lostcarnival | ⇨ GAME START INTRO LOG!

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Nyeheheheheheheh," she chuckles, letting the heat die down and then putting her hands on her hips. She's obviously pleased by his reaction.
"Yeah, it's pretty incredible," she agrees, making only the barest effort to sound modest. "I signed on for another year here so I could learn how to get my heat on better. And the Ringmaster said she could help me master my metal powers too!"

Another year?

"Wow... I... how long have you been here for?" he asks, a little bit surprised to hear that. He knows that time doesn't mean a lot to gems, since they're immortal and everything, but the idea that she's been here for over a year already and he never knew is deeply surreal.

"About a year and three Earth months, give or take," she says nonchalantly. "If you think that's a long time, you should ask Amethyst how long she's been here for. Oh!"

Peridot straightens up, having just remembered... "Oh my stars, Amethyst! Have you seen her yet?!" She flaps her hands, hopping from foot to foot, unable to contain her excitement. "Ooooh, when she finds out you're here she's going to freak out!"

Oh, he's concerned now. At least a little, anyway. In gem time, Peridot's expression there could mean just about anything - though she sounds pretty excited about it, generally speaking?

Maybe his hopes about this place were right.

"Amethyst, too?! Whoaho... this is so weird..." He has to admit that for a moment, even in face of the exciting parts. So dang weird. "So... the Ringmaster really lets you go home when you're done?"

She definitely means it as a positive thing. Will Amethyst actually see it as such? Who can say! But Peridot sees no reason why it shouldn't be.

"Oh, sure. I've seen plenty of people come and go in that time. As long as you've finished your contract, you're free to go! That's part of why we're pushing to recruit so many new people now, because a lot of the old employees didn't really want to stick around after..."

She falls strangely silent, her chipper demeanor faltering as she looks distant. It only happens for a moment though before she brushes it off again. NOT TODAY, SAD THOUGHTS!

"...A-anyway, we should go find Amethyst, ha ha! Ha! She's going to be so happy to see you."

Steven balks at Peridot's hesitation for a moment, uncertain what to make of it. To most people something like that would sound extremely ominous, but Steven hasn't always been the fastest one to pick up on contextual clues. He mostly let's it pass when she does, just as unwilling to let more worries drag them down. Mostly.

"Sure!" he agrees, his smile fully renewed. He reaches out to take her hand in his eagerness - her presence is actually so incredibly comforting, right now. "I bet she missed me a lot!"

He definitely knows that he would miss her.

Peridot takes his hand - and then squeezes suddenly, and gasps.

"Oh! Oh oh oh, I just had the greatest idea," she exclaims, practically vibrating on the spot. "Hear me out, okay, you, stay here, and I'll bring Amethyst to you. I'll go up to her and be all, 'Amethyst, you should come check out the beverages arranged on this one table! Someone seems to have obtained your favorite variety of soft drink!' And she'll be like, 'wow Peridot, that's so rad and thoughtful of you.' And then we'll both come over..."

She has to pause to snicker for a moment.

"We'll come over, and then you and I will both be like, SURPRISE! There was never any soda, it was Steven all along! She'll never see it coming! Nyeh! Nyehehehehh!"

As is often the case, Steven is sort of overwhelmed with how adorable Peridot's enthusiasm is, and he smiles broadly in obvious approval of the idea. He giggles.

"Okay!" he says, shrinking down conspiratorily. "Let's do it!"

"Great! Stay right there," she demands, and then scampers off without waiting for a response.

In another few minutes she's back with Amethyst in tow, pulling her along by one hand and doing a really bad job of containing her laughter at the thought of how great this is going to be.

Amethyst is kind of covering her mouth with her free hand to stop from laughing too much at how Peridot is trying to not to laugh, it's altogether kind of a goofy spectacle? But to Peridot's credit, although she is absolutely unconvinced by the soft drink spiel, Amethyst is not expecting that what Peridot wanted to show her was Steven. She knew he was there, sure, and she'd been keeping an eye out for him, sure, but she's been assuming that whatever this thinly veiled non-soda surprise is, it's going to be something kind of dumb. Delightful, probably, but dumb.

This is not dumb at all.

Her eyes light up as soon as she catches sight of him, and she's immediately extricating herself from Peridot's grip so she can scoop him up in a sturdy-armed purple hug. "STEVEN!"

"AMETHYST!" he yells back, having been coiled up and ready for this since the moment Peridot went to go get her. His feet lift off the ground for a moment, and he laughs. "You have a tail, too?"

It's sort of hard to get a proper look at her while hugging, but that doesn't mean he wants to stop. It hasn't bee long at all since he saw her, but something about knowing that she hasn't seen him in forever makes him want to hold on tight.

"Wow, you look great!"

Peridot butts in, tackling them both and making it a group hug, because... of course she does. "The shorty squad is back in business," she declares to the room at large, grinning with razor sharp teeth.

Heck yeah group hug. Amethyst squeezes both of them tight before she finally lets go.

"Right?" she says, leaning back so he can get a better look, and does a DYNAMIC POINT at her awful stomach mouth. "Check it out!"

⇨ GAME START INTRO LOG!

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