livinglot | TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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test drive meme

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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, but will be CLOSING ON MAY 31ST! There is an upcoming game event that is going to make new arrivals during that period impractical.
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, the players agree to it, and it makes any sense contextually.
If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Head Cook, Aquisitioner, and Wardrobe Manager are currently open. Otherwise, we're pretty much down for anything, roles wise.

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

i. TRYING TO LEAF:
[Pearl could not imagine anything more frustrating. Well, that was wrong, she actually could imagine a few dozen frustrating things or people she could be stuck with in all of this. The point was this was currently more frustrating than she was wanting to deal with right now because she was pretty certain she had passed the same large, rainbow colored bush five times now. She wasn't usually so directionaly challenged--but here she was.

Pearl came to a stop once again, in front of the same bush, and practically howled in frustration.]

That does it!

[Pearl loses her cool and, summoning her spear, slashes the bush into tiny, rainbow colored bits. Her ire at the bush passes just as quickly and she slumps down beside a tree, resting her head against her knee.]

What am I supposed to do if I can't even find my way out of this forest!

ii. MIRROR MAZE:
[Pearl had long since lost sight of the creature she had chased after into this place. It was distracting because she could swear she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, but every time she looked all she ever saw was her reflection. At first she brushed it off as sensible -- she was moving through the maze after all.
It made sense that her reflection would move. However, now she could swear it was moving in ways that she wasn't currently. She was also fairly certain she was hearing laughter and whispers.

Her laughter and whispering voice. It unnerved her. She paused at a crossway in the maze, resting her hand on a reflective surface to her left.]

This just doesn't make sense. There is no way that a maze like this should be so big...

"Feeling turned around?"

[Pearl's head snapped up and she looked to her left. Her hand was no longer resting against a reflection of her own palm but pressed against her reflection's chest. Her reflection smirked and Pearl gasped, taking a step back.]

"Little lost Pearl. As always can't find her way in the big ole' world."

iii.WILDCARD
[Find Pearl wandering elsewhere in the carnival? She might look a little sick around the food area, where the scent of food mixes with the sweat and scent of animals. Or maybe you find her looking at a list of performances for a show. She's always appreciated a little entertainment.]

You could always cry.

[It's a helpful comment that comes from the side of one of the trees behind Pearl's, from a man who looks incredibly interested at the spectacle he's just accidentally witnessed. And not entirely over the beautiful crystalline spear she had conjured in a burst of white light — magic! his instincts scream in wonder, what else could it be but magic? — nor the way she'd disposed of that rather inoffensive looking bush.

It's her demeanor that draws him in, how lost she looks, and how that might be the first utterly human thing he's seen since arriving here. It's a weird feeling after the endless parade of nonsense he's been shown so far, like taking the first steps off an exciting, dizzying roller coaster and back onto solid ground.]

Normally, I'd advise against it. It's a useless gesture that never solves anything, but, in certain situations... [He gives Pearl a thoughtful little shrug, an oh well type of motion.] It might make you feel better.

Edited 2017-05-02 00:44 (UTC)

[Pearl was probably the most likely to cry of the Crystal Gems, but she wasn't quite in that much despair yet. She looked up with a frown, wondering who could possibly have stumbled across her when she was fairly certain she'd been roaming in circles and should have run into someone else long before now.]

Crying would be pointless.

[She's in a huff, but talking to someone -- even a human -- is better than nothing. She takes a breath, pushing herself to her feet, brushing off her skirt with a sweep of her hands.]

I'm just frustrated with the state of these woods is all. Nothing makes sense! Even if it was a maze there is a logical way to solve it and yet everything I have tried continues to lead me back to this exact bush.

[Well, they can at least agree on one thing. Still, #HeTried.]

Perhaps there isn't. Maybe it's not supposed to make sense. [While he isn't as slavish to order and logic as a scientist should be, Medic can understand that sometimes the rules to something aren't as straightforward and clear as they could be. Sometimes you have to find them, or barring that, make your own.] Have you tried doing anything different?

What do you mean it's not supposed to make sense? Everything has to have some kind of rules or structure to it. There has to be a reason -- even if we don't understand it just yet.

[Pearl, however, IS apparently very slavish to order and logic. Things might not always make sense to her, but to suggest that they don't make sense at all just doesn't compute. She taps her chin thoughtfully]

Still, you have a point. There has to be something I haven't tried yet. [She pauses and looks up.]

Aren't you lost as well? What have you tried so we can rule it out?

[Lashing out at an innocent bush isn't too productive in the best of times. At least it's a good way to let out some frustration... that is, unless something small and irritable might be taking a nap underneath, and seeking to return the frustration in kind.

Hopefully Pearl isn't too engrossed in her moping, or else she might miss the indignant squeaking noise as the array of scattered leaves raise up in the air. As though seeking revenge, a cloud of suddenly-razor-sharp foliage launches at the gem.]

[Pearl doesn't comprehend the stirring leaves at first. Thinking it just another sound of the forest. It isn't until she catches movement out of the corner of her eye that she realizes this isn't your normal forest breeze. The leaves are MOVING!

Pearl jumps to her feet, leaping away from the incoming attack.]

What on earth!

[Her spear is in hand again and she's pointing it at the swirling mass.]

You! Have you been moving around the forest! No wonder I can't find my way out.

[ Thanks to Pearl's quick reflexes, most of the leaves end up stuck in the tree trunk where she'd been sitting. A few veer around to try another attack, but then Pearl makes an accusation. ]

Chiiii...

[ The leaves lose their liveliness, scattering to the ground, and a rather small creature squirms out from under the destroyed bush. He chirps, looking her up and down,
and shakes himself off irritably. He'd been hoping he could at least get a nice fight out of his ruined nap, but if she's just lost he supposes he's supposed to help like his partner does.

He paces a few steps towards the carnival, and looks back at Pearl. She better follow him, he doesn't have to be helpful. ]

Riii!

[Pearl blinks when a small creature reveals itself. That was...not what she was expecting. What she WAS expecting is up for debate but hardly the point now. She takes a few minutes to process what is happening. Is this thing trying to get her to follow?]

You want me to follow.

[It's less a question and more a hesitating statement. She wants to make sure she isn't losing her mind...although that actually would explain a lot of this, wouldn't it. She lowers the spear, but doesn't dismiss it. This thing might be up to something.]

All right. But you better not try anything funny.

Pearl | Steven Universe

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WILDCARD, here's a tiny twerp

yay tiny twerp

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wildcard im sorry for lapis

never apologize for lapis |D

i always have to apologize for lapis SWEATS

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ii. ssssssssorry this is a late tag feel free not to reply

[freeze frame][pearl voice] yep, that's me. you're probably wondering how i got into this situation

accurate

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