⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[ringleaders]

WELCOME TO THE SHOW!↴ Or, more specifically, Lost Carnival's first 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 open October 5th at 12:01AM EST. Applications open October 7th at 12:01AM EST. You can apply as a newcomer or as a "veteran" character who has been in the carnival for up to three years. 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. Supervisor applications will start being processed a few days after apps open, and will be selected on a competitive basis. If you want a supervisor position, it is best to submit your application as close to the beginning of the application cycle as possible. If you don't get chosen for your desired supervisor position, you will be given time to rework your application to be a regular veteran, or to apply for a supervisor position that is not yet taken. Lost Carnival could use some additional moderation assistance! If you are interested, please let us know here. 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. ► 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. ► 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? ► 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? ► 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

[pokepochette]

Ah okay.

<sub>[Dedenne squeaks an apology at her. After all it was his fault that the two of them were in this mess in the first place. Still, the answer she gets is a bit more promising than she would've thought. In an hour she'd go check. If he wasn't there in an hour then she'd check again in a few more. He'd find her, he always did.

And then he'd scold her...but she'd deal with that when it happens. Better to focus on other things for now.]</sub>

Hey Sans? Have you always been a skeleton?

[pokepochette]

Eeh? Do you not get to eat often?

_{[No way...surely he got fed every day, right? Dedenne seems worried, if not guilty. What if he'd just eaten this guy's food for the whole day?!]}

[osteothropy]

[It's like being asked about a weird facial tattoo (which he also does, but which pales in comparison to the skeleton thing) - he's come to accept the fact that it will happen as inevitable. He shrugs his shoulders.]

Sure. I'm a monster, y'know. Skeleton born and raised.

[pokepochette]

_{[Monster, huh? The only monsters she knows are Pocket Monsters, like Dedenne. There's a hum of consideration as she tries to wrap her head around the new information. So he was born a skeleton...but how were skeletons born? Were they like Pokemon in that regard if he was considered a monster?]}

Ah, so you came from an egg like Dedenne?

BREAK TIME

[cuckooed]

Not at the moment.

[Koel leans against a post, the ghost of a smile on her face.]

Practicing?

[osteothropy]

[Oh... huh. That's a new one. He bring a hand up to his chin, scratching at his jawbone with a claw. Fascinating.]

Can't say I did, kiddo. Not that I remember the specifics.

[dontpokethat]

"No, thank you; again, you should go, I can handle this on my--"

--Oh okay or that could happen. Ginko made an effort to protest, but whether he wasn't fast enough or Kerub just ignored him, the next thing he knew the giant rat thing had been wholly removed from his grasp.

Well alright then.

He blinked, then sighed and nodded, heading over to take hold of the pen's gate. "Yeah. In here."

[pokepochette]

Oh. Well...that's okay!

_{[Maybe she'll find out someday where skeletons come from, other than, y'know, from inside fleshy bodies.]}

Hehe...you know, even though you're a skeleton you're not very scary. My brother would probably pee his pants though.

[dontpokethat]

[...Oh no does she actually think he was serious. Ginko lets out a very quiet huff that might have passed for a laugh.]

--No, it's alright, really. That was a joke; I do actually get to eat enough. Just that every so often something unexpected happens - like that. [He nods toward Dedenne.]

Re: break time

[dorkypantsuit]

What?

[The answer surprises him and he looks the boy in front of him up and down.]

And she doesn't just say meow?

[nowingsyet]

May I ask about the coin?

[She's playing for her namesake's magic gem and him, his life, the coin must be questioned.]

Re: break time

[wild_magic]

I mean, that's all she says, but not in my head. There we can talk about all kinds of things. It's pretty cool!

[pullingamiko]

[Miko heads over to the stage, looking awfully confident in the potential performance skills of this kid she just met.]

Aw, c'mon! Not gonna get anywhere with that attitude.

Easel | Graffiti Kingdom | Veteran

[fastestdraw]

A. The Front Gates.

[Well. They're officially back on the road and gathering up new recruits, huh?

Ha - Easel's rattled after the vampire incident like virtually everyone else is; it certainly brings to mind exactly how little some of the people they sign on tonight will have of what they're getting into, but it's not for him to question. He's not even remotely inclined to - he'd be one odd demon if he was the sort of person who was!

Anyhoo! Everyone's got to roll with the punches, keep on moving, and do their job. He's sure as heck going to do that, on his part. Technically, he doesn't have any particular work to contend with - he works under the Nightrider - but still, as a carnival employee, it's his responsibility as much as it's anyone else's to give the folks wandering in tonight an interesting and more or less pleasant experience, at least before everything starts getting quirky, right?

And with that in mind, he's shifted shape and headed over to the admission gates, a half-human-skeleton and half-horse centaur with an oversized gun for a left hand trotting around just inside the carnival grounds, cantering straight up to anyone who looks the part of a visitor with enough space around them for him to fit his horsey body into to give 'em a hearty hello.

Rears up a little to stop with style!]

Howww-dy!

[Annnd all four hooves back on the ground! Tones down his volume a bit, though he still sounds about as chipper as it gets.]

Welcome to the carnival, stranger! Y'all have yourself a wonderful night tonight, won't'cha?

[He sweeps off his hat and bows with it in the way someone might if they were riding a horse, rather than... partially a horse.]


B. Will O' Wisps.

[What do you know - Easel's actually having a bit of luck treating this as any old roundup! Poking around the carnival grounds, he spotted four wisps, went into 'taur mode, ran a careful course connecting their locations, and managed to get three of them fleeing together (no idea where the fourth one went), floating and doing little loops and braids around each other! It's a little too early for a "yeehaw!", but still, this is going great! He's close to getting the three wisps where he wants them when -

They turn around, and stop flying away from him in favor of flying right for his face.

His hooves push back and grind into the ground underneath him, he throws up his arms and crosses them in front of him, yells out a "WHOA, there!" and gets a good dizzying blast of color, light, and heat in the face!

...And when it dies down, he turns himself around. Looks about. ...Huh. Lost track of them.

He shifts back into his ordinary shape for, you know, relative subtlety, and starts backtracking. If he runs into anyone else in trying to work out which way(s) the wisps might've gone, he'll give 'em an amicable "pardon me" - adding in "miss", if appropriate.]

Y'all, uhh...

[...Whoo, there was a little of a swirling in his brain(?) there for a moment. So that's the side effect of exposure they were talking about. Shakes his head out!

...And behind his eye-lights, a little glowing blue thing knocks back and forth between his eye sockets.]

You all ain't happen to see which way a trio of wisps was headed?

C. Wildcard.

[Hit me with anything!]

[dorkypantsuit]

[He stops laughing, though it might not be because of that look he's being given because he is still smiling.]

Oh shit, that sounds terrible.

[He looks towards the carnival and it's lights.]

Guess you're kind's having a rough time of it back home.

[dorkypantsuit]

[Ψiioniic laughs as the stranger immediately turns to look over the games.]

Got any in mind?

[mistweaver]

Well, China sounds a lot like mainland Pandaria, really...

[Jou laughs, and then nods.] It is one other planet, technically, but I have been to two versions of it. The Bronze Dragonflight messes with time often, you see...

So I have been to Draenor twice, though we call the shattered version 'Outland'.

[dorkypantsuit]

Oh!

[Ψiioniic snaps, as inspiration strikes.]

Two-Thirty! Is that it?

[pokepochette]

...Ohhh.

_{[Right. A joke. Duh.]}

I'm sorry again! Dedenne really likes treats, especially sweet ones!

[dorkypantsuit]

Ψii laughs.

"Now that's something I don't expect to ever change."

Still, he had enough faith in the skeleton to relax and do his job at the same time. He tried not to doubt people here, there was usually a lot more to a person than you could see.

"Don't work too hard now."

[nowingsyet]

I am. I have never seen plants like this before.

[She's never seen plants outside before.]

Break Time

[anti_altruisms]

[ Even having only just arrived, he might have expected something like this.

It's gross, slick, and slimy, but Archer doesn't jump or startle when an eyeball hits him square between the eyes. His mouths draws into a thin line, and he wipes it off his face without much fanfare.

He doesn't appear impressed. Or at all appreciative. ]

I take it you fancy yourself amusing.

Re: break time

[dorkypantsuit]

Sounds like you got a pretty smart cat.

[She sounds really interesting to.]

Oh hey, you didn't trade her to get into this place did you?

[He'd like to think someone wouldn't trade their pet, but at the same time he doesn't see any cat beside the boy.]

Re: break time

[wild_magic]

No way, I wouldn't trade her! She wouldn't let me, anyway. She's right here.

[And he kinda pulls aside the bulk of his cloak next to his neck to reveal a little fluffy sleepy owl.]

Riddle Game

[dorkypantsuit]

[With a salute, Ψii moves closer, not put off by the bossy peafowl or his scratched up chest.]

Whaddya need, Boss?