TEST DRIVE MEME #7

[ringleaders]

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!

Comments

[starseedling]

[Okay well thankfully he's not familiar enough with sapient machines for that to strike him as being as brutal as it probably is. He's mostly just trying to figure out what to do with her, since really, it doesn't super matter where she came from.]

Uhm... well. You definitely have the wrong one. Easy mistake, I guess?

[a2brutus]

[A2 just kind of squints suspiciously at him for a moment. Not that she can deny her core programming which is telling her to seek validation and approval from him.

Honestly, this is the worst.]

I guess so. [... Does she ask how to leave? But there's a human... She's torn between her oath and her programming now, and it's terrible.]

[starseedling]

[If he had any idea what she was going through mentally he would feel so bad that her programming is making her feel like that. He honestly feels bad enough that she might have accidentally consigned herself already.]

Um... It's okay! Maybe if you just jump back to the entrance and pay this time they won't notice! They take robot parts or pretty much anything that's valuable to someone.

[a2brutus]

Machine parts. [A2 corrects.] They'd really take a pile of rusty bolts for admission? [Yikes, things must be pretty bad here, then.]

[starseedling]

Probably! Especially if you went through some work to get them. We don't really need money or anything. The payment is just kind of a formality!

[a2brutus]

Why even ask for payment if it doesn't matter? [That is the most illogical thing she's ever heard. And A2 has heard a lot of bullshit.]

[starseedling]

[Man, don't ask Steven that, A2. Steven don't know a fuckin' thing.]

I think it's kind of symbolic. Like... you're giving the carnival something of yours, even if the carnival doesn't need it.

[Though that is basically an accurate answer.]

[a2brutus]

I guess if they want rusted bolts or dented plates they can have them. It's not like I've got anything else.

[... They probably won't take them because of the iron content. Whoops.]

[starseedling]

[LOL SHIT. Steven isn't even thinking of that because he's a fucking newb. Also, most OTHER kinds of metal are okay, so he's grown complacent. For now he's oblivious.]

Sure! And then you can either hang out in the carnival for a while, or just wait for the trees to let you leave!

[a2brutus]

... [For the record, A2 is absolutely dying inside when she asks this, and it comes out an extremely stunted request.] Would.... you come with me?

[Can a Goliath class machine just step on her and put her out of her misery.]

[starseedling]

[??? Steven can't read her face at all, but luckily for him, he doesn't have to. He can feel that embarrassment come off her in waves, and the fact that she's asking him to come with her despite that embarrassment is just the sweetest thing. As is the fact that she really likes him for some reason he doesn't understand. He blushes reflexively.

And then he bounces up out of his seat, scooping up Bud, who is just looking sort of confused by all of this. Steven's tail wags some more.]

Of course! Did... you actually want to jump back? I bet I can follow you!

[He can jump real good.]

[a2brutus]

[UGHHHH THIS IS THE WORST.]

I can climb down. It's probably best if I don't over work my motor functions. [Hard landings might break something or cause loose bolts.]

If you're human, a fall like that would probably do some damage anyway. [She assumes??? She's seen gigantic boars and moose fall off of ledges and just die.

It's gross.]

[starseedling]

[Well, that's logical. Luckily for Steven, gem powers make it so logic doesn't always apply. Which is evident when he leaps to the edge of the carriage and is apparently just going to jump out.]

No, look! It's okay! My gem gives me super powers!

[And in a fit of excitement he just jumps right over the edge with his now squealing Pokemon. It takes a few feet of falling before he actually starts floating, the speed of his fall decreasing into something supernaturally slow and graceful.]

[a2brutus]

[Literally none of that makes sense, and as soon as Steven moves to leap out of the carriage, A2's processors go into overdrive because holy shit she has to protect this human who is apparently suicidal?.]

Wait-!

[He jumps, and A2 is quick to scramble after him, warnings firing off in her logic circuits and she jumps out after him, planning on grabbing him and taking the brunt of the fall herself.

... Needless to say, he starts floating, and A2 and her 307lbs of metal body keep falling.

She manages to stick the landing, but not without leaving a good dent and a few cracks in the cement there. She's fine, though, and she just sort of looks up at him and makes a VERY UNIMPRESSED FACE.]

[starseedling]

[OH NO.

Steven looks similarly shocked when he sees her plummet right past him - he hadn't been expecting that she would jump too! When she lands and looks up at him, he is immediately rendered sheepishly ashamed for such a rash move - Bud doesn't seem very happy with him, either.]

SORRY!

[He slowly floats down after he, flushing in a different way as he touches ground. The Fomantis in his arms huffs, crossing her claws.]

...Sorry. I can float, it's... it's one of my powers, I didn't think you'd...

Sorry.

[a2brutus]

[She's so. Super unimpressed right now.]

Should have maybe said that before you jumped. [She clicks her tongue.] For future reference, us androids were made to serve and protect humans. I can't just let you get hurt.

[A2 shakes each leg in turn, trying to feel if anything might be rattling inside. Thankfully not, and there's no damage warnings popping up either.]

[starseedling]

[Steven sets Bud down (who is sort of annoyed and squirmy about this anyway), and raises his hands in an apprehensive desperation to help. It's taking a few seconds to figure out what she's saying, and he's not completely sure, but does her being an android have something to do with what he was feeling a minute ago?]

Are you okay? [It sounded like she landed pretty hard.] If you're not, I swear I can fix it!

[Cue Steven spiting on his hand and rubbing it on her leg.]

[a2brutus]

[.... Did.

Did he just spit on his hand and rub it on her leg. Is that seriously what just happened there.

The physical validation from his touch sends her processors into a frenzy, but but the sheer and utter disgustingness of spit being rubbed into her dermal layer.

There's no damage, but Steven will find a good layer of dirt being rubbed away because A2 is a fucking hobo who lives in the woods and doesn't bathe. Also, her skin is warm and soft underneath that grime.]

Uh. Yeah. I'm fine. You can... not do whatever that is.

[starseedling]

[Steven's tongue is sort of poking out in concentration as he tries to heal what turns out to be nothing, meaning that when he looks up at her he's sort of got one of those awkward cat-photography faces. Man, he is just nailing this first impression. He falls back onto his butt, defeated.]

O-Okay. Sure. I just have... healing spit... if you ever needed it... or something.

[Wow this is so embarrassing. More than Steven is used to experiencing.]

[a2brutus]

[Sorry about all the dirt on your hand now, Steven. At least one spot on her leg is... Clean????]

I've been fixing my own parts for years now. Don't you worry about me. [Partly because it's weird to have someone care, and partly because it's shameful to have to have a human fix her weaknesses.

.... A2 kind of looks down at the now clean spot on her leg.

Huh. She'd forgotten that her legs used to be flesh coloured and not dirt black.]

[starseedling]

[Steven looks at his dirty palm. Huh. He never noticed how dirty she was until just now.(If she does get stuck here someone should really give her a bath...)]

That's... cool.

[Now that he's calmed down a little he has to think about this.]

What do you mean that... you were built to serve and protect humans?

[a2brutus]

I mean that I was built to serve and protect humans. [It's fairly straight forward. What else is there to explain??]

It's part of my core programming. I don't know how else to explain it.

[starseedling]

So...

[He's trying to figure this out, and really doesn't want to offend her anymore.]

...you have to do it?

[a2brutus]

You catch on quick.

[She says like an ass. ]

I've never met a human before, though.

[starseedling]

[Eff you A2, he's like ten.

His expression falls. Oh man. That's the worst. He doesn't have to ask why someone would build them like that. He knows enough from how gems treat each other. But, still...]

...I'm sorry.

[He looks away from her, still sitting on the ground.]

That's not fair.