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avalaughs2020-10-31 11:42 pm
avalonmods) wrote in avalaughs2020-10-31 11:42 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I
 Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary  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. You'll definitely see other new arrivals plopping in. If you can't swim, a red-headed woman known only as the Lady of the Lake will drag you to the shore if she doesn't spot someone else near you helping so no one ends up drowning. She's a little busy casting directive magic to make sure everyone lands safely and playing lifeguard, so if anyone attempts to talk to her, she'll tell them to head up to 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
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 nip bottles. 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
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. 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.  A ⦿ Get Fresh
B ⦿ Be Merry
C ⦿ Eat Well
Have a seat, meet a new neighbor, find a roommate, maybe a new or old friend? Talk to the person to your left, your right, across from you. Mingle, enjoy the food, the music, it shouldn’t be long before the information promised is provided. Till then take your fill and get to know your fellow travelers.  You've been here a few days now and have gotten a chance to settle in, find a place to stay, and Camelot's citizens have decided that you've been here long enough to start living your life again. Well, your new life. A group of citizens have decided to give everyone their first quest. "Hear ye, hear ye!" a man in chain mail with a tablet with his statement typed up on it declares to a crowd from atop a pedestal. There are two other citizens around him with phones to post the video to AOL later to make sure the word gets heard ye all around. "Those with magic, we beseech thee! Findeth us a grail most holy hidden in the depths of the Brocéliande! This holy grail is known to grant thine wishes three, a most noble quest for noble souls! Great reward will come to those who find it and proclaim at least one of their wishes to find the great Excalibur for King Arthur!" This is the first you've heard about King Arthur, and it seems curious that he hasn't yet shown his face around town. It also seems strange that this guy is speaking like he's stepped out of a bad period piece, and probably should be the clue that this is more or less an attempt to haze some of the newcomers by sending them into the forest... but no one is telling newcomers this. It's better to get them out there and start praciticing, after all. A ⦿ Lost, and Lost, and Lost Again
Which is what makes it peculiar when you keep passing the exact same locations over and over again, as if you've been traveling in circles or reaching the end of the map in a video game and coming out the other end. You're stuck in a space loop. The only way out is to successfully find the one difference in each loop five times in a row and collect it. Maybe it's a strange frog, a crystal that wasn't there before, a small wooden step that doesn't lead anywhere, or some other singular item, you've got to find what stands out... pick the wrong item, and you'll have to start your five count over again, and again, and again... B ⦿ Grail, and Grail, and Grail Again!?
C ⦿ A Quest Completeish
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MOD NOTES:
• 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.
• For the first month only, there will not be a quest board. Starting in December, quests will be posted on the 1st of each month for current players. After that point, quests may be used as TDM prompts in addition to the presented TDM prompts. A link will be provided as a bonus prompt option at the end of the post.
• The first "Arrival" prompts are present on every TDM. 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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Takao gets it, it does not do much but make him give a short snicker. Not bad, but he has heard better. He keeps on, seeing what looks a button in one of the trees he walks over to it, stares at it, then looks to where Gokudera is.
"Think I should push it?"
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"Hmm." Yeah that sounds way more beneficial than picking someone up and dragging them by the arms until they learned how to use their lower half.
It's not Gokudera's joke, so he's not concerned about how Takao responds. He was just making the observation, after all. And then the other is looking at a button on a tree.
"Are there any other buttons?" Maybe they have to press them in a certain order?
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Yup! It's what he thought too, the idea came from walking his little sister on his feet when she was first learning to walk. Teach the muscles to do something and they can do it. He may be a jock but Takao is far from a dumb one. Despite all the snickers and smartassery, he's a fairly intelligent young man when you get down to it.
Takao rarely means to offend someone, when he does there is a lot less amusement in his voice as it is. But he is also not one to fake it in terms of anything, so at least he didn't pretend it was the funniest thing he heard, right? Honestly is always better.
The basketball player starts to move around the tree, looking over every inch he counts exactly seven buttons, they are not marked, what they are is each in the colors of the rainbow.
"You wouldn't happen to know what order the colors on a rainbow are would you?" He steps back, contemplates for a moment.
"I think it's Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet? If we're supposed to push them in order that would be the obvious pattern." He figures getting confirmation before going for it might not be a bad idea, he does not want to reset their progress on accident.
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It's a practical knowledge, and Gokudera isn't assuming Takao is an idiot... just doesn't like anyone older or younger than him, and doesn't like most people in general. Takao could be the most intelligent person he'd ever meet and still Gokudera would find some way to quietly judge him.
"It just seems too easy." But Takao is making some fair points. Gokudera would have expected some challenges on this quest... something to maybe make him use magic or solve a legitimate puzzle. Maybe the further along this path they go, the more complicated it'll seem.
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And he can not help it that he's older, that's just birth timeline. He really doesn't think or consider if the other boy is judging him. If he started worrying about what people thought now, he'd have to change a lot, and frankly, he likes himself, no matter if other people do or don't. He's not sensitive enough to be offended by any quiet judgment Gokudera may choose to have.
"Right, that's what I was thinking." This makes him wonder, so instead of beginning to push the buttons, Takao studies them, chewing softly at his bottom lip "Pressing them backward would be the next easiest option, but again, too easy. What if it's alphabetical." He is breaking down patterns in his head, debating over them, not going to make a move till one of them is reasonably certain they have the right pattern, he does not want to accidentally restart this whole scenario again.
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The bomber will judge most everyone for anything.
"Or there could be some other information around here that gives us a hint at the order..." He doesn't see anything around though and sighs. "What do you think will happen if we hit them out of order?" Maybe nothing? What's the worst that could happen?
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It's okay, Takao is not overly caring about being judged, he's rather comfortable in who he is.
"Worse case, we get hit with a curse?" Or a crazy magic creature emerges. He stops and thinks about anything he learned about this kind of thing from the novels Mayu got him into "Okay, so my friend is a major light novel enthusiast and he had this one novel where these guys got caught in a time loop and every time they got something right the path home opened up, when they got it wrong, they went back to the start. It was like a puzzle, each step had to be done in order."
"So we can go for the obvious, maybe end up back at the beginning or we stand here forever trying to figure out what to do with buttons on a tree, I vote give it a shot, what do we have to lose?"
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He's judgmental... it's just who he is. The wind could blow in a different direction and he'd judge it.
"Hmm..." As someone relatively superstitious, a curse sounds awful and he doesn't want to chance it, but what can he do? Gokudera is cautious, but doesn't know what to do. He's not going to try and stop Takao.
"Go ahead then. I hope we can just repeat what we went through..."
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Yeah, he knows the type, it's one of the reasons he does not ruffle quite so much at it. One their situation sucks, two to each their own, they just need to get out of here.
"Yeah me too.." Then as if struck by sudden inspiration "Elements! I bet each color represents one." So he processes, quick as he can elements in his head, he loves puzzles and is actually enjoying this one. Then he starts pressing, going in order of the strongest element to the least, and working with a corresponding color. They may not all be exact but it's worth a shot.
When he hits the last one the tree suddenly shimmers, starts to turn colors, and then bursts into tiny spheres of light, dancing around the two males, before darting off down the path in the exact opposite direction of the one they were going but veering as if going into the woods.
"Hey wait for us!" And off he goes, what choice do they have but to follow and see where they lead them.
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"Right, but there's no order to the elements, just chakra associations or compass directions and no one element is stronger or better a- What are you doing?!" Gokudera cringes as those buttons are hit and his eyes are wide, as if he's getting yelled at by the lights when they burst. Oh. There they go.
"This doesn't feel right..." He remarks, tagging along and not running, but wondering if those lights are going to split up.
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"But some are considered superior to others, main elements and minor elements, they can be broken into categories or one can feed into the other, it's like an interconnection thing, it makes sense in my head." Besides at this point, what do they have to lose? If this did not reset or curse them, then best to take their chances.
"We're in some kind of magical trap, how is any of it supposed to feel right." As they catch up to the lights they do not separate but instead, circle a tree with a plaque on it.
As he steps forward he sees that it reads
Eight pallbearers carry,
death across the floor.
He weaves his shroud for those that move,
to make sure they move no more.
Solve this riddle to find the way home
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Gokudera is not letting this just go without a proper discussion, thanks.
"What makes it so vastly different from other planets is water, so there's blue, and if life is surviving, that's plants, which are most prolific, so there's green. What color would you assign air? also is it more important than sunlight, and is that represented with red or yellow? What element indigo? Isn't earth an element? I didn't see a brown button."
It's all well and good they took their chances, but he wants to see the work behind your answer, Takao. Like a math teacher or a scientist, he wants to know how something works. As they move, he makes sure to keep somewhat close to Takao, after all, he didn't necessarily solve that last puzzle to move through. And if they walk with anything coming between them, that's just bad luck.
The plaque stands out well enough and he reads it over the other teen's shoulder. "Death? The grim reaper?" Gokudera looks around, wondering where they answer the riddle. "isn't death an abstract concept... why is it portrayed as a man...?" Idle wondering.
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"Okay, so when you think about it in magical terms versus real life, since that's what this world is all about, there are four main elements that people get, those would be the main, fire, wind, water, earth. You figure, you need wind and water to make lightning or storms, so those two would interconnect, fire can stand alone and really doesn't feed much into the others so I figured it would be considered the strongest magically, the earth can encompass more than dirt, it could be it's more nature than just dirt since earth is made up of a lot more than just dirt, don't know for sure not an elemental user but banked on it and went with green for earth, it worked, indigo was the storm if only because lighting and how it can change the color of the horizon depending what type of storm it is. I could have been all wrong, thankfully I wasn't and my instincts were right."
Probably not the sound science Gokudera was looking for but he's more interested in figuring out the riddle, at the mention of the grim reaper he shakes his head "Too literal for a riddle. It mentions death in the wording so we want to go with what's not obvious. Eight pallbearers and weaving a shroud that makes sure they can't move. Plus if it's like the other clues, it will have us follow whatever the answer is probably." He is staring hard at the tree thinking, just focusing on the words as he processes ideas in his head.
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"He weaves his shroud. It's someone other than the pallbearers?" He's thinking too literally. "There are usually six pallbearers. Eight's a bit excessive." So then there's probably another meaning for that.
Gokudera looks up, trying to imagine what the shroud may be. He keeps imaging a miasma but that wouldn't stop anyone. The tree this is carved in has plenty of knots in it, and there are no other riddles written on it. Gokudera's looking on, spacing off as he watches a spider shake in the wind on a low hanging bough. "Eight pallbearers...."
"Oh! A web?" He watches as a fly gets caught and the spider moves to catch it.
"It's a spider!" Gokudera points to his answer, looking gratefully up at the creature.
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His response really covers both scenarios and as he is thinking it over, beginning to look around. Gokudera mentions a web and the basketball player's eyes go to where the other's gaze is.
"Good one!" He perks up, the trail before them suddenly twisting, light dew appearing on webs that are high in the air, making them more visible.
"Follow the spiders..." That's kind of gross, but beats being stuck in there so he is going to plow forward like they have been.
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"Looks like a gross giant spider tunnel," Gokudera says and he's uncomfortable walking through it, even if it's where they're supposed to go. Are they walking into a trap? This is all just wildly uncomfortable, unfamiliar territory. He's not going to admit to being scared, but he will be uncomfortable and grumble about it, following Takao despite being the one who solved the riddle.
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"Yeah, like some horror movie scene." He is not so much scared as kind of grossed out. He feels just as uncomfortable as they begin their way through the tunnel. Eyes glancing around, his familiar suddenly coming to existence again on his shoulder as they come to the end of the line. He can see light and the tunnel continuing, the problem, it is all very much blocked by webbing. There do not seem to be any spiders present in it but it still does not make it look pleasant at all.
"Wonder if kinetic magic would make it move...." It's that or plowing through it, he'd rather try and use his magic and his familiar to get through if possible.
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"Go for it," Gokudera motions and wonders if he could pull it apart. Probably not. It looks like it'd tangle and stick.
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"Here goes nothing....." As the point guard closes his eyes, he reaches up, places his hand on his familiar and takes several deep breaths. He is so new to magic, has not done much with his at all. After all, they just got here today. The night sparrow on his shoulder begins to sing, a soft warble and it flies toward the web, at the same time Takao channels what magic he can feel and the familiar helps him channel right into the webs. It is definitely more the familiar's finesse and power than the point guard but by working with his familiar he is able to start moving the webbing aside, it's not much but enough for him to walk through without being touched, both width and height, considering he is five nine and wider than Gokudera should mean his companion should have enough room to move.
"I think you should walk in front, that way it doesn't accidentally close on you behind me." The night sparrow hovers, he will take the true lead, Gokudera in the middle followed by Takao.
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"More I don't want to accidentally get you stuck if I lose control, he can keep it open." Takao can feel some strain from painting the magic but as they advance he is able to keep moving webs aside, there seem to be no spiders present, which is nice.
Finally, they reach the end as he pushes the webs aside the edge of the forest comes into view. Once they step out into the clearing the point guard's shoulders slump but he smiles.
"We did it."
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"We'd both be stuck," He responds and isn't so bothered by the webs. This is definitely one of the more strange experiences he's been through in his roughly fifteenish years of living.
"Wasn't there supposed to be a grail?" The whole point of this quest...?
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"You're a glass is half empty type, aren't you?" Pessimistic and logical, neither are bad qualities perse and in fact, he is glad not just for the help but the company. It was a strange experience to be sure but Gokudrea was a help and the point guard, in the end, had fun.
He has his device out, blinking rapidly as he sees the time. "Yeah, but I was already stuck in that forest for six hours, I am not going back. He can live one night without a lucky item." Fuck he needs that grail but he is not willing to go back and risk being caught in the time loop again.
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“Fair enough.” And you know what, who needs the grail, anyways? Gokudera was happy that he took on a challenge, and even if he didn’t get through it all on his own, at least he got through it.
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Takao considers holding out his hand but a handshake seems odd at this moment to him. He appreciates Gokudera's hope, is thinking they just might end up friends. Which in a strange world definitely helps.
(no subject)
Happy Birthday Smalls! I know this is a wrap but I am snagging them between clients. <3