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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[This is burnsbright's other account. Mostly complete app here.

Scout's a veteran here from Rules Lawyers to Dracula World. She was a fourteen-year-old Jedi Padawan working off a contract to get stronger in the Force, leaving her with a Hoojib-style energy-feeding apparatus on her forehead. She was highly independent, sunny and kind, and surprisingly calculating and intense whenever fit hit the shan, the kind of person who spends hours every day exercising and training and who'd happily discuss the Jedi in glowing terms.

Now she's seventeen or so and dressed differently in a greatcoat and simpler shirts and trousers, with heavy muddy boots. There are those small horns, the long-furred tail, those brass fingernails and copper-colored throat scales, but now there's a strangely curly lock of hair that's a little apart from the rest, and her face is more set as she takes things in.]

Doesn't look too different, huh. [Were you looking at her? Now she's looking at you. Suddenly, a smile!] Hey, where can I find the Ringmaster?

[OTHER OPTION: It's breaktime. Scout carries a box of darts, small balls, and miscellaneous small weighty probably not-valuable items up and sets it on a table, looking up with a wide, slightly forced smile. Totally not self-conscious or at all nervous here.]

Anyone want to help me with lightsaber practice? You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a remote.

[OPTION THREE: Somewhere out of the way, Scout balances a long, heavy stick on end in the palm of her hand, her lightsaber held and unlit in her other. She stares intently at the stick, not moving except to breathe and blink for a long moment until, very suddenly, she tosses the stick up and lashes out with the blue blade in a quick motion. Three pieces of stick clatter down. Scout extinguishes her saber and scowls, tail lashing.]

I'm getting sloppy.

Edited 2017-02-25 22:29 (UTC)

Admissions Fee

[Being blind has its perks when you can use it to your advantage. It doesn't matter that magic lights up enough of things that she can still see most everything and where she's going (which is weird in and of itself for it be switched 'on' for so long). She slides her walking stick along the ground and 'looks' around, pretending she has no idea the clerk even exists.

Said clerk, however, certainly sees her and is not nearly as busy as Oree had hoped, calling out to her.

She resists the urge to flinch and turns slowly, tilting her head.] Oops. Afraid I didn't see you. [haha...

When he explains she has to pay something "of value," Oree frowns and shakes her head.] I just have this. [She raises the walking stick, eyebrows raised.] And you wouldn't take that from me, would you?

[Send help.]

Mirror Maze

[Who the fuck led the blind girl into the mirror maze. Or maybe it's for the best, because she's navigating it pretty well, actually, which is apparently not good enough for her reflection(s). It's a little startling to see them at first when they first light up in her vision and she makes a slight face that they mirror (ha).]

Fist Madding, then Bright Itempas. From godling to Skyfather, you really fucked your way to the top, huh?

Oh-- [WELL SHIT OKAY. Gonna go hard here right off the bat?]

'You're so beautiful, Oree, so lovely, so wonderful, if only your eyes weren't so deformed!' Even Madding didn't really want you, did he?

[Oree turns and begins to walk off, but in her aggravation she's not paying attention and bumps into a mirror and stumbles back, much to her reflection(s) laughter.]

Gamer's Circle

[She can't really play any of these games, but that doesn't mean the people manning them aren't trying their damnedest anyway. Which is how Oree finds herself with some darts being shoved in her hands, which she gives a baffled look.]

I don't think you thought this through. [She doesn't even know where the target is! She urns around seeking someone else out near-by, trying to press the darts (carefully!) into their hands] Here. Why don't you throw them instead?

[Whenever he sees new people around, Sans has started to make a habit of passing through the maze ever so often, just in case anyone is having... difficulties. After all, it seems like a prime way to piss of guests - that, and if they do any property damage in there, it's something he'll have to take to the Ringmaster, since more than one person has gotten themselves into debt over broken mirrors.

Thankfully this time it's just bumping into them. As soon as Sans shows up, a few mirrors down, one of the reflections bothering
Oree stops what they are doing out of sheer annoyance at Sans showing up.]

Damnit, now HE'S here.

[Sans gives them a grin, but focuses on Oree mostly. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and shrugs.]

Think it'd be bad for business to hang up warning signs in this place? The spirits in here have the worst sense of humor.

[OOC: I just looked at her profile, and monsters like Sans are made of almost all magic so I think that means she'd be able to see him, just as a note!]

Edited 2017-02-26 06:45 (UTC)

Was your home life too easy for you?

[It's Sans, sitting up in one of the nearby trees, and Scout will recognize him. He's been in the carnival for almost three years now, and is currently the Warden. Back when Scout was last here, he was just another security team members - but after how many people left after the vampire world, maybe it's not as surprising as it could be that he's had to move up in the world.

...It's still sort of surprising though, mostly because Sans has a history of being a lazy piece of shit.]

Never sure which is the vacation and which is the business, with you people.

[Scout swipes her sleeve over her sweaty forehead, and smiles. ...she'd really liked the last Warden and it's definitely surprising who succeeded her.]

Sans! Hey.

[She'd thought when she first met him that he was a Givin, one of the skeleton-looking species which usually had faces shaped like tragedy, and which were wild about math; they greeted people by presenting each other with equations to solve. So she'd tried that, Scout's good at math.]

I heard a new one. You wanna hear it?

[Last time she was here she would have been all over a chance to talk about how this is way easier than living in the Temple and she had to maintain her edge. Now she's deflecting.]

[Scout takes pity and chirps up from some feet away.]

A song or a story or that kind of thing will work. Admissions are flexible! I saw someone get in with a lock of their hair once.

[Oree turns and does a double-take, mouth dropping in surprise. A scream wells up in her throat and sticks there as she clutches to her walking stick, resisting the irrational urge to start batting at him with it.

There's a lot of strange, scary things she's seen in her life, but a walking talking skeleton definitely takes the cake. A walking, talking, joking skeleton.

There's a bubble of nervous laughter and she looks around. Whoever or whatever he is, the reflections don't seem to like him very much so that...That's good? At least? She won't dare run off potential help by being rude.]

Well, I'm sure it'd help if someone could actually read them. [Even if she's made it obvious she could at least see him, Oree gestures to her blinded eyes and smiles sardonically, her voice tense despite herself.]

Besides, if there's anything I've learned, it's that people tend to just ignore signs.

[She turns her head in the direction of the voice, frowning skeptically]

It can't be as easy as that. There's always a catch.

[That definitely goes a long way to confuse him, because he pretty much saw the expression that he's accustomed to receiving the first time he meets someone. That is, the 'oh my god it's a skeleton' look. It'd be pretty hard to give that one when you're blind - he had initially assumed she wasn't, because it's not honestly in his nature to assume that physical abnormalities mean anything until proven otherwise.

It gives him pause, though, and he gives his own body a somewhat offput glance, briefly running a hand down his front as if he's not quite sure what happened there. It's a bit of uncertainty and self-consciousness that he normally wouldn't show if he knew someone could see him for certain. She's giving him mixed messages, here.]

They've got something for that, don't they? Braille? [Maybe not in her world.] We'd hate to turn a blind eye to the needs of our customers.

[Okay so many making a pun about someone's disability isn't a good way to start a conversation, but consider it payback for that weird look.]

[Scout smiles more wryly now, though from the wander of the other's eyes she doesn't think her expression can be seen. She is not hugely magical; microbes made of 'magic' live mutualistically in her, but those are very tiny compared even to human cells, and there are layers of pigment and clothing in the way anyway.]

Welllll. Depends on how much you want to get in! If you come in you pay, one way or the other. It's just nicer to decide that for yourself.

Won't hurt to offer and then ask if that'd be good enough, though.

[ Strange had been sitting on a picnic table, idly eating an apple as Scout walks up, holding a box of items. After she sets said box down, he can't help but peer in the box out of sheer nosiness as she asks something about a lightsaber (he's got no idea what that is) and something remote (he's got a fairly good idea he doesn't know what that is either.)

Naturally, the thing to do when given questions is to bother said person with more questions until he figures out what she's talking about to begin with. ]

I suppose that all depends on what I need to do! I've no idea what a lightsaber is to begin with, after all.

You just have to throw things at me! [Pause. Wait, that could go wrong.] Throw things into my vicinity, I mean, don't try to dart me in the face. That way I can practice intercepting them with my sword. Old tradition, see.

Well, that seems easy enough.

[ All of this is making a bit more sense now. Of course, Strange being Strange, he isn't just going to throw the items. No, if there's a way to make something needlessly complex and use his magic, you bet he's gonna make something needlessly complex to use his magic.

With a clawed hand, he gingerly picks up one of the balls. Tossing it directly into the air, he makes a gesture with his other hand, quickly muttering something under his breath. The ball hovers mid-air, lifted on a current of wind.

He's such a needless show off and is grinning in a completely show-offy sort of way. ]

I'm ready when you are!

[She can't do that. Well, she can lift things with the Force, but it's an effort, and air isn't involved. Scout remembers this kind of thing from last time, that so many carnies have strange powers; she envies them, but it doesn't feel as personal as if they were simply stronger in the Force. The point on her forehead, what looks like a third horn but small and skin-covered, starts to uncoil.

Scout grins back and curves her tail up behind her close against her back, out of the way.]

Carnies. Never change!

[She takes up the silver hilt of her lightsaber and holds it in a ready position. The blade sings into life. Scout envies a lot of powers, but she wouldn't trade the lot of them for this, her line of heart's fire blue.]

Come on then!

Edited 2017-02-28 16:00 (UTC)

Most people would blame my status as a magician over my status as a carny!

[ It's said with a little laugh, as Strange levitates more of the objects. This'll be good for him as well. He's always trying to push his magic, take into different places, why not see if he can coax the air into doing two different things at once? Logically speaking, he should be able to do it. Practically speaking, these sort of fun little parlor tricks are magic that he's only just now practicing.

With a grin and a flick of his hand, one of the darts zooms towards Scout's position. It's not flying towards her exceedingly fast, about as fast as it would be if Strange had actually thrown it himself. ]

[She catches the dart with her blade, and the dart is gone. There's a smell of ozone in the air, like a lightning storm.]

You could move around, too. The thing with remotes is they shift around unpredictably.

[Also they fly and their darts are stun blasts, but hey.]

Ideally I'd be blindfolded. Maybe another time!

Definitely another time. This is fun!

[ says the person whose job in the scenario is to throw things at Scout. With another nod, one of the balls shoots towards Scout, this time in a larger arc, more of a curveball type of movement than anything else. ]

More. Faster! Come on, can you do it?

[A tiny sliver of the ball isn't incinerated, though it's melted and deformed from contact with her lightsaber, and splats on the ground. That's the tricky thing with practicing on solid objects - her blade isn't terribly wide.]

Of course I can do it!

[ With a hand gesture, Strange sends two of the darts flying at Scout, shooting them at her faster than a normal person could throw. Moments later, one of the balls flies towards Scout as well, equally fast. ]

[Better. He still telegraphs when they're coming with those gestures, but now she has to make decisions and move more quickly, and get flickers of insight here and there.]

I can do this all day! How 'bout you, is this tiring or anything?

[Challenging, trying to find out more, they're both good.]

[ He's always going to end up telegraphing via gestures: the more Scout watches Strange use his magic, the easier it is to realize that if it doesn't involve muttering an actual spell, it involves hand gestures. ]

Certainly not! Rest assured, I'll tell you if I ever get tired.

[ and have two more darts getting magically flung at Scout from two different directions. ]

A. Break Time!

Really, Johan hasn't been gone that long. Months, maybe. Ostensibly, not much should have changed. But it's different enough to have an unfamiliar feeling. Different people. A different tension underlying things.

There was always tension, mind. Invariably, as part of the human condition. But the energy of that tension was palpably different now.

It just so happens that the reason for it is partially attributable to vampires.

It's interesting to be back, though. He makes his way between the attractions, his clawed hands with their dark paw-like pads as unremarkable here as any human feature on earth. There's a certain nostalgia to it: the idea of 'coming back.' Returning to what once was. But right now, nothing Johan does or did before is really doable at the moment. As a conman and shill, he's really only needed under specific circumstances. And instead of giving him much-needed rest, or a chance to engage in his personal hobbies or pursue private interests, for Johan it's just... well.

He stops, standing underneath the ferris wheel, and closes his eyes. He can hear, in the absence of vision, the mechanical fluctuations of its moving parts, the footsteps of people and voices of more, paper rustling and wind by his ear. He can smell popcorn, frying food, grass, earth, metal, ether.

But when he opens his eyes, he's standing directly in someone's way. A rueful smile crosses his lion’s muzzle--polite, but apologetic.

“Oh, sorry.”

[He'd muttered at the start of this, she remembers, and pivots and steps backwards so she can sweep her lightsaber through both darts in a motion.]

Maybe I should've brought a bigger box, but picking up things that aren't junk by now would've been a really stupid way to tack on more debt.

[These are all discards, usually dented or otherwise damaged from too much use.]

I'm sure we can prowl around and find some other things that are junk. Maybe something left over from one of the acts?

[ There's only three or so items left, a few darts. Strange sends them towards Scout and then, at the last minute, adds in the half-eaten apple that he had been eating as another target for her to hit. ]

Tanyuu is at a similar loss between locations; while she does occasionally help with the rest of wardrobe, only a few at the carnival need daily help with makeup and hair styling, and those are often finished within an hour each morning. Plant care and reviewing the same few texts she owns don't take all that much longer, and the rest of her time find her in much the same boat as Johan.

So his apology is met with a shake of her head and kind smile, and she approaches a little closer. "No worries. It's good to see you again, Johan. How have you been?"

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⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #5

Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy (Scout)

Oree Shoth } Broken Kingdoms/Inheritance Trilogy

Mirror Maze

OPTION THREE

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Admissions

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other option!

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Johan Liebert | Monster (Veteran)

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