TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 16

[avalonmods]

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A ⦿ Soaking in Your Arrival KERPLUNK, SPLASH! 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 chilly 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 paralyzingly cold for a few seconds before you're approached by the Lady of the Lake beneath the water's surface. She puts a vial of a vibrant, glowing red Everwarm* potion to your character's lips.
The icy water doesn't feel so icy once consumed and you'll be able to move your limbs enough to swim to shore on your own. She can't stick around to explain, she's got to get this to all the new arrivals! Many of which you'll see plopping in around you. If you can't swim, a handful of helpful ice turtles will scoop you up from beneath and drop you off at the shore. It's a fast process, though they do take their time as they need to go around hitting the ice that keeps forming on the surface with their shells to keep the surface open for the falling arrivals. If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. If anyone with Animal Magic asks the turtles, they will give the full spiel, but very slowly, and they like to get off topic and gossip about other turtles you've never heard of. 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.

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B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot

Once everyone is wrangled up to the top of the White Cliffs, the handsome owner of the Rent-a-Ride, Archimedes, will distribute smart phones and a pair of ear buds and tell them to "Check the Shit Box." The "Shit Box" refers to wardrobe more formally known as the Wardrobe of Finding, a hammerspace-like wardrobe that opens to each person's items and pets when the person touches the handle. It was recently enchanted by Merlin to prevent people from having to fish their waterlogged possessions and pets out of the water with them. From there, Archimedes directs everyone to settle in groups into modernized carriages pulled by horses and gives them a basic explanation of why and how they've been brought to Avalon: The rest of the universe is frozen in time and your character has been brought here by a familiar that was able to bond with them. They'll have to learn magic to help save their own world from destruction, but first they've got to get them to Camelot. It is here that you have the first opportunity to decide who they will be in their new home. You'll have about an hour to wander around here, meet and greet, and pet the horses before it's time to go.

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 a special feature for warm winter drinks like hot apple toddy and butter beer. Characters can use their smartphones to connect to Camelot's internet service, avalononline (AOL), to chat with other characters, watch dumb videos, learn about the world, contact Camelot Support (they'll answer any questions they can for you, from how to use a smart phone to where to find quests and resources to learn more about your magic). Be careful if you decide to use your phones while in the caravan-- if you don't use those earbuds and start forcing everyone to listen to your nonsense, Archimedes may make you walk.

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C ⦿ The Red Spring

The journey from the White Cliffs to the City of Camelot is a long one, and the first evening you arrive you'll end up spending at the Red Spring, a booming resort town. Newcomers get free inn rooms for their one night stay on the way to Camelot, containing two twin beds, a bathroom, a mini-fridge and microwave, and a TV equipped with a couple of entertaining video games and movies. Don't want to relax in the room? Take a dip in the communal hot spring. The waters have restorative properties that help horses and travelers recover quickly. 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.

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Those who listened to the Fae Queen last time have made it clear to her who is going to trust her when they are given the chance willingly and who is going to defy her. Was it a fair system that only measured trust and wasn't swayed by peoples' ability to figure out her riddles? No, certainly not. Fairies don't care, nor have they done much to give the impression that they don't care about the trivialities of human subtleties. But there is a new batch coming in, and before she shares the information she promised, she needs to see where upon her line they lie. I beckon thee to wither's tree, Where widows often cry, A poisoned place of death's embrace North selkie's weary eye. You seek the prick whose corpse makes rot, And rot begot those life forgot, 'Fore the questing beast slips by. The riddle is presented to all in the form of a dream with a magical compelling not to forget the words, nor to ignore them. There do seem to be two main parties forming based on clues within the riddle, resulting in different possible adventures and proof-of-completion items.

A ⦿ The Dragon's Graveyard CW: Undead, facing mortality
	Welcome to the Land of Rot! Home of banshees (crying widows!?), where nothing living can really survive except things like zombies, skeleton warriors, and so on. Get past all that to the northernmost area of the Land of Rot (or, where is the northernmost now after the collapse of the Ash Mountain took out part of it) and you'll find The Dragon's Graveyard. It's not a traditional cemetery, but the land seems to have been landscaped into an open pit mine. It's clearly not active, leaving huge bones and fossils of skeletons sticking out of the walls. There's a lot of dried blood dying the dirt a copper-y color, and it's unclear what happened in this portion of the Land of Rot, but it clearly wasn't pleasant. Draconic Wraiths run freely around the Dragon's Graveyard-- the unsettled beasts created from the mass slaughter of dragons during the age of dragon slaying.
With the world having been rocked by the death of a dragon for the first time in centuries, despite it being within the rules of this world, they are particularly vicious and unwilling to spare any lives. They cannot be touched by physical weapons and can only be fought with magic. However, if they run through your character, they will immediately plunge into a hypothermic state and will need an immediate healer to undo the damage or a siphoner to remove the Wraith's curse and stop the damage from getting worse. Going three days without a healer or siphoner will result in your character dying! What's more, your character will see a vision of their own death in the future upon the moment of contact.   They do seem to be guarding something at the center of the pit: a broken ceremonial sword with dried blood on it. Perhaps this is the "prick" the queen meant? The sword itself seems immensely heavy and impossible to carry on your own, so bring it back as a group effort and decide where it should go. A bit of asking around and someone will be able to identify this as a sword called "Clarent."

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B ⦿ Well, Sssssshit CW: Graverobbing, buried alive adjacent, snakes
The Forest of the Fisher King seems to be another popular interpretation of the riddle. After all, the "prick whose corpse makes rot" could definitely refer to the Fisher King, whose body is rumored to be buried within the forest. I hear that guy's whole story is that his wife stabbed him in the leg with the holy lance because he cheated on her and she didn't want him to be able to die or have kids ever again- definite prick! The low-down on this place is that it's an enchanted forest with plants that release drug-like magic spores that cause euphoria, rapid (15-20 minute) memory loss, a desire to stay and become a part of the forest, and general submissiveness with anything except attempts to get them to leave (which will be met with violent resistance). Why this? Because the forest plants themselves survive by slowly devouring anyone who wanders in by making them want to stay! Oh, and don't forget the Titan Pelicans that can swallow you whole too. Just about anything in the Forest of the Fisher King will try to eat you.
Turns out, if you manage to get past the spores and get your friends free of it to go deep enough in, even the ground itself will try to swallow you up! Quick sand only takes moments to try to pull you under. Better hope you came with a friend to pull you out. The more you resist, the more likely it is to kill you! Though, everything in the forest is dead or thriving off of death anyway, and with a stroke of luck you'll see a snake slither right down in (or maybe you stopped by the Archivist before you wandered in single brain cell first). A deep, painfully-held breath should be able to hold you long enough to sink down to the bottom, which seems to pull you faster down the less you resist it. Faster, and faster, until it spits you out (unfortunately covered in mud) into an underground tomb. The only thing you'll find here is what appears to be an ornate tomb containing the corpse of the Fisher King and pits of poisonous snakes to capture graverobbers... and a strange creature whose head is a serpent, front legs are like a giraffe, spots of a cheetah, hind legs of two different creatures, tail of a lion, spits acid-- well, sssshit. If you're planning on getting this "prick" out of here, you better get past it before it comes at you-- and it comes faster than most people can run. Get to robbing that grave and run!

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For those who are less adventurous, don't worry. There are ways to test their dedication and trust as well. Before the parties leave for their determined destinations, everyone is sent a lock from the fairy queen with a simple note: Slice your sobriquet upon this seal, Secure our sprouting solidarity. Shackle it at the stockade. Sing sayonara to the key.

A ⦿ Trust Trinkets
There's no explanation as to what it will do attached, so it boils down to choosing whether or not to trust the fairy queen. Very, very simple. Well, if you can figure out which stockade it's referring to. As it turns out, in Nicnevin there is a bridge that crosses the shores of its moat that can only be seen by those who have been granted permission by the fairy queen. Etching a name into the lock, be it real or nickname or initials, will automatically transport you to the start of it. It contains myriad locks attached to it, and there are thousands of keys glittering in the water beneath them. The key to the lock is cursed- failure to discard it in the river will result in a curse falling upon your character. Your character broke an agreement with the fairy queen by taking the key with them despite accepting her invitation and instructions by taking the lock to her bridge and now they must pay the price.
Now they will find that they are unable to open or enter any door without getting someone else to give them an invitation through it. This curse will remain until they find a siphoner to remove it... so you definitely may have some immediate struggles in this new world!

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B ⦿ Pretty Pleases
	Don't know a siphoner? Don't you worry, there's a wizard right there in Nicnevin who can help you out! The half-fairy, half-vampire wizard, Speculoo-- master of the dark, dark, evil artes! An escapee from the fae prison, he'll be approaching anyone who seems to have been cursed by the fairy queen to offer them the deal of a lifetime. Speculoo offers them a potion black as tar and tells them to drink up. Drink the potion and Speculoo will explode into a poof of dust and let out a maniacal cackle-- a pixie! Seriously, you thought you could bamboozle the fairy queen just like that? The pixie's potion will cause you to be unable to resist commands from any person as long as they say "please." Time to teach you some manners!
Either live with this curse, or offer your name to the fairy queen to have her remove it. Don't trust her and try to skate past her punishment right under her nose and you'll find yourself with little choice but to.

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• All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, as the events within are considered game canon. • This post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads and may start their own logs off-post, 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 usually 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. • There will be an associated poll to determine where the sword and the Fisher King end up posted on the 7th alongside apps. Once your character is in the game, or if your current character is participating, please vote in it. We will update this bullet with the link once it is live. • If your character has to give their name to the fairy queen, please comment here so we're aware after you are accepted!

Comments

[icyhotpaladin]

[Lance couldn't help the squint he made at Keith. Why are you being cryptic right now, bro?

Honestly, he expected Kosmo to be Keith's familiar rather than... well, that. But hey, he got a lioness so he wasn't going to complain. Lions are cooler anyway who's biased he's not!]

Uhh, alright then. So, what's the easy one?

[tempredmental]

[Oh... Kosmo was around. In fact, as they started to leave, the wolf got up from where he'd been napping near the treeline of the field Keith had been using to train, and joined them.]

The easy one is who's been here. Shiro, Allura, Matt, and Pidge. Shiro was here twice, and so was Pidge. [Keith had no idea that dropping Allura's name like that might have some unintended consequences...] But the hard one is that the whole situation with time being frozen outside of Avalon makes it so that... well, people can arrive from different points in time. [He frowned a bit.]

Up until now, I'd always been the one from furthest in the future. But... [And he looked over at Lance again.] I'm guessing that's not the case anymore. [He frowned a bit.] The last thing I remember from home was getting ready to launch the Atlas after we'd all been cleared to go back to duty after the battles with Sendak's forces and that Altean mech.

[icyhotpaladin]

[There he is! A good boy. He couldn't resist giving the space dog a good scritch behind the ears as he listened. And of course, froze when heard one of the names that had been here.

It seemed like everyone but him had been here. Well, and Hunk. But even Matt had been here? And of course, the one name that made him freeze to begin with... Allura.

But Keith's explanation of being from different points in time allowed him to realize just how Allura was here but... damn, that still made his chest hurt. If Keith was from the Atlas launch and Allura was before that then she wouldn't have even remembered their relationship. And it also meant that Keith didn't know what happened to her. He swallowed hard.]

Uh, so, I'm from when... we kind of stopped the Galran Empire for good. But Honerva went super crazy and basically tried to destroy not just the universe but like... all universes. And to undo it once we finally stopped her was for her and Allura to... [He paused, it was still really hard to stop about and he had to take a breath. He rubbed his forehead for the moment to get his breath to keep steady, to focus.] They had to sacrifice themselves. Some Altean thing that only they knew and there was a chance they could survive but it's been a year since... so.

[tempredmental]

[Okay, that's not bad. They stopped all the uprisings, and tracked down Honerva and the source of those planet draining mechs, and...

Oh. Keith almost hopeful look from Lance's first statement fell pretty quick. He remembered encouraging Lance to go on that date, too. Damn. Once again, Keith found himself at a loss for words. He'd never been good at it anyway. He reached out and put a hand on Lance's shoulder.

Kosmo, picking up on the mood as he always did, moved closer to Lance.]

[icyhotpaladin]

[He felt the warmth from Kosmo as the space wolf stepped closer and from Keith's hand on his shoulder. Geez, a year later and this was still hard. But he really appreciated that Lance and Kosmo were here. They really had come a long way, huh?

He reached up to pat Keith's hand with a small smile, then he bent a little to give Kosmo another scritch between the ears.]

Thanks guys. I'm okay, really. Just didn't think I'd have to talk about it like that, you know? I really hope I don't have to do that again.

[Then again, he also didn't really want the others to know the feeling of losing someone like Allura. He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders.]

But c'mon, let's talk about something else. Like just what have you been up to here? Please tell me you're not brooding alone in some corner the whole time. [He looked down at Kosmo.] Is he, Kosmo?

[tempredmental]

[Keith looked worried for a moment, but decided to follow Lance's lead and not press. He managed a tiny smile and shook his head. Considering Allura had only just recently disappeared from Avalon made the news sting a bit more, but he managed to just shrug slightly to respond to Lance's joke.]

Nah. Brooding isn't going to solve our problem, and it's sure not going to help me figure out this magic stuff. [Keith was a much more physical fighter, so learning to use spells and other innate abilities that weren't just punching or kicking the daylights out an opponent wasn't exactly easy for him.]

Come on... we'll head over to the springs. It's pretty nice there.

[Kosmo gave a small grumble of agreement and turned to lead them in that direction.]