⇨ 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

[pipers_son]

We’re all foreigners in the carnival~.

[He lets Ishida take the lead to the carnival tents, watching him carefully despite his carefree smile.]

Although yeah, even before this, we ain’t exactly from the same part of the world, ha. I’m British, if the accent wasn’t clue enough.

[ophidiarex]

[That sounds too good to be true, to be honest... But maybe that's what happened to the rest. Maybe they were taken out of England. Snake nods.]

"Is there any way we can help?" says Wordsworth...

[pipers_son]

[There it is- the question he was hoping wouldn’t be asked but that he knew would, eventually. Joker knows his family, even Snake, newly adopted into it all. He knows all of them would ask that kind of thing. And god, if only he could be certain that things would be okay if any of his own returned to England…]

[Joker takes in a breath, guiding Snake past the stalls and the cookhouse and the bigtop, towards the trailers in back. His voice is gentle even as he keeps his back to him.]

Ya don’t have ta do anythin’. Ya could just let me handle it, and it’d be fine.

[ophidiarex]

[Snake doesn't know the half of it, but he understands a little of what Joker is thinking. With the revelation that Joker is working for this, that he could have saved the others... Snake feels left behind, and alone. He doesn't want to feel that way again.

So he stops, tugging at one of Joker's wings, and shakes his head. He's not leaving it all to you, not when it feels like he's been forgotten. Not when he could be outside of the purview of whoever Joker is working for, considered outside of his family as he's often feared he might be. After all, everyone else vanished already, as far as he knows.]

[pipers_son]

[He pauses at the tug, wings twitching uncomfortably, and glances back at him before giving a sigh. Everyone in his family can be so stubborn, sometimes.]

Alright… We’ll talk more where I’m stayin’.

[And with that, he escorts Snake further into the living spaces of the carnival- past the majority of the trailers until they’re going down a small path and into the supervisor’s grove. He points up ahead towards his.]

Black one up a few of those stairs- that’s mine.

[Just so he knows where they’re going as Joker walks up- usually he’d fly, now that he has wings, but he stays on his feet for Snake’s sake. As they reach their destination, he holds open the door for him. The inside of the trailer is completely out of sorts with the outside- much much larger, for one thing, good enough for Joker to stretch his wings a little. While no doubt surprising for some people, the inside is very clean, from counters to the furniture. What makes it strange is that the walls shimmer a little, like when the insides of clam shells are all polished up, and the counters are pearl pale. All the furniture is some shade of pastel. The only thing that stands out is the dark purple paper folding screen that’s at the opposite end of the trailer, away from the door, apparently leading into the only closed off area.]

[ophidiarex]

[Snake follows diligently, pausing when Joker holds open the door before stepping through. It's... it's surprising in here, to say the least. Snake doesn't quite peek outside again, but his mouth opens slightly before he closes it again and furrows his brows. There's no time for that. He needs to figure something else out, first. Carefully, he stands in the middle of the room, hands in front of him where he can be sure they don't touch any of Joker's nice things. If he could somehow not have his feet touch the floor, he would.]

"Joker... Is this where you went?" Says Oscar...

[Emily, resting on his shoulders, lets her head fall with Snake's shoulders. Everything about him and his snakes looks... listless.]

[pipers_son]

Ya can have a seat, Snake. S’fine.

[Yeah, he’s picking up on that nervousness. Joker sort of gets it- it’s a weird place, and it looks too nice for some of their lot, who’ve been traveling in tents for months, now. Years, for some of them.]

[Anyway…. Settling near one of the counters, Joker takes a deep breath.]

Not…. exactly. It’s just where I ended up.

[Grimacing, he passes wooden fingers over his hair, taking care not to bump them into his antlers. Snake being here- any of his family, his circus, being here reminds him all too much of how he’s changed.]

I went ta go check in with…. The person behind the circus- [And oh the will it takes to keep his voice under control as he says that.] -about things, and I got delayed. And then ‘delayed’ turned inta a…. Problem. I was tryin’ ta deal with it, and, well.

[His fingers splay out.]

Ended up here, and the Ringmaster of this circus offered me somethin’ I couldn’t refuse.

[ophidiarex]

[It's definitely too nice for Snake's nerves. Hell, if it hadn't been for his snakes' needs, he would have felt weird having his own tent back home. Despite misgivings and the fact he feels filthy, Snake nods briefly and sits down on the very edge of a nearby seat, looking down at the floor as he does so. Once he's sitting, though, he allows his eyes to trail up Joker's body, noting all the changes.

He nods again; Joker mentioned the deal already. But that doesn't explain why he looks like this. Maybe there's more to the story?]

[pipers_son]

[There’s definitely more, but the way Joker’s mouth twists gives away that he’s having a little bit of difficulty in explaining it. It’s… not a nice thing, after all, and he’s trying to puzzle out how much falsehood and how much truth he should give away right now.]

Part of the deal was- somethin’ had happened. At the owner’s place, y’know, for the circus, things got outta hand, and there was a fire…. And I lost my arms.

[He holds up his hand, the curves of wood seeming like it just sprouted up one day, natural as anything. There’s no attempt to mention that his other arm, well, that one he got rid of by his own initiative.]

I wouldn’t have made it, but I got drawn inta this place, and, well. Next thing I know, I’m wakin’ up with this. [A laugh.] That’s one way ta stop bleedin’, innit? And that’s when I realized, well…. Ya ever hear stories about, ah, the Fair Folk, Snake?

[ophidiarex]

[Again, Snake says nothing, but he lowers his head, thinking. He never really knew the circus had an owner. In theory it must have, but it wasn't the kind of thing the others talked about.

Maybe the owner was a problem. But then again if he was why would Joker be visiting? Perhaps the fire was an accident, a fallen lantern. He can't know unless Joker tells him someday, but he doesn't seem willing to talk about it...

A traitor thought wonders if he'd have told Doll, but Snake stifles it quickly.

But stories... There's something to think about. He never had parents or caretakers to tell him tales, but he's read a few since he learned how. He nods a little, not totally raising his head, but at least looking at Joker's shadow.]

[pipers_son]

[At least that’s one thing he doesn’t have to worry about explaining.]

Well… The Ringmaster here, at this carnival… She’s one of ‘em. She makes deals with people, where they work off debt ta her. Sometimes ta pay off somethin’ broken…. Sometimes ta give ‘em somethin’ she wants.

But, by stayin’ here, and workin’, well… folks change. Usually small ways…. But sometimes bigger.