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. 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

[ True Name: {James Moriarty} ]

Paper Trail.

[ Pure spite and vindictiveness has Archer pursuing this line of interest. He has plenty of other things to do with his time, like acclimating more to this place and getting to know the people while being a completely innocent old man, but this fake murder mystery turned slightly inane real mystery? Oh boy, oh boy, it's time to show up his rival in some of the pettiest ways imaginable. You know, the rival that's not even here.

Sure, buddy.

Don't mind as he's coming up to various festival goers with a grin, tone amicable but just dark enough to possibly be worrying. ]

Hello! Would you happen to know anything about those missing papers everyone has been talking about? It's a true shame the activities have been put on indefinite hold while some rapscallion makes off with those precious documents!

[ Did that sound right? He's certainly trying for sincere, but... ]

Prompt E.

[ oh my god just

just stop Archer, please. Please. He's on some kind of giddy little bender trying to solve this cleverly played rouse (he's positive it's all some kind of poorly-conceived hack job given the state of the poor fool which makes collecting as much evidence as possible very important), and if nobody can intercept him he's going to have it solved and take all the glory in like half an hour. Well, that or help everyone escape because that could be hilarious, too.

Stop him. For the sake of the MYSTERY. ]

goodnight sweet prince.

[ He's kind of a smelly old man, but don't mind if he just finds the softest person possible, decided by esteemed and worldwide renowned intellect, and tries to sleepily cuddle up on them. At least he's harmless? Maybe? WE HOPE? ]

Please stop squirming! You're making it very hard to get comfortable!

Wild card.

[ Seeing as Archer is terrible and nosy and watches people like the weirdly untrustworthy dude that he is, it's possible to find him just about anywhere else, too. Go nuts. ]

Edited 2019-03-25 00:01 (UTC)

Well. Ritsuka's not entirely sure what to think of the whole suddenly being thrust into a murder mystery of some sort thing, even if admittedly it's not the strangest situation she's ever found herself in. But at least the newest Servant to have shown up lately seems to be enjoying himself?

"You're sure having fun, huh?"

Oh! [ Yes, that's right, Ritsuka is here too, isn't she? At this party in particular, it's not like he could forget her presence here entirely. ]

Why yes, Master! Who doesn't find a good murder stimulating!?

"I guess the mystery part is interesting, but I could do without the 'murder' part, honestly."

Though if it's already happened and all, there's not much for it than to solve the crime. Or something like that.

[ Right, right. Master has that pesky conscience. ]

I think it's safe to say the old chap doesn't mind now that it's already occurred, so why not give this a go! Have you noticed anything I may have missed? Heard any scuttlebutt from the help?

[ Unlikely, practically impossible, but look. Look. He wants to hear what Ritsuka thinks about all this, morals of the happening aside. ]

Look, it's not pesky, and it's arguably part of what made her able to save the world, okay? So she'd rather not have murder happening if it can be avoided!

With that said, hmm, that's a good question...

"Well, I guess I don't know what you've noticed to know if you've missed something, but... It wouldn't make sense for anyone who was suddenly invited here for dinner to do it, right? Because he didn't have a chance to pick anyone he liked best yet."

In other words, there's nothing to be gained for any of the impromptu and unprepared guests by killing their host. Not until he has or was about to pick a favorite, at least!

"So it'd have to be someone who already knew him from before, and who'd get something out of it if he didn't pick anyone else as an heir..."

[ Yeah, yeah. Archer knows it's one of her better qualities but he can't help but imagine what it would be like to lure her to the dark side... while at the same time knowing he won't. At least it's a fun mental exercise. ]

Yes, those are all acute deductions. Good job, Master.

However, we have no way of knowing whether any of the guests were previous acquaintances or not, which would leave us and perhaps a few others as the odd ones out. Our next step should almost certainly involve speaking to the guests to determine their relationship with the deceased!

Consider she's won the loyalty of over a hundred Servants, pushing Ritsuka over the edge would probably have truly catastrophic consequences for everyone. Probably safest to leave that well enough alone.

"Right," Ritsuka nods, that certainly seems like a sensible thing to do. "Do you think the people who work here would know something, too?"

Archer of Shinjuku | Fate/Grand Order

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