⇨ 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

[stormcalling]

[She's a little surprised that there's a small human being rational at the moment. Not that she's going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She shrugs and waves a hand.]

I've seen wolves or creatures like them that are a bit daring. [Considering wolves had chased some merchants to a town before one never could be too careful.]

There are plenty of other creatures that could lurk around here. If we can avoid lingering any longer that would be ideal...

do your work

[nowingsyet]

[NONA1 was merely making her way to another tent before a voice calls her over. Admittedly she was the triple advantage (or disadvantage) of being a newbie, overly curious, AND a android that admittedly knows very little about how devious others can be.]

The subject is willing to play a game. Queries: What is the game you are willing to play and what is the wager I must give?

GAMER'S CIRCLE

[cuckooed]

Her fried food is the best fried food, isn't it?

Actually, Koel is currently walking around, a small purse of churros hanging from her neck. Just because she's in a higher position, doesn't mean she can't slum with the rest of the workers. Its what she does.

"How about a hot churro to compliment it?" She waves her hand over it, as if to fan it off. Of course, her magic helps with making the churros look and smell amazing. Because naturally, they are. Greg just doesn't know it yet. "Guaranteed fresh, of course."

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Such courtesy you never shirk.
You truly are doing good work.

[Zecora can afford to be effusive; compliments, especially true ones, cost nothing. Though certainly no master of chopsticks, Zecora doesn't need one; she picks up a dumpling in her teeth and dips it just like that.]

[stormcalling]

I'm not sure. I am not aware how these worlds do their...carnivals.

[She may be old, she may know a lot of things. That does not give her any ability to understand azeroth carnivals or interdimensional ones either.]

Strong enough magic could pull us off Azeroth if they truly wanted. It would explain why I can't get teleport back.

[mistweaver]

Eh, the best type of brewer knows their audience. You, I'd probably make a tea for. Since I do that, too. [She chuckled at that, and winked.] Or maybe a nice light ale with fruity overtones. Nothing too heavy, nothing that would knock you on your butt. Unless you wanted to be, that is!

Noodles! Something I have not quite perfected yet! I'd love to see his recipe--then again, it would only be to see where I might be going wrong. Family recipes are family recipes. [Tantamount to sacred, says her voice. Besides, he'd been kind enough to defend her own family's dumpling recipe; she would not dishonor anyone by not doing the same, or to treat it with the respect it deserved.] I would like to try some, some day, as well! If possible.

Which Valley is that? Shadowmoon? Valley of the Four Winds?

[veinglory]

A ship. On land. 'Is that where the space part comes in?' he wondered. A million different questions whizzed through his mind, but he knew he couldn't spend too long looking totally confused. He decided to say something before she clued in on how perplexed he was.

"Ah... I walked here. It wasn't very far from the outskirts of Maplesweet. I don't usually even leave town but curiosity overwhelmed me! The forest seems much more dense than when I came in."

A beat passed and suddenly he exclaimed, "Demons! Do you suppose it's demons? They are capable of all sorts of trickery. I have run afoul of them before."

Near Center Stage, not performing

[cuckooed]

[Don't look now, but Koel's coming your way. Oh boy, is she going to yell at her for not working? Make some remark about your hair? Or--

--slip a bag of something into your hands.]

I couldn't help but notice, that you're looking ready to eat your own arm.

[...She might be joking. Maybe.]

ADMISSION FEES

[masterballer]

[Unfortunately for Bonnie, the person who came up to her was not the charitable sort. Really, it's her Pokemon that has his attention.]

A Dedenne? Hm...

[He addressed her sharply, seeming not to care about her current predicament and equally uncaring if he's holding up the line.]

Hey. Kid. Where are you from?

[peridork]

"'Unbelievable'?" echoes Peridot, mildly incredulous. "In case you've somehow missed this glaringly obvious detail, let me point out to you that this isn't exactly an ordinary carnival. Or did you somehow miss the crowds of people sporting extra mouths and wings and eyes back there?"

Not that Peridot's any stranger to skepticism. Stars know she had a hard enough time wrapping her head around all of this fae nonsense... she's just grown pretty numb to it at this point.

"Anyway, if you really want to get out of here, you're just going to have to wait for the main gate to open back up again in a few hours," she says. "That's just how it works around here."

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

The mirror maze is harmless fun.
Nothing can threaten until you're done.

[That may not be the most reassuring statement, but it is nonetheless true. That's why Zecora is in here, after all.]

Elizabeth Midford | Kuroshitsuji | Newbie

[adorations]

a. admission fees

Oh! Oh! Well, you see, I haven't any money on me, exactly... My maid, she... [Elizabeth is fidgeting, so unlike a lady, and the embarrassment of that makes her fidget even more. Her face has colored because of this, and she pinkens further when she rises on her tiptoes to lean and look past the clerk, into the glamour of the circus. Her hands are clasped at her chest.] Well I can't find her anywhere, I'm afraid, and so I suppose I really can't buy tickets. Oh! Isn't that so sad... Isn't it... [She's still getting every eyeful that she can of the festivities beyond. She isn't asking for charity, of course! But her yearning has the intensity of any young girl's, and she really wants to go inside.

To bargain doesn't occur to her; she's wearing various fineries, of course, could pay for more than one good dinner with just her earrings, but this is only a carnival, which is paltry, and it wouldn't do to give away something silken or jeweled just for an entry fee. It also doesn't occur to her that the loss of her maid is much more concerning than prospective playtime at a carnival. In most other situations she'd be shaken, but there's something downright entrancing about what she sees, and what she wants to see.

So, she fidgets.]

b. mirror maze

[Well, one way or another, Elizabeth's made it inside. The Mirror Maze is absolutely beautiful, shining and colored like a dream... and perhaps this is vain, and perhaps she should be ashamed, but like a bird with particularly good plumage, Lizzie cannot help but admire her dress and its silks and its lace as she flounces by each mirror. But horror hits her when she finds a wider mirror and stops in her tracks. She gives a gasp, ladylike in its delicacy but not in the shrill whistle of her throat, and her hand flies to her mouth.]

Oh, what a rotten trick, [she cries, and turns in a flurry of skirts to run away from it. The wide mirror had made her not only ridiculously tall, but quite stout as well. Her face is red like a poppy even as she flees it.

She doesn't notice the interloper among her retreating reflections: one little Elizabeth, curls bouncing with all the rest, has something special glinting in her hand. The gleam is violent, and she hides it in the wide folds of her skirt.]

c. gamer's circle

I do think it's a little uncouth, [she's saying, blushing and demure. She has a dart in her hand, and the dartboard looks awfully far away, pockmarked with failures and only a few wins.] Isn't this... wouldn't you say it's like gambling? Oh, I really can't do it!

[But don't you want this darling rabbit, someone asks her, and the stuffed rabbit really is darling, large and soft. This carnival is doing awfully queer things to her; it's strange she came in in the first place, and it's strange she's acting so improprietous. But the atmosphere here is dazzling, and she feels like she's had a glass of wine at Christmas.]

All right, [she says;] all right! It isn't gambling if I won't lose, right?

[And she throws the first dart. It's almost a direct bulls-eye.]

d. wildcard

[Do you have another scenario in mind? Start something new here, leave a blank comment for me to respond to, or get in touch with me at sodapoppet! I'm game.]

DO YOUR WORK II

[riveres]

[Since Oscar began his Acrobat training, he's been seeing more brown rice, beans, and vegetables than even he's used to. He's bulked up a bit, but he pines for sweets sometimes. Anything would do, even a single cookie.]

Do you have anything sweet on you? Please don't tell my trainers, Miss Babic.

[mistweaver]

That makes sense. It would explain why I cannot, either. Hn. [Not that Jou isn't upset about this turn of events, but having a tantrum would do no one any good.]

I wonder what "making the best of a bad situation" would be, in this case?

[sweatysometimes]

[ Pidge smiles. The strange panda woman is friendly and warm and it makes her feel a little more relaxed. ]

Dumplings sound pretty good to me, too. And tea... tea sounds nice.

[ They're talking about tea, right? ]

[sweatysometimes]

The poor guy looked confused, but Pidge wasn't going to embarrass him by asking why. Instead, she just nodded as he began to explain how he'd come to be there himself.

"Maplesweet? Is that a town near here or something?" She asked, then blinked as he launched into the possible explanation of demonic influence.

"Um, I'm pretty sure demons aren't real."

[cuckooed]

[Goodness, Oscar looks miserable]

Oh, now, Oscar, you know you're not allowed anything outside of your diet. What would your managers say if I were to indulge you?

In fact, I was instructed to give you this protein bar.

[Said protein bar is...hmm.]

And I hope you don't disappoint me and not eat it all after you're finished with your meal, hmm?

[sweatysometimes]

"Uh, yeah, but I just assumed they were aliens or something like that. I mean, I've met a lot of aliens in the last couple weeks and most of them were pretty cool, except for the Galra because, you know, they're trying to kill me and--" She clams up for a moment. She'd almost spilled her guys about her family to some stranger. Nope, not doing that. No way.

"So, wait. To actually leave, I have to wait around for some gate to just... pop up out of nowhere? I didn't see any gate when I came in!"

[mistweaver]

[luckily they can be, because Jou does that too. Not that there's a drinking age on Azeroth...]

I make my own. Tea, beer...dumplings. They're from a family recipe, my dumplings! Best on five farmsteads, if not all of the Wandering Isle!

[Admittedly Jou is a little biased...]

[veinglory]

"Maplesweet is the town where I reside. It was only a little over one kilometer from this place... or was it two?"

Gottlieb didn't have very long to ponder the math involved before Pidge responded to his demon suggestion. Her words caused him to shake his head while planting his hands on his hips.

"Dear girl, I assure you they are as real as you or I! Why, the only other time I wandered from the town was thanks to the dark, handsome charms of a demon. I ended up stuck in a cornfield until the dawn! It was frightful and itchy."

ii.

[rats_r_delicious]

[Joaquin's a snake at the moment, because strange magic, man but as the big ass giant leaps out the damn tree as he's just trying to get around and nearly steps on him. Aomine may hear a snake hiss and a voice yell out.]

Hey pendejo watch where you're going!

[mistweaver]

I am not so good as you at doing what you do. [A pause. Jou gives Zecora a look.]

You are rubbing off on me. If I gain stripes instead of spots at some point, I shall be disturbed!

[But it's lighthearted and easygoing teasing, at least on the Pandaren's part. She made healthy portions; the zebra can definitely have her fill, and Jou is a healthy eater pretty much all the time!]

[fragileandsoft]

It's a smart move, one way or another. A smell like that can bring in customers in droves, but why stick around in one place when there's suckers like Greg all over?

"You do make a compelling pitch," he muses, as though he's not already completely sold on the smell of sugar and dough. "Tell ya what. Double the price, and throw in a second one for free, you've got yourself a deal."

i!

[hoasen]

[Basketball? This is something familiar! She's no basketball player but hey, if she's taking a break right now, she might as well give it a shot.]

I can't say I'm any good. [She answers as she comes over.] But what is the prize...?

[cuckooed]

A small smile comes on Koel's face. Oh, she's been going around. Its surprising how many people have basically thrown themselves into the carnival, unaware that the method of payment wasn't strictly money.

"Of course." Lifting up two churros with ease - even with her talon-like nails (press-ons, no doubt) and long dainty fingers - she presents them to him. "Will that apply to drinks, as well? The drink seller is coming in a moment - I can give them a heads-up to come to you."