TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 6

[avalonmods]

Check out the OOC intro meme for this month to say hi to new players/characters!

{ QUICK NAV } Premise ⚔️️ Rules ⚔️️ FAQ ⚔️️ Taken ⚔️️ Reserves ⚔️️ Apply ⚔️️ Locations ⚔️️ Bestiary ⚔️️ Top-Levels Only ⚔️️ 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. It's still chilly, but not enough that you can't manage on your own. The Lady of the Lake is swimming around under the water, but seems to be focusing on coordinating a band of mossatees to help rescue any wayward new arrivals. Mossatees are a special Avalonian manatee that is green in color and has what appears to be a patches of grass or other short plant life growing on its back. While some are fully green, many sport blooming flowers or fairy circles of mushrooms. If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at the Rent-a-Ride. Those with animal magic may get their info from the manatees, though may notice that they're really overly friendly and have zero concept of personal boundaries. Everyone may notice they have no concept of personal space, as they will happily run right into someone's belly for a snoot squishing. 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. *Reminder: Your character's familiar may or may not be with your character in their initial plunge. If the familiar isn't partial to water, it may meet your character on the beach or sit atop their head while they swim. Or if they are, they might splash about and swim alongside your character. Familiars have different personalities and body specs and we leave those up to the players. 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, a pair of earbuds, and animal-themed ponchos and tell them to "Check the Shit Box." The "Shit Box" refers to wardrobe more formally known as the Wardrobe of Finding, a hammerspace-like wardrobe that opens to each person's items and pets when the person touches the handle. It was recently enchanted by Merlin to prevent people from having to fish their waterlogged possessions and pets out of the water with them. From there, Archimedes directs everyone to settle in groups into modernized carriages pulled by horses and gives them a basic explanation of why and how they've been brought to Avalon: The rest of the universe is frozen in time and your character has been brought here by a familiar that was able to bond with them. They'll have to learn magic to help save their own world from destruction, but first they've got to get them to Camelot. It is here that you have the first opportunity to decide who they will be in their new home. You'll have about an hour to wander around here, meet and greet, and pet the horses before it's time to go. These carriages use fae technology that combats weight, so your character will be able to get in regardless of whether they're light as a feather or weigh two tons. The carts have air conditioning when it's hot, heating when it's cold, and a mystical shield to protect from bugs. 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. Which given the fact that it's pouring down rain in April? Not ideal. You were only given ponchos, not rain boots. 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. Unfortunately, due to a bee infestation and massive amounts of rain, the hot springs of the Red Springs are not available this month! Instead, an underground salt cave is offered as a way to relax and unwind. Gather around in the rejuvenating, dimly lit caves and breathe in the relaxing effects of salt crystals. Feel the sand between your toes, or if you don't like sand, try one of the many pools with tiny garra rufa for a fish pedicure. Or, lie down in a recliner and stare up at the "stars"-- magic sparkles in the ceiling that move to spell out single-word concepts you may be experiencing. (Maybe you're relaxed? You might get something like "Chill." Find your relaxation buddy hot? Just be careful to look away before the stars spell "Thirsty" to the whole room.) 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. As it turns out, a mythical land that's been around for a few centuries has a few things in common with many modern worlds. It's got the internet, and games have evolved a little bit past hoop trundling and draughts. April, being the traditional month of mirth and games and lots of rain making it hard to have fun outdoors, is the time for Camelot City Gaming Convention, affectionately shortened to CameCon. Come into the large convention center located in the south part of town, get dry, and check out some of the awesome things to do. A ⦿ Couchless Co-Op Without the massive audiences required to really run MMORPGs, Avalon is much more a fan of couch co-op style gaming. Though most games are available on mobile devices throughout Avalon when they are released, there's nothing quite like coming to CameCon to utilize the gaming stages for everyone's favorite fighting games. Multiple players at a time can plug in their phones and connect their accounts to a light magic-based illusion stage (powered by multiple light mages at a time, once a year only!) roughly the size of a basketball court. Fighting games can be played tournament-style on the phone next to your opponent for some awesome trash talk during your battle. Race through space with this year's popular NASTAR Racing Game (National Association for Space Travel Auto Racing) game and fight off space pirates in an epic Mario Kart-esque racing and item battle adventure with your choice of star ship. Or plug your phone into the stage podium and get away from the humdrum fantasy life by joining in a live-movement game that combines synchronous kinetic and light magic. Move your body in the vortex illusion of your favorite rhythm dance game with a buddy! Or maybe you're more into the free-style gaming of Grand Theft Automation with both friends and strangers-- step onto the illusionary stage itself to explore crawling cityscapes and live the life of crime you always dreamed of... at least the cops won't really arrest you if you do it here. Just make sure if you use magic you remember you're on a stage and don't accidentally send some flying off at a poor convention go-er just past the illusion stage. B ⦿ Arthurian RP in your Arthurian RP None can forget one of the most important of game types: the roleplaying game. There's a huge historical set game going on right now where characters can LARP as their favorite Knight of the Round Table. There may be a couple of arguments if two Lancelots end up in the same game, but don't worry, there's a fair way of determining who gets the part for this game if you don't want to wait for the next storyline: rock-paper-scissors-magic. Instead of the traditional version of RPS, you shake your fists and open up to whatever hand-held spell you can make with your particular brand of magic. If it's something that can overcome the other kind in less than three seconds, you're the winner. (And yes, even healers can play-- some protective magic to block a dark magic pain curse is definitely going to win out, for example!) Either way, once your role is decided, put your acting skills to the test! ...and if you don't have any, well, they have costumes that will help you get into the mood with a little dress-up and props that will magically give you sword skills... though only while using the dull-edged plastic props. Or you can just sit on the sidelines and have a picnic on the concrete floor of the center with a potential new pal and watch other people play-- there's a lovely little buffet table with pastries, coffee, and juice in the corner. C ⦿ It Figures... A convention isn't a convention without a little shopping. Come check out what cool games are upcoming in the exhibit hall, buy figurines of your favorite game characters (or.. new ones you've never heard of since this is a new world, but are still cute and/or kick-ass), and most importantly, check out the cool magic you can apply to them. A spell available for purchase in the convention hall that's popular this year is Recipe: Figure Anima, which makes your figures move in place and say popular lines as if they're an actual, miniature version of the character. It's recommended you practice while you're in the convention hall though so figure experts can help if things go.. awry. People have been known to have their own emotions influence the spell, and sometimes toys have started taking on the attitude of the caster. There's nothing quite as tragic as your favorite angelic game character telling you they're gonna kick your ass because you were in a fighting mood. So OOC. Maybe you can find someone who's a little better at magic to fix the problem? Of course, when the rain breaks through and floods the exhibition room, there's a lot of mass hysteria as people scream and climb up onto tables, trying to protect their merch above all else. Hurry, help someone else up onto your table before their ent dakimakura they just purchased gets wet! Only you can save the gamers from water! ..Or that's what you thought, until a second later the electricity goes out and you're left in a total electricity blackout in the convention hall. It may be a good idea to use some magic to try to light the way and find a way out of the flooded hall... A ⦿ Keep Your Vines to Yourselves With magic blossoming left and right because of the bountiful spring equinox rituals, things have been getting a little stranger around the Broceliande. Though it's always been known for being a little odd, there is an overgrowth of prehensile, very friendly vines populating the forest now. The vines seem to have minds of their own, sometimes grabbing people, pulling them up into trees, or generally wrapping around them as if trying to get a warm hug. Ultimately, they seem relatively harmless.. except when you can't get down from them. Hopefully, you've got some kind of destructive magic that can help you fight off the overly friendly vines as you head into the forest to investigate the strange reports citizens have been making of their friends and family disappearing in the generally friendly, if odd forest when they've gone to fetch herbs or other supplies, gone on walks, or who knows what else from the forest. It seems like the best way to get the vines to let go without magic is to tickle the person the vines have captured, so you really better hope you're ticklish... and there's someone willing to really go in on it. It takes a lot of laughter to get these vines to leave you alone! B ⦿ Selfies with Selkies Those who continue on with their investigation after avoiding or escaping the vines will find a very, very large flower that seems to have taken route in a sink hole in the middle of the forest. Hundreds of vines seem to be coming from it, and it seems like this flower may be the source of all of the vines throughout the forest. It won't attack unless you attack it first and it seems to almost immediately regrow any vines that are destroyed. If the flower itself is attacked, it will rise up and attempt to eat your character with thousands of tiny shark-like teeth that lie where the pollen of its flower should be. Those who try to fight will find it seems virtually unkillable and immovable. It is neither plant nor animal and seems to have a thousand minds and souls held within it that somehow feel incomplete, so it's largely incommunicable even with cognitive or death magic. It's definitely a strange find, and it could be easy enough to assume the missing people tried aggression as their first tactic and got gobbled up... Take a trip up to the Archivist will lead them to find a book that includes information on the species: The Cereus de Anima. This giant flower rapidly grows when a seed from the Land of Rot transfers via someone's clothing to an appropriate forest environment and is known to absorb a piece of a person's essence from anyone it touches with its vines. People often seem to go missing for a short period of time when one of these appears, then come back behaving a little differently but ultimately don't seem to be in distress. No one is quite sure what the cause of this is. There doesn't seem to be any record of there being lasting damage, however questionable the plant is... The Archivist, upon seeing you researching the plant, says that he's heard some of the lake's residents just off of the Silent Shore have some experience with one. He hands you a couple baskets of some specially anti-rust enchanted parts and tells you he was supposed to deliver them to a Selkie man living in the lake for a project he's working on. You and a partner can make the delivery and ask your questions from him. The Selkie isn't going to be particularly friendly to fellow men, not trusting human men farther than he can throw them, but will decidedly try to seduce women as Selkie men are known to be extremely handsome and flirtatious with human women. Non-humans he will be neutral toward. It's best to go in pairs so you don't end up on a whirlwind candlelit beach picnic with a shirtless selkie in exchange for information about how to uproot a Cereus de Anima. (At the very least, the selkie will want you to take a selfie with him before you leave so that you have something to remember him by, and you'll always be welcome back if you change your mind.) Regardless of how much of a challenge it is for you to get to that point, as long as he gets the delivery from the Archivist, he'll eventually tell you and your traveling partner about how he heard that there used to be a village at the edge of the Dusklight Woods that was overrun with one of them, and that there's only one survivor who moved to in a cottage on the other side of the Pure of Heart Bridge.. Those familiar, yes, it is the old man that Morganna tried to kill and save in a quest a couple of months ago! Time to travel all the way back to the Pure of Heart bridge and make your way over to the cottage and talk to the man and it sure seems like this quest is long and tedious and you may be wondering if someone will have noticed you're gone... C ⦿ The Answer is No Back in Camelot City, it seems that anyone who's been touched by the vines has been replaced by a doppelganger in their lives. They're just barely off from the original- they have all the memories, but may be slightly more skilled at things they didn't used to be, or may seem to make less ethical choices than they might otherwise. There's just something slightly off. But when people start using AOL to contact their friends and let them know they've been gone.. well, it may seem like the jig is up, or at least in question. Those who find out they've been replaced may want to return to Camelot quickly to try to reclaim their lives. Doppelgangers will attempt to kill their original if they come into contact with them when they aren't around other people, so you may need to flee for your life if you haven't gotten good enough at magic to defend yourself yet. Around other people, the doppelgangers will do their best to try to prove themselves the real person and since they were made from the original, will have the same memories as the original character so asking questions that "only ___ would know" may not work. Eventually it will come out that the doppelgangers have occasionally wriggling vines instead of spines underneath their clothing, if you're willing to check that to see who's real, but that won't be common knowledge. What can be found out from the old man at the Pure of Heart bridge if you choose to leave your doppelganger alone is that Cereus de anima doppelgangers can only live for a month without killing their original and absorbing the rest of their essence. However, if the original plant isn't taken care of with a special venom you can only obtain from certain creatures in the Forest of the Fisher King, the problem will just keep happening over and over until the city is overrun and becomes nothing but a breeding ground for the flower and its replicas. 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. • 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. • You can have any animal-style poncho you want! They are themed, not made from actual animals. No animals have been harmed in the making of these ponchos!! • TIMELINE: The resolution to the third prompt will be in April's event! The first two prompt sets will be during the first week of the month. The doppelganger problem and obnoxious traveling and research will be occurring for the second and third weeks of the month. • People with green magic may be able to fill something off about the doppelgangers, but may not be able to identify what it is right away. Blood mages will be able to feel that their blood feels the same as the original as they are essentially copies. Cognitive people will be able to use their magic normally except for hypnotic suggestion- the doppelgangers are immune to it, so while you may be able to find other ways to out them, hypnotizing people to tell the truth won't work this time. Doppelgangers are made from the essence of the person, so they will be able to access their phones and accounts. Note that the Cereus de Anima and doppelgangers are not fairies and cannot be contracted with. If a Death Mage attempts to possess a doppelganger, it will technically come in contact with the doppelganger's vine and may end up with more than one doppelganger depending on how many times they try it. Siphon magic can be used to destroy a doppelganger easily, however, the essence that was stolen from the original's soul may be destroyed in the process so it is not recommended as the original may start to feel as though they are no longer a whole person. • If nothing here tickles your fancy, try one of this month's Quests for your TDM prompt. • The first "Arrival" prompts are present on every TDM, but contain seasonal tweaks for flavor. All other prompts will change monthly. Make sure to read the Red Spring section on this month's even if you're normally familiar-- the springs are closed this month, check out the alternate prompts! • 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

[rediscovering]

"...Three years," he mumbles under his breath, his gaze finding the ground again, hanging his head in his hands propped up on his elbows against his knees.

"Aang— I— I'm sorry. I don't know anything. The last memory I have from home, I'd just left the White Lotus camp on the Day of Sozin's Comet. I was on my way to the Fire Nation Capital with Katara on Appa, and... I woke up in another world. That's it."

It's a heavy admission, his voice thick with emotion. He'd tortured himself until Azula's arrival imagining that Ozai and Aang defeated each other, leaving Azula in charge; he had fever dreams over it for over a week, completely incapacitated by shock when he'd first arrived in that other world. But now? It'd been so much absorbed. Until Aang's arrival, that is. Now things aren't sitting right, even though he'd known they'd been off before, all along; now it was uncomfortable, like the moment when one moves one's foot and realizes it's fallen asleep, pins and needles through his whole being.

[trueltning_fury]

[well no but...]

If it gets me to the tavern faster...

[all_the_aangles]

His hand goes to his forehead, and he leans his head back.

"Ugh how is that a thing?! Why is that a thing?" The last said with eyes wide and aggravated, hands spread as if the universe might actually answer the question.

"And why didn't I notice you weren't quite as tall?!"

He shook his head. He was pretty sure he was meant to be more observant than this.

[angelolatry]

Exspheres are.....well. They are like lower level versions of my Cruxis Crystal. They have the ability to enhance our power. Our strength, our senses. They help us with fighting against the Desians. Only....they're made from human hosts. Cultivating humans and turning them into Exspheres. We didn't know that right away, not immediately, but...

[But they didn't have a choice. If they wanted a chance against the monsters they fought, against the Desians, to get through this with Colette's Journey, they had to rely on the Exspheres. Lloyd didn't throw his away like he had wanted to at one point because of that.]

The Desians are the half-elves in charge of the ranches to create Exspheres.

[rediscovering]

Something about the 'tall' comment gets under his skin, and he makes a face at him for it.

"Look, lesson one with this outer-space mumbo-jumbo life, don't expect things anymore! Everything's random! You'll think life will start to make sense again for a while and then, bam— a new kind of crazy!"

He flails his own hands around in response. This is all a sore, sore spot, time-stuff. He needs a second to adjust. He doesn't know how to handle this. Sorry he's just... mouthy, Aang. This is his moment of a 'new kind of crazy.'

[tantailizing]

... That can't really be the only way to enhance your guys' power.

[But if it was... he's kind of at a loss and eyes her Cruxis Crystal. How many people made that if an Exsphere is 'lower level'? And if that's really the only way to fight back, it's a have to make due. Ew, he hates that thought.]

Okay... how does the Journey stop the Desians?

[all_the_aangles]

Zuko having an emotional response to an unforeseen situation? Perish the thought. Though he feels guilty at the sarcasm, even inwardly.

"Ok, ok, fine," he says, in a placating voice.

[sulit]

[No!!! That's cheating! Her face falters a little.]

I would like to point out that there hasn't been any lost time for you. So there's nothing to make up. We both start with a blank slate. Even footing.

That's fair, right?

[Please say yes please say yes please--]

[everydayeveryway]

[Adelle's trying to not smile too much, but it's hard. Because this is adorable.

But really... being frozen in place because a puppy is asleep on your lap... well, she's not about to disturb that.

That's the good kind of problem to have.]

[wukuiyuxin]

[As impressive as it may have looked, Lan Wangji lands on his feet much harder than he's used to, and he's breathing hard with the exertion of wielding his sword like this. Both things that ought to be impossible and are, frankly, unacceptable. He's going to have to train much harder to compensate for his missing spiritual energy. And another consequence of this unfamiliar weakness is a lapse in his attention to the approaching vines behind him.

But he will accept her gratitude with a nod and a small noise of acknowledgement of his own. Enough said. His gaze flicks down the path in the direction he came from - is she ready to go?]

[wukuiyuxin]

Being asked for a demonstration of his sleeves is somehow both unexpected and inevitable at this point. Unfortunately he has no one but himself to blame for the fact that she feels impetuous enough to ask. And he is hardly going to deviate from his grudging tolerance of this conversation now. Giving his permission only to withdraw it in the next moment is simply not something he does, no matter how exasperated he feels.

But he's still not willing to hold out his arm to be inspected like wares at a market.

He deigns her outstretched arm with barely a glance. "Is this professional interest?" Do... whatever she is, have tailors? Her clothing seems complex enough. At least convince him this is educational in some manner.

[commediadellanime]

Something like that.

[And he hasn’t even broken a sweat! He does feel a bit more wobbly than he usually would thanks to the blood loss, but by now he’s used to pushing through his injuries.]

You could say I’ve done some training.

[He laughs as if he’s told the funniest joke in the world.]

I don’t like wasting time sitting around.

[commediadellanime]

[He feels bad for the kid, as he watches him fall directly on his back. But he bounces back up like it’s nothing, and with the scars all over him...

He shakes his head.]

Hey, don’t worry about it! Couldn’t have gotten out of there without you.

[He claps him on the back, before looking back to the now-dead mass of vines. He... Has to get his knife back, now.]

Though you might want to be careful, if you’re going to keep poking around the forest.

[unstable]

What a reckless child. Azula had been lucky so far, being on the farthest end of the timeline; his future counterpart had realized the importance of keeping unknown information to herself. Things could still be neat, pretending to have some sort of life that was never afforded to her back in the Fire Nation as long as she kept Zuko in the dark--

But of course the Avatar would ruin it for her the second he showed his face, having no regard for anyone but himself as he broke through all of the carefully placed strings she'd set up to keep her relationship with Zuko afloat. It's a shame she couldn't hear Zuko's last plea for him to understand her, certain such words will never surface again now that the Avatar no doubt let it float how much her world had shattered. How she'd shattered.

"I'm going to kill you."

Azula cleans the shock from her face before she darts forward again, shaking a dagger loose from her sleeve until she can curl her palm around its hilt. This time her target was his staff, thrusting forward with the sharpness of the blade to catch him off-guard and knock his weapon clean from his hands instead should he give her an opening.

[rediscovering]

"Sorry, it's just—" He growls, shaking his head, sighing heavily with a pregnant pause before he explains. "Azula hasn't told me anything. I didn't want her to, though; I was afraid if I knew the future early, it'd mess things up or something, I don't know! But... my friend Gokudera just left and came back recently, I guess, and confirmed that we don't remember these places. Nothing that happens here has any bearing on our lives at home. That's what I thought, but I didn't want to risk anything. But now I have proof from someone I trust that there's no reason for me to stay in the dark. I'd be willingly blind now."

As if he's already not been this whole time.

[song_princess]

Well, what else is she supposed to do in order to comfort herself?!

Very sheltered but yet not. She just hasn't been exposed to such things before that night. And what is this thing called staying safe in strange worlds?

"I... Didn't know that Beorcs... The name of your kind, do such things. I thought singing was something that my clan did.... Stories are acted out?"

[raveyardpatriarch]

He appreciates how quick she is to fall in line with his questioning, he really does. Spares him even having to ask some stuff. That's convenient.

Though, he does notice she has neglected a third option, and it's one he's learned a sensitivity to. One could say by trial and error. Unless..."So you tried it on something living?" He sounds sympathetic. Who hasn't been here?

Because she failed, obviously, for whichever of the two reasons, that it is impossible or that she lacks groundwork. The third option being that it was never a part of whatever her resources are, and he'll circle back to that, for reasons of moral limitation. Though why that would be, is anyone's guess; alchemy of the living is the express purpose of cultivation, after all. However convenient, everything else is just side effects.

Which leads him, lightning quick, to: "What about something dead?" He's already assuming a slightly defensive stance, though she probably values the iron rod too much to throw it. "Something simple! Not too many materials." What's in bones, anyway? Soup essence?

[thirdwisestar]

"Yeah, the demon," Caesar won't try to figure out what Yuber really is. If the man claims to be a demon, then he can be a demon, though Nash brings up another good question and all he can do is shrug.

"I don't know about that being weird. I'm the Flame Champion's strategist and you're her weirdo stalker, so maybe it does make sense we'd end up here with Chris. Although with Geddoe also being here, Hugo showing up wouldn't surprise me, either."

Complete the whole True Rune trio, he supposes, but otherwise, even he would have to admit it ultimately seems random.

[all_the_aangles]

He sighs, when she speaks.

"You did that once," he says, calmly, and sadly. "You aren't getting to do it twice."

Because the thing was, he does remember - Azula makes a beeline for the equipment, whether in flight or not. She fights, in that way, like it's a game - eliminating angles before going in for the kill. He really wishes, for a moment, that it can be otherwise; but Azula, as ever, leaves no room for choice.

He lets her have the opening, but he's moving forward, not retreating, delivering an open-handed strike to her center of mass, high on her chest. It's intended to knock the wind out of her, and it's likely - hopefully - the opposite of what she expects.

It is a simple movement - a sliding forward of the foot, and the hand coming up and outwards straight from the body, lining up all his force into one spot, one moment.

[all_the_aangles]

He takes a solid minute to think over all of that, settling himself in again. In fact, what Zuko's saying...frankly, it helps his earlier case.

"Maybe she wanted to just be your sister after all," he said, finally. "At least for now."

[angelolatry]

It is a journey to seal the Desians. Upon passing the trials of the Goddess Martel, the Summon Spirit that protect the world awaken, and mana is restored. So it isn't just about regenerating the mana. Saving the crops. It's about dealing with them too. I can't say for sure if there is another way but. It's what we have for the moment. And I think it's important. To at least make use of them. To make sure those sacrifices don't go to waste. That we let them help too.

[It's. Complicated. But it is how she feels. That those hosts should be able to help somehow as well. That they could do their part. That they would want to. When they were going up against the likes of the Desians, Cruxis, they needed that support. Those enhancements and advantages offered from the Exspheres. But especially for Lloyd when his was his mother and all.]

Maybe someday we might not need them. But for now....

[tantailizing]

[It... did sound complicated, and needed to happen, but he doesn't get why they don't just destroy or sabotage the Desian's work. It seemed like a better solution to him, but there was something else about it bothering him. That 'seal' part...]

... But seals can break.

What happens to you after the Journey's over?

[angelolatry]

To me? That.....well. I become an Angel.

[Or. She is supposed to. There's a lot more she isn't as aware of in regards to the real motivations behind the Chosen system. What her fate really was supposed to be exactly, in becoming a vessel for Martel. Her whole life she has been raised in the knowledge of her duty being to sacrifice herself. That that was what was expected of her and if it meant everyone else got a better life, that was what mattered.]

[tantailizing]

This... might sound weird, but what do you mean by 'Angel'?

[Because those we're really normal where he comes from. Some odd religion might've mentioned them... no, maybe it had been a story. Yeah, that'd most likely been it.]

[angelolatry]

Well. I don't need to eat or sleep anymore. I'm stronger and my senses and strength are enhanced. I get wings and live longer.

[While also in the process. You know. Losing her humanity along the way, gradually. Painfully. Still, this is what she had to do. What everyone wanted her to do and raised her to do. So she had to accept and go along with it. Lest she disappoint them all. She shakes her head and hands a little then, in mention of her wings and all.]

Ah, but none of that seems to apply here anymore. I can talk and eat and feel and sleep again! I can't show you my wings here, without my Cruxis Crystal seeming to work.

[Which. Is probably a Good Thing really.]