⇨ 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

Admission Fees

[veinglory]

[Gottlieb's at an impasse as he gazes in awe upon the newcomer before him. On the one hand, he's certainly attractive. The fabulous hair? The bountiful confidence? Very much up his alley. Typically, he'd be swooning his brain out upon first glance.

Something is troubling him however, and it's not just that he hasn't the foggiest clue what an 'MTT' is. As his eyes go between the man and his posters, he finally manages to put a finger on his dilemma.]

Pardon my rudeness, my good man, but are you... made of metal?

[mettatronic]

[Ha ha, gaze all you want, friend. Get brows raised over half-lidded eyes and a mostly-playful smirk in response.

...And an acknowledgement of the question with a slight "huh!" pout.]

Oh?

[Leading up into a broader, looser smile and a controlled laugh: "ah-ha-ha...!"

Solidly-projected:]

Now, there's no need to be so shy, darling! What in the world is so rude about an innocent question like that?

The answer to that is YES. Metal and magic, as monster-made robots are! [None of this is said in a condescending or "no duh" way, but. Um. It is said as if under the assumption that that won't raise at least as many questions as it answers.] If you have any other questions, please, I beg of you, fire away! What kind of star would I be if I didn't have time to spare on my admirers? Or... as the case might be... admirers in the making?

[He's not making fun anywhere in there! Not that he's... above that in cases where things don't line up with his internal logic, but heh, yeah, even he's not assuming he's a household name outside of the ex-Underground just yet. Yet.]

[veinglory]

[Time spent in the carnival means that the explanation is good enough for Gottlieb. He was able to (somewhat) get used to talking, walking skeletons - why not robots? Although to be honest, most of his experiences with robots back home were with the electronic appliance variety. Alright, so all of his experiences were like that. One just didn't tend to run into robots when their entire world was a small podunk town in the country. Thus, he looks up and down Mettaton with an expression of wonder and curiosity. At the very least, he notes, he's quite pleasantly shiny.

As is his way, he gives the gentlebot a courtly bow.]

A star, you say? Well, it is a pleasure to meet a celebrity... even if I am not myself familiar with your work. What sort of talent might you be? A musician? A thespian?

[mettatronic]

[Pffha, on the looking-up-and-down, Mettaton can't help but hold his chin higher with a steadily-widening smirk. That's right, chum - take 'im all in!

He bows in kind - if much less courtly than in a quick theatrical move.]

I wear many hats, my dear - a musician? [Quick semi-coquettish lick o' the lips.] Check! A thespian? Check! A film actor? Check to that, too! Model, dancer, business entrepreneur -- sweetheart, you can check them all!

And! [A pointer finger in the air.]

...Television host. That's the role in which I initially debuted on the way to stardom, as a matter of fact!

You really haven't heard of me? Mettaton, monsterkind's top idol?

[Inflection not only insofar as ensuring it comes across as inquiry but placed on the "really" in a manner to imply a joking, lighthearted sense of him being thoroughly saddened and scandalized by the lack of recognition!

(Not to say that he wouldn't be tickled pink if he was in a position in which any surprise he could put into that sort of thing didn't need to be deliberate and jokey.)]

[veinglory]

[To some, Mettaton's description of himself might be a bit too hammy, but judging by the way Gottlieb's eyes are widening he's eating it all up quite happily. At the question, however, he shakes his head vigorously.]

No! I wasn't aware monsters had an idol. However, you are quite spectacular to behold. Even without seeing you perform, I am in awe.

My name is Gottlieb! It is my pleasure to welcome you to the carnival.

[mettatronic]

[Ah-ha-hand ooh, boy, this is attention that Mettaton's not disused to, but it is of a kind that he eats up right back!]

Ha ha haaaaaa, ohhhhh, my!

Gottlieb-darling... [Trying the name on speech. A somewhat-showier, somewhat-more-self-assured equivalent to more dryly repeating the name or semi-rhetorically asking it back.] ... thank you, thank you! Thank you -- ever... [Plenty of emphasis and a satisfied swell in his chest to accompany it on that last word.] ...so kindly!

[Meanwhile, he's produced a pen - don't'cha dare ask from where - and he's starting to write on corner of one of his posters, one corner as flat as he can make it in the palm of his hand.]

You've got good taste!

Trust me, I feel quite welcome already! And...

[...Bit of a pause. His pen's steadily stopped above the main part of what he's scrawled so far. And then, with a ssslight pout and an uneven soft bite into his lip, he lifts a brow and jumps right into asking:]

Ah -- now, just to be sure. Are there two "T"s in your name? G-O-T...

[With a slight, thin open-ended drift.]

[veinglory]

[Oh, he's getting an autograph! He supposes his trailer could use a little decorating beyond what Papyrus has put up.]

Yes, yes! Two T's!

[He's up on his tippy toes now, watching him write it eagerly.]

If you were to join, you'd have the same supervisor as myself, since you're a performer.

[mettatronic]

[A lick of his lips and a wink. (The latter of which might or might not add much, since... bangs.)]

Got it.

[He writes in the best and most flourishy script he can without a flat surface - lifting the poster and posturing as gracefully as he can to ideally give Gottlieb something of a look as he does, once he notices what the gent's doing; mmh, priceless! "For Gottlieb, my first new fan among the carnival. What a peach!" ...

Aaand on that comment, Mettaton pauses. Brow lifts. Was that hypothetical, or...?]

Oh?

[He's already pinned his eyes back onto Gottlieb, but he turns his face halfway away from the poster and to him, to move him further in from the peripherals of his vision. And flash 'im a beam.]

Are you hiring?

[There's a definite dimension of active intrigue in his voice, not that he'll get openly bubbly with it. Do tell, Gottlieb.]