avalaughs | TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

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TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

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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.

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"I'd be more worried about you biting my fingers off than her," she said in a voice that blended sweet and tart. "Except you don't seem to have the teeth for it," she added with a grin. She turned back to Rose. "Hello, Rose."

A small creature poked its head out from under her sleeve. It had a small furry head with long flapping ears and a big mouth. It only had three teeth however, each green to match his eyes. The creature laughed. It was a grating sound. "Haka haka haka! Spindly man man have even less bite that the lastest one did-does!" It laughed again, mockingly.

She chuckled lightly and stroked the small furry head. "And this is Scully. Who apparently came along for the ride."

It laughed again.

Scully’s words didn’t annoy him one bit strangely enough. Meanwhile, Rose looks at Scully while trying to take a sniff on the creature out of curiosity. Perhaps she is doing her best to befriend them? That could be the case.

“At least you got someone (by someone, he means a creature companion) from your world who knows you very well. Rose wasn’t with me until I arrived here and saw her floating on the water. And I didn’t remember owning a Pygmy Puff back home,” he tells her before he introduces himself, “By the way, I’m Harry, nice to meet you, Rhianon.”

"My brother has tried everything he could think of to chase Scully off, I can't imagine anything as simple as falling into the water being enough to dislodge the poor fellow. Now that he's healed, he'll leave when he's ready to." She scratched his head again, then offered her finger to Rose.

"Harry, odd name. But it suits you. "I'm Rhiannon. Rhia to my friends." Take care if you call her a friend, Harry. She grinned. "So. Shall we find where this place keeps its sweetest fruit?"

“That’s good to know that Scully’s okay now and he is ready to go anywhere he wants to go,” Harry chuckles for a bit, he is nearly done with dinner by the time Rhiannon asks him to find some fruits with her in the dining hall, “Hmm... I did saw some fruits over where the desserts are being distributed, so maybe we can go and get some for you and Scully and Rose.”

"Off the vine is better, but sure!" she said happily. "Let's go." She grinned. "Race ya," she said and took off running, angling her wings to reduce drag.

“Whoa, I can’t fly without wings like yours,” he reminds her as he walks slowly, “I’m just a person with magic and no wings. Just don’t overexert yourself.”

Still, it is nice to have meet some people for a change. Even as much as he misses his friends back home, a part of him has to remind him that he will be stuck here for a long while.

When he does get to the fruit section, he didn’t beat Rhia in getting there first, but at least Rose won’t starve herself by him gathering enough fruit to keep her tummy happy.

She turned to face him and rolled her eyes. But she slowed so he could keep up. "You're like a butterfly who thinks all it can do is crawl because it hasn't tried to fly yet."

Scully laughed. "Or to fallyfall."

She laughed too. "Well yes," she said, tossing her hair a bit, grinning. Her eyes twinkled with amusement. "Anything worth doing right is worth doing wrong a few times first." She winked at Harry. "The wings are new. The flying isn't."

“I guess that you have a point,” he admits, “Me bing slower than a crawling butterfly. The only flying I know of back in my world involves broomsticks. And I don’t think they count as actual flying.”

Rose now finds another spot to ride on: Harry’s head as he and Rhia head towards the fruit area of the dining hall, her paws clutching onto his hair as rail guards from falling over.

"If you are in the air and not falling, it counts. Especially if you are having fun." She grabbed a berry and popped it in her mouth. "Sweet, like the river unceasing in winter!" She happily poured a whole handful into her mouth. "Most of my flying involved my friends throwing me like a ball," she said with a grin.

“But you didn’t got hurt in the end, right? People back home said I got the broom flying skill from my dad. I used to play a sport similar to football in my old school, but with broomsticks and throwing Bludgers onto hoops instead of kicking the ball onto a field goal and trying to catch a Golden Snitch to get a win for your team,” he reveals to her as he places down a plate of assorted fruits for Rose to snack onto the floor while she jumps out of his head to eat her fruity dessert.

“Never heard of Quidditch or football in your world?” he asks her out of curiosity.

"Of course I didn't get hurt. Well not badly, but you always get a little bruised while learning news things! You're right though. I have no clue what Quidditch, or football is. Or broomsticks. Or Sprots. Bludgers. Field goal. Snitch...." she grinned and poured more berries into her mouth, licking off her fingers.

Up until now, Harry has never seen people from different worlds, with or without wings. But yes, it is becoming clear that, from what is happening in Avalon and the presence of newcomers like him and Rhia, there are different worlds out there and people hailing from these worlds.

“Yeah, that is true: what is common in our world may not apply in the other and in other worlds,” he takes notes of their current situation as he reaches for an apple and bites onto it, munching for a few seconds before swallowing it down.

She tried a different kind of berry and made a face. "Eeech! No sweetness left. Too tart." She went back to the ones she had been eating. "Well, I'm guessing that you wouldn't know what I was talking about if I was on about Arabassa or Treelings or Giants, so I guess that's fair. Oh! I wonder what kinds of constellations they have here!"

Harry is a few bites into the apple while checking on Rose a couple of times before turning his attention to Rhia, “Understood, I haven’t seen that many giants in my world besides a friend of mine being a half giant and his stepbrother to name a few.”

When she brings up constellations, he gets reminded of the Astronomy classes he had to take in Hogwarts and how he barely passed them in his OWLs, but he does get some basic information from them and many wizards back home have constellations and stars for names, so that is a good thing.

“We can try to find out more about them once we are allowed to go around the city tomorrow: Astronomy isn’t exactly one of my strongest subjects back home, but I do know plenty of stars and constellations in my world,” he nods in return.

"Half giant? Shim would love to hear about that!" she said with a laugh. "As he would put it, certainly defiantly, absolutely." She popped a few more berries in her mouth. She clearly had no intention of leaving any for anyone else. And by rights most humans would be regretting having as many as she'd already eaten.

"My brother and I love to look at the stars and share their stories. Or we did before he had to go and fall in love," she said making a face. She bit into another berry and made a worse face. "Tart."

A nod is greeted towards to her direction, Hagrid will be stoked to meet this Shim she is talking about. That makes him feel like wondering about what is happening back home while he is stuck here. No, he can’t simply mope about his world at this time, not now.

“It sounds like you and your brother were very close,” Harry says to Rhia after hearing about a part of her and her brother’s story, “I didn’t grow up with any siblings back home, since, well, my parents died trying to protect me from someone who was targeting me.”

"Oh we didn't grow up together either," she said. I thought my parents were dead. Arabassa found me and raised me." She didn't mention Cwen. That still... hurt.

"When I met him again we didn't know we were siblings, we just felt drawn to each other. Otherwise I would have just left him hanging. Probably. Well okay, probably not. But he came through in the end, when Fincarya really needed him. He messed up a lot too, though. Almost got our mother killed trying to bring her back even though it was forbidden. Gave Rhita Gwar a chance to attack. He was like a squirrel sure that every shadow was a wolf. He needed me around. But now he's gone off to a weird far off world called Earth to meet his destiny. Some kid called Arthur. He promised to learn how to travel the worlds so he could come visit. Halia stayed in Fincaryia and mom and I took the orphans to Avalon. Or we were taking them to Avalon. Somehow I got here ahead of the rest of them," she said, laughing. Her laugh was like bells. At least, according to her brother, it was.

Honestly, he didn’t expect a very complicated story coming from Rhia, and yet somehow, he is listening patiently as she tells him about what has happened to her before arriving to Avalon.

“Okay, that was really... Gee, I have no words to say right now, I’m really sorry that you and your brother have to go through a lot of things back in your world,” he softly tells her, wait until she discovers a different version of her brother that hails from his world.

She shrugged a bit. "It could be worse. Given what we learned about our father, he could have raised us. Instead I got to know the forest. Every tree is a dear friend. The River Unceasing carried me and played with me. The whole of the woods was there for me to explore and learn from. I got to eat the very yummiest berries, learn how to find ripe bushes, and even got to spend whole days under the shomorra tree. Sure, we had bad things, but sometimes there are tart berries with the sweet. They make the sweeter ones tase even better." She grabbed up some berries, and if he would let her, she would pour them into his palm.

"Always trust the berries," she said with a smile.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

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Oh, I think I poked his arrival, whoops, lol.

That’s okay, mistakes do happen.

Re: That’s okay, mistakes do happen.

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