{ haunted carnival | test drive #08 - october 2022 }

[dreamposts]

HAUNTED CARNIVAL

Full details on everything can be found here, but an important reminder that this event log doubles as our Test Drive Meme and information can be found in this section.

This means any outside characters participating in the log are canonly logged as appearing in Songerein in October and will remain in Songerein from the IC date of October 25 through 31 (this log is forward dated to the 25th). However, outside characters can only thread within this log, so for those seriously considering the game, you are welcome to use non-festival prompts for your toplevels. Anyone who apps in and is accepted will have their character count October as their first time in the game without any disruption, so all content will carry over. Those who do not apply will disappear which should not seem too unusual as people randomly disappear already, however players in game can choose to retcon and pretend a character was never there to begin with if it would be easier; or even think their presence was just a dream.

IMPORTANT! All outside characters MUST have "TDM" in their subject line, even if you might not app. This will help people differentiate those who are already in the game and those who are not.

TDM threads are required for samples. Refer to the Game Info for general information and feel free to toss any questions here. Reserves will open Tuesday, October 25th and Applications will open on November 1st. Our application cycles are bi-monthly so the next cycle after won't be until January.

TDM Toplevel Link Directory (click to view; updated 10/28)

American McGee's Alice - Alice Liddell
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Azula
BlazBlue - Noel Vermillion
Case Study of Vanitas - Vanitas
Dangan Ronpa - Chiaki Nanami
Devil May Cry - Lady
Final Fantasy VII - Cloud Strife
Genshin Impact - Albedo
Genshin Impact - Eula Lawrence
Genshin Impact - Kaeya
Genshin Impact - Razor
Great Ace Attorney - Ryunosuke Naruhodo
Helluva Boss - Blitzø
Helluva Boss - Octavia
Jujutsu Kaisen - Fushiguro Megumi
Kaze Hikaru - Okita Souji
Library of Ruina - Angela
Mikagura School Suite - Yuto Akama
My Hero Academia - Bakugo Katsuki
Octopath Traveler - Ophilia
Original Character - Kate Galloway (Jigoku CRAU)
Original Character - Marie Daenthelm
Original Character - Pauline Bonheur
Persona 3 - Ken Amada
Promare - Lio Fotia
Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Yuri Hyuga
Tales of Berseria - Magilou
Tales of Berseria - Rokurou Rangetsu
Tales of Berseria - Velvet Crowe
Tales of Hearts - Chalcedony Akerman
Tales of Hearts - Hisui Hearts (Aefenglom CRAU)
Tales of the Rays - Baldr
Touken Ranbu - Hizen Tadahiro
Touken Ranbu - Ichimonji Norimune
Transformers IDW - Soundwave
Your Wings and Mine - Shealtiel

I. CARNIVAL FUN

The moment a guest enters the carnival grounds, there is a high chance (read: optional) they will find themselves changed in some way to fit the spooky, haunted atmosphere. Instead of just wearing a vampire costume, the character will actually turn into one. Of course, how much of a transformation varies between complete to partial changes. It should be noted that this is only a cosmetic and ability change—no matter what someone changes into, they won't have any personality changes…unless one of the carnival attendants cast a small enchantment to make it so. Of course this is by chance as well (read: optional).

A. Haunted Food. While there is some standard fare carnival food around, the Haunted Carnival has some unique items with even more interesting effects:

Caramel Apples: Tart green apples dipped in caramel and decorated with chocolate to look like they’re covered in spiders and spider webs. Eating one of these will have the dreamer feeling crafty and industrious, just like spiders themselves often are. Also, the idea of eating bugs (or even other spiders?!) suddenly seems strangely appealing…
Cherry Blood Popcorn: Popcorn drenched in cherry syrup and decorated with candy bones. The combination of sugar and dreamotion energy leaves the eater feeling giddy and cheerful, somewhat in contrast to the gruesome appearance of the treat itself.
Funnel "Brain" Cakes: Funnel cakes colored to look like brains when served. Comes in regular or zombie brain varieties. Eating one makes you feel lethargic and hungry, like the only thing that matters is your next snack fix, but you’re not willing to do much more than shamble toward it.
Mummies in a Blanket: Small hot dogs wrapped in biscuit dough and decorated to look like mummies. After eating this, you may or may not want to wrap yourself into a blanket and take a nap—ideally somewhere dark and spooky.

B. FUN AND GAMES. Mixed in with the food vendors are several booths advertising a variety of carnival games, including but not limited to the ones below.. The prizes you win may or may not be cursed. Best of luck!

NERF Gun Shooting Gallery: Use dreamotion to shoot foam darts from a gun at various ghostly and ghouly targets lined up on a platform. Advanced players may want to try their hand at making the guns shoot other objects. Water? Fire? Glitter bombs? The only limit is one’s imagination.
Ring Toss: A series of witch hats are lined up, and the objective is to toss rings on the hats for points. Did something just peek up from under one of the hats? It’s probably nothing to worry about.
Potion Bottles: A variation of the milk bottles game wherein you throw balls to knock over flasks and beakers filled with strangely-colored liquid. In most cases, the spilled potion is totally harmless. Once in a while, however, it may have some interesting effects on the player and/or the booth itself.
Slime Pit: There’s a giant pit of slime with a sign next to it: prizes within for those willing to get a bit messy! Said prizes range from giant candy bars to random silly toys to skeletal limbs…? Oh that belongs to the skeleton having fun in the pit, they might want it back.

II. ATTRACTIONS

A. Hall of Mirrors. A classic maze of mirrors that are usually filled with special effects to make one's reflection look distorted. In the beginning the distortions are more humorous, making one look super skinny or extremely curvy. However, the deeper one goes, the reflections begin to look a bit…strange. The mirrors begin to reflect the "worst" side of an individual, but in a more embarrassing manner. When they first wake up in the morning, having a bad hair day, dressed poorly, being lazy on the couch—mostly benign things that would be embarrassing to show others. But there are some that may reveal one's darker self they wish to hide from others and are forced to face—especially when the reflections will step out and follow the original until the end of the maze. They won't do anything, just follow silently like a shadow, but even that may be taxing for anyone, especially if others see. The reflection must either be pushed back into an empty mirror, or it will disappear on its own when exiting the building.

B. Wild Carousel. The creatures on this carousel are not just colorful painted steeds but are more frightening in nature and looking more undead than living. Skeletal horses, direwolves, fanged deer with bloody horns. What makes this ride truly terrifying, however, is that the creatures are alive, restrained only by the pole stuck through them. But there are times when they manage to break free, causing havoc as they run through the park. The only good news is they don't attack, instead aiming for the carnival food as if hungry. Either hang on or help capture them back!

C. Cirque du Souleil. Near the center of the carnival is a large circus tent, and it boasts a variety of shows that are death defying, terrorific, and guaranteed to make everyone scream in fright and awe. The usual acts are available to see: acrobatics, musical performances, theatrical skits, and using ghostly steeds to ride through the large arena. But what makes this circus unique is that all the performers are capable of separating their soul from their physical body, similar to astral projecting or dreamwalking outside of dreams and being visible to all. And now they're asking for volunteer pairs to either participate in a more simple act such as an acrobatic stunt on the swings or tight rope…or eat a special candy that will allow them to have an out of body experience via dreamwalking outside. The only "flaw" is their dreamwalking form will tend to float up to the top of the tent, so their partner who hasn't eaten the candy has to tether them via dreamotion to get through some simple obstacles. No worries, the professionals will help return the soul if they get lost.

D. Spinning Bumper Cups. A combination of the classic bumper cars and spinning cups rides, this attraction has its riders in skull shaped bumper cars that will randomly spin. Riders have the ability to fire off "pumpkin bombs" at the others, which will splatter pumpkin goop to slow down their car. It will also make the car spin for a few rotations. Dreamotion will also help boost the speed, stabilize a spinning car faster, and make the pumpkin bombs more explosive. Just be careful—the barrier around the arena is made of bones and therefore quite brittle. It's not unusual to see a car spin out and lose control driving through the carnival grounds. Stop the runaway car and bring it back! Or shoot people with pumpkin bombs.

E. Ferris Wheel. Ah, the ferris wheel, a gentle ride that elevates one high in the air to allow them to see the sights below, in this case the entire carnival grounds and the surrounding areas like the bordering forests, the Observatory, and the edge of Reverein. However, as with everything in this carnival, the ride is not always so gentle. There are times when the entire ride accelerates to a faster pace, causing the (fortunately) enclosed cabins to rock dangerously as it rotates around. There are times when it keeps going, not letting anyone off until three rotations. And then there are times when the top half of the cabin disappears, exposing the riders to the cooler winds. Fortunately handle bars will appear they can hold onto, but no seat belts. Enjoy the view?

F. Other Rides. There are plenty of rides and attractions at the carnival, too many to list all of them here. A roller coaster, tower drop, gravitron, bungee jumps, pendulum ship—whatever one might think exists, it's there in all its twisted nightmare glory. One thing they all have in common is the more fear and thrill and screams generated, the faster they go. Just hope the ride doesn't stall and get stuck…

III. HAUNTING CLUES

Although the main purpose for these prompts is to find the clues, anyone is free to use them for general use and not focus on getting the clue. For those who do participate, we'll be asking for thread during our Activity Check! Those who are TDMing regardless of application can also have their threads counted by commenting to this thread and following the directions.

#1. Haunted Dollhouse. There is a special building called the Haunted Dollhouse. It's similar to a haunted house, however this attraction is filled with moving porcelain dolls that will try to scare and chase those who enter (it's quite likely some members of the newly added Porcelain Town have volunteered to help). Sometimes, those who enter are cursed into a doll and are now vulnerable. They are also not always able to move on their own will. This is not great as sometimes the dolls kind of…malfunction and will actually become aggressive. The weapons they wield are also not props, so that's a problem. However, they are small and can only inflict minor wounds and can be easily taken out.

The main clue here is "Villains!' I shrieked. 'Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! Here, here! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" To help both those who have turned into dolls as well as get the clue, everyone has to find the right place where some candied hearts are hidden. Fortunately the "blood trail" (it's raspberry syrup) will help lead them to the right place.

#2. Abandoned House. A little away from the main attractions there is a run down house surrounded by trees…and a lot of ravens. A raven with red eyes will guide those who dare or wish to face a lost loved one to the house. Inside it's just filled with faceless busts and empty paintings, but soon they are filled with the images of those lost ones. It could be a person, pet, thing, but they are there, just staring. Only the eyes and mouths move, and what the person hears are their insecurities and fears related to how they lost whatever they see. Anyone else will either see the original blanks or their own personalized images.

The main clue is "And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting // On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door // Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning // Shall be lifted – nevermore". To get out of this house, they have to first look for the bust that has the red eyed raven on it. This will be tricky as there will be many ravens with different colored eyes. Once they do, there will be a small picture frame. They must manifest one or more of the images they are seeing and capture it into the frame. This is simply done by waving it like a net, but the manifestation can move around. This can be as easy or difficult as a player wants, and how affected the character is from what they see and hear can also be a factor. The more affected they are, the easier it is to manifest but difficult to capture. The less affected, it will be more difficult to manifest as they have to tap into that raw fear, but will be easier to capture.

#3. Hay Bale Maze. Just outside of the circus tent is a large hay bale maze with the hay…looking as if it's seen much better days. It's filled with spooks that like to jump scare maze goers or bodiless limbs that reach out to grab, but aside from that it's harmless. Except for one particular figure.

The main clue is "Who dares?" he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him --"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him --that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!" There is a red clad figure wearing a skull mask. He will randomly bust through the hay walls and engage maze goers into a fight. Those who are incapable will flee in terror while the figure will chase, which will be a pretty good clue as to where he is. Once engaged, any weapon and dreamotion can be used at their disposal and the challenge is to just simply best him in a fight (not to the death). Striking the figure even once will earn a victory and the skull mask will be granted.

#4. Musical Catacombs. For a bit more lighthearted fun, there is an underground catacombs that is filled with tombs. Some of them have actual skeletons and ghosts sleeping in them, but they won't harm anyone if bothered. Just be a bit cranky, maybe throw a bone. At someone's head. Down here it's quite lively, filled with music, dancing, and a lot of alcohol. Minors will only get sparkling juice.

The main clue is "'Ha! ha! ha! — he! he! he! — a very good joke, indeed — an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo — he! he! he! — over our wine — he! he! he!' // 'The Amontillado!' I said." One of the games is a dancing game where the tombs will light up a certain color and participants have to properly hit the correct corresponding floor panel (basically a music rhythm/DDR themed game). Should they make a perfect score, one of the tombs will open and have a crusty wine bottle in it. It has competitor and co-op mode.

Comments

[lestray]

Good, cause up ain't an option right now!!

[She shouts back at him while trying to find their bearings. And she tries to start a descent that's as controlled as she can manage at the moment, but her movements are still jerky and uneven.]

Take a butcher's around!! Find us somewhere nice an' soft to land, won't ya?

[stillarhino]

[Beat does his best not to minimize his movement but it's hard when 1) he was upside-down, 2) she was still jerky with her own movements, and 3) he was Beat. Not moving was nearly impossible for him. Each jerk causes the bungee cord to extend and bounce upward, causing Beat to wobble every now and then.

He's able to at least understand that with the context and he tries to steady himself once more, squinting as he looks around.]

How's 'bout there!? [He points towards the hay bale maze a short distance away. While it might not be the softest landing, it was better than the other options they had.] You see the maze? Maybe you can drop me off 'round there.

[lestray]

[She looks down to scan the area ahead of them until she spots the maze ahead.]

That right there? It's all full o' 'ay, ain't it? That should do the trick!

[With that, she flaps with renewed determination towards the the maze in question, hoping to reach it before sagging down too far!]

[stillarhino]

[Each flap and each jerk caused the cord to bounce, even as Gina tried to steady herself. The longer this went on, the more Beat felt sick to his stomach. He lets go of the cord he'd been holding on to, completely hanging upside down with his mouth pressed against the inside of his elbow.]

I'm seriously gonna barf, yo. I dunno how long I can hold it in.

[lestray]

Gross!! Stop talkin' about that stuff, we're about to get this over with! 'ang in there, I'm goin' in!!

[She flies lower as they near the maze - such that Beat is practically swung into a pile of hay, and then Gina dives into a nearby pile!]

Oof!

[stillarhino]

[The arc and drop make it so Beat lands on his side, the impact causing the hay bale to sink under his weight, but not enough so the cushion is gone. The crowd from earlier moves closer, a bunch of busybodies upon seeing them on the ground. But Beat doesn't move after the landing, his eyes closed as he lies on his side.]

[lestray]

[Gina ends up just flopped face down on the hay, which quickly gets all over her. She groans as she tries peeling herself up.]

...Beat...? ...You alright...? [She mutters, blinking groggily as she tries to regain het bearings.]

[stillarhino]

[For a long moment, there doesn't seem to be any movement coming from Beat. The silence is deafening, especially when one knew exactly how loud things were when Beat was around. There is not a peep, not a single nudge, though it would seem that he is still breathing.









And then suddenly he moves, pressing both his palms firmly against the ground, pushing himself upward just enough to give him some space and air. And, staying true to his word, he begins to barf all over the scattered hay.]

[lestray]

[Gina looks towards him and sees him laying still, unresponsive. Panic, fear, worry fills her.]

Beat?! Beat, wake up-

[From a sitting position, Gina urgehtly tries to scamper towards him-

-And then it happens. She immediately backs away in an attempt to clear the splash zone! Her face twisting to disgust.]

Ugh!! Quit that! It's disgustin'!!

[stillarhino]

[He would if he could, Gina, but hanging upside down for as long as he did can do this to a guy. It takes a little bit before Beat is able to stop, but once he does, he pushes himself away from the splash zone and lies down on the soft hay underneath him. His eyes close once more, his breathing shallow as he tries to regain his bearings.]

Yo, stay away from the hot dogs. It don't sit right.

[Though his voice is a little softer than usual, his sense of humor seems to still be in tact.]

[lestray]

[Gina keeps her distance!! And tries to kick away any dirty hay near her.]

Oi!! I don't think the dogs were the problem 'ere, but now I won't be able to think of 'em wivout rememberin' this!! [She scolds. Way to go, Beat!

Still, she heaves a sigh and goes on with less severity.]

...You okay?

[stillarhino]

I'll stop feelin' sick when the world stops spinnin'.

[As much as he enjoyed dangerous activities, this was a little too much, even for him.]

Thanks, yo. For brinin' me back down.

[lestray]

[She looks away, a little sheepishly, as she takes that gratitude.]

The least I can do, after I brought ya on up to start wiv. [She folds her arms.] Just don't get yerself tangled up in things, alright? I know it musta looked fun seein' me for a fly, but ya didn't 'ave to come along for it!

[stillarhino]

[His face scrunches up and he gets up to a sitting position.]

Yo, wasn't like I was tryin' to!

[And just like that he looks green again as he puts a hand in front of his mouth. Probably sat up too fast.]

[lestray]

[She immediately backs away some more!]

Fine, fine! You weren't tryin'!! Now quit chuckin' yer food up everywhere alright??

[stillarhino]

[It takes him another second but he's able to hold it in this time around. Okay, no sudden movements.]

Wasn't kiddin' though 'bout you lookin' hella cool up there when you was flyin'.

[lestray]

[Oh thank goodness! She sighs in relief as the crisis averted - but then she ducks her head sheepishly at her praise and directs her attention to undoing her tether. That is probably something she should work on before moving again!]

...Thanks. 'Course I was good, I was a bat flyin' through the night sky! I wish I could say the same about you, but... [She sadly shakes her head.]

[stillarhino]

[You know what, let's not talk about that. But that doesn't mean Beat's going to let her off that easily too, what with her cockiness.]

I dunno, yo. I remember someone crashin' into me a little while ago 'fore she could fly pretty good.

[lestray]

[She huffs.]

That- that wasn't me fault! You didn't move outta the way!

[stillarhino]

I'm just messin' with ya, Smokes. No need to get your panties in a twist.

[lestray]

Oi, ai- ain't nuffin' twisted! Yer just impossible is all. [She shakes her head, but she doesn't seem too wound up off of it.]

You alright now? Can we get down from 'ere, or do you wanna 'it the 'ay for real?

[stillarhino]

Yeah, think I'm doin' aight now.

[But he moves slowly, still a little woozy from the upside-down ride. Once he gets down on his feet, he looks towards Gina.]

You think you gonna be able to do it again, yo? Flyin' 'round and stuff?

[lestray]

Yeah. I ain't gonna stop now. [She says with a light smile.]

Flyin' feels too good to quit! When I ain't towin' a 'ole person around. Come to think of it, wiv all these piles o' 'ay around, this might be a better place for me practice.

[stillarhino]

[Beat just rolls his eyes at that jab.]

Wouldn'ta even thought of this place if we didn't see it from up top. I dunno, Smokes, but sounds like you owe me for this place too.

[lestray]

Yeah, yeah, thanks an' all. [She reluctantly says while waving her hand around. But she starts to smile.]

I'd get ya bite to eat, but you don't look like ya can 'andle nuffin' right now. Just focus on restin' for now, I s'pose.