Further delay would have gotten under my skin, I readily admit to that much. [Like shards of glass, just under the surface. The idea of being torn away from his goals, which he had been building up for millennia, would be enough to vex anyone, he thinks. A spike of bitterness rises as he just entertains the thought, and this he doesn’t even bother to hide. What was the point, if Regis already knew his reaction to thus?

But things are not quite the same as they supposedly were before. Ardyn has achieved what he wanted, with the strange exception of being alive and well here now. In a way, it was a step backwards — or was it just a matter of time being all twisted up and wrong here? Whether or not it was all invalidated now required thought, and wasn’t something he could reconcile over the length of one passing conversation with Regis.]

What can I say? I have no memory of that time, and no context. Promising that I will be so benevolent again is no guarantee. The circumstances regarding when I was taken may be different, but still irritatingly inconvenient nonetheless.

Of course. I was not assuming things would be the same.

[ Just hoping that they won't go to hell in a handbasket, but can you blame him for that? ]

You seem far more assured of the outcome, now.

[ An observation. And there is sadness with it, for understandable reasons, but Regis is far too aware that Ardyn being less restless about it is probably a good thing. ]

Edited (editing the subject line because gj me, forgetting my own stuff in game.) 2018-03-21 08:40 (UTC)

[Hope that things don’t go to hell in a handbasket? For what other reason does Ardyn even exist, honestly?

At that remark, though, Ardyn’s smile twists into something wry.]

Tsk. Now you’re just fishing.

[That or making keen assumptions based on what he’s heard thus far. Ardyn might not be straightforward, but one might be able to put two and two together if they listen well enough.]

[ Regis does try to listen. He always has, but he was missing the proper context for so long. ]

If you wish to call it that.

[ After what Regis gave him when it comes to information. But he's not going to bring that up.

Eos has taken and taken from Ardyn for a very long time. Sometimes-- well. Regis knew about that. But while he had grown tired of it, he had still not run dry. He can give yet. If what he can give will be at least accepted. ]

[It's a shame that even despite all that's happened, his goals having been achieved (more or less -- being here complicates things), Ardyn is still inclined to be cryptic and frustrating. Perhaps, if he were not so new and not being met with people that shouldn't be here, he would be more forthcoming. Maybe all it'll take is time.

But for now, there's much to think on. Decisions to be made regarding how all this should be approached, if at all. Just how much his innate bitterness, that spite that lives so inherently within him, will rise up and dictate his actions moving forward.]

I don't think I'm wrong, exactly. But best that there's still some mystery left for you to unravel; I would hate for you to lose interest in my being here so quickly after my arrival.

[ That's fair. And also why Regis is not trying to be antagonistic - he doesn't think Ardyn is interested in anything like ~being better~ or ~being brought back to the light~ - especially not fresh out of Eos. But that doesn't mean that there can be no other things that may work well for him that won't come close to destroying the world. ]

I would assure you that my interest in you will remain even if I find many of my answers. And even if they change from what I may fear.

But this interest need not be overly much for you, either.

Would you wish me to maintain communication, and curiosity, outside of necessity? Or would you prefer to be left alone?

[ Regis thinks either answer possible, for various reasons, with what he knows. But assuming either way may be disastrous. ]

[What a courteous sort of question to be asked, he thinks to himself, wry and bitter. There is credit to give the old king, of not meeting him with bared teeth much like the rest of those will do here — but even that is laughable in its own way. That he would be so considerate of him, though Ardyn has a feeling that it has more to do with not wanting to get under his skin than any actual politeness.

Still, it’s question that houses two answers: his initial knee-jerk reaction of wanting nothing to do with another Lucis Caelum if he has no reason to entertain him, and the other, which dictates that he should keep a finger on the proverbial pulse of all of those here.

He settles, not surprisingly, for something in the middle. Something nonessential and unhelpful in his answer.]

Do what you think is wise. And if it isn’t, then you will know.

[ Regis has had a long, long experience of containing his reactions. When they met for Nifleheim's terms was closest Regis got to losing his temper, when eyes were on him.

That comes with not rushing into antagonizing people who may hurt innocents instead of him, a very deeply ingrained habit. Not that it did him much good, but... well. Here they are.

That doesn't mean that he's not furious with Ardyn, for what he's done to his people - Lunfreya included, and Noctis, of course. Doesn't mean he's not bitterly, incineratingly angry, even with the hints of understanding and the actual compassion that he feels. Treading carefully. Not giving in to letting his emotions controlling his actions.

He also abstains from quite sending over the half-teasing, half-self-deprecating thought of you flatter me by thinking my choices can be wise, because that can both infuriate Ardyn and give him an advantage and... well. Ardyn already has plenty of those. ]

I will do my best. And...

If you have questions about this place and are unsure whom to turn to, I would be willing to answer.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE: April

telepathy; voice;

YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T WANNA PAINT FLOWERS WITH HIM, REGIS

CERTAINLY NOT! ... they'd totally be painting skulls and you know it.

you passed up on skull painting....smh

there may be other opportunities. But now I really want it???

i need all the awkward/snarky cooperation threads, tbh

YES ALL OF THEM SOMEHOw gosh.

<3 pls

apologies 2 ur villainous moments, it's family arts & crafts time

macaroni art? finger painting? knitting? basket weaving?

ALL OF THE ABOVE. (Better than fire spitting horses.)

regis missed a good time with the fire horses, don't lie

IDK a year in and he's still unsure about horses. Fire breathing chocobos though... WAIT Emp has!

please keep ardyn away from fire breathing chocobos

well they're month-old chicobos now, so they won't do him much good, but... sure.

well ardyn will probably gravitate towards anything chocobo-related here anyway

yaaay my other dead boy here is now on alert (but at least Ardyn won't try to eat them...)

sorry not sorry regis :3

Of course not sorry.