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

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.

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...?"

"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.

"You can hang stuff from them," he sighs. It's about the only possible use he can think of. And he's spent a lot of time thinking about it.

He looks hopefully over to the disgruntled shade running the stand. "I mean, she did do the challenge--"

"She dinn' even pay tickets."

Yikes. That makes it official. Greg rubs his neck, and looks over to Lapis again. "Well, you'll have plenty of time to enjoy that prize."

Why would she want to hang stuff from her teeth? That sounds unpleasant and uncomfortable. Is it a human thing? That's seriously weird.

She looks between Greg and the shadowy... person. Thing. Maybe it's some kind of alien. Who knows? Lapis turns her attention back to Greg and gives him a look. "What's a ticket?"

"Uhh,"

He wades through the standing puddles and picks a washed-out, sodden ticket from the mud.

"This thing. You were supposed to pay at the front gate to get a few, to use on all the stuff around here. You... you did at least pay to come in, right?" It doesn't make a huge amount of difference at this point, since he's pretty sure there's one basic level of punishment no matter the damage done.

Where would Lapis even get money, Greg.

"I just walked in. I don't have anything to pay with." She doesn't even have pockets. Perhaps shape shifting some into her dress would be a good idea for the future. For now, she's just sort of going to give Greg a weird look.

"Oh." He's pretty sure they allow things other than cash, but he's pretty sure she doesn't have any belongings period.

"Well!" He claps his hands together, by no means cheered but relatively resigned by now. "That's good, in a way. Means you didn't make anything worse here. Pretty sure it doesn't stack. Hopefully."

Naturally, she has no idea of what Greg is talking about, so that weird look on her face doesn't quite leave, but she does now look a little more confused. "What doesn't stack?"

No point beating around the bush anymore, is there. "The payment. The person in charge of this place is really pretty serious about the cost of things. You're going to need to pay the carnival back for all this, Lapis. With work."

Well. Even Lapis knows that that is probably fair. If she broke it then she should probably help fix it? "Oh. I don't know anything about fixing this kind of thing, though." Which is probably not too great, honestly.

He shakes his head. "She'll find something for you to do. It'll be more than just fixing the one thing, though. You'll have to get a job here for a little while." Does she even know what a job is? The Crystal Gems only ever seemed vaguely aware.

"Why would it be more than fixing what I broke? That doesn't seem fair." And also, Lapis isn't doing it. You can't make her. Also, to answer Gregs' question: "What's a 'Job'?"

"If you can get a good answer from the boss, let me know." He's here because he shorted them eight tickets, Lapis. Eight tickets. "A job is where you do work for someone in exchange for something. Usually, it's money. In a place like this... it's other stuff."

"What kind of other stuff?" Not that she really needs other stuff, but now she's curious. If it's anything interesting maybe she won't mind doing this 'Job' thing? At least until her debt is paid. It's not like it could be a lot, right?

"Ehh. Powers? Favors with things back home... Magic abilities... teeth..." He sighs. "One way or another, it takes a year to pay off anything you want from the boss. Whether it's that stuff, or... this." He gestures to the mess. But, a year is pretty short for a gem, so that must not seem so bad.

"I'm not staying here for a year." Yes, a year is a short time for a gem, but when the gem in particular has... issues with being stuck places, well. It's a sore subject. "It's not like this was worth a years worth of work."

"Trust me, Lapis, I know it's not. I got stuck here for less." He shoots a sidelong glance at those hanging plushies. "But I'm not the one you have to explain it to. I don't think there's anyone who's gotten out of here once the Ringmaster decides they owe her."

"I'm not getting stuck here." That's said with considerably more conviction. "I don't care what the Ringmaster thinks I owe her." It's really easy to say that when she hasn't yet met said Ringmaster. Or tried to leave yet, or any of those things.

Greg watches Lapis for a moment, before shaking his head and going to start picking up the water guns and smaller toys knocked to the ground. "Well, good luck. Give it your best shot." He won't say it's impossible, but the resistance has been drained out of him.

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

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