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

Julien Delacroix | OC

[espigeon]

[If you've ever seen a pigeon bigger than this, he'd like to hear where. Seriously he's like if a minicar was made of feathers and on bird feet, this white-and-black dove walking delicately among the crowd. He bought entry and tokens with money pulled out of a ziplock bag dripping with seawater, handed over with a deft beak, and now he seems to be trying to decide on which attraction.]

Hey there! Have you been in the hall of mirrors? Those things never sound like fun but I haven't been in one since I was a kid.

Wild Card
[At some point Julien gets out of sight - in the woods, probably - and there's an odd, wet sound. Then he comes back into public view, as a five-five young man in slightly damp clothes, toweling his hair off and squelching in soaking sandals. You can talk to him, or you can circle back to where he was and find his giant bird self lying at rest and raising his neck to look suspiciously at you.]

Yes, hello?

LEEF!
[Julien takes off and wings out over the forest, dwindling out of sight. As you might expect if you're familiar with the Carnival, he's back soon enough, perching in one of the trees and looking, if you can judge birds at all, disgruntled.]

Granddam's not gonna be happy about this.

MIRRORS

[manycharms]

She turns to respond when she realizes that the person she's talking to is in fact a gigantic pigeon. Her mouth opens and then closes a few times as she tries to get over her speechlessness, but it's difficult. It's just someone in a suit, right? RIGHT?

"Uh... I haven't actually!"

[espigeonage]

He gets this a lot. Julien obliges and poses, curving his neck dramatically. Black feathers there on his neck catch the light and gleam with iridescent greens and purples. If he's a suit, there's a practical effects artist who deserves renown across multiple worlds.

"Well! Wanna go in with me? I'm sure with two people it's funnier than just one."

[manycharms]

She watches the way his feather's moved, stunned by how realistic they look. It's slightly more than that though, she's never seen feathers this big or this close, and the way the reflect the light is intriguing. Her fingers itch for her sketchbook, but sadly it's with the rest of her things in Paris. Oh well, at a carnival the thing to do was enjoy the rides anyway. Even though this bird is strangely large and can talk, he seems nice enough.

Marinette smiles, "Well, I suppose that'd be alright."

She'd just have to be really careful not to trip and break any mirrors. She didn't need anymore bad luck!

[espigeon]

"Fantastic! Should I say it's a date then?" His tone is light and he turns his head so she can see both of his huge black bird eyes when he winks one. Julien wants people feeling playful, not creeped out.

"By the way my name is Julien. Julien Delacroix! A pleasure to meet you this fine afternoon."

[manycharms]

The flirtatious comment combined with the wink are definitely reminding her of someone. A certain black cat who joked around with her like that far more than she liked. Birds of a feather, she thought, amused despite herself. She meets his introduction with one of her own.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." She'd shake his wing, but well, that might look be a bit awkward for both of them. "So... Julien, where are you from?"

She turned as she spoke, ready to head towards the mirror maze.

[espigeonage]

He moves his head and neck in a nod that has the look and effect of a bow. Can't bend at the waist, but his neck is absurdly flexible. He turns when she turns, if rather dramatically just because there's a lot of him held pretty horizontally. His tail alone is probably five feet long.

Heh, 'where are you from'... When he still had a human face, or he supposes again now if he gets his other body out, that's a comment on his ethnicity. Here it's his name. "Marinette! It's a long story, but I was born in Quebec, in Canada. I've been an American for fifteen years though. My French is a little rusty but I haven't forgotten it yet. And yourself?"

[manycharms]

It's more casual conversation than anything else. If Marinette realized the carnival was inter-dimensional she'd be surprised to meet someone else with a French name. As a Parisian, French names are just normal to her and she doesn't think to question Delacroix, except for the fact that it's attached to a bird.

"You're from Quebec?" She didn't know much about Canada, but she assumed she'd hear an accent if he wasn't from France. Then when he says his French is rusty, she's even more confused than before. They were both speaking French, weren't they? But actually if she concentrated, really focused on the noise around her and paid full attention to the words, she could tell that the people around them weren't all speaking French.

"Are we speaking different languages?" she asks, suddenly looking shocked all over again.

[espigeonage]

"I... ah, hell." He had not just said eye ah hel. Different syllables entirely. If he wasn't directly understanding them they wouldn't have made any sense to him at all. Julien's head tilts. "I guess so. Well, that's a thing."

"What if I try to speak French?" He does have a distinct accent in French. "This seems to work. Bet it's like this with English and Espanol. Yeah. Well. I guess it's a carnival with horned workers and flying lights..."

[manycharms]

He does have an accent, it's so odd how she can tell only if she's thinking about it. She knew this place was filled with magic, but flying lights and horned people could be explained away as clever tricks. This was something observable, something obvious. She'd never seen magic used in such a way, or so freely. What was this place, and exactly how safe was she? Her right hand goes to her purse without thinking, her own sort of magic hidden inside. She didn't want to use it if she didn't need to though, and this place didn't feel malevolent.

She looks around, suddenly concerned and suspicious. Julien, he must have been in the US before he arrived here, but she had been wandering Paris just before she arrived. Something like that could only be possible with exceptionally strong magic, the kind she only knew you could get from a Miraculous. The sudden shift in her demeanor, from relaxed to on edge is obvious. She doesn't bother hiding her sudden anxiety.

"You haven't seen anything dangerous around here, have you?"

[espigeon]

He notices all right, and his feathers slick down closer to his skin, making him seem smoother and smaller as he raises his head on his neck so he could see farther. Classic wary pigeon body language. Julien's tone of voice changes, less relaxed and playful, more plain and serious.

"I'm not sure I'd be able to tell. Where I'm from the more danger you've faced the less human you look." That is a severe oversimplification. He's not getting into it just now. "I have no idea if this is the case here though, and if that means danger's still here. I did see a skeleton with a tail walking around, but it looked like it was minding its business. No one cared."

Around them people, some human-looking and some various stages of not, wander like tourists or work at jobs. "What're you looking for?"

[manycharms]

Honestly she isn't sure. She just isn't used to miraculous things happening unless a supervillain is behind it all. A skeleton is pretty spooky, but if it wasn't hurting anyone. She looks around one last time before pulling her hand away from her bag. She definitely intends to stay alert, but there were many things about this place that she didn't understand. To be honest, she was beginning to think this was some super realistic dream. She shakes her head, turning back to Julien and trying to relax.

"It's probably nothing..." She sighs, letting some of the nervous tension leave her body as she does so. "So it's common where you're from for people to look less human?"

Did that mean he used to be human? She immediately feels guilty for thinking it, even though she didn't say it aloud. It wasn't like being a bird didn't make him a person. Well, he wasn't a person person, but he was still-! Oh, nevermind.

[espigeon]

Julien lets his feathers relax, fluffing a little further, making him look larger and softer. He keeps his head raised. "It's good to keep an eye out. I've got a good wide field of view, so I can help with that anyway."

"Ah. Well. Yeah, Keye City Champions... You didn't recognize me," he says, only just realizing, "and that'd be really weird, I kinda ended up... aw, hell. I don't suppose you heard about the wyrm, six or seven months ago? Aliens? Animal themes getting big? Everyone's ideas about the world getting dramatically changed?"

Doesn't seem likely.