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

[Peridot likes to think she has relatively few regrets in life, but the choice to investigate the source of this particularly familiar voice is in a dreadful category of all its own.

Of course she had recognized that shouting. How could she not? The very sound of it is seared into her memory like a painful brand. At first, the tech had almost just assumed she'd finally gone and cracked or something; she has to be imagining things, right, because why would Yellow be HERE, at the carnival of all places? It's ludicrous! Ridiculous! Absolutely improbable. The only thing more improbable? The odds of Peridot successfully being able to relax at all if she didn't go and check things out, just to be absolutely certain.

And that's where the regret comes in, because her calculations were incorrect. Yellow Diamond is much smaller than she should be, but to Peridot she's still larger than life... and that is definitely her, there's no mistaking it. She nearly dissipates her form right then and there out of sheer terror, and only the fact that Yellow Diamond represents a clear and present threat to her friends is enough to convince her to keep it together.

But what the hell is she supposed to do about it? She stands there cowering behind a trash can while her (former?) Diamond screams at the cinder sprite at the admissions counter, trying to come up with a plan or will herself into moving or doing something when the lightning charges up and-- Oh stars no, she wouldn't, she can't--]

WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!

[...She did. And Peridot was a split second too late to stop her. That sprite is toast, and she just blew her cover for nothing. The green gem freezes on the spot, gaping with horror and trembling with terror, hoping against all hope that maybe Yellow Diamond didn't hear her shout and she can still run away while her back is turned. Or maybe... maybe she just won't recognize her as a gem, what with all her physical changes and her carnival uniform covering up her old Homeworld uniform? MAYBE?]

[the electricity crackles out when peridot shouts and yellow diamond turns, very slowly and deliberately to face her.

peridot's gem is visible, so she's kinda fucked from the start.]

IDENTIFY YOURSELF AT ONCE!

[...really fucked.]

Edited (i can spell) 2017-05-31 11:56 (UTC)

[Crud.

Peridot is sweating bullets, and trembling violently like terrified chihuahua. Facing Yellow Diamond was pants-shittingly scary enough when she was doing it over a long-distance call from another planet. Face-to-face is putting her on a whole different level of fear. Like, she's right there. Smaller than usual, yes, but still within easy crushing distance.]

UUUUUuuuum-- Um. Um--

[What should she do!? Lie? She's not even good at lying under normal calm circumstances, let alone under such duress. She sure as hell can't give her her actual facet and cut designation.

Nope. There's only one sensible option here.

She's going to use her metal powers to fling a nearby garbage can at her as a distraction, and then run the fuck away screaming.]

[you know what would be cool? if she could vaporise that trash can in midair. she probably could, if she hit it with enough volts, but doesn't. the act of insubordination is so unprecedented ~~one can't help but wonder why~~ that the can actually hits her right on the gem. it doesn't do any damage, but peridot probably knows she's basically a dead gem walking. yellow diamond doesn't care that peridot is the only other gem she's seen so far, she just wants to poof the little shit and maybe get her shatter on.

maybe predictably ~~because i don't know any other powers~~, yellow diamond fires off another bolt at peridot. she won't lower herself to giving chase just yet.]

[It just misses her. Actually, it doesn't even miss her entirely: it singes the tuft at the end of her tail and blows up the ground just behind her, sending her tumbling forward head over heels with a wail.

...What's astounding is that she somehow sticks the landing and winds up on her feet. It's a move so smooth, it shocks even Peridot, and she has to take half a second to laugh incredulously.]

Bwwuhhh-- Heh. Hahaha!

[No okay that's enough SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE RUNNING FOR HER LIFE. Time to scamper past the entrance and abscond into the carnival proper, because saving her own ass is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than preventing further property damage.]

[how many gems can say they've had a pissed off diamond running after them? probably less than five, but peridot is now on that list. she tries to summon her palanquin out of habit. it doesn't come, of course, but that allows peridot another two seconds to get ahead.

she may not be as big as she once was, but yellow diamond still has long legs. long legs that carry her on peridot's tail very quickly.]

YOU WILL BE SHATTERED FOR THIS!

[SHE KNOWS SHE WILL, YELLOW. SHE KNOWS.]

WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH--

[That's Peridot's incredibly articulate response. She is pants shittingly terrified right now, she has literally had nightmares about this. And everything is only going to get worse, because to make up for that one really cool move she did just before now, she's going to revert back to her usual level of grace and agility and fall flat on her face in her desperation to put as much distance between herself and the angry diamond as possible. She scrambles back to her feet and makes a dive to scrabble her way under one of the game booths, but YD is basically right there already and it's not like it's going to be hard to figure out where she went.]

Edited 2017-05-31 16:07 (UTC)

[yellow diamond is not unlike a velociraptor from jurassic park as she curls her hand under the game booth and topples it over. it's too easy, even if she doesn't have as much strength as she usually does, her size makes it easier.

peridot is regarded with a strong amount of disdain. yellow says nothing, but reaches out to bubble her.

at least she's not ripping the gem out of peridot's forehead by bubbling just the gem. she wants to bubble peridot's entire form.

[Peridot gasps in horror, and for a moment she scrabbles around the inside of the bubble like a bug caught under a glass. Eventually she settles on flattening herself up against the far side of the bubble from wherever Yellow Diamond happens to be glaring in at her. If she possessed a stomach, this is probably point where she'd be vomiting in terror.]

WAIT-- wait wait wait, please don't, please don't shatter me I'M SORRY!

[Soak it up, YD; all that delicious fear babbling and-- yup, she sure is crying, too. Gross.]

[yellow says nothing but seems slightly less... explosive when peridot is trapped in her bubble. she rolls her eyes when peridot starts crying and just shrinks the bubble. not enough to poof her or do any damage, but to make it clear that she's in deep shit.]

I will ask one more time. Identify yourself.

[Goaded by the encroaching bubble, Peridot drops and hugs her knees with a pathetic squeak, curling into a ball with her tail wrapped around herself.

She can't give her real designation. She has to bullshit something, because if Yellow remembers the full name of the peridot that sassed her over vidcom (and surely she must, because that was OBVIOUSLY such an incredibly grievous infraction), she's toast for sure.]

P...Peridot, Facet 25FL-- [Shit wait no that's her ACTUAL KINDERGARTEN, WHY MUST OLD HABITS DIE HARD??] Cut... Cut 4GZ!

[YUP THAT'S DEFINITELY HER REAL CUT, DEFINITELY NOT THE CUT OF SOME OTHER POOR PERIDOT FROM HER BATCH THAT SHE JUST REMEMBERED IN HER DESPERATION TO FAKE A NAME]

...

[she has no records to pull up to verify. yellow diamond hates that she has to just trust this peridot. she paces a little in front of the bubble.]

As much as you deserve to be shattered here and now, it would be rather inconvenient in this situation. A Peridot such as yourself... have you been hacking? Doing anything with this technology?

[yellow diamond stops and draws back. she smiles, but it's not a pleasant one.]

Don't think I'll forget that you ran, little Peridot. You will be shattered on return to Homeworld. Put on another show like this, however, and I will do it myself. Am I clear?

[Peridot follows her movements with fearful eyes, sitting rigidly in her little bubble prison. At least the knowledge that she's not immediately on the chopping (shattering?) block means that there's some hope for an outcome where this encounter doesn't end with her gem in a million tiny pieces? Provided she can get some backup out here to save her bacon.

Better play along as much as she can, even if she's piss scared right now.

She throws up the usual salute. She's been leaning into the Rebel Lyfe(tm) so hard for so long now that it actually makes her feel kind of scummy to do that, but it's not like she has much of a choice.]

My Diamond-- Please forgive me, I have been trapped here in this measly, stars-forsaken realm for so long that I had completely forgotten myself, AND all protocol, so much so that when I finally laid my vision spheres upon your radiance once more, I was struck with a blind panic, the likes of which no gem has ever experienced before! I completely forgot myself, but you have my word that it will not happen again!

[That is her story for why she threw a trash can at you, and she is sticking to it.]

You threw a trash recepticle at me!

I-It was reflexive!!!! I swear, I would never consciously commit such a heinous act!

[She's hunkering down so hard that she's practically hiding her face behind the diamond shape her arms are making.]

[yellow diamond's eyes narrow.

the bubble starts to tighten.

peridot is going in time out.]

[...Brutal.

This is every claustrophobe's worst nightmare. Peridot squeals and tightens up into a ball, gem down against her knees.]

No, wait-- please don't--

[yellow doesn't respond. she just continues tightening the bubble until peridot barely has enough room to exist without being poofed. then she stops it for a moment to lean in.]

You are defective.

[and she curls her hand into a fist, gesturing for the bubble to compress on itself until peridot has not choice but to dissipate her form.]

Edited 2017-05-31 20:30 (UTC)

[She knows she is, Yellow. She knows. Not that it stops her from looking like her Diamond just punched her in the gut.

And then she does dissipate, and she does it with a pathetic little squeak that is cut short in a puff of bright green smoke. Except that she also had a bunch of material items on her person, so now all her clothes and belongings are floating in the bubble along with her gem. Weird.]

Edited 2017-05-31 20:46 (UTC)

[gross. yellow diamond pops the bubble, letting it all fall into her hand. she discards all the material items and keeps hold of peridot's gem, looking around the carnival for somewhere to hole up.

not that she wants to.

whenever peridot reforms, she'll be alone and also in a trash can. in, uh, a crappy wooden shack.

look, you gotta work with what you have.]

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

A.

i got this icon just for you

I'm so honored :')

<3

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