livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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test drive meme

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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 read the full premise here.
Reserves and Applications are both 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 and the players agree to it.
If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Treasurer, Wardrobe Manager, and Acquisitioner are currently open. More roles that currently need filling are listed here!

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. Visitors to the carnival comes from many different worlds today, as the ringmaster casts out her recruitment lures. 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 (pictured above) 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.

► NOT YOUR WHEELHOUSE: Sometimes, even magical ferris wheels get stuck. The carnival's particular wheel is enchanted to create a particular out of this world experience - as you pass along the top, you feel as if they are so close to the sky that you can interact with the stars like baubles hanging above your head. Of course, the novelty probably wears off when the wheel is broken and you've been stuck enjoying the light show with some stranger for the last half hour. How are you going to pass the time?

► 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.

► WILL O' WISPS: The ringmaster's will o' wisps have gotten free, and she's asked that everyone keep and eye out and help her reclaim them regardless of their official jobs. Wisps are small creatures that burn both hot and cold and comes in a few different variations of the same basic theme. Handling them physically (or psionically, or magically, for that matter) is difficult due to their near intangible nature. Touching and being around them can result in confusion and a sensation similar to being comfortably drunk.

► 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!

► RIDDLE GAME: For a bit of fun, the ringmaster has left a variety of locked chests around the worker areas of the carnival, each with instructions and a riddle written on their lids. The chest will accept three guesses from each worker before refusing to respond to them any further. If you guess the right answer, the chest will open and you will be rewarded with some manner of fun magical knick knack. If you've run out of guesses, maybe you can conspire with someone else and promise to split the prize?

► CAPTURE THE... EGG?: The Ringmaster likes to keep things exciting for her employees, and this time she's devices a game that mixes an Easter egg hunt with capture the flag. She's hidden various metallic "eggs" around the carnival that chime like bells when people get near, and divided participants into three teams (red, blue, yellow of course.) The carnival has been divided into three zones, and the objective is to gather as many eggs as possible for your team (three points for gold, two for silver, one for copper.) However, when you are in a zone that doesn't belong to your team, if they can snatch off your team flag they can take you to "jail" and confiscate any eggs you may be holding for their team. When in doubt, bullshit the rules! This is a prompt, after all.

► 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

[By now she probably knows about Sans, at least a little bit - maybe she's seen him sleeping in his lawn chair, or standing around looking ominous in the evening. He's not generally the most forward, though, so this could be the first time they're appearing. He shows up without much fanfare, and drops what remains of a hooded coat onto her work table. It looks like it's been both shredded and set on fire.]

Hey, buddy. I toasted my work coat so I need a new one.

[He's wearing a far less elegant replacement at the moment. It's best not to ask about it.]

You're one of the new tailors, right?

[Heard of yes, seen up close no. And so his sudden appearance is startling enough she gives a jump and pricks her thumb with a needle. Popping it into her mouth she looks rather silly for a moment then sheepishly smiles.]

S-sorry you um...startled me. I am one of the new Tailors yes. Honey Lemon. It's a pleasure to meet you...

[She's doing remarkably well getting used to all these new monstrous people but meeting a walking talking skeleton is still a little out there even for her. She finds herself questioning the biology of it as she does with most things. Scientists are rarely comfortable just leaving it down to "Magic" and letting that be the end of it.]

[Sans would know, being of a scientific background himself. Of course, magical science is a whole 'nother ballpark when it comes to mysteries.]

Ah. I have that effect on people.

[He puts out a hand to shake. Yep, it's definitely a skeleton hand. the tips of the fingers are sharp and long like claws.]

The name's Sans.

[Welp, it may be a clawed skeleton hand but Honey is polite to a fault and accepts it shaking enthusiastically.]

Then it's a Pleasure to meet you Sans!

[She'll take up his jacket now to study it's damage and determine how much of it she can salvage and how much will need to be patched. It's looking like she'd have an easier time just making him a new one so she sets it back down and gathers up her measuring tape.]

If you don't mind me asking how did your coat get so toasted? Maybe I can get some materials to make the next one more sturdy.

[That's a long story, and not one Sans is going to actually explain, so instead he just shrugs his shoulders.]

It was the fire that did it, I'd figure. I'm the Warden around here, if you didn't know. It kind of gets me into trouble, once in a while.

[She laughs gently and gestures for him to stand on a milk crate so she can begin measuring him.]

Fire will do that. I love a good explosion so I've treated all my lab coats with a blend of my own creation to protect from burns and repel stains. I still haven't quite perfected it though it makes the coat difficult to clean properly.

[He quirks an eyebrow at that, and then concedes to do as he's asked. He wasn't expecting to have to give measurements, and he feels weird doing so, but the old coat is too messed up to just demand that she work it out from there. He steps up onto the milk crate - Sans is very short, around 4'6", and so the crate probably struggles to even put him on the level with her.]

Lab coats, huh? [He prompts, curious.] What do you study? Chemistry? Alchemy? Baking?

[He was more of a physics guy himself, but that didn't make chemistry any less interesting.]

[As soon as he's in position she moves gracefully around him like she's done it a million times before, looping the tape as best she can around his shoulders, his waist or what qualifies as one, arm length and so on.]

Well my major is Chemistry but it's a short leap to go from that to baking isn't it?

[She laughs brightly.]

Actually one of my friends Fred was always going on about how I make the best brownies. If I can get the ingredients I'll make some to share with you all!

[Scribbling down some notes in a pad she mentally adjusts for how the coat should hang as to not give off the appearance that there is nothing under it. We don't want Sans to look like a walking coat rack after all.]

I suppose in a setting like this however with magic and such, Alchemy might not be a far leap from what I do would it?

[The way his clothes hang off his body is actually sort of weird - it's almost like there's some kind of field around his skeleton that makes it look more like there's a body under the cloth, applying a slight pressure from the inside, except when you actually press against it it will give way. Magic, my guy. It does the damndest things. It's part of the mystery as to how Sans manages to be both fat and a skeleton.

Suffice to say, if she pulls the tape in too close around his lack of waist he'll get sort of shifty and uncomfortable. He definitely doesn't wear clothes that are form fitting, and for a good reason.]

Bet the Cookhouse could get you set up for any baking you wanna do. The Ringmaster is a lot of things, but none of 'em are anti-experimentation. Especially if it means that everyone gets brownies. But maybe I'm bias.

And you're right, alchemy would probably come like second nature to a trained chemist. It's just about learning to work with new materials.

[Thankfully Honey is doing her best to be perceptive, so when it's clear she's in an uncomfortable area she'll shift her attention elsewhere.]

There we go I think that's all I need there.

[Setting the tape aside she picks up his coat or the remains of it feeling the fabric curiously.]

I'd love to learn how, the more I can learn then the more useful I can be. The more I can help others and use science to better the world around me. That's what drove me to Chemistry in the first place!

[And after a moment she added.]

That and explosions are super cool!

[Wow, that's actually adorable. Sans is infamously hard to read based on his expression, but it wouldn't be wrong to note a bit of fondness in the way he watches her say that. Remind him of a young him, or something, in a way that isn't meant to be insulting. His tail swishes back and forth a couple times in interest, and then he sits down on the milk crate leisurely.]

Can't argue with that logic. As you can see, [he gestures at his ruined coat] I've been known to have a blast with them, myself.

...I'm more of a physicist at heart, though. Specialty in magical theorem.

Oh! One of my best friends was a physicist! His work in functional yet safe lasers has really helped us out with our...well..."Extra curricular" activities.

[She laughs delighted and sets the scraps of fabric down pulling out some different colors and laying them on the work table for San's to pick from.]

We used to fight crime with some other scientists. It was a lot of fun actually!

[Wow that sounds like something his teenaged self would have dreamed about - crime fighting in a gang of rogue scientists. The reality of it ended up being less fun in his case, but her, it sounds like she has a good thing going.

He wasn't really expecting to be included in the design part of this arrangement, so he just kind of stares at the color swatches for the moment.]

"Used to"?

[And interesting detail, and he's curious.]

Oh well...

[Her smile gets a little softer, a little sadder and she busies herself by making some sketches of what she imagines his new coat to look like.]

I mean it doesn't look like I'll be leaving here anytime soon does it? So they'll have to keep up the fight without my help. I worry about them is all.

[Ah, yeah. That's what she means. Sans shrugs a shoulder, watching her carefully.]

Eh. They'll be alright. Y'know, the Ringmaster does mean it when she says she can take you right back to where you left off... They probably don't even have to realize you were gone.

[And a year isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.]

[That warms her smile a little more.]

That's a relief. I wasn't entirely sure how much of what I was told to take literally. This is a lot of new territory for me. I mean, magic and transformations and so many wonderfully different people! It's exciting and kind of scary but in a good way!

I honestly just wish I could have brought them along. They could use a nice vacation or...just something new to shake things up you know?

[She turned the notepad around offering Sans approval over her jacket design so far. It was a lot like his previous model, but it looked like she had drawn a design in the style of a holiday from her home.]

[Well, that attitude is already way better than a lot of new arrivals. Though he's not super sure she would end up wishing her friends had come along by the end of it. All depends how it pans out, and if they have a repeat of last year.]

Something new it can definitely offer.

[He takes a moment to puzzle at the design she's drawn - he doesn't have strong opinions about fashion, so the fact that it doesn't look uncomfortable his probably good enough. One thing, though:]

Can you put a hood on that? I need it for my aesthetic.

Consider it done!

[Taking back the notepad she makes some more sketches so that she doesn't forget.]

It might take a day or two depending on how our supplies are, but feel free to check back in and I'll let you know how it's coming!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #4

TAILORS WORK

Re: TAILORS WORK

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