avalaughs | TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

Entry tags:

TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

{ QUICK NAV }
Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary

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 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

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 earbuds to everyone before getting them settled in groups into modernized carriages pulled by horses and give them a basic explanation of why and how they've been brought to Avalon: 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 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

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. Because of the volume of new arrivals and vacationers, inn rooms are assigned two-to-a-room. The rooms have two twin beds, a bathroom, a mini-fridge and microwave, and a TV equipped with a couple of entertaining video games and a few free movies.

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

Upon arrival in Camelot travelers are ushered to a large set of wash rooms where they can clean up and make themselves presentable for the Welcome Feast. They are informed that once the feast concludes there will be an announcement on where they can seek lodging and how to begin their magic studies.

B ⦿ Be Merry

After they freshen up, travelers are led into the main dining hall. The decorations range from simplistic to a little more grandiose, it is likely everyone will find something familiar. A modern mash up with a medieval flair. The jester makes his rounds, perhaps he has a joke or two to tell, go ahead, give him a listen or perhaps volunteer to participate in one of the jester's shows, like knife-throwing or hypnotism. Within the crowd of staff there are mummers, a juggler, here and there dabbled through small troupes perform mini skits, perhaps they’ll perform a well known verse from a traveler’s world or tell a tale of fancy from this realm.

C ⦿ Eat Well

A banquet is prepared with food that while all “rustic” in appearance are usually a version of modern dishes ranging from basic roast chicken and veggies to Korean-Mexican fusion and French patisserie. The drinks are much the same; while served in old fashioned goblets, they are drinks modern travelers will be familiar with.

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

The Brocéliande is well-known around Camelot for being a forest that's both bountiful and mysterious. Oddities are known to happen that may never happen again to the point that even if something weird happens and you can't prove it, most citizens will assume you're telling the truth.

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!?

If you either missed the space loop or managed to get out of it, eventually you'll come to find one of... quite a few copies of a grail with holes in the side placed throughout the forest. They look like they might be good for draining noodles, but that's about it. Though they're spread out, it's entirely possible you'll find more than one, but each of them are placed in situations where it's impossible to get to by normal means. You'll have to use magic! It may be hidden in a bird's nest at the top of the tallest tree, inside of a hole in a rock with bars that prevent you from reaching in (perhaps an animal friend could reach it), inside a boiling pond, or inside the body of a bear fir... there are a load of possibilities, and now's a chance for you to try out your brand new magics! Use one of those samples, find something from the bestiary, or come up with your own adventure to get your hands on that less-than-holy grail.

C ⦿ A Quest Completeish

Or it would be, if you could ever find the guy who announced it... The AOL posts have since been deleted. You may end up spending a lot of time trying to find the guy. At this point, citizens will start telling you that you shouldn't take quests unless they're on the quest board or else you're going to get scammed... that's definitely an olden times themed noodle strainer. If that doesn't make you give up, or perhaps motivates you to find the guy to kick his ass, you'll have to head out to the farmland and chase them through a cornfield. (Be careful not to get lost, it's a maize in there.) If one of the boys are caught, they'll explain they were just testing you-- and hey, you got a free addition to your kitchen! If pressed, they'll apologize and give you a bit of money for your trouble. It's not much, but it'll get you at least a meal.

MOD NOTES:
• All test drive prompts are open to anyone in the game at any time to create your own logs with, but this post should have top-levels by potential new characters only. Current characters may reply to any threads, but should not top-level comment on this post. This is the first one, ignore this note today!
• 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I mean...yeah, probably, right? You can't just reach over and take it, I bet. How would that even work?"

"I don't know how he did it, but I refuse to accept that he has any sort of powers! No matter what he says!"

Wait, did they just launch into a new conversation? Man, this girl was really hard to follow.

"Who's he?"

Oh that happens with Kyoko. A lot.

And that rage flooded her again, the dark miasma raised up again, the grudge spirit rematerialized and multiplied, but they all huddled close to Kyoko.

"The Beagle," she said, voice full of venom, despite the fact that nearly everyone who hears what she calls him finds it hilarious. Well, the other jerk mostly does.

"The Beagle," Luz repeated just as venomously, remembering someone who SHE said in that tone recently, and could understand why she might sound so angry. "I'm assuming it's not just a dog that messed up your Thanksgiving turkey or something like that."

"No. He's a stupid copy cat who for some reason actually WANTS to be like the idiot. Even to the point of stalking me and showing up where no one actually WANTS him!"

"Oh! I mean, I don't know the whole story, but people who stalk others are definitely not good!"

Luz decided to ask Amity when she went back to her world if she ever felt she was a stalker. That would not be a good look.

(aaaaaaah, mum HATES that movie so I've seen it like... once.)

She nodded, pulling herself back from telling the whole story, in part because she could get in trouble for telling a kid what he tried to do, and because she had specifically refused to let anyone know, to protect her role and the show she was cast in. He had wanted the press to know, he wanted to be the villian in the news, he thought any publicity would help his reputation. Kyoko however was unwilling to let Mio be tarnished.

"If he ever shows his pale stupid face again I'll kill him," she growled. "I'll send him straight to **** myself!" She punched a fist into the air, fired up with her own intensity. She was pretty sure her sensei would be angry if she used his training to ACTUALLY kill someone, but then again he taught people to act the role of samurai and ninja as though they lived the morals, he might actually approve...

"Whoa, those are some intense feelings! This guy really does not sound like he was a good person. Let's avoid that for now then. Your familiar seems very...responsive to negative feelings, it looks like."

Not to mention Luz remembered that she had come very, VERY close to saying the same things about Lilith before she knew her whole story. Personally Luz had thought the witch had deserved some of that animosity anyway: she had practically almost killed Luz just to get to Eda, something Luz was not sure she's quite forgiven yet even if Lilth had tried to make amends later.

It was hard to get over the whole "attempting to skewer you on spikes while your mentor is allowing a curse to work through her body to save you" that had Luz particularly steamed.

"Seen any magical creatures besides a fairy yet?"

The rage built and built, until Luz asked about other magical creatures. Then she was all smiles and glee again. "Aren't faries enough?" she asked, grinning like an idiot once more.

Phew, steered that out of the intense feeling zone.

"I mean, they are cool, but it looks like there's going to be all sort of neat creatures here! Like, talking rabbits and wolves and elks and stuff! There even looks like there are some cool bishonen guys too! Maybe they'll even carry around some of those weapons that look impossible to carry around easily but they manage somehow!"

And her face darkened again. "Don't fall into the trap of crushes and love. your life is safer without that evil poisoning you." Said the girl whose jumpsuit actually says "LOVE ME" on it.

And we're back to the dark zone again.

"What? Me? No way! I'd admire from a distance like any other adoring fan! Besides..."

Luz gestured to herself. "...Fourteen and very bad at all of that. No need to worry there."

"I was younger when that viper bit me," she growled. "I let that idiot ruin my life. So don't you let any guy ruin yours! Lock your heart up! Protect it! Don't let love infect you!" She sounded like she was honestly and desperately trying to give advice.

"Or girl!" Luz was an equal opportunity fawner-over, if only that. "Besides, I am WAY too young to know anything about love! Too busy learning about magic. Besides, it might be flipped- I might be the one that has someone coming to me! You never know!"

And Luz certainly never DID, or she'd have picked up the feeling of a certain someone back home.

Edited 2020-11-15 10:17 (UTC)

"Any romance is dangerous! It kills part of who you are! Reject it all!"

"That's...a little fatalistic for me. I'd like to think romance as something that helps blossom you into someone you never knew about yourself! Whenever it happens, anyway. But we're both probably too young for that other than crushes, right?"

Edited 2020-11-15 10:23 (UTC)

She turned away from her, disgusted. "Do not think that because you are a child no one will ever hurt you."

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Luz had to stop being a little understanding.

"Don't you call me a child for believing you can fall in love! Of course you can! You just have to make sure it's the right person, and even then, you can always find someone better if it doesn't work out! There are a lot of people out there, you're bound to find someone that really cares about you eventually!"

"You're the one on about how young you are." Hands became fists at her sides. "You can't have it both ways. This is real life, you get the worst of both choices, not the best."

"And you were the one saying that liking someone is bad and ruins your life!"

Luz was, at heart, a bit of a romantic even if she figured that her being in a romantic relationship was something that would happen later on.

"Don't you think you're being a little bit dramatic?"

"A little bit dramatic...?" She spun to face her. "I was born because of that horrible mistake, and what did I do with that life? I made the same mistake that she made,"" she snapped. "Love is poison. It brings pain, it ruins lives." And she was weak enough to hav felt it again. She'd never forgive herself.

"Ok, first of all? Context helps, just saying. Second? Would you rather not be born, so we couldn't be sitting here talking? Third? How old even are you to say you actually fell in love? You could have just had a crush or been infatuated! Those things do happen when you're young! I'm of the belief that nothing is poison, it just depends on how its presented to you. I mean, I've never been a sporty person and yet I love Grudgby!"

That might not have been the best comparison but still!

"My mother would rather I wasn't born," she snapped. "And I will continue to live until I can have my revenge on that idiot. IT was love and it made me stupid, and it is over and he will suffer until I break that pride of his and make him realize what he missed out on and that he will never EVER have a chance to be in my life again. He will beg on his knees for forgiveness for wounding an innocent young heart, for killing love. For stealing my life from me and my ability to want to be loved. He destroyed me, so I will destroy him, I will make him join my mother in wishing I was never born."

Her evil laugh was everything one might expect from a villian bent on galactic conquest, her grudge spirits joining in.

"Uhh..."

So what exactly did you say to that? Luz thought she was just having a casual conversation with a relatively older teenage girl, and it had now devolved into her openly cursing love, her mother and the guy that had burned her in the past. How exactly did you bring the conversation back on track?

"Well. Clearly you're working on some things. But maybe you'll...not feel so bad about giving your heart pain? We can only hope?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

What could I possibly be referencing ;)

I actually do not know

It was a Christmas Story reference, when the dogs devour the father's turkey!

Re: It was a Christmas Story reference, when the dogs devour the father's turkey!

My wife loves it so...seen it a few times lol

Re: My wife loves it so...seen it a few times lol

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject