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

[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.]

[She actually comes back surprisingly quickly. Probably because she's in a panicked state, and she knows there's a Diamond on the loose and her friends are at risk, but who knows really. Maybe that's just how she do.

Anyway. Cherish the image, for a moment, of that trash can suddenly glowing from the inside, as Peridot's gem slowly rises up out of it, bathed in a shifting white light. It hovers for a little while, and at first looks to be taking the shape of a normal Peridot, sans fae changes... but at the very last second the shape changes all at once, like someone hit a "mutate" switch or something, and suddenly she's there and solid again complete with the same horns and tail and claws as before.

...The second she's done reforming, she drops back into the trash can with a yelp. It wobbles off balance and tips over, spilling her out onto the floor in a cascade of refuse. She immediately pushes herself up with a horrified gasp, like a swimmer resurfacing after too long spent under the water.]

What-- Where--

[Why is she still in one piece. Where is Yellow Diamond.]

Edited 2017-05-31 23:09 (UTC)

[peridot will have to go outside to find yellow diamond. she's currently crouched down, surrounded by odds and ends and appears to be trying to get a holographic screen working. it's not going so well - less because she doesn't know what she's doing and more because the restrictions of the carnival don't let it form properly.

she looks about to do something SUPER COOL, with her gem glowing and humming.

is peridot going to interrupt this?]

[No, she sure as hell is not. What she IS going to do is bite back on a gasp, scurry to hide behind a nearby tree, and then bite back on more swearing when she reaches for her radio to call for help and realizes she no longer has it. Stupid, clodding Yellow Diamond! She must have junked all of her stuff after she poofed her.

She should really just run, but she's anxious about what Yellow is working on over there. It's hard to make out details from here, but she's going to keep a sharp eye on it for the next few minutes regardless.]

[she summons some kind of odd yellow orb, which she then pushes into the equipment hooked up. the green glowing wires that appear on a destabilized gem glow across it and she seems to have more success with getting the holopad to hold its form.

it was really cool.

so cool.]

[So cool. The irony of the situation, that Peridot would have given anything to be this close to Yellow Diamond before she learned the truth about what a JERK her leader is, is not lost on her in this moment.

She still can't really tell what Yellow is doing, though. Maybe a retreat would be best after all...

Peridot takes about two steps backwards, and then on the third... puts her foot down on someone's discarded soda can, and falls flat on her back.]

[she'll find herself bubbled again immediately. yellow takes a moment to finish what she's doing, then turns to face peridot.]

You had plenty of time to re-evaluate your position, Peridot.

[Fun fact: The bubble is even more terrifying to be in when your last experience in it ended with your form being slowly crushed!

Peridot is hugging her knees again, for safety, and isn't it kind of hilarious how the fetal position is a universal thing even among species who were never actually fetuses? HILARIOUS.]

Y-yes. I have.

[Says Peridot in pretty much the saddest raspy squeak imaginable. Her eyes are wide and fixed on the larger gem. What does she want?]

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

no subject

1/??

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject