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

"So you're saying it's better to team up, in this case?"

She considers that a bit; she hadn't thought of that angle of it before.

"And it'd be better to let the local police or such take care of things once we find whoever did it, yes."

Yes, Master. Two heads will be better than one.

[ If the edges of his beard twitch in annoyance at the mention of police, he won't outright bring attention to it. The lights may flicker around from the strength of his mistrust but that clearly wasn't on him, clearly. There's no love lost with the police for Archer, but this case is also not nearly enough for him to break character and act too suspiciously around Ritsuka. Ignore how his entirely life is lived suspiciously. ]

Assuming no one goes around murdering someone again or attempts to do you harm, then that sounds... reasonable. All right then! Shall we continue to the questioning?

Edited 2019-03-25 04:06 (UTC)

Hmm, it almost seems like he didn't like something about what she said. Maybe the fact that she stubbornly refuses to entertain the idea of the Servants killing anyone if it can be avoided? Some of the others get grumpy about that too, after all.

Ritsuka nods, though.

"All right. Should we start with the other guests, or the staff?"

[ Surprisingly, Archer already knows and accepts that about her. He doesn't find it particularly wrong for someone to be attached to their fellow man, even if it's an entirely new feeling for him personally. No, he just finds police directly below detectives where loathsome professions are concerned. ]

If your thoughts about the guests are correct, and they are in fact as hapless as we are, then it would go more quickly to confirm that before moving on to the suspects we know for sure must have something to hide. I say we tackle the guests.

Someday Ritsuka will realize that's what Archer thinks, but for now, she's still a little oblivious to his true thoughts on the matter.

"Okay. So..." She pauses to consider for a moment. "Maybe start with people I don't recognize? Otherworlders like us are less likely to have gotten to know someone here for long."

[ It isn't like he ever actually explains his own thoughts and feelings aside from admitting how terrible he is, so it's okay. He doesn't mind. ]

Yes! Excellent, Master! If you already know any of the Otherworlders here, that does significantly narrow the pool of suspects. I trust that your trust in them is not unfounded?

[ It's funny how the air goes a little stale at that, not quite cold but something in it hinting at the true thoughts behind his statement. His trust in Ritsuka is genuine but hard-earned and she's canny enough to know when something is hinky... but when dealing with those that would murder, it often isn't so easy as having said hello at the grocery store once or twice.

And, you know, he's been paying attention to the vibe himself and picking up on any number of things while they spoke. He already has a pretty good idea of what's going on, but wants to see if his Master can come to the same conclusion. ]

"Well, there's a lot of Otherworlders I've only seen but haven't really talked to... So I guess we could start with whoever I don't recognize, then the Otherworlders I don't know anything about?"

But if it's someone she knows well enough to have some impression of their character then yes, she definitely trusts them.

"Most Otherworlders would rather try to help people here than cause trouble, though." That much she's certain of. There's been a few incidents, but overall...

Is that what you believe?

[ Forgive him for sounding skeptical, he just really is like that at all times. ]

Regardless, it's as sound a plan as any. Please lead the way.

"Yeah. There's been a few who have caused trouble, but whenever something big has happened, most people help out instead. Some probably only do it because it's possible that fixing whatever's wrong with this world will let everyone go home, but that still means they wouldn't have a reason to make things worse."

He's not her only Servant who's skeptical of the trust Ritsuka places in people. But in this case there's a good rationale behind it, at least.

She nods, though, and starts making her way through the room. Her first choice is people she's pretty sure are natives; once they've talked to those they can move on to anyone else she doesn't recognize but may or may not be otherworlders.

Ah, yes, returning home. I imagine you must be in quite the tizzy to make it back to Chaldea after all the hard work you did to ensure peace!

[ Archer is content to follow her at this point, letting her lead the conversation while he reads the peoples' reactions. That stale air remains but at this point it might be easier to blame it on the dead body in the house and the atmosphere everyone else surely must be contributing to, rather than his massive trust issues alone.

of course, knowing that Ritsuka will get the better results overall doesn't stop him from adding his own commentary every now and then. Clearly it's meant to be helpful! ]

"Ah, it's not as bad as before. I mean, it'd be nice to get back, but since I know we took care of things... I don't need to worry about rushing, I guess."

And she may possibly see this world as similar to another sort of singularity to fix. Just now she doesn't have a deadline to be home by!

But in any case, Ritsuka is her usual friendly self, even in questioning other people for anything they might know or suspect about a murder. It would seem most don't have terribly much to offer, though, especially since most seem to be in the same position as them: just handed an invitation to dinner with someone they've never actually met before.

If that's how you feel, who am I to try and change your mind? I can't say as I'm displeased to have this chance to reconnect!

[ That staleness to the air seems to dissipate for a moment, as if a fresh breeze has swept in. He truly is pleased to see Ritsuka again so soon after what happened in Shinjuku, no matter the conflicting feelings her own lack of memories inspire in him. Whether he notices the effect his emotions are having on their surroundings is hard to tell, as well, since he's open to the idea of magic occurring but using it himself? Pah! ]

Well... at least now we can say we've eliminated the unlikely. Now we can move on to the real meat of the mystery.

"Too bad the last I remember is from before we meet, though..."

She assumes it must surely be a bit awkward for him, after all! But, in any case, as to the matter at hand...

"I was thinking, actually," Ritsuka says. "If we can rule out the guests because it wouldn't benefit any of them, then isn't the opposite true of anyone who works here?"

That is, the staff are the most likely to have a motive to murder someone over an inheritance at risk of going to some stranger.

That is disappointing, but as it stands, neither you nor I have the power to alleviate that issue. So why not enjoy this new opportunity instead?

[ And he would grin at the conclusion Ritsuka comes to. ]

My, what an interesting thought! If that is what you think, Master, let us follow that line of reasoning!

"Oh, of course. I just hope it isn't too much trouble for you."

Because of course she'd be thinking of it like that. She does, however, have some suspicions from that second remark that Archer already has a good idea of what's going on, and is just letting her work through it on her own, though. Which... Well, as long as things work out in the end, Ritsuka supposes it's fine. It's not like he's the only Servant she knows who'd pull something like that.

"So, definitely talk to all the staff then, huh?"

Why, it's the opposite, Master! There's no trouble here whatsoever. I should only hope my reticence in sharing my True Name comes as no difficulty to you.

[ He is absolutely just letting her work it through on her own. He's already at the point of discovering whodunnit, now he's debating how fun it would be to let them all escape for future shenanigans versus how much capitol he'd lose with Ritsuka if she pieces it together. ]

All of the staff, likely starting with any who would have means to murder in this way. That is to say, with either a knife, a blunt object, or poison.

"It's fine," Ritsuka assures him. He's not the first Servant to choose to conceal his name here, just the first she doesn't already know. And to be perfectly fair, he has had a tendency to accidentally nearly blurt out Sanson's name without thinking on a few occasions...

"Anyone could have picked up a knife or something else to use up as a weapon from the kitchen." So that doesn't really narrow it down much yet. "But to use poison they'd have to actually handle the food at some point, and know who was going to eat it."

Then please indulge this old man a while longer.

[ He is gonna ride this wave as long as possible. ]

What sound reasoning! By that conclusion, let us head to the kitchen!

"Sure."

If he's a Servant she contracts with sometime in the future, what harm can it do? Obviously he must be an ally she trusts later, after all.

Ritsuka nods at that.

"Right."

Of course, these conversations will probably be a bit... trickier, considering, but at least Ritsuka has the sense not to ask anything too obvious right off the bat. She might be incredibly naive at times, but she's certainly not stupid!

[ Ritsuka, that's not how any of this works. Oh dear. ]

Hm? Is something the matter, Master? Are you perhaps hesitating due to not knowing what approach to take?

Why not? Clearly if future her trusts him, he must be okay!

"Eh? Oh... Well, I was just thinking, it's better not to ask things that would let people know what we suspect, right?"

[ But he could be LYING. Master, please. ]

Yes, that is correct. In which case, you could ask things like... was there anything new they hadn't prepared before? Or perhaps feign allergy to see if anyone becomes nervous at the idea of not properly containing the poison! There's many different ways to work toward information or confessions!

Why would he lie about that though? Especially with all the other Servants here??

"I see..." Ritsuka thinks that over a bit. Is she even any good at acting though? Maybe better to stick to something more straightforward. "Guess the only way to find out is to try, anyway."

Off to the kitchen, then?

[ ... it's fun? ]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say!

[ He gestures toward the kitchen with his cane for Ritsuka to take the lead. ]

Is it really though?

Ritsuka will lead the way to the kitchen, then. Of course, some of the staff are probably none too pleased about all these people poking around where they don't belong, but that just means a chance to question anyone who tries to hinder them, right? Right.

She'll stick to the relatively simple approach, though. Plenty of honest, earnest questions, and no attempts to fake anything. She probably couldn't pull it off, anyway. That, and avoiding suggesting that they suspect the staff themselves, either, it's probably not time to throw accusations around. Yet.

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