{ 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

[monoceroscaeli]

[In that moment, he realizes that he might of gone a little too far. He got the feeling that Ken had been through his own struggles, especially if he has a power like the one he saw not but a few minutes ago, but that doesn't mean Ken is from a world like his. One where monsters are just a normal part of life and warriors like him exist everywhere.

And this sort of explains the step back earlier and the mild nervousness he's sensing from Ken.]

Ah... [He pauses for a second, looking apologetic.] Careful around me, or careful of what dangers may chase us? If I frightened you, I truly didn't mean to. Where I'm from, sudden and unpredictable combat situations are more common than not, with monsters that roam the land freely attacking travelers and merchants all the same. I've been training a good part of my life to take on all challenges, and I just happen to really enjoy what I do.

[He hopes that's good enough of an explanation for Ken. Childe does feel a little bad if he had scared him, he doesn't want to make a kid afraid of him...just everyone else.]

[whatsamada]

[Despite his words, there was a sense of unease from the boy. Even if his world was more dangerous, it doesn't erase how much Childe seemed to enjoy fighting. It was a little different from how one of his teammates reacted to fighting shadows. At least, Akihiko only did it to get stronger.

Here? Ken wasn't sure. He kept quiet as he looked at him with a small frown.]

I guess a little bit of both? But I know you weren't trying to scare me, it's just a little odd to see someone who enjoys fighting for the sake of it.

[Was he too blunt? That's why his head sunk into his shoulders.]

...Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. That was a little rude.

[monoceroscaeli]

Haha, it's quite alright.

[He smiles brightly back at the boy. Seems as if Ken's got a good head on his shoulders too, and Childe hardly blames him for feeling uneasy after the display he put on fighting those dolls.]

I won't deny that I enjoy battle more than most. Fighting is what I'm best at, and if I could fight every day, I would. It's a...passion of mine.

[Probably not helping things, but he won't lie to Ken.]

I simply seek improvement in every fight I take part in. I just happen to see the fun side of it, too. I don't think it would do anyone a bit of harm to find enjoyment in battle. That includes you, as well. If I were to guess, this wouldn't be your first fight either.

[whatsamada]

[At least Childe wasn't trying to hide that he was indeed a little crazy in regard to fighting. Passion or not, it seems that the boy had to make sure never get on his bad side.

On that note, he scratched the side of his head before looking at the exit.]

No, it isn't. If anything, I'm used to fighting but there aren't a lot of monsters back in my world.

[Pause]

At least, they only show up at a specific time. That's when my teammates and I go and fight them.

[monoceroscaeli]

[If he lived in Ken's world, he'd look forward to that time every day. Though he's not sure how he feels about battle being on a schedule...]

As exciting as that sounds, I'm a little surprised to hear that such a responsibility has been laid on someone so young. No offense of course, I'm not doubting your abilities, and quite frankly I'm impressed that you wield such power...it's just that I think something like that should be left in the hands of adults.

[Ken is Tonia's age. He could never imagine letting Tonia fight off monsters.]

Unless of course, you've no other choice.

[whatsamada]

[Ah, yes, he was fully prepared for someone to talk to him about his age. While he didn't mind, it was just a reminder that he was still just a kid. As he thought about his response, he gave a mumble or two.]

It's not that I didn't have a choice, it was something that I wanted to. If I could protect people from shadows and all the chaos they did, then I think it's worth it.

[That and he didn't know how truthful he should be to someone he just met.]

And it means I still can grow as a fighter.

[monoceroscaeli]

[To that, Childe sets a hand on his hip and beams back at Ken.]

That's a fine reason, and if you ask me, the right kind of attitude.

[It's clear that whatever world he lives in, there's no going back now. No matter what the Harbinger's opinion is, Ken leads a life that fights monsters, these "shadows" that he's just referred to.

At least the boy has taken it in stride. At least, that's how it seems to him.]

I know a number of people here who would make for excellent sparring partners, if you're serious about getting stronger. I think your abilities would keep them on their toes too, haha.

[whatsamada]

Is that so? I'm assuming that you might be one of those people who would be willing to help me?

[Not that he wants to be just like Akihiko always look for a fight. He did want to be stronger and especially now that he was without any of his teammates here.]

I think that wasn't your best when you fought those dolls, was it? Something tells me that your powers are a lot stronger.

[monoceroscaeli]

[The grin Ken gets shows nothing but confidence and a hint of cockiness on his end. He's been impressed with how Ken is assessing the situation, not only of the dolls but of him as well. He's got a lot of potential- the Harbinger can see it.]

You're right, and in fact if I hadn't needed the extra speed, there would have been no need to use the power granted to me as a Harbinger. Hm...I suppose if you're comfortable enough with me, I would certainly help you improve your combat skills. You've got a good reason to fight- and to me, besides having the drive to continuously become stronger, that's the only thing that matters.

[And he's delighted to help Ken appreciate battle more!]

[whatsamada]

That and I kind of don't want to depend on anyone. Now that I'm without any of my teammates, it would be a little difficult when I'm used to having them to support me.

[He gave a slight frown before quickly looking at the ground. Not that he wants to admit it but he was still, in fact, just a kid. He could fight but there was only so much he could do.]

You seem like a strong person so I think maybe you can help me. And I am a little curious what else you could do.

[monoceroscaeli]

Well, you're more than welcome to find out.

[Because Ken's right and it's reflected in the confidence in Childe's voice. Sounds like they've got an agreement here to him, so he nods at Ken and gestures for him to follow.]

Once we're out of here, I'll do an assessment on you and we can figure out where you're at and what to work on. We'll do a little sparring too- you'll find that sparring with me will teach you things you didn't know were possible.

[He'll make a little murder machine out of him yet]

[whatsamada]

[As Ken followed him, a part of him had to wonder just how much he could trust him. So far, it seems like he was a trustworthy person. However, at the same time, it was difficult when he just met him.]

Then I hope you won't go easy on me just because I'm young. I'm a lot tougher than I look.

[Was he being childish by saying that? Yes he was but he didn't want to be underestimated.]

[monoceroscaeli]

Don't worry, I'll make sure I push you as far as I can. How else will you know what you need to do to further your limits as a warrior?

[And he'll keep his promise on that one.]

But for now, let us look to the road ahead than worry about the minute details of it all. I think you'll find that it'll be quite enjoyable.