livinglot | ⇨ Test Drive Meme: SPACE OLYMPICS

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test drive meme

⇨ Test Drive Meme: SPACE OLYMPICS

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, Foreman, and Treasurer are currently open. Otherwise, we're pretty much down for anything, roles wise.

CURRENT STOP↴

⇨ THE SPACE OLYMPICS ⇦
Welcome to the Space Olympics! The year is 3022. This year's host is Zargon, which is only hosting because the four previous hosts all dropped out. Still, Zargon's put lot of time and money into developing a complex perfect for the Space Olympics. Floating above the planet's atmosphere is a large spaceship turned athletic arena, obviously named Olympic Spaceship. Stadiums are on every corner, there's swimming pools every other block, and a large racetrack surrounds the city. Of course, not much about this matters to newcomers visiting the carnival, besides the wide array of weird aliens visiting alongside them.

► DIVERSITY: If you've arrived at the carnival without being aware that it was a separate world from your own, the presence of dozens upon dozens of aliens visiting its grounds may clue you in. All the big names from classic science fiction are here, apparently for some kind of sporting event? Wookies, Vulcas, you name it. Apparently they are from some kind of alternate reality where all of these species both exist in the same universe and are inclined to have sports competitions with each other. The multiverse is wild, ain't it?

► WIN OR RIOT: Along with sports comes bravado, and with a lot of alien races intermingling for the sake of competition, blood can run a bit hot. Don't be surprised if some fight break out before different species while visiting the carnival round, and also don't be surprised if you get mixed up in it. The carnival has security but, y'know. It's a busy day.

Recruits from this month will be signing on with the carnival between Day 30 and Day 37 on the season calendar. They can appear in the carnival at any point during those days, or the week following if time distortions happen.

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

[Well. Reira goes through the woods regularly, what with the Menagerie being through the woods. She goes back and forth on her bike in overalls and a work shirt, and she's very good at doing what she's meant to do. Of course, she doesn't always use the bike, and sometimes it's best to just go and do other things (like see space), which is why she's coming back from such matters on foot when she sees Six up ahead of her.

And Reira is quiet-extremely quiet, though it's not exactly her intention. She just comes a bit closer, and a bit closer, and-]

...Are you a 'small' alien? [a child's voice asks-but this child is Far Larger than Six. ~~She's also wearing shoes but, y'know. Art Restrictions.~~]

Much as she has managed to survive for so long in dangerous places, Six is still human... Well. Mostly human. Probably human. She'd been distracted once, by something lovely and good, and she's distracted now by the strange beautiful thing burning before her. Even without Reira's sort of quiet, someone quiet enough would have surprised her.]

[Surprised her enough that the sound of a voice has her jolting, and she jerks back into the flickering shadows immediately, almost on instinct. One wouldn't think that such a bright yellow raincoat could disappear into the dark so easily...]

[...Although maybe "disappear" is a little more literal, as there's a sudden and tiny grunt from up in the branches of a tree, and Six's tiny frame has to scramble to keep her balance. The Lady had made this a lot more graceful looking... With her fingers digging into the wood, Six peers warily over the branch down to the other. Just like all the others, she's strange. She has the proportions of a girl, like her, but the size is all wrong, and her skin...]

[Six says nothing.]

[Most wouldn't think it, it's true. But the fact is, Reira's more than used to having to hide really quick herself.

It's just she's avoiding more 'realistic' fears than giants, in her case. Reira is a bit confused for a moment. She swore she saw someone there, very small, very Yellow, but...hmm. Perhaps it's like the rabbitdeer on that island before. She wanders just a little bit, straying near the branch.

...It does feel like. Someone is near but...where???] Umnnnmm...

[Such a pickle. She'll just sit here then.] ...maybe a 'shy alien'...

[...Definitely... more thoughtful, like a child is, Six decides as she watches the bigger girl stray closer and settle down. She talks like the children around the campfire did, quiet and thoughtful. (Up until they had been frantic or angry.)]

[After a few moments of watching, Six's curiosity gets the better of her. Surely she's high up enough to be safe, even if the other person becomes aware of her. So she grasps at a nearby leaf, tugging and twisting with her whole body before it snaps. She tumbles back on the branch a little, but nowhere near enough to go falling, thankfully. Leaf in hand, she lets it go fluttering down to towards the ground... and towards the strange large girl sitting there.]

[Aha- with a wide-eyed blink, her head moves toward the source of the sound, but then as well the source of quiet thinking moods. There they are then! ...She thinks. She still doesn't see anything after all, and she wonders if it would be mean to assume someone is there out loud.

She knows, at least, that when people were about to find her, it just made her very scared.

She'd rather not make someone scared, so she just watches the leaf fall before gently catching it in her hands. It's a very large leaf, she thinks.] Mnh. ...This one's blue... [she notes, the oddities of the carnival's trees never seeming to settle when she thinks about it.

The girl blinks upward again, but doesn't say anything still. Instead, she closes her eyes and focuses on something else. Eventually, gold dust is going to mist off to the side for a (much smaller) little friend to join her.

She'll pet the daemon in silence a bit. Maybe if Six stays up there, she'll send them though. Not yet.]

Edited 2018-03-22 18:27 (UTC)

[...Well. She has to know she's there, then, right? And she's not getting alarmed, or worked up like the Chefs would get. Six debates for a moment longer if it's okay to get closer. She's still debating on it when the shimmer of golden dust catches her attention.]

[Oh. Oh! It's- she's almost not sure. All she can recall seeing are fish, rats, and seagulls. Pigeons, once, before she came to the Maw. New creatures are strange, fantastical. That decides things for her. Not trusting her own unwieldy abilities, she goes back to the trunk of the tree to carefully begin climbing down. So small, the sounds of her effort are barely heard until she's back down on solid ground.]

[She doesn't say anything, still. Maybe she's forgotten, or maybe she never could in the first place. Six isn't sure. Still, she keeps from being as quiet as usual, her body brushing through the grass as she peers around the tree with her yellow hood as bright as ever.]

Mnh...Oh. ...I guess you don't have to go say hello now.

[It's directed to the thing in her hands. Apparently that was what they were going to do, after all. It's only about four inches long, the thing-and it remains silent, as Reira peers around the tree from her sitting place.]

...Hello. [Yes, hello-] ...Did you come from the Olympics?

[Four inches is still pretty big to a small girl... But it's so furry that it almost seems to offset it. Perhaps that's merely the newness of it all.]

[There's another strange word- perhaps the name of a place? All Six can do is silently shake her head, carefully, not letting her eyes off of the girl and her creature.]

Oh. [Well that's a surprise.] Umnhhh...then...you came here from somewhere else?

...I guess that happens sometimes, [She decides, blinking thoughtfully.]

...Are you going to stay? Sometimes people decide to work here for a while, instead of just going on the rides...

[Stay to work? She's had enough of that... whatever it means in this context, too. Six shrinks back a little bit. The shadows make it difficult, but her mouth has definitely shifted into a frown.]

[....After a second, she raises up a hand with two fingers. Rides?]

[She tilts her head a bit. No words? Well.

She can probably work with that. She wouldn't need shadows anyway.] Umn...you don't have to work. Just some people stay. I'm staying, because the Ringmaster is going to help someone for me... ...but, also, I get to learn lots of things here, [She decides, nodding.] ...I got schoolbooks that I can read now, and there's lots of different foods I never saw before...and 'holidays', too... [Really there's so much at this point it's a bit overwhelming, so she changes focus to Six's raised hand. What could she be questioning...

...Oh!

The other thing.] Umnhh...but if you don't want to work, 'Carnivals' are supposed to be for 'fun things'. I'm still learning about those too, but...a ride is something to sit on, and it takes you through the air, or through a tunnel, and you do it to be happy, I think.

...The roller coaster made me feel happy, I guess... [She's still trying to really...come to terms with how feelings work for her, honestly.]

[Fun things... Somehow, the idea feels a little foreign, but not so much. She can remember taking a few moments of peace for herself, bouncing up and down on mattresses that hadn't been too worn down for it. It was 'fun', she thinks, to listen to the music box play for a moment, and fun for a fraction of a second to see the looks of delight on the other children's faces when she had brought it to them.]

[ (and then, perhaps typically, the feeling had been ruined, lost, replaced instead by another tale, another reminder of the horrible things which could lurk in even the fun or mundane.) ]

[Her chin tilts down a little bit in her thoughts, and she finally steps out a little more from behind the tree. Finally, her gaze is torn away from Reira to look at the bright spectacle that is the carnival. It goes back and forth a few times, uncertain and confused.]

[And Reira sits in silence, feeling the feelings that Six gives off, identifying what she can, but finding most of them rather close to the ones in her own heart.]

...'Fun' things are hard to know, [she eventually decides, following Six's gaze toward the Carnival.] ...it's hard to know what to do or try, I think.

...Lots of things look more dangerous, sometimes. [They speak of hovering missiles, or roving tanks, distant things that her mind has already worked hard to forget. That or they speak of bike chases across the dimensions, colourful holograms used for the destruction of everything else.

Well, she decides.]

...Sitting here is 'nice', though. ...It's quiet.

[Indeed, it is.]

[Perhaps they know the same things, if the other girl can say that so easily. In her own mind, Six follows the words to their conclusion. Lots of things look more dangerous, with their fake faces or their long threatening hands... And sometimes it's the things that look elegant and pretty, all flowing grace, that are actually the most dangerous things of all.]

[...But maybe she doesn't have to worry about that right now. Reira is right, and Six nods her head slowly. The plants are beautiful, and new, and seem to speak of better things than the cold dark of the Maw. If that's only wistful thinking, who knows.]

[After a second, she moves onto more pressing matters, and points her hand to the soft fluffy thing in Reira's lap.]

[The fluffy thing stares back.] Mnh. That's my 'daemon', [Reira explains calmly.] ...I learned how to make them come out, while we were having the carnival at another place.

...It's my 'soul', [She adds.] But... ...They remember some things I don't, and don't like to talk a lot... ...They sound different too.

[But all the same, as she stares to the squirrel, it seems to realize that she'd like them to speak now. And so-]

...Greetings.

[A deep echoey voice that does not at all fit the squirrel, meets the air. But that's all it says.]

...Sometimes, they're other things, like a big bird-almost as bit as the Eagle is.

Right now they're as big as Kage though.

[Who's Kage? Who knows.]

[Six faintly thinks she recalls what a soul is, although she can't recall where she's learned it. It's certainly strange information, even if it doesn't seem bad... yet. She takes another step, her limbs tense in preparation to leap anywhere in response to anything, and she raises a hand again, this time palm out.]

[It... It looks really soft. So much so she kind of wants to touch it.]

[Careful careful, Six. There's something a bit taboo about the idea of touching the daemon, that sits in the air, but it's very light. Especially as Reira gently nods to the little thing, and as it braces itself as well-reaching out after a moment to bow their head.]

[Sorry, what, she missed the boat on that particular stop.]

[That's enough for Six to carefully trot closer, pausing every now and then to look around as if to make sure there's no traps waiting for her. Soon, however, she pauses close enough to reach out just enough... and run her hand carefully along the very tips of the fur. A smile finally spreads across her face, delighted at such simple softness that tickles her skin.]

[A True Shame.

Except maybe also not, given the gloomy island of kids and spectres-

It's a very soft feeling, and a very warm feeling as well. Reira can feel it in a weird way, in her heart-and both she and the daemon close their eyes, smiling in the silence.

They'll be patient however, as if they didn't have a lot of chances before, they're sure Six hasn't either.]

[For a while longer, she continues to pet, almost never daring to really press her hand in. When she finally pulls her hand away, it's still with that little smile of contentment on her lips.]

[Once more, she looks back towards the carnival, thinking. Maybe... She points to the carnival again, still looking down at Reira's demon. Are there more things like this there, then?]

[Reira carefully moves the squirrel up on her head. They're safest there, and a tiny sparrow is actually pulling their way out from behind odd flower things and more hair to join them. Peep peep-

The message fortunately, has been received though, and she actually...shakes her head???]

Mnh, I don't think a lot of people have their daemons out, when they're working. But...if you want to see animals, that's in the menagerie, where I work, [she explains.] ...Most animals get scared because of the loud noises, and all the different people...so they have their own spot.

A lot of them are really big, [She adds-and if Reira says they're big, imagine how much bigger they are than Six!] ...So I'm supposed to look after the smaller ones instead.

[If this kid thinks they're big... Six definitely recoils a little, the smile disappearing fast as it'd came, and she shakes her head.]

[No. No going to the menagerie for her, thank you.]

Mnh. Ok. [No judgement. She's pretty sure you're the size of Tyrannosaurus' eye, friend.

But anyway.] ...Do you think you'll stay for a while here, then? [Just...here, on the outskirts, she supposes. She doesn't know where you came out from, but it probably wasn't the best place if you're all hidey.]

[Well.... Thinking carefully, Six considers her options. There's no point in going back to the Maw. Honestly, there's nowhere else for her either out in the world, which is filled with as many other horrors as the Maw itself.]

[Maybe... Tilting her head back up, her feet shift against the ground a little bit. She's not entirely sure how to get across the question she has in her mind.]

...Are you stuck?

[Is what she thinks of in turn, with that sort of hesitance. Not wanting to go back, but not knowing about what's ahead.] ...I could let you hide on something I have, and show you things, if that helps. [She pauses though, frowning.] Umnh... ...I don't know what things to show, but I can definitely show some things, at least.

I'd know how to get back to the tree, definitely.

A! idk how easy it'd be to sneak up on Six bc ~gameplay differences~ ah

fortunately, comic differences save the day

heeeell yee

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