idolpro | Princess Maker 1.5: AlcheME!

Princess Maker 1.5: AlcheME!

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find the room inside looks like the living room of a mansion. There are several doors, but one in particular stands out to you: it is ornately decorated, the very door's wood itself carved beautifully with gold etched in to make luxurious patterns depicting what looks like the sky and the wind blowing through the grasslands. Though the door is closed, you can see through it—as if it's somewhat transparent.

The room is painted baby blue and a gold-plated cradle sits in the room. Inside, a baby cries—high pitched and noisy. That child, your charge—you're her nursemaid, so you go to her and rock her to sleep. ]

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[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby sits up, trying to climb out of her cradle; a little toddler dressed prettily with expensive clothes beams pleasantly; a tantrum, thrown by the little girl who's distressed; the little girl holding a puppy, pleased as punch; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the middle of the open doorway, a young girl at the age of 11 sits on a chair, smiling at you. A long-haired, pure white cat is curled up beside her.

This is your little girl. you couldn't help spoiling her, honestly—after all, she's a noble too, and she should like to become a princess as well. She deserves it! But you also know, with how her family history has gone, she's going to have to work to get to the top. Still, you have faith in her—she's your girl, after all. Fortunately, when she goes to the Lost Continent, she won't be alone: you, as her longtime caretaker (her third parent, really, or her first, if you consider how her family's left her care entirely to you), may accompany her to her new school. You'll be her ally, her support, her greatest weapon; you'll be the one who determines her success . . . or her failure. ]

[ Of course, you're not the only one that thinks your charge deserves the world, and you're not the only one that thinks your charge could bring about great change to the world.

You've been a follower of The Great Z's doctrine for some time now; she will come to liberate this country, and she is well on her way, but she recognizes that her reach could be farther. If her words could take root in the Lost Continent—wouldn't that be grand? And your charge could be the first hook.

You may have subtly or not-so-subtly implied as such to your local revolutionary leaders, and soon enough, you heard back: The Great Z entrusts the task of guiding that child to you. Just a little after that, a mysterious benefactor sent word to your employers, declaring that your charge would be sent to the Lost Continent with them as her sponsor.

The Great Z must be smiling, somewhere. She's surely blessed you . . . and you won't let this blessing go to waste. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With the help of several, the sportspuck bake sale would be a success; the commoner's guardian is able to become a coach! Sportspuck is available as a sport at school now.

One family begins to stand out as the belle of the class—the top dog, if you will. Her family holds many many parties and fundraisers, of which many girls attend, even if they aren't rich enough to go—but surely everyone's all friends enough that status shouldn't matter. There, the girls learn of the family's many business endeavors in the Lost Continent: fashion, cosmetics, bakeries, the works!

. . . For some reason, in these parties there are incidents of pickpocketing and thievery, although no one can figure out who did them. . .

At the end of the semester is a grand ball, though there's a bit of a ruckus there: many of the nobles invited are rather unpleasant, insulting and passive aggressive that someone keeps getting invited when there's clearly a rat in their presence. After all, who else keeps stealing things? First the beginning of the school year, now the thief is brazen enough to steal directly . . .

The atmosphere is unpleasant. Then, a fight nearly breaks out—fortunately the girl from the knights families manage to stop it, with another helpfully keeping people away, but the accusations toward the commoner are still widely heard: on top of being a thief, she would have her own gang of savages come around to ruin their livelihoods, to cause disruptions in their lives, to stir mayhem and humiliate them. She doesn't seem to understand what they're referring to, and so they threaten: mark their words, those who strike them will pay with blood—

. . . And then, somehow, the knight's girl calms them down, even to the point of rescinding their words if only so that she would not hear the harshness of them. Rumors and whispers spread throughout the party: it must be true. This girl can make anyone do anything for her.

The party ends before the hour is up and everyone manages to go home . . . but there are rumors that those who had complained loudly and threatened the commoner had their carriages tampered with, resulting in terrible injuries. Several girls won't be able to make it to school for some time, and a few have started entirely homeschooling. . .

With all that in mind, the school decides to take a semester to renovate, thanks to the many donations from almost everyone but especially one family. Well, at least on the surface it's renovations: there are, however, rumors that the Lost Continent program might try to go on pause due to how unruly the savage locals are. Perhaps the Lost Continent is lost for a reason. . .

At least sportspuck is still open. Even the savages love sportspuck.

In any case, there are a few things most pertinent to you:

Well, at least all the flack your daughter's been getting has been redirected! . . . Back to the commoner, of course! Isn't that grand . . .
One family invited you to a tea party with another: it seems to the guards of the school have been causing trouble with common citizens and locals, even going so far as to hurting their charge when she was only standing up for what's right. Isn't that awful? Shouldn't the higher classes do something about guards hurting lower and middle class citizens? Is this related, or is this unrelated. . . ?
Your businesses are doing well! A little too well. In fact, it seems some locals aren't too keen on your businesses being around, especially since your family is the best of the best here: you find your boutiques damaged, the windows smashed, some merchandise taken. They say it was people in gold.
Your charge has taken to selling justice as a result. It seems she's taking in suspected criminals to . . . rehabilitate them. This is certainly not a concern, whatsoever. It seems they're really truly good people now when they come out and that's completely and totally fine.

What, if anything, should you do?

[SINCE THE GMTS ARE CRASHING:

- Everyone's attention being on avante's princess: Encourage Venus to stand by her and use her new influence as top of the class to help clear her name when people are being mean to her and ask her if she needs any help. If she does want help! Do some investigating into who is actually behind all these problems!

- Tea party: Ask Venus if she wants to go and let her if she does. Encourage Venus to look into problems with the guards, Alch will also go investigating themselves and try to find out what the truth is, and if there's any way they can use their influence to stop anyone getting hurt and protect people. Find out what they mean by 'doing what's right' and depending on what it is, have a conversation with Venus on what the real right thing to do might be. Open minds on every front!

- Smashed boutiques: We don't believe avante's princess is responsible and laugh any accusations off as if they are nonsense, how silly! She's such a sweet girl, why would she waste her time with this? She's too busy being AN AMAZING ATHLETE did you see her last game? Big up her reputation.

We repair the shops and then double down on kindness terrorism against our competitors. Reach out to them and help people in the local community, offer business trades and partnerships. No hostile takeovers or anything, this is about helping others to flourish and make the most of their own skills, let everyone win!

But if anyone wants to try and take advantage of alcheme's kindness and come for them, well, maybe a little hostile takeover and turning them into AlcheME employees instead. THEY MAKE THEIR CHOICES.

- Selling justice: We teach Venus the alcheme abilities, along with a warning to be careful who she uses them around and make sure she doesn't become a target from anyone who doesn't understand magic. We use invisibility, shrinking, and teleportation to investigate the creepy barn and find out what rehabilitation actually means. If it is CREEPY AND BAD AS SUSPECTED, well, we have to teach Venus exactly how creepy that is and that's not actually helping people, and make sure she doesn't get groomed into a cult.

In fact we're going to team up with some KNIGHT FAMILIES, maybe covertly send out the word to some KNIGHT FAMILIES once we've found out what's going on, hey pep hey HSS wanna help us fight a cult? I know this is a big assumption on it being a cult but come on it's an evil cult this is not subtle. ANYWAY LET'S REVEAL THE CULT AND USE ALL OUR POLITICAL SWAY AND KNIGHT POWER TO OUT THEM AS EVIL AND PUT THEM IN JAIL. Venus these people go to jail because they are ACTUALLY BAD. Heck maybe we can pin some of the crimes thrown the avante girl's way on them and get the heat off her if we can't actually find out the truth with our other investigations. Don't tell Venus about frame jobs tho this is adult business.

ALSO: Continue having tea parties to help daughter win friends and influence people, continue helping her with her homework in family study bonding, also some family sparring sessions teaching her effective ways to use her new alcheme abilities and creative uses to get her out of trouble without people noticing or accusing her of witchcraft. Invisibility and smoke bombs are your friends Venus.

NOTE IF ANY OTHER ALCHS ARE ALIVE AND HAVE COMMENTS, I AM SLEEPING AND CANNOT EDIT, JUST SAY YOUR CHANGES HERE OK OK]

Edited 2020-09-27 22:59 (UTC)

You investigate who's behind all the problems! You find out that it seems to be many many many perpetrators, and possibly there's a whole conspiracy here, but—

Before you can do anything about your findings, a noble calls for a trial, and another noble provides evidence, indicting the commoner's family as well as the commoners that conspired against the nobility.

Fortunately, your faith in Diving Chryselephantine Kingfisher is rewarded: although her entire family is jailed, she alone is able to get out scot-free, due to your assistance with her reputation.

You discover that there's great tension between the "savage" locals and the guards, who all hail from the Kingdom: it makes sense that most of the aristocrats here are actually installed from your home country, or rather . . . several different countries across the sea. After all, this is a joint colonization attempt—the locals don't feel they need to be colonized, but everyone else begs to differ. After all, there are so many wars here, and they're so behind in development, it's pitiful! . . . But of course, the Devil is in this land, and that's why it's the Lost Continent, so this is difficult work. The guards genuinely believe they're helping, though: they just need to keep the peace long enough for the savages to become civilized folk, and if that means locking up a few Devil-possessed folk and executing them, well, so be it.

There aren't many competitors here; you're actually pretty close to being a pioneer! The competitors who are here are definitely unhappy with your advances; they'd definitely benefit if you were kneecapped . . . ah, but some of the local community is willing to take advantage of the situation—not take advantage of your kindness, but rather, take the brave first step forward to be your business partners in the first place. After all, they really don't trust your lot, but if it means they'll be able to get better means to survive—well, then, so be it.

You investigate the creepy barn, but not before teaching Venus all of your cool AlcheME! abilities. That might have been a mistake? That might have been a mistake.

Anyway, is it as creepy as you suspected? It's a torture barn. There is torture. I mean, it's rehabilitation. Oh, it's fine, don't worry about it.

Unfortunately one knight family has decided to leave the country, and the other knight family has been accused of witchcraft and jailed, along with one noble family, so they can't help you, like, at all. Uhhhh, wow! That sucks real bad!

This plan would have probably definitely worked, if not for the fact that you were mcfuckin' abandoned here. Well, it sucks to call "being jailed" "abandoning", but you know.

Venus is very disappointed you don't like her torture barn. She's only trying to do good in this world, don't you know? She's the only true good, after all—perhaps second to, no, even superseding The Great Z in goodness. She understands, though: you're just not ready for her.

She'd reeeeaally hate to send you to the rehabilitation barn . . . Fortunately, there's no one better at running away from danger than AlcheME!, so you do manage to get yourself escaped from the rehabilitation barn before anything bad happens to you.

Unfortunately, with Venus' incredible social prowess, she's declared you possessed by the Devil publicly, dragging your own reputation down and casting herself as a tragic orphan to gain the public favor. You'll never be able to show your face in public again.

You made your daughter too powerful.

Once she's covered her tracks, which you so helpfully gave her the tools to do, she returns to the Kingdom—the school has closed down, after all, forrrr. . . many reasons. She takes her final exam, passing with flying colors, and she becomes a legitimate heir of the Lost Continent.

You know she'll be back, to cleanse this land of its wrongs.

You dread the day.

You may now proceed to Endgame.

[Oh dear maybe rehabilitation was not the best thing to teach our child]

Things got hectic, huh.

Edited 2020-09-27 20:05 (UTC)

Christ. It's gonna take more than a couple of math lessons to sort this shit out.

Yeah. And we can't predict how all the other teams are going to act so whatever we plan, things could still go wild for them...

We've got to work hard to make sure things turn out for the best.

What're you thinking? I ain't any good at this sort of stuff...

Is there like... any way to know if this is just rumors, or what?

We can go investigating things ourselves. We still have our powers, right? We could use invisibility potions or shrink ourselves to go do some spying.

I guess that's true...

Wish I knew how much of this commoner shit was avante, and how much was the game just fucking with us.

Avante wouldn't have heard enough of our business to sabotage things until now, would they? I really doubt it's them attacking our business. I bet our business rivals are just trying to take advantage and make her a scapegoat.

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