⇨ 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

[puddingemote]

Whoa, you're good!

[He looks impressed that she can still play without looking right at the screen. He's nowhere near that good.]

I've never heard of that. Is it new?

[waitingforplayer2]

Mm... [ She shakes her head. ] It's a pretty old game. It's really good, though.

[ She's a little torn between going back to her game and talking with him, so she keeps it turned sort of sideways so her eyes can flick to it every so often for a particularly difficult section. ] Do you play games?

[puddingemote]

Mm. Only on my phone, though.

[Which he doesn't have with him at the moment. He's going to miss the next event and his login bonuses... that sucks.]

I make other people do the pulls because I never get good SSRs.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Only on his phone. ]

Mmm... you're missing a lot of good ones!! [ Is this someone who's never played Pac-Man?

Actually. She hits a couple of buttons on her console, and the game screen switches to a top-down view of a maze filled with dots. ] What about this one?

[puddingemote]

Eh? Is that Pac-Man?

[He knows what it is, but just as she suspected, he's never actually played it. He's been to arcades once or twice, but was usually pulled in by the bigger, flashier games.]

You can play it like this now?

[waitingforplayer2]

Yeah!! [ She hands it over to show him. The familiar yellow avatar has a red bow and lipstick--

Ah, so it's almost Pac-Man. ] You can play a lot of games on it!

[puddingemote]

Ah! Incredible!

[He does look pretty impressed by the whole thing. He's never really gotten to play with a console of any kind before; it's a brand new experience.

He tentatively presses the buttons and watches Ms. Pac-man move about the screen.]

It's like in the real arcade.

[waitingforplayer2]

Yeah. They were really good with the emulation on this one.

[ She shifts around to watch him, and see how he plays. ] You want to avoid the ghosts.

[puddingemote]

I know!

[He does good for the first level, dies on level two, manages to make it on to level four before finally losing all his lives when the ghosts box him in. He gets increasingly agitated leading up to that, and groans when he loses.]

The ghosts are unfair!

[waitingforplayer2]

You're pretty good. [ He has enough expertise to have played it either casually recently or a fair bit some time ago. ] You'll probably get farther if you go again.

[puddingemote]

[Don't tempt him, Chiaki, you'll be here all night. As it is, he got his skills largely playing other similar games.]

If I practice I think I can eat them all next time.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ A night playing video games? There are far worse things. ]

Yeah! I've only gotten through all 255 levels a few times. The 256th level is one of my favorites.

[puddingemote]

256!? [He looks thoroughly impressed.] Amazing! You're really good!

[waitingforplayer2]

Um...

[ She swallows and goes back to playing her game. ] Mm.

[ He's not wrong but she feels a little weird about admitting it. ] That's only as many levels as there are, though... there's a glitch after that, you know?

[puddingemote]

A glitch? The game breaks?

[He doesn't know too much about glitches, other than that it annoys him when they happen on his phone games and he loses his event points.

Although if she's uncomfortable, maybe he shouldn't ask about it? He doesn't know what's so uncomfortable about talking about video games, though.]

[waitingforplayer2]

Yep. The game was built on technology that couldn't handle anything over 255 levels, originally. You can play it but not for very long, and you can't beat it.

[ Facts about games, she's more than okay with talking about! It's her own merits she's a bit uncomfortablea bout sometimes. ]

[puddingemote]

Huh... so it must be really old.

[He doesn't know any facts about video games, including how old Pac-Man is.]

All my phone games can go higher than that.

[waitingforplayer2]

Yeah, it's from the arcade era. [ ... Huh. ] You didn't ever play any arcade games?

[puddingemote]

I went to one once. I like the games where you do puzzles.

[waitingforplayer2]

The... [ Well, that could be a lot. ] You mean like Tetris?

[puddingemote]

One with bubbles that popped. And one where you slotted blocks together.

[waitingforplayer2]

Hmm...

[ That could still be a lot. ]

I guess there are a lot of good games like that on phones. [ She nods. ] Did you bring yours with you? We could play together some time.

[puddingemote]

I did. But there's no wifi here.

[And that's the worst.]

I'm going to miss the events this month... [And for the whole year.]

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Horror of horrors. ]

You'll miss all your pick-ups!

[puddingemote]

[He nods furiously.]

Yeah! And the special gachas!

[Yes, Tamaki is in gacha game hell.]