⇨ 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

The Psiioniic :: Homestuck :: Veteran (Supervisor)

[dorkypantsuit]

You Lucky Duck
Game Corner

Amidst all the games that actually involve some elements of skill there sits one carnival game that doesn't bother to hide the fact that it's entirely based on luck. If you leave the ring toss both behind you, ignore the heavy milk bottles and the fake shooting range you'll soon come upon a game titled nothing other than "Lucky Duck." The booth proffers up a small contingent of rubber ducks, all with smiling beaks and joyful eyes. They are perpetually happy to wade in circle around and around. The game is simple, pick a duck and look at it's bottom side. There a number will be written, ranging from zero to five. Each number corresponds to a different group of prizes.

A zero earns you nothing, don't even bother trying if you're cursed with bad luck, you'll never get anything but. A one will earn you something small, useless, a pity prize. A two is mildly better, a three is where the things you might actually want live. A three will also earn you this option, give up your prize and try again for a four or a five. Fours are the best you can hope for really, the big toys, or some small useful trinket perhaps with a one time magic use. There's only ever one five, and the corresponding prize, well, it's a mystery, but it's guaranteed to be something amazing.

For as simple a game as it is, it's the one that's always intrigued the Ψiioniic the most. He is determined to get mystery duck number five sometime before he leaves the carnival. If he's only tried once a night the entire time he's been here he's still tried too many times. He's been here for nearly three years now, and he has the changes to show for it. His eyes number four instead of the usual two. His skin is speckled with glowing purple spots and short antennae can be seen sprouting from his hair in between his horns. He studies the ducks intensely, the purple spots on his skin dimming and glowing brightly again in a slow and steady pattern as he thinks. He's waiting, for just the right moment to strike. Tonight he'll get it for sure, the mysterious number five.


You Lunky Druck
Willfull Wisps

He's trying his very best to catch these damn things without touching them. He glows a dim shade of purple as he flits around the carnival looking for the small beasts, but he soon discovers finding them isn't really the problem. The appear and vanish in a flash of light, it's not hard to spot the little buggers when they take form. It's actually catching the damn things that's proving difficult. The Ψiioniic isn't called such because of his lack of ability, but holding onto these things telekinetically feels like trying to hold smoke with your bare hands. It's a study in patience and the Ψiioniic has never been a very patient troll.

He swears loudly as another wisp breaks free from his grasp and flits off. His freckles glow a dangerous shade of red. He's not usually one to get angry, but tonight hunting down these wisps, he's definitely starting to loose his temper. It doesn't help of course that simply being near the damn things is disorienting as fuck. It makes him even more unfocused, which means he does an even worse job the next time he tries to catch one. Eventually the flash of his psionics begins to desynchronize, shifting from violet in color to alternating flashes of red and blue. That just pissess him off even more. He cusses again, this time in his own troll language instead of the fae speech he's grown accustomed too. He probably sounds like a very angry cicada and a cricket having a fight to the death. Dare ye approach?


Break(?) Time
C A T A R O T

[The strange looking troll approaches, a very fluffy very grumpy looking dilute calico perched on his shoulders.]

You know, my cat can see the future.

[Respond? Y/N]


Riddle Me This (Batman)!
Locked Chests

Of course a lot of people are intrigued by and examining the chests, hoping to find one with a riddle they can actually solve. The Ψiioniic is going about his selection process in a bit of a different manner. He's crouched down, wandering from chest to chest with his cat held out in front of him. Carefully he pushes her forwards to sniff and examine the containers, waiting to see how she'll respond before even reading the riddle.

"Come on Dee. Which one's got the big money?"

break time

[wild_magic]

Really?

[The weirdness of his appearance doesn't even faze the boy, he just looks curious.]

All mine can do is talk in my head.

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?

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!

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.]

Re: break time

[dorkypantsuit]

Wow! That cat does a really good impression of a sleeping owl.

Re: break time

[wild_magic]

[Susan laughs as he tucks his cloak around her again.]

She's only a cat sometimes. Right now she's an owl. I'd show you but it takes a while... And she'd be mad, 'cause she's sleeping.

Re: break time

[dorkypantsuit]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Dee gets mad at me all the time for taking her around, but if your cat has an amazing talent you should tell anyone who will listen.

Re: break time

[wild_magic]

Well yeah, why wouldn't you? She sounds really cool.

[And he's just gonna kinda... hold his hand out towards the cat, as best he can, to see if she wants to sniff it. He's probably too short to get it too close though but why would that stop him?]

Re: break time

[dorkypantsuit]

She does lean over, as any cat would, to sniff at his hand. Liking what she smells she apparently gives his fingers a few licks, before pulling back and loosing interest. She watches strangers pass by, as her eyes flick around to observe the noise of the carnival around them. The Ψiioniic's attention is on Susan though. From the point of his ears he can guess the boy has some fae magic running through him.]

Yeah. She is really cool, must people don't seem to understand that though, so I'm glad you do.


What brings you to the carnival then?

Re: break time

[wild_magic]

[Aw, no kitty pets then. That's okay, he just watches her anyway until he asks that and gets Susan's attention again.]

Well... I was just bored, I guess, and exploring. And it looked cool.

[dorkypantsuit]

[The Ψiioniic nods, picking his cat up off his shoulder before placing her on the ground at their feet. She moves forward to smell at Susan's boots instantly, and promptly sneezes.]

Bored? I can't imagine a kid with a talking cat doesn't have better things to do than come here.

[wild_magic]

Well, I've already seen everything in the forest, and my brother was busy doing things. And I didn't want to blow anything up on accident, so I was bored.

[dorkypantsuit]

Do you have a habit of blowing things up on accident?

[The Ψiioniic begins to look concerned.]

[wild_magic]

Well... Sometimes. Not too much though!

[dorkypantsuit]

Well, that's good. The less things blow up the better. Usually.

[wild_magic]

Sometimes it's kind of fun though.

[dorkypantsuit]

[Ψii laughs.]

True! Just don't blow anything up around here. You'll have a lot of people to deal with if something like that happens.

[wild_magic]

Don't worry, I can take care of myself! They'll have me to deal with then.

[dorkypantsuit]

[He's smiling, but starting to get a little worried.]

There's a lot of strong people around here, you sure you want to take them all on?

[wild_magic]

I don't want to, but I could do it.

[dorkypantsuit]

[Ψii's laughing, but internally he's thinking he needs to keep an eye on this one.]

I hope you don't mind if I come help then. You sound pretty strong though.

[wild_magic]

I am! One time I blew up all these enemies and like three horses! [Of course he wasn't supposed to blow up the horses, poor horses. It was kind of cool though...]

lucky duck

[rescuee]

[ To Jajo's eye, the fellow currently pondering all the cheerful rubber ducks looks no more or less strange than anyone else he's seen tonight. He's long since learned that there's always a new race out there to meet, and who is he to think four eyes and glowing spots are strange? This guy does look pretty wrapped up in this, but... he's been watching the game for a few rounds now, and he still can't quite figure out what its gimmick is.

So that's why he sidesteps his huge frame over carefully, cybernetic limbs held in close like it would make him any less enormous and inconvenient, and leans in a little so he can ask his question without having to raise his voice too much over the noise of the crowds around him: ]

Got anything yet?

[ Clearly not, but it's the best in he can think of to the real question: what the fuck is up with the ducks. ]