Follow the Carnival... ([personal profile] fantasticcarnival) wrote in [community profile] carnymemes2019-09-12 11:50 pm
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TDM #001

Guidelines
-Doubles are permitted on the TDM, but not on reserves.
-Bullying and godmodding are not allowed.
-Triggers should be mentioned at the beginning of a toplevel.
-Subject lines should read like this: Character Name | Canon | Carnival Job (Read the appropriate post in the navigation to find a job for your character! This does not have to be their job in the game.)




Hitching Your Ride

[ Only you can say what you were doing before it happens, but the story begins as you are suddenly jolted from your position into a whirl of air. You might have ridden rollercoasters or ridden fast horses, but you’ve never felt the wind whip past your face as quickly as this. It’s what you imagine being trapped in a tornado must feel like, only by some miraculous grace you aren’t being torn apart. Gritty dirt gets in your eyes, your nostrils, your mouth no matter how hard you try to shield your face. Tiny pebbles sting your skin as the force of the wind flings them toward you. It’s only when the shrieks of the howling wind begin to slow down that you realize the real danger.

They’re mere yards away from you, beasts that come up past your hip in height yet still walk on all four legs. They look to be hounds, or wolves, maybe, with dark, scraggly brown fur and eyes that shine red even in the dim light of the dust clouds. You can hear their snarls and growls over the howls of the wind, now. There must be a dozen of them in this pack, all of them hungry for what you can safely assume is flesh. Yours, maybe.

You hear a sharp whistle and you can just barely make out the source of the sound through the haze. It’s a man in raggedy denim overalls, waving you towards him. The closer you get to him, the clearer it will get – an impressive caravan of trailers, housecars, and trucks packed to the gills with materials. Some of the vehicles will be painted with advertisements leading you to realize that this man, the man who directed you to join them, is a part of a traveling carnival. They’re already on their way away from the storm, but there are some cars lingering behind, catching disoriented people like you who are stumbling out of the dust cloud. ]


“Put a move on it! You wanna be that thing’s dinner?”


Welcome To The New World Order

[ It’s a matter of a couple of hours before you reach the next town and outrun what you learn from a roustabout were a pack of hellhounds. ”Those things are out for our blood. I’ve seen them take a couple carnies and it ain’t pretty. No one knows why they want us, they just *do *.” He says to you, turning a wad of tobacco around in his mouth as he speaks.

When you get to the next campground, everyone is ready to work. Whether you choose to help set up or simply stay out of the way is up to you. Nobody will bother you just yet. You’re still green and you haven’t been charged with a real job. You can check out the tents, mill about and meet the others who have been brought here and actually talk to them. After all, if you ran into somebody in the last town, you didn’t exactly have time to talk to them.

Maybe this is when you get called into Mr. Fantastic’s trailer and have the deal laid out for you. You see, protection doesn’t come for free. Either you work for the carnival, live in one of the tents or trailers or housecars, and travel with them, or you get left in the dust as hellhound bait. It should be an easy choice, right? So, what’s your new job, carny? ]



Come One, Come Two, Come All

[ When the sun sets, the lights come on and the carnival comes alive. Music plays, the shows begin, the barker starts shouting promotions for shows, maybe even your show if you have one! It’s a magical environment, but those who have been here the longest always seem to be looking over their shoulder, waiting for something sinister to happen.

What is your role? How well do you play it out? When you go on break, what sights do you stop to see? After all, there’s plenty to explore around the carnival grounds. Plenty of tents to peep inside.

Mr. Fantastic adheres to a pretty strict rule. Carnivalgoers leave the grounds by midnight. After that time, it’s carnies and carnies alone on the carnival grounds. Are you too tired to mingle as people clean up and close up or is this when you come alive? It’s all up to you, but if you want to practice your act tomorrow or refine your recipe for candy apples in the morning you’d better get some sleep. ]
januarystar: (happy)

[personal profile] januarystar 2019-09-20 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, Hardison,

[ Starlight smiled easily. It was reassuring that there seemed to be a sense of community among the carnies even though they’d only just been thrown together. This place had a way of making people feel like they didn’t belong, and, of course, they didn’t. It was mostly just the rousties and a small handful of the performers who actually came from this weird little world. The rest of them? Well, Annie hadn’t stopped to speak to anyone about where they came from, but judging by other freaks she’d seen, she didn’t think that everyone came from the same place.

She nodded her head in response to his question. She’d do anything she could to help his show. ]


Sure. What is it you need?
dies_in_plan_m: (Investigating)

[personal profile] dies_in_plan_m 2019-09-20 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[Hardison smiled. She was adorable. Not a mark because it's almost impossible to con an honest man or woman (even if tricking one could be agonizingly easy). But definitely naive and helpful and he hoped that never left her.]

I'm after two things to make my magic show better. The first is a bigger tent, because even your part of the freak show is bigger than the fortune teller tent. The second is a person or two to help me with some of the tricks. I think you'd enjoy it as a break from the freak show, and I also saw that the knife thrower's assistant is about the same height, build, and hair colour as you are.

[He grinned widely.] And if I can persuade both of you to help me that really opens a lot of tricks up as long as there's only ever one of you visible on my stage at a time.

[He hoped that he didn't have to tell her stage magic wasn't real, and that she'd realise what he was suggesting. But the hint to let her work it out would tell him how sharp she was.]