⇨ 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

[amusicaladventure]

"For wanting to take you home and keep you in my apartment like a display piece? That's not a fun life, right? I didn't know you weren't just a toy." She crouched down where she stood, folding her arms on her thighs to get a better look at him. He sure LOOKED like a toy...

[seariadn]

That explanation gave him pause and he looked thoughtful for a moment. Considering he was somewhere around twelve feet long and was rather similar to an average human in upper body proportion, he really was very large. His size alone was often enough to put people off, even before they learned he was alive.

"...Would that include cuddles? Because uh, that sounds a lot better than storage lockers, abandoned cars and old warehouses..."

It was likely a bit difficult to tell his actual size while he was all coiled up, but he very much was a toy. She'd see fabric, stitching and actually poking him would make it obvious he had no bones, only soft stuffing of some sort. Really, he shouldn't be able to move or speak, and yet he does.

[amusicaladventure]

No poking! Curious as she might be, she respected personal space!

Though, as she straightened back up, a sly smile curled across her lips. "Whoa, big guy, are you always this forward with the ladies? I don't even know your name yet!"

[seariadn]

"Forward? I don't think I understand..." The look on his face at her comment was one of utter confusion. What did cuddles have to do with names? Was this another of those 'people rules' that he hadn't learned yet?

"My name? Um..." He reached down into his coils, pulling out the small id cards and papers that were the only things he actually owned. "...Seariadn." This name thing was new to him as well, and sometimes it was hard to remember it, even if he'd picked it for himself.

[amusicaladventure]

Oh no. He couldn't -- but he was that naive, really? Ash giggled into a hand, but she lifted the other one out for a handshake or whatever the heck his equivalent is. "Well, hey, Seariadn. I'm Ash. Ashleigh, really, but if you had the choice wouldn't you pick 'Ash' to go by?"

[seariadn]

He really is that naive, and it was clear that he really didn't understand what she found so amusing. Still, he mimicked her by holding out one of his hands the same as she did and tried his best to do the hand shake thing that he'd seen others do.

"Um... Maybe? Does it really make that much of a difference?" Seariadn was honestly curious since it didn't seem like a big deal to him.

[amusicaladventure]

She nodded as she shook his hand. "It totally does. 'Ashleigh' sounds like some valley girl, popping gum and saying 'like' way too often. 'Ash' is cool and metal."

[seariadn]

"I have no idea what you just said..." He doesn't mean to be rude, but the references just don't make sense to him. "I understand the words, but... Does someone from a valley sound different? Why would anyone say 'like' a lot? And why is being cold and metallic a good thing?"

He was confused and Ash had seemed willing to explain things to him so far, so he was going to hope that she would indulge him and answer a few more questions.

Mirror Maze!

[mettatronic]

A trick, darling?

[Mettaton... hasn't felt stuck in the hall of mirrors, on his part. He isn't 1. in a hurry to leave the carnival in general; or 2. a man who's easy to unnerve with his own reflection, however, ah, accurate it is or isn't. The way he's seen it so far? His reflections have been acting, modeling, poooosing without having to fellow his example - and you know what? How appropriate and novel!

Still, when he turns to face the catlike-humanlike young lady in the room with him, he isn't scoffing at her or writing her off by any stretch - how unbecoming it'd be to give that attitude to such a total friggin' stranger, good lord! - rather... showing no more than something like a casually journalistic sort of interest.]

Hm...! Such as...?

Mettaton | Undertale | Newbie

[mettatronic]

A. Admission Fees

[So! The thing is, Mettaton has money with him. He's a star of the highest degree. He be ballin'.

But! When he's told that the entry fee is simply anything of value? Well, ha-ha, he'll keep his cash to himself and roll out a concert poster and sign it with a declaration and a flourish! Promo material might be less reliably versatile as a universal thing to always have on hand, but - ha-ha, it's always got its value nonetheless.

And Mettaton strides with his chin up into the fairgrounds feeling rather satisfied with himself for having entered on one, and, ah, is going to ride that high.

If he thinks you even might have seen him enter the carnival with an autograph poster, he'll turn to you with an unrolled spare poster held in the air in one hand and the other hand out toward you and facing upward.]

And would you care for an autograph, my dear? I'll be giving out another twenty-five MTT autographs for free! Yes, free - while poster supplies for tonight last!

[Because, you know, that's the number he happens to... have on him for tonight alone.]


B. Desperately Seeking Sign-On

[So.

He's caught wind.

Caught wind of the fact that the carnival is looking for new employees.

And he, keen as he ever was to expand the scope and size of his fanbase, has, ah-ha, been mmmost intrigued by the idea of joining the troupe. Becoming a headlining act in no terribly long amount of time, surely (whatever the frig they'd actually have him do - he'll think about particulars when he's got them)!

That in mind, he hasn't been messing around at all in giving the carnival a look. Rather, he's been looking around for anyone who seems to be an employee, be they a security worker or a performer wrapping up a quick show or musical performance for the guest. Heck, they don't even need to be an official employee - if you look like you're helping out or performing on any level, if you walk by him, you might well catch 'im waving you over smoooooothly, with a raised brow and a voice made breathy and/or inflected in just the right places, by his mental estimation!]

Oooh. Pa~ardon me, darling!

But! Would you happen to know where one should go from here to speak to the Ringmaster of this most quaintly charming of circuses?

Believe me and believe me truly, as a man who very well knows showbiz, I understand if she's a ve-e-ery busy woman, but nonetheless! I'd like to discuss a... business arrangement that should be of value to both involved.]

[Which is to say: he wants to join and he's sure that he, being freaking Mettaton, ought to draw crowds galore if he's added to the carnival's performance roster. The fact that reputation and track record don't exactly mean much across worlds kinda-latently hits him, but at the same time, it'll need time to properly sink in.]


C. Wildcard

[Have any ideas that don't fit either of these? Hit me with 'em!]

Admission Fees

[veinglory]

[Gottlieb's at an impasse as he gazes in awe upon the newcomer before him. On the one hand, he's certainly attractive. The fabulous hair? The bountiful confidence? Very much up his alley. Typically, he'd be swooning his brain out upon first glance.

Something is troubling him however, and it's not just that he hasn't the foggiest clue what an 'MTT' is. As his eyes go between the man and his posters, he finally manages to put a finger on his dilemma.]

Pardon my rudeness, my good man, but are you... made of metal?

Joshua "Josh" Washington | Until Dawn | Newbie

[goregies]

A. Admission Fees... Unpaid!

[Isn't real. Can't be. Can't be, can't be, can't be, not that easy.

He's still in the caves. He knows that.

And knowing that he can't be seeing anything that he's actually seeing, Josh felt his heart start to flutter and sickly palpitate as soon as he started seeing the woods. He gulped, and out from that popped a stupid-sounding "oh, no...!" as he braced himself for whatever these... woods... had to offer.

They didn't look like Blackwood's, and the clearer that got, the quicker and more sharply his heart started to beat, the wider his eyes got, the more frequently he started to shake his head, thickly yet non-verbally repeat to himself ahh, no. Ahh, no, ahh, no...!

When he came to a god-damn circus... He was genuinely not sure whether to be less or more afraid, and for what reason. It's not like he hadn't been to one before. He'd been to plenty - with his sisters, no less. But... none like this, and why would his imagination make one up now, of all things...?

He ended up ambling right up to it in a cold vacuum of helpless, fearful confusion. Right up to the gates, surrounded by people who looked as unfamiliar as the premises themselves did. He wandered into a line, the murmurs of ohh, no, ohh, no...! continuing in his head - up until the admissions clerk asked him to pay a fine - anything of value.

He -- paused.

Blinked.

Blinked and stared like a deer in the headlights.]

-- I-I, I, I got nothing -- ... [Jerkily shook his head a couple of times.] I -- I got n -- no...

[But. Luck or the baffling convenience of imagined contrivance jumps in right there - as someone or something strikes up some sort of impatient callout behind him.

He freezes. Hard. Sharp. Another icicle of dread -- before he realizes that the clerk is looking at whoever it was standing behind him, starting to say something. And something hot in his head kicks him into frantic motion as if with a couple of spurs bounced into the frontal sides of his brain.

He presses into the sides of the line - never mind that he was technically in the front of it - and stumbled into the carnival grounds, not facing away from the admission booth in case whoever or whatever's manning it realizes he's just pushed past the lines (it's gonna get him, it's gonna change, it's all gonna go wrong, fuck, what has he done, this is where it goes bad, it's gonna get him)...!

It's a few meters past the gates that he'll either stumble straight into someone else or hear them coming up behind him, and whip around hard with a sharp, cut-off shout of alarm.]


B. Wildcard

[Hit me with anything else at all you'd like to try out!]

[mettatronic]

[Ha ha, gaze all you want, friend. Get brows raised over half-lidded eyes and a mostly-playful smirk in response.

...And an acknowledgement of the question with a slight "huh!" pout.]

Oh?

[Leading up into a broader, looser smile and a controlled laugh: "ah-ha-ha...!"

Solidly-projected:]

Now, there's no need to be so shy, darling! What in the world is so rude about an innocent question like that?

The answer to that is YES. Metal and magic, as monster-made robots are! [None of this is said in a condescending or "no duh" way, but. Um. It is said as if under the assumption that that won't raise at least as many questions as it answers.] If you have any other questions, please, I beg of you, fire away! What kind of star would I be if I didn't have time to spare on my admirers? Or... as the case might be... admirers in the making?

[He's not making fun anywhere in there! Not that he's... above that in cases where things don't line up with his internal logic, but heh, yeah, even he's not assuming he's a household name outside of the ex-Underground just yet. Yet.]

[veinglory]

[Time spent in the carnival means that the explanation is good enough for Gottlieb. He was able to (somewhat) get used to talking, walking skeletons - why not robots? Although to be honest, most of his experiences with robots back home were with the electronic appliance variety. Alright, so all of his experiences were like that. One just didn't tend to run into robots when their entire world was a small podunk town in the country. Thus, he looks up and down Mettaton with an expression of wonder and curiosity. At the very least, he notes, he's quite pleasantly shiny.

As is his way, he gives the gentlebot a courtly bow.]

A star, you say? Well, it is a pleasure to meet a celebrity... even if I am not myself familiar with your work. What sort of talent might you be? A musician? A thespian?

[amusicaladventure]

"...Wow." Ash stared at him openly, struggling to process those questions. "You don't have any pop culture context, do you? Okay, okay." She spread her hands to stop any further questions, her tail flicking side to side. "Let's start by taking me at my word, okay? Step one in your lesson plan is learning: 'Ash is cool'. And 'cool' is good. And not temperature related. With me so far?"

[amusicaladventure]

Hell if I know. [She sound so cheerful about this, shrugging widely as if she doesn't have a care in the world. Which, really, she doesn't. She makes a low little noise in her throat like a 'mrrrr', while her tail swishes behind her, batting against the mirror glass.]

Maybe one of the mirrors is a secret door! Or maybe you can only see the exit in a reflection and not looking at it yourself!

[mettatronic]

[Pffha, on the looking-up-and-down, Mettaton can't help but hold his chin higher with a steadily-widening smirk. That's right, chum - take 'im all in!

He bows in kind - if much less courtly than in a quick theatrical move.]

I wear many hats, my dear - a musician? [Quick semi-coquettish lick o' the lips.] Check! A thespian? Check! A film actor? Check to that, too! Model, dancer, business entrepreneur -- sweetheart, you can check them all!

And! [A pointer finger in the air.]

...Television host. That's the role in which I initially debuted on the way to stardom, as a matter of fact!

You really haven't heard of me? Mettaton, monsterkind's top idol?

[Inflection not only insofar as ensuring it comes across as inquiry but placed on the "really" in a manner to imply a joking, lighthearted sense of him being thoroughly saddened and scandalized by the lack of recognition!

(Not to say that he wouldn't be tickled pink if he was in a position in which any surprise he could put into that sort of thing didn't need to be deliberate and jokey.)]

[veinglory]

[To some, Mettaton's description of himself might be a bit too hammy, but judging by the way Gottlieb's eyes are widening he's eating it all up quite happily. At the question, however, he shakes his head vigorously.]

No! I wasn't aware monsters had an idol. However, you are quite spectacular to behold. Even without seeing you perform, I am in awe.

My name is Gottlieb! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the carnival.

[mettatronic]

[Cheerfulness with regards to puzzle-solving would be another thing that doesn't strike Mettaton as necessarily odd.

What it hadn't occurred to him to think is that there even might be a trick to getting out of the mirror hall - again, he wasn't really trying to get out! - but. Heck if he's going to allude to that.

A smirk and a cocked brow. A "hm!"]

Not your first strut through puzzling entertainment, dear?

[Falling-then-rising inflection on "puzzling" - a vocal flourish as he's settling down tonally into emcee-mode - enough to feel satisfied he's sounding sufficiently assured to cover up his curiosity.]

You have your ideas - surely you've happened by a clue or two to help you pin them down?

[It's actually more like 75% inflected as a question.]

[amusicaladventure]

[This guy's weird, but she can handle weird. It comes with the territory, or possibly the tail.]

Well, the reflections are the only clue I'm sure about. They all look a little different, you know? Plus it's a mirror maze, so why would your clue not be about mirrors in a mirror maze?

[Eminently reasonable logic from the catgirl's perspective.]

sorry about the delay, feel free to drop this if you want to

[yakan]

I wonder, when one is stubborn enough it tends to work out one way or other, nee-chan.

[ Hello tail. Well, it’s nothing unusual to see, it wasn’t unusual even before he ended up in this place. Hell was hell after all, there were lots of things way stranger than a lady with some nun-human bits. ]

Hmmm.. Maybe they don’t and they already are lighter because of hollow bones or something like that?

sorry about the delay, feel free to drop this if you want to

[yakan]

[ But there’s nothing weird about calling Oscar that, it’s one of the ways Gon calls people every day in Hell. ]

Yeah, sure! I could use something to pass the time with.

[ He always enjoys doing things that’s not too hard work, at least. ]

sorry about the delay, feel free to drop this if you want to

[yakan]

Like, that things never changing is boring?

[ It’s something that his gossip journalist friend has mentioned. Gon didn’t mind things staying the same though. But it might be exciting too. ]

Nah, not right now, I’m on break so I’m not doing any parts but that of a lazy fox. If it’s exciting does it mean it’s fun for you?

sorry about the delay, feel free to drop this if you want to

[yakan]

[ Gon grins and waves a dismissive hand at the other. ]

I’m on break though, I can totally slack off right now.

[ Besides, he’s here because he’s avoiding being eaten by Dakki-sama. And she’s way scarier than anything else. ]

Did you kidnap someone, Nii-san?

sorry about the delay, feel free to drop this if you want to

[wagashiplz]

You lived in a forest? [ And for Kanata, it’s the very first time he’s ever even seen a forest. ] That’s amazing, then you have much more experience with them than I do. Are forests nice to live in? There are no Shinigami Flowers there?