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

[Tech-ni-cally speaking he time-traveled to two years before you (we?) were born, so...]

That's a weird coincidence.

[Even weirder that you share the same eye and hair color and parents and...wait what were we talking about again?]

It's okay, I can go by my last name I suppose.

[ Ok, but he fell from the sky or whatever into this world first and so, therefore, he's Trunks the first, got it? ]

Yeah, what's that?

[By that metric, sure.]

Brief.

[Now that he's said (thought?) it out loud, probably not ideal. But it's not like he has a lot of nicknames to choose from. Father called him 'Brat' all the time, but that really doesn't count, also he's 30.]

[ HUH????? ]

[ But that's... HIS LAST NAME??? ]

[ Ok, unless Goten has somehow learned how to mask his voice over the amulets, this is totally not funny and Trunks feels a little irritated as well as confused. ]

Goten! I swear if this is you, you're dead when I find you!

Edited 2018-03-20 02:36 (UTC)

[Have a brief (ha) spike of surprise/curiosity/amusement. That's not bound to make you madder at all.]

I'm not Goten.

[Judging from that reaction...well, no one had told him that multiple timelines could interact here, but, considering he's already met his younger self before, granted, he wasn't so much capable of verbal communication at the time (and had a serious habit of pulling his hair), and was about to try to make a trip to the past again...well, he's going to adapt to this a lot better than you are.]

I promise, I'm not lying. Let me guess, that's your last name too?

Edited 2018-03-20 02:45 (UTC)

[ Well then if he's not Goten, then... ??? ]

How do you know that?

Your reaction, mostly.

How old are you now?

Old enough to know something's not right here.

[ Really, this is too weird. ]

So you better quit playing around and tell me who you are.

Short version: I'm an older version of you, from another timeline. I came back in time a couple times before, and I met you even, but I'm not surprised you don't remember. I went back to the future when you were less than a year old.

[Theoretically, if he can think thoughts at other people, thinking memories at them wouldn't be too far removed in concept. Right?

He has to work to remember it a little, it's been about a decade, but he follows it up with what's going to be a very weird memory from Trunks' perspective. That is, their mother holding him, a baby, and his hands reaching up to tug the loose hair from his older-self's ponytail while laughing. Who is obviously the point-of-view here.]

Mother invented a time machine, if you were wondering.

[ What... exactly is he seeing here and why... is this not helping cancel out the weirdness of this conversation? ]

What do you mean... you're me? From the future? What is all this I'm seeing?

[ How's an eight year old supposed to wrap their head around something like that? ]

Edited 2018-03-20 03:09 (UTC)

[YOU'RE SMART YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT. He knows he absolutely hated being condescended to as a kid, so he's presuming the same thing counts.

He is...really not keeping in mind the fact that he didn't have a really great childhood means that other-timeline him wouldn't be roughly the same, personality wise.]

Well, I'm me, you're not going to grow up to be me. We had completely different lives. At least, I'm guessing.

[He's hoping.]

It's kind of a lot to think about, sorry.

But then... what are you doing here?

[ That sort of sounds rude, sorry future self, but it's not like mom or dad ever told him about the whole future him visiting from the future or anything and so this is all NEWS TO HIM. ]

Same as you, I guess. I really don't know.

[Really? Never? What, did ~~Toriyama~~ they forget? Did literally no one mention it? Seems like a weird oversight.]

Would it help if we actually talked?

[ It's a real shock, isn't it? ]

Uh... I guess...

You don't have to if you don't want to.

[Then, TOTALLY NOT MEANING TO:]

Just, if we do, please don't pull my hair again.

I didn't say that!

[ Grr... ]

I was just finishing something!

[ No he wasn't. ]

I'll meet you wherever!

Seriously, only if you want to. If you don't, it's really fine.

[Might be a little awkward, but it'd be fine.]

If you do, though, I haven't been a lot of places yet. You'd be able to pick a better place than I would.

[Hopefully...having control of that aspect of the situation would make him feel better about it? Maybe?]

Fine. There's this clock tower in the middle of the marketplace. I'll meet you there and if you don't show up, I'll know you're a fake.

[ So there. ]

That's fair.

[He has every intention of showing up, though. He lied a little, he's done enough ~~wandering around aimlessly at night when he couldn't sleep~~ reconnaissance to know exactly where the aforementioned clocktower is. He's not sure if he'll get there first or second, but it really doesn't matter, he doesn't think.

He does get there though. So guess he's not a fake?]

[ Admittedly, little Trunks here was the one who arrived first since he was close by already and he had been hiding behind a barrel to wait and see if this "other him" was really real or just some stupid prank by Goten or someone else. He's made sure to suppress his power level, not wanting to give himself away just in case and it's when that familiar shade of lavender for hair comes into view that Trunks finds himself softly gasping.

That's... there's no way... is there? You mean he's... REAL???

Quickly, Trunks runs out from behind the barrel and hurries his way over to, well, the other him, coming to stop a little ways back. ]

If you're really me, then transform into a Super Saiyan!

[ Because a fake wouldn't be able to do that... right? ]

[This would be just as weird for him if he hadn't had time (ha) to get used to the idea.

Granted, it's been a long time--both in chronological years and time-traveled ones.

He's been hyper-vigilant for months now, with an enemy he can't sense tracking him, so he's not as dependent on his ki-sense as another might have been. It's not reliable, therefore it's not prioritized. His ears, though, are perfectly fine. He hears the running footsteps before the shout, and he really can't help the fact that he immediately tenses. Running feet generally precedes absolutely nothing good.

It's only a moment before he forces himself to stand down. It's only...well, him.]

Hi to you too.

[He glances around--there's a few curious people, but they obviously look similar enough to be related, so most people aren't really paying attention. And it's not that crowded anyway.

He breathes out, then lets the transformation happen, at the lowest level he can, so he doesn't break (too badly) the stones under his feet. He holds it for a few moments, then lets it go.]

[ Trunks stares as he watches the way in which that familiar golden aura appears and, to see the transformation, even with it being at the lowest level that it is... how can he deny that now?

This... really is him... isn't it? Well, from the future, at least.

Trunks being Trunks, hands curl into small fists and, with a rather determined look on his face, his own ki flares and lavender turns to blond with blue becoming green.

Now they'll both be Super Saiyans. ]

Let's find out just how alike we are!

[ And... there he goes... lunging after his future self with a fist coming for his face. ]

[Wait, he's how old? Trunks hadn't achieved the transformation until...

Well.

He was definitely older.

He ducks backward, categorizing the fact that all the people around them have cleared out really quickly. It's not surprising. Not a lot of people want to stick around for a fight between Super Saiyans.]

Come on, in the middle of town?

[Not that he usually has a problem with that, but towns in his timeline are more collections of various sizes of rubble than anything else.

(His instincts are screaming at him to either deal with the threat as quickly as possible, or get away. He's trying to be chill about it.)]

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