avalaughs | TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 21

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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 21

	QUICK NAV: ⚔️️ Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary
⚔️️ View Top-Levels Only ⚔️ IMPORTANT NOTE: The calamity is visible in the north area of the sky from all locations as of February's event. There is currently no sun or moon visible, making the world in a persistent state of dusk for now.

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, and normally the mossatees would still be helping this time of year... but it seems like they haven't shown up. Instead, a very helpful band of octopi have joined the cause. They range in size, from large enough to scoop three characters out of the water with their plethora of wriggling tentacles... to a band of tiny,

palm-sized baby octopi working together to try to heave a single person out of the water. No matter which you get, they all seem to have unique personalities, but animal mages may note that as a species, they all seem to think of the otherworlders as fun little playthings. These little otherworlders are so funny.

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.

B ⦿ The Caravan to Camelot

person riding horseback and looking at phone

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 and rain. There is also a mini-bar that pops out of the console. 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.

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.

hot springs covered in steam

D ⦿ Light it Up

a magical lantern

With the sun and moon temporarily gone, some fae have put forward a solution to fight the dusk off for a little while. They have made special lanterns holding a spell which, when powered up with any kind of magic, activates a small energy field large enough to comfortably fit up to five people. This field takes its form straight from the magic-providing person’s mind - so whether they're feeling homesick or just really want to be stuck in a deserted island for a while, the lantern will make it happen! Naturally, all of it is an illusion so nothing is actually real... but it feels very real, especially to the person providing the magic. The lantern will not make illusions of other humans or animals - just places, buildings, and flora - and those taking part will be able to move around and explore… but be careful not to get too excited, or you might just end up moving your real body and knocking another person out of the illusion, or falling out of it yourself to a very disorienting awakening.

If you don’t mind being crowded together, the energy field could squeeze in up to ten people, but the risks of someone being nudged out accidentally go up as more people enter. After that, anyone else who tries to step in - invited or not - will find themselves repelled by an invisible wall around the outside of the illusion.

There is, however, a time limit on this. While the spell can last up to twelve hours, it's advised that the lantern isn't used for more than a few hours at a time. If this guidance isn’t followed, it’s possible that after the lantern is deactivated the people who took part will keep seeing the illusory scenery around them for some time afterwards. If a person uses the lantern for the whole twelve hours, the illusion will continue for up to three days in the form of intrusive, imaginary objects and buildings that only they can see, or even faint shades of people from their own worlds.

E ⦿ Getting More Familiar

With Elphame and Camelot in better relations than ever thanks to the efforts of Otherworlders, Queen Elphame and King Arthur are working closely together to accomplish the next step of her plan, despite some tension about her not sharing what she intended to do with the Fisher King from the get-go. But they're talking now, and the place that everyone needs to go next is a place only familiars can reach.

The first thing that needs doing is a little bit of magic practice before anyone can go on the full mission. This will be much easier for those who have been here longer, bonded with their familiars longer, but will certainly not be impossible for those who have just arrived. Team up with another person to help balance

glass sphere in forest

your brand new and unstable magics to accomplish what amounts to changing bodies with your familiar.

Form a circle with another person and both of your familiars at equidistant points on the circle. Your familiar should be to your right. In the center of the circle, a bowl filled with a strong alcohol, enough to cover a chunk of malachite (a stone of transformation, associated with the heart and throat), vervain (to purify the spell of interfering spirits and offer protection, as well as assist in astral connection), purple coneflower (increases ritual powers by calling upon local deities), and violet (dedication and loyalty, to hold steady the bond between familiar and mage). Both mages in the circle should take the deepest breath they can and hold that breath, hold each other's palms up facing each other, and light the bowl on fire. It's important that you hold your breath for as long as you can, because malachite is toxic when exposed to liquid and will be released into the air during the spell. As the spell casts, a light will glow from your chest, up to your throat, and at the moment when you can no longer hold your breath and have to let it out, your soul will exit your body along with that breath. The protective qualities of the vervain will have kicked in by this point, and the fire of the bowl will go out. All four souls will swirl over the bowl slowly, like a turning galaxy, for a few moments, until they burst out and the souls find their way to their new host: yours in your familiar's body and your familiar's in yours.

Result can be unpredictable if you step outside of the lines with this spell, depending on which part you mess up, so players should feel free to come up with their own mishaps based on what each of the above ingredients for the spell are should they wish to go that route.

Once you've managed to become your familiar (and your familiar you... good luck with that), you need to practice being your familiar. Get the hang of moving, the hang of your familiar's characteristics, voice (or lack thereof), and how to function as them. Exactly how to do that will be a personalized experience based on what your familiar is, so there's no clear means to practice... which means it's a good time to send you on a softball, but useful quest to practice before the real thing! Each of you who have done this should head into the Brocéliande and look for silver flowers that look like daffodils. Within them are drops of what appear to be water, but those drops are actually enchanted glass spheres only visible to familiars. Be careful- the silver daffodils are guarded by skunk-like spirits that spray knock-out gas, then they will drag you to a random location in the forest. You really could get lost very easily, but don't come back without your sphere! Those will be super important for bringing back the sun and moon soon.

• 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 as long as the characters are currently in or join the game during the application period. If new players do not want their TDM to be considered canon, they should state as much on the OOC intro once accepted.
• Both current members and potential new characters can post to this TDM log. Anyone may reply to any threads or start top-levels. Whichever you prefer!
•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. This particular one is a little different. 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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[ The sun and moon being gone sure is.. something, alright. It's pretty worrying, and Minako is - if anything - even more worried about the effect it might have on people. She doesn't like it when people end up having to worry, after all. It's way easier when she's carrying all the worry on her own shoulders, allowing others to just be happy.

So when she hears of a solution that might cheer some people up, Minako goes for it. She doesn't trust the fae, sure, but that's why she makes sure to test the lantern herself before subjecting anyone else to it.

But when she finds that it seems to work just fine.. well, that's when Minako gets to work.

No matter where you might be in the city, and no matter whether you're familiar to the girl or a stranger, Minako will just run straight up to you, a large smile on the girl's face. ]

Hey, hey! Why don't you tell me about your [ she might be leaning in a little here, just for effect-- ] dream destination.

[ This city is fine, she supposes. Much more colorful than her London, but that's probably true of everywhere. (She loves London, but she's not blind to its flaws.) It's strange to be in a place where people seem to be provided for, and where there's always some sort of adventure to be had.

But the fashion. It's just— ] Boring.

[ She mutters that, and her familiar, a spirit Dalmatian named Khan, gives an indignant snort. He too thinks it's offensively bad.

She's thinking about sketches she wants to do, a store she might like to open, when a young blonde girl comes up to her and invades her personal space to ask something of a personal question.

Cruella tilts her head a little, frowning. ]

Hmm. I'm not sure, really. A design studio, I suppose. But... not a modern one, no. I want mine.

[ The one from the warehouse. The one the Baroness torched. She had built her life there, with Jasper and Horace and Buddy and Wink. It was theirhome for all those years. She remembers her wall of cutouts and sketches, the old sewing machine they'd stolen for her, the fabrics, the knickknacks-- ]

Why, does your magic take people wherever they like?

Yes!

[ .. okay, so technically it isn't Minako's magic, but she still can't help it. The difference between it being her magic and just some magic she's borrowing to use right now is so tiny anyway that explaining it here doesn't feel important.

Especially when she might be able to help someone. ]

You can see me as.. your friendly and helpful fairy godmother, here to fulfil your deepest wishes when it comes to a place you want to see? Just a lot more beautiful! [ She flips her long, blonde hair a little as she says it, but it all seems to be good-natured, since she's smiling when she looks back at the other. ] As long as you tell me everything about the place you want to go and what it's like, I can show it to you!

[He return her smile with a faint one of his own, calm and mild-mannered.]

I don't mind but I'm afraid my dream destination is rather mundane.

Hmmmmm...

[ Minako seems to consider this for a moment. Consider it in the most dramatic of ways, that is, because that hum is way too long and loud to not be exaggerated.

But hey, it's all about the dramatic effect. ]

I mean, that doesn't matter, does it? [ Sure, she'd like to see something a little more exciting. But as long as it makes the other person happy in the end, it doesn't super matter what they see. ] As long as it's somewhere you really want to go, then it's fine!

[He doesn't laugh, exactly, but there's a breath that he lets out that's close.]

I suppose that would be the Marquis Manor, then.

[That place where he had started his days with bringing breakfast to Gu Yun before spending the rest of the morning practising swordplay then just sitting there listening to Gu Yun talk about whatever random topic he landed on.]

Though I haven't been back there in years.

[ Minako doesn't seem to hesitate for even a single moment as she says: ]

Tell me about it!

[ Sure, there's the chance that the place is so personal that the other would rather not want to talk about it with someone who randomly approached him on the street.. but Minako isn't thinking too hard about it. If Chang Geng was willing to give her the name of the place, surely he doesn't fully mind talking about it.

So she just smiles at him, apparently eager enough to listen to his description of the place he's talking about. ]

[He will, of course, keep the things he didn't want to share to himself. But there is a lot he didn't mind sharing.]

It's a large home and an old one. It could use some work and repairs but it is comfortably habitable. There aren't many servants. Those that live there have been with the home and family for a long time. [He speaks of it warmly. The Marquis Manor is clearly a place he thinks of fondly.]

There is an old plum blossom tree in the courtyard. During the winter when it blooms, its fragrance will drift into the rooms if the windows are open.

The scent of plum blossoms..

[ She seems to be focusing on that for a moment. After all, the other things are general enough that they could apply to a lot of places, but that last part feels very, very specific.

And also kind of nice, honestly. ]

How about any other impressions? Like.. hmm, the colours you see there the most! Or sounds you often hear there..

[ Focusing on the five senses will probably make it the easiest for the lantern's magic to manifest this place, Minako thinks. ]

As I said, it's not in the best state so the colours are a little muted and it's not very lively, most of the time.

[Still, he remembers...] During the New Year, [Or rather, sixteen days after the new year, during Gu Yun's birthday.] The first time we were in the capital, we had decorated the iron puppets, painted rouge on their faces and gave them fans to dance with.

[Though most of his impressions all revolved around Gu Yun.]

[ It's not exactly the kind of impression she expected, that much is true.

.. on the other hand, it clearly seems to be an important memory to the other.. so who would Minako be to question that, really? So she just takes in the other's words with a small nod and a smile on her face. ]

Then.. let's go see that place!

[ She raises the lantern as she says it, its light already starting to glow brighter. Apparently it managed to get an idea about the place the other wanted to see from his description.. ]

Are you ready for it?

[ Hey, at least she's being - relatively - polite enough to ask that first, rather than plunge the two of them into the illusion without warning. ]

[He looks at the lantern for a moment.

He likes to think he's a practical sort of person who wouldn't be interested in something that was only an illusion and not real. But he's also honest enough to admit that when it comes to anything even remotely related to Gu Yun, he isn't capable of being practical.

So he nodded his head and reached out to put a hand on the lantern.]

It's kind of you to offer.

[And really, even though his descriptions could be sparse, the strength of his memory will be enough to create an incredibly detail illusion.

The manor is how he described it: old and needing a little care. But it also show signs of having been very grand at one point. The plum blossom tree was there to the side of the courtyard but there were no birthday decorations. There was a chill in the air, as if it were in the early spring where winter first gave way to spring and the time of day seems to be early winter.]

[ Thankfully it's no surprise to see the space suddenly forming into existence around them. Minako is very used to illusion magic by now, after all - it's what her own light magic is entirely based around, and she's practiced enough with it over the nearly a year she's been in this place by now to know how it works. To know what it looks like when an illusion is projected around you.

Instead she smiles, glad to see that the lantern really must have worked as advertised. She doesn't recognize this space, sure, but it seems to match his description enough for her to know it must have worked. ]

Wow..

[ Minako allows that sound to escape her before she's already spinning on the balls of her feet, making sure to look all around them before she turns back to the man. ]

We're here! This is the place, right? The mansion you were thinking of? Though.. sheesh, they could've dropped us off here in summer or something! [ Sure, the chill in the air gives it a bit of a mood about it, but Minako definitely enjoys the warmth of summer over this. ]

It is.

[Their breath fogs in the cold air. It is very nostalgic. He had a feeling he knew why it was winter, why the plum blossoms on the tree were only buds and not yet blooming. The sound of footsteps, too even and rhythmic to be a living human being's confirmed it.]

It was winter when I first came here.

[As he said it, sounding so very fond and nostalic, around the corner comes an iron puppet--a human shaped mechanical thing whose eyes glowed faintly purple. It was holding a covered basket from which wafted the smell of food. It was subtle but just ahead of it, though there was no one else, the dust is disturbed as if there were someone it was following.]

[ .. huh.

The appearance of the puppet is a little startling. Minako has seen a lot, both back home and far away from home, but this is entirely new to her. It doesn't seem like an enemy, which is why she doesn't react by immediately looking combat-ready. There's no need to be serious about this when this is all an illusion, after all. They shouldn't be able to get hurt here when nothing about it is real.

Instead she - almost comically - hops until she's behind Chang Geng, like she's hiding behind the other. ]

What's that?

[ Minako whispers, in a tone that's way too loud to be an actual whisper.. It's more like a stage whisper, really. ]

[He doesn't laugh at her reaction because that's not the sort of person he is.

Instead, he explains patiently.]

It's an iron puppet. It is I believe what you would know as an automaton or a robot. They run on ziliujin, a fuel that burns hotter than coal. You can see it in the purple glow in its eyes.

[The iron puppet passes by them without pausing.]

I used to take that iron puppet with me to deliver breakfast to Zi Xi.

[His voice is so soft with affection and nostalgia. Despite everything else, these were memories that he remembered very fondly.]

Then.. it's a good robot, right? [ If he speaks of it with such affection, or perhaps nostalgia. Granted, a breakfast puppet-robot doesn't sound like it could be too dangerous, but you never know with these things.

After all, Minako has seen movies.

A lot of movies. ]

It isn't going to suddenly start to rebel and try to take over the world with breakfast, right? [ You never know!!

Thankfully it's not a real fear as much as it's still just her being dramatic, keeping the air light here. Especially with how soft his voice is. She'd like to keep it amused and warm, rather than potentially sad at how far away he technically is from this location, as long as they're all still trapped in that other world. Being dramatic is apparently just Minako's method of contributing to that. ]

[He lets out a short, soft laugh.]

No, it wouldn't do that without orders from someone.

[And, obviously, no one is going to give that order here.]

Do you want to see the rest of the manor?

[ There's the faintest pause, but then she nods, seeming to drop the dramatics entirely along with said nod. Any sign of tenseness disappears from her body like it was never there in the first place, and even her answer sounds cheerier, lighter. ]

Sure!

[ See, suddenly there's no worry at all left. ]

I mean, we might as well while we're here, right? Though we better make sure to not wander too far from this spot, since we don't want to lose our way back. [ Maybe he might enjoy being stuck here, but Minako would rather prefer not to be. Her girlfriend would worry! ]

Don't worry. I could not become lost in this place.

[As long as it is true to memory...which he has no reason to think it wouldn't be.]

We can go see the plum blossom tree.

Oh, let's do that! Is it a special tree?

[ Look at that, Minako's mood really turned around just like that.. A very clear sigh that she was just being dramatic earlier if she's able to return to being all happy and chattery so easily as they move, huh. ]

Or is it just that it's super pretty?

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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 21

minako aino | sailor moon | current character | ota

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