⇨ GAME START INTRO LOG!

[ringleaders]

Who: EVERYONE!
When: NOW!
Where: Around the carnival grounds, and in the Cookhouse.
What: Carnival worker orientation, Ringmaster style.
Warnings: Alcohol consumption, maybe drugs. Other things?

BRAVE NEW WORLD↴ ► THE NEW: It doesn't matter when you entered the tent to discuss your new contract with the Ringmaster, you exit it beneath a blanket of stars. Pointedly alien stars at that - currently the carnival grounds are being treated to a show of shooting stars, and what appear to be unnaturally large and living green moons hanging just a bit too close. The carnival was bustling when you entered, but now it's in the latter stages of being shut down for the night. If you manage to find a clock, it states that it's around 8PM. Workers from during the day will be passing through the grounds, attending to various pieces of business. None of them will seem very surprised or concerned by the goings on, though some may be sympathetic enough to pause and answer your questions. If you put some effort into finding out how it became nighttime, you may discover that it's been anywhere from a few hours to 7 days since you originally signed your contract. Someone may explain to you that it was probably some kind of time bubble, meant to keep you out of the way until the Ringmaster had time to deal with you. Every few minutes another new person will pop out of the tent, looking just as confused and under the impression that they had only just finished discussing things with the Ringmaster. Weird. She passed you a note before you left. Opening it up, you'll see you've been assigned a trailer number, and been given the instructions to drop off any excess belongings and do what you can to get settled in. You have until exactly 9:36PM to do so, because that's when you'll be expected to attend what is listed only as "WORKER'S ORIENTATION". This is, perhaps, more abrupt than you were expecting - but what can you do? You're here for the long haul. ► THE OLD: If you've ever seen a mass recruitment before, then this is no surprise. People enter the tent when they're recruited, and then sometimes how up again days later when the Ringmaster is ready for them. She isn't a big fan of wasting her time on individual orientations when she's expecting a crowd. Maybe you're too jaded to all of this to care much, but you'll see the newbies wandering around, probably confused and maybe a bit lost. Maybe you're the kind whose is sympathetic enough to pause your role in clean up and give them some directions, and maybe a word of confidence. Maybe you'll just jeer at them, because you're some kind of asshole. Either way, you expect you'll have the chance to see them later tonight. Whether by world of mouth, radio, or written note, supervisors will be passing out the following message: all workers are to report to the Cookhouse at 9:36PM sharp for "orientation." If you are at all familiar with how things go around here, you probably have a good idea of what this implies. Mandatory Karaoke Night. MANDATORY KARAOKE NIGHT!!!↴ At 9:36PM, the main dining hall of the Cookhouse will be found heavily decorator with various coloured lights and at least one disco ball made of what is ostensibly high karat gems. There are a bunch of cushions and additional seating set up along with the usual tables, and at the head of the call there is a state set up - a karaoke stage. For veteran workers, this is no surprise. Karaoke nights are fairly frequent as activities go, even if they are not usually mandatory. Some of you probably have signature songs already prepared. The karaoke machine is set up with mostly karaoke tracks that would be popular in the 90's and 00's on the average modern earth, with a few that are more recent. It also has some other random stuff from other worlds that people rarely sing because they are confusing and in languages no one understands. Here is a big karaoke list for your inspiration! The more stereotypically karaoke the better. Beyond that, there is plenty of food and snacks that were prepared by the cooks earlier, as well as a bar set up for alcohol and other vices. The selection is, as most things in the carnival, eclectic. Music will be played in between if nobody is singing, and otherwise veterans are encouraged to bring along their own fun and show the newbies a good time. The Ringmaster does ask that vets attempt to be courteous to their new coworkers. It's just being a good host.

Comments

[atouts]

[ To a similarly tall man with outdated clothing, although early 1800s may still be modern in comparison. ]

If you don't mind, that should do fine. I'll barely need more than a spark.

[mylastchance]

[He shifts, fumbling with a leather bag at his side. It looks handmade. Poorly handmade, but he does manage to retrieve the flint. He hands them over.]

You can keep those if you want.

[atouts]

[ And Childermass will take them, though not without a vaguely surprised look. ]

Won't you be needing them back?

[mylastchance]

[He shrugs.]

I only keep them in case of a silence spell or something. But here they don't need fire to create light, so I doubt I'll need to worry about it.

[atouts]

[ Well, he was going to get on with lighting his pipe, but then the word spell had to come up. He frowns, gaze flickering to the flint in hand, then back to Lauren. ]

What does flint have to do with a spell?

[mylastchance]

[Lauren looks confused by the question.]

Well, if I'm not silenced I can just create the fire magically.

[atouts]

[ Whereas Childermass is equally confused by what 'silenced' is meant to mean. ]

Is that so? [ So another magician. That's infinitely more interesting than smoking. ] Should I take that you mean all your spells are verbal? Or does silenced mean something else?

[mylastchance]

Yeah, pretty much all of them have a spoken component.

[atouts]

Hm. Interesting.

[ And it honestly is, but now he will get around to lighting his pipe, at last. He has his own pocketknife to strike against the flint, which he'll dig out of a pocket once he has the bit in between his teeth. It only takes until the second strike to get the tobacco lit, so this is clearly something he's done before.

That all settled, he'll put away both the knife and flint, back into one of the many pockets of his greatcoat. Then he's free to move the pipe out of his mouth and speak again. ]

I never considered silencing a magician before, though I suspect it's a different sort of magic. I've seen enough that can be done by gesture alone.

[mylastchance]

[And that comment surprises him too.]

Really? Almost all the ones I know require speech.

Do you study magic for a living?

[atouts]

[ He won't laugh, because Lauren doesn't deserve being stuck puzzling over what a bitter laugh it would be, at a question like that. The thin smile he gives in its place isn't much better, but easier to let fade after a second or two of it. ]

In a way. My previous master had quite the library on the subject.

[mylastchance]

Your master?

[Was he a servant than? Though really, they were all servants now, willing or not.]

What did you do then?

[atouts]

[ What did he do, then? A lot, but in answer, Lauren only gets a shrug from Childermass, along with a very vague, ]

Whatever needed to be done.

[ Which could have been an ominous sounding answer, save for how he sounds fairly bored about it instead. It did range quite a bit, though, from perfectly mundane business matters to the occasional theft. The list would grow considerably long if he ever thought to list it all. ]

What of yourself? [ Because he'd rather make Lauren seem like the interesting one here, not himself. ] I admit, you look far younger than any magician I've ever met.

[mylastchance]

[He bristles slightly at the comment, never really good at hiding his first reactions.]

I'm a druid. And I'm 18 years old.

[In his mind that means he's already been an adult for 2 years.]

[atouts]

Ah. You're Celtic? [ Wrong type of druid. ] Forgive me. I did not mean any slight by mentioning your age. It's only that the few trained magicians in England were well over thirty and those are the only magic users that I have ever known.

[mylastchance]

That sounds.... Very strange.

My brother could cast even as a toddler.


And actually. I'm a half-elf.

[atouts]

[ Half-elf... ]

Aren't you a little tall for an elf? [ Of course, he's thinking tiny people. The tiniest. That there could even be half-elves is strange, although it could be like being half-faerie. ] Though if magic comes that easily where you are from, I can understand why you would find it so strange.

[mylastchance]

I'm a half-elf.

[There's a difference.]

We come in all sizes. Just like human beings do.

[atouts]

[ He could say the lad's also taller than most humans (which is a surprise to Childermass, a man used to being the tallest in the room), but height really diverges from what's more important: talking about magic. ]

Fair enough. [ And like that, he'll drop that subject. ] So I take it that, from what you have said before, magic is far more common where you come from, ah... I do not believe we've introduced ourselves. You are?

[mylastchance]

...Lauren.

[He's not sure what else to say, so he simply leaves it at that.]

[atouts]

[ Top conversationalist, this lad. ]

John Childermass. [ He'll offer in return. ] So, Lauren. What does a druid do, where you are from?