ringleaders: (firebreather)
Lost Carnival Mods ([personal profile] ringleaders) wrote in [community profile] livinglot2016-09-29 10:38 am

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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!
fellchild: (Default)

chara | undertale | newbie

[personal profile] fellchild 2016-10-03 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
(I. But You Gotta Put In Work Work Work)

[Chara's new job as a cashier isn't the worst. It's boring as sin most of the time, sure, but at least they aren't shoveling animal feces or performing like a trained monkey. There are a few perks, too: they can get a good first look at a lot of the newcomers, and there are also ample situations where they can mess with people.

This is one of those situations. Your character doesn't have anything traditionally valuable to pay for admittance, and Chara has gleaned this from the way they're acting. It turns out that Chara is not very fun to barter with, and they are definitely not completely following protocol. But if you're a fresh face, how would you know the what the rules really are?

There's also a chance your character was caught sneaking in without paying. In this case, after the bouncer has brought them over, Chara will be even more ruthless. Regardless of the specifics, there's a definite theme to her approach.]


I can't accept any of this. If that's all you've got, then what we're going to take is your SOUL. [They shrug.] It's a painless thing. If you're good, then we'll give it back to you after a year.


(II. And I See My Reflection)

[Chara likes the mirror maze. They enjoy the company of their reflections more than pretty much any of the actual people they've met so far, even when they're acting bad. For whatever reason, being amongst them feels more calming than anything.

Your character can find Chara deep in the maze, seated cross-legged and surrounded by a dozen of their reflections. All of them are showing Chara the same way: lying splayed out on their side, covered in golden flower petals… and quite clearly dead.

Chara glances up.]


Oh, hello. You know, not very many people like to come this far. I wonder why.
veinglory: (Awwww!)

But You Gotta Put In Work Work Work

[personal profile] veinglory 2016-10-03 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
... oh, dear me, I don't know if I have one of those anymore.

[By the pout on his face, it's clear he's not making a joke. His hands rustle about hopelessly in his pocket, finding nothing but lint.]

I know I lost my dear, beautiful reflection ... but I haven't the foggiest notion what my soul even looked like! I don't suppose you're able to tell such a thing?
fellchild: (9)

[personal profile] fellchild 2016-10-03 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Chara is already beginning to regret trying to toy with this person. Oh well, live and learn. Their smile – which already has a creepy, forced quality to it – grows sharper.]

You would know it if you saw it.

Maybe I should check inside you to see if it's still there.
veinglory: (Oooh rock me Amadeus!)

[personal profile] veinglory 2016-10-03 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[Unfortunately for Gottlieb, he's a bit too naive and trusting. Children have never been something to be feared before, so why should he fear them now? Even if he's never seen a child smile quite like that before...]

Inside? You can do such a thing? Amazing!
osteothropy: by kibstart@tumblr (what's the best kind of acid)

And I See My Reflection

[personal profile] osteothropy 2016-10-03 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
[Sans has mixed feelings about the mirror maze. On one hand, it's pretty hilarious that he can navigate it without actually worrying about the maze part, since he's got the landscape of its interior memorized. Even if the layout changes everyday, he can just teleport from place the place and then out again if he feels like it. He has one particular corner he likes to go to when he doesn't want anyone to bother him. And hell, it gives visitors a nice scare to just find a skeleton laying around from time to time.

On the other hand, it's full of mirrors, and his reflections are tricky even in normal circumstances. It came with his changes. The enchantments on the mirrors here don't seem to know what to do with it. His reflection already has a life of its own, so how are they meant to meddle? It's a real pickle.

He stops when he sees a kid just sitting around in the maze, looking kind of like a creep. He hasn't been paying too much attention to newbies that aren't in security, and so it's not someone he really recognizes, as much as they have a passing resemblance to someone else.

Lets not get all conspiracy theorist right off the bat though, hey?

His long boney tail is actually sticking out from beneath his hoodie today, his feet looking like something from a wolf skeleton. As his own reflection comes into view on the same mirrors as the kid's, it observes the dead body and offers everyone a lackadaisical shrug, as if to say "well, what can ya do?" The real Sans is busy giving the real child a mildly skeptical look.]


Dunno... but it's been pretty dead in here all day, huh?

[And yet, those flowers looks so familiar.]
fellchild: (10)

[personal profile] fellchild 2016-10-03 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
[That humor has a passing resemblance to someone else's. Chara's eyes flick to the side, towards where Sans is chilling. Then they flick back to the center-most reflection. If their eyes weren't red before, they are now, as an initial consequence of the fae magic – every once in a while, their iris's also appear to glow.

Sans is clearly a monster, but he's not the first Chara has seen since they arrived. They're used to monsters, obviously, so they're unfazed by Sans's appearance. Humans were the dangerous ones. Chara felt like they'd known it all along, and spending so much time in the underground only confirmed it. They'd been taken in even though it was the humans who had killed the monsters and all of them down there in the first place.

Chara's corpse in the mirrors doesn't move – of course it doesn't. What it does do is start to decompose at an accelerated rate. They have obviously spent too much time in here, because these damn reflections have gotten pretty elaborate. Chara attempts to ignore them.]


I don't mind. It's better not having to deal with anyone rotten.

[The corpses in the mirrors, incidentally, have begun to rot in earnest. Chara keeps a straight face. Did they even mean to pun there?]
osteothropy: (pray to god our kids live long enough)

[personal profile] osteothropy 2016-10-03 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
[He's going to assume yes, and that this is some kind of deadpan schtick. He looks over at the mirror, and at the rotting body. Monsters don't decompose, so the look of it is kind of surreal. Too unfamiliar to bother him much.

He reaches over and taps his claw against he glass.]


Gross.

[It's like he's vaguely scolding someone responsible for the imagery. His own reflection seems to have vanished entirely for the moment.]

Did the mirrors come up with that, or is that all you?

[Some people have enough material locked away inside of them that the mirrors don't even have to try.]
fellchild: (13)

[personal profile] fellchild 2016-10-03 06:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Chara's eyes narrow a little, because that's an interesting question. Did the mirrors really react differently depending on the person? The fact that Sans is asking rather than telling makes it easier to deal with, at least. Discussing suicidal impulses with this monster she just ran into is not high on the list of things Chara is interested in doing.

Still, they are obligated to answer in some way.]


If I was in control, then why would I want to watch this?

[And yet they still find themselves following the progression, though at least it doesn't go on and on. Soon enough, all of the flesh disappears, leaving only a clean white skeleton behind.]
bottle_of_tears: (um...)

And I See My Reflection

[personal profile] bottle_of_tears 2016-10-06 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
[It's as Fran makes her way into the deeper parts of the maze, she finds that this has been one of her more regrettable choices. The images that follow her tell a story that she's still not ready to accept:

The many hers in the mirror are all carrying a knife that is covered in blood. What's more, is they're all wearing smiles that are far too happy with the dismembered bodies at their feet. The Fran who's not in the mirror is clutching onto a black cat, her expression very clearly that of a little girl who's very unhappy with this place. Stupid mirrors... stupid place...

She just wants to go home!
]

Oh... hello. [One hand lightly tugs at the hem of her dress, and she gives a very small curtsy in greeting. Just like that, curiosity overrides her discomfort and unhappiness. Who is this person? Why is their reflection showing such a terrible thing?] Well, clearly the mirrors are determined to make us uncomfortable.

[If only the mirrors around her would just stop showing those things... But, more importantly, the mirrors around this stranger. She can't suppress the desire to comment on it.] The you in the mirrors doesn't look very good. What happened?