TEST DRIVE: October

[empevents]

— TEST DRIVE: OCTOBER —

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 September 24th and Applications (Canon | OC) open a week later on October 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.
  
  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 new season has brought some interesting merchants into town from the outlying cities, and one peddler from Theasthai in particular is creating a lot of buzz with his magical masks that he claims will bring good fortune and riches to the wearer if worn for a full day’s time. Some masks are ordinary and will have no effect, while others...are a bit more unusual. For a modest fee, you may rent one of these masks, but be sure you return them within three days...or the consequences may be dire. Oh, and mind that once the masks have been put on, they cannot be removed until midnight of the following day! Choose wisely...
  

  1. Paper Faces on Parade: Sure enough, many of the masks have strange effects on the wearer’s emotional state. Some may alter their behavior and make them more peaceful or more aggressive than normal, while still others will have more significant effects, like encouraging its wearer to give the next person they see a great big hug or a genuine compliment, whether they like it or not. In cases where the wearer may not go along with their mask’s persuasion, they may find the mask growing tighter and tighter around their head! But if they give in to whatever action the mask suggests, they will find themselves overcome with feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction. It’s not such a high price when it’s just a hug or a compliment, but hopefully your mask doesn’t want you to throw a pie in the face of the next person you see, or even worse, try to kidnap them...
     
  2. Master of Disguise: Yet other masks appear blank when they are put on, and to the wearer, they will continue to appear as a blank, unremarkable mask. But for others who look upon the mask when it is being worn by another, they will see someone important to them who is not currently present in Empatheias. Is it their long-lost best friend they see? An old flame? A bitter enemy? Better think quick! Who knows how they may react to the person they see you as.
     
  3. A Terrible Fate: So, you forgot to return your mask in time, did you? The mask salesman is absolutely not happy, and even if you attempt to return the mask later, he will not accept it. He promises retribution to come soon, and in the next few hours you may start to notice that it almost looks like the moon is getting closer to the island. But that can’t be possible, can it? Yet over the course of the day, it will appear to you as though the moon is rocketing closer and closer to the island, dead set on a collision course! You should tell someone, right? The only problem is...no one else sees the same thing you do. They don’t notice the moon at all! What will you do? Evacuate the city, or submit yourself to asylum? Or commiserate with a fellow offender who neglected to return their mask on time?
     

  
  
  
  • Prompt E: In the wake of the fundraiser hosted by Otherworlders earlier in the month, a certain miniature local celebrity will be making a follow-up appearance at Verens’ mobile petting zoo! Currently set up in the city’s central park, the petting zoo will offer opportunities to both feed and play with a wide range of animals, including goats, alpacas, pigs, rabbits, deer, sheep, and of course, regular-sized ponies for rides. There will also be a few domesticated wyverns available to interact with, for those who aren’t put off by the horns and teeth! While the zoo itself seems to consider its primary audience to be local children, visitors of all ages are welcome and encouraged to enjoy themselves.
  

  1. Feeding Time: Of course, the petting zoo’s primary attraction is the chance to get up close and personal! There are apples and carrots available to be offered to the animals that favor them, as well as plenty of ordinary feed that’s available for a small fee. Some of the animals, however, are less interested in the food and more interested in what their visitors are wearing— goats can be caught nibbling on shoelaces or pant legs, and more than a few hats will be snatched off of heads by curious alpacas. Others are far less mischievous, with rabbits, piglets and fawns that are far more than happy to take any offered snacks and respond affectionately. Whether you’re spending time with one of the more docile animals or having to chase down a mischievous hat-thief, they’re all certainly happy to have visitors!
     
  2. Goat Racing: Taking some inspiration from chicken races of the past, the petting zoo would like to introduce Verens to everyone’s new favorite sporting event: goat racing! Attendees are free to place their bets on goats— all money will go to supporting the zoo itself and continued care of the animals, but the prize is that anyone who happens to pick the winner gets to take one of these little guys home with them for the day! Surely, we’ve all dreamt of temporary goat parenthood. Pick your favorite to win! As it turns out, however, the goats are easily distracted and many will keep wandering away from the race to chew on whatever they can get their teeth around. Some kind and focused encouragement will go a long way towards helping them get back on track, but be careful not to overwhelm them! They’re under a lot of pressure, here.
     
  3. On the Lamb: One of the attendants has accidentally left the gate to one of the pens open, and as a result, there’s suddenly a dozen sheep on the loose! They’re quick to scatter, and many will run off to various parts of the Merchant’s Square and towards Canal Street, with the potential to fan out towards other parts of the city as well. Do your best Bo Peep impression and help to round them up! The sheep are easily spooked and agitated, but projecting a sense of calm and other soothing emotions will help to keep them calm in turn, and make it easier to close in and guide them back to their handlers, while impatience or frustration will spook them further and cause them to flee. Patience is absolutely the key to bringing these lost lambs home!
     

  
  
  
  • Prompt F: Magical Girls are the latest craze in Verens! A local group of enthusiasts have heard enough stories from Otherworlders that they want to create their own festival based around it. Of course, nobody actually needs to be an magical girl to participate, nor does gender necessarily matter. No, this is an event for those who appreciate the genre or just want to have some little fun. For each event, there are star gems to be won, which are traded in for sweet goodies, so why not give it a shot? Extra points for those who come in a magical girl costume!
  

  1. Talent Show: Every magical girl has some kind of skill or ability, right? In this event, anyone can show off their pose, speech, transformation, animal-sidekick... whatever they feel best represents a magical girl! Put lots of enthusiasm into it! Everyone else attending the convention must rate their performance on a scale of 1 to 10. The higher the rating, the more star gems you win!
     
  2. Battle Royale: A closed off part of the city has been reserved for more serious magical girls, where the rules allow any magical girl to challenge the other to a fight. There are no rules for how they wish to engage in fight, apart from the loser having to relinquish all of their star gems to the winner. Do you challenge a fellow Otherworlder magical girl? Or do you form a team with one to beat some of the natives, who also fight as magical girls? Be careful, they're quite good at using their emotional effects to their advantage!
     
  3. Gacha Galore: It's the end of the Magical Girl Festival, and now it's time to turn in your star gems. But there's a twist! Nobody gets to choose their prize, but instead they have to pay 20 star gems and let the roulette pick their prize. If you got what you wanted, feel free to show it off! And if not? Well, maybe somebody can trade?
     

  
  
  
  • Prompt G: Make your own! It could include pumpkin spice 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!

Comments

Nero | Fate/Extra

[qualisartifex]

[ C, with a dash of E ]

Why are there no lions to be had at this miniature menagerie?! [ She sounds right annoyed, though not for the reasons some might expect. She doesn't merely wish to view the lions in their natural habitat. ] This won't do at all...these fantastic serpents are beautiful, but they don't have nearly the same presence!

[ She could totally wrestle a wyvern, but something about it just doesn't have the same artistic appeal. ]


[ F ]

[ Nero heard there was an excuse to go up on stage, and by damn, there was absolutely no way she'd ignore such an opportunity! What's more, she's managed to convince one of the zookeepers to let her borrow a wyvern for a time.

The use of the wyvern becomes readily apparent as the creature swoops right on down onto the talent show's stage and the diminutive emperor descends off its back with a hop. The wyvern flies away, having been given orders by its trainer, but Nero takes no notice of its flight. Instead, she holds her hand up to catch a rose that's falling from...the sky? Basically from nowhere, but the moment it touches her hand, it turns into the fantastic red and black blade of Aestus Estus in a flurry of red petals. The sword's even longer than she is tall. ]

Blessed patrons of this fine display! Open your hearts cast your favor upon Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus! I may not fit the mold of the magical girl, but an emperor of magical might, I am very much indeed! [ She grins, looking as if she expects nothing less than amazement. She's gotten a good portion of the crowd interested with the whole wyvern bit, at least. ] If doubt further clouds your hearts, I shall grace you just this once with a glimpse of the Aestus Domus Aurea!

F

[lightofchaldea]

Somehow, it's entirely unsurprising that Nero would use a magical girl contest as an excuse to literally take center stage. Nor is it surprising that she'd come up with such a flashy way to make an entrance. It's even not terribly surprising she'd use her Noble Phantasm to show off, at that. (Clearly, any Nero is still Nero, after all, whether she's the one Ritsuka knows or not.)

... Honestly, she's torn whether or not to say anything or just let things play out, at this rate. So long as Nero is only showing off her theatre and nothing more it should be fine, right?

Hopefully, at least. If nothing else, Ritsuka could try to interrupt if things go too far, but maybe for the moment it's fine to just watch and let Nero have her fun. Hopefully. Don't prove her wrong, Nero...!

[qualisartifex]

The Golden Theater itself is more than enough to steal the breath of the crowd, but where the wonder of it leaves them speechless, it's her next act that probably ruins whatever points she might have earned.

Of course, she takes to singing. Had she any ear for tone, it'd probably be quite a lovely melody! But alas...

Someone should probably stop her, but the audience seems to be caught in a bit of a stupor. No doubt a trance brought about by her very singing.

[lightofchaldea]

Aaaaand of course she would do that. Of course. So much for hoping that maybe being in another world entirely would be strange enough for Nero to maybe show some tiny bit of restraint.

The question is, of course, how to convince the emperor to stop singing? Perhaps there's something else she could be redirected to...?

That gives Ritsuka an idea, at least, now the trick is just getting the Servant's attention over all that racket. Ritsuka somehow doubts she can shout over it, but perhaps...

"Pssst, hey, Nero!"

Maybe waving at her like she has something important (and possibly secret) to tell her will work? It's worth a try, at least.

[qualisartifex]

Success!

As involved in singing as she is, Nero's attention lapses and she casts a look Ritsuka's way. Her smile stays firmly put, and she points to her in acknowledgement. She doesn't drop the microphone, however, so her voice continues to boom louder than she means.

"Yes, girl? I don't take requests, but I shall perhaps hear it for such a face."

[lightofchaldea]

Excellent, she has Nero's attention, at least!

Now comes the tricky part of actually convincing her to not sing. If this were her Nero, she could probably just ask it as a favor on some excuse or another, but in this case... Well, there's no harm in trying, at least, Nero's a reasonable Servant, so the worst that could happen is that she's not convinced and Ritsuka gets to deal with an earache for the next day or two.

In any case, she approaches the stage gesturing Nero closer, like she has something to say but doesn't want everyone else to hear it. Secret tips, you know? If Nero buys it Ritsuka will whisper in her ear, but if not, well, something along the lines of a stage whisper should still convey the sense of something not meant for other ears, right?

"You know, usually most magical girls can sing or something like that... But even the ones who do a lot of it aren't always so great at fighting. So I bet if you really want to impress everyone..."

She's mostly making that up, but the combination of appealing to a Servant's ego and redirecting them to something else is usually the most effective approach to these things, in her experience.

[qualisartifex]

Nero has her suspicions, but she can't find fault in anything Ritsuka whispers. It helps that she finds her face to be honest as well as pleasing to the eye. It also helps that fighting is much more her style too. What better way to show her superior ability than in the arena itself?!

"Aha, a fine suggestion, that. But I'll need an opponent worth conquering if I'm to win their hearts with my flawless swordsmanship."

She can't rightly go back and ask to fight a wyvern. She has a sneaking suspicion their caretakers might not enjoy that. She can't find any sport in it either, majestic as they are.

C

[21towin]

I imagine that lions are quite unknown to these parts, miss.

[Well there goes his quietude, honestly it might take him to get used to these gem things. Oh well, at least it was someone he holds some form of fondness for? It could be far worse.]

[qualisartifex]

So it would seem! It vexes me...how could you possess true and breathing dragons yet not a single lion?! Are they endangered, perhaps?

[21towin]

Or maybe they just never existed here? Hard to say for sure, who knows, maybe these are their dragons.

[qualisartifex]

[ He does make an excellent point. Animals can be rare depending on where you are in the world, so if they're in another world entirely, Earth animals would probably be unheard of! ]

Ah...if that's true, it's a miserable state of affairs. [ For her, that is. ] Perhaps then I should find this world's equivalent beast and make due with that instead.

[21towin]

What would you do if you actually found the equivalent?

[Is it something he really wants to know? Will she build her own cardboard colosseum?]

[qualisartifex]

Wrestle it, of course! What better way to show off my strength?

[ She looks so proud of herself, as if any such beast would be no issue for her to overcome. ]

[21towin]

Now that's a show that I'd pay to see.

[Nero...wrestling with a lion-esque creature. This is the stuff that lemony fanfics are made out of.]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH (Also F!)

[sovereignpc]

[You'd think by now Hakuno would be dulled to Nero's extravagant behavior, but quite frankly...

Well, it'd be a lie to say that that flowery flourish didn't make her heart skip a beat. And she certainly does clap as the Emperor introduces herself to her adoring(?) public, right up until she threatens them with her Noble Phantasm. Hakuno's face pales a bit as she realizes what that means, and she quickly starts squeezing her way through the crowd to try and scramble up toward the stage to stop her.]

Ah, w-wait, wait, wait, Saber, hold on, maybe they're not quite ready for all that just yet!

[qualisartifex]

[ Hakuno succeeds in stopping her, though mainly because she's genuinely puzzled by the look of her. The girl very much resembles her past Master, but how can that be? The feel is not quite the same, yet uncanny in familiarity. Curiouser and curiouser. ]

Whatever do you mean? There's nothing the public enjoys more than a fine stage with which to view a show!

[sovereignpc]

[That look of barest recognition makes Hakuno hesitate for a moment, but there's the matter of the public safety to consider first and foremost.]

Yeah, but you can't just overwhelm them all at once right out of the gate, right? People might start fainting or falling over from ago-ehh, awe.

[qualisartifex]

Hmmm...there is merit to your suggestion. Wearing out the audience in the first act? I'd be an embarrassment to showmanship itself.

[ She nods, as if coming to the realization all on her own. ]

Very well. I shall save the best part for last.

[sovereignpc]

Good!

[Hakuno tries to keep her relief on the down-low. Can't stop now, though, she's got her attention now, time to redirect. Gotta think of something else Nero can do. Anything other than singing.]

In the meantime, I know you have a lot of other talents they'd love to see! Maybe some swordplay or something like that? Or maybe dancing?

[Hakuno's not really sure that Nero can dance, but the way she carries herself, and the flowing, sweeping way she moves sure always makes it seem like she's ready to break into a dance at any moment, or at least a dramatic soliloquy.]

f, also screaming

[castrationfist]

[That last bit actually has Tamamo flying in from off-stage to deliver a chop to Nero's head, materializing as she leaps.]

Absolutely not- In the first place, why would you deploy a Noble Phantasm for something like this?

[... The crowd seems to think this is part of a comedy act, or something, with that chop?]

[qualisartifex]

[ Nero evades the chop by sheer luck, or so she'd claim. Her positioning her sword so the flat of its waved blade takes the brunt instead is purely coincidental. Absolutely. ]

Alas, a vixen appears to halt my performance. If you'd merely asked, I'd have shared the stage.

[castrationfist]

Absolutely not! I would never share the stage with you, but especially not for this! The matter of your singing is one thing, but even more importantly than that is this event!

[She steps back and points dramatically, ignoring the sword.]

You must not participate in this! If you wish to know why... Then the answer is simple!

We cannot allow a second magical girl spinoff to happen!

[qualisartifex]

[ Nero straightens her posture, but the look she gives Tamamo is the look of one positively baffled. The Servant's showmanship is to be admired, if this is all an act. A comedy routine, perhaps? She's not sure. ]

I fear I fail to grasp your meaning.

[castrationfist]

Hmph... Well, then, allow me to enlighten you!

[Caster is... well, extremely theatric, of course. But even more importantly is her well-known ability to ignore the fourth wall when convenient.]

Magical girls, especially those relevant to us, are unfortunately geared towards men with certain.... tastes. Well, to be blunt, it's geared to appeal to nothing but lolicons and the like. And both of us are perhaps, well, too well-developed to appeal to those of that type.

In other words, if the magical girl franchise becomes any more popular, our very own beautiful figures will become our enemies, and our screentime will steadily be reduced to nothing!

[qualisartifex]

[ A migraine. Yes, that's a migraine. Settling deep within her eye socket and her temple. It's but a little pain now but she can tell it'll only grow worse. ]

If your words are true, I still feel no fear! [ She still only caught maybe a third of that but w/e she's trying. ] Whether degenerate or upstanding citizen, the public that loves me shall always be within my favor.