livinglot | ⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

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test drive meme

⇨ 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!

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Mirror, Mirror

He was having a stirring conversation with his reflection, if stirring was the right word for listening to insults and returning them with soft snorts of amusement and conversational replies. He really didn't know what kind of technology carnivals used these days, but it was amusing enough, managing to have a reflection of Victor spout such nonsense and frown when Victor himself didn't appear affected.

"I talked with the reflection behind you. Do you know what about?"

Victor held up his hands, showing his reflection his palms and shrugging his shoulders. "Haven't any idea."

The reflection sneered, an expression Victor personally found ill-fitting. "You're going bald," his reflection announced.

Victor blinked, then started chuckling. He heard footsteps rounding the corner, flicking his eyes toward any newcomer to flash them an amused, public-ready smile. "Did you hear?" he said, amusement in his eyes. "I'm going bald."

All the leaves are brown...

( The carnival has been an interesting, unexpected part of his day, but all things told he had a dog to get home to, a flat to make sure was ready, and dinner to make before he stretched, showered, sent another message to Yuri, walked Makkachin for the night, and went to bed. He wanders back to the proper front, leaving as he came, wondering again when this park had planted so many more trees than he remembers seeing before in the past.

He walks on, the pathway that curves before him serpentining between the trees. He knows this is taking too long, that it'd been a simple matter of walking the short distance through the trees to the bright lights and colours (too bright, too vidid, over-real) for the curiosity of a moment; for something to tell Yuri later on that evening. Now he has a strange, growing notion that he's lost in a woods that couldn't possibly exist in St. Petersburg, wearing his coat and his practice sweats underneath, skate-bag still hanging off a shoulder that's starting to ache.

He shifts the bag to the opposite shoulder, coming to a stop when the path he'd been following ends abruptly in front of a tree. A tree, lit up with dozens of small, flowering flames, like a bizzare interpretation of traditions for the new year and trees all lit up with candles. Victor stands there, blinking at this tree, feeling the chill of something that has nothing to do with temperature crawling down his spine. He taps a gloved finger against his lips, narrowing his eyes. )

Hm. ( His finger stills; he sighs, closing his eyes. ) This won't do.

wildcard

( Ask me to write up a custom starter, or hit me with one of your own! )

[ It isn't really Childermass's job to keep track of who enters, who leaves, and, inevitably, who appears to be stuck, but when he has no other reason to be prowling beyond the boundaries of the carnival itself, what else is there to do? So where Yuri was alone with the tree only a moment ago, he'll suddenly find company. No sound is made, no dirt or leaves shifting under boots to announce his approach.

He's just there. It's a thing. In any case, he's leaning against a different tree entirely — a more normal one — and watching Yuri with a bored look, arms folded, generally maintaining a lazy kind of posture where he leans, this man in black and white somewhat old-fashioned clothing and... feathers? Or perhaps they're only very fluffy sideburns, but who can really tell in this light? ]

Having a little trouble? [ He pauses for a second or two, head tilting slightly to one side, curiously. ] Surely not with the tree.

[ It's an odd tree, sure, but one of the least volatile ones, being on fire aside. ]

( The sudden company would be more surprising than it is were his attention not focused on the oddity of the tree and its conflagration of flowers, or his own state of inexcusably turned around. As a rule, he's a man who manages to navigate foreign countries and new cities with little ill happenings. Then again, this is a forest, not a city, and he shouldn't have been anywhere foreign in the first place. He was supposed to be in St. Petersburg, Russia, which had been his home for the vast majority of his life.

He turns his head toward Childermass, shifting the bulk of his attention to him as his brow furrows. A thoughtful frown followed by a sigh and wry smile: he's aware of an absurdity, if ignorant of the larger absurdity. Or at least ignorant of the depth of the truly absurd, from his own point of view. )

The tree's surprising, in an almost... delightful way? ( Were pyrotechnic trees delightful? ) It's the fact I seem to have gotten myself turned around leaving the park.

( This may entirely coincide with everything about the earlier carnival and the present forest resembling nothing like the park he actually knew, but that's neither here nor there. He's tired. Fanciful thoughts and imaginations running wild when tired is nothing new. )

You wouldn't happen to know the way to the proper path back to the streets?

That depends. Which streets do you mean?

[ Honest question. The carnival gets all sorts from, well, just about anywhere at all. Not that it should matter much anymore. If he's turned around and unable to find a path back through the forest, out of the carnival's realm, then Childermass suspects he's in for an unfortunate surprise very soon.

But that isn't something he's up to revealing just yet, watching Victor with mild curiosity instead. ]

The ones of Wismuth or have you ended up here from some other city? It does happen, on occasion, I've noticed.

( Wismuth? The name is unfamiliar, being used as a city if he's hearing correctly. His brow furrows as he shakes his head, answering the last question first. )

St. Peterburg, in Russia. I wasn't in the city of Wismuth.

( He's content to ignore the pyrotechnic tree indefinitely, hands dropping to his sides and slipping into the pockets of his trenchcoat. He resists adjusting his scarf or asking the other man to repeat himself. )

The implication seems to be I've managed to find myself someplace I shouldn't be? Which is apparently not unheard of.

( He's officially Too Tired. Maybe he passed out at the rink in the locker room and this is his reward. Or he got home and passed out on the couch. )

[ It could all just be a dream, Victor. ]

From Russia, hm? Then you really are a long way from home... [ About as far away as he is from England, himself. Childermass pushes away from the tree he'd been leaning against and steps closer, further into the light the tree is casting on the woods around them.

The look he gives Victor is grim as he gets closer, though seeing how unexpressive the man is all together, that doesn't exactly mean anything good or bad. ] You've found yourself in a faerie carnival, I'm afraid. They aren't as easy to walk back out of as they are to walk into. Tell me, did you pay for your entry? Or perhaps pick up anything that wasn't yours?

( If anything, having someone make half the statements this man has made while looking serious, for a given understanding of serious, inclines Victor to be as serious. Even if he's talking about faerie carnivals. One of Yuri's nicknames flashes through the back of his mind: The Russian Fairy. He holds back a smile, figuring if this is a dream, or a jest, it might as well be Yuri Plisetsky's temperament being likened to the fae of folktales he grew up with.

Nonsensical thoughts. His eyes do a gentle sweet of the area, but there's no glint of cameras, no one else he sees in a casual glance. His gaze settles on his conversational partner. )

I paid in rubles. ( For an entry fee. ) Ah, for picking things up, not so much. How about being handed things? ( Somewhat forcibly being handed things in spite of attempts to refuse them, considering he only found carnival games interesting when he was with either one of the Yuri's. )

[ No cameras, no spotlights, nothing inherently false about the setting, even with the burning tree and the rest of the oddities that flock around the carnival itself.

Childermass has to pause and consider, looking towards the dark canopy of the forest above briefly. Being handed things? Well— ]

Depends on what it was, [ he concludes, gazing coming back down to Victor once more. ] Did you give it back or keep it?

( Victor's turn to consider. He frowns, flexing his fingers in remembrance. )

I was handing it back, but it ended up falling down. There was a bunch of loud talking about debts for damages, or something like that, but I couldn't make much sense of it since nothing had actually been damaged.

( Except he'd taken what he'd been given and failed to "play" properly, which was a debt of a sort, when looked at through a certain warped lens. Victor has a sinking feeling all that shouted nonsense in the end actually means something, which is half of why he studies Childermass in turn, his own features neutral. )

I feel like I should be wondering who's behind the running of that carnival.

( A question not always worth asking, where he's from. )

I see...

[ That might do it. It's a stretch, in Childermass's own opinion, but he isn't actually allowed to interfere with the hows and whys of involuntary recruitment. As for Victor studying him in return, well, he really does look more human than some of the other 'actors' had within the carnival itself.

The only apparent strangeness is black feathers worn like someone might have sideburns. There's more of them than just there, but he dresses in a very old-fashioned way — undershirt, vest, housecoat, a cravat, and all — and it covers up a lot of it. That said, he looks like he might belong to a "people from the past" exhibit rather than out here, chatting with Victor in a forest. ]

It might be a good idea to do more than just wonder. I can take you to meet her. She may have a little more insight into your current dilemma.

( Ah, but could it be part of costuming still? He knows about all kinds of strange costumes worn for performance reasons, though feathers as an accent like that is a bit odd. It wasn't his place to say. It seemed perfectly suited for the strangeness of the moment, and so the contemporary man wearing his coat and workout sweats underneath adjusted his hold on his back and held off on sighing.

He was tired, which was irrelevant. So he smiled, perfect public relations material, and inclined his head to Childermass. )

Thank you, I'd appreciate that, Mr...? ( Trailing off, he allowed his smile to temper back into a pleasant expression. Not happy, perhaps, but he didn't feel like investing in that pretense when civility was easier and more genuine. He held out a hand for shaking. ) I'm Victor Nikiforov.

Edited 2018-01-15 03:29 (UTC)

Cole's lost as well. And, based on the fact that he looks like he's a few seconds away from a panic attack, he's not doing so well. A pair of fleshy pink animal ears, pushed down to the side of his head by his hat twitch every few seconds.

When Victor speaks to him, he pauses. A few seconds pass before oh, wait, he's speaking to him? Right, that makes sense, people could see him now, he needed to remember that. There's another few seconds before he remembers he needs to address what Victor said and okay, he mentioned he was going bald.

"I'm sorry?" Cole tentatively responds, obviously confused. What do you say to that? "I don't think I can do anything about that..."

He chuckles, shaking his head and turning away from the confusion of his illusive self. Cole's confusion being obvious, Victor aims to abate it someone: his sense of humour can be a little off-note even for people who know him well. "No, no, I wouldn't expect you could, even if I was worried about something like that. It's okay."

He smiles, waving with his fingers as he regards Cole in their narrow section of mirror-lined pathway. "Have you been through this maze before, or is it your first time? It's my first—I'll admit it's more twisting than I expected." Not to mention distracting. The one and only time he vaguely remembers being in a mirror maze before carries a memory of wavy mirrors, not of self-mocking reflections, but he hasn't exactly been to a carnival for years.

He's real. Not like these mirrors, these voices who've been whispering behind Cole the whole time he's here (they don't trust you, they don't like you, weird, odd, demon.) Victor feels solid and feels real. So as Victor waves at him, Cole takes a few steps forward, trying to get close to Victor and trying to get closer to what's real.

"It's my first as well," Cole admits, "so I thought I should know."

He works at the carnival so logically, he should explore the carnival and see what's what, right? Well, he's explored this part and guess what, he hates it!

"Then we can get ourselves unlost together." He makes it a statement and invitation, winking at Cole before he gives a tip of his head behind him. "Before the mirrors were so distracting, I was about to turn the next corner. Shall we?"

He waits, poised to turn and take the lead through the next curving section of the maze. He has no idea if it means they're closer to the exit, or how far they are from the start. Pushing forward seems to be the thing to do either way.

Works for Cole! He follows Victor like a shadow, watching the man and taking whatever turns or twists Victor takes in an attempt to get out of the maze.

"Are you visiting? Or are you new?"

Or, is he visiting and will become new? Cole knew of a few people who showed up at the carnival only to find themselves signing on later. That latter is a possibility here.

He considers the oddity of the question; did workers run through the attractions during operational hours? He has no idea, his lifetime of working experience as a competitor leaving him with an idea of the working world around his sport and within the upper echelons of business, but very little about these kinds of scenarios. It'd make sense to run through for complaints or clean up or whatever other reasons come up in day to day existence. Wear and year is universal, he thinks.

"Visiting," he says, walking them through a switchback where one of his reflections spends time determinedly picking it's nose. Victor blinks, glances back toward Cole and his own reflections, unaware that in short order he should be saying new. "Have you been working for the carnival for long?"

He assumes that the meaning behind along if Victor's new, at least.

As Cole walks past the mirror, it shifts to his reflection who looks downright terrified compared to Cole's awkward yet uncomfortable expression on his real face. Victor's asking a question though, so Cole perks up in order to answer.

"About a month? It's odd. Routine for some, things soaring and settling, but I still don't know what to do at times. It's drowning in differences."

Of course, Cole doesn't really know how to do things like 'hold down a job' or 'talk to people for an extended period of time' in the first place, anything he does will be a bit awkward.

For a moment, he wonders at what Cole says, but the meandering nature of it almost feels familiar. He seems to think over what he's heard, nodding his head when he comes to a stop and regards what may be a t-intersection, or might just be a clever arrangement of mirrors. Victor studies the ground in his attempt to discern which of the two might be more correct.

"Differences gain familiarity in time. All new endeavours tend to mean facing challenges, from my experiences." The seams along the floor lead him to believe this is a true turn left; he reaches out with a hand and ends up lifting it into open air. With a small smile, one he allows to grow as he glances back toward Cole, he continues on. "Not knowing what to do now means having all that much more opportunity to learn, doesn't it?"

"And for mistakes," Cole answers. That's the part that concerns him the most. He can't make people here forget as easily as he did back home (well he can, but he shouldn't.) Working together, with each other, they needed to remember him but did they need to remember all of him?

"I wouldn't mind more familiar though," he admits. "Not knowing what to do isn't the same as not knowing. It was more of that at the start."

What are carnivals, we just don't know.

Carnivals are magical places of confusion, illusion, and often also some degree of genuine skill.

Not that Victor's all that aware of it; he reaches a hand out to find they've come to another intersection, tapping a finger on the mirror in front of him before turning to the right. "Living includes making mistakes. It's learning from them, and what you learn, that usually matters most. I'm not sure I follow you about the not knowing. Like..." He glances back, giving Cole a considering look. "A difference in culture?"

One of the things he'd learned about international travel when he was young was how much he didn't know that he didn't know, contrasted against what he thought he knew from his own home city. He can imagine something like the carnival having its own culture shock on some smaller level.

"A difference in people," Cole explains. "Most people are human here except when they aren't."

He's downright confused when he mentions that most people are human. Coming from a fantasy setting that includes humans, elves, dwarves, and giant bull men who sound like Freddie Prinze Jr., Cole's not used to the majority of people being the same race to begin with. Likewise, there's something unfamiliar about people at the carnival, some sort of changes that seem to make everybody less human at the same time.

It's confusing.

"There's also lightbulbs," he helpfully adds. "I know what they do, but now how they do it. And I can't ask them."

Were the people Cole worked with that prone to acting strangely? It's how he interprets the statement of human until they're not. Sure, some people could be monstrous, or teasingly called faeries or the like, but he doesn't come close to imagining what Cole actually meant.

Lightbulbs, on the other hand, are a phenomena Victor understands. Finds a little amusing, really, but electricity is a luxury, and lightbulbs a wonderful invention, and he vaguely remembers enough long days in winter lived by candlelight to appreciate the sentiment. "No, they're not very talkative. You might have more luck speaking with an electrician to understand how they work, though I think it has to do with conducting electric charges through filaments in older bulbs. I'm not sure about LEDs." Or any other lightbulbs for that matter. Even his concept of filaments felt outdated, but who knew? He should look it up on his phone, reaching into his coat to pull out his constant companion. No signal in here. He frowns, putting his phone away. He'll check again once they've made their way back outside.

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⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

Victor Nikiforov | Yuri!!! On Ice | New Recruit

just be glad it isn't the angry tree

are you saying this is a rather mad forest

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mirrors!

cole ❤

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