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memepatheias2019-03-19 07:11 am
empevents) wrote in memepatheias2019-03-19 07:11 am
Entry tags:
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!
• 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.
no subject
She is angry.
In fact, her anger, if not obvious from her cold glare, becomes even more obvious when it starts to manifest around her. Around her feet, the wooden floorboards crack, groan, and start rotting away, becoming black and moldy.
"What I want? Is for you to finally tell me the truth. The truth you've hidden away from me for hundreds of millennia."
Her voice, and glare, soften.
"You owe me that much."
no subject
"That is true. You are owed that much, at the very least." Nightmare Knight rubs the back of his neck, wondering just where to start. There's a lot of places. There's a lot she deserves to know.
"I've... I have lied to you, and your siblings, for almost one hundred cycles. My schemes, my hunger for destruction, has been gone for almost five hundred thousand years. Every failure you and the Disaster Masters have suffered, has very likely been my fault every time. While the legendary heroes have opposed you in their words and in the open, your true enemy has been me, acting in secret to undermine your plans." He stops, and pulls out a chair from a nearby table, and sits down.
"Please sit, if you would. There is more to say, but I need a moment to think it over. You deserve clarity on this." Nightmare Knight waves a hand to pull out a chair closer to Rosemaster, before his gaze turns down once more.
no subject
She can't help but feel engulfed by all the emotions boiling within her, her anger causing the chair to rot just like the wooden floor. She knows everything he's said already, from Glitchmaster, but it feels completely different to have him say it. To know that she blamed herself for her ninety-nine failures and that the real cause of them is right in front of her - the person she was most loyal to, above all else.
It hurts like nothing has ever hurt before. It makes her angry like nothing ever has before. She's anything but calm - her feelings of rage and despair are overwhelming her.
She says, bitterly, "So it was true then."
no subject
She was a smart girl. She had to have known, or at least suspected something. It all made a lot of sense.
"When I was resurrected, I emerged full of hate for Dreamside. I was ready to bring untold destruction, unlike what we had done five thousand years before. Then, I looked over the town, around that castle made of cake. I saw families, friends, people smiling and laughing together, they were feeling a warmth I had never known. When the new hero came up against me, I offered a hand to him, wanting for peace."
Nightmare Knight held a hand to his face, feeling emotions well up inside but knowing that now, now was not the time for his feelings. Rosemaster was the important one here. "... You know what happened next. I have not tried again since. I could not be accepted by Dreamside, and so I simply gave up. But, you all did accept me, even if it was not the 'me' I was anymore. I needed something, and I played the part, knowing I could at least see you all again. I couldn't stop, for if I were to stop..."
He stopped himself again. "I couldn't bear to lose you all. Not like that."
no subject
"I felt much the same way," Rosemaster says at last, looking down towards the rotted wood floor. "Millennia ago, I suppose you could say I developed a... conscience of my own. I looked at the people of the Flower Kingdom, happy, smiling, carefree and... I envied them. I envied their lives. And I wondered why I was created to hurt them, to destroy their happiness. What reason did I have to do such things, I asked myself?
"But I kept those feelings a secret, for all this time. I resigned myself to my fate, because you... you accepted me for who I was. And, in return, I trusted in you completely. I would bear any burden, even go to the edges of the universe, if it meant... giving back to you what you gave to me."
She looks up at him. There's one thing she still doesn't understand. "Why did you not just tell us the truth?"
no subject
His hands open and close, as he tries and tries to speak again. "There's... I suppose... You see..." The promise. The truth. Tell them, Nightmare Knight. Tell her, at least. "You all looked to me as your leader. Cold, emotionless, distant. To show more than that, what would you all have thought? If I were to lose the fear of the people, it would mean losing you all."
Nightmare Knight can't bear to look at her, he thinks, so he stands up, and turns his back, hunching over the table next to them. "I despise weakness, Rosemaster. I am the weakest being that I know of."
no subject
But it explains so much, doesn't it?
"You're not a good liar, Mr. Knight," she says, smiling sadly at his back. "You think I haven't already seen how tired, how exhausted you are? You haven't been the same since that first cycle. You haven't been truly happy. It was obvious.
"I can't speak for my siblings, but... I still care for you. Nothing you've told me has changed that. Nothing you could tell me ever will."
Her smile becomes a frown. "But, as much as I am loathe to say this, you're right. You are weak. Hiding the truth from us... not trusting us. That's where your true weakness is. And I'm still angry at you for it. I don't know if I will ever be able to truly forgive you.
But it doesn't make me care for you less. I just hope, in future, you can trust me as much I have trusted you. That you can be honest with me."
She lets out a soft sigh. "That's all I have to say."
no subject
Standing to his full normal height, Nightmare Knight turns to face Rosemaster. He hesitates.
His next move is to wrap the both of his large arms around her in a rather clumsy attempt at a hug. His eyes are shut tight, and he squeezes her with only a fraction of his power.
He then pulls away, turning away again, and clears the throat he doesn't have. "Well. Ah. Thank you. You may continue what you were doing before I rudely interrupted. I believe I have some baking to finish for the people working here."
no subject
As he breaks away from the hug, a tear still spills down her cheek, and she wipes it away and laughs softly, her hands on her hips as she stares up into her creator's eyes.
"I must say, Mr. Knight... I never took you for a baker."
no subject
"It's something of a hobby. I needed something to do in the time between visiting all of you. As it turns out, very little happens in Caketown at night, and it is Cake Town, after all."
It wasn't a lie, this time.
no subject
As she goes back to scrubbing the floors, she laughs to herself at the sheer ridiculousness of it all - having this conversation with herself in a maid dress and the Nightmare Knight in an apron, only to find out that he bakes muffins. She feels at least a little calmer, and that calmness radiates outward and causes the wooden floor and chair to repair themselves.
Thank goodness, otherwise they'd have to be replaced out of her pocket.
She still doesn't know how she feels about the Nightmare Knight, if she'll ever be able to truly forgive him for a almost half a million years of lies. But she meant every word she said - she does still care for him. She's willing, at least, to hear him out.
And that, for now, is enough.