livinglot | 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

[Voice teeeeeeest time and I'm gonna just cp that prompt I used for Madhuri.]

[A] [Goliath is just lurking around in the background. A seven foot lavender dragon-man in a loincloth is hard to miss under the light of the bright moon and there's a terrible lack of cliffs or tall sturdy buildings here, so he's staying back among the trees. This is something better investigated by Elisa or the trio, but he found this place on his own. The skies are different here and the rumble and cry of traffic is loud in its absent. This is not New York.

The people here... Few of them could be taken for gargoyles, though admittedly gargoyle features vary in the extreme, but they would cause as much consternation walking among humans as he would. Could they be Children of Oberon? He's from too early a canon point to have met any himself, but he knows of the lore.

Well. He should not stand out too much, for once. It feels strange to walk out amongst a crowd, not drawing more than a cursory glance. Maybe you saw him lurking, or as he came out into the crowd, or while he's just kind of staring at the admissions clerk because things of value what look, he's a gargoyle, he doesn't do money or large collections of items.]

[B] [Orrrr he's climbing steadily up the stopped ferris wheel, the highest point in the carnival and the best vantage point if he wants to get a look at the lay of the land or start gliding anywhere. His weight is enough that you can feel it in the cars as his big clawed hands and feet land, and while he glances at the cars here and there, mindful of the thought that they could be poorly attached, he doesn't stop unless you call out to him or something.]

[Cat Noir is up on top of the stopped ferris wheel too, as it happens, and when he hears someone starting to climb up it he peers down from his own vantage point with grin.]

You know, most people go in the cars, not on them. [Look who's talking.]

[Goliath narrows his eyes and keeps climbing, as steadily as if he used a ladder. There are lots of gaps to put a finger or toe in on his way up, and where there are not he can casually make a hole, which I'm sure the mechanics will be happy to notice later.]

I am not most people. [He pulls himself up onto a spoke of the wheel where he can stand upright, and stares suspiciously at the strange human.]

Nor are you.

Well, how do you know I'm not like most people, huh? [As if the ears and mask weren't enough of a giveaway, or his flicking tail. Even as he asks that though he's still got a grin on his face as he watches him climb up.]

Not that you aren't right, I am a superhero after all.

[The ears and the tail add a little familiarity to the petite, compact human form. Many gargoyles have similar appendages, though typically more powerful tails. Goliath doesn't trust them. There's a lot of technology in the world now.

Still, it's novel to meet someone who doesn't gape at his appearance. It would be good if this happened more often.]

What is a... super hero?

[Honestly, with the strangeness of the costumes some of the villains back home end up in, he's gotten used to seeing weird things. Sure, this guy might look strange, but he's seen a lot since becoming Cat Noir.]

A super hero! You know, super powers, protecting Paris from bad guys, saving the day? [He's got to know what a super hero is, who doesn't?]

Edited 2017-05-06 06:02 (UTC)

[He doesn't know what 'super powers' means, but that sounds like a detective, like Elisa's police clan. Goliath relaxes a little bit, caping his wings so the thumbs are locked together over his chest.]

You are a Frenchman? But-

[He's not the fastest thinker, but Goliath does think carefully and notice things.]

We are speaking an entirely different language. [Being on Carnival grounds means speaking and understanding Faeish.] What sorcery is this?

[Thinking carefully and noticing things are two things that Cat Noir is not especially good at (Ladybug's the quick thinker of the two, after all - he's the guy who does the fighting while she figures out how to save the day), and so it takes until Goliath says that for him to notice the language thing. He's surprised at the revelation, and his tail flicks again as he looks back down at the Carnival, even more on guard at the realization - is it an akuma attack? How else could you explain sudden language changes?]

It must be some kind of villain... But why make people speak another language? That doesn't seem very evil. [Maybe someone who failed a language test or something? Or a translator who got fired. The fact that his logic wouldn't make sense to anyone else doesn't occur to him at the moment as he tries to puzzle this out, still scanning the carnival below for signs of an attack... Not that he knows very well what it's supposed to look like, only being here for part of a day himself.]

[Goliath makes a rumbling sound deep in his chest, closer to a meditative "Hmmmmmm" than a growl.]

It is not a magic as I have seen them worked. No caster spoke or was seen.

This does not appear to be my world. Perhaps it is not yours either.

[It's true, it very well could be a world that isn't his. It would probably make more sense than anything else, if he thinks about it - he's seen weird things before, but this would be a pretty elaborate akuma attack. But somehow being in another world? That's just too hard to believe.]

How is that even possible? You can't just walk into another world. [Can you?]

Why not? I don't know what's impossible anymore.

[still hurting over the world changing so much and it feels like it's happened so fast? nah.]

Wait there. I will come to you.

[Goliath has tired of split-tier communication. He spreads his wings wide and leaps off the rung of the ferris wheel, gliding out above the carnival grounds looking for upwellings of air. When he circles back he's gotten enough height to land near Cat, graceful for such a heavy creature.]

[The incredibly tall lurking is enough to get Zim's attention, mostly due to the whole tallness thing (seriously, so tall) and the utter lack of a disguise around humans (and non-humans, which for the moment he is conveniently ignoring). Really, the latter just has him offended, given how much work he's put into his own brilliant human disguise.

Not that a wig and contact lenses are actually full of work or brilliant in any way, but anywhoo. Another alien walking around disguiseless is not good for his own undercoverness, so he's going to subtly sneak away from the main crowds to confront this extremely-tall-purple-guy-who-is-not-Tallest-Purple.

He'll get his attention by yelling, because that's sneaky.]

Hey! Heyy! [Look, Goliath even gets a little arm flailing!] What do you think you're doing??

[Man, lurking really works better when you're on a tall building where most people don't go. Aside from hanging out in places like that and emerging from shadows, Goliath's not in the habit of trying to hide from people. Probably just as well, because look at him.

Then this tiny shrieking thing comes up.

The fuck is this. The fuck is you. Goliath eyeballs Zim from his very great height.]

I beg your pardon?

[This guy clearly follows human logic: that is, dumb and tall.]

Where's your disguise?

[Zim looks Goliath up and down, then tries to see past him. Seriously, there is only the loincloth so he continues on instead of waiting for an answer to his first question.]

Do you even have one?? What if a human sees you, huh?

[He is super Not Impressed with what is obviously a fellow (but tall) (but dumb) alien. Gonna ruin his evil invader mission at this rate, geez.]

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

Goliath | Gargoyles

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A. Sorry this is a late thing, feel free not to tag!

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