TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ I

[avalonmods]

{ 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.

Comments

[deliveryhawk]

"Nice to meet you." Well, that feels weird; this interaction is entirely different than the last one. Takao almost feels like he is missing another person and marvels at what a difference first impressions can make. Sure, he still seems like a prickly guy, but a little more open to talking, at least?


Takao has excellent eye-sight so that he saw the same thing over and over again became apparent to him. The problem, it did not matter as he could not figure out what to do about it. It was like he is caught in a loop. He is grateful when Gokudera agrees to try working through this together. Two heads and two sets of eyes has to be better than one.

He lets out a soft, self-deprecating snicker. "You and me both, I don't know anything about magic and familiars." Okay, maybe some thanks to light novel reading with Mayuzumi in Lunatia. But how could any of that even apply here? It is not like they are in some novel.

"Guess best to try walking; I'll watch left, you watch right, maybe we'll see something weird? Or out of place?"

[bakudan_bambino]

There are many differences in how they've met here than how they met on Lunatia. Gokudera happened upon Takao instead of the basketball player following and talking to the bomber without invitation. Everything about being brought to a new world is making it feel like his head is spinning, and sure, Gokudera is aggravated, but he's not sure what to do when he doesn't have anything familiar around him. He'll be a little open until he can find some support and gain his bearings. As of right now, he'd be at a disadvantage being an ass to the first person he's met on his quest.

"There are so many people that seem so comfortable already." Which kind of ticks him off. He's seen people that are comfortable with their familiars, and are just acting like this is a new home. It can't be that easy.

"Alright. I'll keep my eyes peeled." And he starts walking, looking along the edge of the path they're on, which is clearly a path. It's got to lead somewhere, right?

[deliveryhawk]

Hey, he is just a friendly guy and was trying to be helpful like people were to him his first days in Lunatia. Of course, Takao is also laid back enough to let that all be water under the bridge and start from scratch in their acquaintance, glad it is going smoother than it did the first time.

"I mean, I guess it's better than the last world me and my friends ended up on. That might be why so many seem that way; a lot of us were in Lunatia that I've seen." You had to be physical with people to survive and help save the world. At least here, we just have to be wizards." Not that it changes much for him, all his confused romantic entanglements came with him. While he has not thought of it, he does not know where he stands with the one that matters most. But unless that one tells him any differently, he will keep going as they have been.


"Thanks, same here." And as they are walking, he does precisely that; the yosuzume seems to want to help this time; maybe it just wanted to make him wait; either way, the creature begins to fly low, hovering over what could be glitches in the path.

"Wait, look at this." He steps a tad closer to a plant that seems to flicker like it's on television. Briefly, a pluck me sign appears. He looks over his shoulder at Gokudera. "Think it's telling us something?"

[bakudan_bambino]

Assuming someone you just walked up to does not have friends is rude. It doesn't matter how thoughtful Takao thought he was being. Gokudera has no recollection of this, and is not the same person the ball player thinks he may be.

"Eugh," he would hate a world like that. Gokudera is very against the idea of having to touch other people, especially if he doesn't know them. Even if it were to save the world... it's not something he'd want to do readily. "Sounds awful."

He stops and watches the other young man examine the flower, then he looks at the sign that appeared. Without his glasses, and with how brief it is, he can't really read, so shakes his head. "No but if you pluck it and we carry around with us, maybe it will literally tell us something." Why not add one new party member? Takao can carry around a flower. Gokudera doesn't care.

[deliveryhawk]

Valid point; he is far from perfect and sometimes far too sarcastic for his good. In the end, this meeting shows one thing, neither was strictly at their best in that previous meeting. Rather, it was this Gokudera or not, and that is in the past.

Takao sputters out a laugh, shaking his head as a devilish smirk turns his lips. "That about sums it up." Then Takao shrugs. "It could have been worse; people there came from worlds that were a lot more dangerous. Still, the touching thing was weird, animal ears and tails too." The other effects, he'll keep those to himself.

"Not a bad idea, like that story, Alice in Wonderland. The flowers could talk." He reaches out, closing two fingers around the flower; he waits a moment to make sure nothing else is going to happen. Then he plucks the bud and stands up; as he does, the path seems to shimmer, parts of it shifting, becoming more tangible.

"Hey..did you see that. It's like a television screen flickering and starting to come in."

[bakudan_bambino]

He's got no memory of it, so can't make a comment on it. Takao will just have to keep it to himself if that's what he wants to do, and the bomber will have no idea that there is any point of tension... or any other water under the bridge.

"What about an animal without visible ears or a tail? Like... a frog. Know anyone in that world that became like one?" That's a disgusting thought. What if they got slimy skin? Gokudera would not want to touch a normal person, let alone one with scales or slimy skin.

"Mmhm. This one's small, though. So if it won't shut up, you can just put it in your pocket." He's pretty sure that the flowers in Alice in Wonderland were large, not something that could easily be plucked like the little glitching flower they're currently facing.

"Looks different. Let's see where it goes." No hesitation. If there were anything ominous about the path, or even threatening, like a dark miasma, he'd still head right in. Out of all his boss's guardians... only the Tenth seems to be able to see obvious things like that.

[deliveryhawk]

Takao thinks that is for the best; what good is trying to explain to this guy that they met before and did not exactly hit it off? Better to take a fresh start for what it is and see what happens.

"Yup helped a lady whose bottom half turned into a snake figure out how to walk again since she had no legs and Iris exalted turned into Kraken, tentacles and all. My best friend turned into a nine-tailed fox, had another friend sprout owl feathers. The weirdest was when Kise got dragon scales,." Yeah, Gokudera should have seen it; the snake thing was kind of cool because it was just helping and he is lucky enough to have not had any Kraken transformations himself.

"Or drop it and leave it behind." Either way, if it does something, then he is going to go for it.

There is no hesitation from the point guard either, he wants out of here, and a chance is a chance. He is logical, yes, but he is not one to balk at forging ahead to do what needs to be done. Had it felt overly ominous, maybe he would have said something, either way, he is going to continue, keeping his eyes peeled for anything else that seems out of place on his side while Gokudera does on the other.

[bakudan_bambino]

"No idea what you're talking about..." He's not going to ask, because that information isn't going to help him, he thinks. What in the world is an Iris exalted? Gokudera shakes his head. "A person's lower body turning into a snake is much stranger than someone with dragon scales."

"It pretty obviously wanted you to pick it, though," Gokudera points out as he walks on, pretty oblivious to anything on this stretch of the path they're taking.

[deliveryhawk]

He probably does not want to know but he asked about meeting someone who turned into something not furry and thus Takao answered. "Not when the people with dragon scales can talk and you do what they say." Without any complaint really, he clearly recalls how that got him, only once and thankfully with a friend who did not know what was happening at the time either and they were able to still be friends after.

"True, anything on your side?" Well if he is oblivious hopefully their next step out of the five they have to take was not on his side, if so, they will be right back at square one. Either way, Takao is taking his time, looking and over everything on his side as best he can, being thorough.

"If this is like a puzzle we probably have to do everything in an exact order or it won't work."

[bakudan_bambino]

"You said the weirdest was when someone got dragon scales. I think what you meant was 'the weirdest was when someone had influence over me with their words.'" Gokudera says, being a little condescending and rolls his eyes. "So then it's not the physical change, but... a power that was strange, you mean." He didn't ask about anyone having powers, was mostly just curious about creatures that didn't have tails or scales.

"Aside from the forest, there aren't any other flowers, but there's- Tch!" Gokudera reaches up and rubs at his head, looking up as an oddly large acorn rolls and just... keeps rolling, as if it's leading them.

"That." He glances at Takao, shrugs, and decides he'll follow after it, then scoops it up. Gokudera reaches into his shirt pocket, pats about it, then squints and holds it up, then further back, and struggles to get his eyes to focus. It looks like a perfectly normal acorn, just bigger than usual. There's something off about its texture, but past just feeling that it's bumpy and not smooth, it's hard to tell. Is there writing etched into its side? None of these trees have acorns under them... Scratched into the side in fine calligraphy is 'corn.'

[deliveryhawk]

"Semantics, when that person is your best friend's boyfriend, it's the weirdest. Snake lady was pretty cool, she just need to learn how to walk." Takao had actually liked Rey, she was chill, just living her best hobo life on Lunatia. As for Gokudera's attitude, well be prickly buddy, you do you, he's just having a conversation, his bad that he wasn't literal enough.

"Well, that's something." And off after the other and the acorn he goes. Why not, flowers that say pick me, acorns that attack, really? What's next. When he catches up which is not long after Gokudera picks it up he sees those words.

Snorts an unamused sounding laugh "Corn..." Okay, he looks around then, maybe they need to find corn? Thing is, he is not seeing any other acorns or any corn in their vicinity.

[bakudan_bambino]

"Sounds like you came from somewhere weird. Semantics... a waste of mine and your time talking around the fucking point," he grumbles and waves a hand dismissively. Gokudera may be rude, but he's not upset, just dropping an f-bomb. "How did you teach her how to walk?" He imagines lying on his stomach and using his arms to drag himself.

"Heh... acorn." Amused by puns but not being obvious about it, Gokudera pockets the carved acorn and walks on ahead.

[deliveryhawk]

"Yup, sure did. And hey better than awkward silence." Takao shrugs it off, one he needs the guy's help, two Midorima tells him to shut up less politely at least three times a day if not more and that's the guy he's in love with so. He can handle a little grumpy, it's no big deal to him. "Kinda like how you teach a little kid by having them walk on your feet, except for a snake, I had her lean into my back and wiggled forward till she could do it on her own, had her use my hips as a guide. That way her upper half didn't get stuck on the ground, she was super tall." Yes, he basically wiggled his butt all over her, good thing she was a lesbian!

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?"

[bakudan_bambino]

"Not all silences are awkward." Gokudera says and gives a sigh. This conversation isn't worth getting too bothered about. If he's going to be spending more time with this guy, he's going to have to calm himself down and think less about what they're talking about. They should focus more on getting out as methodically as possible.

"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?

[deliveryhawk]

The point guard snickers "You can just say shut up, Takao, I'm used to it." He knows he talks a lot, owns it, and is often told by the person most important to him outside of his family to shut up. Not that he does, Takao is out to live his life and try to be as happy and have as much fun as he can.

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.

[bakudan_bambino]

"I could, but I'm also making some good points." Not that what Takao says is stupid, just that it seems he wants to fill the silence. What Gokudera says he thinks should be timed appropriately and much more poignant.

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.

[deliveryhawk]

Takao shrugs "It's all relative, maybe I'm just a basketball head who is fond of his own voice, if so, guess making good points or not wouldn't make much difference." He snickers, clearly teasing.

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.

[bakudan_bambino]

"If you like your own voice so much, does that mean you can't hear what I say when I make good points? Hm?" Gokudera asks, not really understanding what Takao means.

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?

[deliveryhawk]

Takao snickers, shaking his head as he contemplates those buttons "You don't tell many jokes, do you?" Well and not all of his is funny to anyone but himself, not that he is too concerned about it. "Yes I get your good points, but I'll probably keep talking anyway, call it a coping mechanism."

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?"

[bakudan_bambino]

Gokudera scowls at him, wondering where this guy gets the kind of nerve to make such rude observations. Does he have no filter? Why was he rude to him when they'd literally just met? He looks away, not going to answer that question. "Sure." Coping mechanism, whatever.

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..."

[deliveryhawk]

No filter and he really did not mean any offense by it. Though he is good at reading people most days and can tell he kind of ruffled the guy "Bet you can see why even my friends say Shut up Takao, no brain to mouth filter." Since he did not say he was offended, apologizing will be weirder, so Takao tries to slip it in like he's rambling again.

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.

[bakudan_bambino]

"Clearly." Gokudera can tell him to shut up, or as usual, he'll just cut to the chase and blow up instead of building up to it. In this instance, he's just put-off, glaring and then dismissive.

"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.

[deliveryhawk]

The point guard shrugs it off, lets it go, and focuses instead on the task at hand, getting out of here.

"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

[bakudan_bambino]

"It makes sense in your head? I'd like to hear the logic. There is no element greater than any other, and aside from that minor elements are only subcategories to major elements, so then first would you select major and most important to you based purely on subjective thought alone, and in what terms makes one element superior to others? More destructive? If it's a matter of life, I think that there is no way to pick any one to start. Take what makes our home planet, Earth..."

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.

[deliveryhawk]

Thing is, they are in a magical universe, breaking it down and finding out the how is fine but the next time it could be all switched around, because magic, Takao is not sure he is such a fan of the concept but it is what it is and as Gokudera launches into his lecture the point has to let out a soft snicker. Boy does he sound like Midorima, thinking of the shooter reminds Takao to give him a piece of his mind, the point guard would not even be here in the forest if not for the other.

"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.