Bright lights! An abundance of color! A cacophony of laughter and delighted (?) shrieks! Welcome, everyone, to the carnival! Enough of those nonsense protein shakes and that hoity-toity recycling; it's time to let loose, have some fun, and live a little! No judgment will be allowed today, not when everyone’s dressed up in ridiculous costumes and eating those unnecessarily huge turkey legs (it... is turkey, right?). For you see, CERES has invited the Traveling Circus of Tjghsldiwk (they hail from a different planet, but here's a hint: the h is silent) to bring some joy to the colonists. This is a safe place to let your inner wild child out, really. Definitely safe. Promise.
Yet for those who are a little less easily convinced to follow the sounds of laughter and amusement (bless your sensible hearts), they will find themselves grabbed and forcibly dragged by a pair of friendly souls in matching costumes. Everyone should be able to enjoy the festivities, don’t you think? Can’t have them missing out on all this jolly good, innocent fun!
The Public Announcement System crackles with... well, a fit of coughing first. But then a gravelly voice speaks! It seems the ringmaster has an announcement for you all. What joyous news can he bring?  Listen... I know that we’re supposed to keep these idiots entertained for at least another day or two but the machinery’s starting to complain. I think I heard the gates of the petting zoo groan – they’re on their last legs.
... Wait, this isn’t the direct line
Oh.
Ohohoho!! Have a great time, everyone! Everything is perfectly fine!
|
PHASE I [ 11 00 ] Come one, come all!! There’s quite a large amount of people here, isn’t there? You’ll find yourself tugged this way and that – up until you get dragged right into a changing booth. The helpful attendant meets you with a worryingly large grin – how is her face not breaking? – before pushing you right through the curtain. Then you’ll be given your choice of one of these lovely garments to change into. Look, one of them has to match your skintone, right? Don’t be picky about it! You also have... 90 seconds to figure out how to wear it before you’re tossed out into the middle of the crowd again. Have a good festival!
If you’re not willing to put on the outfits though, that’s fine. Instead, they’ll top you off with a cape and crown, shoving you out onto a... stage? Your adoring public cheers for you, yells your name, and throws confetti in your honor! Then a jester appears again, announcing your grand title:
The Ugliest in All of Cerealia.
Don't worry, that's just your introduction to the carnival; enjoy the rest of your time here! (They may or may not have given you back your clothing.)
PHASE II [ 1600 ] Do you hear that? Cymbals crashing together, trumpets blaring off-tune, the march of absurdly tired feet – a parade is coming! Best move off to the side before an acrobat quite literally tumbles into you. If you are an unfortunate casualty, they’ll actually just start to fall asleep on you because they’re tired… so very, very tired.
Yet the parade continues to march on without them and you can let yourself be distracted by the impressive jumping around and festive partygoers (who seem to be joining in the parade as they please, in various states of undress). But be wary. Distraction will only make you easier prey for the very hungry caterpillar that’s coming up the street next. Run if you can, but it has so very many legs and it’s coming after you.
For those unable to make it away from the caterpillar, they will find themselves gulped right into its gross, drooling mouth – and about five minutes later, they’ll be released out again onto the streets covered in a pink slime. It looks like you won't be able to free yourself from the stuff, so hopefully you can find a friend to get some help! Or one of the strangers around you? Unfortunately, when a kind soul finally comes by to pull you out of the slime, they’ll find that the outside of the gunk is not only immensely sticky but also slippery. If they're not careful, you'll both end up stuck to the gunk together.
You both better get out of that stuff quick because once someone joins you, the slime starts to move. Quick and gooey, it'll pull you and the hapless soul with you down the street at a much too quick pace. Hopefully you won't slide into too many people as you skid your way through the streets of the Entertainment District like some sort of demented Katamari Ball. This is why you should never trust giant bugs!
PHASE III [ xxxx ] In a smaller booth, toward the outskirts of the carnival, some may find a familiar face manning a quiet little shack on her own. Although those who have been in the colony long enough may have first encountered her as an 8-bit version of herself, Aria the fortune-teller is now back and more than willing to drag unsuspecting people into her hands again. Once you step into her stall, she takes one long look at you before sliding over a fortune cookie and a mask. What do you mean you didn’t ask for a mask? That's too bad, because it's yours now. She won't say anything more than that, giving nothing more than a quiet dismissal with a hand and an enigmatic smile to match.
When you step back outside, you’ll find that you just can’t get rid of the mask. If you toss it into a trash bin, it’ll be right back in your pocket. Throw it at a friend? It’ll be in your hand in the next second. Throw it away enough times and it’ll suddenly plant itself on your face -- which leads to all the alien carnival goers in the nearby vicinity suddenly going still with fear before moving to get as far away from you as quickly as possible. Well... you seem to be able to take it off for now if you still want to enjoy the carnival. It just won't go away, and every time you try to throw it away, it'll attach itself to your face. Might as well just keep it.
But... still, it's strange how none of the aliens running the carnival will look you in the eye now, isn't it?
PHASE IV [ 1200 ] For those who aren’t interested in dealing with the abundance of people, there’s also an assortment of critters gathered around for the petting zoo! They all seem to follow a general theme… kind of. That might be floppy ears and a tail if you... squint. The alien staff is right there and quick to ask you not to worry, they're perfectly harmless -- they don't eat humans! It would be bad for their diet, so feel free to pet them, if you can gather enough courage to do so.
Unfortunately, it seems as though this part of the circus was not put together very well; the rickety fences and cages don't really seem to do much against these giant...creatures. Towards the end of the circus' time here, it looks like those cages will start breaking down more and more, too.
The animals rattle the makeshift fences of the petting zoo, until finally, the fences just... collapse. Oops. The ground shakes as the animals stomp and immediately move to break out of their little ring. Well, would you look at that? You’ve apparently found yourself in the middle of a little stampede -- and those warnings about these animals not eating humans doesn't seem to hold much weight when now they're looking at you -- and they look pretty hungry.
BONUS [ why o'clock ] Left and right, there are voices shouting for your attention. "Hey pretty young miss!" or "Excuse me, you stud!" or "Look at this, jackass!" – that said, aliens think that you all manage to look the same, so who knows if they’re yelling at you in particular – and they’re all daring you to come and try your hand at their carnival game.
It’s run of the mill stuff: shooting games, tests of strength, and knocking down a couple of milk bottles. You might actually be doing well! Or... you might be embarrassing yourself in front of whatever cute person you’re trying to impress! But regardless, in the last allotted ten seconds of your game, no matter what, you’ll find your point score plummeting right into the negatives. Did you get a bullseye? What do you know, that’s now worth -1000 points! You missed? -5000 points.
The stall assistant seems to be having a grand old time, laughing at your pain and when the clock finally runs out, they'll give you a large grin. "Look at that score! Well, you know what that means, don’t you? Now, we win you!" With that, metallic tentacles suddenly sprout from the booth itself, looking to capture you and whoever you’re with. Welcome to the carnival, now you're one of the prizes. And it seems you'll be here for quite some time. That is, of course, unless someone can win you back from these really horribly rigged games.
Looks like you'd better get comfortable hanging motionless from a display, like an oversized stuffed animal. You'll be here for a while.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
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ota!
Should your character be walking by, they'll reach for their leg, trying to wrap a hand around their ankle in order to catch their attention. They look so, so terribly miserable.]
... Can't move.
[SLIGHTLY WHEEZING. Please help. Save a 10-year-old save scummer today.]
PHASE IV:
I want to pet that one.
[They sound so serious about this. Petting alien animals fills them with DETERMINATION. Someone stop them.]
BONUS:
... It's probably for the best that someone tries to rescue them, at least. Somehow. Against all odds. Godspeed.]
WILDCARD:
phase ii;
[ Well, that's alarming, this poor kid--
And Otome, carer of children that she is, crouches down swiftly to try and lift that body up while she uses her free hand to help haul Frisk out of there. ]
no subject
Which is to say, she'll find it easy enough to haul Frisk out of there once the body has been lifted up. They'll be dramatically sucking in a breath after the weight is gone, clutching their chest like someone lost at sea. Or — something adequately weird like that.]
That was... close. Thanks.
[They didn't want to add "death by asphyxiation" to their list, okay.]
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[ You're talking to a doctor, at least. ]
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phase iv
Go for it.
[ absolutely do that, apparently. Their grin is obscured by that creepy freakin' mask the fortune teller's handing out to everyone that steps into her stall, but look. You don't need to see their face to know they're having a good time (for now). ]
no subject
Frisk will be considering this encouragement for all of two seconds, before nodding and proceeding to stare at Chara. Pointedly. Intensely. Strongly. How does a 10-year-old have such a powerful stare, the world will never know.]
You should come pet it, too.
[There is probably a High School Musical song that can be quoted here.]
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By like, not looking at Frisk at all. If they can't see them staring they don't have to acknowledge it. ]
I'm good over here. I'm too old for petting zoos, anyway. You're a kid though, so go pet it.
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bonus...
On the other, there's something a little disturbing about walking past a human kid on display who's just having a grand old time hanging there being a prize. Someone help them...]
Uh. Hey. [He'll wave back, at least?!] ...You stuck? I can probably help you out if you wanna leave.
[He's not even sure if that's the case here...!?]
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But if someone's offering to help, they're not going to turn that down. So they nod.]
Leaving would be nice... My legs feel weird. [Wiggling their legs a little, like that'll illustrate their point.] Think the game's rigged, though. Dunno if it's possible to win.
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[But since there's still a patron trying (and failing miserably) to win a prize ahead of him, he'll just... carefully watch for a second as the balls that hit the target bounce right off.]
...Eh, but it looks like you're right about that. Guess I'll just have to get you down a different way, huh?
[Time to steal a carnival prize?! The carnie is distracted by trying to finagle their current customer into spending more credits, at least, giving Kashuu some time to start sneaking around toward the side back of the booth.]
Can you kinda like, swing over this way?
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phase ii!
the tug at his pants is enough to catch his and metagross' attention, and he doesn't hesitate to act. ]
How- [ nope, no time to ask how. ] Metagross, please.
[ on command, metagross' eyes will glow a light blue. it's handy when you have a partner that can use telekinesis, because the acrobats resting on frisk will seem to lift up weightlessly without being stirred and causing a scene. once they've been cleared, he crouches down to offer his hands for frisk to take. ]
Can you stand up?
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They're super duper fascinated by the telekinesis, though, since they haven't seen anything like it
yet. In fact, they're so fascinated that it takes them a second or two to realize Steven is offering to help them up. Whoops. They take his hands after noticing, at least, nodding at they do.]Think so... Nothing feel broken.
[Little scrapes and bumps aside, anyway. Those don't even phase them anymore.]
no subject
he'll pull them up to their feet carefully, looking over them to make sure nothing looks out of place. thankfully, besides the odd scrape, they look fine. ]
Good. [ he softly lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. ] Normally I'd say to be a little more careful, but even the most cautious person can still end up in trouble here...
no subject
ii
without a word, she's pushing the performer off, then offering her hand to help them up. when she speaks, her voice is concerned]
Are you hurt?
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M'okay... Doesn't feel like anything's broken. [Because scraped elbows don't count as injuries in their book.] Thank you.
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Where is your chaperone? You do have someone watching over you, don't you?
(no subject)
iv.
Oh.
... It's you.
[don't be a dick, Leon.]
I suppose that explains things.
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Though, they're not so much insulted as they are confused.]
... Explains what things? [Seriously, what things????] I don't get it.
[They are a very normal human, okay. There is nothing to be explained here.]
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Why you would be so interested in petting what is clearly a monster.
[because you're weird, Frisk!!]
If it is you, I am relatively certain you have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever.
(no subject)
iv
[ At least, nothing like that is gonna be nice and pettable. There's no way. So Rose is keeping an eye on the kid and makes sure they don't get stepped on or something. ] Maybe we should find some cute puppies or kittens for you to pet instead.
sorry for the delay!