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✖ THE CARNIVAL

Ⅰ. THE TEMPLES
There's a subtle shift in the music you will hear drifting on the wind this month - gone is the calliope that screams just a little too loud, replaced instead by circus music that sounds cheerful and bright. The thrill rides are still undercut by rock music, but it seems less sinister. Any time you venture out, you'll find the people milling about are smiling, and none of those smiles seem like screams turned upside down.

The Caravan Temple remains - 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.

Access to the High Temple is also available to all Travelers this month.

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. Your character will revert to their true age if they were affected by the carousel last 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. Have fun!

Ⅱ. CONCERT AND CANDY
CW: alcohol and drug use, sax music.
It wouldn't be a carnival if you didn't eat like a garbage disposal.

There's corndogs, deep fried mars bars, popcorn, donuts, funnel cakes, cheese fries, lemonade, burgers... Go on. Eat like you have a personal vendetta against your gastrointestinal tract. And of course you ought to help yourself to some cotton candy, because what's a fair without cotton candy?

There's pink and there's blue. Whichever colour you choose, you'll find that you start to feel a little funny after you eat it.

The pink cotton candy will fill you with a sense of pleasant euphoria. You'll find it easier to talk to people, and you'll find them just so much more pleasant than usual. You'll be empathetic, and just filled with love for life. You might even want to hug people, even if you're not usually the touchy feely type. You just feel so good.

The blue cotton candy will also make you feel good, but it's more mellow than the pink - you don't want to run around hugging people so much as you want to just chill out somewhere. You'll feel very relaxed, very open to talking to others about deep subjects like whether or not Kubrick really did fake the moon landing, man. Everything seems just a little more amusing, a little easier to handle.

To make things even better, there are outdoor concerts at night. No matter what band is on stage, you find yourself really enjoying it, even if the music isn’t usually your thing. There are kegs of beer set up around the edges of the concert area and you’re free to help yourself.

All that cotton candy and cheap beer might impair your judgement a little. Maybe... enough to get a tattoo? Calm down, they’re temporary. There’s a stand called Pirate Pete’s on the midway not far from the concert where a guy dressed as a pirate - Pete, presumably - will be happy to draw whatever you want on your choice of body part.

Whatever you wind up getting, you’ll find that whenever you or someone else touches it you’ll experience a vision of a memory associated with the imagery of your tattoo. So if you get a snarling wolf, you might experience a memory of a time you treated someone savagely. If you get ‘Mom’ in a heart, maybe you and whoever else happens to brush against it will see a memory of your dear old mother. Gosh, this could get revealing or embarrassing fast!

Fucking Pete.

Notes:
1. Any food found on the midway is consumable by non-human entities. The cotton candy will likewise affect anyone who is not human.

2. I still believe.

3. The memory can be one that your character has repressed or forgotten.

Ⅲ. TUNNEL OF LOVE
CW: potentially sexual content
Maybe it's the cotton candy, or maybe you're just really captivated by the swan boats, but you find yourself drawn to one of the cheesiest rides in the place: the Tunnel of Love.

You can't ride alone, of course - this is the sort of thing meant for two! The guy running the ride ushers one of your fellow travelers on with you, then wolf-whistles, imitates a cat noise and a bed squeaking, then purrs, pants, barks, howls, twiddle his lips and says. “Hubba hubba!”

He ignores you when you glare at him.

The inside of the tunnel is surprisingly pleasant - it does not, as a matter of fact, smell of stale water or unmentionable bodily fluids. The water you're floating on is crisp and clear, like a real spring, and alongside either side of it are miniature rolling hills of what looks like real grass. The lights are low and pinkish, casting a soft glow over everything.

And they're playing one of your favourite songs on the speakers! Whatever that may be.

As you ride along, you'll start to think that your companion is just incredibly witty and intelligent and good looking. These feelings may be sexual or romantic, or they may be perfectly platonic - the result either way is that you really, really think this person is just the absolute greatest. You might find yourself telling them things you never would normally. Or doing things you might not otherwise…

Of course, the second you're off the ride you might find all of those fuzzy feelings depart. Better hope you didn't do anything TOO embarrassing.

Notes:
1. Only for characters of age havin the intercourse, please.

2. If your characters want to get naughty, they may discover that these swan boats have a little glove box containing condoms, lube and the like. You could also just fill the former up with water and throw them at that guy running the ride when it's over.

Ⅳ. HAUNTED HOUSE
CW: violence, blood
You might be on carnival island, but it’s still October. It’s time to get spooky! And what better way to do that than to take a ride through the haunted house?

A bearded fellow in half-assed clown makeup and an Uncle Sam costume loads you onto a small rail car with at least one other person. It rolls forward along the bumpy tracks into darkness. Not that it stays totally dark for long - sickly lights illuminate animatronics and mannequins posed alongside the track. There are foam cemeteries and giant rubber spiders galore.

As you move further and further into the attraction the better the decorations get. Those rubber spiders now look awfully real, and that bat that just dive bombed the car sure seemed legit.

Suddenly the car jerks to a halt. You peer around in the gloom, and then lights go up.

One bathes a coffin in red. Another illuminates a gravestone in green. The last is a facsimile of the moon itself, pale and silver.

Before you can do more than wonder what the heck is going on, one of these attractions splits open and a monster leaps toward you. A vampire, a ghost, or a werewolf respectively. If you’re quick you can get out of the way and run for the exit.

If you’re not?

The vampire’s teeth sink into your veins. The ghost’s cold hand wraps around your heart. The werewolf’s claws tear your flesh.

You’re lucky in that it doesn’t kill you; somehow you manage to get away and stumble outside, where you swiftly discover that the rest of your month is going to be pretty goddamn strange as you transform right then and there into whatever monster attacked you.

That’s right, for the month of October you may have to figure out a way to deal with cravings for flesh and blood, or how to get anything done when objects just fall right through your glowing hands.

You may be understandably upset about this. If you return to the Haunted House and accost the guy running it, he’ll tell you that the only way to break the curse is to admit to why you see yourself as that monstrous archetype. Now piss off, he ain’t got time for your jackassy questions.

Notes:
1. To return to their natural state, your character must reveal a personality trait or incident that would correspond to the monster they’ve turned into. For example, a person turned vampire might talk about how they feel they drain other people’s energy with their problems, or that they feel drained by other people’s. A ghost might not be able to let go of the past, and a werewolf might have anger issues. Interpret as you will!

2. The monsters can abide by any monster rules that you like. Is your vampire a Twilight vampire or a Dracula? It’s up to you!

3. The horror ride guy is weirdly impervious to harm.

4. All characters will return to normal at the end of October.

The kind of jams that last all night.

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[He does pick up the black paint (naturally) while he's listening to her explanation, absently reading the label without doing anything more with it.]

...an exercise to identify the level of coordination between the mind's eye and the hand?

[He may be missing the point. Experienced in creative pursuits he is not.]

It's partly that, yes. It just... is what it is and whatever it will be.

( Not overthinking it is kind of the point. She's polite enough not to say that explicitly. )

Just try it.

[Sephiroth gives her a wry look, because he's realizing the vague instructions are part of the point. She hasn't even suggested a subject.]

It's likely to be crude, is what it is.

[He's told her before that he isn't an artist.

...well, why not. He squeezes out some of the black paint, and then some green as well. The only things he's really drawn before are rough maps and diagrams, so that's what he settles on: an overhead representation of Midgar. It should be simple enough, just a large circle divided into eight sectors.

He takes up the brush in his left hand, scans over the paper and the paint, and closes his eyes. He does have a good spacial memory; he stays on the paper and the sectors are divided fairly evenly. But he isn't used to paint. His strokes are uneven, thick in some places, the nearly-dry bristles scraping the paper in others. He finishes with eight green blotches for the reactors, and one more in the center for the Shinra building.

...yes, it definitely looks crude to him once he opens his eyes to look. More of a strange black wheel than anything identifiable as a city.]

( Chloe watches as he works, keeping enough distance so she isn't directly hovering over him in an uncomfortable way. It's as interesting to her to be the one doing the observing as it is to have been the one who did the painting.

As he comes to a close, she gives him a moment to reorient himself, should it be needed. The obvious question of what is it is replaced by a different one. )

What's it like, seeing what you've made?

I don't think I should make a career of it.

[Although it might appeal to the abstract art crowd? He doesn't know.

He does know that that wasn't really what she was asking.]

...I suppose it's messier than I imagined.

( Secretly, Chloe is extremely pleased to see that he seems to be buying into it. Stepping out of one’s comfort zone can be beneficial. It isn’t like she’s trying to pry into him through roundabout means - none of her questions are for her.

Outwardly, she makes sure not to smile too broadly, tricky as it is, lest she appear smug. )

How is it, seeing the messiness?

It could probably be corrected.

[Additional paint could even out the lines. If she's looking for some sort of in-depth critique, though, he doesn't have it. He glances at her.]

I'm not certain what more you're looking for.

Do you find it interesting?

( Chloe gives a light little shrug. ) I’m not looking for anything. It’s just as I said - it is what it is.

( If he feels the need to add to the piece, to eradicate the messiness as much as he can, she’s not going to stop him. It’s his artwork, after all. )

I do. It’s an intriguing creation. But I mainly find it interesting because you made it.

And, I imagine, because you don't recognize it.

[Mystery can certainly add to intrigue. He makes a few gestures with the paintbrush as he continues.]

It's a.. representation of the city of Midgar. The Shinra building lies here in the center, and these are the reactors, beginning with the No. 1 in the north.

There is also that, yes.

( She smiles a little because she can't deny that's a part of it. As is typical with Chloe, however, the whys of it hold more intrigue than the whats. Particularly as it involves Shinra, the company spoken of by his younger self. )

It looks like it could be the heart of the city. The Shinra building.

It is, from most standpoints. Midgar has a nominal government, but it was Shinra which constructed it, and Shinra which controls it.

[It's a much easier subject for him now, and not just because he's a little high. The Company may still be a behemoth, but it no longer frightens him.]

What do Shinra do? Officially or not.

( Military, science, they’ve been mentioned by him. Whatever Shinra might do doesn’t exactly strike her as… entirely straightforward.

She knows a company like that, too. )

[Sephiroth has to smirk, because while Shinra does have its underhanded activities, it so loves to stamp its logo on everything that any border between official and unofficial is... negligible.]

Officially... Shinra is a power company and weapons manufacturer.

But it is effectively the dominant power on my Planet. It has a hand in nearly everything, from media coverage to space exploration. And, of course, "peacekeeping."

Like CyberLife. In the sense that androids are so ubiquitous. In homes, in schools, in hospitals, in entertainment… Even in space.

( There isn’t much amusement to her smile. Like Shinra, CyberLife are usually keen to toot their own horn.

Except the company has an insidiousness to it. Where the Shinra building is set in the centre of the city, the CyberLife Tower is secluded on Belle-Isle. )

Hmm. It gives them considerable power, doesn't it? As long as you obey.

[He may not be talking entirely about her and her android brethren.]

( Careful not to ruin the painting, she reaches out to gently place a hand on his. It isn’t seeking comfort or a gesture done without thought, just a point of connection. )

Do you obey?

[He blinks, glancing from her hand to her face. Even if he recognized it himself, he isn't used to points of connection.]

Not like you.

[He's fought his way to a position where he can say no and very few would challenge him on it. He's made more frequent use of that of late.]

But, I believe my employment with Shinra is coming to an end.

( This would often be right around the time that Chloe would look worried. At the moment, she smiles softly and looks sort of… peaceful.

Quietly hopeful. And proud. )

What will you do next?

...I don't know.

[He hasn't really admitted that aloud before, but it seems okay, right now.]

Not art, I think.

( Okay, that gets a little laugh out of her. )

I don’t know… As no one in my world would really be familiar with any depiction of yours, your work would probably be greatly lauded there.

( She gives his hand a pat, still resting hers on top after. )

It’s okay not to know. I don’t either, truthfully.

( But she knows she can never go home. It’s a blessing the realisation has a fuzziness to it, thanks to the cotton candy. The hard edges don’t cut as deep. )

[He scoffs, amused by the notion of his "artwork" being greatly lauded anywhere. Then again, it probably would be even back home, with his name attached.

He doesn't want that.]

I suppose we have some time. Something to think about while we determine an escape to this situation.

( Taking her hand away from his, she gazes thoughtfully at his creation for a few silent moments.

Sure enough, an admission that wouldn’t normally be voiced begins to more flow freely. )

…I don’t always want to, you know. Escape. I like the friends I’ve made, even if everyone might leave eventually. And I’m used to tests, even if I don’t really like that part.

[Another time, it would bother him to admit, even to himself, that he sometimes forgets to think of this as a prison. It's true that not everything about it is terrible.]

...I have considered that, should we gain control, everyone need not return to their proper worlds. I suppose it depends on the precise means by which we were brought here.

It's one of the things that makes me wonder about the implications of the journey we're on. What if by changing, by bettering ourselves as the Ancient seems to encourage, we aren't able to return to the lives we had? Not by the Ancient's hand but just... because we would no longer fit there.

( It could be seen as a positive, that's true. The growth to remove oneself from circumstances that don't benefit or favour them. Only it isn't always as simple as that. )

[Sephiroth tilts his head, finally setting down the paintbrush.]

...do you see that as a problem?

[A return to the life he had would be a return to a life that never quite suited him anyway, so... what would be the difference? Surely she doesn't want to return to what she had either.]

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