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

[Okay, first off: rude. Second off: she has all of his cuts what now? Lastly, she wants to kill him apparently. That doesn't even really shock him at this point, he just sort of accepted that as a given.

Though she may find herself surprised about how hard he is to break.

Steven just lets all of that wash over him for now without individually questioning any of it. There will be time for that later, probably. If Blue Diamond signed a contract already... that means she's going to be here for a while. It also means that she's under the same rules as everyone else. Maybes he doesn't realize it, but if she shatters him she will be in bigger trouble than a diamond might be able to imagine.

If he has to he might warn her of that. For now, though... tentatively trying diplomacy.]

Because... she was trapped, and she needed help. She was scared, and alone, and I asked her what I could do...

Wouldn't you want to do the same?

[Genuine question, Big D.]

It's true! Steven saved me, not only that, when my Gem was cracked he healed it! Even after I stole all of Earth's oceans, even after I tried to kill him! He's not like the rebels, I swear, my Diamond!

[At least everyone else here was one thing or another, not a combination of things before they even arrived. It isn't Steven's fault exactly that he's an abomination, and Blue would probably be more forgiving about the entire nature of his creation and birth had he not been ... her.

If that was a ruby gem standing there wrapped in a fleshy shell the conversation would be very, very different.

Instead she has Rose Quartz, and a lapis that seemed to believe in him. As much as the rebels believed in their leader. Certainly Lapis was passionate about what she believed, but couldn't it all be a lie? Her free hand rises, as if to forestall that vehement argument.]

I don't know that I would, little quartz.

[Her tone never wavers from that gentle, serene pleasantness, though inevitably it creeps again towards sorrow. Didn't she keep an entire cut of gem locked away? At least they were unaware.]

I have no desire to see any gem undeservedly imprisoned remaining so. However, a Diamond does not always have the luxury to do what she wants to. [what] There are other things that must be weighed simply beyond ... mere sympathy. No matter how much it pains me to do.

[After a time, she simply ... lets go, releasing her hold on Steven. No harm's been done yet, and perhaps she doesn't intend to cause any in spite of wishing to. But she has her precious future to hold onto, the only hope she's had in millennia, and if it worked out ... and she hoped it would, then it would be another's hands Steven's fate would be left in. Not Blue's, and not Yellow's.]

[Steven rubs his wrist a little after she lets him go, not because she was hurting him but because it was weird - weird being touched by someone he's only heard about in vague stories before. At least it doesn't seem like she's going to do anything right now... which is fine. He'd rather skip the fight and have her find out that hurting him wouldn't stand on her own terms, instead of him having to point it out like a threat.

He's not exactly comfortable with her attitude, but it's distressingly familiar by now. She has the advantage that she actually isn't trying to hurt him yet, unlike a lot of her subjects. And other rebels. And... well. Lots of people. He exhales slowly, not able to make eye contact at the moment.]

I think I get what you mean.

[It's said with his own sad regret. It's like Garnet had told him... how apparently his mom had had to kill Pink Diamond because there was no other way for the other Crystal Gems to be free. She had to put necessity above her morals, and that sounds like the same concept Blue Diamond is expressing.

Not that he would dare compare the two of them. Not right now, anyway. He sees the connection, regardless.]

It's okay if you don't like me, because of... what I represent, or... or whatever you feel like right now. But we can't fight while we're both here. I'm working for the Ringmaster, too.

Why would I fight you?

[Not only would it be a completely pointless exercise in futility, what would it gain beyond temporary satisfaction? It wouldn't even make Blue feel better for long.]

You belong to her. At the very best you are a precious part of her legacy, human or quartz. At the worst ... it is not I to whom justice is most owed, and your fate will not lie in my hands. What is waiting another year, after so long?

[Blue straightens back up, pulling her long robes about herself a little tighter as if to fend off a chill. Mostly it's to fend off the grief threatening to boil back up. No. She must not give in. There's finally a light in the darkness, and she must hold onto that instead of the pain. There is hope. There is hope.]

All I must do is make certain you are there to face that judgment, be it for your guilt or your innocence. And if for some unknowable reason she chooses mercy..

[The tall woman inclines her head slightly towards Lapis.]

It seems she would like to keep your company, in gratitude. This can be provided for, even for a strange hybrid such as yourself.

[Again, he is caught off guard by that. It's sweet, in a really condescending and entitled way, but you know? He'll take it. That's way better than it could have been.

Even if Pink Diamond decided to murder him, it's not like he'd just stand... and... take it...? Wait a second.]

Another... year? W-Wait. Did you...

[Her contract... was it to... Pink Diamond? What? SHE CAN DO THAT?!]

Did you ask the Ringmaster to fix her?!

[It comes out with a squeak of total surprise. His mind is completely blown.]

[Honestly, Lapis isn't even going to remotely get into the logistics of bringing a Gem back from being shattered because she's running on fumes at this point, and all she wants is for Blue Diamond to leave so that she can collapse onto the floor and never get up again, because this is way too stressful for one Gem to handle.]

[Blue is a diamond, she is innately superior to every single thing she encounters, but she does try after her own fashion to at least be a little compassionate if she can. And if Steven was innocent, what harm was there in Lapis keeping her peculiar little friend?

Besides which, keeping tabs on him if he were innocent may prove important.

The squeak of surprise draws an arch of black eyebrows and a look of thinly veiled ... what? Annoyance? Amusement? Even to empathic sense it's impossible to really pick out anything distinct.]

The Ringmaster explained that she would not resurrect the dead. But a shattered gem is not dead she is merely ... suffering unbearably and beyond our ability to ever help. Broken should be gone forever..

[Unreadable emotions surge back towards misery like a sudden tidal wave, and while Blue's smile is bitter, anger can't work its way up. There's that burning ember of hope again, as excruciatingly painful as it is wonderful.]

But now it isn't, and what is a year of being some strange being's pearl in return for that?

[It takes her a moment to wrap her calm around herself like a shroud again, and blink away the suspicious beginnings of tears, then turn to Lapis instead.]

It is outside your usual purview but resources are likely to be slim here, and I have no agate to assign the task instead. This .. friend of yours.. must survive at the very least until Pink Diamond's return, I wish for you to see to it that he does. Yellow will be displeased but I will explain matters to her.

[YELLOW'S HERE TOO?? Well Lapis knows that at least.]

[That's such a cheerful way to put that. Steven's stomach turns. He hadn't even considered something of that level - like, asking for his dad's protection was the most important thing to him at the time, and probably still is, even, but...

There are so many things that need fixing, back home. If Blue Diamond brought her back to life, would it be better? Or would it just be the gem war all over again? Steven doesn't know and it makes him feel sick inside. He suddenly and powerfully doesn't want to be in Blue's presence anymore, on a level beyond what he felt before.

Steven's eyes tear up reflexively, and his finds his face wet from them without even really understanding how it started. Her sadness, his own sadness, their own pressured hopes about different things...

He has to get out of here. It's more than he can take.

As Blue turns her attention to Lapis, he numbly begins to walk over to his friend as well, tears on his face but not really sure what to do about it. He could ask this question to Blue Diamond directly, but he doesn't really want to. Instead he reaches out to try to take Lapis's hand, speaking quietly:]

Can we go?

[It's not with impatience, but instead with with literal need. He can't take being here right now, and even beyond the tears on his face, his general demeanor at the moment makes that pretty obvious.]

[Lapis doesn't hesitate to let Steven grab her hand. He's not the only one who needs it right now. She can't salute, but she can duck her head with acknowledgement to Blue Diamonds request.]

Yes, my Diamond. May we be dismissed?

[There's still a very real terror there, but overriding that is the sense of protectiveness for Steven, which should be obvious from the way that Lapis keeps herself half in front of him. Not that she thinks that Blue Diamond will attack anymore; it's more a subtle gesture that she will protect him just like her Diamond wants.

Of course, it's obvious enough that that protectiveness even means to go as far as from her and any other Diamond that might want to hurt him.]

[Perhaps, some several thousand years before, seeing them so obviously uncomfortable and perhaps frightened, she would have deliberately kept them around, perhaps demanded they amuse her for a little while in the absence of her precious Pearl.

But now things were a little different. This may be the traitor and matricidal quartz ... and her own lapis may well be a traitor alongside him. Tormenting them because of it wouldn't bring Pink back or make her feel better. What was the point of bothering?

After a solid minute or two of silence, possibly while they squirm, Blue Diamond sighs. It sounds terribly put-upon, as if the weight of this entire horrible circus was on her shoulders.]

Yes, of course. I believe your companion was preparing for some task in this place.

[And then she turns and vanishes from the tent in a brief ripple of deep blue cloth. She had her own duties to attend to soon, but there were things she would have to consider first, and work on reining in her grief again before it made working impossible. She had to keep herself on task now, or pay dearly for it.. The anxiety she leaves in her wake in comparison is utterly irrelevant.]

[Steven will just stand there and keep hold of Lapis's hand until Blue Diamond has departed fully. Waiting as long as she takes to decide to release them is agonizing, but he manages to hold it together long enough, through some miracle. He doesn't even really know what he's doing anymore.

Once Lapis's diamond is gone, he lets go of her hand only to wrap his arms around her in a hug, still quietly crying.]

[Lapis is literally ten seconds from collapsing from sheer anxiety and panic when Blue Diamond leaves, and Steven hugs her tightly. It's a hug that she returns, all tension leaving her body at once.

There's... a lot to unpack emotionally for Lapis rather suddenly, and she doesn't really want to deal with that in the moment. She pulls away only slightly from the hug after a few seconds, giving a smile with some seriously poorly hidden anxiety in it.]

I don't know how much I want to stick around here with her lurking about... Want to go somewhere else?

[Steven has never even encountered a diamond in person before, but now he has a sudden and visceral understanding of why so many of the gems seems to react in terror or awe when it comes to the idea of them. He's honestly sort of mad at himself for how easily he bent under the pressure, but at the same time... it can't possibly be worth starting a fight and putting Lapis in danger.

He swallows, trying to compose himself just a little, and nods.]

Yeah, me neither. I... I don't think I'm in the mood to practice anymore, anyway.

[That's putting it lightly.]

[Lapis moves from the hug so she can crouch for him, a silent urge for him to climb on.]

Come on, we can at least go to the lake for a bit. It should be calmer over there, I think. [And she doesn't think that Blue Diamond would head back there so fast. She hopes not, anyway. She'll have to find some new hiding spots if that's the case.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

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