livinglot | ⇨ 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

cole ❤

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