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

His words were met with silence as she stared at the missed target and then to the dart buried in the back board. What happened!? Her aim was always true! For a moment, it looking like Rip might just get angry as a vicious fang filled grin graced her features as she gripped the next dart a little too hard and broke it.

Then a second later, the grin was gone and she was pouting.

"I refuse to fail. I'll zimply keep trying."

"An admirable outlook." It was really to a point, but he suspected that the lady before him took failure personality and thus her attempts at success would no doubt become an obsession to win. There were lessons to be had in failure he'd learned, though it would seem that his current company hadn't gotten that lesson entirely yet.

"Yet, you've already lost." He gestured idly at the broken dart. "I have a feeling the owner of this booth won't like that you've broken one of their darts."

Edited 2018-01-07 07:36 (UTC)

No, she hadn't yet. Rip wasn't an idiot, she just was...childish with some of her outlooks. It's what made her endearing to her unit and yet eager to do any task given to her.

She glanced to the dart in her hand and shook her head and set it down. "Zo vat? They can get another. It's not like people hafn't broken things at a carnival before." Childish much?

"Besides! I can win at any other game that requires sharp shooting easily!"

There is a small closed mouth smile now gracing his lips, not really a smirk, but in tandem with the amusement in his eyes; it suggested he might know something she didn't. He kept his knowledge to himself, for the time being anyway, the lady would learn that this circus was unlike others in due time. Like a child playing with fire, she would learn it burned if not treated with the respect it deserved.

"No doubt. Though, might I ask what you gave them at the front gate for admittance and the tickets to play here? I noticed that this circus seems to have a different method of payment than the usual."

Rip didn't have the foggiest idea of what might be amusing him, nor was she aware that she might be putting herself in debt to the very carnival she was visiting..Right now, her entire focus was having fun and enjoying herself without a single thought to consequences.

She really was a child playing with fire.. one she couldn't see yet.

"Hm? Oh! I usually vear a silver necklace...I zuppose it vas more zhan enough for payment to get in. Vhy do you ask?"

"Curiosity. They accepted cash from me readily enough, but I did see others pay them with other trinkets. Usually, places like these aren't so open to taking anything of value one is willing to part with."

No doubt there were others who sought entry in other manners, unaware that they would pay in one way or the other for the entertainment to be found here. He had been more curious if the lady before him had been wise enough to actually pay for her admittance despite her apparent disregard for the property of the circus. Nice to see that while she had an almost childish ignorance of her situation here, she was at least not stupid nor a thief to steal her way inside and thus try to rob the circus of its fare.

"Why not try a different sort of game? One with an actual challenge to it? Since as you say, you have an advantage when it comes to sharpshooting."

"Ah...Vell, I didn't haf any cash on me. It vas zhe only ozher zhing I had. If they didn't, zhen it vouldn't have been much of an issue to sneak in."

She shrugged slightly. Who needed cash when you lived in the middle of a rain forest... on a zeppelin? Besides, Rip hardly followed the rules so when she did, at least they were the right one and even so, robbery was hardly something she indulged in. She had some sense of military honor at least!

"Zhat's a good idea! Now lets see, vhich ones are left zhat I haven't tried..."

She twirled around with a childish grin as she looked over the other booths before picking one. It was the one with the water riffles where the goal was to inflate the balloon as fast as possible. As with the darts, she was confidant her aim would be true enough to let her win more prizes!

With that in mind, Rip grinned and scooped up her prizes to head over to the new game. Whether her newest 'companion' followed or not was completely up to him.

Gold noted the game she was headed to and gave a soft snort of amusement. Apparently, she had misunderstood what he'd meant by 'actual challenge'. He followed her and gestured toward the Skee Ball booth to the side of the current water gun one she was in front of.

"Why not try something that doesn't involve guns? Show me how well your aim is with a ball." He wondered how she'd do with a game where she wasn't actually throwing or shooting something but rolling it.

"Unless you don't think you'd be capable of winning at it. Then feel free to stick with the games that cater to your strengths."

She paused when he drew her attention to a different game than the one she was considering. A skee ball game? She frowned a little bit as she studied it.

The game didn't look that hard. All she had to do was roll the balls into the right target area's right? Easy!

"I can vin it, just vatch."

That pride and confidence was back again as she approached and set down her prizes.

After getting the balls, she started....and immediately realized that this game was slightly harder than it looked. It took the right amount of force to hit the target and well.. it took half the balls to figure out just what that force was.

Which meant, she wasn't exactly getting a winning score on her first try.

Gold noticed the fact that he'd judged the amount of challenge that might be present for her with this game rather well. Though it was apparent that with practice, she could get just as good at this, it would just take actual practice. Which meant she would fail before she won. It remained to be seen, however, how she would take that failure and if she would learn from it.

"I have no doubt you can win, with practice. You should give it another go."

How would she take the failure? Not well. She never did. If anything it made her angry to get a less than stellar score even if it was on her first try and demanded to have another round.

Would she learn? Well, she she was pretty focused on perfecting her technique now. That's just how the huntress was... she never gave up unless something made her give up.

"You're damned right I vill and I'll keep playing until zhis game iz eizher in ruins or I get zhe highest score possible."

⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

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