livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

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.
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 and the players agree to it.
If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Treasurer and Acquisitioner are currently open.

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 (NEW): 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? (NEW): 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

[To that, Lapis gives a very unflattering snort.]

Clean? I'm not a pearl. I don't know, maybe I can work the ride consoles?

Yeah, well, here, it doesn't really matter what you are.

[Not that he even knows what that means.]

But yeah, maybe. It's not hard. I haven't broken anything yet.

The harder it is to mess up the easier it is for me to pay them back.[Especially if it's hard to break. She, uh, has a knack for breaking things by accident.]

Man. I dunno 'bout that then. When the Ringmaster approaches you, you can prolly talk it out. Otherwise, y'might get even more debt.

Blows.

Not like there's much else I can do. [She brings up her hand to her mouth, and to show her displeasure, makes a long drawn out 'pbbbbbt' noise.]

[Lars jumps at the raspberry, because he thought Amethyst was the only gem who had some kind of sense of humor. He stares, then his shoulders hike as he laughs.]

Haha! You should include that in your statement.

[FART JOKES ARE UNIVERSALLY FUNNY TO BOYS]

[And to that, she snortlaughs. She can see why he's Steven's friend if he's this funny.]

Maybe I will. What's the worst she can do to me if I'm already trapped here anyway? Keep me here for 5,000 years? I've already been stuck in a mirror that long!

Damn, what? [LAUGHTER TIME IS OVER] How the heck old're you?

I don't know, somewhere around 6,000? Maybe more. Time doesn't translate too well when you're stuck in a mirror.

How'd that even happen!?

[He pauses, shifting gears before Lapis can even answer.]

—Dag, wait... is that why you were all flippin' out in the funhouse?

That's right. [She's not the most stable of gems. But also, Lars doesn't seem to be too bad a human, and he's Steven's friend, so she'll offer:]

Do you want to see how I got stuck?

[She's still blaming the Crystal Gems for what happened, but also, still Pearl in particular. Even if they've gotten past the point of Lapis wanting to crush her.]

... Will it... threaten my mortality?

No, you'll be fine. [She laughs. Which is- okay, it actually feels good to laugh in a situation like this.] It's just a projection.

Huh. Yeah, sure.

Let's go over here.

[Lars makes way to one of the benches near the entrance of the trailer park, flopping onto it. MAY AS WELL BE COMFY]

Alright, go ahead and dump your backstory exposition on me. I'm good.

[She'll raise an eyebrow at him for a moment, before she calls up a decently sized wall of water, and, naturally, her eyes go reflective. Lapis Exhales, steeling herself because she knows this is going to be... Well, not particularly pleasant.]

Thousands of years ago, Homeworld decided that they were going to take earth and turn it into a colony. It would have been catastrophic for the earth, it would have destroyed it, and your kind. [And yet, the Gems that have appeared in Lapis' little movie don't seem too off put by this. They're all cheering and hailing the Great Diamond Authority. The scene changes, though, to a battle field.] Some Gems weren't happy with that idea though. They rebelled and fought against Homeworld. To protect Earth and the organic life that lived there. I wasn't part of the Rebellion, but I was sent to earth for a short time.

[And right into the middle of a war, a Gem poofs her before she can fly away.] I ended up trapped in a mirror, but I was useless, because I didn't know where the rebel gems base was. Eventually I was tossed aside when they found out they wouldn't get any information out of me. [The scene has been changing through out everything she's been saying, but this time it's showing gems fleeing earth. She still doesn't know why, but in the fleeing the mirror she was on was stepped on, and her gem got cracked. The scene changes again, and our favourite Rebel Peal picks up the mirror]

The Crystal gems found me, but they didn't release me either. [And then, once more, the scene changes, this time to Steven pulling Lapis' gem from the mirror and freeing her.] It was Steven who finally did so.

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

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