⇨ TEST DRIVE MEME #4

[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 read the full premise here. Reserves and Applications are both currently OPEN. 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 and the players agree to it. If you are interested in additional IC and OOC plot responsibilities, consider applying for a Supervisor position. Treasurer, Wardrobe Manager, and Acquisitioner are currently open. More roles that currently need filling are listed here! 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. Visitors to the carnival comes from many different worlds today, as the ringmaster casts out her recruitment lures. 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 (pictured above) 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. ► NOT YOUR WHEELHOUSE: Sometimes, even magical ferris wheels get stuck. The carnival's particular wheel is enchanted to create a particular out of this world experience - as you pass along the top, you feel as if they are so close to the sky that you can interact with the stars like baubles hanging above your head. Of course, the novelty probably wears off when the wheel is broken and you've been stuck enjoying the light show with some stranger for the last half hour. How are you going to pass the time? ► 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. ► WILL O' WISPS: The ringmaster's will o' wisps have gotten free, and she's asked that everyone keep and eye out and help her reclaim them regardless of their official jobs. Wisps are small creatures that burn both hot and cold and comes in a few different variations of the same basic theme. Handling them physically (or psionically, or magically, for that matter) is difficult due to their near intangible nature. Touching and being around them can result in confusion and a sensation similar to being comfortably drunk. ► 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! ► RIDDLE GAME: For a bit of fun, the ringmaster has left a variety of locked chests around the worker areas of the carnival, each with instructions and a riddle written on their lids. The chest will accept three guesses from each worker before refusing to respond to them any further. If you guess the right answer, the chest will open and you will be rewarded with some manner of fun magical knick knack. If you've run out of guesses, maybe you can conspire with someone else and promise to split the prize? ► CAPTURE THE... EGG?: The Ringmaster likes to keep things exciting for her employees, and this time she's devices a game that mixes an Easter egg hunt with capture the flag. She's hidden various metallic "eggs" around the carnival that chime like bells when people get near, and divided participants into three teams (red, blue, yellow of course.) The carnival has been divided into three zones, and the objective is to gather as many eggs as possible for your team (three points for gold, two for silver, one for copper.) However, when you are in a zone that doesn't belong to your team, if they can snatch off your team flag they can take you to "jail" and confiscate any eggs you may be holding for their team. When in doubt, bullshit the rules! This is a prompt, after all. ► 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

renzo shima | blue exorcist

[perverses]

mirror maze.

Man oh man, why did you have to go with pink? Pink looks awful on you! [ Okay, the maze has officially stopped being fun for Shima. Time to find the entrance! Somewhere, somewhere, he's sure if he keeps on going left— ] Look at me, I'm Renzo Shima, ~I'm so cool~.

[ Figures he'd get lost in a mirror maze haunted by assholes. He shouldn't be that surprised. He kind of figured there was something shady about the carnival in the first place and finding out it's likely full of demons or spirits or whatever sure isn't a shocker. Annoying, though! ]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you already used that one. If you're goin' to make me pay for this stuff, try to be original!

[ Which naturally gets a stretched out reflection of him on one of the funkier mirrors mockingly waving his arms about and shooting back, ]

Funny thing to say when you snuck into the maze!

[ An accusation to which Shima winces juuust a little bit. He laughs, though, and manages to sound sheepish about that part. It's not honest in the least, but, hey, he's good at this! ]

Ah... ha. You saw that, huh? [ Of course they did. ] Well if you don't want me in here, why not point the way out? C'mon, be nice!

trying to leaf.

[ ...if he thought the mirror maze was bad, the forest is worse, so much worse. The first attempt to pass back out of the carnival and head back to town, he ends up stepping through the brush and finding himself right back where he left from. The second attempt for the now steadily more worried teenager leads him a little further along through the forest and...

Right back where he started again.

Third try, hello again, gates!

The fourth try has him going sideways through the forest rather than trying to barge on straight through, this time at a run. Yeah, he's gone past the point of keeping his cool on this. Was this one of the Headmaster's jokes?! The entire carnival had felt like something that shady guy would let into town for shits and giggles, but what would the point of trapping him in it be?! ]

Trees, trees, trees, when did we get a forest like this outside of town?! [ All the weird plants and glowing flowers are better suited for the hellhole they had to go training in that one awful time, even if it doesn't have as many bugs— oh, wait, there we go. As if the forest had been waiting for that thought to cross the poor kid's mind, he runs straight through a giant spider web. Well, not quite through it, because it is giant, literally giant, as in 'big enough to trip a human up', which is exactly what it does! ] That's... a... w-w...

[ Yes, Shima, that's a spider web, a fact he's realizing now from the ground after getting his leg wrapped up and faceplanting right into the dirt. ]

WEB! [ Someone doesn't like spiders (or bugs at all, actually) and he's about the let the entire carnival know. ] OKAY, THIS ISN'T FUNNY, SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

NO LEAFING EVER

[flashover]

[fwoosh! A lick of blue flames incinerates the spider web, freeing Shima from its sticky grasp without so much as scorching his pant leg. And there's Rin, with a variety of sticks and leaves stuck in his hair and his shirt and pants stained with dirt]

Shima? I thought you left hours ago!

[[ooc: hope you don't mind another thread, your shima is just great!!]]

don't mind at all! and thank you! o/

[perverses]

Whoa! [ BLUE FIRE, IT'S... saving him! Again! But more importantly, it's saving him now, so forget those other times! Saved, he's saved, he will never, ever, ever fear or doubt Rin's blue flames again, never ever ever! ] Y-you—

[ He's up off the ground and dropping both hands on Rin's shoulders in, like, three seconds flat, tears in his eyes as he stammers out, ]

I thought I was going to be s-spider food! A real goner! [ Well, maybe? There's no actual spider in sight anywhere yet. ] I owe you my life!

[ Which he says now, sure, but let's be real, he's overreacting. ]

[flashover]

[RIn is truly the bestest kind of friend. The kind of friend who burns things, and isn't afraid of bugs. He swore to only use his flames for good!

and the occasional prank]

Eh?! Quit being weird, it was just a spider web! [he brushes Shima's hands off and shakes his head] You don't owe me anything, geez. You and your bug thing... Have you been stuck here this whole time?

[perverses]

A giant one! [ okay, okay, he'll step off. ] L-let's not stick around here, eh? In case whatever made it comes back?

[ Shima's already having a rough time lost in an evil (he's going to assume evil, only an evil place has webs that size) forest. ]

I've been trying to get outta here all this time, but the forest keeps turning me around. I thought maybe if I went through it another way instead, but...

[ But that only led to this, which is horrible. Horrible. ]

[flashover]

Maybe it wasn't made by a big spider! Maybe it was made by a bunch of little ones. That's better, right? [Rin, no, that is not better]

[Rin frowns and burns the sticks and leaves out of his hair with another light "fwoosh"]

Same... I mean, I left after you, but I feel like I've been stuck out here for hours. ... Do you remember this forest being here? Maybe we should call someone... Mephisto might be able to pick us up. He won't be happy about it, but... he has a car.

[perverses]

Don't say that! Don't say a bunch of little ones! [ Seriously, don't, he's already struggling not to freak out again. Spiders, why is it spiders?! ] How about we just walk away... yeah, let's walk away from this part of the woods, okay? Somewhere without webs? Maybe a clearing...

[ Shima looks around them, though he's really unsure about where they could even find one of those in here. ]

Bet I have shitty reception in all of these trees, anyway, though, uh, what if this is one of the Headmaster's pranks? It's starting to feel like one to me.

[ All this endless forest for hours nonsense! ]

[flashover]

Ok, ok, whatever... [a clearing, huh? Too bad there only seems to be thick forest as far as the eye can see. There's barely even any animal trails!]

[Rin is already checking his phone, and he frowns] ... No bars. Dammit... [he puts his phone back in his pocket and folds his arms, grumbling] You know, I bet it IS! Ugh!! That guy!! He would set something up like this! [he imitates Mephisto in a mocking voice] It's a traaaaining exercise! Wine, Zwei, Dry!! Or whatever. Hnnnrrggh! FINE! I'll just burn a path out of here!!

[perverses]

'course there's no bars. Remember? Trees? Like, a thousand trees...

[ Now, he would have laughed at the Mephisto imitation if only Rin hadn't followed it up by stating he'll BURN a path out of the place. So instead we get Shima backing the hell up and raising his hands, kind of caught halfway between wanting to hold them up in a 'hey, wait' gesture or not. ]

I guess, but— [ No, wait. Actually! ] Would that work? Hey, yeah, you could just burn right through all these trees! It's just a bunch of wood! I bet even he can't make trees fireproof!

[ what could possibly go wrong, huh ]

Trying to Leaf

[empty_vessel]

Jimmy's cutting around the back of the Carnival, enjoying the quiet and walking back to his trailer to crawl into bed and die when he hears the yelling. He starts turning, trying to find the voice. "Hello?"

He's not sure where the voice is coming from, but he's calling and trying to find the guy.

[perverses]

Shima nearly doesn't catch that over his own ineffective wailing. Nearly. Thankfully, he hears enough to recognize that someone — somewhere — just said something. He stops for a second, straining to listen over the pounding of his own heart, but when Jimmy doesn't say anything else, he resorts to yelling back anyway.

"Hello?! Hey! Hey, is there someone out there?! I'm in here! In the forest!"

[empty_vessel]

Another one lost in the forest. Great. Hopefully the Ringmaster doesn't hear about this one. The place should come with warning labels.

"Yeah. Hang on a second, and I'll come get you." It takes him a bit to round up some rope (Jimmy does not trust that forest for a single second) and a flashlight, and make his way out to where Shima is. Overreaction? Maybe. But it's an easy way to make sure there's a safe path out.

[perverses]

Taking a bit to round up rope means more time spent with his leg caught in a spider web. This only leads to more yelling, though only after waiting what he considers a reasonable about of time for Jimmy to show up. It's not actually a reasonable amount of time at all, but, hey, you try being stuck like this!

"Aahaha, hey, this has been a lot longer than a second! Dude? Are you still there? C'mon, don't mess around! I don't know how long I have!"

[empty_vessel]

"Yeah. I'm still here. I'm almost to you, just don't thrash around any more and keep quiet." Jimmy picks his way through carefully to avoid getting himself snagged too, and he hopes whoever the new guy is, that the Boss hasn't noticed him out and about in the woods.

"There isn't much of anything out here that'll hurt you, but it'll keep you running around and snared while the Ringmaster decides..." He trails off as he kneels to start cutting Shima free. ".... Do you work here? If so, I apologize, I'm not up on the new hires yet. But either way, let's get you out of here and back to the grounds themselves before anybody notices."

[perverses]

Oh good, there he is. He's saved! Saved! He will make a point to stop struggling on request, at least, since that really isn't doing anything more than getting his legs even more tangled in the webbing. Jimmy's question, however, only earns itself a highly nervous-sounding laugh.

"Haa ha, what? Work here? Do I look like I work at a carnival?" That's a negative, good buddy. "I was just trying to find the way back outta here. I got school in the morning, y'know? Can't stick around! Literally. Because it's a s-spider... web... get it?"

Not that school actually matters to him regarding staying out at shady carnivals late, but it's worth mentioning if it'll (hopefully) get him off the hook! This guy is acting kind of weird with the entire 'before anybody notices' thing!

[empty_vessel]

"No, you don't look like you work here, but that's never stopped anybody before." or the Carnival, he has to add. Jimmy starts cutting through the webbing, careful to avoid cutting Shima or snaring his knife too badly.

The joke is so bad that Jimmy'd wince under better circumstances. "It's okay. You're almost out. And then it's as easy as following the rope back to the grounds." And hopefully back out the front gates, but who knows on that front.

[perverses]

"Never stopped anybody... Huh? What's that supposed to mean? I don't work here!"

For all the lies he tells, that sure isn't going to be one of them! Who would lie about working at a weird place like this? And while he still is doing his best to hold still, it's hard not to begin fidgeting after awhile. What's taking so long? Is the web really that tough? It is, obviously, if it kept him from ripping free, but still!

"Okay, but what if I wasn't aiming to get back to the grounds? Come on, just point me to the road outta here."

mirror maze

[mewsic]

[ lmao Hummy has no clue what the fuck is going on. Granted, Hummy exists in a state of "having no clue what the fuck is going on" for a good 80% of her existence, this is nothing new.

But what she does know is going on is that the mirrors are insulting somebody (okay! that's a thing that happens!) and they think his pink hair isn't cool and this shall not stand ]

Don't listen to those mirrors! Your hair color looks great, nya! And there's nothing wrong with pink!

[ says the tiny little cute pink mascot character. ]

[perverses]

[ thank you, tiny pink spirit animal ]

Huh. [ First the mirrors, now a little cat demon? Shima looks between his reflection and Hummy a few times and inevitably decides the one who likes his hair is much more worthy of his attention. Plus, she's adorable? Even if she is probably some weird kind of demon. That's miles better than a rude mirror! ] Ya hear that, mirrors? Nothing's wrong with pink!

Don't take some breakfast cereal mascot so seriously, she's obviously biased!

Aw c'mon, you aren't even real enough to have an opinion...

[ Yeah, he is going to argue with the mirrors! They're being jerks! ]

[mewsic]

[ Having spotted a new target, the mirrors start taunting Hummy as well. ]

She's so dumb, you really don't want her opinion in the first place!

[ Hummy can't help but frown at that. Dumb? Well...maybe she's slow to get a few things, but she's not dumb in the slightest! ]

I'm not biased! Even if I wasn't pink, there'd still be nothing wrong with it. Hibiki wears pink and it looks good on her just as it looks good on this guy!

[ wait who's this guy ]

Oh! I'm Hummy, by the way.

[perverses]

[ Don't compare it to how good it looks on a girl, Hummy! That won't help! But, uh, whatever! He can work with that. ]

See? It looks good no matter who it's on! [ And he's going to turn away from the closest mirror before it does point out "but she was talking about a girl". There's nothing wrong with pink, mirrors! It's a good color! ] And the name's Shima! Renzo Shima, exorcist extraordinaire! Don't mind the mirrors, I'm pretty sure they're just haunted by people who were assholes while alive!

Hey! You haven't even passed the exam for that! You're a good for nothing extraordinaire!

[ Okay, so just ignoring the mirrors isn't working. ]

Sheesh, tough crowd... Uh, you know, maybe we should find the way outta here?

[mewsic]

An exorcist?! Oh wow, I've never met a real exorcist before!

[ She's so starry eyed and is about to ask ten billion questions before...oh right. Shima's right, they should find a way to get out of here. All pumped up with fighting spirit, Hummy nods. ]

All right! Let's go! We're going to leave these mean mirrors behind, nya!

[ pause

pause

pause ]

Except I don't know which way we'd even start.

[perverses]

The best kind of exorcist there is! [ You know, a real one. Let's ignore that the mirrors were right about him not actually being one, though! ] And... uh...

[ Except if she doesn't know and he doesn't know, then— ]

W-well, I've been trying to go left this whole time to find the exit, so maybe if we start going right every time, that'll work instead!

[mewsic]

[ if she doesn't know and he doesn't know then who's driving the car??? ]

That sounds like a good plan! [ Hummy says, with unbridled optimism. They can do this! ] And if there are multiple rights, we'll just pick the rightest one!

[ Surely nothing will go wrong. With hope in her heart and utmost confidence, Hummy starts walking at a brisk pace...that Shima could still easily overtake for she is just a cat. ]

[perverses]

[ jesus— okay, no, he's buddhist, so definitely not jesus, but you know ]

That's not how directions work, but all right! Let's go!

[ Honestly, he has no friggin' clue how they're getting out of here. Wander until they see the door, which he's sure is the actual right — if annoying — solution, but going right at every turn may work. Who knows in this place? Though, uh, he'll walk slow for Hummy's sake.

Even weird cat-like company is better than nothing. ]