livinglot | ⇨ 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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."

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.

While Johan goes around to get into the menagerie, Ginko steps back behind the rat king. It twists around to nose at him and he nudges it back to face the scale again.

Then Johan steps in front of it, and Rex rears back, hissing again and chittering. Ginko makes a startled sound under his breath and pushes on it again, but this time it doesn't budge at all.

"Aw, come on... really? What's this about?"

"...."

Johan doesn't flinch at the beast's reaction, but he does take a step back; he was already prepared for this to happen, but he makes sure to look troubled--concerned, even--instead of ambivalent. He lets Ginko take his time, backing up a few yards away until the beast is calm again.

"Should I try again?"

Ginko frowns at the rat king as it twists around again, shoving a couple of its heads against him. "Maybe... I dunno what its problem is. It usually doesn't seem too bothered by people, even if it doesn't know them too well... Might just be kind of antsy today."

He looks up, nodding at Johan. "Try getting just a little closer; y'know, give it a little time to acclimate."

Johan is no expert at animal behaviour--well, unless by 'animal' you mean 'human,' and by 'behaviour' you mean... oh, nevermind.

He doesn't argue with Ginko, although he raises his eyesbrows a little apologetically as he steps forward--slowly, watching the rat king with a very specific sort of awareness. A kind that is not afraid, but which certainly does not imply trust.

This is for the better, because he has to duck--quickly--when one head of the rat king's jaws snap shut inches from his head.

Johan retreats back to the fence fairly quickly.

"Perhaps it doesn't like cats...?"

"--Rex! What the hell!" Ginko attempts to pull the hissing animal back, which isn't terribly effective given its size. At least it doesn't seem interested in pursuing Johan any further.

"I-- I guess not. Shit, sorry about this." He sighs and steps off to the side, looking from Johan to Rex with a frown. "Maybe we should switch places... actually, that might be a bad idea."

Johan is much less surprised by the rat king's animosity towards him than he's letting Ginko believed. Animals--magical or otherwise--do not like him very much. This was not always the case; it predated his time as a vampire, but especially since then...

His feigning ignorance (and innocence) is about much more than just Ginko's gullibility, though.

"No... you may be right. If I approach slowly enough from behind, it might move away from me." He shrugs a little, almost carelessly. "It couldn't hurt to try it."

"Alright, let's go for it, then... and hope neither of us gets bitten." He sighs. Look, Rex may not be the biting type normally, but he's also not usually the 'hissing and shying away from people' type.

Ginko steps around the rat king and goes to take the bag of rice cakes from Johan.

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #5

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Uhhh there is a gap in my iconset here lmao

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lmf that icon

it's a p great one

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