TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 21

[avalonmods]

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⚔️️ 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.

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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 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.

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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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D ⦿ Light it Up
	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.

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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
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.

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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 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.

Comments

Crapuccino

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata normally drinks his coffee either black or with just some milk, and he very much shares Kate's (and the quest-giver's) opinion on the ridiculously over-the-top concoctions that are so commonplace nowadays! This one time he might well have turned an eye on a dark web quest... if he had seen it yet.

Today of all days, of course, he lets the barista, determined to shill the seasonal frappuccinos, talk him into changing his order. He wants to ask for no syrup at least (how can anybody drink that stuff?!), but too late, one pump already went in, and at this point he's too resigned to argue further. He had a short night, okay? So he sits down at a small round table and takes a sip...]

Ew!! Ugh! Damn, what the hell did you put in there?! Tabasco?

[The baffled barista stammers that no, it was only one pump of acorn syrup, but he's not even listening and instead looking around as if he expects a prankster to pop out. In a way he does - back home he's ended up with hot sauce in his food and drink courtesy of his subordinate Okita too many times to count. That sadist better not be back on Avalon!]

[morns]

( Honestly, it probably isn't too hard to work out that the person holding their camera phone and recording this whole thing is the one responsible for whatever happened. This may not be hurting the saps who order that swill in the same way most dark web quests ask for, but the scene is still a sight to behold.

Poor barista. But oh well. Shit happens.

She's just going to keep drinking that wonderfully unsullied coffee she has. It helps stifle the smirk threatening to play on her lips. )

[mayoninofukucho]

[Oh yeah. He's looking over. He's getting up! He's coming over, Kate! He stands in front of her table, arms crossed, all authoritative in his uniform! He points at her cup...]

Sorry, but your coffee is okay? Can I ask what you ordered?

[He... isn't always that fast on the uptake. For all he knows she might just have been taking an angled selfie!]

[morns]

( Well, she'll take getting away scot free. Or at least, hopefully doing so. He doesn't seem to clock the phone, so she'll just... close the camera app and lock it. )

'S fine. They gave me black.

( Shrug. She had a little pushback, but nothing compared to this dude's pain. Maybe he just looked more like a sucker? )

You tried saying no?

( Wow. Thank you for your incredible wisdom, Katherine. )

[mayoninofukucho]

Yeah, but clearly I didn't try hard enough.

[He walks back up to the register and puts his drink, which he held on to, on the counter.]

I'd like to return this and have my original order instead.

[The barista opens her mouth to tell him that coffee shops don't have a return policy, but his sour expression makes her let out a soft sigh and get him a simply cup of black coffee ready. If he really wants nothing else in terms of ingredients that's his loss in her book! Before long he sits back down at Kate's table, somehow feeling compelled to update her on how it went (never mind that the exchange happened in her immediate vicinity), and takes a sip.]

This really tastes fine! That was the first and last time I tried any of those froofy specials!

[morns]

( Should she feel a little bad for dousing the guy who clearly likes these monstrosities as much as she does?

Probably.

Does she? Not really. )

Weird. Thought they'd be sweet.

( Telling bald-faced lies, Katherine?

Oh well. At least they can agree on the wrongness of sweet coffee. )

Go to th' place two streets down next time. All they serve is espresso.

[mayoninofukucho]

That small hole-in-the-wall place? That's where I go usually when I'm in this part of town. So much for the enrichment of branching out!

[He takes another sip while he ponders where he's seen her before... oh, right! On AOL. Of course.]

You run the parcours gym here, right?

[He honestly doesn't have much interest in the sport - why run around aimlessly when he can spend his energy on targeted errands and investigations? -, but he's all the more intrigued by what people see in it and whether the Camelotians are taking to it.]

How's business? I'd assume it's mostly kinetic mages who come to practice?

[morns]

( That's the place. The opening hours are a bit weird, but the coffee's worth it. But since espresso wasn't the point of this coffee shop outing, she's come here.

Continuing her slow but steady pace of draining her coffee, Kate's attention renews with the question about her gym. A blink, a raising of eyebrows. )

Aye.

( She does run that. But don't let her catch your thoughts about parkour, Hijikata, or you might find yourself trying it out. )

Elemental mages, too. ( Look, a girl put in work making sure that mages could practice as well as people who just wanted to learn parkour, and they definitely help with business. ) Surprisin' amount of people who want to learn regardless.

( A shrug. Or people who were used to doing such things back home and want a place to practice. )

[mayoninofukucho]

How's it useful for elemental mages?

[He can kind of see how running through an obstacle course could be good practice for battlefield action, but the training grounds at the Red Springs seem better suited for that. They have dummies to target after all! But then he hasn't been to Kate's gym, so maybe it does too? (Also it doesn't even occur to him that people might use their elemental magic for anything but combat. Of course not.)]

I guess it's a good way to keep in shape and more fun that running on a treadmill, but I've got a pretty active job already, so I've got that part taken care of.

[morns]

Wind magic's good for movement.

( And she thought she was bad at looking at everything through a practical lens! There's plenty of practical reasons to know how to parkour, of course, if you're uh... let's say involved in some less than legitimate operations in the city. )

Ah? ( Squint. Unfortunately, she isn't having any luck placing the face to a job, so; ) What's that?

[mayoninofukucho]

Knight.

[He takes a big gulp of his coffee - man, the other place really makes it a lot better.]

Between the patrols, the missions, and getting deployed here and there and everywhere, it's more than enough to keep us sharp.

[Not sharp enough to notice he's being pranked and recorded, evidently... Kate's video of his reaction, once posted, may just net her a surprising amount of 'likes' and kudos - and thereby give her some insight into what the dark web thinks of him, who has meddled in a good handful of their quests already.]

[morns]

( ... Ah.

Well, it could be worse? He still seems clueless about her work here, and it's not like she actively harmed him, but that note is being filed away for future reference. )

Always busy, aren't ya?

( Like medieval military, and frankly, she's had more than her fill of that life. Not that she never takes a job that leads in that direction, but the occasional paycheque and actually pledging allegiance and her life to another place?

Nah. You can keep that. )

[mayoninofukucho]

[Hijikata may thrive with structure and order in his life, but he's surprisingly choosy about his allegiance! If he hadn't immediately gotten the gut feeling that King Arthur was sincerely doing his best and decently capable (much as opinions on that may differ...) he wouldn't have dedicated himself to him and just done his own thing instead.]

Oh, believe it. It's always something. If it's not outright crimes you get stuff like super important ritual ingredients needing to be harvested or minotaurs pissing in the water supply.

[That only happened once, and he actually shirked that less-than-pleasant task, but details! He finishes his coffee with another big gulp, clearly not one for extended luxuriation (and maybe his chain smoking habit long killed his tastebuds anyway).]

Well, I'll be on my way. I'll see you around.

[Simply by merit of this being an island, and Kate's bright hair being hard to miss.]

[morns]

( The question of capability is certainly one that hangs heavy over the head of every party involved in this. Admittedly, it's not like Kate would have any better ideas than the heads in charge in this situation.

Which is to say: she'll play along with the grand scheme missions, at least. )

Aye. ( She lifts her hand in a wave, and adds; ) Don't drink owt weird.

( Of course, if she knew about #mayocrimes, she might be more inclined to let him drink as many spiked coffee abominations as possible. )