livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: GREYSOL

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test drive meme

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: GREYSOL

WELCOME TO THE SHOW!↴

Or, more specifically, Lost Carnival's test drive meme! This is an opportunity to try out your characters in the setting before you apply, or to put together samples for characters you've never played before. There are going to be options for both new arrivals and veteran characters. Before we get started, let's lay down some details:

You can (and should) read the full premise here.
Reserves and Applications are currently OPEN.
You can apply as a newcomer or as a "veteran" character who has been in the carnival for up to three years. In the case of veteran characters, you will need to come up with an explanation of why they haven't been around the carnival recently.
TDM threads can be used as game canon after the fact if both characters are accepted, the players agree to it, and it makes any sense contextually.
If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Head Cook and Treasurer are currently open. Otherwise, we're pretty much down for anything, roles wise.

CURRENT STOP↴

⇨ GREYSOL ⇦
Greysol is a large coastal city that seems to roughly equate to late 20th century Western culture and mores, with a vaguely Victorian teslapunk-influenced aesthetic and somewhat uneven technology. Horse-drawn vehicles and just plain horses are common, but horseless automobiles and strangely 21st century-looking bicycles don’t cause too much of a stir. There are paved streets, skyscrapers, and electricity even if they call it "anbaric lighting". Hot air balloons and dirigibles can be seen in the sky. There are many moving picture theaters, black-and-white and with somewhat questionable sound, but small portable radios are common. Watches that bear a suspicious similarity to smartwatches are all the rage, though they are in fact simply watches and require winding.

Every human and witch in this world has an external soul which most cannot go more than about twenty feet from, and non-consensually touching someone else’s dæmon is tantamount to assault. This presents some logistical difficulties in a big city, but humans have built Greysol to accommodate their other halves. If you want more info about them, look here!

► DÆMONS: Those external souls are called dæmon. The other half of a human's soul, they can come in the form of any type of Earth animal, and are usually of the opposite sex, though not always. The Ringmaster has cast a spell over the carnival's workers in order to give them their own dæmons during their stay, as not having one will make you stick out like a sore thumb. While on the carnival grounds, there is a chance that your visiting character will be caught within this spell, and will develop the beginnings of a dæmon. It will not be as solid as a native dæmon, however.

► MISSING: Alternatively, if you don't have a dæmon, the locals will find the sight of you horrifying - as if they are witnessing a person be split in half. There will be a number of off worlders visiting the carnival at any given time, but for any visiting locals this will be quite shocking. This may cause a bit of a fuss with the NPCs, unless you can convince them your dæmon is just hiding in your clothes or something like that.

Your character won't be able to leave the carnival grounds without signing a contract or eventually finding their way home. Those who app in during this TDM's run will be entering the game between Day 162 and onward - when signing your contract, you do not always leave the tent on the same day you entered. Sometimes the Ringmaster will create a time skip that causes you to emerge after festivities have wrapped up for convenience sake, so there is some flexibility as to when precisely you enter the game.

NEW RECRUITS↴

You gotta start somewhere, right? These prompts are for characters who are arriving in the carnival for the first time, and who are destined to sign a contract. How they go about that is up to you, but in the meantime they can enjoy the sights and sounds of something truly out of this world. Will you become her most recent hire?

► ADMISSION FEES: After crossing into the carnival's realm and passing through the trees, most visitors will find themselves at the front gate - though not all choose to enter that way. If they enter legitimately, however, they will have to pass by a clerk who will trade admission and tickets for various attractions and rides in exchange for "anything of value." What is of value may seem highly subjective, and so some may struggle to produce payment at first, though in actuality the carnival will take anything from mundane currency to items of purely sentimental value.

► MIRROR MAZE: The mirror maze is a big attraction in the carnival, and stretches much further on the inside than it looks like it will on the outside. It's hard to get through, and what's more, after you've been in there for a while your reflections will start gaining a mind of their own - mostly in order to taunt and distract you with personal information. They don't know everything you know, but they know more than they should, and their mind games can be pretty hit or miss.

► GAMER'S CIRCLE: Almost all of the game booths are organized in a large ring around the Cookhouse, called Gamer's Circle. Your can play just about any carnival game you can imagine here, for a variety of prizes sometimes traditional, exotic, or outright magical. Dart tossing? Got it. That game with the water guns? Got it. Most of these booths are currently manned by humanoid spirits who look like they are made of smoke. If they can trick you into earning debt, they will.

► TUNNEL OF "LOVE": A brand new attraction in the carnival, the Tunnel of Love is mostly what you'd expect from such a ride - two people sit in a boat together which journeys through some glitter filled caves, complete with mood music. Unfortunately, there is also something else in there with you... in the form a moody kraken living in the waters, who has very particular opinions about shipping, and may either stubbornly interfere with any attempted intimacy, or may politely encourage it. Or they may just generally be a dick if they're in no mood for either. The Ringmaster insists it is a romance expert.

► TRYING TO LEAF: No matter where you came from, you seemingly emerged from a forest. Obviously, to get back home you should be able to go back in the same direction, right? It turns out you can't. Worse, trying too hard to get through the wood will result in you getting lost, or turned back to the carnival. The trees here are not normal, and are varying levels of alien, including things like trees with glowing fruit or orange flowers that constantly burn like candles.

► WILD CARD: Anything else you can imagine in this setting! There are a lot of possibilities and you're free to explore them. Check out the rest of the game info or the locations page for additional inspiration. Want to make a starter with your character experiencing their first theoretical change? Go for it!

VETERAN WORKERS↴

These prompts are tailored to the carnival's existing employees, the veterans. Odds are they've been here from somewhere between a few months and three years already, and know their way around the block. For them, this is just business as usual - and depending on their attitude towards their job, they may or may not contribute to a few people accidentally getting themselves a contract. Whatever you do, though, don't warn visitors away from the carnival - the ringmaster hates losing business like that.

► DO YOUR WORK: This one's pretty simple - just have your character doing whatever you'd like to have their job be! There is a big list of ideas over here, and you could use this to try things out with a character you intend to be a new arrival, as well.

► BREAK TIME: Whatever you were doing, it's break time! It's time for you to relax however you see fit. Do you enjoy some of the carnival attractions yourself, or is that old by now? Do you hang out in the Cookhouse to get a snack? Do you take a nap? Yolo, baby!

► DUNK TANK: Sometimes acting like a dick will earn you the gentle reprimand of being sent to work in the Dunk Tank for the afternoon - you know that game where people throw balls at a target, and if they hit it you get dropped into the water? It's like that, only sometimes there are daunting (but harmless) critters in the water, or some other strange magical affects to spice things up. Hopefully, the visitors will have bad aim.

► WILD CARD: Anything else you can imagine in this setting! There are a lot of possibilities and you're free to explore them. Check out the rest of the game info or the locations page for additional inspiration. Want to do a performance? Hang out in the Backyard? Choose whatever appeals!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Gamer's Circle]
There is sooo much new data just from being in the Carnival that 9S almost doesn't know where to begin. Pod 153 isn't with him right now, so he can't ask it for suggestions, and it would be too conspicuous for Pod 153 to be hovering at his shoulder right now.

After receiving the "glamour" he'd gotten used to the animal referred to as a monkey that's currently riding on his shoulders. He'd gotten a strange sense that she was a part of himself, especially when she chattered bank to him. But she couldn't really answer his questions about the place. Not really, when he'd only heard about carnivals from Old World records and didn't truly understand them.

So the only solution he can think of to unravel the mysteries before him is to ask someone who would know. Whoooooo is walking past right at this very moment.

Right. Okay. He can do this. He can talk to a human. Who's only one of his creators. No big deal.

Approaching, 9S begins politely, "Excuse me, sir."

Or ma'am, if they look like a female. Or, if he can't tell, 9S will verbally stumble as he tries to figure out how to best address them before totally skipping the title. He points at the nearest carnival game, be it shooting hoops or shooting water into a rotating clown's mouth, with amazing accuracy considering he appears to be blindfolded. "Could you tell me the purpose of this?"

[OOC: I match formats!]

The game that Strange is currently standing in front of is a 'toss the ring over the milk bottle' sort of game. And...he's trying to figure out how to cheat at it. He's got a perfectly good excuse, this is just him trying to figure out how to best hone his magic, it certainly has nothing to do with the fact that he's played this one last week at the carnival for about fifteen minutes straight and couldn't win anything.

A large grey seal, his daemon, flops at his feet and watches him with a bored look, very sort of 'come on dude, really, we can be doing something else instead.' Though thankfully for her, Strange gets distracted when he hears 9S's voice.

"Of course! You toss the ring and try to land it on the milk bottle. You've three chances. If you land one of them, you get a small prize and if you land all three of them, you get a large prize." The prizes for this one are at least typical fairgrounds stuffed animals of dubious quality: a bootleg Pokemon, a rastafarian banana, bears of various colors, and so on and so forth.

9S looks over the prizes, dubious, his daemon mimicking his actions.

"Ummm... People actually want these?" Maybe he'd understand it better if he played the game himself. "I guess I'll give it a try."

He takes one of the rings, weighing it carefully in one hand. The ring doesn't seem like metal, and a quick scan confirms his suspicions. What a pain; this means he can't ~~cheat~~ guide the ring over the bottle with the same electromagnetic field that keeps his sword floating at his back.

...But even if the ring was made out of metal, humans don't really have electromagnetic fields, do they? If he's gonna do this, he better do it the way humans do it. Taking aim, 9S tosses the ring, which lands onto the milk bottle... before promptly bouncing back off it.

"Oh come on!" It slips out before he can catch himself. "That totally landed on it!"

He can't help it. The wry smile on Strange's face is also mimicked in his tone of voice. It may be a bit jerkish of him, but he's amused by 9S missing the milk bottle as well--at least, it makes him feel a bit better that he also sucks at it.

"At the risk of pointing out the obvious, you might want to take your blindfold off."

It doesn't occur to Strange that there's probably a reason 9S is wearing the blindfold in the first place and that bringing up said blindfold might be a sensitive subject.

[OOC: Whoops I didn't realise the glamour only applies outside the carnival until now. Since this isn't in game itself, I guess we can continue as if they're glamoured for this TDM lol.]

"Oh, um." Right. People aren't going to know he's YoRHa here. 9S straightens his posture, resisting the urge to salute. Losing the more casual manner of speech, 9S speaks more formally, as if he were reporting to the Commander. "The object you refer to as a 'blindfold' is a combat visor, sir. It assists with data collection of enemy units."

Records of the Old World indicated that humans generally had their eyes uncovered, but they would also often indulge in wearing glassy eye pieces, though their purpose was unknown. Maybe 9S' visor is unsettling to this man?

Though, that may not be the only thing that's unsettling; 9S' own skin is unnaturally smooth and flawless, a marker of his kind's attempts to mimic humanity. Production costs would be too high if they tried to also copy the wide variety of blemishes humans could have.

He hesitates briefly, before he says, his tone taking an enquiring lilt, "Would you like me to take it off, sir?"

[ ooc: works for me! ]

Combat visor? Enemy units? Well, if this person joins up he's certainly getting shoved with the nightrunners whether he wants to or not. Strange can't help but blink a little in confusion as 9S talks about his visor.

"You can take it off if you want. You've still got two throws left, do whatever you think will help you win something."

It's entirely possible that Strange doesn't know the full capabilities of a combat visor. After all, his attire doesn't look modern in the slightest. Strange is wearing clothing that tends more towards the 1800s, something a bit too old fashioned compared to some of the more modern carnival workers.

If he wants? He's still technically on a mission -- not one mandated by command, but still -- sooo... yeah, he's keeping the 'blindfold' on. He nods.

Taking the second ring, 9S concentrates before tossing the ring again. Like before, the ring drops onto the the bottle, but thanks to the force of 9S' throw and the shape of the bottle, the ring bounces right back out.

9S lets out a frustrated growl. Why's this so hard!? It's so simple... isn't it? He only just barely manages to hold back from verbalising his complaints, and pulls himself back to think about this situation. There has to be some kind of trick to this, right? But he doesn't like the idea of losing at this 'game.'

But this human had said, 'do whatever you think will help you win something,' hadn't he? That's basically permission, right?

"I have an idea. Do you have something small and metal on you?" 9S does have some metal objects, but they're non-magnetic; it would be bad if his supplies went flying around him as he fights. He adds, "It has to be magnetic."

Strange had said do whatever you think will help you win something because he's a terrible influence and has a loose grasp on things like 'rules' to begin with. At no time does it occur to him that the carnival might take a harsher stance on cheating.

Still, as 9S asks him, he looks through his coat pockets. The answer's most likely no...yep, the answer is no. "I'm afraid I don't. However, I can quickly grab something small and metal if that's important."

He kind of wants to rush off and grab something small and metal anyway just to see what this blindfolded person's going to do.

For once, it's not him getting sent on some stupid errand? Hell yeah!

The words, "Sure, go ahead," slip out of his mouth before he realises, wait, a human serving him isn't right at all! He needs to fix this right away!

"I mean. Hold on," 9S hurriedly verbally backpedals. "I should get it. You are a human after all."

Huh? Because he's human? But isn't this person human also? Strange just gives 9S a downright confused frown before he continues talking, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world.

"I don't see what me being a human has to do with anything but I work here. I'll certainly find something faster than you can especially since I know where the supply closet is."

Just straight up gonna steal some supplies, hell yeah, he's got this.

Well, that's logical, but...

"Sir." He throws out the YoRHa version of a salute, left hand horizontal across his chest. "I was created to serve mankind. I cannot accept a human running errands for me."

That'd be like, telling the Commander to fetch him a water bottle! She'd have his hide!

To serve mankind? So that means he wasn't human? And he said created...that means he was probably digital or something like that. Strange has found that most technological things he didn't understand were digital.

"So, hypothetically speaking, does that mean if a human ordered you to do something, you would have to do it?"

He's not entirely sure how to feel about that. It's one thing for someone to have a servant, that's a working relationship, but created to serve? Even servants had their own lives and time when they didn't have to listen to anybody. And mankind was simply too broad a group for one to serve.

"Yes, that's right, sir."

Unless he got an order that was so incredibly stupid that he refuses. But then again, when was the last time he refused an order? He'd even terminated some of his fellow androids with 2B on orders, even though he'd questioned it.

A moment of hesitation. "Well." A pause, as he internally debates adding more. "I don't have to. But it would be like ignoring orders from my superior officer." You just don't do that, even if she IS a slave driver. "As a human, you would be the highest in our chain of command."

Glory to mankind and all that.

9S | Nier: Automata

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i have no idea what im doing here

same here does that make this the blind leading the blind

blindfolded leading the blindfolded

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