livinglot | ⇨ Test Drive Meme: EDEN (Rescued Captives)

WELCOME TO THE SHOW!↴

Or, more specifically, Lost Carnival's test drive meme! We've changed a lot this time around and have introduced a whole new method of entering the game. Before we get started, let's lay down some details:

You can (and should) read the plot FAQ here.
Reserves and Applications are currently OPEN.
This round, new characters will be entering as rescued captives. Initially stolen away into this world by the leader of Eden, they will be rescued by current characters as part of an in-game event.
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. They will arrive in the carnival grounds with no entry log necessary.
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.

CURRENT SCENARIO↴

⇨ GARDEN OF EDEN ⇦
Eden is a magical, almost idyllic realm created by a powerful nephalem, with the specific purpose of finding a way to craft the perfect mortal soul. Above ground there are beautiful forest, gardens, and architecture that is otherworldly in its splendor. You, however, don't get to see most of that, because you have been brought to its underground prison, locked away like a zoo animal to be studied by the locals. This is extra weird because everyone living in Eden is some kind of uplifted animal - the beings attending to you are a diverse assortment of species, all with the ability to talk and apparently bend reality.

The underground garden you're being kept in doesn't look like a prison at first. Despite its lack of natural light, it's well decorated with plant life and various water features, its trees growing enough fruit to sustain you indefinitely. But there's no way out. It's just you and the other captives, and occasionally one of Eden's beasts coming in to check on you, or drag someone out to be examined. It's like being abducted by UFOs if the UFOs were talking animals, and the spaceship was a magical realm.

You may have noticed by now that, eventually, individual test subjects stop being returned to the garden. You could imagine this is because they've been released, but realistically, you suspect it's something much worse.

► THE MIRROR: The first thing you remember of your stay in Eden is seeing a mirror, its pristine silver surface being all that you can focus on. You don't know how you got there, only that the reflection seems to reach inside of you and pull something out, as if it's splitting you in half to create your mirror image. Eventually, you lose consciousness, and wake up in the garden prison. It took you a while to get the chance to talk to any of the animals, and they are disinclined to give you anything but the most basic of information - what to eat, where to sleep. They don't seem to want to get attached.

► THE GARDENS: There's not much to do in the garden, besides lounge around and maybe speak with your fellow captives. They have more information for you than any of the animals will - some of them are human, but some of them are obviously alien, telling tales of different worlds far beyond your experience. The lights dim at night and brighten in the day, but there's no outdoors to be seen. There are cushions and blankets laying on the grass for you to sleep on, but there are no beds. No one who has gotten violent towards the animals that attend to you has come back after being hauled off.

► SOMETHING MISSING: Since the moment you've arrived, no magic or powers you had previously have worked. More than that, you feel like something inside of you is missing - like some part of your soul never came back from being split into that mirror you saw. Maybe that's an abstract idea for you, maybe you don't believe in souls. Yet, now it's an instinctive feeling that is hard to put out of your mind. What did they take from you? Can you get it back?

► WILD CARD: Want to try some threads with the assumption that your character is already with the carnival? 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 run the obstacle course? Hang out in the Backyard? Choose whatever appeals! These prompts will be considered non-canon, unless you are applying as a veteran.

Recruits from this month will be signing on with the carnival in an entry log that will be posted around the start of August. You can view the in-game calendar here.

ENTRY STATUS↴

Approved characters will arrive as part of an in-game event log which will cover their rescue. TDM threads are meant to be pre-rescue circumstances, and current players will be tagging in as NPCs or other captured characters.
Characters rescued from Eden can have been imprisoned in the gardens for anywhere from a single day to up to three months. Good luck keeping track, though, there's no clocks down here.
Characters rescued from the gardens will be mostly depowered at the time, but will get their powers back by the end of the event.
Characters will be imprisoned with only the clothes on their back. All items will have been confiscated, but can potentially be retrieved in the event log.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Temel is silent for a few moments.

She does not seem to have been taking any of what Haruhi said seriously in that silence, however. "....Hn! I thought you were speaking of serious worries!" she eventually huffs, tucking her pencil back behind her ear. "You have nothing like that to worry about. There are plenty of pillows for sleeping on, and I can show you which ones are best for it with backs like 'yours'," she adds in, before any arguments of species and their needs arise.

"At the least it sounds as though my point stands firmly. You should enjoy your time away from these...'exams'," the badger insists, even chuckling somewhat.

“Everyone needs to do their best to prevent the tragedy that is back pains.”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t true. But there was probably someone in here with back pains, damn it, and she’d get them a proper bed one day. At the mention of getting away from exams, Haruhi freezes for a second before the proper oh shit moment sinks in. “Oh shit.” There it is. “Exams, my studies...will I get a pass for being kidnapped?” But the real question was if they would actually believe her story when she got back home. No ifs, only whens.

“This isn’t exactly the best vacation away from stress, you know. I actually like breaking my back doing homework. If anything, I want a break from the club. But not like this!”

Edited 2018-07-29 04:36 (UTC)

Oh good grief. Temel watches the poor girl go through her momentary crisis, patiently waiting for it to be at least half over.

"I have told you, repeatedly," she notes, sighing, "That this is quite permanent. In fact, you should hope yourself that it stays that way. It's quite nice here." Certainly nicer than wherever the peoples always vanish off too when it's time to leave for whatever reason, she's certain.

As it is. "You might as well consider it a permanent vacation- there are no 'studies' and 'exams'!"

Haruhi glances over at the badger. Really? No sympathy at all?

Well, they were just talking animals and they usually were the type to keep their distamce, huh. Curse that adorable face though! Though, Haruhi will not give in. She is a lot stronger than that. The young girls sighs, her posture completely collapsing. “It’s not that simple. That means all my hard work was for nothing. It’s like building a house of cards only for the wind to knock it over before kicking the cards into a gutter.” She explains. “Do you understand?” Probably not.

Do you know how many peoples she has seen in her day Haruhi she has seen So Many Peoples.

Not to mention the personal distance she's had to employ as a Scholar.

Yet....she does seem to be tapping her board some. Eventually she glances over her sheet, flips it over, and takes her pencil again.

"Very well...what sort of 'studies' were so important that you would feel it all for 'nothing' now, hmm?"

This is not very encouraging at all. But it's something, probably.

Oh, well that’s easy.

“Well. It’s just mainly my grades. My scholarship in Ouran requires me to be at the top of my classes at all time. No slacking.” Haruhi explains. “I was actuallu hoping that, through Ouran, I could get into a pretty good law school. So, I guess the studies are just your usual school fanfare stuff though...you probably have no idea what that is.” She forgot she was talking to a badget there for a minute. “Math, language arts, history, science...the basics. And I was reading this one law textbook...” Haruhi smiles fondly at the thought.

“But, yeah. All my hardwork means nothing now at this point.”

Considering all of the insults, the badger is doing a remarkably good job of ignoring them. She simply snorts when she hears 'probably no idea what that is' and carries on listening, scribbling on the back of her page.

"So, if I understand you then..." She stops scribbling, ears pointed toward Haruhi. "...Your studies were so that you could continue with studies."

You said Law 'School', after all. "Well...a mild enough hobby, I suppose," she chuckles, as if she were speaking to a child.

"Well, yeah, that's it. Studies on top of studies until you're ready for the big leagues. That's just how things are." She would prefer if things weren't like that along with any Japanese high school student ever but they just were. But it was just another obstacle to prove that you're ready for that dream job.

"Hobby? Well, I wouldn't put it like that. When you were a little badger baby did you picture yourself holding a clipboard and taking care of humans in a human zoo." Again with the zoo thing. She wasn't letting it go. "I'm sure you wanted to be...a dancer or something."

"Quite frankly, you would be best off not making assumptions about my history before this place as a whole," she huffs- a sound that seems quite typical for the badger. Regardless, she doesn't seem very keen on even trying to remember being a 'baby badger', potentially because it was a very boring time that involved caring about food, sleep, and little else.

"We are all here for a purpose," she continues, raising her nose to the air. "...We all contribute one way or another. I certainly have no interest wasting my days studying for the sake of studying- and you would be better off finding hobbies more suited for this place as is."

Finding out a hobby that suited this place, huh? Haruhi places her hand on her chin. There isn't much to do here anyways. She never really tried gardening before but it really could not be that hard. Hm. "Well there isn't much to do here. Can I have a job like yours then? The best person to take care of people is a person themselves, you know?" That is her logic, anyways.

"Unless there's a secret to this place that requires us to do simpler things..." She glances to the side. "Like a zoo." Now she's just teasing at this point.

Alas, 'Zoo' simply has her unaffected this time.

"No," she curtly answers. "You may have a hobby to entertain yourself, in here. A hobby is not a job," she huffs, shaking her head. "You will not be leaving, so you may find something to do within the confines. That is all."

"Well what kind of hobbies do you suggest?" She is actually curious as to what the badger thinks. Because, really, there is nothing for her to do here. "Gardening? Building pillow forts?" Those were the only things she could think of to do. "Can't you just...suggest video games to whoever owns this place? Video game tournaments are pretty popular." Haruhi never plays video games as she has a lot more important things to sink her money into but she wouldn't mind playing them now.

"A hobby that involves staying in here," she scolds. "I am going back to work- remember what I warned you of," the badger insists. "I don't enjoy watching you peoples being hauled off to...wherever!"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You really do care." Haruhi says with a laugh. "Good luck at work, Badger-san."

⇨ Test Drive Meme: EDEN (Rescued Captives)

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