livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

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test drive meme

⇨ 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 only knows what maybe half of the words that Peridot is saying mean. Ride jokey? Attraction? But more importantly, not real? That doesn't make any sense, because the reflections are talking back, and now there's another peridot in the mirror. While Lapis might be hearing what they're saying, she's not actively listening.

Importantly, she's opted to ignore Peridot in favour of the other peridot, the one who is trapped in here too.

How many gems are trapped here? Lapis actively claws at the mirror for a few seconds. "I'll get you all out, Peridot help me!" She's already moving to smash another mirror in. Their gems have to be around here somewhere.

"Lapis NO, it's a trick! An illusion!" Peridot yelps, sprinting forward. Judging by the amount of broken glass in here Lapis has already racked up a sizable debt, and Peridot doesn't want her to add more to that just as much as she doesn't want to earn her own debt. She jumps and grabs the other gem's arm without really thinking, aiming to hold her back/knock her off balance.

"Peridot what are you-" Lapis wobbles, and aggressively tries to regain her balance as she's suddenly tackled by the smaller gem rather forcefully. Unfortunately Lapis' balance gives, and she's sent downwards with Peridot on top onto a floor filled with glass shards.

At least Peridots' fall is broken by Lapis. Momentarily anyway, because about one and a half seconds later there's a Poof, a small cloud of smoke, and a gem on the ground.

Thanks for that.

"Uhhhhh," says Peridot, staring at the gem on the ground, mortified.

"NuuuuuUUUHHHHH," she says again, sweating, glancing frantically at her surroundings to make sure no one else just saw that happen, or maybe in the hopes that someone did and they will be able to help get her shit back together? She's not quite sure which. Helpfully, of the few remaining mirror Peridots lifts her hands to her mouth and shouts from the audience: "Nice work, clod!" The other reflections all snicker in unison.

The real Peridot sits there for a second lashing her tail with agitation, before making the snap decision to scoop up Lapis's gem and hoof it out of the mirror house. She makes a run for her trailer in the supervisors grove, stumbling a few times in her haste, which causes her to comically fumble Lapis out of her hands once or twice.

They ultimately make it there unscathed though, and Peridot scampers over to gingerly place Lapis down on a pillow on the bed that she never uses. Then she backs up a good distance and parks herself on the floor on all fours, grimacing and waiting for her to come back.

It's a good few minutes before Lapis actually reforms. She doesn't want to be trapped in another mirror too, but she also doesn't want to rush and mess up reforming and end up with a glitchy messed up form. Honestly though, she does seem surprised when she can reform, and just spends the first few seconds looking at her body to make sure, and then her surroundings, and finally, Peridot.

"Peridot?" She's not moving away this time, but she's also not moving closer. "Where am I?" But also, more importantly: "Did you free the other gems?"

Peridot had opened her mouth to start apologizing pretty much as soon as Lapis's gem had started to glow, but now the words are caught in her throat. She just sits there making awkward creaking sounds for a solid 15 seconds, unsure how to approach this.

"Y...es...." She lies, at last. Badly. But she knows that's what Lapis wants to hear and she really doesn't want her running off to go break more shit out in the carnival. "This is my trailer," she adds, deflecting. "It's sort of my... Home Away from our Home Away from Homeworld."

Try saying that three times fast.

That said, the sense of decoration in here really isn't dissimilar from the barn. Plenty of Peridot's 'morps' are littered about, perched in various inconvenient and precarious locations. The main difference here is that, rather than being made out of the kind of junk you'd find in someone's garage, the pieces here are largely made out of shitty old carnival prizes and broken ride parts.

Lapis relaxes once Peridot lies. It's a terrible lie, but she believes it since it's not like Peridot has any reason to lie to her, right? She wouldn't just keep a gem trapped in a mirror, right?.

She looks around at the 'Trailer', taking in the sight of it. There's a familiarity here that relaxes Lapis further, though it's still strange enough for her to not be completely at ease. Thankfully, that's what Peridot is for. To fix Lapis being relaxed, obviously, because she tenses again once the other gem explains.

"Home Away from our Home Away from Homeworld?" Hang on a minute. "Does it have to do with your changes?" Was Peridot ashamed of her form? It's... well, It's definitely a little unsightly, but she shouldn't have ran away just because of that! "Or... Did I do something wrong?" Why would Peridot leave? She'd thought they'd been getting along well enough?

She'll try to remember to explain the mirror thing later. Hopefully Lapis will forgive her a little white lie once she understands that no gems were actually trapped in there.

"Nah 'Laz, we cool!" says Peridot brightly, which... Somehow she still manages to sound like an out-of-touch geezer when she says that, but hey, she's trying to be reassuring. Resorting to "cool" and casual speech patterns seems like the right thing to do here. "I guess you could kind of say it has something to do with my form change..."

She sits back and draws her knees up, sweeping her tail around front to rest over he clawed feet. "I can try and explain everything. Ssssome of it is going to sound... really weird, but just trust me, okay?"

She'll probably appreciate that white lie later on after everything has calmed down.

Lapis notices that weird speech mannerism, though she's figuring that's just Peridot being... Well, Peridot. Lapis does appreciate it, though. She's definitely trying.

"Alright? I trust you." And she does, honestly. Even Peridot looks really weird like this. Maybe Peridot just finally learned how to shapeshift? Not that that makes much sense, because she really doubts that Peridot would choose to look like that. Who would?

"Great!" she exclaims, energetic as ever. AND SO SHE DOES. She explains all of it, from the Carnival existing in some weird pocket dimension, to time not flowing the same here as back home, to the form changing effects of being around the Ringmaster's magic... She explains the contracts, and how at first she was here purely to repay debt, but now she's sticking around willingly to in order to learn more about her metal powers.

"...So basically, I've actually been here for a little over an Earth year now," says Peridot with a shrug. "Annnnd that's why I look like this!" A sheepish grin; she is a little self conscious about how she looks now, with the way Lapis reacted to her. "It's really not so bad though. I've been back home a few times and I always wind up reverting when I re-enter the normal time stream there, so I really don't think it's permanent..."

That's, uh, a lot to take in there, buddy, pal, friend. Regardless, Lapis is quiet through all of it. Mostly because, well, she doesn't really have anything to say that isn't in disbelief.

Honestly though, Lapis... supposes it makes sense? She is making a face though as she tries to process all of that. She'll start with the most pressing thing, though. "What do you mean debt?"

Time to tell her about her Seven Years Bad Debt. Which is probably more, honestly. That was a lot of broken mirrors.

HOOOOOOoo boy. Peridot keeps smiling, but her eye twitches involuntarily.

"Right! So... That's... The less exciting part," says Peridot, and she's keeping a brighter tone, but it's obvious she's uncomfortable about this bit. "Um... So obviously, an operation this big needs workers to keep things running. And... One of the ways the Ring Master fills those work positions is by striking deals with them, or! By... having people who owe her something pay off their debt by signing a contract of employment."

She pauses. Coughs. Waits to see if Lapis is picking up what she's putting down.

"Okay." She gets that. Peridot had a debt, but then she had a contract? That's weird but fine, she supposes. What's with that look, though? Peridot seems... uncomfortable? Why would she be uncomfortable? She said she'd paid her debt and was doing contract work now, so why would-

Oh.

Oh.

"I'm not working here. I don't owe any debts."

"You kind of maybe sort of smashed up one of the rides?" Peridot points out, as gingerly as possible.

"She trapped gems in there. That 'ride' deserved to be smashed." Is the very matter of fact reply. About that white lie, Peridot.

"Right!" Peridot agrees automatically, her voice reaching a high, strained pitched. "But that's the thing, Lapis, which I was trying to tell you back there. Those reflections weren't... other gems? It was just a kind of illusionary magic designed trick and distress anyone that walks through there. Because... some people think that's fun, for some reason, I guess."

"That's..." Oh. Oh. Well then. "Can't I just tell her it was a mistake?" This is almost like what happened with Peridot and Steven and the little communication pad they had. Except this time it's with someone who wants her to work for them because this time she broke stuff. She didn't know! She doesn't want to stay here, she just finally got used to living in the barn with Peridot. Actually, if Peridot is here and not at the barn, then what point is there in going back anyway

It's too quiet there. And that's With Peridot running around.

Peridot laughs. Not necessarily at Lapis, but just more the whole situation in general. She still looks like she feels bad about this whole thing, though, and her tail starts swishing anxiously. Please don't be mad at her!!

"Sorry. Right. You're serious. It's just, it's kind of common knowledge around here that she doesn't really do explanations or "excuses"." Peridot sits up a little straighter, her brow furrowing, and quickly adds: "But, the work really isn't that bad! It's pretty easy actually, at least in my opinion... It can even be kind of fun. Plus, look on the bright side! We are way out of Homeworld's reach here!"

'It could be worse' is what Lapis is telling herself. She could be in a mirror again. She could be at the bottom of the ocean in an endless cycle of aggressive struggling. There are a lot of places that she could be right now, and while Lapis looks completely and entirely uncomfortable with the prospect of being trapped, and unable to come and go as she pleases, she tells herself that it could be worse.

Peridot is here. Steven is here too apparently. Lapis' hands clench into the sheets of Peridots' bed underneath her. "We can't just... Leave? I didn't see anything keeping anyone in here when I first came here."

"I mean you could try, I guess," Peridot muses, rubbing the back of her neck. "But there's magic in place to prevent runaways, and you'd probably just get in more trouble for trying to leave."

Her ears flip back and she scoots across the floor to get a bit closer, looking sympathetic. "Look, I know getting stuck places is... kiiinnnnnd of a sore subject for you." Putting it lightly, Peridot. "But this place travels and connects to all kinds of different dimensions, and you get to see so many strange new things!" She snorts. "Earth will probably feel normal by comparison, when we make it back there."

That's not really the point, unfortunately. She's stuck against her will, that's the point, and Lapis probably couldn't look more uncomfortable if she tried at this point, but eventually that just fades into resignation the more she mulls it over. If she's trapped, then she's trapped. Peridot has said that she's been here an entire earth year, and if anyone could have gotten out then it would have probably been her.

"I guess as long as i'm not stuck here for another few thousand years. What's a few earth years in comparison?" At least she's not alone, and at least she can move around. At least she's not cracked.

"You sure there's no way out?"

"Pretty positive," says Peridot, tilting her head slightly. She feels... really bad about this, actually, even if she's excited to see Lapis again after so long.

"...Are you okay?" She says after a couple moments silence.

The long and short of that answer is a resounding 'No', but it's not like she has a choice, so there isn't really anything to be done about it. There's silence to Peridots' question for a few seconds, before Lapis smiles. It doesn't reach, and she still seems entirely uncomfortable with the situation.

"I'll be fine." She won't, at least not any time soon. "You're here, right? I'm not alone in this place."

Peridot grins back at her. "Yeah! I'm here, and so's Steven, and Steven's dad, and Amethyst is here. What more could you possibly need?"

Oh Peridot, how little you know.

"Right." Steven, Peridot, Greg and Amethyst. Two out of four isn't so bad, probably. Not saying anything against Greg or Amethyst, but there are two people that she's certainly the closest to present. Then again, with how many mirrors have been smashed she may have more than enough time to get to know the other two just as well.

"So how do I... repay the debt? What kind of work is it?"

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #2

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