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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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"I was for a minute there," he admits. "But if it were up to them I probably would be Xavier two-point-o right now. Turns out, it's incredibly different to brainwash an omega level telepath."

A riot, a resurrection, a UN hostage situation and a Phoenix later and sudddddenly I'm not such a promising young mind brimming with potential."

Carter's mouth twitches up into a faint smile, "I'm glad you're not Xavier 2.0, you're way cooler than he is."

"I wish you had taught me when we went to school together." He says after a moment, "Maybe then I wouldn't have gone all ka-blewy later on."

"Course I am," he says like he knows it's not even a contest to be compared to some boomer, but that confidence falters to be considered any kind of teacher.

"Yeaaaaah, or more likely we'd just be some kind of unstoppable villainous duo by now. Teaching was never really my thing," he admits. His brief run as a TA was volatile at best. Turns out you need patience for teaching.

"Anyway, don't worry about it. Everyone goes nuclear once in a while. I'm sort of in the camp that you have to if you ever wanna know what you're really capable of. Just... don't tell Wolverine I said that."

Carter giggles at the thought of them as an unstoppable duo, instantly imagining himself with pink hair like Quentin.

"What would our villainous duo name be?"

He looks thoughtful when Quentin mentions that everyone needs to lash out every once in a while and then sighs again. "Yeah I guess, I just wish that I didn't go all catatonic every time. It's scary."

"Name? Singular? I've already done the organized crime thing— we would probably be an individualized pair. You know like SpongeBob and Patrick, Bart and Milhouse, Han and Chewie, Ash and Pikachu. Brain and Damage. Or maybe we could just make Quentin and Carter household names like the rest." Clearly Quentin takes branding very seriously.

He quirks an eyebrow at that. "Like totally? How much of it do you remember after the fact? Is it like an out-of-body sort of feeling or are you just totally disconnected?" The little flurry of questions makes him sound like he's trying to diagnose something.

Edited 2021-10-07 01:09 (UTC)

Carter grins, "I like Brain and Damage! That's cool! You're brain right? Because you're the smart one."

When Quentin asks him the flurry of questions he just shrugs and rubs his head absently, his brain already feels foggy from getting hit but also there's a weird sense of doubling anytime he tries to think about the past. Or future.

"I only had it happen once, after my mom died. And then I went...away. For quite a while."

"It could go either way I suppose— both of us being telepaths. Maybe we just sort of adopt that as a brand-name and let people guess which one is which."

Quentin really can't help himself. His mind has a tendency to race even when he's calm, and he knows those who already think he talks too much wood absolutely give up with him if he actually gave voice to half of the things in his head at any given moment. "Where did you go? You mean like they sent you someplace?"

Edited 2021-10-07 06:17 (UTC)

"Yeah, yeah I like that."

"I went somewhere safe." Carter says with that sort of simplicity that only kids can say and expect you to understand and then yawns hugely, he's had a big day what with having his powers go nuclear and all. Speaking of he looks around them and only now notices the damage he's done to the carnival.

"Uh oh. Do you think people will be mad at me for breaking all these things?"

"Lit right? Adds mystery," he says as he starts to look around his carousel, just now noticing it's one of the only completely unmanned rides he's seen in this place. Maybe a better babysitter would keep a closer eye on the kid but Quentin is not one of those.

"Somewhere where?" he presses, but it's not exactly location details he's looking for so much as contextual ones. "Saaaafe like a relatives house? Safe liiiiike a hospital? Safe like a hiding place? What are we talking about here?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Who cares. This place is a garbage heap. And if anyone one asks you can tell them I did. Hey, was someone here when you got on this thing?"

"I can't tell them you did it," Carter says, ignoring Quentin's location questions. "That's not fair to you and it's a lie."

He looks around at the carousel and suppresses a shudder, "No....I don't remember getting on it but when I got off there was no one running it. And...I dunno, something feels wrong about it. I don't like it."

"Who cares? This place is run by carnies! It's basically built on funnel cakes and lies! Why are you avoiding my questions?" he says folding his arms across his chest like that makes a sterner picture of him or something.

"It is weird. I'm not well enough versed in all things magic, but I'm pretty sure this thing fucked with you... Look it's like the only thing within 50 feet of here that's not looking damaged by our little scuffle."

Edited 2021-10-08 17:22 (UTC)

Carter continues to ignore his questions in favor of looking at the carousel, which as Quentin has pointed out, is still in pristine condition even though everything else around it is either busted or torn.

"Why is it running backwards?" He asks quietly, his brows furrowing a little and he looks at Quentin. "Don't they usually run forwards? Also why would you leave it running if no one is there to watch the controls?"

He walks slowly towards it and that strange doubling sense happens again and grimaces, he's been here but not, been himself but older.

"I think you're right. I think this thing messed me up....?"

It's a good thing he's easily distracted. He'll remember about those unanswered questions later, but for now their dysfunctional carnival ride has his attention.

"Backwards..." he mumbles thoughtfully and watches it spin a little while, that tinny little tune it players as it goes feels like pathetic fallacy coinciding with the thoughts grinding away in his head. He looks from the ride. To Carter. To the ride. To Carter. "Backwards. Holy shit! It went backwards and so did you! Get it!?"

Carter blinks in surprise and then, after thinking about it for a second, looks up at Quentin excitedly.

"Yes!! That's it!" He says, "Because I'm not usually like this right? You said so when you first saw me."

He looks at the carousel and then at the controls, "Do you think if we make it go forwards we can fix me? I'd like that. I don't like being this age, it hurts."

It's a bad joke and he's shaking his head tutting at the machine or whoever made it. "I guess we shouldn't be surprised. That's some clown level humor right there."

"No, you're usually... I dunno exactly, but not this young. You're probably like my age. Give or take a couple years. Still got that JTT haircut though, no fixing that." Carter's idea sounds like a good one though and he yammers straight on into that thought too. "Seems plausible. I mean, it's a good idea and it follows logic, but magic fucking doesn't so like, maybe don't hold your breath too, huh?"

Even as he talks though he approaches the controls of the thing. "What do you mean it hurts?" he asks before he blows a layer of dust off the switch board until he can see some labels.

"Can't hurt to try." Carter says hopefully, "Maybe if we start it going forwards but real slow? That way I can notice if something feels weird."

He watches Quentin study the controls, shrugging. "It hurts, like emotionally. I feel sad and upset at this age and I don't like it."

"Ok, how about this?" he asks, and flips a few switches with the confidence of a man who knows what he's doing. He doesn't of course, but that's never stopped him before, least of all with such a simple machine as this.

The ride grinds and clunks slowly to a halt and just after it settles the motor whines and it starts up again, turning clockwise this time. The various animals slowly starting to bob up and down as they move face forward now.

"Ta da," he smiles smugly. "You owe me one."

He watches with interest as Quentin flips the switches and then smiles hopefully as the ride slowly starts to turn clockwise, he looks up at Quentin with something that could be described as admiration and on impulse throws his arms around his waist. Hugging him tightly.

"Yeah I do." He says and then lets go, trotting over to the carousel. Looking for the animal he knows is his, the golden lion, and once he spots it he takes a deep breath and hops up onto the rotating platform.

At first he doesn't feel anything but eventually something starts to change and he opens up his powers to try and help him feel when the right moment is to get off the ride, he somehow suspects that staying on too long would also have bad results. Eventually something almost clunks into place and he drops down off the ride, back to his regular self.

"Ugh." He says and runs his hands through his hair, "That was weird feeling."

"Know how you can pay me back? Just answer me about the—" before he can finish his smart ass remark Carter's hugging him and looking at him like that and it's a very weird feeling that Quentin really doesn't know what to do with. "Hey, it's... yeah ok, cool," he mumbles awkwardly patting the kid's back. "You better hop on and we'll see how this goes."

It's weirdly difficult to keep track of Carter as the ride goes around and around. Even if it's not going outrageously fast Quentin could swear sometimes it comes around and the lion isn't even there at all.

Before he can make sense of it though, Carter's hopping off. The real Carter. Or at least the last Carter Quentin remembers and that's about as successful as they could have hoped for.

"Hey! It's you! Regular you! Welcome back! Or forward. Or whatever happened there."

"Blegh...my whole body feels like an ill fitted garment." He says and shakes his head a little, trying to clear it and some of the residual child memories. He offers Quentin a small smile, "I'm glad that actually worked though and didn't like...I dunno, turn me into a circus clown or some shit."

"Yeah, me too. I didn't exactly go into this with a whole lot of better ideas," he admits readily now the risk of getting it wrong is behind them. Straightening out his jacket he looks awfully pleased with himself.

"So uh... what do you remember? All of that? Like our whole... conversation." That's one word for it.

Carter looks at Quentin, his mouth tugging up into a slanted smile.

"Conversation? Is that what we're going to call it if people ask what happened?" He shrugs, "Yeah. I remember all of it."

"What would you prefer to call it? An exchange of ideas?" he smirks.

"Good! So I don't have to reexplain everything AND you might even remember all those questions you were dodging."

He chuckles, "Yeah let's call it that. It wasn't a psychic brawl it was a....meeting of the minds. An exchange of ideas that happened to get volatile."

He then blinks innocently at Quentin, "Me? Dodge a question? Never...."

"Volatile shmolatile. A passionate exchange of ideas," he smiles.

"Ugh. Fine! Don't tell me! See what I care! But like. Don't turn around and be like Oh, Quentin! Such an egomaniac! Only cares about himself! when I've clearly put in something like effort here!"

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