memepatheias | 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. For new characters, these threads do not count for activity check. However, these can be supplementary threads for players already in-game.
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!

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: Arehtei Amusements is a new company in Verens seeking to bring Arehtei themed festivities to the people of the city. This might've not been the best idea as it's not endorsed by the creatures themselves and coming up with festivities for some of them can be a bit of a stretch, but they've already incorporated, so it's a little late for that now. Anyways, first up is Piphron, which might not be the best or the easiest choice, but it's too late to change their focus now. So visitors to the Piphron Party will find a few activities awaiting them:

Catch of the Day: One of the first activities people will notice resembles a game of frisbee. But with blindfolds! What better way to build trust if you can't see or at least that's the line of thinking here. Participants will be grouped together and whoever's turn to catch will be blindfolded and have to rely on their partner's directions to catch the flying disc. Everything about this seems like it was a better idea than on paper, but it's probably too late for that now. Especially if one of them is flying at you!
Leap of Faith: For those who want to try out something with less of a chance of getting hit in the face with a frisbee, there's also a trust fall activity going on. But unlike the regular team building exercise, this one seems to have been taken to the extreme and mixed it with bungee jumping. After a brief lesson in Dunamis, one person will be escorted to a platform to fall off it and work with their partner on the ground to slow their descent using emotion magic. And don't worry, it's completely safe! The area under the platform seems full of what looks like foam padding, so there's nothing to worry about if someone messes up or falls too fast.
Paper Trail: The Arehtei have two sides and since balance is important, they've also tried to incorporate feelings of distrust into today's activities (besides the feelings of skepticism one might have from watching this nonsense and learning the event organizers are planning on more things like this). The organizers were trying to set up a mock murder mystery to try and sow feelings of suspicion or distrust in good fun, but it seems like someone's stolen the sign up sheet listing all the roles! So now they're asking for help to recover the sheet and the culprit responsible! It could be anyone, but odds are they're still in the park somewhere. Or more likely, the wind blew the paperwork away when someone wasn't looking, but they don't seem to be considering that one, so good luck hunting for the mystery thief!

• Prompt E: Whether he finds you on a random street corner, inside a grocery store, or at the library, a butler who introduces himself only as Benson is handing you an invitation and informing you that the illustrious Count Dunnit has invited you to stay at his manor for the weekend with a few other select guests. The Count has yet to name an heir for his abundant fortune, and he apparently has decided to bequeath his estate to whoever he enjoys spending the weekend with the most. How can you possibly refuse? However, should you choose to join Count Dunnit and his other guests at the manor, you may find that this weekend is more than you bargained for...

Curious Cuisine: Upon arrival at Count Dunnit’s manor, all guests will be invited to partake in a sumptuous dinner of all sorts of rare and exquisite Verenthian delicacies. The food comes in all sorts of strange varieties and colors and aren’t the sort of things that one can find at any restaurant in town, though perhaps for good reason. Whether or not any of this is appetizing is debatable. Have you ever tried grilled wyvern tail? How about bat wings? Snakes? Just snakes? Well, if the cuisine isn’t to your liking, towards the end of the meal, the lights flicker out and when they return, Count Dunnit has crumpled down into his seat, dead as a doornail. Things just took a turn, didn’t they?
In the Dining Room with the Candlestick: So, Count Dunnit is dead, and everyone in the room is a suspect. You’re a suspect. Anyone here might have killed him to steal his fortune. So it falls to you and your fellow guests to analyze the evidence and discover who the culprit is! Dunnit was poisoned, ostensibly, so starting your investigation in the kitchen and interrogating the staff may prove fruitful. However, it also appears that Dunnit has a stab wound in his back, leaving you to find a knife. To complicate matters further, there is also an injury from blunt trauma to his head. Anything might have caused that. How will you investigate the murder? And moreover...can you trust your fellow guests?
Goodnight Sweet Prince: As your investigation continues, it becomes clear that there are simply too many variables in this situation for there to be any one culprit, and all clues point to the murder being a joint effort by the members of the staff in an effort to prevent any of the guests from receiving the fortune they feel they rightly deserve. Once the jig is up, however, they release a sleeping gas into the manor and make their escape before anyone can pursue them. These sleeping gas has some extra special properties that make those under its influence particularly cuddly and snuggly when they lie down for a little nap. You may wake up closer to someone than expected. Maybe they’re a complete stranger and you can both agree to never mention this again...or maybe not!

• Prompt F: As the years go on and more people begin to get a grasp of their Dunamis magic, Mr. Bubbly, a man with a vision wants to start training exceptional children to become the island's first official superhero group. He believes that by teaching them to harness their Dunamis by an early age, as well as instilling in them a strict moral code, they'll be ready to defend us from anything in the future. The name of this class? The Umbra Academy. Meanwhile, another man with a different set of ideals, Lord Saline, wants to begin his own program, The Astra Academy. While his school teaches young minds to control their Dunamis as well, he is viewed more as an extremist who wants to tear down the wealthy. While the schools are aware of each other, they have agreed not to clash directly.

First Class: As both academies officially begin class, they are going to need both students and teachers. Anyone aged 17 and under is welcome to join either group, be it as a student or a teacher. Anybody over that age will have to apply as a teacher/guardian, as the students are largely made up of ten year olds. Either way, whether you're a student or a teacher, you are tasked with standing in front of the class and introducing yourself. Talk about your world and most importantly, what it means to be a hero! Be prepared to take questions, too.
The Clash: Astra Academy's first mission is underway! Lord Saline has tasked both students and teachers to break into the vault of a museum, using only Dunamis and non-lethal methods when disposing of guards. Ideally this is meant to be a stealth mission, so it's best not to get caught at all. The target? A pink diamond, belonging to a corrupt owner, which Lord Saline intends to sell and distribute to the poor. Meanwhile, the Umbra Academy has a mission of their own! Their students and teachers are to stop an ongoing burglary of a popular museum. If it wasn't obvious so far, it quickly becomes clear that both groups are sent to the same location, with the goal to prevent the other from succeeding. Looks like it's the clash of the academies!
The Last Stand: Eventually, it's revealed that Mr. Bubbly and Lord Saline are in fact the same person, a legendary con man known as Jet. He created both academies and pit them against each other so he can steal the pink diamond for himself, which he succeeds. Now, even though they're officially disbanded, it's going to take the full force of both academies to catch this criminal mastermind before he gets away. Jet commands a luxury airship full of well-paid guards and mercenaries, which is easily tracked down by our heroes. Using your lessons of stealth and combat from either class, it's time to find your way around his cronies and get that diamond back!

• Prompt G: Make your own! It could include spiders and/or capes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Lucy settles down opposite Klaus, facing the flower pot in a neat cross-legged pose. When she speaks, it's quiet.]

Instead of clearing your mind, why not try to focus it. When you read a book, you forget the world outside its pages. When you focus, everything else drops away.

[Her eyes are on the flower pot, not Klaus.]

Choose something. A crumb of dirt. A crack in the pot. A chip in the glaze. See it. See only that thing. That'll be enough for today.

[Klaus doesn't actually do much reading, or at least he hasn't sat down with a good book since who knows when, but the analogy still works. Or at least it would, if he was here for a lesson and not trying to practice in private. While he knew he'd be doing this out in open where anyone could come by and pester him - and let's face it, that's half the fun - this isn't exactly a scenario he'd foreseen.]

Sorry, what?

[He blinks at her for a moment, posture relaxing. Whatever focus he had is completely lost.]

You don't even know what I'm trying to do.

[Lucy lifts her eyes calmly and looks at him.]

You were talking about your mind being clear, but you sounded more stressed than calm. You’re sat cross-legged staring at an object. It’s not hard to figure out that you’re trying to meditate and that your mind won’t empty.

I mean... I've never done this before, but I thought maybe starting with a clean slate might help? Then I was going to work my way toward happy constructive thoughts. You know... the type that might grow - [He pauses, gesturing toward the pot.] - a plant.

[Of course now that he has an audience he feels a little silly. And he'll feel more than a little silly if he has to go further into his reasoning.]

That sounds sensible.

[She's still not entirely familiar with the strange things that emotions can do here, but growing a plant seems a perfectly reasonable use of such powers.]

Maybe you could focus on the seed, then. Think about how much you want it to grow, happy and healthy and strong.

Seed?

[Oh. Right, that probably would have been a good idea - except that he doesn't have any seeds for what he wants to grow. He'd been kind of hoping it would just sprout up from the ground on its own. Because that's how magic works, right?

Thinking on it now, though, that does seem a little ludicrous.]

Yeah... Getting a seed would have been a good place to start.

[Her smile is gentle, more encouraging than humorous.]

Well, you did remember the pot and the earth. It'sa good start. I've found that the easier you make things for yourself, the easier they are to do.

[Get all the right pieces, and things are easier to build. She suspects that trying to grow a plant without a seed - even with magic - would be like trying to play a piano without having the music in front of you. Possible, if you know the piece, but it's always easier having the music there.]

Guess I'm probably not at the right level for seedless plants.

[Now he's going to have to find a marijuana seed. He's sure it would be easier to straight up just find marijuana. Maybe if he starts with regular seeds and gets that down he can work his way up to not needing them.

But that sounds like it would take a long time, and Klaus isn't exactly known for his patience.]

I need better hobbies.

[She shrugs.]

That's up to you. If plant-growing doesn't make you happy, then trying something else is probably a better idea. But if it does, it's worth the practice.

I play piano, but it took a lot of wrong notes and a lot of practice before I was any good. Don't give up on something you like.

[In this case, his brother Ben would argue that he should absolutely argue that he should give up something he likes. Klaus would argue back that weed doesn't really count and they would probably go back and forth for a while and it would be a whole thing.

He misses Ben.

Meanwhile, this woman is taking him far more seriously than anyone (aside from Ben) ever has. It's sort of a welcome change, but he didn't expect to be so weirded out by it.]

As much as I like music, I don't know if I'd be any good at instruments. Maybe the kazoo.

[Lucy laughs at the concept of the kazoo.]

Well, it's certainly a perfect instrument for annoying other people. One of my boys got hold of one at a fair once, he played it for a week before one of his brothers distracted him with something else.

[Ah, Gordon. That one's going to grow up to be a trouble-maker.]

What do you like doing?

[Lucy is of the very firm opinion that this young man needs a mom. She doesn't know whether he has parents back where he came from, but he needs one here.]

Oh, you know...

[He gestures toward the pot.]

Silly things like trying to grow plants from nothing.

[Life had been forcing him into sobriety even before he got here, and he's still working on finding other things to do with his time. He'd tried knitting. That had been going somewhere, maybe.]

So you have kids? Are they here too?

Nothing wrong with a bit of silliness.

[Also, knitting is a good and useful skill.]

I have five boys between two and thirteen. They're not here, and I desperately want them and their father here, and I hope they never arrive. They probably think I'm dead. I thought I was dead, before I woke up here.

[The conflict between wanting to see her family again and not wanting them to be trapped here too is evident in her eyes.]

How about you? Do you have family? Are they here?

Oh. [Well that sucks. Maybe he shouldn't have asked.] Well at least their dad is still there so they're not alone. [Hopefully the thirteen year old isn't as worthless as he was at that age.]

I think I'm the only one. And I mean that's probably for the best. The others are needed back home.

[It's true he's more useful now, and Ben will be lost without him, but they've functioned without him before. Things would be worse if they lost someone like Five or Diego. Though to be honest, everyone had been a mess.]

[Lucy would rather that her kids were happy and played to their strengths. That said, she strongly suspects that thirteen-year-old Scott is going to follow his father into the Air Force. And maybe into space.]

Yes. They'll need him more than ever, now.

[Oh, Jeff.]

And needed or not, I suspect that your family will miss you.

Test Drive: April

Re: Klaus Hargreeves | The Umbrella Academy

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