livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: GREYSOL

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test drive meme

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: GREYSOL

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 (and should) read the full premise here.
Reserves and Applications are 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, 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 and Treasurer are currently open. Otherwise, we're pretty much down for anything, roles wise.

CURRENT STOP↴

⇨ GREYSOL ⇦
Greysol is a large coastal city that seems to roughly equate to late 20th century Western culture and mores, with a vaguely Victorian teslapunk-influenced aesthetic and somewhat uneven technology. Horse-drawn vehicles and just plain horses are common, but horseless automobiles and strangely 21st century-looking bicycles don’t cause too much of a stir. There are paved streets, skyscrapers, and electricity even if they call it "anbaric lighting". Hot air balloons and dirigibles can be seen in the sky. There are many moving picture theaters, black-and-white and with somewhat questionable sound, but small portable radios are common. Watches that bear a suspicious similarity to smartwatches are all the rage, though they are in fact simply watches and require winding.

Every human and witch in this world has an external soul which most cannot go more than about twenty feet from, and non-consensually touching someone else’s dæmon is tantamount to assault. This presents some logistical difficulties in a big city, but humans have built Greysol to accommodate their other halves. If you want more info about them, look here!

► DÆMONS: Those external souls are called dæmon. The other half of a human's soul, they can come in the form of any type of Earth animal, and are usually of the opposite sex, though not always. The Ringmaster has cast a spell over the carnival's workers in order to give them their own dæmons during their stay, as not having one will make you stick out like a sore thumb. While on the carnival grounds, there is a chance that your visiting character will be caught within this spell, and will develop the beginnings of a dæmon. It will not be as solid as a native dæmon, however.

► MISSING: Alternatively, if you don't have a dæmon, the locals will find the sight of you horrifying - as if they are witnessing a person be split in half. There will be a number of off worlders visiting the carnival at any given time, but for any visiting locals this will be quite shocking. This may cause a bit of a fuss with the NPCs, unless you can convince them your dæmon is just hiding in your clothes or something like that.

Your character won't be able to leave the carnival grounds without signing a contract or eventually finding their way home. Those who app in during this TDM's run will be entering the game between Day 162 and onward - when signing your contract, you do not always leave the tent on the same day you entered. Sometimes the Ringmaster will create a time skip that causes you to emerge after festivities have wrapped up for convenience sake, so there is some flexibility as to when precisely you enter the game.

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. 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 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.

► TUNNEL OF "LOVE": A brand new attraction in the carnival, the Tunnel of Love is mostly what you'd expect from such a ride - two people sit in a boat together which journeys through some glitter filled caves, complete with mood music. Unfortunately, there is also something else in there with you... in the form a moody kraken living in the waters, who has very particular opinions about shipping, and may either stubbornly interfere with any attempted intimacy, or may politely encourage it. Or they may just generally be a dick if they're in no mood for either. The Ringmaster insists it is a romance expert.

► 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.

► 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!

► DUNK TANK: Sometimes acting like a dick will earn you the gentle reprimand of being sent to work in the Dunk Tank for the afternoon - you know that game where people throw balls at a target, and if they hit it you get dropped into the water? It's like that, only sometimes there are daunting (but harmless) critters in the water, or some other strange magical affects to spice things up. Hopefully, the visitors will have bad aim.

► 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

Greysol

She just got here and already people are swarming her. Maybe this wasn't such a hot idea after all.

Are you a daemon? Why are you wearing clothes? Where is your other half? And various other questions follow her wherever she goes. Alphys politely tries to explain that she's a monster, and she's pretty sure that SOULs don't work that way, but all the unwanted attention causes her to stutter and stammer and barely get a word in edgewise. She could use a hand, maybe?

Tunnel of ~~shipping~~ love

The other patrons of the ride are having a lovely, uneventful time, free from the kraken. For the most part, because they have to put up with listening to it and Alphys having a very serious discussion.

"What!? How c-can you NOT ship Hideki and Jun?" Her voice is almost shrill in disbelief. "Don't you remember their horoscopes from the school festival episode?"

The kraken... responds?

"S-so what if it wasn't canon by the end of season three!" Alphys argues. "It's SUBTEXT!"

If the kraken could roll its eyes, it would.

Mirror Maze

Alphys realizes she's picked the wrong attraction the moment she walks into the dimly-lit maze, but the door she entered through has mysteriously vanished when she turns around, leaving her with no choice but to try and find the real exit. It's dark and cold and entirely too familiar for her. Keeping her head down and following the floor only gets her even more lost, and soon she's starting to hear things.

"I-it's just my imagination," She gulps as she rounds a corner and finds a long hallway lined with more mirrors. It's entirely likely that the exit is on the far end of the hall, but that required her to walk past all of those mirrors first. Alphys takes a deep breath and starts scurrying, repeating "don't look up, don't look up" to herself as she goes. But as scared as she is, she can't help but take one quick glance at her reflection, just in time to see a speech bubble with an exclamation point in it appear over its head.

"O-oh, n-n-no..."

The speech bubble melts, stretching into a form that could almost look like a bird at first glance, but there's too much about it that doesn't seem right. It looks more like several different things mashed together in the approximate shape of a bird. An amalgamate If you will. It starts to speak in several different voices at once- or does it? Maybe it's all in Alphys' head. Either way, this is all too much for her, and she sinks to the ground and tries to make herself as small as possible.

WILDCARD

come at me bro

Here's the question: what freaks people out more? Some kind of yellow lizard person without a daemon, or a skeleton with one?

The answer is inconclusive, but the ones currently hanging around certainly look daunted by Sans showing up. He appears mysteriously, as is his way, but when he does he has to pause for a moment to stare at Alphys, his surprise somewhat buried by the fact that he's literally got seven eye sockets now. The moment only lasts for one or two seconds, before he's raising his hands to the locals.

"Hey now," he says, invoking some nebulous sense of Warden authority. "She's a guest of the carnival as much as you guys are. She can be as yellow and as single as she wants, right?"

Anybody who was trying to engage Alphys seems put off enough that Sans is able to dominate the situation - an opportunity which he mostly uses to face her and shrug his shoulders.

"Hi," he says, real casual like. "Long time no see."

As much as Alphys had hoped that no one else from the Underground would be here, seeing a skeleton around is still a welcome sight, especially when he disperses the crowd. She feels like she can breathe again and takes a deep breath to test it out.

"W-wow, thanks, I didn't think they'd ever leave m-me alo..." She trails off when he turns around and addresses her.

She knows this guy. Under the extra eyes(ockets), the tail, the claws, this is most definitely- "S-s-sans!? What are you doing here?"

He's anticipating this, now. He went through it with Papyrus, and that was like a million times worse. No reason he can't handle this like a pro. He's always been more hands off with Alphys anyway.

He spreads his hands illustratively.

"This... is going to be confusing," he predicts, though his tone and expression are still light and casual. "Speaking generously... I think we're several screwed timelines removed, at this point."

He isn't cautious about mentioning timelines to her because for once he can be pretty sure that she'll get it - both as a scientist and also as a nerd.

"W-well, yeah!" Alphys says as if that's the most obvious explanation in the world. "The last time I saw you, you didn't have half a dozen eyes! Sockets. H-half a dozen eye sockets."

Skeletons.

"You're telling me multiverse theory is for real?" She had always sort of believed in it, because it made her sleep a little better at night imagining there was a timeline out there where she wasn't a colossal failure at everything. Maybe one where Undyne swept her off her feet ~~and pulled a magic sword out of her chest~~ and they lived happily ever after. "...H-how screwed are we talking, anyway? You have a tail."

His tail wags, just because he's thinking about it now. He doesn't mind.

"That..." he starts, leaning on one of the game stands nearby, "is a long story. You planning on sticking around? Because that's an option, for the record. It's what Papyrus and I have been doing for a while now."

He gives her the finger guns.

"Full disclosure, the tail isn't from timeline stuff. It's just part of the living conditions. But, can't claim that carnival life doesn't have its perks."

She has so many questions about this. What happened in his timeline!? How does he know about this for sure!? Why does he have a tail!? How can she stay here? Wait.

"Stick around? Like, live here? F-for the long term?"

She doesn't have to go back. Sure, this place is loud, crowded, and smells weird, but. Back there everyone she cares about is dead. Or forgot about her. She has nothing- well, no, that's not true. She has something, but it's something she would rather die then let anyone else know about. Nobody here knows. She could get a fresh start.

It then occurs to her that she hasn't said anything for a full minute and is shaking a little. She lets out a nervous cough. "O-okay, I'll bite. How?"

Sans spends that whole minute just staring at her, waiting for her to complete her thought, since apparently, she's having a bit of a moment. He grins and shrugs a shoulder.

"Oh. Hey. Thought I lost you there for a minute," he says. "But, well... it's about as long as you wanna make it. The carnival recruits people from different universes. If you act quick, you can even ask the Ringmaster for something in exchange. One big magic favour per year of service."

His grin fades a little bit, and he stuffs his hands in his pockets, all seven pupils glancing off to the side.

"...'sides, the situation back home is more complicated than we thought. It might help to try looking at it from the outside for a while."

A year. A whole year away from everything. A whole year without dreading the phone ringing, or hearing a knock at the door, or just checking her mailbox. It's wrong to leave, she knows that. To leave them all behind, to never give their families closure.

Of course, she had already been planning to leave it all behind when she came upon this place. If what Sans is saying is true, if multiverse theory is real, then this way she could figure out some way to be useful and fix things.

...Or at least she can tell herself that she's doing something useful, instead of running away like a coward.

"O-okay. Okay. Yeah! W-what do I have to do? I can- I can go and get my credentials! I think I still have a copy of my CV from when I applied to be the royal scientist!" Does a circus even need a robotic engineer?

Trying to be useful and fix things was precisely what Sans had been intending to do, and that was nearly three years ago. Is that still what he's doing? He tells himself he is, but sometimes it's honestly hard to tell. His reality here has started feeling more immediate and important than the one back home. Especially when Papyrus is along for the ride, too...

Well, no point in discouraging her with his own lack of commitment. He hasn't totally given up, at least. Not yet. Maybe having another person from home around would help keep him on target. Maybe.

"Eh, no credentials needed. The Ringmaster will recruit pretty much anything with a soul. You just gotta track her down and tell her you want to work for her, and you can work out the payment from there." He pauses for a moment, and then his grin widens and he leans over to her conspiratorially. "Papyrus already hashed out a deal to get the barrier taken down, if everything goes according to plan. Hard to beat that, huh?"

He's selling it more optimistically than he actually feels about it, but hey. It's Alphys. She needs all the help she can get.

"Th-th-th-the BARRIER? Seriously!?" Alphys gasps. The entire history of monsterkind was dedicated to escaping the Underground. Her entire career was based around it. And this ringmaster lady could take down the barrier, just like that? And all she wanted in return was a year of working for her?

"If she can take down the barrier, do you think she could--" Alphys cuts off before she can finish that sentence with restore all of my patients. She can't believe she almost let that slip! It's so tempting, to ask if it's possible, but the idea of anyone here knowing what she did sends an icy chill down her spine. "I-I mean. I g-guess I should ask her directly?"

"Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?" Sans confirms, winking at her knowingly. "I can show you the way over, if you want. I ended up taking that route myself, my first year here... my request, though? Not recommended."

Of course, he isn't actually going to tell you what that request was. He just sort of gives her a comradely pat on the shoulder, ushering her in the direction of the Ringmaster.

Inside his skull, his daemon remains silent.

Connie hears the commotion around Alphys. She's been keeping a barely-plausible excuse about her Daemon being in her backpack up till now, but she sees Alphys in trouble from behind a nearby wall. Inspiration strikes!

"Ha ha!" she shouts, jumping from behind the wall. "Got you! You totally fell for it, thinking my daemon was by herself, when in actuality I was hiding behind this wall this entire time!"

Alphys nearly jumps out of her skin when the human girl appears out of nowhere. She shies away at first, but then it becomes clear that the human wants to help.

"Uhhhh..." She feels like she needs to say something. "That's... right! O-of course. W-we got you... good?"

There's a mix of confusion from some and relief from others, the latter nodding and laughing at the good 'joke.'

Connie doesn't want people to start asking too many hard questions, so she gestured at Alphys to follow along.

"Hi! I'm Connie! Are you new here, too?"

Oh, good, they're getting out of here. Alphys scurries to catch up.

"Y-yeah, I'm Alphys. I just got hired today." She decides to leave off her doctor title for now. "I didn't think there'd be this many humans around! N-no offense, I mean, it's just you guys are kind of a rarity where I come from."

...and also the last human she saw murdered a bunch of people.

"Oh, that's neat! I haven't signed on yet. Or, I guess it would be more accurate to say I'm not sure if I should sign on yet, what with the situation not being completely satisfactory in terms of informed consent," Connie says, articulating with her hands as they walk.

"But the whole thing about not being able to leave anyway is starting to convince me."

"Wh- we can't leave?" Alphys pauses. Sans didn't tell her about that part.

"Well, I can't say that definitively, but every expedition I've conducted into the forest just leads me back here!"

Taako doesn't usually bother taking in the attractions anymore; they're kind of boring after the first thousand tries. But his daemon-- a bush viper named Flauta, all spiked, vividly red scales and round green eyes-- hasn't been in them herself. Besides that, Taako is very curious to check out how he looks with his recent magical changes from an outside perspective, and a snake very much resembling a tiny dragon curled around his neck.

He's strolling easily through the maze, his newly-glowing violet freckles casting an odd light off the shining surfaces of the mirrors; he admires them with an appraising look, turning his head from one side to the other with a faint "hmm."

"We look fantastic, darling," volunteers Flauta, and Taako breaks into a grin.

"Huh. I knew I liked you for a reason."

... and then they're interrupted by a voice-- someone panicking down the hall. It must be someone new; the mirror maze does so love to fuck with newcomers. Taako hesitates, gazing down the hall, thinking; Flauta is the one who finally speaks up.

"... should we, uh...?"

Taako sighs, swinging his Umbra Staff back against his shoulder. "Yeeeah, I'm going."

He makes his way down the hall, towards the source of the voice; when he sees what could, for all intents and purposes, be a chubby yellow dragonborn huddled on the ground in a trembling mass, he feels an odd pang of pity for her.

"Hey, uh... are you okay?" Again, it's Flauta who breaks the silence, her body glancing at her and then folding his arms across his chest.

Alphys is covering her head with her hands, and lets out a small squeal at the question. She peeks nervously through her fingers and sees not the nightmarish vision, but an... elf?

"Uh... um... are you real...?" Is this another vision? ~~he's a little more pleasing on the eyes at least.~~

~~He sure is.~~

"Uh... pretty sure I am," Taako responds, glancing at Flauta and shrugging his shoulders lightly. "I'm not some fuckin'... mirror illusion, if that's what you're worried about, so, hey. No worries there."

He's real? He's real! And whatever she saw before is gone. At first she feels relieved, but then embarrassment washes over her. He probably thinks she's a total chicken, cowering in the dark like this. He wouldn't be wrong, but still.

"O-okay... I uh, I got lost?" She stammers. "Do you k-know how to get out of here?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: GREYSOL

Alphys | Undertale

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