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

⇨ 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

He doesn't really follow the explanation, though he stores it away to figure out later. 'Host' kind of sounds like a euphemism for 'prostitute', but she's a little young for that sort of thing.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you behind. We'll have plenty of time to get acquainted." He was planning to make a solo escape, but he can't just leave a pretty girl by her lonesome in this place. Besides, if they're in a magical realm like he thinks, a human might not last here very long.

"Hm?" Really now?

"That's strange. I was sure you were ready to leave me behind. What with you saying my escape and how you wouldn't tell me your plan." But maybe she is mistaken. But she doubts that she is.

"Besides, escape really seems borderline minimum. I've checked. Just plants on top of plants on top of plants..."

“I wouldn’t be much of a thief if I couldn’t steal a prisoner or two.”

She is not mistaken. Dark doesn’t stumble in making excuses, at least.

“I have certain useful skills that you don’t.”

"Riiiight." This guy...

Haruhi raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Oh yeah? And what are this useful skills?" She asks. 70% curious, 30% ready to laugh at whatever his reply was.

He sighs regretfully.

“Aside from the skills needed by a master thief? Nothing I can show you just now.” Humans tend not to believe in magic without proof, and he doesn’t intend to make himself look stupid by telling her he has it.

Haruhi shrugs smugly. "Oh, I see how it is." She says, teasingly. "You're all bark and no bite. That's okay. I won't judge you, of course. But you really don't need to lie about those sorts of things to try and impress people. Just be yourself, Dark-senpai." Her voice dips from sarcasm to serious nearing the last part.

He moves quite suddenly into her personal space to lift her chin with a finger, his face inches from where hers would be if she didn’t pull away first.

“If you want me to bite all you have to do is ask...”

Haruhi is...unimpressed. One would be surprised how many times she's had attractive guys invading her personal space. "Real smooth. I'm absolutely swooning." She says sarcastically.

"Is this an attempt to seduce me or keep your alleged abilities a secret?"

He couldn’t say he wasn’t a little disappointed, but he grinned.

“I like you, Miss Haruhi,” he concludes rather than answer the question. Haruhi knows the answer anyway, probably. He takes his time letting her face go and standing upright again.

“But you’re gonna have to be patient if you want to see what I’m capable of.”

"Alright then. I'll hold you to it, senpai. Though, you better not disappoint." She says with a smile. This guy was certainly host club material. Maybe she could get him to break a vase and make him take her place there. Maybe. Just maybe...

"And I feel the same. Glad to see I made such a good impression so fast." She says. "Though, you can quit calling me Miss Haruhi. It's just Haruhi. Ha-ru-hi."

Ouran is probably not the best place for a consummate thief, flirt or not. He would run out on his debts with all the most valuable artworks in the building.

“Haruhi,” he agrees with something like affection in his voice. This is why he likes girls- they’re so entertaining.

"And don't go forgetting it either, oh great Phantom Thief Dark." She says. Haruhi falls silent as she takes off her suit jacket and puts it over her shoulder.

"Hmm. Phantom Thief Haruhi has a good ring to it too, though. Think I can steal your title?"

“It’s yours if you can earn it. I don’t mind a little competition.” As long as it’s incompetent and stays out of his way. He’s tempted to say it’s especially alright when his competition is so lovely, but discards the idea. Flattery hasn’t been doing much for him with her.

"You're on then." She says, shrugging smugly. "Just don't be too upset when you see my name on the front page, okay?" She teased. Though, she was certainly having fun. Dark is an interesting person to her. Especially with those super secret abilities that he apparently has.

Haruhi bows. "I look forward to you teaching me everything you know, Dark-sensei."

Wow. He has never been bowed to before, ever, in his hundreds of years of existence in Japan. He is really into it.

“Well, when you put it that way I guess I could teach you a thing or two. But only if I have time once we get back to the real world.”

"I'm sure you can put off some Phantom Thief-ing to make time." Haruhi crosses her arms. "Just don't come to me when you get dragged to some court of law. There's no way I would be able to defend you properly, after all."

Haruhi then looks away, placing a hand on her chin. The real world, huh. She never even considered that this could be something false. The talking animals were certainly a clue so why didn't she think so? She looks towards Dark. "Are you sure you're real? You're not some sort of symbolic representation of my morality or some secret place in my heart or whatever, are you?"

He shrugs cryptically. It’s very, very hard to put off Phantom Thief-ing when it’s the only reason Daisuke lets him out willingly.

“I’m not a creation of your subconscious,” he says like it’s a stupid idea, but also subtly emphasizing the word ‘your’. He could have told her he’s real, but it’s not a lie he particularly feels like telling.

Haruhi raises an eyebrow but lets out a small sigh.

"Good to know."

Alright then. Good to know she isn't hallucinating some deep metaphorical nightmare. But that would explain a lot more things than what currently was going on. Haruhi continues to think, letting her thoughts spill out into words. "Still, this doesn't make any sense. Talking animals, overgrown plant life, human zoos..." She trails off. "Don't tell me we were put into cryogenic sleep and we're now waking up in the future's future where animals now rule." She runs a hand through her hair, pushing her bangs back for a second and she tries to properly get a grasp on the situation.

"I wish I knew what was going on but those animals won't tell me anything. Have you been able to steal some information or use those mysterious Phantom Thief Dark skills of yours?"

Her theory makes him laugh, though not cruelly.

“Cryogenic sleep? No. The laws of nature don’t change just because you’ve been asleep a few centuries.” So says half of the magical manifestation of a painting...

“The kind of information we need isn’t going to be written on a clipboard and carried around. But I can tell you for sure that this isn’t the world you came from.” He turns serious again, suddenly, staring out into the dense foliage.

“And that means it isn’t safe for you to be here. Not for long.”

"Well. Most sci-fi movies would beg to differ..." She mumbles under her breath. Well, from what few she has seen or heard of. Most of the time she never made it through them so she wouldn't even be able to come up with a cliche solution.

She looks up to him and attempts to follow his line of vision attempting to see what he is looking at.

"It's dangerous for you too, you know." She huffs, trying to keep a level head. "Yeah, yeah. The real problem is that we're just stuck at Level 0 on the danger zone. And any attempts at escape only increases it. I can't even picture a proper escape plan..."

It’s not dangerous for him in the same way that it’s dangerous for her, but she’s not exactly wrong. He grimaces.

“I told you, I’ll sort something out.” It’ll mostly entail getting himself arrested and regaining his powers. He looks back down at her, scanning her face. She seems healthy enough right now.

“You should try not to waste too much energy. How long do you think you’ve been here now?“

He may say that but she does fear him doing something dangerous to get his way. He definitely made her think he is the hot headed type. The type who just took risks.

"Huh? About a day or two. According to the lights, anyways. I really don't know if they're accurate or not." She meets his gaze head on. "What about you? You shouldn't waste your energy, too. You don't have to dote on me."

“I’m not,” he corrects her quite honestly. “I’m warning you. I’m familiar with this sort of thing. You aren’t.” He knows how to conserve his magic, and in a magical realm he wouldn’t slowly lose himself. Haruhi is human, and the kind of places Dark can visit with impunity would unsettle the very fabric of her being.

"Well, I don't exactly end up in these sort of situations but I understand most of what's going on along with the basic rules of this place." Haruhi crosses her arms. "I can handle whatever comes at me with ease."

He crosses his arms, unimpressed.

“Hey, don’t yell at me. I’m not the one who snatched you out of your own world.”

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I am so sorry for him

he's beautiful

my precious garbage boy :’)

emphasis on precious

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