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✖ THE CARNIVAL

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL & THE TEMPLE
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
You can see the lights of the Ferris wheel from the water, and by the time you pull into port you can smell popcorn, cotton candy, grease, sawdust. Music drifts on the air, interspersed with screams from the rides.

The carnival is in town.

Not just any carnival, either - the carnival. The one to end all others. Every circus you ever read about or saw in a movie, with striped tents filled with acrobats and sideshows, midway games complete with carnival barkers in straw boater hats. But it's also every shitty fair that ever rolled through your hometown, with unreliable looking men with greasy mullets smoking as they jockey the Wild Mouse, the Gravitron, the Zipper, the Corkscrew. There's a constant stream of 80s hair metal playing underneath the roar of the rollercoaster tracks, blending somehow with the traditional piping organ of the carousel.

Experienced Travelers will know by now that every island has its own temple, and this one is no exception. It’s not in the carnival proper, though; if you step away from the lights of the midway and tents, you’ll notice dozens of old wooden circus trailers, arranged in a circle, growing tighter together the closer to the center you walk. The trailers are functional living places, with built in beds - sometimes one, sometimes two - and a small table and an old wood burning stove with a cooking top just big enough to boil a kettle on. There’s a toilet, but if you want a shower you’ll have to go outside and find a tent set up at the outskirts of the makeshift trailer park where there are tent showers set up, locker room style.

The clearing in the middle of the parked caravan is completely empty except for a solitary midway game: a towering high striker. It must be at least twenty feet tall, surmounted by a round, red bell. A wooden mallet is leaned against a sign next to the game that reads, predictably, TEST YOUR STRENGTH.

Step right up.

Notes:
1. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

2. These prompts are a jumping off point - how they affect your character and their development is up to you.

3. The island temple is accessible to all. The High Temple is only accessible to new characters this month - it will re-open to all others next month.

4. The Test your Strength game can be played by anyone. How well your character does is entirely up to you, but the game does not necessarily measure physical strength.

5. These residents of the island are normal humans. Killing them is possible and will affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation.

6. Any food found on the midway is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities.

7. Have fun!

Ⅱ. HALL OF MIRRORS
When it comes to amusements, the Hall of Mirrors has always been second-fiddle to the Haunted House. But the line for the former was shorter, so here you are. The guy working the door has weasel eyes and is smoking. He gestures for you and whoever is behind you to enter together; "No singles. For safety."

The lights are a dull neon, cycling from deep blue to cyan to purple and back again. You find that your outstretched fingers will bump against smooth, clear glass as often as not. The mirrors reflect the maze back into itself over and over, disorienting and strange.

Some of the mirrors are convex, some concave, and as you pass them your reflection warps and bends alongside that of whoever you're stuck inside the maze with.

At some point you will realise that the reflection looking back at you isn't quite right. It's still you, sure, but it's not how you really look, not on the outside.

Looking back at you from the cold glass is how you perceive yourself. Perhaps that's stronger, perhaps uglier, perhaps as a sniveling child or an ancient hag. And this reflection is going to follow you from mirror to mirror as you desperately try to find your way out.

One of you spots an exit sign, bleeding red light. Only catch is that it's behind a pane of glass. And another. And another. You could break your way through all of them, certainly, but it's not as if there's anything laying around for you to use to do so. Just yourself, which might work in action movies but tends to cause a lot of physical damage in the real world.

Above the glass someone has placed a sticker that reads, “who are you really?” in black sharpie. Answer it, and the glass will swing open. Don't, and well...

Guess you'll have several years worth of bad luck.

Notes:
1. Yes, characters can bash their way out of the maze, but it is real glass and will cut anyone who isn’t invulnerable. There is a first aid station run by extremely unreliable carneys on the premises, so hopefully they can patch themselves up enough there.

Ⅲ. THE CAROUSEL
CW: childhood trauma
Old fashioned organ music and a million flashing lights draws you to the carousel. It's a vintage delight: huge, with ornate animals carved out of wood and lovingly hand painted. There are horses, of course, but also lions and leopards and birds and rabbits and wolves... any animal you could want! In fact, you'll see an animal that looks perfectly YOU. You just have to climb up on it for a ride.

Settled on your mount, the ride begins to move. To your surprise, it begins to move backwards. You can't seem to ungrip the pole you're hanging on to, so you're helpless to escape as the ride spins again and again.

When it stops and you step off, you will be younger. You will in fact be the same age you were when a formative event happened to you.

You're a kid at a carnival! How fun! Well, maybe you're not that young, and it's probably not very fun at all considering that now your trauma is fresh.

The only way to become your proper age again is to get on the carousel and get it to run forward. Depending on your age, you might not be able to figure any of that out, but surely one of the other Travelers can help you. You'll definitely need someone to man the carousel controls. Oh, and be careful not to knock it into overdrive...

Notes:
1. If your character does not get back on the carousel and ride it in reverse, they will revert to their actual ages at the end of the month.

2. Please be especially mindful of content warnings with underage characters. A reminder that the game does not allow explicit sexual content with minors.

3. You do not have to regress your character to childhood - if a very formative event happened at age 20 for example, you can choose that route instead.

4. Speeding up the carousel while it is moving forward will result in, you guessed it, aging your character UP. Obviously you can ride it backwards again to fix this, or again the aging will be reversed at the end of the month.

Ⅳ. COULROPHOBIA
CW: clowns, suffocation
Who can possibly resist the big top? Not you! You're ushered into the tent and you take a seat in the stands, where you have an excellent view of the huge ring before you. The excitement in the air is palpable, and even if you're the grouchy type you'll find yourself a little bit thrilled.

It's a little surprising when the lights go up to the sound of screaming guitars. Mist belches from hidden foggers, and flames shoot from near the center of the ring. The lights stutter red, blue, green. The whole thing is a lot more rock show than it is Ringling Brother's.

At any rate, even if the ringmaster looks like a reject from a trailer park metal band and the music is liable to burst some eardrums, it's still a circus. There are trained horses and riders, contortionists, and a score of talented trapeze artists. It's all sparkling and impressive and terrific fun.

The trapeze artists take their bows, clearly ready for a break. And if a break is needed at the circus? You know what happens next, don't you?

SEND IN THE CLOWNS!

The clowns spill into the ring, all sorts of them! There's Harlequin and Pierrot, Auguste and Tramp. There's Bozos and Ronalds and Clarabelles and Krustys. Hopefully no Gacys, but there's so many of them that it's hard to know for sure.

One of these clowns - the one you hate the most, of course - approaches you in the stands. With comically exaggerated movements, it leans close to you and whispers...

Well. It whispers horrible things to you, really. It recounts to you some instance in your life where you delighted in the suffering of another, a moment where you really and truly were happy that somebody else was hurt. It's not a moment to be proud of, for sure, but as the clown tells your own secret shameful joy to you, you start to laugh. Really laugh - soon you're bent over double, tears running down your face, absolutely howling with laughter.

Your stomach hurts, and you're running out of breath. Very soon you won't be able to breathe at all.

Eventually, one of your fellow travelers won't be able to resist asking you, "What's so funny?"

The only way to stop laughing is to tell them. Otherwise you're going to pass out right where you sit, a creepy clown leering over you the whole time. Maybe your fellow traveler will be nice enough to drag you out of there if that happens, because if you're left alone? Everybody knows clowns get so much scarier alone in the dark.

Notes:
1. What happens if you really do get ditched with the clowns? Great question. Maybe they make you one of them. Maybe they eat you. Maybe you just wake up in the Big Top dressing room and see all the clowns smoking cigars and taking their floppy shoes off to film Clown Foot Erotica.

It wouldn't be a party without some jams.

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"They're naturally purple, yeah." She confirms as she helps him over to the bench, once he seems to be settled on it she sits down next to him.

"Cancer? Fuck, seriously?" Her brows furrow and she rubs his back, trying to give some kind of comfort. "I'm really sorry to hear that...uh what's your name?"

"You a mutant?"

There's no judgment in his voice. After all, he's on the precipice of calling a number on a card of a guy who promised to cure him of his cancer using experimental mutant DNA. As a mercenary, he'd worked with some mutants...and also been hired to go after a few. They were just people like anybody else.

"Yeah," he sits. "It's funny. You manage not to get killed in so many other ways you were just begging to get killed, and then the big C jumps up and stabs you in the lungs. And the pancreas. And the liver. And the lymph nodes."

He huffs a laugh. I'm Wade. But I guess not for long."

"Kind of." She says, interested how he jumped straight to mutant but then again Kyle had told her that she wasn't the only superpowered person on the island. "I guess technically I'm a government created superpowered person but it's basically the same thing. I'm gen-active."

"Nice to meet you Wade, I'm Roxy." She says and gives him a curious look, "So you managed not to get killed by other ways? Are you like, a soldier or something?"

"Gen-active. That what the kids are calling it these days?" He lifts an eyebrow, but then the government part catches up to him. "Wait. Weapon X reach out to you too? And it worked? They cured you of whatever you had?"

He shrugs. "Hey Roxy. I'm a mercenary. Was a soldier, but didn't work out." A series of coughs doubles him over.

"You know what's weird? I have no idea how I got here."

Her eyebrows go up and she shakes her head. "Weapon X? Never heard of it, I was rounded up by a fucked up government branch called I.O. to get tested on because my Dad was gen-active and passed it onto me."

She continues to rub his back as he coughs, her eyes going troubled. He needs help and she can't exactly cure his cancer but the fact that he doesn't remember getting here is interesting. He's wearing a Scrywatch like she is and so far everyone she's met who has one remembers landing on the island, so why is this guy different?

"What do you remember?" She asks slowly.

Wade snorts. "The fact that there's more than one fucked up government branch experimenting on people with powers doesn't surprise me at all. Mine's the Canadian flavor. What's yours?"

It really feels like there's something on the tip of his tongue as she asks him what he remembers. Like, he fucking hates that smirking carny. But why? He pinches the bridge of his nose as he leans over his knees, trying to figure this out. C'mon, Wade, your one of the best mercs out there. Or you were before the cancer. You got this!

"Just...getting cancer, and getting a number to call, and leaving Vanessa, and..."

The memories are so fresh and new, but if he'd left Vanessa for this Weapon X program, then why was he here at a carnival?

"I think...I remember...getting off that carousel. But not getting on."

As he speaks, the ride starts up again...going backwards, like it did for him.

"Omg right? It's so fucked up. Canadian though eh? Does that make you Canadian as well?"

She watches as he struggles to remember, her heart going out to him as he looks so lost and in pain. When he mentions the carousel she looks up just in time to see it suddenly start up, spying the carny who seems to be manning it. They lock eyes for a moment and she looks away quickly, not liking the way he is looking at her.

"It's going backwards." She says, rubbing the back of her neck absently. Trying to shake off the shiver that is trying to walk down her spine. Something about a carousel going backwards seems...wrong.

"Originally, yep. But I probably spend more time in the States nowadays." He frowns as he looks around. "Speaking of...where am I? Where is this?"

He doesn't quite miss that she didn't answer what flavor of secret her government organization is. Well, that makes sense, especially if she's still part of it. And if she isn't...old habits died hard. This was especially true when revealing secrets could mean you would die harder.

"It sure is." Wade watches it go and go, faster and faster, the few people who'd gotten on this time becoming a blur that was impossible to watch. Yet watch the Carny did, and intently at that. What a creeper.

"Well, if you can't tell me where your shady government organization is from, what power did they shove up your butt?"

For a moment he winces hard. Something about that phrasing nearly brought everything into focus, because Deadpool was fond of saying they shoved Wolvie spunk up his butt to create him. If Roxy stuck around him long enough once he was back to normal - if he got back to normal - she'd likely hear it.

Because of this, he misses that the people who stumble off the carousel when it comes to a stop are much younger than they were when they got on it. It's something Roxy might catch, if her perception is good enough.

(OOOOHHH!! D&D nerd reference!!!)

Wade blinks. "Huh. I think I just saw parenthetical text floating in the air. Didn't know the cancer came with hallucinations."

She thinks about how to answer his question as she isn't exactly sure where they are since she just got here herself but she can at least tell him some of what seems to be going on.

"Uhh we're on a weird island that seems to be out of time or in another dimension. Since you have a funky bracelet like me you probably got here on a boat being driven by a weird ferryman who doesn't respond well to questions."

A little laugh escapes her when he asks what power they shoved up her butt, "So far as I know I.O is all over the states but it wouldn't surprise me if they also had connections to your Canada thing. Maybe they all go to the same Christmas party or something."

The sound of crying children turns her attention away for a second and she glances at the carousel, suddenly worried that the creepy carny might be doing something gross. But no, he's still standing by the controls, looking smug.

"I don't like that guy." She says more to herself and then turns back to Wade, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, what about texting?"

When she mentions his bracelet, glances at it. The screen is glowing a bright and vibrant orange. He lifts his arm and wiggles it a little, watching the little thing dance on his wrist.

"Huh. Well, at least I know that even in the middle of a memory fritz, I accessorize for fall pretty well."

Alternate dimensions and time bubbles were pretty wild, and definitely beyond his pay grade. That was some crazy superhuman shit. But the idea of secret shady government stooges gathering at the same Christmas party to exchange white elephant gifts made him snicker.

"He sure is a creeper." He pauses. "Wait...did you just use the word 'text' as a verb?" Oh yes, Wade was just Wade long before the advent of cell phones and texting.

"Oh yours is orange." She says and lifts her own up for him to see, "Awww I want fall colors, mine is green."

The look she gives him when he questions her conjugation is one that says 'uh DUH old man' and she rolls her eyes. "Yeah you said something about texts in the air, I thought you were talking about texting someone. Does that mean you have a cellphone? I didn't have mine when I arrived here which sucks because it had all my photos on it."

"Huh...I guess you'll be set for spring?"

He's also betraying a distinct lack of knowledge of what the colors mean which is odd because that's been explained. However, both his body and mind are in the pretty distant past.

"Cell? Do you meant Sat?" As a mercenary, he'd used the latest in Satellite Phones, but a 'cell phone' was foreign to him. "Wait, why would you tape your photos to your phone? I mean, I know they're big and bulky but..." That's a sure way to let your enemy know what matters to you is what he was about to say, but he's not sure if that's a problem for her.

At this point, a few more adults had gotten onto the carousel, it had gone backwards, and they had gotten off at various younger ages than they'd been when they'd gotten on.

"I guess, but fall is the best. It's got Halloween."

"Omg you don't tape photos to your cell, it's on them. You're talking like you're an old man or something." She says, exasperated by his sudden out of date views on technology. She sighs and turns her head, glancing at the carousel. Finally noticing that the people who are getting off are very much not the same as when they got on.

She's not the brightest bulb but hey, give her enough time she'll get it.

"Wait wait wait, shut up for a second." She says and points at the carousel. "You said you rode that thing right? But you don't remember anything really before that?"

"Oh well yeah. What's spring got, some stupid Easter Bunnies? And that's pretty religious too so if you're not into that kinda thing...meh. Oh yeah and flowers."

Wade looks pretty confused at being called old. He's in his 30s, so...not that old. And over a sat phone that she kept calling a cell phone? Maybe her shady organization just had its own weird vocabulary. Who knew? But he now had no idea what she meant by photos being on the phone.

"But-" And then she cuts him off. "Yes? And uh...no?"

In this batch, there were a few people who were now curled up in a fetal position on the ground, clearly going through some shit. Neither of them could know it, but they were reliving past trauma, same as Wade was but more mentally debilitating. The carny watched them intently, seeming to drink in their pain with his eyes. Sure, this was about people learning lessons about themselves just like so much else on these islands, but that didn't mean the guy initiating it couldn't be a fucking sadist with long greasy hair dangling from a large bald pate with shitty teeth...so you know, a cliche.

"Flowers are nice but I'll pass on the whole Easter religious thing. I got forced to go to an all girl's Catholic school when I was young so noooo thanks."

Looking at the people who have fallen to the ground around the carousel Roxy's eyes narrow, focusing on the sadistic carny who is running it. It's the smile that does it, that smug satisfied smile. Roxy knows from first hand experience what being on the receiving end of a smile like that is like. She can remember one instance in particular where a man by the name of Trance kept her in mental anguish and no matter how much she screamed he just looked at her and smiled.

"Fuck that guy, and fuck this one." She says and stands up, looking at Wade. "Are you okay to walk? I think I have an idea on how to help you."

"Ewwwwww. I'm sorry. But hey, some of the coolest people are reformed Catholic school kids."

The Carny doesn't notice Roxy looking at him because he's so focussed on the victims of his cruel carousel. His eyes flick from person to person as he licks his lips a little. Who knows what's going through his disgusting little mind? Well...okay, so that's not terribly hard to guess. This is more and more a guy straight out of a Stephen King novel, perverse disgusting thoughts and all.

"I...I think so. Guess I better be...but I don't think you can do much for cancer. Forgive me if I don't put much faith in you there." He offers a weak smile, making a sad little gallows humor joke that had little actual humor to it.

"Let's hope I'm on that list."

She offers him an encouraging smile, "Can't hurt it, might help. If I'm wrong about this then I offer to be your personal nurse while you're here okay?"

Getting up off the bench she makes her way over to the carousel, her smile fading and a look of angry determination settling onto her face. "Hey asshole!" She says as she gets closer to the carny who is lording over the fallen people around him.

"You've got about ten seconds to tell me how to fix this or else I'm gonna make your testicles weigh as much as the elephant in the big top." The carny looks up at her surprised, he seems to weigh his options for a moment and then takes off running. He doesn't get very far though, should he look down he'll realize that his feet are no longer on the ground. Roxy smirks and twitches her hand, controlling the gravity around him like some sort of anti-gravity bubble that floats him back over to them.

"Ten second pal."

"I wouldn't wish being my personal nurse on anybody. But hey, I am at the Literally Try Anything point. You don't get much lower than being willing to trust shady government organizations with your health, safety, and wifi password."

Wade watches as she approaches the carny, wondering what kind of show he's about to get treated to. A spectacular one, that's what. If he could still responsibly be in love with Stage 80 Everything Cancer, the testicles threat would have him swooning. But the actual use of the power...oh, that's fun too. He wishes he had powers. Why? Because he never fucking learns, that's why.

"Why don't you take a ride and see?" The carny, despite being in a very bad position, somehow doesn't fail to try to ensnare another victim. "You've really got to experience it to understand."

"No offence but it looks like the experience sucks." Roxy says, motioning at the people laying around them. She motions with her hand again and the carny suddenly gasps, his eyes going wide.

"Feel that? That's your balls suddenly weighing four extra pounds for only two seconds." She says, "Wanna go for ten pounds or do you want to start talking?"

Small beads of sweat start to stand out on his forehead but the carny continues to smile and finally in a sing song voice he says; "And the seasons they go 'round and 'round, and the painted ponies go up and down. We're captive on the carousel of time, we can't return we can only look behind. From where we came, and go round and round and round. In the circle game."

Wade watches her work, continuing to appreciate her style. The way she casually uses her powers and threatens the guy - yeah, she had experience doing this. Yet she was also doing good. That was different for someone from a shady government group. It seemed there had to be a story there - how did one go from that kind of experience to wanting to do some good in the world? Maybe there was hope for him with this Weapon X program after all. Of course, he didn't have much faith in that. Mostly he just figured that it'd be like working for a mercenary group, only worse.

"Um," he says as the carny starts to go off, "Well that's creepy. Does that normally happen when you pretty literally give the guys blue balls?"

Roxy would be surprised to hear that someone appreciates her style, her other teammates back home are always telling her that she's too impulsive, too loud, and far too casual when it comes to using her powers. They've tried to get her to think more before she acts but she can't help the way she is, she goes with her heart and she's not about to waste time figuring out a cryptic mystery when poor Wade is dying of cancer.

"Tres creepy." She agrees and cracks a smile when he asks her about blue balls, she doesn't respond but looks at the carny who has lapsed into muttering the same poem over and over. "....captive on the carousel of time hrm?"

She drops the carny onto the ground as he is of no help anymore and then looks at Wade, "You game to give another one of my ideas a try?"

"You know, if you'd asked me a few minutes ago, I would've said yes. After seeing you work, my answer is definitely yes. Your ideas are radical."

Oops. He was doing so well, and then his vocabulary slipped back to late 80s, early 90s.

(What are we, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?!)

"There goes that text in the air again..." He frowns in confusion, trying to poke at it. Naturally, for Roxy, there is nothing there to see. But interestingly, this shows that when it manages to break through, his parenthesis are not affected by the time regression.

She laughs, enjoying the way Wade is up for anything. She guesses that when you are literally at the end of your rope you kind of just stop giving a fuck.

"All right, hop on the carousel then my friend." She says and motions for him to climb up onto it while it's not moving, meanwhile she goes over to the controls. They don't look too hard, after all you don't have to be a genius to work the carnival, a large lever that controls the speed and another that makes it go in reverse or forwards. She pulls the lever to the forwards motion and looks up to see if Wade is ready before putting it into motion.

"I'm going to start it on slow and let me know if you feel anything kay? Good or bad."

Edited 2021-09-08 21:19 (UTC)

Oh Roxy, you poor, sweet summer child. If you think you've seen zero fucks given now, just wait. You're about to recreate Deadpool. Your writer knows this, but whoo boy. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate what we know and Roxy doesn't?

Wade shifts, perhaps feeling his unusually fourth wall breaking narration but unable to see that particular text (yet...give him another Carousel ride). Perhaps it's just anxiety over getting on that ride again? Sure. He'll think that. With some trepidation, he clambers back onto the ride, choosing the rainbow unicorn. again.

"Sure thing."

As if suddenly realizing what's about to happen, a look of panic crosses the carny's face. Ironically, in this situation he might be the hero? Not that anyone knows it. His jaw drops, and he looks so much more terrified than he did at Roxy's threats. Things are about to go very, very badly for him and he knows it.

"NO!!," he yells, crawling towards her in attempt to ward off his own impending doom.

Roxy flips the carny off as she pulls the speed lever to the slowest option, getting ready to use her powers to slow it even more just in case. The last thing she wants is this old thing to suddenly jerk forward and slam a cancer patient into one of those metal bars going down into the horse.

The carousel starts back up, the calliope music warbling into tune, and it starts to slowly move forward.

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cw: mention of mental abuse

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