🤡🤡🤡

[polymods]

✖ 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.

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

Kyle Broflovski | South Park (adult au) | OTA

[kyley_b]

A: Temple of Sawdust

Once the rides are no longer illuminated by the sun but rather by hundreds upon hundreds of twinkling bulbs, Kyle can be found among the caravans. He's found one that seems empty, and has taken a seat in the doorway. In his hands he holds a cup of hot water with lemon, sipping it idly as his eyes continue to trace struts and scaffolding. Music drifts, screams echo.

"Jesus, this is gonna run all night, I think," he says. He sounds both impressed and a little annoyed.


B: A-MAZE-ing!
[CW: blood]

The maze doesn't look difficult, but of course that's its great deception. Glass and mirror switch places, and in the nighttime neon it's difficult to tell a clear barrier from an actual doorway.

Kyle starts out amused, hands outstretched a little so that his fingers bump against glass every so often. "Piece of cake," he tells anybody who happens to be nearby. "These things are never that hard if you just go slow."

Its a statement he forgets by degrees. The lights continue to cycle - cyan, blue, purple, pink, yellow, green - casting unnatural hues on his reflected skin. The further in he moves the less he likes his reflection. It looks sickly. Too skinny. Ugly.

"Okay, must go faster," he mutters, walking faster. His reflection chases alongside, spurring him on until he's running. He takes a corner and runs right into a clear pane of glass with a meaty thud. Kyle bounces off and falls to his ass. It's entirely comical aside from the blood pouring from his nose. He claps his hands to it with a little scream.


C: Hey HEY!
[CW: clowns, serial killers.]

Kyle was enjoying the show up until this point. It was a bit like someone took Cirque du Soleil and jammed a bunch of cocaine up its ass before turning it loose in a heavy metal disco. It was loud and vulgar and somehow very American, and Kyle was honestly loving it.

But then... fucking clowns.

And of course they come for him. Of course. It's just his luck. The one that crawls over some empty seats toward him is heavyset, sweating through his red clownsuit. His face is white, the eyes blue triangles, the mouth a screaming pointed smile of bleeding greasepaint. He's holding balloons.

Kyle realises with a start that this clown is done up to look exactly like John Wayne Gacy as Pogo. It's a bad realisation, and Kyle shrinks back as the clown leans in. His breath smells like onions and something fetid and dead. Kyle freezes as the clown whispers in his ear.

The clown withdraws, eyes rolling horribly as he backs away. He gropes once at his crotch and then turns to flee down the aisles, waving and handing out balloons.

Kyle meanwhile starts giggling, high pitched and shrieky. It doesn't take long for the giggles to turn to a shrill cackling. His body shakes helplessly and tears stream from his eyes. He slaps a hand blindly at whoever is sitting next to him, desperate to communicate that he is NOT okay.

B

[cute_hats]

How Molly had found her way into the line for the house of mirrors, she wasn't sure. It was probably too much of a sugar high. After all, there were so many more exciting rides! Roller coasters! Gravitrons!! That thing that takes you up and drops you!! Mirrors and carousels were lame. They didn't go fast or make your stomach flop or anything.

But if your stomach had already flopped a few too many times, the change of pace was nice. And hey, everything here was free! Or rather, she seemed to have more than enough money to cover whatever she wanted to do. When something lame was free, it was somehow less lame. Nothing lost but time...and time seemed to be in large supply here.

"Ugh. Boooorrrrrriiiing." That didn't mean she didn't try to put on cool kid airs as she wandered into the maze after that redhead guy. Pairs for safety? What was dangerous about this thing?

"Hey I like your hair!," she tried to call after Kyle, "It's really big! And red!" But he was gone, off into the maze and separated by several panes of glass. Now there were a bajillion of him, and her.

She wanders for a while, actually liking the shifting colors and what they do to the mirrors despite herself. Maybe her initial idea of the place had been wrong. It was actually kinda cool, in that it was really pretty. She pauses to look into the mirror at herself to see how the lights make her look.

"Yeah. So freaking cool." She grins at herself. Then she makes a fun face. And another. Boy, she really looks so big and strong!!! She hadn't realized how awesome she looked! Maybe that came from living on the run for a while with no regular bathrooms mirrors.

But the mirror also showed her with a cape and a fun superhero costume. Princess Powerful!!! She looked down at herself, and her limbs were kind of gangly and there was no costume.

"Huh. Weird."

Then she hears the redhead scream, and she looks around. Several reflections show him holding his nose, but he also looks much worse than she'd thought. Skinny and pimply and ugly. Like, not good skinny. Did something worse happen than a mirror accident?

"Don't worry! I'll find you!!" She starts to dash around, trying to figure out the way to the real him. She's so focused on it that she doesn't notice that not every mirror reveals the same truth. Some are more mean, showing a little girl, small and alone. Princess Powerful and Lonely Orphan alike watch her as she dashes around, growing more frustrated by the maze.

"These things are the woooorst", she complains as the whimsical fun maze turns into an obstacle to help a guy out. "I really don't know why the grownups like them so much."

[kyley_b]

It takes Kyle a minute to realise that the girl who came into the maze with him is still around. He'd sort of forgotten about her, absorbed instead with the mirrors. Her voice carries well, though, and so he looks up with watering eyes.

Kyle winces as he gets up, one hand still cupping his nose. His shirt's going to be ruined, he thinks.

"Don't go too fast!" he shouts. "That's how I walked into a fucking glass wall." He winces again as he gingerly presses the bridge of his nose. He's pretty sure it's not broken. Pretty sure.

"I'm just gonna stay here and wait for you."

[cute_hats]

Molly's shoulders duck on reflex as he swears, for a moment expecting Kare or Nico or Chase or Gert's hands to come down over her ears. It wasn't like she didn't know swears! And it wasn't like they didn't swear. But everyone just kind of felt like they should try to be good in front of the youngest of them.

It's a sad moment, because it makes her remember that her friends aren't here and all she has to rely on is herself. But she physically shakes it off and steels herself and puts on her positive face. She has to be a hero for Mr. Redfro!

"Roger roger!", she shouts back. Because Molly had totally watched The Clone Wars.

"Hey! Maybe we could make it a game! I'll shout Marko, and you can shout Polo, and that'll help me find you! Like we're in a pool!"

[kyley_b]

Kyle, of course, has been swearing since he was a toddler. He thinks that's normal.

"Good idea!" he says. Did, after all, will travel more clearly if there's less glass between them.

"Thanks. I mighta busted my nose, so don't be grossed out by the blood."

C: Yep. Here's your problem. Someone set this thing to evil.

[extrasensory_problems]

Okay so maybe, just maaaaaybe Carter totally misses the John Wayne Gacy clown. It's not really his fault as he may have been distracted by one of the female contortionists who throws a side glance and a smile at Carter as she leaves the stage. So he can be excused for letting his thoughts drift away a little bit, pondering the possibilities of being with a woman as flexible as that, but his attention snaps back to reality when Kyle starts to laugh.

"Huhn?" He says and then notices the quality of Kyle's laughter which is not normal for him, and neither is slapping.

"What's wrong?" He asks and then because that's a stupid question, "Are you choking on something? Lift up your hand if you are."

Ewww, dog water.

[kyley_b]

Kyle, if he could talk, would be utterly offended that Carter - the psychic - missed the evil clown because he was trying to get his dick wet.

As it is, he's struggling to breathe.

He shakes his head violently and does not raise a hand because he's not really choking. His stomach hurts badly and he realises he's getting light headed.

At the bottom of the aisle, in the center ring, the Pogo clown grins wider.

I'd say the pressure has finally gotten to Dad but....what pressure?

[extrasensory_problems]

Still oblivious to the clown, there's a bunch of them that look kind of weird so it's not that hard to miss Pogo with so many of them all clamoring around, Carter puts a hand on Kyle's back.

"You have to breathe Kyle, can you do that?" He looks at him seriously, trying to figure out what is happening. He isn't choking but it almost looks like he's hyperventilating but...with laughter?

"Can you talk at all?"

[kyley_b]

Kyle shakes his head violently, still shrieking with laughter.

"Can't," he manages. "Fucking... laughing," he manages. One of his hands finds Carter's arm and squeezes. "I just. Couldn'thelpmyself."

A

[helpdesk_hero]

"Why wouldn't it?"

Of course David was here. Of course David was weighing in. Of course David was leaning against the side of the caravan now, covered with a mess of stuffed animals which came out of his pockets, his bag, and were tied around him like a bandolier. Yep, he needed to find Wade soon.

"These islands aren't exactly normal."

[kyley_b]

Kyle looks over and grins. "Dude," he says. "You look like a beanie baby bounty hunter or something." He scoots over - he's skinny, there's probably room for David to sit if he wants to.

"C'mere, tell me why you're determined to win all that crap. And HOW. I thought all these games were rigged."

[helpdesk_hero]

Of course he will sit by his friend. He perched lightly and tries not to let the nose of an alligator toy poke Kyle in the hip.

"I am really bad at resisting when carnival barkers question my ability. And then it just got to be a thrill to beat them all. I'm giving them away. Pick any you might want as a gift."

But his eyes sparkled with mischief over the idea that things were rigged. Like that would stop him.

"When Cyclops and Gambit are teachers at your school, not to mention Iceman, you pick up a ton of physics, ability to do force vectors in your head, and the most insane accuracy in throwing. Add in having been in a room with both Hawkeyes for a wedding and you have a person that will kick ass at all accuracy based carnival games. And don't get me started on the other ones. Seriously. I am made to win prizes."

[kyley_b]

Kyle cackled at that. As a competitive person himself, he could respect David's motivations entirely. Especially when he was beating the corrupt.

"I dunno who all those people are," Kyle pointed out, smiling. "But what I'm hearing is that you're smart and badass." He studied David's amazing stuffed bounty and pointed at a stuffed bumblebee. "Can I have that one?" he asked with genuine excitement.

When David handed it over, he faux-swooned. "My hero," he said. "So what've you been up to, dude? Kind lost track of you on flower island there for a bit."

B

[detectivemiracle]

Chloe has been wandering the maze for some time as well, when she hears the thud and curse from nearby. Turning a corner, she spots - well, someone she knows.

"Oh, are you okay?" she asks, leaning down to help him up. "You can't let these things get to you. Don't want to add broken glass to the mix, anyway." She is pointedly ignoring her own reflection, which looks hollow, grief-stricken.

[kyley_b]

"Thanks," Kyle says, hand still clapped to his face. His watering eyes move from Chloe to the reflection stalking her.

"Holy shit, what's with that?" he asks. No tact. None at ALL. "That's not how you really look."

[detectivemiracle]

Chloe looks uncomfortable, but she’s willing to power through. She’s used to dealing with people who have no tact, after all.

“Your reflection is looking pretty off, too,” she points out. “Here, maybe we can find something to stop the bleeding…” What, she has no idea. But she’s a mom, she can figure something out.

[kyley_b]

"You think?" Kyle pulls up one of his sleeves to press against his nose. He just got these clothes, too. Sigh.

"I mean... it looks a little TOO close to reality. At least to me." He pauses and groans. "Oh, for... okay. Okay, I get it, ha-ha. This is a fucking personal perception maze. What we're seeing is how we see ourselves or something."

He looks at Chloe's reflection. "Jesus. Why do you look so awful?"

B

[hostile_encounter]

Nore is game. The carnival island is not her idea of a good time, especially after her personal paradise that was the flower island, but she's used to dealing with disappointment and not being in control. At least the mirrored hall looks entertaining, and she can let Kyle take the lead so he can walk into the traps first.

Look, just because her scrywatch changed doesn't mean she's a 'good person.'

Elenore doesn't notice the subtle shift in the woman in the mirror. She is used to walking past reflective surfaces without registering the image, and the changes are subtle. A loss of expression, sharper angles to the faces, a hint of something gaunt and hungry that implies someone both broken and dangerous.

Kyle's freakout is much more obvious and troubling. She refuses to run after him, but ends up rushing through it faster than she wants to, bumping into glass but rebounding until she almost ends up running over Kyle

"Fuck dude!" She super eloquent right now.

[kyley_b]

Kyle is very fond of the flower island himself, but for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual flowers.

"My fucking nose," Kyle complains, but he's not looking at either his hands or Elenore. His eyes are wide and watering and darting from side to side, looking at the mirrors around them.

"Nore, we gotta get outta here, I can't take this, we gotta get out, please," he begs her. "I don't like seeing this."

In the mirrors, a Kyle that looks like a particularly mean-spirited caricature watches them, looking weak but also somehow cruel.

[hostile_encounter]

Nore. The name sends flicker through the cold and closed-off Elenore in the mirrors, a flash of a bright and shining teenage girl with a looming shadow behind her before the adult returns. It is becoming increasingly obvious that she is made entirely of sharp angles and hard lines. Not that the real Elenore watches, of course. She prefers to ignore her own emotions in a potential emergency.

"Okay, I can fix the seeing part." She strips out of her shirt, giving no shits about the implication because his is covered in blood, and it's clear that Kyle is going to need blinders to get out of this. "Close your eyes and tilt your head forward, you don't want to swallow the blood." She waits until his eyes are closed before dropping the shirt over his head, knotting it so that it stays in place with minimal pressure on his nose. "Better?"

[kyley_b]

Elenore might give no shits, but Kyle goes pink anyway. It's just how he's wired. "Aw, dude," he says, but he does what she says. Shirt knotted, he nods carefully.

"Yeah," he concedes. "But. I mean. You saw it too, right?" His hands fumble through the air as he moves to stand up. He could use one of the mirrors for support, but he doesn't want to. He's afraid he might feel another hand reaching through.

"It's me, but it's NOT me. Nore, what does that MEAN?"

C

[quire]

It's hard to say how many bags of cotton candy Quentin has put away at this point, but it's unlikely to ever find him in this place without one in hand.

The colour of that sweet pink batting matches his hair as he's stuffing his mouth full and cocking his head at Kyle who seems completely overcome by the time Quentin gets there to see the painted performer retreating.

"What's so funny?" he asks. "Clowns? You're not into clowns are you? That could be a deal breaker."

It takes a moment for Kyle's panicked thoughts to pierce through Quentin's persist veil of distractedness and apathy. "Whoa, hey ok. Calm down. Are you choking? I know the Heimlich."

[kyley_b]

Kyle would get on Quentin's ass for all the sugar except for the fact that he knows he's mostly just jealous. Besides which, it does give him artificially sweet kisses, and that's actually pretty great.

Not that he can dwell on something so pleasant at the moment, struggling to breathe as he is. He shakes his head at the question, one hand fluttering uselessly through the air before finding Quentin's thigh and squeezing hard. Every time he pulls a breath in he exhales it quickly as a scream of laughter.

"He always cried," he manages to gasp out. "That f-fat piece of shit..." He pulls in another breath. "And it was never not funny. But it didn't REALLY hurt him for long."

God, he feels faint.

"I. She took him back. But."

[quire]

The sound Kyle makes when he heaves in a breath between his cackling is disconcerting, but he supposes as long as he's able to speak he's probably not actually choking. He's pretty sure that's how that works.

"What?" Quentin's face twists in his confusion. "Who cried? Took who back?" he slings an arm around Kyle when he thinks the man might actually fall over. "What the hell did these fucking clowns do to you?"

"Kyle!" he shakes him at the shoulders. "Your fucking lips are turning blue! Pull it together man nothing a clown has ever said is this funny."

[kyley_b]

He flops like a ragdoll when Quentin shakes him. I can't stop, he wants to shout. i can't stop o it hurts help me it HURTS

Aloud Kyle just cackles louder, his ability to inhale growing progressively weaker. "Cartman," he wheezes faintly. "Had a girlfriend. When." He flaps a hand weakly. "We were little. I." His cackles are silent now, his body trembling. His thoughts are scattered and faint.

o god i can't breathe am i dying? i think i'm dying o god i was bad i hurt him and i enjoyed it i wanted it to hurt i'm sorry