livinglot | ⇨ 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't I know it.

[He's heard that before, and it makes him think of the sacrifices made to create the millennium items in the first place. Magic, dark magic especially, always seemed to come with a price. Yuugi sighs a little and shifts his backpack off his shoulders, placing his prize in there with a bunch of others and tilts his head to to give the strange man a smile.]

But don't worry about me. I've dealt with my fair share of tricky spirits before. Wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to steal my soul or something.

Edited (oops) 2016-10-04 20:11 (UTC)

[ ...well. He's a determined sort, at least.

Archer quirks a brow, and while this young boy is most certainly speaking about serious topics (ones he wouldn't necessarily have suspected), his own rather morbid sense of humor is tickled by how casually he speaks of it. ]

I see.

[ Indeed, he does, and it may or may not be a tip-off that he doesn't question the premise of what Yuugi's said at all. ]

And how is it that a young man such as yourself was exposed to magic of that nature?

[For a moment he has a bit of an internal panic over what he said before somehow managing to convince himself that it was okay. The millennium items were gone, flushed down into the dark of the earth with the tomb itself; there wouldn't be any getting those back, just as there wasn't any chance of Atem coming back.

The question makes Yuugi laugh a little awkwardly, raising a hand to scratch the back of his neck, looking sheepish.]

Uh, well I might have solved an ancient puzzle that was keeping an evil creature sealed. And shared my body with the spirit of that puzzle for the last five years.

[ ...well. It isn't quite the answer he was expecting, but he supposes there are more unlikely things. Magic, particularly mysteries with ancient origins, can be quite complex.

Still, he responds as only he can -- with flippant humor. ]

Then I suppose I should count myself fortunate that spirits such as myself are not required to inhabit the bodies of mortals.

[ He isn't knocking you, Yuugi. He's just musing out loud. ]

What manner of "spirit" was he, if I might ask?

[Ah. He had wondered; he wasn't naturally in tune with the spirit world or anything, but he's been around spirits long enough to know one when he sees one, even not out of body. The flippant humor gets a small chuckle - he's been around Kaiba-kun long enough to get when and when things aren't directed at him, and he slides a hand along his backpack strap, tilting his head.

The question has him curious, so he hums as he decides whether or not to humor the man. Spirit. Ugh, you know what he means.]

What manner? You mean was he good or evil?

[It hurt to think of Atem right now, but he inhales a breath and ducks his head to look at the ground.]

He was a good man, in life and death. A good friend, a good Pharaoh. A brilliant duelist. I could only ever hope to live up to someone like that.

[Let alone carry on without him. Yuugi chews his bottom lip, violet eyes uncertain and shifting his backpack.]

[ "What manner" could mean any number of things. Honestly, he's more curious about the mechanics of how what Yuugi describes came to be, but he is also interested in the character of the spirit he came to know -- his origins and what sort of magic kept his spirit intact if not the workings of the world itself.

Yuugi may or may not have the answers to such questions, but the brief description he provides is good enough for now.

Archer lets out a soft huff. ]

So long as you know the life you have to live is yours, not his.

[ Speaking from personal experience? No, certainly not. ]

What is your name?

[He shakes his head, wild hair falling every which way before he speaks again. Maybe once a long time ago he would have lost sight of himself, but he had long since come to realise that he wasn't Atem's shadow any more than the Pharaoh was his.]

Before he left, he said I was the only "me". I know that my life and my story are my own.

[The statement is about strange, coming from a stranger, but he remembers Atem's final words, keeps them close to his heart. Yuugi glances up at the question, then realises what he was asked.]

Yuugi Mutou. Ah, sorry for not introducing myself.

[ Listen to the wise, old men, Yuugi. They know things. ]

Yuugi Mutou.

[ He tests the name. From Japan, hm? ]

You may simply call me Archer.

[Archer...that sounded more like a title than anything, or an alias, almost like how he had called Atem "Yami" before they learned his name. Yuugi looks a little dubious before inclining his head, smiling slightly. No reason to think too much on it, considering they'd just met.]

Are you going to play any of the games, Archer-san?

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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