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livinglot2017-08-28 03:49 pm
ringleaders) wrote in livinglot2017-08-28 03:49 pm
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⇨ 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:
CURRENT STOP↴  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! |
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At the very least there's likely no threat of any logic viruses in this place. 9S is right, everything in the carnival is considerably dated.
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But, 2Beeeeeeeeee...!!"Yeah, yeah." 9S gives her the verbal equivalent of an eyeroll.
2B has a point, though. It's kind of nice not having to fight anything. Because somehow, he sure seems to get dragged into fights while partnered to 2B a lot more than when he's on his own. (The time with the boar doesn't count!) But he doesn't mind; getting to hang out with 2B makes it worth it.
But he had been thinking along similar lines with regards to their repairs, too. 9S can take care of maintaining their internal systems just fine, but repairing physical damage has never been his realm of expertise. They're going to have to be careful. There's no Bunker to upload their data to, and there certainly aren't any spare models here. If their Black Boxes are destroyed while working for the Ringmaster...
"What's your assigned job, anyway?"
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"Mercenary. It's fitting, I suppose." Especially considering her model type. It's not like she could see 9S in her job, and quite frankly, she'd never want to see him in that position. Sure, he can fight, but he just isn't built for it like she is.
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He'd already guessed that would be the case. Their skills are limited and specialised by design. And in an organisation whose focus is on entertainment, there's little place for their highly militarised skillset.
What will they do when there is no need for war and all their days become days of peace?
Will there even be a need for them anymore?
"You're going to be fighting all the time, right? You said it yourself." He might be complaining about being repair crew, but it's nice to just... talk to people and learn a little more about the various humans and not-quite humans around. "You know, when the war's all over, there won't be any need for fighting. I think we should learn to do something new while we're here."
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Hopefully it won't come to that. She's fairly certain her processors aren't equipped to make the choice between one humans life and another... What an overall messy situation.
2B gives a soft hum of consideration at 9S's next statement. She can't quite picture herself doing anything that isn't destroying, but maybe, if both their contracts pan out, they will know peace. "I think for now we should focus on our respective jobs and worry about learning new skill sets another time. A year is a long time."
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9S kicks at the dirt ground. It's true, a year is a very long time.
"You know, I saw a clearing where people train or something. Not in fighting, though."
Kind of like how they fought that really annoying machine to improve their skills, except there's no opponent.
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"What kind of training is it if it's not fighting?" That makes zero sense to an android built for it. What other things are there to possibly train in? Speed? The Speed Star robot had been the only other notable exceptions to everything else they'd done.
Do races really constitute a type of training, though?
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Even if a part of him wonders at the pointlessness of it all.
"It seems to be for physical strength and agility." Training their strength is obviously meaningless. No amount of physical activity is going to make their mechanical limbs stronger. "It's worth checking out."
It's not terribly interesting to him, but it seems the sort of thing 2B might enjoy. Even though 2B hasn't asked for it, he's also marked the training yard on their maps.
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Instead, she'll take note of the marker on her map, regarding it curiously. "It certainly wouldn't hurt to see how humans train." And maybe give it a run through herself? It'd be useful in helping to stay sharp, even if it's not like they have muscles to exercise. "Let's go."
As in, right now. 2B is leading the charge.
no subject
The dummies would be reminiscent of the poles machines in the forest kingdom had practised against... if 9S had actually experienced that.
"This is it." 9S leans against a nearby tree. "What're your thoughts?"
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She still wants to take a shot at it, though. "We should both go through it regularly." To help keep them at least a little fit. Also the way that 2B said that makes it clear it's non-negotiable.
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"What, seriously?" 9S tries to find any hint that she's joking but finds none. "Oh come on, 2B! Me as well? Why do I need to do it?"
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He didn't bring 2B here so he could be dragged into training as well! This sounds like the opposite of a good time! He's not a combat model! He's not supposed to be getting into fights!
... Except it's true that being able to defend himself has gotten him out of many sticky situations.
Why does 2B have to be right about this? "Fiiine," he reluctantly agrees. "I get it. Where do you want to start?"
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Her lip does quirk ever so subtly as 9S asks where to start though. "I wasn't aware you were so eager to do this right now." She pauses, just enough time that if 9S wants to speak up, she'll cut him off before he really starts. "At the beginning would be the best."
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9S lets out the biggest of sighs. 2B is having way too much fun with this. "Ugh. I'm going, I'm going!" The sooner he starts, the sooner he can ditch this place and go for a bath. "Better get this over with."
He starts out at a jog, heading for the low wall, climbing over it with the same ease as when they climbed up buildings in the City Ruins. So far, so good.
At the moment, the course is set on Normal.
no subject
She might also be timing him to see what the difference between their times are when she runs it herself. And likely harass 9S that he needs to do better.
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Even though he's not a combat android, he still is built with above average strength and agility, and he doesn't have to worry about silly biological things like muscles getting tired. Still, it would be a good idea to perform maintenance more regularly if they're going to be using the yard frequently; their mechanical parts still suffer from wear and tear after all.
All in all, he finishes the Normal obstacle course in a pretty good time for a Scanner unit, but compared to a combat android, his performance would be middling at best.
Neverthless, he jogs over to 2B. "Sooo, how'd I do?"
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She finishes stretching. "Put it on the highest difficulty, 9S." Because surely it was made with humans in mind, for it to be the top of their abilities. If she as a combat model can't cut that in a timely manner, then there's certainly something wrong.
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"Ouch. Harsh!" But his tone's light an airy, not actually genuinely bothered by her comment. Of course 2B would have different standards; she's a combat model, after all.
But he pauses when she tells him to put the course on its hardest difficulty.
"Are you sure? Shouldn't we, I dunno, work our way up? We don't know how hard this thing gets."
Still, he walks over to the control panel anyway.