⇨ 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

SANS | UNDERTALE | VETERAN

[osteothropy]

► DO YOUR WORK (NOT REALLY)
There's a certain degree of plausible deniability regarding some of the other carnies when it comes to their outlandish looks. You could imagine that their strange features are some mixture of makeup and SFX. In Sans's case it's a little hard to convince yourself of that, though. He's made of nothing but bone, and you can practically see the breeze blowing through his phalanges. No skin here, nope.

Sans isn't really feeling it today, but that's not surprising, because he rarely is. He's actually doing something resembling his job as the Warden, however, because he's moving around to place to place and keeping his eyes on things, which is more than he does usually. It's mostly because he has the excuse to walk his weird dog.

It's not really a dog, he guesses. It's one of his magical summons, which he originally created because it could shoot lasers out of its mouth. Since coming to the carnival, though, the blasters have managed to develop into something far more complex, and attending to their new and exciting interests is something he genuinely enjoys. He's used to dogs, after all. Most of his coworkers were dogs, back home.

So, get ready to get ogled by this weird looking skeleton guy on digitigrade feet with glowing cyan tattoos and his very large skeleton dog minion. In fact, the skeleton dog is probably going to make it its business to trot over and smell you with its weird skull. Sans doesn't seem very concerned about it, but he doesn't look concerned about a lot of things.

► DO YOUR WORK (EVEN LESS)
Or, you'll find him sitting back in his chair somewhere, literally asleep. It could be a lot of places - he has a tendency to teleport himself and the chair around, so he doesn't have to remain standing when it's unnecessary. One of his dogs is curled up and also sleeping at his feet.

This is super normal in carnival terms. He'd probably be doing a better of patrolling if his eyes were open, though.

DO YOUR GODDAMN WORK SANS

[cuckooed]

[Seriously.

Seriously.

This is the third time this week Koel's caught him snoozing. The sense of pride that her human emotions granted him prickled with annoyance and anger. How? How is he Warden? Its one more incident she has to let the Ringmaster know. How the Ringmaster hasn't feed each individual bone to the lions is beyond Koel, especially with him slacking off at such a high position.

So. She supposes she has to get San's attention. Walking over to one of the game booths, she tosses a ball into a glass, and picks out a whistle from the prize pot.

A dog whistle. Plastic, not the best make. But it should do the job.

Thus, once in range, grandma puckers her lips and blows.

Hard.]

[osteothropy]

[SHIT.

A chill rises straight from the base of his tail up to his neck, his bones practically rattling from it. Oh, that's a terrible sound, and it startled him so much that he whips his tail out of the place its been curled inside of shorts and breaks one of the legs of his chair.

Times is also awake, even more instantaneously, and makes a weird howling noise that isn't exactly dog-like, but isn't not dog-like either. Times proceeds to start running in circles with magical energy bleeding out of its mouth like fog.

It takes a moment for Sans to realize what the fuck, and then his single visible eye (its the blue one, now slitted) to swivel over to Koel. He almost looks indignant, until he tucks that momentary burst of anger away.]

Is it just me or has your voice gotten more shrill recently?

[cuckooed]

...Its just you.

[There is a definite gleam of satisfaction in her eye, even as her expression belied anger.]

You're lucky its me, and not the Ringmaster, who found you again.

[......from a certain point of view she supposes.]

[osteothropy]

Hey. Shh.

[He puts out a hand to Times, noting that they are still running around looking confused, and they gradually stop, their tail wagging frantically. A nice thing about your pets being your magical summons is that you naturally have pretty good control of them, through that bond. This would have just been too complicated to maintain all the time before he started using fae magic.]

Yeah, well, you can direct her to my complaints department. You know, the novelty coffin outside my trailer? If she's quick, she might get it in there before I bury it.

Does Sans even know the meaning of work tbh

[fourthscribe]

[It's a very common sight, and one that Tanyuu could almost--ALMOST let slide before he had become Warden. She doesn't dislike Sans, she actually rather enjoys speaking with him when he isn't taking yet another nap, but when you have a job as important as guarding the whole carnival you should at least make some amount of an attempt.]

[So when she spots him during some downtime, and happens to have a spare bucket of bean bags from one of the toss game stalls...]

[It's very careful work, considering her still-shaky grasp of levitation magic. You could even argue that this is valuable practice, carefully taking one bag at a time to settle on the top of the skeleton's cranium in a slowly-building stack...but really, it's just her own bratty way of hinting that maybe he should quit slacking off, already.]

[osteothropy]

[This actually goes on for quite a while before Sans reacts to it. He's getting his sleep on pretty good until the beanbag pile gets a little bit too ambitious and its slides off of his cueball head and onto his lap. He opens his eyes half lidded, staring at the pile with only mild interest.]

Huh.

[fourthscribe]

[Managed to get it up to ten high--not bad at all!]

[Dropping the eleventh into her hand and tossing it over at Sans's skull by a more mundane fashion, Tanyuu slithers over with a frown and arched brow, judging him hard enough that there might as well be golden halls around them both right now.]

Good morning, Sans. Did you have a nice nap?

[Oh yeah, he's definitely getting the 'child did you seriously just break all my good china' tone.]

[osteothropy]

[It plops off of his skull with barely any reaction, falling into his lap with the others. He looks sort of sleepy but that's about it. Times is still snoozing at his feet.]

Longer than I thought. Last time I checked it was more afternoon-ish.

EVEN LESS RESPECT THAN YOU COULD HAVE IMAGINED

[fortuneglass]

[Now, Carly technically has the day off. She has a lot of days off, if one goes to the details of it all in fact. But when the Ringmaster said Go Catch Will o Wisps she took it seriously!

So seriously!

So seriously she has all of these bottles, with all of these wisps, and-] HAHHHHH!?

[WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS] Wh- You're just sitting there!!

[AND DON'T TELL HER THIS IS NOTHING NEW, THAT IS NO EXCUSE!!!]

[osteothropy]

[Sans yawns - a rare moment of his jaw actually opening - and looks are Carly wearily. He lifts his hand up to where his ear would be, miming the use of his radio.]

Warden's office. Please describe the nature of your emergency.

[fortuneglass]

[Ooooooogh!!]

We're supposed to be catching will-o-wisps, and you're not doing anything..! [she huffs.] Get out of the chair and help..!

[osteothropy]

Sorry. Doesn't really fit my job description. The Warden's supposed to watch out for stuff that's dangerous.

[He's not actually sorry.]

Doge

[dorkypantsuit]

Ψiioniic looks over to the dog (?) as it sniffs him before smiling widely at it. It doesn't have ears, but he pets its head like it does anyway.

"Hey Buddy, how you doing tonight?"

[osteothropy]

Roman's tail starts wagging hard enough that it shakes its whole body, and it runs a quick circle around Psii, checking him over. It always knows full well who he is as it's gotten up in his business plenty of times, but since when does that ever stop a dog from smelling things?

They don't have tongues to pant with, but they chomp their jaws a little, the bones flexing and releasing bits of magical cyan fog. Sans slowly approaches from behind, looking at the summon with genuine affection.

[dorkypantsuit]

Ψii laughs as Roman circles around him. He twists and turns watching the dog as he does so.

"I'd throw a bone for you, but I think you have enough." He kneels down, petting the dog more as he fogs. Of course Sans coming closer doesn't escape his attention.

"What's up?" he asks, not even bothering to look in the other skeleton's direction. "Keeping an eye on things?"

[osteothropy]

Roman doesn't understand jokes, but it doesn't understand pets, and so as non-soft as a skeleton is to pet, it will soak up the attention. Sans is pretty sure this behaviour is very closely tied to the stuff he got from the Ringmaster at the start of his most recent year. There is no practical purpose for it what so over, but it's pretty great to watch.

Sans grins more widely at the joke, though, and shrugs his shoulders.

"You know me. When I work, I do it doggedly."

Work It

[pokepochette]

_{[Bonnie isn't paying attention, but that doesn't mean Dedenne isn't. In fact it spotted the strange, skeletonesque dog creature thing (and let's be honest here, smelt it) long before it had decided to be rude and sniff about Bonnie's pochette. Jumpy and Not Happy with having his space encroached upon, the little mouse Pokemon begins to make a fuss, squirming out of the side bag to hop to the floor and send out a few warning sparks.]}

Huh, Dedenne what are you-? Woah! What are you?!

_{[Ghost Pokemon maybe? Or maybe not a Pokemon at all?]}

Hey Dedenne leave it alone!

[osteothropy]

[Roman flinches back, making a weird warbling growl sound and snapping its boney jaw. It looks like it's ready to spring if a fight breaks out, but for now it's controlling itself, even as it hunkers down warily.

Sans can sense it's urge to attack, but he warns it off. It's nothing to worry about, he's pretty sure. He's kind of curious to see what she'll do, most visitors don't react so casually to the sight of these guys.]

[pokepochette]

Dedenne it was just saying hello!

_{[Or that's what she thinks, at least. After all if it had wanted to attack her or her Pokemon it would've already. It wouldn't have been sniffing around. Not exactly happy to be scolded, Dedenne more or less give the mouse equivalent of a pout as she moved to scoop the Pokemon up and put him back in her pochette. She doesn't seem particularly scared of the potential ghost Pokemon. If anything she seems apologetic. She hasn't noticed Sans yet, however, far too focused on the unsure creature before her.]}

Sorry, you just surprised Dedenne, that's all...but wow! You're neat! What are you?

_{[Is she repeating herself? Sure, but it serves to be repeated!]}

[osteothropy]

[As Sans becomes more sure of her intent, Roman lightens up a little bit as well, its tail tentatively beginning to wave back and forth as it leans up to investigate again. Small puffs of cyan fog come from between its fangs, apparently some kind of excited reaction.

Sans appears next to the creature, very suddenly. The two of them share some features, as Sans has developed some canine-esque bone structure in his feet and hands, though his tail is presently wrapped up inside of his shorts.]

Heh. They don't talk much. Might take a while to get an answer out of them.

[He mouth doesn't move at all when he talks.]

who can resist petting a pupper? not jacky

[intherigging]

[Looking down after feeling something bump your leg and seeing a monstrous skull should be something terrifying; Jacky just grins and drops down to rub the smooth plane between his eyes.] Aw, loo'keh ye! Who's a good dog! Who's a good dog!

[Looking back up at Sans, she grins at him.] 'lo, Sans! Ain'cha supposed to be workin'?

no matter how little skin that pupper may have

[osteothropy]

[Roman leans into the rub, bits of cyan fog releasing through its teeth, its visual equivalent of panting excitedly. It hunkers down playfully for a moment and then runs a circle around Jacky before slowing down enough to accept more attention.

Sans arrives at their sides, and lifts a hand to his unmoving jaw conspiratorily.]

Don't tell anyone, but technically this counts.

listen only those without A SOUL could resist

[intherigging]

[Cupping Roman's face in both of her hands, Jacky switches to rubbing his cheek bones, bringing forth more fog. Cor, she loves dogs. Even somewhat creepifying skeletal ones.

Smirking at Sans, she mimes locking her lips and pocketing the key.] Y'secret's safe with me, mate. Wouldn't want t'tarnish your image now, would we? Folk'd be liable to drop from shock!

Almost certainly not game canon, I just want Pap to pet the pup

[spaghettimonster]

[The Carnival is full of sights and sounds and smells unfamiliar, a truly heartening amount of laughter and cheers from people playing games, riding rides, and watching the show. It's another world here, and Papyrus hardly knows what to look at.

So he's walking around, peering in some other direction, when he walks by the other skeletons. It's the dog that initiates their meeting, sniffing at his leg. And Papyrus knows too many dogs to miss that sound, or the feeling of breath against his leg.]

Hey, don't chew on--

[That dog is a skeleton dog.

That dog is a skeleton dog and it's sniffing up at him and it's adorable.]

Oh! Hello there! I guess you won't be wanting to steal my bones, you have plenty of your own!

[He reaches down to scritch at the dog's head.]