livinglot | TEST DRIVE MEME #6

Entry tags:

test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME #6

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 | Top-Level Comments Only

OHH!

To get a bigger prize...we need to hit five, it seems, [Gongenzaka observes, staring at the larger objects. Some of them seem to legitimately float, or sparkle...definitely the Better ones. Gongenzaka takes a ball again, narrowing his eyes.] Hmmm...if I, the man Gongenzaka, perhaps...

[...Whatever perhaps means, it must work-because with a quick toss mid-sentence, the ball goes in! That's 3/5 then!]

[With teamwork they can do anything! Yuya readies for his turn, invigorated by Gongenzaka's success. The sparkling prizes have gotten his attention, and there's one with swirling music notes he's determined to get for Yuzu.

He aims for a hole dead center. It bounces off the rim... but manages to hop into the one next to it. He sighs.] That was close... now we only need one more.

Hmm! ...This one though... [The ring appears to actually be moving, this one. Constantly....

It's also the last one, go figure. Gongenzaka crosses his arms rather than taking a ball. Instead, he looks to Yuuya. If this is for Yuzu now, it would mean more if Yuuya landed more of the scores. So far, it was two for two...

So with an encouraging grin, Gongenzaka nods.] ...You have this! Go, Yuuya!

Yeah! I'm definitely going to make it. [He takes the final ball and scrunched his face as he focuses on the moving ring. Back and forth, like a pendulum.

He takes a breath, closes his eyes, and throws.

It just barely makes it in.]

[[OOC - BE JEALOUS EN, CORE...EVERYONE...]]

[BELLS AND WHISTLES FOR EVERYONE! The chimes are blaring and Yuuya should probably duck before his back is cracked again--] GOAL-! [Gongenzaka shouts, pumping a fist in triumph.] Which means anything from the top shelf can be chosen now...

[The upper tier things are still pretty betrayingly 'standard'-except for things like stuffed dogs that occasionally wag their tails, lucky charms on display that are probably ACTUALLY lucky, stuffed flowers that actually smell like flowers...]

[And then, there's a skeleton. The only part of his body you can see is the face beneath his hood, but his bones glow with a faint luminescent, like glow in the dark material that only got a bit of sun. His eyes glow brighter, a white spot and a blue spot of light in empty sockets. He appears suddenly, standing about ten feet back.]

Wouldn't wander out here at night, pal.

Edited 2017-03-31 04:57 (UTC)

We did it! [He leans forward against the counter, scanning over the top row of prizes. He already knows what he wants to get her, though.]

I want that one. [He points at a blue paper lantern painted with music notes. He doesn't notice until it's handed to him the way that it stays illuminated without any actual light inside. Once the shadowy figure hands it to him he turned to Gongenzaka with a grin.] Thanks, Gongenzaka. What do you think?

[the strangeness of this place is distracting him, bringing his guard down. that's the only reason this guy managed to sneak up on him. yeah! yeah. besides, it's totally understandable if achilles is a little jumpy, right?]

[he squints at the newcomer, trying to make out exactly what he looks like. might be some kind of special avatar?] That's a weird skin. [is all his says in response, without any hint of irony. he doesn't really do puns in english.]

A lantern... [With his eyes the way they are, he's caught the light from the start-they're fairly sensitive to that sort of thing now, and his smile only widens when he catches the musical notes that decorate it. They almost seem to 'spell out' a tune...though he certainly isn't knowledged enough in music to recognize what.]

I, the man Gongenzaka, feel it's a wonderful gift for Yuzu..! ...And we'll make sure it gets to her, hmm, Yuuya?

Price of Admission:

[Yuuri was quite certain he had been about to step into the familiar cool of Hasetsu Ice Castle - in fact, he still held his well loved, years old ticket pass tightly in one fist, and ice skates in the other.

However Yuuko was not waiting to stamp it yet again (a time honoured tradition between them ) to let him in after hours; instead he was greeted by nearly walking face first into a tree. And while he was rather certain it had been mid afternoon, the fact that he could barely see the bark before his nose alerted him to the fact that somehow, it had sunk into the hours of the night.

He wasn't sure if it was uncertainty or the very avid nagging voice in the back of his head that told him it had to be a dream that kept him going, but he made it, dazed, to the admission booth. There a semi-transparent creature that seemed to man the booth gave him a look over; assessing both the ice skates (these under particular scrutiny) and his ticket, before giving a broad smile. The gate keeper decidedly plucked the ticket from his hand before ushering him inside. Yuuri didn't even have time to speak his objections.

Inside the lights of the carnival seemed as bright as stage lights, and twice as blinding. Yuuri stumbled to the side of the admission booth, ice skates clutched in one hand the other balled tightly and shoved in the pocket of his jacket. His eyes were wide, face pale as he stood politely to one side so as not to stem the stream of incomers. He stood frozen in the sea of unfamiliar faces attempting to devise how best to tell a surreal dream creature that he very much, actually, needed that ticket back, and somewhere along the lines had taken a very wrong turn. ]

Of course we will! [He clutches the lantern closer to his chest.] We'll definitely save her. Serena, Rin, and Ruri too.

[Rin? ...Ah-there were 'four' of 'each' after all, so that would be the missing fourth that he didn't know about. It's certainly nothing that Gongenzaka can disagree with however, and so he nods, before giving Yuuya one last firm squeeze at the shoulder for support.]

Indeed.

[But until then-he has a contract to finish off, and you have a gate to exit through, if he's not correct.]

"Relatively," Sherlock said, straightening his posture, and looking her over. "I've never seen you before."

He sounds slightly suspicious, but that's just his nature. His gaze is keen, like he's trying to read her life story from just her appearance, attempting to glean any clues he could from the ordinary details that most people would ignore.

[ It's performance week, and while the carnival is getting busy, in between shuttling costumes and other props back and forth from storage to the big top, and generally helping with fixing things and last minute mishaps just before the show, in between, Yamato has had time to wander the carnival now - to see his new home for the next year and a day, since his first visit was very much limited to the mirror maze.

Near the entrance of the carnival, there's a steady stream of people walking in, probably on the way to catch the main show. There is someone who does catch his eye, however, standing off the side who looks a little bit more than frozen. It's the reason why he walks up to Yuuri and taps him on the shoulder gently, and hopefully it doesn't startle him a little too much. ]

Hey, you lost or something?

[ Jade frowns at the wheel in thought. ]

That doesn't sound good! ...I wonder if it's broken? If it runs on magic though, I'm not sure how you'd fix something like that.

[ She considers it further for a moment, then sighs a little. ]

This seems like something Rose might be better at figuring out. Or Calliope! She seemed--[ Oh. Right, she's here for a reason. Got a bit sidetracked there, oops! ]

Do you know where I should look for the Ringmaster? I think I'd like to sign up! The person at the gate said that's a thing I should work out with her.

[ Yuuri has been noticing, with increasing alarm, that a number of the guests do not appear strictly human. Most are variously human shaped, but particularly those who seem to be organising affairs - beyond the smokey apparition who allowed him entry in a trade he did not strictly deem as fair - were sporting all kinds of various extras ears, horns, and other appendages.

He doesn't quite start as he feels the tap on his shoulder, but his heart certainly does seem to stop dead in his chest for one whole moment. When he turns to see someone who appears human, he visibly relaxes. He catches most of what he's saying too, and nods just once.]

Very lost.

[He says, by overwhelmed means of explanation. He has a few questions all bustling in the front of his mind, but he's settled on one. He casts a furtive glance across the grounds, the light from the carnival catching across the lenses of his glasses, before he turns back to Yamato.]

I'm not in Japan anymore... am I?

WILDCARD!

[ The person manning Admissions explained how this place worked--and when, after some thought, Jade said she'd like to just sign on, they were happy enough to send her on to the Ringmaster. Jade just has to find her. She didn't expect this part to be difficult, but...

And so a teen girl with dog ears in an odd outfit can be found wandering the carnival grounds, clearly searching for something or other. ]

((OOC: the main places Jade can be found poking around include the Cookhouse, the Backyard, and Supervisor's Grove, but she's searching thoroughly! She could have gotten herself most anywhere. ))

Edited 2017-04-02 13:04 (UTC)

"And what would the difference be?"

She's actually curious. As her own powers are limited to just what she can do with ice (though she's become pretty creative about it), hearing about other people's magic and powers is interesting to her. There could be something to be learned from him, even if the way he does magic and the way her powers work are very different.

Though she thinks flashy, show-offy spells can be interesting too, if applied in the right way. And they're certainly useful here, where they can be used to raise money in a more conventional way.

"I've been away, collecting on debts for the Ringmaster."

It took awhile - the fae and otherworldly beings she had to deal with weren't easily persuaded into giving up what they owed. But in the end, her mission was successful. Knowing what she knows now, though, she can't think it was that worthy an endeavor.

He might notice that though she stands with good posture, she's started to rub her hands together slightly with anxious energy. She doesn't like what she's heard about the vampires, but she's not sure Sherlock is who she should discuss it with.

"You must have been recruited since then... Are you a performer?"

"An audience wouldn't be too happy if I spent the act creating roads or moving boxes." It's said with a bit of a wry smile on his face. At least back home, working for the army, practical spells were needed infinitely more than flashy showy spells. After all, sending down a plague of locusts might certainly look impressive but it wouldn't solve the problem of the fact that most soldiers only had one pair of shoes to begin with.

"Audiences want something spectacular. Creating a bit of rain isn't spectacular. Creating rain and thunder and lightning, on the other hand, all in the confines of the big top is something that they'll leave talking about." He's keeping his hands behind his back as he talks, but it's obvious from Strange's expression which one he prefers. Practical has it's purposes but hot damn is he becoming a bit of a ridiculous showman.

That kind of pun is even worse, but right now, without context, she can't say anything about it.

She knows he isn't happy about this, and she feels like maybe she shouldn't even ask. But she wants to know, and feels like it will be better for all the other supervisors if she's already up to speed; she hates making him relive whatever happened, though.

"Alright."

She leads him back to the trailer, largely silently. Once inside, she offers him a seat at her small table, then waves her hand, creating small snowmen. They chatter to each other as they go to make tea, protected from the heat of the stove by the ever-present bitter chill of Elsa's trailer.

"I already know the vampires returned," she says slowly, remembering what Strange told her earlier. "And I know that Mari... didn't make it back. But that's all."

"A performer? Ah, no," he said, he wouldn't have actually minded being a musician of some kind if it really came down to it, but there was no way he could play a violin with these claws.

"I'm on patrol."

A pause.

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. Back home, I'm a consulting detective." He notes her posture, her mannerisms, but it didn't take a detective to see she had a tendency to become anxious. Was it the mention about vampires, he wondered?

[ He hasn't been in the Carnival long enough to start showing any visible changes yet, but if Yuuri looks closely enough, he can see the beginnings of fingernails morphing into claws, and his irises being tinged with red and yellow among the blue of his eyes. He still looks relatively normal, at least.

He can sympathise with the feeling completely overwhelmed part of everything, though. The Carnival is kind of designed to be that way, he suspects. Overwhelming and disorienting, a barrage of sights and sounds and things that are completely different. Not too long ago he had been in that exact same position. ]

You're at the Carnival.

[ No, not in Japan anymore, in other words, but there's a limit to how much he can tell guests, and Yamato's a pretty big fan of staying out of trouble as much as possible. He does, however, give Yuuri a careful look, notes his tensed body language and the way he clutches tightly at the ice skates in his hand. ]

Did something happen with the admissions people? [ He asks, gesturing to the sprites manning the counter for now. ]

[ 'The Carnival'. It strikes Yuuri as a slightly ominous name, but as of yet he hadn't encountered anything strictly un-ominous. The realization that the fabric of reality had somehow warped him to a carnival, in an odd twilight, surrounded by dark twisting woods when all he had wanted was to go ice skating sat heavy in the back of his mind, queasy and ever present. The fact that he was now indeed noticing his new acquaintance had perhaps a flicker of a colour not quite human in his eyes did not settle him. ]

I didn't actually ask to be admitted, I think. But it got mixed up, and I gave them a ticket.

[The very wrong ticket. It wasn't even really a ticket for entry to the Ice Castle anymore, seeing as Yuuko would let him in whenever. But it was a fun momento to keep; almost a score card of sorts. The white of the ticket had almost been completely covered in blue admission stamps. It had sat snuggly in his wallet when he was away in Detroit, a sort of secret key back to a slice of his old life.

It now was located somewhere in the confines of a spritely shaped personage.]

You don't think I could ask for a refund, do you?

[He had to give a little diffusive laugh, but it sounds weak even to him.]

[ Ah. The 'something of value'. Yamato's heard the Carnival gossip, the sprites reporting to the Treasurer the things that they've collected from the people who have entered the Carnival. He's heard of the weirdest things, sometimes. A lock of hair, a song - a wrong ticket is considerably one of the more normal items on the list, especially one that seems that it has sentimental value, as far as Yuuri seems concerned. ]

I don't think we offer refunds. But considering that you're already here...

[ It's probably, no, definitely not the answer that Yuuri is looking for, but at the very least, Yamato's attempting to be friendly. Or helpful. Maybe both. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 3 of 7

TEST DRIVE MEME #6

just runs into him later 'wow you made a contract too??' ' >:[ ' 'ohno'

It's just another in a long line of hasty decisions Yuya has made.

at least he'd appear in alola at this point,,,Calm Vacation Place for Debts

But for how long

probably like TWO WEEKS but at least he has a cute pokefriend now???

TRYING TO LEAF

Yuya would do awfully well with pokemon...

no subject

the true struggle would be choosing -just one-...

Yuuri Katsuki | Yuri!!! On Ice | Newcomer!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Jade Harley // Homestuck // Newbie

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject