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!

Threaded | Flat

[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?

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.”

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?"

Admission Fees //

[Donnie didn't have much money left and good sense told him he ought to keep it. Thinking he might be able to pawn something else he reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and pulls out a small book - The Philosophy of Time Travel.

He takes a look at the book and mulls it over before deciding to hand over the money after all. All things considered, the book might be more useful here.]

Mirror Maze //

[Instead of actually trying to solve the maze, Donnie is strolling leisurely through, taking a deep look into each and every mirror. He's not entirely sure he wants to make contact with Frank here, but his ghastly rabbit guide seemed to know a lot more about multiverses than he did.

Catching a glimpse of a dark figure out of the corner of his eye, he turns to face them - only to find nothing but empty hallway and more mirrors.]

Anyone there?

Trying to Leaf //

[Donnie feels more at home in this forest than he should. It reminded him of his sleepwalking dreams, although this time he was fairly sure he was awake. He half-expected to wake up passed out on somebody's front lawn again, but this was too vivid to be a dream.

He stopped to admire some of the glowing flowers. The scenery was nice, at least, and however frightening it might be it was at least somewhat less frightening than being stuck in a doomed timeline.]

A
[ Jade is exploring the carnival that seemed to appear from nowhere (in the middle of the Furthest Ring, no less??). So far things are noisy and bright and colorful, and the place seems fun enough, but... she's got things on her mind. She still wants to help her friends! But maybe she's not supposed to? She's just-- ]

No no, it's ok, really! I'm having plenty of fun just watching!

[ These strange half-insubstantial people are awful pushy about trying to get her to play a game. She doesn't even recognize half the things these booths have set up! ]

B
[ The game booths are suddenly less important. Jade smells food!

Meat. Really, really tasty-smelling meat. Her mouth is starting to water already. When was the last time she ate? She can't remember. There'd been so much going on, and then she was asleep, and then...

She follows her nose through the ring of booths to the cookhouse at their center. There are people, and tables, and food... She doesn't have any money, but maybe she can convince someone to share.

She shakes her head clear abruptly. Oops, letting her inner canine get carried away there. She's not going to beg strangers for scraps. That would be ridiculous! She's going to steal that juicy steak right ther--oh no, she's doing it again. Maybe she should leave before her stomach and instincts get the better of her.

She gives the steak in question a mournful look. ]

C
[ She's reluctantly turning to leave when something catches her eye--is that steak over there green? It's not glowing, but it reminds her so strongly of the steaks she used to irradiate for Bec.

...Oh no. She's not really sure what just happened. It was like a switch tripped somewhere in her brain. And now she's standing in the middle of the cookhouse, keenly aware that she has somebody else's dinner in her teeth. Nobody's happy about this development.

But now that she's gone and slobbered on it, they probably don't want the steak back, right...? ]

Edited 2017-03-09 01:55 (UTC)

Are you sure? You seem tense, and games are known to take the stress off oneself

[Here's someone who's considerably more...fleshy suggesting her to play]

admission

[This was so not China.

She must have passed out from the pain her wound was causing to be dreaming up something like this. So fantastical, like something out of the fairy tales she had heard as a child. Mulan paused, watching the people entering the gateway hand some various commodities to the person behind the stall, before she looked behind her where she had come from.

It was gone. And no sign of Mushu or Cri-Kee either.

Mulan glanced back to the stall, a little wary, before gently tugging on Khan's reins, opening up his saddle bags. There was little she had in the way of trading goods, but after rummaging through what she did have, she found the rations and the medicinal herbs that had been left with her. Medicinal herbs were a necessity, but she could part with a few jiaozi.

They get her a raised eyebrow but nonetheless, she's granted entry. Mulan gives a small sigh of relief and tugs Khan's reins. They weren't expected anywhere, and it would be a long trip home. They could afford a couple of hours at the very least...]

gamer's circle

[It's so...colourful.

It sort of reminds her of when the village would string up the lanterns for New Years, but perhaps not so bright. Khan squints beside her and Mulan pats his neck, running her fingers through his mane soothingly for both his comfort and her own. She still thinks she's hallucinating the whole thing, but that bump into someone's shoulder sure feels real. Mulan turns her body fully and bows.]

I'm sorry! Forgive me, I wasn't watching where I was going. The...the lights are...

[Blinding? It's a bit difficult to explain. She straightens herself, biting her bottom lip and, looking for a way out of this awkwardness, gestured over to one of the more...strange games.]

What...are these?

trying to leaf

What do you mean I can't return?

[For all that she hated playing the part of Ping and deceiving everyone, Mulan wished she still was, if only to be a little more intimidating. Alas. She rubbed her face, pinching her nose and inhaling deeply as Khan nuzzled the back of her head.]

This is a dream that the medicinal herbs induced. Of course I can "return".

[She winced, hand lowering to her side where her wound was beginning to twitch, hissing slightly through her teeth. Khan gave a worried neigh as she swayed and pressed his nose to her back to help her lower herself down to the ground, kneeling and clutching her side. Peeling her hand away, Mulan flexed her fingers, feeling them sticky with blood. Did she open it up by being too boisterous with those "games" earlier?

She leaned heavily against Khan's leg, fingers tight in his reins as she returned her other hand to her side, grimacing.]

I'm in pain. Why am I not waking?

wildcard

[HIT ME. canon point is before the Huns are spotted, after her gender is revealed]

Edited 2017-03-16 06:49 (UTC)

A: ADMISSION

[Suddenly assigned a job and made to do work for just peeking in on a show? By accident even? Heck, Hiccup didn't even know how he got here. He was pulled aside, alongside his dragon and was told to cough up some sort of payment. Being on Berk, they often traded things, but he had nothing of monetary value.

It was all a rush. Hiccup was certainly in a blind rage, causing a scene outside as his dragon, Toothless, was taken away in a cage, his mouth muzzled to keep him from attacking. It all happened so fast, he can't even remember who or what knocked him out.

When he came to, he was welcomed with tools to work with, and was given the job to fix one of the clown cars. He sits outside the tent of their current location, sitting beside the miniature car. He sits beside it stubbornly, a few bumps and scratches over his face and hands. The chief of Berk certainly put up a good fight, but it still wasn't enough. His dragon was no where to be found. And the look in his eyes as he was taken away, etched in his mind's eye...

Hiccup closes his eyes tightly, throwing a wrench at the clown car with a cry of frustration. And childishly, he kicks his peg leg against the rubber wheel of the clown car, which shifts under the impact, falling even further off it's front axel.]

B: WILDCARD: Backstage

[While he may have been caught watching the show behind closed curtains, he manages to take in the sight of the performers from time to time, when he's got some downtime between odd jobs and repairing. It amazes him, seeing how athletic and skilled some of these people were. Not only that, but even the people backstage were pretty amazing.

He finds someone passing by and smiles shyly as he walks up to them, clearing his throat loudly to catch their attention. This place seemed so thankless in the first place so. Might as well spread some positivity, yeah? Hiccup, himself sure needed it, and maybe he could strike up a conversation or two among his fellow... 'carnies'.]

Hey! Just wanted to say, ah... [He purses his lips and points his fingers at them. Finger guns.] Good work!

C: WILDCARD

{{ooc: Up for anything you can throw at me, if neither of these tickle your fancy!}}

Edited 2017-03-19 15:36 (UTC)

A: MIRROR MAZE

[Rita isn't sure how, exactly, she ended up so deep inside the mirror maze. The bright lights and colors of the carnival left her disoriented, and when she found herself being approached by game-runners and vendors, evading call after call of "step right up!", her only thought was to get away and out of sight.

She ducked into this building, finding it somewhat quieter than the others. There, she took a minute to breathe and reorient herself, but when she decided to turn back and attempt to navigate her way through the carnival once more... she only found more mirrors in her path. Wasn't this the way back? She was sure she came this way... but then again, was that other path always there? Maybe that was it...

How could she get lost like this? How could Rita Mordio, genius mage, be foiled by a dumb, stupid, attraction? At least none of her friends are around to tease her for it.

Time passes as she presses forward, supposing that if she can't find the entrance, she should at least be able to find the exit. That's only logical. And the maze can only be so big to begin with. It shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to...

Out of the corner of her eye, Rita sees a strange movement, something inconsistent with the reflections surrounding her. Turning a corner, she finds herself face to "face" with... the back of her head!? But it's just a reflection, it can't possibly... no, it's just not logical...

Flinching in surprise, Rita steps back. But when she does, she finds herself stumbling right into another person who just happened to wander in her direction. The unexpected feeling, combined with how wound up she already is, startles her so badly that she spins around and throws a punch at the unlucky stranger, purely out of frightened reflex.]

B: WILDCARD: THE BACKYARD

[Well, she did it. Rita signed a contract with that suspicious woman. She wishes she could say she was confident in the decision, but if anything, she's more wary than ever. This carnival is full of bizarre things beyond her understanding, and she just committed to spending a whole year here. And that's assuming she doesn't get betrayed...

After being shown to her trailer, Rita lingers in the trailer park as she tries to familiarize herself with the area. It's not long before she comes across someone else - presumably another worker - and they end up making eye contact. Rita looks the other person up and down, and in an almost sardonic tone, asks:]

So what's your story?

[The question is a genuine one: she wonders if the others working here are doing so for reasons similar to her, or if their situations are entirely different. However, the way she asks almost sounds like she's expecting a punchline. This whole thing feels like it could still turn out to be one big joke, after all.]

[OPTION 1]

The carnival is… pretty huge. It’s much larger than the one that comes through Odaiba during the school holidays, and there’s a larger variety of stalls and games than he’s usually come across, including some games that Yamato has never really seen before and doesn’t entirely know how to play.

He’s about to walk past the rows of game stalls and head over somewhere else when— hold on a second. It’s a prize for one of the games, a plush toy that has an amazing likeness to Patamon that it catches Yamato off-guard for a moment, standing in front of said game booth and just staring.

… How did Patamon end up as a plush toy anyway? How did people even know of Digimon and what Digimon looked like to somehow even make a plush toy that looks that alike to his brother’s Digimon partner?

[OPTION 2]

The mirror maze is starting to creep him out – Yamato is pretty certain that he’s been wandering past the same walls for at least fifteen minutes now, although it could be a lot longer.

He’s also fairly certain that he’s imagining things when he hears his reflection hissing back at him things that he’d thought he’d buried since the Dark Cave incident, betrayer, who would want you for a friend, look at you, still so weak and takeru doesn’t need you anymore and it’s frankly grating on his nerves. It’s easy to ignore it and shove it to the back of his mind, treating it like background noise when he’s not looking at his reflection, but when he turns another corner at his attempt to find another route out of the mirror house and comes face to face with a dead end, and—

And his reflection is laughing.

Yamato’s instinctive reaction is to reach forward, throwing his weight forward as much as possible into a punch. The next thing that he feels is a sharp pain – his knuckles are bleeding, and there are small cracks in the mirror, and the mirror in front of him is innocently blank.

Shit.

[OPTION WILDCARD]

[ hit me up with anything /o/ half completed app this a way for your reference~ I prefer prose, but I can match your format too! ]

Threaded | Flat

Tallisibeth Enwandung-Esterhazy (Scout)

Oree Shoth } Broken Kingdoms/Inheritance Trilogy

Johan Liebert | Monster (Veteran)

Axel | Kingdom Hearts | OTA (Again) | Veteran

Donnie Darko / Donnie Darko / Newbie

Jade Harley // Homestuck // Newbie

A

Mulan | Disney's Mulan (NEWB)

Hiccup | How to Train Your Dragon | Newbie

Rita Mordio | Tales of Vesperia (Newbie / will match format)