⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

[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. 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!

Comments

Lapis Lazuli | Steven Universe

[mirrortide]

[A:WHEN WILL MY REFLECTION SHOW WHO I AM INSIIIIDE]

Lapis isn't quite sure how it happened, how this happened, but there's one thing she knows for certain: She needs out. She needs away from this place. Or so she thinks. Her first instinct is to leave the way she came, but with so many reflections of herself staring back at her, she's not really sure where that is. And then they speak.

"Help me!" and "Let me out of here!", and "Please, someone! I'm trapped!" echo around her as other lapis lazulis face her, trapped. Trapped like she was, in a mirror, begging to get out. Needless to say the mind games the reflections are playing on her are working, and working quite well. "Hang on! I'll- I'll get you out! Where's your gem? There's so many of you- don't worry!" Her voice is tinged with panic as she absolutely claws against the glass, trying to find a seem to pull at, to free the other gems so obviously trapped in a mirror as well.

When that doesn't work, when the glass doesn't give, she resorts to more violent means. "I'll get your gem out, don't worry!" One by one, she'll shatter each mirror in a frenzy, until she manages to find where the other Lapis Lazuli gems are. Not that they're there.

[B: Water you doing?]

She sees the small stuffed toy, and she observes the game for a moment. The object is clearly to soak those little targets with water, and honestly that doesn't seem too hard. All she has to do is fill up the thing there until she wins, right? Not hard.

Lapis sends an absolute deluge onto the poor stall to fill up the targets, soaking just about everything completely with the exception of the prizes, undoubtedly damaging something with the force used. That doesn't seem to have stopped her though, and she turns to the shadowy, smokey humanoid thing. "I'll take that one."

Not only has she not actually paid, the damages alone must cost something here. Whoops.

REFLECTIONS

[starseedling]

It's not actually hard to hear the sounds of a ton of glass breaking within the walls of the mirror maze. Steven doesn't even work in this part of the carnival, but he can hear it just as he walks by. Nobody is usually manning the maze except for a sprite that wants admission. Workers don't need to pay for this stuff though, so he starts to enter without much hesitation.

"Hello?" he calls into the twisted corridors, his voice not carrying well with the mirrors in between. "Are you okay?!" Holy geez it sounds like someone is dying in here.

He rushes in deeper, seeing his own reflections start appearing around him. He knows these guys schtick already.

"What are you guys doing?!" he asks his own reflections.

"Not anything!" his reflection replies, crossing it's arms and looking annoyed. "Some blue girl is going nuts in here! Kind of funny, though..."

Blue girl...?

Steven turns from the mirror and starts moving faster. It isn't long until he starts seeing the shattered mirrors and fragments of a familiar gem.

"Lapis! Lapis Lapis Lapis stoooop!" he calls, running after her.

[mirrortide]

Lapis, thankfully, does stop when she hears Steven's voice. It's not for long though, because she honestly can't fathom why he'd be telling her to stop. Can't he hear the other lapis lazulis in trouble? They need help!

"Steven! You have to help me! I need- I can't find their gems! No matter how many I break there's nothing behind them! They have to be here somewhere! Help me free them!" Panic doesn't even begin to describe the state that Lapis is in mentally at the moment.

This time, Lapis smashes another mirror with her elbow.

[starseedling]

Ohhhh no this is worse than when she tried to free him from Skype by breaking Peridot's tablet. Seeing her so upset makes him feel pretty damn emotional in response, tears prickling in his eyes, and he rushes forward to embrace her, not knowing how else to deescalate this.

"It's okay! I promise it's okay. They're not real. They're not gem mirrors, they're something else."

He's not sure exactly what it is, but the reflections sure don't seem to mind doing their job.

[mirrortide]

This time she stops breaking the mirrors, despite the pleas and cries coming from the ones still left standing. She's torn. It's not that she doesn't believe Steven, because Lapis knows that Steven would do anything to help someone, because that's just the kind of person he is, but also there's still the part of her panicking, telling her that she needs to help these trapped gems.

She's not moving, but she is looking rapidly between Steven and the still standing reflections that are begging to be freed. When it dawns on her that the Steven in front of her is different from hers, while still being the same, that panic comes back full force. Only this time it's directed at Steven's well being. He's quickly getting hugged in return. And also inspected. Heavily inspected.

"Steven!? Are you okay? What's wrong with you- Is it corruption? I don't know how to fix this! What can I do?"

[periphrasing]

It's hard to miss the sound of that much glass shattering. As she passes, Peridot has half a mind to go in and chew out the perpetrator, but as lead engineer, she has bigger fish to fry elsewhere. Better to just send Greg in to replace the smashed mirrors later.

At least, that was her initial take on the situation. Her tune changes pretty quickly when, suddenly, those pointy little ears of hers pick up on a familiar voice... One that she hasn't heard in quite some time. Instantly, she's off like a shot, bounding through the house of mirrors on all fours and calling ahead:

"Lazuli?? Lazuli, is that you!?!"

Before Lapis can answer her, Peridot rounds a corner and skids into sight. Immediately, she stands up straight again when she spots her friend, letting out an overjoyed cry that just completely disregards the amount of distress that Lapis is currently in.

"Oh my stars, Lapis! It is you!"

y'all doin lapis a frighten

[mirrortide]

Relief instantly floods Lapis when she hears Peridots' voice. Peridot is here, she'll understand, she'll help Lapis free these other lapis lazuli's imprisoned here. Or rather, that's what she thinks, right until her relief is replaced with horror when she finally regards Peridots' form.

The sound she makes is neither pretty nor relieved, and honestly, Lapis actively backs up away from Peridot as self preservation suddenly kicks into overdrive.

"Peridot?" Obviously this has to be Peridot, but it doesn't look anything like Peridot, and Peridot can't shape shift anyway, and none of this is making any sort of sense.

BORK BORK BORK BORK

[periphrasing]

Peridot's grin falters a little at Lapis's reaction, but only for a second before she realizes what the issue must be. It must be pretty startling for her to see her like this, and she hadn't even considered...

The little gem makes a show of briefly glancing down at herself, and then looks back up at Lapis with what she hopes is a placating smile (even though she's showing off some sharp teeth in the process), taking on a more schmooze appropriate tone.

"Heeeyyy, Lapis... It's still me! It's Peri! Your best friend, your CPH buddy!" She steps forward a few feet,

MIGHTY CONCERN

[mirrortide]

It's really not the teeth that are the problem, Peridot. It's the whole... Well, it's all of Peridot that's the problem, and even when Lapis realizes that Peridot isn't just a mindless corrupted Gem, she's quick to understand that she is a corrupted Gem. She must be. Nothing else makes sense.

Is corruption contagious? Should she escape, maybe? But if she escapes, she'll be leaving all of these other Gems trapped. She doesn't want to hurt Peridot. She also doesn't want to leave these other Lapis' here. How long have they been trapped anyway? Hopefully not as long as she was.

Peridot steps forward, and Lapis steps back, cornering herself against one of the smashed mirrors. What should she do?

"What's wrong with you? Why are you like that? Is it corruption? Is it contagious?"

Water

[fragileandsoft]

"What the--"

These games aren't the most expertly crafted, and need repairs. Especially when water comes flooding in mid-taping to undo the glue.

"Good gravy, don't tell me it's the toilets aga--Lapis?"

Greg comes out from behind the stall, carrying a broken target under his arm and soaked from the knees down. He gapes at her a moment, then at the flooded stall. Realization twists in his gut.

"Oh."

[mirrortide]

Lapis freezes when she hears Gregs voice. She's still not really sure what a 'Dad' is, but Greg is apparently one, and Steven has a lot of respect for 'Dad'. Also, she still feels terrible for breaking his leg.

"Oh. Hi." That doesn't look like Greg very much. Maybe general shape wise, but there's a lot going on that is distinctly Not Greg. Are humans supposed to change forms like this? Maybe she should just play it cool.

"Nice... teeth?" Are those teeth? Either way, Nailed it.

[fragileandsoft]

He rubs at his mouth around the tusks absentmindedly, eyes still on the damage.

"Yeah... yeah. Maybe you can get a matching set."

There are rules against warning people, but he's pretty sure it's too late for that. This is way more than a few tickets' worth of payment.

"What.. were you trying to do here...?"

[mirrortide]

"Why would I want teeth like that?" It seems terribly awkward. But there's a more important question there. "Oh! Um, the point of the game is to hit the targets with water to win a prize, and the more you soak them, the better your prize is supposed to be." Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Lapis felt the need to soak everything.

... From the way Greg is looking at her, Lapis has a feeling that she may have over done it. Just a little bit.

B

[dontpokethat]

Look, this isn't really Ginko's business. He doesn't even work in the Gamer's Circle, he was just passing through, and he has other places to be.

But, uh.

"Hey, uh..." He looks over the... situation in front of him, looking... what? Concerned? A little bit afraid? Very tired? Maybe all three. "...You probably shouldn't do stuff like that around here."

That warning is probably a bit late, but. You know.

[mirrortide]

"Do stuff like what?" In her defense, she absolutely doesn't get how to play games. And that flooding game stalls might be a bad idea. Look, she's doing her best to have a good time, alright, just because she may have over done it a little can't possibly be a bad thing, right?

[dontpokethat]

"Like... well, like that." He gestures at the stall with one hand. "Damaging carnival property isn't a great idea."

[mirrortide]

"I didn't damage it. The point of the game is to get it wet." She's won the game, obviously. Look how wet it is. Everything is wet, the targets, the wood, some of the prizes, definitely the ground.

A

[pullingamiko]

Um.

Miko has seen a lot of weird stuff since wandering into this place, but this? This is on a whole new level. And she just came into the hall of mirrors, so this is like, immediate.

She wanders toward Lapis, leaning over to try and see if she can see whatever it is that this blue lady is freaking out over. "Uh... you okay over there? Like, I'm pretty sure they're just, y'know, mirrors."

[mirrortide]

If you were her you'd freak out too.

As it stands, she smashes another mirror in front of her only for it to come up empty again, which is thoroughly disheartening, actually. That's fine though, because at the sound of another voice, while she doesn't jump, she does startle, and when she faces the human, desperation and panic are written all over her face.

"Help me! They're trapped in there!" Case in point, one of the mirror Lapis' is quick to mimic her expression of desperation and panic and press her hands against the mirror, with an equally panicked cry of "Save me, please!"

[pullingamiko]

--Oh holy shit what the fuck.

Miko's eyes go wide at... what appears to be this woman, but not, stuck inside a mirror?? Holy shit??

She doesn't know what to even start to think of this, but thinking things through has never been Miko's forte anyway. So instead, she just rushes over and starts trying to help, kicking at the mirror.

"Okay, jeez, so-- d'you know why there're clones of you or something in these? Just-- just wondering."

[mirrortide]

"What?" Clones? "They're not clones they're-" Smash goes a mirror. "Other Lapis Lazuli!" And it is imperative that she gets them out of there. Unfortunately as another mirror ends up in bits on the floor, there's still no gem to be found. It's not doing to good for her mental state.

REFLECTIONS

[mossbuds]

[It had already been a pretty not good day for Lars. Not that that really meant anything, necessarily—every day was pretty much a bad day for Lars, especially in this weird fever dream of a carnival. But getting lost in this stupid funhouse mirror maze hasn't really done much to cool his mood, and for the better part of the last 15 minutes or so has left Lars increasingly spooked. At first, he was just annoyed at being lost—and that was when he noticed the mirrors were also fucked up with some stupid devil magic, and while he knew that was what was going on, it didn't make the taunts coming from his own distorted reflections any less unnerving.

Then he starts hearing glass shatters—he turns kind of clumsily, and backs up into a reflection of himself that didn't turn its back when Lars had (it continues to stare at Lars, rudely tells him to watch where he's going, and then pantomimes with frustration to push him off the glass). Another shattered mirror and Lars jumps with a squeaky little gasp. His reflection rolls its eyes and tells him to get it together, and he mutters a shaky, quiet "you get it together" before he anxiously steps forward. Not necessarily to confront it like some brave hero he isn't, but—stupidity, he'd decide later.

When he tentatively rounds the corner to try to see what the hell is going on, he catches site of Lapis's back. Another gem he doesn't recognize—immediately obvious by the stone between her shoulder blades, and her poreless, blue skin. She seems frantic.]

Wh—

[Then he sees her do it; he throws up his arms with a high pitched yelp, realizing too late he's a little too close. Some of the shards glance and bounce off the side of his hand, arm and temple. He gets a couple of little knicks, and feeling the sting, Lars drops his hand to stare at it in dumbounded disbelief for a moment. It's not a bad cut or anything, though. He's not even bleeding.]

What the—what're you doing?! [he demands incredulously, then feels something. Warm. He pauses, then touches his fingertips to his temple—which come away a little bloody, which makes Lars jump.] Augh! Crap!

What's with you gems and—destroyin' shit?!

[mirrortide]

[Well, at the very least when she hears the sudden yelp (its far to late to stop herself from breaking the glass, and she wouldn't even then), Lapis is just as sufficiently startled as Lars is. Mostly because she didn't expect anyone else here, but boy there sure is.

Lapis just sort of stares at him as she's suddenly yelled at, because this person(?) seems to know what she is.

But also, he's leaking red stuff from his head. At the very least Lapis does look around for a minute before she's back to looking at him. Though her concern for him isn't exactly high on the priority list right now, it's there, at least.]

You're leaking. [He knows that, Lapis.]

[mossbuds]

I'm bleeding, you friggin' outer-space lunatic!! [As if to make his point, Lars thrusts his palm in Lapis's direction, his fingers all mottled with blood.]

It's—[wait okay so gems don't bleed. Lars looks exasperated.] If we lose too much'a this stuff, we die!

[Lars isn't even concerned with the subject of Lapis's distress, for a couple of reasons. First: he's an ass. Second: at this point, he kind of just thinks that gems senselessly destroy shit as part of their species instinct.]

[mirrortide]

[thats fucking gross, lars.]

I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! [How much is too much? She doesn't want to kill anyone! Steven would be really upset if she did that.

She might be looking a little more panicked at the prospect of maybe accidentally murdering someone slowly?]

How do I fix it? I'm sorry!