livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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test drive meme

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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, and Wardrobe Manager 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!

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Do Your Work - Except also Break Time

It's been a long time since Axel was last here, it'd seem. People have had new adventures, people have new stories... A few months, at least.

Outside the carnival, back home? A few weeks, tops. He kinda lost track of time, what with the whole being-abandoned-by-your-best-friend and betraying-your-organization thing. And now he's back. The flamelike fae marks on his arms and shoulders, which seem to soak up all the light that touch them, move as he shifts. He's glad to have ditched his coat again, but he's not exactly thrilled with the halter top that was all the understaffed costuming department had to offer in way of mundane clothing. At least it's not pink.

Technically, he's on a smoke break. He doesn't smoke (except when he's angry and literally breathing fire), but it's better than dealing with paperwork all day. He's a little overwhelmed lately, but that's normal for a mercenary, apparently. Didn't used to be like that, but now there's reports. It's great. Just great. Even now he's proofreading, even on break, but at least no one's breathing down his neck.

Will-O-Wisps

Catching these things is hard, but Axel's got an edge; raw speed. His gazelle-like hooves give him the speed, dexterity, and jumping power to keep up with the tiny lights, and his natural abilities protect him from the heat of half of them. The other half's cold still sucks, though, and each one he catches in his clawed hands slows him down a little. Soon, he's not cognizant of where he's going, just chasing the lights, and just crashes into someone. "Hey! Watch it!" His slightly draconic tail whips back and forth and his nose spews smoke, making it clear that he's pissed - in more ways than one.

Capture the Egg

It's late, or maybe it's early. Either way, Axel's trying to sleep, but there is an obnoxious chiming sound coming from outside his trailer. It's just the right pitch to drive him crazy, so he steps out to investigate, only to notice that he's been put in a red jersey over his pajamas. "What's goin' on?"

That's becoming a very common question. It's also an extremely loaded one.

"Very busy," Johan answers with all evasive grace, adding a rueful smile for deflection of further questions. "I didn't think I'd been gone very long, but most of the faces here are new ones." His tactical self-deprecation warms into something much kinder.

"I'm glad to see someone familiar"

Sora's been around the carnival quite a few times since he's gotten here, but you'd think he'd have noticed someone that he, you know, actually knows from home. So it's quite a surprise when he sees such a familiar face around here, and moreso, already covered in fae changes.

Is this really Axel? Or, er, Lea? Axelea?

Rather than go up to him, though, Sora just. Stops. And stares at him. Surely he would've known if Axel was here, right?

It's been a while since Axel was here last, that's all. He kinda took a break for mental recuperation after the vampire incident, with the ringmaster's blessing. Now he's back, and ready to work - or be the lazy asshole that nature intended. Either way, he looks up at Sora, and his expression is similar, to say the least, though at least eye contact makes it obvious which one this is. The marks on his face don't quite match his fae marks, so they must have a different source.

"... Sora. When did you get here?" He doesn't sound hostile, just... confused. He was just coming to save you, dude, when he ended up back here again. Guess his dark corridor led him true after all. He's pretty different looking, from the lightly striped gazelle-like legs to the large horns growing out of his hair, and his eyes glow faintly in the light, but it's still Axel. That much is for sure.

"Axel! It is you!" Sora grins excitedly, racing over to him. "I can't believe you're here!"

The guy absolutely looks completely different, but then, Sora supposes he does too. Even if it's not as drastic. Either way, Sora is totally psyched to see him.

"...Or is it Lea, now? Axel or Lea?"

No one ever said Sora was the most observant.

Of all the tasks involved in caring for the carnival's animals, health checkups might be one of the most stressful.

It's partly the risk that something will be wrong, of course, though that doesn't happen all that frequently (fortunately for everyone who would have to deal with it), but even just the act of weighing and examining the animals, looking at their teeth and checking their feet, can be sort of nerve-wracking, particularly with the larger or less cooperative ones.

On one hand, the rat king isn't very dangerous. On the other, it is very large, and, for some reason, very averse to getting on the scale. When Johan passes by, Ginko is in the process of trying to coax it into place, alternating between holding treats or toys in front of it and nudging at its rear to try and urge it forward. It's... moved maybe a foot in the last five minutes.

He glances up when he hears someone else approach, then gives a slight nod before turning back to prodding at the rat king. "Hey. Alright, c'mon, get on there already - you know, you're not gaining anything for anyone here!"

Edited 2017-03-02 03:05 (UTC)

Admittedly, it's been some time since Johan last saw Ginko, but he still recognises him. Well, there are not very many one-eyed, white-haired men, even in a place like the Carnival.

The rat king is... newer. He stops for a few minutes to watch Ginko pushing and bribing and outright scolding the massive, multi-headed beast. When Ginko notices him, he answers by means of a vague smile before approaching the menagerie,

"I don't think humanising it will be much help..."

Ginko shoots a frown in Johan's direction. Normally he'd be a little friendlier with a worker he hadn't seen in a while (who wasn't, say, Starscream), but, uh. Ginko has never been a fan of being told how to do his job.

"Do you have any suggestions that will, or are you just going to criticize how I talk to the animals?"

Johan wasn't specifically intending for that to be taken as serious commentary, but...

Let's say he's not really surprised Ginko took him at face value.

Correcting him would be perceived as argumentative, which isn't really in Johan's nature. Instead, he raises his them palm (and pad) up, offering Ginko something more practical than word-of-advice.

"I have an extra set of hands."

"Now that, I could use." Ginko sighs and steps back, giving a quiet snort as a couple of the rat king's head twist around to nuzzle at him.

"There's a bag of rice cakes on the fence over there; it likes those, but they're not enough to get it on the scale. If you get in front of it with those, though, I'm hoping it'll be easier to... kind of nudge it into place."

Sora's bigger than when he saw him last, but that's not enough to stop Axel, who is still the better part of a foot taller, from catching him and letting Sora half jump, half be scooped into a hug. Axel's grinning too, even though it's probably at least 80% faked. For Sora to be hear... he's likely in trouble. "Same goes for you! When'd the boss lady pick you up?" DON'T LET THE RINGMASTER HEAR THE THINGS YOU REFER TO HER AS, AXEL. Just... don't.

"... 'sbeen Axel for about 11 years, you talk like that's about to change." Little does he know...

"Things have been rather interesting lately." With one set of eyes watching a cloud of mushi pass over Johan's head, Tanyuu pulls her pipe and tobacco out of her coat. "There has been quite a turnover since the attack...for understandable reasons, of course. We've managed so far, however."

As his expression warms her smile broadens, and she chuckles softly. "As am I, to be honest. It's odd how easily one can feel lonely even in a crowd."

Ah...

Johan looks up at the rat king, which looks at him out of several beady eyes from a couple of different heads, tilted at different angles.

Johan tilts his head slightly in return, but doesn't say anything.

After a second, he steps back from the fence, mostly not meeting Ginko's gaze as he walks the long way around--just about anyone else would have climbed the fence, Johan is aware. But he goes through the barn instead, and walks past the rat king, which hisses--hot, monstrous breath blowing his hair as he passes by on his way to retrieve the bag of rice cakes without a word.

Without any comment, he untwists the sack and retrieves one, holding it out to the beast in offering--his expression benign and unexpectant.

Might be! Gotta ask and make sure. I want the time I spend here to have a purpose.

[Scout's stance relaxes and she takes out the last projectiles with a more casual flick of her saber - and two sizeable chunks of the apple survive this, one of them bouncing off her sleeve. She makes a face.]

Every time I fight and there's food there I end up covered in it. [...that's kind of an overstatement, there's maybe a fleck of pulp.] Universal constant.

Edited 2017-03-02 03:51 (UTC)

"Mmm. I understand." Johan's sorry expression and sympathetic tone still don't exactly specify what he understands.

The intended meaning is 'all of it.' He closes his eyes, appearing for all the world as though he is carrying a burden of knowledge to heavy to share.

Maybe he even is.

"It's only going to get harder, though."

For such a weighty statement, it's very calm. His knowledge of the vampires... he does not believe this will be a short affair. No, he knows that it will not be. He doesn't mind. Not in the slightest. But the RM does. He opens his eyes again.

And doesn't reveal any of that.

"What do you plan to do?"

Sora leaps at Axel and throws his arms around his neck (and he's tall enough to do that now, if only barely, how exciting is that!), and is delighted to be swung around into a hug. Hugs are great.

"A few months ago! I think... two stops ago? Or three. I lost track," Sora laughs. He pulls out of the hug at last so he can look at his friend in the eye.

"Ah, you told me Lea last time I saw you."

"I did?" Color him confused. He was on his way to meet Sora, after all, and he certainly never told him his name was Lea, because it wasn't anymore. To tell him so would be a lie. Not that Axel's not gifted with those... But still, he doesn't need to deceive Sora.

Abruptly, his legs totter a little, and he is forced to set Sora down. Problems with tiny hooves; while he personally can balance on damn near anything, he's got difficulty adapting to carrying others. His legs are thin, that doesn't help either, though they're surprisingly sturdy.

"I've been gone a while, looks like, only felt like a few weeks to me, but I traveled with the circus for about a year and a half, two years before that."

"...yes, it does seem that way." Perhaps before the second attack at The Celebration Tanyuu would have tried to insist that the trouble was behind all of them, but...it's become quite clear that that is not the case. But as is often the case, there is little she herself can do, and she isn't even in a position to try and organize some sort of response. That, for now, is best left to those the Ringmaster has trusted with the task.

His question earns a faint laugh, however. "At the moment? I haven't many plans at all. I don't have much to occupy myself between visits." She quirks an amused eyebrow upward, adding before taking a drag off her pipe, "Like some others I could mention."

Sora lets go of Axel when his feet touch the ground, but doesn't move far beyond that. It does mean he has further up to look, but that's fine.

"Maybe you're just further behind than me? Lots of people come from different points in time. What's the last thing that happened to you back home?"

I had run out of targets to throw, [ said with a little shrug. Strange just has absolutely no shame about using the apple as a target to begin with, even if it meant Scout got a bit covered in food. ]

At least it's just an apple. I imagine if I tossed a tomato at you, the results would be quite different.

... Does this mean he gets to be Lea again? Maybe Organization XIII will collapse and he'll seize his name for himself again... But without a heart, it wouldn't feel right. Maybe something changes in the future. It's too much to hope that after all he's done, he'll still get his heart back.

"... I was coming to help you. I figured you deserved to know the truth, about what happened to Kairi..." He trails off, and rubs his head a little awkwardly. "I guess you know that now, though, huh? No need to rehash, you've got it memorized, right?"

Sora's face falls, just a little. He remembers that. He remembers what happened. He'd thought Axel was dead. But that was a while ago... And he came back. So it's fine, right?

"Yeah. I remember."

Sora surges forward, and wraps his arms around Axel again, around his middle this time.

"I forgave you a long time ago, though."

It takes a second, but Axel holds him back. He's not actually able to really cry, and Sora deserves better than crocodile tears, so Axel's just... uncharacteristically silent for a few seconds. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

He's tired of living like this, but he doesn't show it. Instead, he just grins again. "So, what do you think of the carnival so far? I know it can get kinda... crazy, but it's pretty fun, huh?"

It takes a second for Sora to let go, too. The glimmer of Roxas inside him twinges, and he squeezes tighter before removing himself from the taller man.

"Yeah! It's really great! Everyone's really nice, and there's not much fighting. It's kind of like a vacation!"

Kinda says something when this place is a vacation to him. But then again, his job is just to wander around and help people (something he already does), and no heartless in sight to fight. He gets to stay in one place for once, too. Pretty chill job, if you ask him.

"Yeah. It's pretty fun." Axel doesn't mention how his own job tends to be a bit more... violent. A master assassin at home, and a mercenary here. If Sora looks at the paperwork on the ground nearby, that'll become clear, but Axel's counting on him not bothering to read it. And also not stepping on it, he hopes. "'cept when things get messy. Who's the warden these days?"

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⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #5

Axel | Kingdom Hearts | OTA (Again) | Veteran

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Do Ya Work guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurl

Nu

yis

re-using this from before lmao

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Uhhh there is a gap in my iconset here lmao

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Nuuuuuuuuu

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lmf that icon

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yisssssssssssssssss

Fiiiine, I guess.

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victory

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Axel's so confused, man.

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