TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 17

[avalonmods]

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⚔️️ View Top-Levels Only ⚔️ IMPORTANT NOTE 1: For the month of March, magic is acting unstable! Magic fuck-ups are at least twice as likely to happen, so new characters may find it harder to do basic magic.  IMPORTANT NOTE 2:The sky is not normal anymore! The calamity is visible in the sky as of February's event.

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. The water is cold, but not enough that you can't handle it on your own. The Lady of the Lake is nearby, but seems to be focusing on coordinating a band of mossatees to help rescue any wayward new arrivals. Mossatees are a special Avalonian manatee that is green in color and has what appears to be a patches of grass or other short plant life growing on its back. While some are fully green, others sport small flower blossoms that haven't yet grown in or various types of mushrooms. Green mages will be able to note that the plants growing on its back seem to give off "surfer dude" personalities.
If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. Those with animal magic may get their info from the mossatees, though may notice that they're really overly friendly and have zero concept of personal boundaries. Everyone may notice they have no concept of personal space, as they will happily run right into someone's belly for a snoot squishing. 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. 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, but... Hm....

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When everyone arrives it seems like during the siege on Camelot the training grounds were absolutely trashed!

A ⦿ gArBo HuNgErS
	With everyone focusing on recovering Camelot main and the bulk of the resort facilities at the Red Springs, the training grounds at the Red Springs have gone a little neglected.. at least enough to be taken over by a band of local decay sprites. Now, these fairies aren't what they sound- they're not dead, they're little garbage sprites. Perfectly harmless, they often go around picking up trash from natural habitats. They look like garbage bags and bins with googly eyes.  However, the Red Springs's magical attributes combined with magic going a little haywire have caused them to go a little off. Right now, their googly eyes are flashing angry colors that should come with a seizure warning straight out of an old Disney cartoon. They're not just picking up trash, they're eating everything!
What's more, they grow in size each time they eat something new, so some of them are already big enough to swallow an orc! Don't worry, the trash goes into a hammerspace to decay over a long period of time, so if you get swallowed, there's still a chance for someone to get you out... which they can do by fighting the decay sprite. Decay sprites can suck things up similarly to Kirby, though they do not gain your powers, so finding a way to keep your feet on the ground with magic should be your first step. Beware though, defeated sprites will spin in a circle and fall over, and everything they've eaten will spill out onto the ground... so you're going to have to clean it up yourself.

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B ⦿ Slightly Shabby
The state of Camelot isn't exactly great when everyone arrives. It's been ravaged by siege. Things are broken, scattered, and though many of the buildings are still standing, most people are focused on things like taking care of kids, rebuilding, or rerouting the new arrivals since the inn is not available right now. The castle rooms are already pretty full of people whose homes got trampled during the siege, so new arrivals are going to have to find their own place to live. Thankfully, some tag-alongs who came down from Nicnevin with the Elphame traders have got the solution! It's the Wink-Wonk Dream-Donk: a ball you can press the button on and it will suck you inside for a state of stasis! Good dreams guaranteed! Side effects that the mystery helper doesn't mention are that you can't get out on your own, someone else has to press the button, and you'll have warm, vaguely submissive, fuzzy,
kinda clingy feelings toward anyone who lets you out. Though acting on it can be fought with strong enough willpower, it's certainly going to get you and a stranger much closer than you planned a lot faster. It looks like you may have gotten caught up in some kind of dark web experimental product... oops.

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The start of the month begins with the usual March rituals like the Lesser Banishing of Frost Fairies before flowers start to bloom throughout Avalon. Once things start to get cleaned up, some Camelot citizens think of ways to get Camelot back to its normal glory.

A ⦿ Running of the Moon Rabbits
Doing the Lesser Banishing of Frost Fairies often attracts Moon Rabbit kits. These friendly small rabbits do eat a lot though, and it's important right now that the youngin's are nourished without depleting Camelot's food stores.  Thankfully, the Moon Rabbit Kits love to play tag. So throughout Camelot, people have started playing a massive game of tag. The rabbits will chase you around, so the goal is to chase people and head out toward the Broceliande to get the Moon Rabbit kits out to nature where they're intended to be. Per Camelot rules, if you're touched by someone's magic it is considered as being tagged-- so hands or spells will count as a tag.. just be careful, magic is a little unbalanced right now! Be careful not to step on any of the little rabbits while you run!

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B ⦿ Eggxacting
	With the streets clearer and Camelot finally starting to look more like its former self (albeit a little sparser) a culinary wizard has taken to trying his hand at a kind of magic that should help to quickly decorate the city and encourage floral growth. Using a wild combination of animal magic and green magic, the wizard created a special brand of eggs he's calling Oeufs de fleurs. He's selling them for a low price (hey, he does need to bring in some income to afford his expenses) for everyone and new arrivals get half a dozen OdF eggs for free! Just make sure that you follow the directions and there won't be a problem! The directions included with each pack of eggs states: 1. Blue eggs should only be thrown at night. 2. White eggs should only be thrown at day. 3. Do not eat them. More information is available on the chef's Instagram page, of course, but that's all that's included. The further information lets you know that blue eggs are
photosensitive and will turn into bear firs if thrown during the day, but if used correctly will blossom into moonflowers at night. The white eggs react to the moon and will grow into 60 foot tall trees if you throw them at night... but if you're throwing them during the day, they will become beautiful morning glories that only blossom during the light. Lastly, foolishly eating a flower egg is known to result in latent hanahaki disease. If you don't love someone now, this may appear at any point in the future when it does happen. It can only be cured by a skilled green mage. These eggs do expire, so make sure you use them by the end of the month!

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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.

Comments

never be sorry!!

[greedyvixen]

[... Oh great, this is starting about as well as the last time, when she met one of them. Rin just listens and she looks even less and less impressed if that's even possible. Also she's letting that comment about her muscles fly by, it's not even true???]

I know who you are. [Well, she knew her name at least, not much else...] But I really couldn't care less about which goddess you think you are, you don't even have any of your powers here if you even have any powers anywhere. And even if you still had them here, my answer would still be the same, that I don't care.

[What's that? She wants Tohsaka Rin to treat her like a goddess, that she is?? Rin looks way too proud and arrogant with her head held high and all emotions in total control (so far) to be doing anything like that to anyone.]

Yes, I'm that girl and Ishtar and you - or however more there happen to be around looking like me - wouldn't even exist without me. [So that puts Rin above them??? According to Rin Tohsaka's logic, yes, she's even looking at this blonde goddess like she sure thinks so!] And really, they could have chosen anyone to be your vessel, so do you really think they'd have chosen me if that would be true?

[No, honey, they chose a perfect vessel for a goddess, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with Rin's body. But she'll let her keep on talking about how she's a goddess, not that she really NEEDS that divine ego boost again.]

[queenofkur]

...

[ What had just happened? Had a train rolled over her? Ereshkigal was stunned and said nothing for a couple seconds. Who did that girl think she was? The sad thing was that she'd imagined meeting with the girl serving as her vessel before. In her mind, the girl would have been super happy at being a goddess's vessel— And in that scenario, Ereshkigal had imagined herself thanking the girl for everything. She'd become a better person with Rin as her vessel. Her self-esteem and confidence issues had gotten a bit better, her negative traits had become far less bad— There was a lot she was thankful for! And then they could have become friends! Have a nice cup of tea and discuss all kind of things, like how to make cute DIY necklaces with bones.

But no, that girl turned out to be a disaster of Ishtar-esque proportions. That sucked so much...! She understood now why she'd been chosen as a vessel for Ishtar. It was a match made in heaven. Barely a minute into meeting her, and she was already insufferable! Still, she couldn't let someone speak to her like that! Why couldn't all mages be like Ritsuka? ]

I-I should smite you where you stand for daring to speak to me that way...! And I will should you continue to slight me.

[ She brought a hand to the cage dangling off her hips— There was a light swirling inside, the form her familiar took while resting. She didn't want to fight but she had to display some assertiveness to be respected! ]

I have existed for tens of thousands of years before you were even born. The-the ritual simply gave me a summonable form as a side-effect due to my connection to Ishtar...! [That was said very defensively. How could she say she existed only thanks to a human?] They needed a vessel possessed of a nature close to Ishtar's. Someone arrogant, haughty, loud, selfish and lacking in manners— [She pointed a finger at her.] Your only accomplishment was in sharing all of those dirty traits with her...!

[ There! She couldn't wait to see the destroyed look on Rin's face after hearing that. Maybe after Rin has apologized and acknowledged this is no way to treat a goddess, they'd be able to start off on a better foot.

Yeah, she's naive. ]

[greedyvixen]

[Hilariously? When Rin heard that Ereshkigal exists too, she -- kind of thought, that their meeting would go much better. At least she thought it might go much better than the one time, when she met Ishtar. Maybe she even imagined, that they might get along, and eventually become friends or whatever. Of course this could have been an entirely different first meeting if Rin had met her any other time or if she had even tried a friendlier approach, but guess what, Rin Tohsaka has a tendency to fuck up the most important part of things.

So really, she didn't expect their first meeting to go like this! Rin's not sure why she didn't expect something like this, she should have known much better because of course they'd meet like this. Still. Walking around looking like Rin with blonde hair and looking totally sad, rejected and depressed and whatever else negative feelings she had on her face before this started? UNACCEPTABLE!! Rin works so hard to bottle all of those feelings up behind a dazzling smile as if everything's fine in public all the time. Is she petty? Maybe. Is it unhealthy to hide all of those feelings? Absolutely, but she's not going to stop doing that.

Tohsaka glares at Ereshkigal like there's no way in Hell she'll stop doing anything just because some goddess from underworld thinks she can tell Rin what to do. Rin doesn't take orders from anyone, she does whatever the hell she feels like doing and she makes her own rules ... and she's bossy as hell herself, so really, no one's going to boss her around.]

Then why don't you just try to do it right now, then?

[Is this goddess saying she'd smite Rin supposed to be scary?? Judging by the look on Rin's face, she's taking that as a challenge and she's always ready to win those.

Oh, is that how it works?? They've existed for that long and then some people wanted to give them a vessel and so on. Good, good, keep telling her more about that too, she's taking mental notes to think about later. And well, congrats, Eresh, you know some pieces about Rin Tohsaka's complicated personality and she doesn't even try to deny being any of that. Rin puts one of her hands on her hips.]

You clearly have no idea about how that magic even works. [Rin rolls her eyes.] Even if you happened to be a side-effect in it, those personality traits were also side-effects because either they did something wrong or the magic was too powerful or they really should have chosen a less powerful mage as a vessel. They choose vessels based on combination of looks and magical powers, it's not based on personality traits!

[Or at least that's... probably / possibly how it works??? Rin actually has no idea, but she sure makes it sound like she absolutely knows what she's talking about. She's not about to let two goddesses tell her what happened and what didn't happen... Although, there are probably some summons and other rituals, where things are chosen based on personality traits because well, there's a lot of different magic.

Oh, is she still waiting for Rin's apology? Yeah, that's not going to happen and there's no destroyed face either. There's just Rin looking as arrogant as ever. So, her magical powers are or will be so great, that some weirdos decide to use her body as a vessel for goddesses, huh?]

1/2

[queenofkur]

[ Things couldn't possibly get worse! But now wasn't the time to whine. Ereshkigal was still a goddess who had her pride and had accomplished feats even other gods were scared of. Rin had just challenged her. Not taking on the challenge would be akin to admitting defeat and letting go of her honor. It was unconscionable! ]

Y-You're the one with no idea how this magic works! [She shook her head.] That's enough. I can't let someone so alike to that greedy goddess disparage me any further.

[ It was time to get serious. She had no intention to actually harm the girl, but she couldn't just let this continue either. She had her pride as a goddess and while she wasn't in the underworld, that didn't mean she was going to let such transgression go unpunished. So a display of strength would scare Rin and put an end to that foolish situation! Was she going to be considered an evil goddess after that...? Maybe that was her fate.

Ereshkigal took the cage off her hip and shook it, the little light inside growing in intensity and starting to swirl around more quickly. ]

O Gallû Spirit of this land, familiar bonded to my soul to repair our frozen worlds, heed my call!

[ She shook the cage and thus caused it to open, the light surging out and the Gallû Spirit appearing!

... ]

2/2

[queenofkur]

[ Noooooooooooooooooooooo.

Why was it covered in Christmas decorations? That was not going to scare anyone like that!

This was the worst day ever. The surface world was so overrated! ]

1/2

[greedyvixen]

[GREEDY?! Wh--? That's Rin's so called middle name, and absolutely not something that Ishtar should ever be allowed to steal from her personality??? That seems to infuriate Rin more than anything else by now, not that there's anything she can really do about it.

Hey, what is she doing??]

2/2

[greedyvixen]

[ No, seriously, what the hell does Eresh think she's doing?? Calling her familiar?? Familiar from this world?? Rin blinks, looking totally surprised and not arrogant and rude anymore. Is she trying to make her familiar attack her? Sorry, honey, Rin's been here long enough to know that that really... shouldn't work.

Aaaaand her familiar is a what?? Supposedly spooky Halloween creature dressed up as a Christmas Tree? Sounds like Nightmare Before Christmas or something. Rin tries to hide how amused she is by this new twist, she'd hate to be rude to a familiar no matter how rude she is to people.]

What are you doing? Are you trying to make your familiar fight against me? It doesn't work like that here no matter how it works back wherever you're from... So, if you really want to fight, you'll have to fight with whatever magics this world gave to you!

[ ... though Rin's magic is fucked up at the moment thanks to helping Morganna and this whole world last month, so uh, that could sure bring some twists into a magic fight.

And yeah, oh sure, once she gets to talk about magic, familiars and how things work here?? Seems like she's calmer, at least for now.]

[queenofkur]

[ So their familiars couldn't fight against others like her, huh? She hadn't been aware of that... But that made sense, they were all here together for a greater purpose. And she really hadn't wanted to attack Rin anyway.

Still, she looked more than a little bit defeated. ]

No, I just wanted it to scare you... [A sigh.] I am not as obnoxious as Ishtar about it, but I have my pride as a divinity. [Read: a big need for boosts to her exceedingly weak self-esteem.] I may be a goddess of death, but I do not kill humans for petty reasons. Maybe I would have, once...

[ Back when she had been less of a human and more of a divinity. Before Rin had become their vessel. Heck, just losing her memories of the singularity had set her back on such a path. She didn't really like whom she had once been. Well, even back then she had already been more compassionate towards humans than most... But she still had been a god who didn't really understand humans. Who she was now, she was far much more happy with. Even if there were a lot of things she still hoped to improve on. ]

And then once the dust settled we could have... [... No. She'd shown enough of her pathetic side for the day. She was a goddess, it's not like she should want friends anyway. Normally she should be in the underworld, such frivolous things didn't befit one such as her. And Rin was just the vessel. Why should she need to befriend her? That was pointless, right? It was better to give up on the idea. Yes, it was better that way. Yes, she totally didn't want to be friends with her.

...

She shook her cage and the familiar turned into a small ball of light, going back into it.] N-Nevermind that. But don't think I have forgotten your transgression...! [She forced a confident smile.] If we cross path again, you may not find me to be as kind as I was today!

[ Said strongly yet with whatsoever no conviction. ]