ringleaders: (Default)
Lost Carnival Mods ([personal profile] ringleaders) wrote in [community profile] livinglot2018-01-05 10:28 am
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⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

WELCOME TO THE SHOW!

Or, more specifically, Lost Carnival's 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 (and should) read the full premise here.
  • Reserves and Applications are currently OPEN.
  • Recruits can be either willing or tricked this month.
  • You can apply as a newcomer or as a "veteran" character who has been in the carnival for up to three years. In the case of veteran characters, you will need to come up with an explanation of why they haven't been around the carnival recently.
  • TDM threads can be used as game canon after the fact if both characters are accepted, the players agree to it, and it makes any sense contextually.
  • If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Head Cook and Treasurer are currently open. Otherwise, we're pretty much down for anything, roles wise.


CURRENT STOP
WISMUTH

Wismuth is a large coastal city on the east shore of what would usually be the United States. The world it's part of is an Earth variant, meaning that while some aspects may be different, overall it will contain a similar look and feel to Earth many are accustomed to, including some overlapping celebrities, corporations, and technologies. Its most notable feature is that this planet is a part of what is called a 'Pillar of Creation' - a focal point of Creation's energies in the multiverse. The effects of this feature are the only aspect of the setting that will be relevant for this testdrive, as recruits will be entirely within the carnival as opposed to out in the city.

VIBRANCY OF CREATION: The immediate effects of this trait are that everything in Wismuth, and in the carnival because of its connection to Wismuth, is filled with an unusual sort of vibrancy - colours seem brighter, sounds seems to resonate more deeply, and all other physical sensations will strike visitors as oddly intense, including their own emotions. It's a subtle effect rather than anything that will be overtly disorientating, but it's almost as if everything is more "real" here than it is anywhere else. Obviously, the locals, whom are mostly just ordinary looking humans, have had plenty of time to grow accustomed to this. On the bright side, as a tourist, you have the opportunity to experiment with this sensation as a form of recreation.

Recruits from this month will be signing on with the carnival between Day 8 and Day 11 on the season calendar.

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. 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 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.

TUNNEL OF "LOVE": A brand new attraction in the carnival, the Tunnel of Love is mostly what you'd expect from such a ride - two people sit in a boat together which journeys through some glitter filled caves, complete with mood music. Unfortunately, there is also something else in there with you... in the form a moody kraken living in the waters, who has very particular opinions about shipping, and may either stubbornly interfere with any attempted intimacy, or may politely encourage it. Or they may just generally be a dick if they're in no mood for either. The Ringmaster insists it is a romance expert.

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.

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.

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!

DUNK TANK: Sometimes acting like a dick will earn you the gentle reprimand of being sent to work in the Dunk Tank for the afternoon - you know that game where people throw balls at a target, and if they hit it you get dropped into the water? It's like that, only sometimes there are daunting (but harmless) critters in the water, or some other strange magical affects to spice things up. Hopefully, the visitors will have bad aim.

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!
blooktunes: (what's a "me-me")

[personal profile] blooktunes 2018-01-13 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
It's fine, really...I don't...really care...or anything like that...nnngh...

[Explaining their feelings is hard enough when they feel comfortable and safe, but in a situation like this...well, just don't feel bad about them clamming up now, Reira.]

What? My name...oh...it's Napstablook. Not ghost...that would be weird...
soft_focus: (Hair01)

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-13 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[As much as Reira herself could put feeling to the word-specifically Napstablook's own-she's not familiar with most feelings in general to actually put a word to the feeling aloud...so she just sort of listens, tilting her head for a moment.

She won't press at least. She might not be the most tactful when it comes to people that would rather not be around but she can at least figure out where it's best not to pry much more.
] Umnh....Napstablook? [She'd note that she knows of ghost monsters that have ghost in the name but.... ............she has a feeling saying anything contrary to Napstablook's words would make him feel quite a lot worse.]

Ok-!

...I'm Reira-umh...welcome to the Carnival, then..! [she adds, the welcome awkward, but at the very least not forced.] ...It's supposed to be fun, even though I don't know why.

[She calls it like she sees it!]
reflash: (why are 15 year olds so angry)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-13 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[Dodging it, can't remember, or maybe just thrown off and reeling from the revelation that his secret is apparently common knowledge now. He's stalling and scrambling. He needs a plan.

Yukio knows what was happening in his life, smashed laptops and frustrating weakness and everything spiraling apart, but he needs to try to figure out the last thing Shura would have known. The last thing they both would have known. But, "calling you back from Kyoto"...

The wedding? Or later? How much later is she from? Hours? Months? It can't be months, not if his arm was still broken, unless he went to Kyoto with a broken arm again later.

Days. If he's lucky he has days before everything comes to light, before everyone knows and all the pieces start moving and he sees if his plan works, if he actually has a plan, if he can adjust and adapt and get out with what he needs to be stronger, to surpass the barriers in front of him.

Mephisto must know. He'll have to corner the demon, and soon, before the power in his eyes breaks out and the Order locks him up. And if he can't get answers from the headmaster... well, Lucifer made him an offer (too close, a hand on his face and something staring deep into the something in his eyes), and the Illuminati is evil, pure evil, but he needs to be stronger, he needs more power than he has, and he'll do it, he'll sink to their level because (ha) isn't he almost there already? He doesn't have far to fall.

He's shaking, grabbing one wrist with his opposite hand to try and stop the full-body trembling that's tied in to his racing thoughts.

Say something.
]

Y-yes. [He manages, too little and too late.]
worldlyafflictions: (ch089pg15p3)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
Uhm, I can't tell ya 'cause I don't know? Apparently I got out of a contract with the fae here before but I don't remember it??

[Puts both his hands up, leaning back a bit]
worldlyafflictions: (ch081pg30p1b)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Excuse me, I wasn't scaring 'em off ta begin with. [Maybe.]

What do ya mean, who am I? Who're you? [Trick question, kid, don't talk to strangers!!]
soft_focus: (Hair02)

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-14 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
....I mean I want to know your name. [D u h.]

...I'm Reira. So who are you? [Also there's no comment on Scaring or Not Scaring. She's pretty sure, in her heart, you were scaring ladies away. Totally.]
worldlyafflictions: (ch004pg23p4)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
Shima. Not that that tells ya who I am.

[He's being very mature.]
soft_focus: (.w.)

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-14 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
...Yes it does.

[She is being equally mature, but only one of them has a good excuse for it.] ...It tells me you're 'Shima'.

...Just like I told you I'm 'Reira'. [YOU KNOW JUST AS MUCH..!!]
worldlyafflictions: (ch084pg02p6b)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
[Grumbles and sighs, since she seems intent on staying, leaning his chin on his hand and resuming eating his pastries.]

Okay but who ya are isn't just your name, and not even your whole name...? Unless you're just Reira-chan. [She did mention not having parents.]
Edited 2018-01-14 04:17 (UTC)
soft_focus: (Hair11)

it's not super obvious because art obvs but headcanon is Ukrainian haha

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-14 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Mnnh. Akaba Reira, [She 'corrects' in that case. She certainly doesn't look very Japanese, so adoption is probably the reasoning for that Very Japanese Name in any case.]

....But what's your whole name then? ...Or... ...Are you just Shima-niisan?

[Niisan is for older kids right? She heard other kids use it. ...Not that she uses it Ever for Yuuya and such, but she might as well Try.]
reflash: (*crushes my emotions w/ my bare hands*)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Slightly possessed. He can't take that risk, his body couldn't possibly handle it. There's a reason he didn't inherit the flames.]

I have no reason to rely on Satan's power now.
worldlyafflictions: (ch020pg11p1)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
[Makes a slight face, either because she's copying his logic or for calling him 'niisan'. Probably both.]

Whaddya know, I guess that does almost tell me something. Akaba, huh. I thought for sure ya meant like.. "Layla"... [Scratches the spelling in English on a napkin with a toothpick...]

My given name's Renzou. [Also scratches that in English]
soft_focus: (Extra27)

Rei -> 'Empty' or 'Zero'. Ra in the context of her name means scrap though :'[ thanks anime.

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-14 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
[What? She crinkles her nose a bit, tilting her head.] .... [English, go figure, is not actually a language she knows. So she's....trying to read it and...Hmm.

Best she's got is Romanji. Which, naturally, is just romanized letters.
] LLllrrr.... ...That's not how I'm suppsed to write it, [She says after a moment, digging in her pocket for her duel disk instead. In its base form, it's basically a Tablet so....

She just pulls up the main 'user screen', where her name is. In Japanese kanji.
] That's how I write it.

[Who named this child 'Empty Scrap'. Akaba at least, is straight forward and simply 'red horse'.

In any case, she's going to try reading that other name that Shima wrote.
]

Mnnh... ...'Renzou'... ...Do you normally write your name like that..?
worldlyafflictions: (ch005pg12p4)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
[He blinks at the unexpected fancy tech then pulls up his phone to tap out '廉造' in a text]--It's like this--[before showing it to her and leaning to look at her tablet.]

[Who named this child 'Empty Scrap'? Though Shima can't talk that much. He assumes his parents were going for the 'pure, honest' definition, but the kanji sure also means 'humble, cheap' and when paired with his brother's name...]


... Did ya run away from home or something?

worldlyafflictions: (ch039pg11p5)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
Ah!


Well that's probably for the best.

[Well, it'd be bad if Yukio felt that meant he didn't need to deal with Lucifer anymore but look, Shima has always done what he's supposed to here and Yukio seems like the kind of guy who'd go face down Lucifer eventually just to prove a point, so he's not gonna rush to push him any particular way. It just sounds like he thinks what Yukio's doing now is a great idea though.]
soft_focus: (extra 08)

This has the chance of veering into war orphan warnings, as a heads up-and abuse

[personal profile] soft_focus 2018-01-14 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
[[OOC - I'll steer things away if that's preferred though.]]

Oh! [Give her a minute to mentally think over the possible combos here-an easy feat despite typical language learning stages, because she has quite the card database in her head-and she soon smiles.] Oh!~ ....It's nice...

[Ah, anyway.] Run? ...Umn....

...I don't think I could have run... ....something bad would have happened, if I had.... ...'Mom' just took me from there, and brought me to where she and niisama lived. That's where I got my name.

[But although she answered an unspoken question on names, she didn't realize that was the question at all.] ...Why, though? [So why the question?]
exaomori: (🐍 45)

[personal profile] exaomori 2018-01-14 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Patience is not a virtue Shura naturally possessed. It's something that's taken practice, years to hone a skill that went against her impulsive nature. And it's taking all of her patience to hold back as he thinks, as he processes whatever's going through his mind. After everything that's happened, it's nearly impossible for her not to suspect whatever might come from his mouth. If he said anything. He had, after all, refused to speak to her not long before.

But back there, he seemed to possess and frightening sort of acceptance of his eyes. Like it was perfectly normal that his eye was that glowing blue. Now he was shaking and having to hold on to himself to keep together. Her fingers twitch at her side. She wants to reach out and touch him, do something, but sentimentality is neither a virtue of hers as well nor did she think it would do much to get through to him, so she just brings her hand to rest on her hip.

As he stammers out a response, her eyes narrow. Was this better? If she thought talking to him could change things, she had hope. But she had told him since they had met again--repressing his true feelings would make him weak to demons, and here he was, Satan in his left eye. They were long past the point of prevention
]

I'll summarize it for you then. Mephisto was was about to make a speech on national television, but he was shot before he could say much. You're the primary suspect.

[Honestly, she couldn't fault him for wanting to shoot Mephisto; it wasn't as if she hadn't threatened the damn demon herself. But he could have used some sense and pointed the gun when there weren't cameras around.]

It wasn't you. They're idiots and won't listen to me about it, but you were right off stage pointing a gun at him.

[So why did he do it right in that moment and what was he doing there to begin with? She doesn't understand, and she doubts he'll explain himself.]
reflash: (*crushes my emotions w/ my bare hands*)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
I'm surprised you would say that. [He has no reason to take the Illuminati up on their offer, no reason to seek out Lucifer.]
worldlyafflictions: (ch067pg23p4)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Is it that surprising?
reflash: (*sees spider*)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
Why do you think I didn't do it? [Yukio tends to shoot a lot. If Mephisto hadn't given him the answers he needed, he might have. Things probably happened quickly, too quickly for him to wait or to be subtle. But... what? What happened? What could have happened?

He doesn't know. He can't stop shaking. There's a cold, heavy weight somewhere inside him.
]
reflash: (assert your dominance)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
Don't you think Lucifer might be upset with your failure to drag me over to his side?
exaomori: (🐍 5)

[personal profile] exaomori 2018-01-14 07:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Had he been planning it? She has to wonder. For how long had he thought about drawing a weapon against Mephisto? Was it just a poor impulse, or was it premeditated?]

I know you didn't do it cause the point of entry was wrong. If you gad shot him, there woulda been a hole in the side of that guy's head.

[She motions with her hands as she speaks, first tapping her finger to her temple, then to the center of her forehead.]

The bullet went in his face. I don't know why you were there in the wing with a gun pointed at Mephisto, but whoever pulled the trigger got away.

[Even if Yukio was the best trick shot in Japan, the tests on his gun came up clean. Yukio didn't shoot Mephisto.]
worldlyafflictions: (ch066pg27p6)

[personal profile] worldlyafflictions 2018-01-14 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
Nah...

Well, it might be a bit of a hassle, but I'm under strict orders that ya have ta go over willingly. [And anyway, Shima watched Yukio attempt to shoot himself and ALSO successfully triple-tap Rin, so if he wants to take a longer, less violent route, Shima won't complain too much.]

So offer's always open if ya want more answers than the True Cross Order's planning ta give ya.
reflash: (*sees spider*)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
[The visual helps, somehow. There's something he has to look at, something outside of himself he has to keep track of.]

I need answers. He probably refused to give them to me.
reflash: (why are 15 year olds so angry)

[personal profile] reflash 2018-01-14 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
[Willingly. Maybe, one of these days, once he's gotten a plan together.]

Absolutely not.

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