⇨ Test Drive Meme: SPACE OLYMPICS

[ringleaders]

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!

Comments

Yuusei Fudo | Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds | New Recruit

[alphudo]

[ADMISSION FEES: THE FRONT ENTRANCE]

It was merely a breath of fresh air at first. That was all it was supposed to be, and yet somehow...
The Signer War was over. The bridge was being built. What sort of longing was there to be had? This was practically a dream come true for him.
And yet something was clearly stirring within him, some sort of regret or restlessness, perhaps. A pressure of responsibility, maybe. Something that made him get up and walk off to go clear his head, and by the time he had the opportunity to really think on it, he saw the lights.

And from here, he can't help but approach this mysterious carnival in the distance. He knows it certainly shouldn't exist (for why would there be in a carnival in Satellite, and why now?), but there's a certain curiosity that wells within him, an excitement he's content to entertain with every footstep. Is this a child's eagerness, a desire for the loud sounds and luminescence brushing against the sky? Perhaps.

As interested as he may be in this place, he's not gonna just barge in. Nothing is free in life, and anything that is free should not be trusted. Martha taught him that much.
So when he reaches the front gates leading into the carnival, he doesn't bother trying to look for an unintended entrance, and for once in his life he happens to have money on his person. Being able to actually pay his own way is... oddly exhilarating in itself, in truth, as silly as that might be. It's a good feeling, though. Once he's actually inside, though...
Well, he's never been to a place like this before; what can he say except that he's overwhelmed with options?
So for now, he'll be lingering by the entrance trying to figure out just what the hell is going on.


[MISC: ADMIRING THE FERRIS WHEEL]

He's never actually seen a ferris wheel before - a real, full-sized ferris wheel - and he's blown away when he finally weaves his way through the crowds and comes upon it from its base. He doesn't really intend on riding it yet (the thought alone puts his stomach in knots, but he's sure he's been up higher still...), so for now he's perfectly content with just staring at it. He can't even begin to imagine how its intricate mechanics must work, and although he can probably figure it out eventually, it's just A Lot to take in all at once.
So for now he just looks at it, remaining out of the way of other patrons and mostly just off to the side, perhaps a little further off than he really should be, maybe...
And his eyes narrow, after some time, as he spots something that maybe looks a little too loose for comfort. He knows very little about carnival attractions, granted, but his gut feelings on machinery tend to be pretty good most of the time.
Unsure of what steps he should actually take with this, though, he just stares at this potential problem for a little bit longer, simply thinking.


[WILDCARD]
[hit me with your best shot honestly; he'll be wandering around the park periodically just Looking In Awe at stuff]

Six - Little Nightmares - New Recruit

[littlenightmare]

A - Trying To.... Not Leaf?

[Off in the foliage, there's a flash of yellow that shines bright in the shadows.]

[Six.... isn't sure how she's gotten here. She'd been standing there, at the top of the Maw with sand underneath her feet and the sun so distant, before she'd decided to turn right back around. If the top was not freedom, then she would surely be able to find another. Befitting of its name, there were many depths and spaces that she had never had a chance to explore. Everything had been too dangerous for her dilly dally, after all.]

[Except when she'd taken the step through the doors, and her eyes had adjusted to the darkness again... There weren't stairs, leading down down down. Instead, there were things she has never seen before, and a place so bright and brilliant as to confuse her...]

[And adults. And monsters. Creatures so much larger than her, her who is the size of a small gull.]

[She's no longer the small lost thing that had woken up in a suit case, trying to survive. If she wanted, she thinks, she could defend herself from these creatures. At the same time, they do not seem so.... grotesque as the Janitor, or the Chefs, or the Guests. Neither do they hover distant and cruel as the Lady had. As Six watches carefully from the trees, darting from one hiding place to another, it seems as though they almost interact with another. Like children do. Everything is so strange.... so different. So instead of lashing out wildly, she stays behind to watch.]

[...Well, perhaps not entirely that. As she looks up and around, she can't help but get distracted. She... cannot remember such vivid green things in her life before. Certainly, they had never thrived in The Maw. So if one looks towards the forest line, they may spot a tiny little figure no taller than a ruler darting about, trying to hide or investigate one of the enormous orange flowers.]

B - Fun And Games

[As she's done so many times, Six hasn't entered through the proper way, but instead through a little crack for a little thing, somewhere people don't bother to look. Still a little uncertain, she keeps to the shadows and inbetween places of the various games and stalls... for the most part.]

[Whether someone is playing a game or just passing by, they might notice that one of the small stuffed toys in the back a game stall is... moving on its own, apparently. While the Cinder Sprite isn't looking, of course. Six is trying to be as subtle as possible, moving only when she feels like people's attentions are elsewhere... but that can be hard to gauge perfectly when she has to peer around a large (to her) toy to be sure.]

[Or maybe it's afterwards, as she's left the stalls and hopped down to the ground in the side that she's found.]

C - Wildcard

[Six will be creeping throughout all sorts of places as she explores the carnival, so I can go with just about anything.]

Yoshiko Tsushima (aka YOHANE!!!) | Love Live Sunshine | new recruit

[hellzone]

fun and games
"Forces of darkness, give me strength! Let my aim fly true!" Yoshiko's standing in front of a ring toss game, look of determination on her face as she stares at an absolutely adorable stuffed bear. She is going to win that thing.

With utmost confidence, she chucks the ring a bit violently towards the bottles she's aiming for. Turns out that it's a bit too violently as the ring ricochets off of the side of a bottle, flies through the air, and hits some unsuspecting person in the head.

Almost instantly, Yoshiko turns pale. Aw heck. "I didn't mean to do that!" she quickly clarifies, turning towards the person the ring hit with a worried frown on her face before she quickly launches into an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry!"

tunnel of love
Yoshiko is a drama queen. She always has been a drama queen and always will be a drama queen. As such, there is a high school girl doing some INTENSE DRAMATICS in front of the tunnel of love. She staggers back from the tunnel of love sign, pointing at it with an accusing finger.

"Such powerful love energy! Ohhhh, I can feel it zapping my demonic strength already! The forces of light and beauty behind this attraction must have power a hundredfold!"

She's inevitably drawing a crowd. But does Yoshiko care? Not in the damn slightest. Very dramatically, she slumps against some random person, not even looking to see who it is. "Little demon," she starts dramatically, putting her hand to her forehead like she's on the cover of a romance novel. "Help Yohane get away from this cursed attraction of radiance."

wildcard!
This overdramatic loser can be found all over the carnival, getting into things, bothering people with questions, and probably accidentally breaking something else. Side note, Yoshiko is a normalass human. She just is a drama queen with a ~demonic persona~.

Tigerstar | Warriors | New Recruit

[catsatan]

(( A WARNING to anyone not familiar with Warriors - Tigerstar is an intact male cat, and he will be spraying on things. I'll try to keep those on the DL, but this is a blanket warning that some prompts will have more specific warnings about unsanitary content. If anything needs to be revised, please feel free to alert me and I'll get on that ASAP.

Terms used -- twolegs//humans; StarClan//basically warrior cat ancestor spirits; TigerClan//a short-lived united Clan established by Tigerstar ))

i. TRYING TO (GREEN)LEAF

[ It was a patrol. Nothing more. Tigerstar is quite pleased with himself, having an enormous, united Clan at his beck and call after many moons of careful plotting and patient waiting. So, as many toms are wont to do when they have achieved something, he had been patrolling his new Clan's expanded territory, trying to familiarize himself with the sights and scents of RiverClan's ranges, bold and alone as he often was. He certainly wasn't just trying to get away from fish-stink, no way.

This is where things began to get strange. He takes a left, following a track worn well by many cat paws and marked by many cat sprays. He follows the path as it curves to the right. WindClan is this way, he remembers, but the border must be farther out than he thought. Tigerstar continues further, the familiar cat scents around him gradually fading away from his senses. This is the first odd thing he notices. Even so, the path goes on, and so does he.

Broad paws carry him deeper into the forest, even as strange scents tease his senses - twoleg scent is strong here, yes, but it's mingled with...other things. Birds and cats and horses, but these scents are slightly different from the ones he knows. They have a certain bite to them. A tang.

He keeps on anyway. His heart pounds a little in his chest; his claws peer out of their soft sheathes in anticipation of something special happening. Is StarClan leading him somewhere, on this strange path? Is it a vision? There's only one way to find out, and so he keeps on.

This is where the oddities reach their pinnacle. There's a snap of twigs. A crash of leaves. A shower of pollen that smells much to sweet....and suddenly someone is there in front of him. Not a cat, but perhaps not a twoleg, either. Against his better judgement, instinct drives Tigerstar's claws to their full, wicked lengh, his hackles to their highest heights. Very fearsome for a cat to see, but maybe a little more comical for anything bigger than a fox. ]

INTRUDER! [ A brazen hiss accompanies the accusation. ]

ii. OF RODENTS AND REGRET (( This one is kinda gross! Barfy gets an unwelcome visitor. ))

[ Okay. So this is a "circus" or a "carnival" or something, and the not-twolegs here can talk. That's fine. This is fine. StarClan works in strange ways. Maybe this is a warning about one of these "attractions" coming to the territories. Maybe TigerClan will have an opening to strike their enemies in the chaos! He must pay attention.

Tigerstar elects to continue his quest after having gotten himself rather lost in those bizarre woods. He has seen the entryway, certainly - he has seen it several times, in fact - but no self-respecting cat uses the front door. Thankfully, one of the menagerie stalls has a window, and while it's by all means too tight a fit for a human, Tigerstar is not a human. It's still a bit of a squeeze to push through the bars into the rancid-smelling enclosure, and Tigerstar has a few regrets at choosing this one in particular, but a warrior never turns back until it's absolutely necessary.

He sniffs around a bit, and the stink of twolegs, animal droppings, and hay punish his senses in return. He can't help but bare his fangs in a soft hiss at the odors that assault the roof of his mouth. There's something in the corner, he knows - he can see it, some kind of rat-creature. The source of that rotting smell. It must be dead. Well, if he's going to wander around here, he might as well make some effort to make it smell a little less terrible.

It's not until he's raised his tail and made his mark that Tigerstar realizes he's made a grave mistake. A hiss answers his move, and soon after he feels several sharp somethings bearing into his hindquarters.

Fur flies. Claws swipe. What follows is quite possibly one of the most ungodly cacophonies to descend upon any of the menagerie enclosures, as this 13-pound cat finds himself locked in vicious combat with a rodent of unusual size. ]

iii. ADMISSION FLEAS

[ To put a Clan cat in a collar is humiliating. To put a Clan cat in a harness is tantamount to torture. Tigerstar had not ever considered that there might be something worse than either of those, but here he is - with these horrible, too-sweet smelling twoleg-made cobwebs strangling his legs and behind with more fury than any snake he's ever tangled with.

He sits, dog-like and sullen, on the admission table in front of the carnival after a worker so graciously deposited him there. He can't bend his legs. He still smells like rat-thing. And now he has to put up with more of these weird talking not-twolegs. All of it stinks, literally and figuratively.

But he is a Clan cat. Even when he's stuck wearing what's effectively a gauze diaper, Tigerstar still finds a little dignity in himself to sit with his chin high as he regards the carnival worker in front of him. Or perhaps the new arrival behind him. Either way, these twolegs make him angry and he has a few things to say to them. ]

This is an outrage! [ Another hiss slithers out under his words. ] First you invade TigerClan territory, then you humiliate me. I never imagined you twolegs to be the dignified sort, but it disappoints me to find out you have even less honor than I anticipated. What do you have to say for yourself?

iv. WILDCATS! ER, WILDCARD!

Somehow, Tigerstar does manage to get himself into the carnival the right way. You might encounter him somewhere on the carnival grounds, though most likely not inside any buildings or tents. Maybe you tripped over him. Or maybe he made a mad dash for your ankles. Let's get creative! Feel free to add or DM me on Discord @asraith#4423.