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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That face, that stupid damn smirk. This was the way he had looked at her earlier while in confinement, when all she knew was that Yukio was in deep shit and wouldn't give her anything to help him. It hurts, makes her heart sink into the pit of her stomach, and she doesn't know how to deal with this.]

You do, actually.

[Slowly, she'll shift, moving to sit up, first straddling his stomach, then almost grudgingly moving off of him and kneeling beside him. Could he run? Maybe. She doesn't know if she could let him go without trying to pursue him.]

[She offers him a choice, and he's angry at it. It would be easier if she didn't, if she put her fang to his neck and told him he had to explain. He doesn't sit up, raises a hand and knocks his glasses out of the way as he rubs at his eyes. Calm, but that dark amusement still twists his mouth.]

The tests all say I didn't inherit the flames, but there's something in my eyes that... wakes up whenever my life is in danger. [He laughs, uncontrolled and overwhelmed for a long moment, like this is all some stupid joke.] I can't die.

[He's so damn difficult. Was this how Shiro felt with her? But at least he's talking to her, even if she doesn't feel any sort of relief. There's something too foreboding about all of this, as if it's still too late and they were already standing on the precipice of something terrible.

No. It's not. It's not too late, and he was talking now. No matter what, she wasn't giving up on him. There are so many questions burning in her mind, but Shura remembers her patience, asking one at a time as he'll allow.]

Did it start back in Kyoto?

[Todo, who devoured Karura. Was his fight with him the catalyst for it?]

[An interrogation, and if he lets himself think of it as that he'll be able to answer the questions. One at a time, impersonal.

He nods.]

[She could kick herself, but she had seen everything that she could have seen, and she had done everything she could have done. She was neither psychic nor omnipotent, so how could she guess that the tests failed to catch the emergence of Satan's power in him? Everything else had either made sense in context or she had tried to talk to him about.]

That training Rin mentioned--was it about this? Seeing what might actually kill you?

[She doesn't like the way he's responding. If he didn't want to answer, then he shouldn't. Even when Rin was calling her a hag, he wasn't nearly as worrisome as Yukio was on a good day.]

I [He laughs again, because his life is a joke.]

I jumped off of a building. I should have died, but I didn't get a scratch.

I don't know what this power is, but Lucifer said he does.

[Shura listens with a sober expression. Did Rin know? She told him about his brother's eye, but how much had he known about Yukio's training before that? There was no way he would have just sat back and let Yukio risk himself like that. She wouldn't, either. Not if he's laughing like that.

She shifts, scooting closer to him. Likely Yukio had spent plenty of time looking at his eye, but now she wanted to take a look. That is, if he would let her.]

Can I?

[Her hand is raised, motioning towards his glasses. But she won't force him.]

You won't see anything. [Yukio says, sliding his glasses off and not looking at Shura.

And he's right. Besides the blue of his newly acquired fae mark covering his skin like a birthmark, there's nothing inhuman about him. It would be easier if there was, if he'd been marked since birth with something that proclaimed his demonic heritage. But he was always so weak. ]

[There are no signs, of course. Even the smallest indication would have been caught at one of his exams. But she wants to look anyway, leaning in and invading Yukio's personal space. But her focus is more on what damage his eye might have taken since Satan decided to make his appearance. That Hojo girl lost her sight in her eye after taking in the the eye of the Impure King, so shouldn't there be some kind of strain on Yukio's eyes?

But there's nothing that she can see like this. Shura pulls away, sitting back with an agitated huff.]

You'd think your eye would be damaged just a little by using that power. I don't get it.

I don't know. [This is why he needs answers. What is he?] I need to know.

[His hand covers his eye again, and he doesn't sit up. He doesn't want to be here.]

[Of course he needed to know. Satan was just hanging out in his eye, of course he needed to know about what was in his body. This isn't what Shura will fight him on.]

And you think takin' Lucifer up on his offer is the best way to go about it gettin' what you need.

[She could take comfort in the fact that it wasn't his first option, but seriously, he was so far over the edge that he was really considering just charging on over to the Illuminati with the intention of leaving when he got what he wanted? This boy...]

[The mood's shifted, quiet tension like the moment right before something snaps instead of the angry outburst of earlier. Heavy exhaustion.]

It sounds like I won't have enough time to come up with a better option. [Won't? Didn't? There's a path in front of him and now that he knows it he has to walk it as if he's already been there. This is what happened, even if he hasn't lived it yet. That's the choice he will make, already made.]

[He would have had more time to think up other options if had had talked to someone before this all boiled over. But Shura doesn't say that. If there was something on the floor, she would kick at it. But Yukio's the closest thing, and she's already taken out some of her frustration on him.]

After the conference and the civil authorities questioned you, we took you back to headquarters. I was tryin' to get you to talk to me, but you wouldn't say anything. I had to leave because there was no one else to attend the meeting on emergency measures--that's probably the opening they're waiting for. We only have minimal security there because of everything else that's going on.

[She hadn't known, hadn't considered the thought that the Illuminati knew about Yukio's eyes. Of course they did. And they left him there with only a few guards. They could probably stop Yukio from escaping in his current condition, but those guards weren't equipped to handle an Illuminati assault. Shit. And Yukio was willing to just waltz right on with them.]

I may be wrong, but this could be the opportunity they've been waiting for.

[Shima. Where had he been in all of this? With Rin and the others? Rin would have told him about Satan's flames, so even if he hadn't known before, he would now.]

[Details. Information. It should be important, he should care, but it doesn't... it doesn't matter. Whatever happens will happen, and has happened, and there's nothing he can do about it.]

It could be. Shima... he's been watching me closely for a while. [A constant, unrelenting pressure.]

That spy...

[Quietly, furiously. No wonder that kid looked like he was about to piss himself when she saw him earlier. But even if Shima was pressing Yukio, Yukio should have known better than to fall for it.

Mephisto, he would have known about it. Was that why Shima was sent to Aomori? She had no reason to suspect it before, but it makes her stomach turn thinking about it now.]

He snatched Hachiro, you know.

[And now Yukio--strike two.]

I'm not surprised. [He says, after a moment of trying to figure out what to say. A double agent, or just a free agent, just doing whatever he wants or whatever he thinks is fun or ----

Yukio takes a deep breath, because he's clenching his jaw so hard that it's starting to hurt.]

I saw him here... recently. [The other day? Earlier today? Time is a sort of smudged blur of now and recent past and he can't keep the hours distinct.]

His job is to get me to go over to their side, and I think he'll be successful.

[Her palms press flat on the floor of the tent when he says that, admits that dirty little truth. She can feel the trembling in her arms, and she can't find the words in herself to reply. Idiot. This stupid four-eyes was playing right into the hands of a demon, though it was hard to tell if this was Mephisto or Lucifer's gain.]

Yukio--

[His name comes out strained, and she hates that she can't control it.]

That isn't your only choice--we have time to think of something else.

[Things could be changed. She believed that. After all, Yukio had tricked Hachiro into releasing her from Tatsuko's contract and given her a future she had never thought could exist. This would be hard, but defecting to the Illuminati wasn't set in stone.]

How much time? [Not enough. Not enough at all.] The power in my eyes is going to awaken soon, and I don't know what will happen then.

[He has no idea. The flames are there, but what that means is a mystery.]

I... [Since the Carnival's arrival here, Yukio's felt like he's on the edge of a rooftop, about to jump. He doesn't know if he'll panic before he hits the ground.]

I'm tired, Shura-san.

[Is thinking maybe now's a good time to get some distance from where he'd been silently eavesdropping on this conversation. But wow, good job finally mentioning a feeling, Teach!]

[ She doesn't have an answer for that. There's no telling what could happen to him in an hour with his condition, let alone the next alone the next few days or weeks. But they had a chance, and Shura won't let it go. ]

You've been keeping that secret for a while now.

[ That was a heavy burden for a well adjusted person, and Yukio was still just a kid with too much on his shoulders to begin with. She's not so hopeful that she thinks he's made a breakthrough, but at least he's admitting that much. ]

[He sits up, adjusting his glasses on his face, and they say a burden shared is halved but he doesn't feel any lighter. He's too vulnerable, he showed off too much of himself and opened up too much of his heart. His movements are slow and exhausted, and his hands still tremble.

He takes a breath and tries to move on.]

My contract is for an immunity to demonic possession. [At the very least, Satan won't be able to take his body.]

[If it was as easy as just sharing a secret, then the world would be a better place and untangling the knot that was Yukio's heart would be a quicker process. But nothing was ever that simple. The fact that he had shared as much as he had almost surprised Shura considering how he had been just a few hours before.

He's closing himself off again, and though she wants to press further, she'll let him change the subject. This wasn't an interrogation, and he's telling her why he made a contract with the Ringmaster, which is still a step in the right direction.]

You think she can actually do it?

[Prevent something like Satan from taking what he wanted. Shura isn't sure she can believe that.]

I think so. [His hands curl into fists, and he still doesn't look over at Shura. Can the Ringmaster? No. She can, she has to.]

I haven't been here long but her powers seem to be stronger than any demon could ever imagine.

[She frowns. Maybe she's still hesitant to put faith in any kind of contract with the supernatural, but there was always some kind of catch with a pact that big. Unless the Ringmaster was unaware of just how much it meant to Yukio, in which case he may have scored a bargain.]

What have you seen of her?

[Obviously, she was powerful. Shura trusts Yukio's judgment on this particular subject, but she wanted as much information as she could get.

Her jaw is beginning to throb. Grudgingly, Shura moves to get up on her feet. This was a med tent, so there had to be some kind of cold compress somewhere in here. She should have looked for it earlier, but she was distracted.]

She moved the entire Carnival from one world to another without any apparent effort. She can distort spacetime to keep people here. I've heard rumors that she can raise the dead. [Nothing confirmed, just hints and rumors casually passed around.]

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cw: suicide mention???

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GET OUT SHIMA

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