⇨ Test Drive Meme: EDEN (Rescued Captives)

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[naturalsakura]

Oh! Where did she come from? Oh jeez. Haruhi is a bit embarrassed to be caught brooding like that so she quickly sucks up her sadness and looks to the woman that sat not too far away from her. She seems to be older than herself so she silently makes a note to herself to be sure to call her -san. She may be trapped in a human zoo but keeping up manners was something Haruhi did best. She is just naturally polite.

"Y-Yeah, Earth..." Where else would she live? Haruhi looks off to the side for a second. She did miss home. She wanted a break, sure, but she still loved everyone. And what would her dad think? He's probably worried sick about her. "I do miss it. What about you? Do you miss it...on Earth?" She asks politely.

[krunmacula]

Don't worry about it, Haruhi! Pluto's not used to announcing her presence. Mainly because it's not usually necessary; if this place weren't suppressing her natural gravity, you'd know she was here from anywhere else in the building. She sort of has That Aura to her, even now; when she speaks, she doesn't speak loudly, but it's clear she expects others to hear her.

She chuckles a tiny bit at Haruhi's stammer - a fond noise, not at all a mocking one. "I wouldn't know! I've never been there." And then, as if that weren't a bit of a bombshell to drop, she just continues. "Mm... I do miss home, though. At least, I miss everyone that came with it."

[naturalsakura]

Wait, huh? Haruhi shakes her head as if she is trying to clear it. Maybe she heard that wrong. Or maybe not? She has heard of others that seemingly see themselves past the Earth's mortal plane. Plus she's met quite the variety of people in this garden like zoo so she was quite used to hearing things that just didn't quite make sense.

Haruhi lets go of her shock and instead gives the older woman a fond smile. "I'm sure we'll all find a way back home eventually." She looks off to the side, scratching her cheek. "Where ever that home may be..." She mumbles before looking back towards Pluto. "Let's stay confident!"

[krunmacula]

Pluto giggles a bit to herself, but seems perfectly fine to leave Haruhi's perceptions where they are. She's not fully herself yet, after all! That can wait for later. Instead, she focuses on Haruhi's smile: direct, sensible, confident in its own way.

She so, so loves to see others smile like that.

"Oh, I love it!" And she's not particularly shy about expressing it, either. "Hold onto that feeling, okay?"

[naturalsakura]

Haruhi blushes, only a bit, as she continues to smile. It seems that they were both feeling quite confident then! She gives the other woman a firm nod. "Of course. As long as you hold onto it, too!" She says firmly. She believed that they will all get out despite the slim chances of escape. Someone or something will come and save them all, taking them back home.

"I'm Haruhi, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

[krunmacula]

"Haruhi, huh?" It's clearly not a name she's used to hearing. She tests the word on her tongue, humming lightly as she thinks of her response. There's no need to go into much details here, is there? If Haruhi's from Earth, either she'll know her or she won't. And besides, Princess is such a stuffy title, isn't it? So she smiles, and chuckles, and says in that same tone- "Pluto. It's just wonderful to meet you."

And she means it - even in a place like this. She turns back to the surroundings, taking in all the trees and vegetation. "Is it like this, where you're from?"

[naturalsakura]

Ah, Pluto. Foreign then. Haruhi smiles gently and gives her a small bow of her head. She couldn't bow while sitting down, after all. "Ah, Pluto-san. I like your name." She says. Haruhi looks out to the surroundings of the garden and shrugs a bit. "

"Um. Sort of? Most of the plants here are smaller and you'd have to go into a forest or garden to see this much green. I'd appreciate all of this a lot more if I weren't captured against my will if I'm honest." Haruhi sighs before looking back towards Pluto. "What about you, Pluto-san? Do you not have this many plants from where you're from?"

[krunmacula]

Pluto giggles, high and delighted, at Haruhi's response. How formal! She just wants to ruffle her hair, right here and now. (She doesn't. She's not that overbearing.) "I'm quite fond of it myself!" She holds one hand out to the 'sky' above her as she speaks, gazing at the way the light surrounds her fingers. "Pluto- mm, you might know it as Hades. It's the final planetary body in our solar system. The exact demarcation of what is ours and what is not."

It's a cryptic way to describe herself, isn't it! But sometimes, a bit of enigma can be good for you. It certainly worked out well enough for Luna-Terra, after all.

Haruhi's other question is a much simpler answer, though. "Hm? Oh, no. Not naturally, at least." For a moment, she remembers Venus's surface - the success of the terraforming, the way the gravity well exerted its will onto a planetary body. The blooms there were always so beautiful, even fading back into desolate rock and gas. Nothing like this place.

It's strange, but she misses it already.

[naturalsakura]

Pluto, Pluto. Haruhi thinks of the planet and how the woman describes it. She silently wonders if it would be rude to tell her that Pluto technically wasn't a planet anymore but she resisted. Pluto (er, the planet) deserved to be classified as a planet, damn it. Suddenly being cast out away from the cool other planets just because it's a bit smaller was totally uncool.

Haruhi notices how Pluto goes silent after answering her question and so she goes silent as well, pulling her legs up and resting her head on her knees. Haruhi stayed silent for a while before finally talking. "Not naturally, huh. Well, I'm sure that where ever you came from was quite beautiful. You'll have to let me visit sometimes. It must be out of this world." That pun is on purpose, she swears.