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avalaughs2021-08-01 12:44 am
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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 10
![]() Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary ⚔️️ Top-Levels Only ⚔️️ ![]()
A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival
Regardless of what you were in the middle of, you and your familiar have been magically pulled into the world of Avalon just above the Bay's waters. After a brief plunge into the Bay, the rush of water filling your ears and soaking up into every creak and crevice of your body, you may need to cough to clear your airways when you rise above the surface. It's still chilly, but not enough that you can't manage on your own. The Lady of the Lake is swimming around under the water, helping to rescue any wayward travelers who look like they're struggling in the water. This month's helpers are giant pillow jellies, a species of jellyfish that is capable of ballooning itself at the surface to create bouncy pads for characters to hop across to the shore, should they choose or not be able to swim. They come in a variety of bioluminescent colors, but do not seem to be very talkative even to animal magic users. Those who try may find themselves being ignored, even if they hear the jellies talking amongst themselves about this and that. If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. The shores themselves are littered with new arrivals complaining their way up a staircase carved into the walls of the White Cliffs. There is no railing, so be careful, but if you do fall, be prepared for a mysterious sand hand to reach out of the side of the cliffs to catch you. The hand will pat you atop the head twice before retreating back into the wall. This is the Cliff Beast; despite the name, he is quite friendly. (Though.. given how hot and muggy the weather is this first week, maybe you might want to ask him to toss you right back into the lake where the waters are still cool.) *Reminder: Your character's familiar may or may not be with your character in their initial plunge. If the familiar isn't partial to water, it may meet your character on the beach or sit atop their head while they swim. Or if they are, they might splash about and swim alongside your character. Familiars have different personalities and body specs and we leave those up to the players. B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot
These carriages use fae technology that combats weight, so your character will be able to get in regardless of whether they're light as a feather or weigh two tons. The carts have air conditioning when it's hot, heating when it's cold, and a mystical shield to protect from bugs. There is also a mini-bar that pops out of the console with whole coconuts filled with tropical drinks and topped with tiny umbrellas. Strawberry daiquiris, pina coladas, margaritas, mai tais, and more... all frosty and in the spirit of keeping you cool during the sunny month of August. (Naturally, virgin editions are available for the underaged.) Characters can use their smartphones to connect to Camelot's internet service, ![]() C ⦿ The Red Spring
If you don't want to relax in the room, try taking a dip in the spring for another chance to meet your fellow travelers. The waters have restorative properties that help horses and travelers recover quickly when drunk. It is known to relieve stress, improve energy levels, and mildly accelerate healing. It may be a little chilly when you get out though, so make sure you don't slip rushing back indoors when you get out! The springs are also home to a large training grounds just outside town limits, where there are teachers who will teach basic magic safety and help you discover what kind of magic you have together with other new arrivals. Try target practice, obstacle courses, meditation circles, and other ways to try to figure out just what you can do... if you didn't already have an accidental discovery on the ride there. ![]()
With communications with Elphame in Celliwig disrupted by specters and Arthur temporarily decommissioned, the Hall of Mirrors is temporarily off limits for cleansing rituals. Celliwig has encouraged people to return to Camelot for the time being, which is just as well with all the newcomers flooding in. Last month's new arrivals through the old guard got an introduction to the new aquatic mounts and there are now plenty of people versed in how to handle and work with the magical alpacapies, mossatees, and deinosuchus. As scout parties head out further, there are a few problems that they've run into that need a helping hand from Camelot's otherworldly population.
B ⦿ Clash of the Titans
C ⦿ Fresh Waters
Or if you weren't so lucky, you may find yourself waking up on a slightly different shore. An underwater shore. An underwater town, in fact. After the initial panic of realizing that you're not drowning when you wake up settles in, you'll realize that you seem to be able to breathe underwater just fine. In fact, the real panic is probably about to start when you realize that like the fine people of this town that saved you, you've been temporarily gifted gills and a bottom lower half of either a merperson, a naga, or a cecaelia. Your caretaker, a nurse of the local town, offers the explanation that the only way to save everyone from drowning was to pull them into their territory, which is cursed to turn them all into sea monsters. Not to worry though, as long as you leave before the sun sets on the third day, you'll turn back to normal just fine. ...Though, they're not really sure when that was or if they battle is over, so you should probably find your friends and any possessions you had with you and start heading toward the surface. Not too much time to explore this strange, underwater town... especially since you don't have much practice not having legs to get you up to the surface. Don't worry, if you don't make it out in time, the Lady of the Lake will come fetch you... though perhaps not in time, so you may need to spend some time back in Camelot seeking out someone to break a curse. ![]()
Arthur is injured and recovering, and news has spread on social media about it. There are lots of well-wishers and gifts being sent to the castle... enough that there's just too much for Arthur to do anything with it. He needs time to recover and rest and not be bothered, and as such declares that all those who need it shall share in the wealth and generosity of those wishing him well. The abundance (Especially from guilty Celliwigians who didn't realize what was happening right under their own noses) results in a few things happening...
B ⦿ Swap Meet
C ⦿ Healing Circle After Party
MOD NOTES: • All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, but this post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads, but should not top-level comment on this post. • If your application is accepted, you may accept TDM threads as game canon as long as both players consent. Characters may begin threading as soon as their journal is accepted to the communities. •If nothing here tickles your fancy, try one of this month's Quests for your TDM prompt. • The first "Arrival" prompts are present on every TDM, but contain seasonal tweaks for flavor. All other prompts will change monthly. • Questions about this TDM's content? Comment here! If you have a question about the game at-large, please head over to the FAQ. |
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[Robyn quickly thanks the merpeople and swims after Alberto, which is more difficult for her now that he's going a lot faster than he did earlier. She doesn't know what to make of his reaction--isn't he a merperson, too? Maybe his friend is on the surface, if he isn't here?]
Maybe your friend made to the surface alread--ah!
[It's at this moment that Robyn spots something: her crossbow, which has somehow ended up in a bed of kelp just below them. That's something she can't leave behind, so she dives down to grab it.]
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impatiently waiting for her to catch up, when suddenly she descends instead. He groans and rolls his eyes, unseen and unheard by her at least, and turns around to meet her again, swimming back down after her. For as strangely terse yet playful as this guy's been, he's apparently feeling chummy enough to stick around her, like they'd partnered off. For someone who makes himself seem so self-sufficient, buddying up sure does seem in his interest, even if he's not acting much like a good buddy. Frankly he's a bit rude. But still, for what it's worth — not only does he wait for her, but even turns around to be sure she's okay.He notices the crossbow, too, as his eyes follow her down. He has a well-trained eye for looking for human stuff at the bottom of the sea. But... he doesn't know what a crossbow is or what it does, nor does he realize it's hers. It's in no time at all he's caught up with her already, but he hovers a ways away, still within earshot, but is giving her space for... whatever it is she's doing. ]
Gee. Priorities: escape the weird cursed sea monster village to avoid becoming a weird cursed fish person forever, ooor... grab a souvenir. Hm. Tough call.
[ Alberto, your needling isn't needed. ]
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It's not a souvenir, it's me crossbow. It's one of the only things I have from home, so I don't want to lose it.
[Not only that, it's the one thing she has here that reminds her of her father--how he taught her how to use it, and how they would hunt for food together before he had to work for the Lord Protector and things changed between them.]
Let's keep goin', then.
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...I dunno what that thing is, but I've got stuff from home here, too — stuff I wouldn't wanna lose, either. Like my drawings, my hat, my camera...
[ Drawings and hats and cameras are definitely human things from the surface that don't exist underwater, surely. So is he or is he not really a merperson?! What's the deal here?! ]
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It's for huntin'. Me father's a hunter, and he taught me how to use it. It isn't much good without arrows, but I know how to make more.
[Alberto's mention of various human items doesn't go unnoticed, though the camera does intrigue her.]
You have a camera? I've heard them mentioned here, but I've never seen one. We don't have them at all where I'm from.
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[ Why does he phrase it like that, and why does he sound and look so amused, the way he turns to smile at her... like he's surprised. But impressed? So maybe equal parts insulting and flattering. But somehow the judgment doesn't seem to be placed on the "killing things" part, rather than on the... you. At least he manages (for the most part) to suppress a soft, single chuckle, facing forward again to swim with just a tad more speed, his tail wiggling in the water. ]
Yeah, I've got the best camera. The Polaroid~
[ Ooh, ahh. He says it with such a breathiness, like it's so dreamy, impressive, magical. He doesn't really know about any other kinds of cameras or... used any except for... this... singular one that Massimo gave him. But uh, he's into it cuz that's the name it says on the camera and so that means it's probably the best. ]
You point it at the thing you want to photograph, press a button and then a little piece of paper comes out of it! You wait 60 seconds... then peel off the little cover... And there's an exact copy of what your eyes saw! On the little paper! There's even a timer so you can set the camera up and it will press the button for you, so you can even take a picture of yourself...!
[ His enthusiasm, for the first time, seems almost completely transparent and genuine, maybe even a bit exciting. Not the smug showboating he'd done til this point. He's just happy to talk about his cool camera, pounces on the first opportunity someone took interest in something he's interested in. ]
I'm pretty much an expert. You can ask me anything.
[ And then ruins that nice moment. He's not an expert. You can't ask him anything. In fact — don't ask him anything. He knows how to press the button and peel off the foil, he has exhausted the extent of his knowledge already just in this introduction. ]
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[There's also having to kill things because the highest authority in the empire wants them gone so he can expand his rule, but Robyn isn't so keen on hunting wolves now that she knows some personally and can become one herself.]
Really? Then how can it make a picture like that in only 60 seconds?
[There's no baiting in her tone there, she genuinely wants to know.]
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[ There's a vague melancholy in his voice that he's clearly trying to hide with an airy, nonchalant tone, but it still comes through somehow. He's glad to change the topic. But satisfied with this odd "hey, we both kill things" exchange, by association with the amount of respect he has for Massimo. Regardless, it's more vulnerable than he wants to present himself, by far, so he's swift to move on with a wave of his hand and his typical smirk. ]
Actually, he was the one who gave me the camera. It's so cool. It traps a moment with its eye and then it takes 60 seconds for it to draw the memory. You've gotta wait until it's done remembering before you take the cover off, or else it's fuzzy and vague, y'know, like when you can't remember a dream clearly, or something that happened a long time ago. ...But after 60 seconds, it remembers every detail, and prints out a perfect drawing of the memory. It's got all kinds of paints inside for all the colors. They need to dry under the cover.
[ He's... not... wrong, exactly, but uh, he's not right. Very much not right. But he explains with seemingly such ease that even this abstract misunderstanding of a camera... makes strange, schmaltzy sense, maybe. ]
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[Being just kids, they rarely ever caught anything, but most of the time it didn't matter.]
I didn't know there was somethin' that could paint that fast. How do they fit that much paint in there?
[And no, she doesn't see much wrong with Alberto's explanation...at least, not yet. She's from the 17th century, after all.]
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But it can't. ]
C'mon, let's hurry to the surface— I can show you.
[ He pauses once more, even stops swimming to spin round and face her. ]
...You said you turned into a wolf, right? And you've turned into— uh— whatever you are right now... Do you hunt anything that swims? Or just dumb fish?
[ What the fuck are these worried, weird questions, spoken with a cocked brow yet a pouting smirk at once, as he hovers just in their way of nearing shallow waters. Something odd is afoot, or about to be... ]
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[Her father only ever taught her how to hunt things on land. Things in the water are more of a fisherman's job. Still, Robyn wonders why Alberto seems so concerned about this all of a sudden.]
You aren't thinkin' I'll hunt those merpeople, do you? Because I won't. [Certainly not now that she knows they live in these waters and have their own society, even if they didn't have time to see much of it.]
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[ That's exactly what Alberto was thinking. So he grabs her wrist in his hand again, just as when they'd first descended, but this time drags her upwards, finally a bit of sun shining through the surface in the distance, enough to see its rays dance on the ripples away in the shallows. It's still a swim yet, but a sight Alberto is always happy to see. ]
Then you're not allowed to be freaked out, then.
[ Wait what does that mean, uh
But he Just Keeps Swimming... ]
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[Though Robyn is momentarily distracted from getting an answer when she sees that they're getting closer to the surface. She feels relief at that; at this point, she's pretty sure that curse will be broken once they break the surface of the water, like the merfolk said. She wouldn't mind going back to their town to see more, but she'd rather not be stuck in the ocean permanently.]
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It occurs to him, only after his vague instinctual warning, that maybe he doesn’t even need to warn her… That if the curse is lifted when they break surface, like the other sea people said, it’ll just look like he’d been cursed too when they both make the Change. And that sly realization puts him more at ease suddenly. He feels particularly lucky. ]
Nothing. Nevermind.
[ He says with an airy voice and a dismissive wave over his shoulder, picking up speed a little again. Cryptic, annoying. ]
C’mon, let’s hurry. I just wanna get out of here.
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[Robyn wonders if this boy will ever give her a completely straight answer about anything. He seems pretty evasive about some things...maybe once they get to the surface and they're clear of this curse, they can talk more later on.]
I hope it's not too far to the shore from here...
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[ He takes her in tow once more, this time hand-in-hand, rather than his hand on her wrist as the other two times before, and starts shooting off and up. His mood shifts are hard to keep up with, in itself, as if he can just disguise anything with a burst of energy and bravery. The ultimate distraction. Like a switch he's learned to flip on and off.
He's grinning, rather than smirking, as they dash upwards. At least he's more encouraging of her, the closer they get to the surface, his eyes lighting up as he sees more and more sunshine. He's ready to go back up. He doesn't want anything to do with some curse that might trap him in the sea again. He glances back at Robyn over his shoulder again, holding her hand tight between his webbed fingers, observing her swimming as he helps tug her along, whether she needs it or not. He shoots her a toothy grin with his sharp sea monster teeth, letting out an amused chuckle. ]
Ha! Yeah, that's it!
[ She's made progress in how to wiggle her fish-butt right since he first tugged her down! ]
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She takes a deep breath before her head breaks the surface of the water, but she finds she's able to let it go once she's in the open air. She lifts the hand that isn't holding Alberto's...and sure enough, it's not webbed anymore.]
Ha! We did it!
[Of course, she hasn't noticed whether or not it's worked for Alberto yet.]
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There!
[ Then... surprisingly, perhaps, tugs them both back underwater, knowing he's able to swim faster when submerged, but shoots horizontally off in the direction of shore. Grin still in place, though, he spins around and finally releases her hand again. ]
Hey— check this out!
[ And dives a short zip deeper, just to gain speed and distance to shoot out of the water at a greater height, leaping through the air above. Through the ripples he causes, there is a vague... change, as he'd alluded to, as he's flying splayed out overhead, but it's hard to see clearly, and when he crashes back into the water, he's a sea monster just as he's been all along. But he's laughing. ]
C'mon, you try it! Jump! We're almost to the shore!
[ As in— this is your last chance to play around as a sea monster! Him? Not so much. He seems fine... But hasn't he acted as much this whole time? ]
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She does still have her mermaid tail...it wouldn't hurt to try it again.]
Wait for me! [She swims a little deeper to get some momentum, and then moves faster towards the surface to launch herself out of the water. She doesn't get as high up as Alberto did, but it's still enough for her to let out a whoop of excitement. Though her tail does turn back into legs in the process, and she has to hold her breath before she goes back underwater again, she's still laughing once she breaks the surface again.]
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But that's to be expected, right?
He splays his arms and legs wide out as they can go, beaming at the girl he'd tugged up above with him, suspended in midair together before crashing back down into the water with a large splash. He's laughing outright this time, just— having fun. He's barely gone swimming since arriving here, for... many reasons. It's only natural there's something refreshing about it. ]
Yeah-hah! Avanti!
[ And erring away from the theatrics, upon their crash back down, Alberto shoots off straight ahead, not quite as fast as he can go, but pretty dang fast, just... excited. Ready to go back. Ready to have a cover to play with someone as a sea monster and not be scared or paranoid. But the shore is fast approaching, and he's frankly always low-key excited to get out of the water nowadays. Just now— high-key.
Even if he's much faster than her — even than most other sea monsters — he darts in a figure-eight or two for fun to kill time waiting for her to catch up as they reach the shallows. They're in this together now, seemingly; however dismissive of her he's been all along, he's also been... strangely loyal? ]
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It takes some time for her to catch up to Alberto after that, since she doesn't have a tail anymore. Once she gets to the shallows, she stands up and starts walking, wringing the water out of her hair.]
At least we got here before anythin' happened.
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Yeah, hah— Hey, you weren’t half bad swimming, for your first time…!
[ A compliment from Alberto isn’t exactly rare, but somehow it’s always a bit nonchalant and offhand… ]
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[Robyn wades up to the shore and sits down so she can take off her boots to get the water out of them. Noticing Alberto looking at the sun, she looks at it too, though she makes sure to shade her eyes.]
It's nice to see the sun again, after all that. [With all that talk about a curse, who knew if either of them ever would.]
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[ Not like it's his, of course... He waves an emphatic arm at it, shooting Robyn a wry smirk. ]
Life on land is way better, right~ They don't know what they're missing out on down there. Heh, bet those guys don't even know anything about the sun!
[ Alberto... Neither do you... You thought the moon was a fish... ]
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[Honestly, Robyn would hate to be stuck anywhere, even somewhere as interesting as the merfolk town in the ocean. She values her personal freedom too much for that, and she already knows what it's like to be forced to stay put in one place.]
I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't ever go back to the woods again whenever I wanted.
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if she doesn't shake hands jlmk and i'll edit this out!
it's fine!
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