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. ]

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..."

A. Wismuth Effect
[It's convenient for the Carnival that their current proximity to Wismuth means that everything is even more dazzling and shiny and attractive to the potential recruits that don't come from that world. Shima doesn't normally consider himself particularly interested in the features of a carnival, especially when there's no date involved, but he still finds himself wandering everywhere open to guests (for now), taking in all the sights and sounds, and especially the smells of food. The cookhouse is like a beacon, and the selection--themed to be attractive to their Wismuth hosts--is colorful and cute. Shima ends up getting himself a bag of adorable cheese-puff pastries, seating himself at an outdoor bench to eat them with alternatingly stunned or ecstatic expressions. These are probably the most delicious things he's ever eaten??]

Uwaaah, these are so goood! I wish I could share 'em with a cute girl~♥

[Answer his prayer? Or dash his dreams.]

B. Mirror Maze
[It's not that Shima is bad at self-examination--he's actually pretty proud of how well he feels he knows himself, in fact--but that doesn't mean that he likes to do it recreationally when he's otherwise in a good mood. So when his reflections start taking a life of their own as he makes his way through the maze he is understandably wary, and not just because it could be demons. At the first mocking grin and "you're really heartless compared to the others," and "gets lonely, doesn't it?" he smiles back his reflexively guileless smile and immediately turns around to leave. Nope. No thank you!]

Jeez, how do ya get out? Where's the option ta skip back to the start?

[But just because he's not a particular fan of being taunted himself doesn't mean that, whenever he does manage to get back out, he won't hang around the edges of the maze to listen curiously to what it has to say about anyone else trying to make their way through...]

C. Wildcard (or Employees Only)
[He's totally not supposed to be poking around here.]

Wildcards welcome

((ooc:

stealthmote or Motefloat#5787 if you'd like to chat.))

Edited 2018-01-06 08:27 (UTC)

( 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?

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!

[Yukio may be a genius when it comes to what's expected of an Exorcist, but he's not used to manning a first aid tent at a busy carnival. He's not bad at it, of course, but he'd rather be working on something other than putting bandages on skinned knees and reassuring parents of dehydrated or sunburnt ten year olds.

They're understaffed, which means that when Shima comes in to the tent for whatever small injury he managed to acquire, any of his dreams of sexy nurses will be dashed by the reality of a familiar Exorcist.

Yukio looks up from the clipboard he's writing on with a polite smile that instantly vanishes when he sees who exactly just walked in.]

Are you lost?

[Currently, Yukio's changes are minimal, just the faint, slightly iridescent discoloration of a fae mark on his face, covering the skin around his eyes with a blue pattern like spreading flames.]

[He's not injured exactly... more like he rode the rollercoaster after eating too many cream puffs and now is hoping that he can find some dramamine or at least cute nurses in outfits as sparkly as those in the Bigtop, that'd be nice. Too bad he's probably only found the 'drama' part, haha!

Raises his eyebrows in surprise upon coming across Yukio here, his glance flickering to Yukio's mark. That seems different, though the last time he saw him he was wearing a cloth over that eye, so who knows... Maybe that's normal when Satan lives in your eye now?]

--Okumura-sensei! I thought ya had a meeting...?

Edited 2018-01-06 22:07 (UTC)

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.

[A meeting? The last thing Yukio remembers before stumbling through the Carnival's open gates, he wasn't going to a meeting. The last thing Yukio remembers, he was seconds from making a decision that even now he thinks might have been the right one.]

Did anyone explain the situation you've gotten yourself into?

[Yukio may be here willingly, but who knows with Shima. He wouldn't put it past him to have gotten trapped in a contract like Rin did.]

[[OOC - As a note, Reira has basic empathy! So she can pick up on most emotions near her, unless you'd rather opt out of that somehow!]]

[This is, without a doubt, Not what Shima was talking about.

Unfortunately for him however, Reira is very much enamored by the idea of Good Food (there's so many new foods she hasn't tried yet after all!) which is exactly why a seven year old is answering him.

Beneath that glamor of hers, she seems to be a bit rock covered...but otherwise yep, just a tiny child. A tiny child who is very interested in those cheese-puffs-]

....Does that mean I can have some? [SHARING MEANS SHE GETS SWEET FOODS, YES?]

[Sensei, please have some confidence in him! He has had some training as a spy, you know! He has a little practice at gathering intel! He could totally know what he's gotten involved in already!]

Ah, is it a situation? It seemed like a good chance ta take a break...

[Not that he'll say so immediately...]

[This is definitely not what Shima meant. Thanks for the flashbacks to having to deal with little nieces and nephews and stuff.]

... Can't your parent or uh... guardian? get ya some?

[He's bad with children.]

[Why can't anyone in Yukio's life give him straight answers.]

How much of a break were you planning on taking?

[If only everyone could exchange straight answers equally or something.]

Eeeh, well it shouldn't be too long, right? Just long enough ta have some fun!

In that case, don't try anything you can't afford.

[The last thing he wants to do is spend the almost full year he has remaining here with this particular Shima.]

[Shima, already at the medicine cabinet, trying to see if it'll open so he can just take things.]

How much is the anti-nausea stuff, then?

[It's locked, bro.]

I'll give you some if you take it and leave the Carnival.

[Reira, for her part, is one side oblivious and another confused-simply blinking.] ....I don't have parents, [She says rather plainly. Well, not here anyway.]

....why would I need someone to guard me though?

[Shura isn't entirely confident that she's not experiencing some kind of hyper-realistic hallucination, wandering around this carnival when she should have been on her way to an important meeting. If this was a hallucination, though, then why would she be running into someone like Shima? Especially a Shima who was being his usual self and talking about cute girls like this?? She'll speak as she approaches the bench from the side, hand on her hip. Maybe she was playing into the delusion, maybe she was talking to the real Shima who was caught up in the same apparent mess she was. In the end, she'd rather make sure that he wasn't in more trouble than he could handle, just in case.]

Y'know, saying that kinda stuff out loud isn't going to attract a cute girl.

[Not the sane kind, at least. Obviously, she doesn't count herself as a cute girl, even if she still has that stupid fan service uniform on.]

[On the plus side, she nearly give Shima a fucking heart attack since as far as he knows he just waltzed off with Yukio to give him over to the Illuminati. Does she know already? Is he gonna die?]

K-kirigakure-sensei!

[He definitely gets an eyeful after his half-second of jumping out of his skin, and decides if he's gonna die this isn't the worst way to go.]

But here ya are anyway, right~?

Edited 2018-01-07 03:41 (UTC)

[Wow, this is a terrible conversation to have with some strange kid he just met!]

Uuuuh...

Be. cause... you're supposed ta have someone tall around ta get things off high shelves for ya? until ya get bigger.

[That's like a good and non-traumatizing reason, right?]

[It Sure Is. What's worse, probably, is that this serves to be even more confusing.]

..........Why wouldn't I just get a chair....

[ALSO.] And you were the one who said you wanted to share I thought..!

[No amount of cute pastries would be able to deter Shura if she knew what Shima had been up to, though really, she knew it was Yukio's fault for falling for it to begin with.

But if this isn't just suspicious! What's with that reaction, Shima? That's enough to get Shura to plunk right down beside him, plastering on a smile that's too bright to be real.]

I don't think I'm your kinda girl, Shima! But I'll take one anyway~

[Should she eat the food from here? That's dangerous. But she's hungry... and she wants to know why Shima seemed so panicked for a moment.]

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⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME: WISMUTH

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

just be glad it isn't the angry tree

mirrors!

Renzou Shima | Blue Exorcist | New recruit

are you saying this is a rather mad forest

cole ❤

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C - the "there are no sexy nurses in the med tent now go away" option

spoilers...!

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spoilers cont... and suicide mention

A - Second image is...closer to her look, the first one is the only one I had w. changes tho oops

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give her all your bread shima

spoilers

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