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

[raveyardpatriarch]

Suspicious looks roll off him like water off a lacquered duck, but he is forced to concede, at least internally, that she has a point. It should have glitter on it. He can mix it right in with the cinnabar, and probably will. Maybe all his talismans should have glitter. Cons? More expensive to produce, even if blood is free. Pros? Well, who would use normal talismans when some have glitter.

Restricting the flow of knowledge, though? That's cruel and unusual. He can't believe someone would do this. "Why would you not want to tell me? I've been so cooperative!" The grievance in his voice is palpable. She should put him back in the ocean. Getting cute is like half his life strategy. "As it is, a Glitter Talisman is just a shiny distraction, like sparkly butterflies, but if I could add words to it," and there he runs aground, before trundling on gamely, "Well, I'm sure it would be useful. I'm very resourceful."

[sulit]

Klaudia makes a small snort of disbelief at his insistence that he's been so cooperative. Taking a small step to the side is the bare minimum of cooperation. If he was in a cooperation competition, it would be a participation prize at best for him.

But she's smiling nonetheless because he is cute, and she should dunk him back into the ocean. But she won't.

"Well, that is a very strong case for why I should tell you, then. Maybe we can swap sparkly glitter secrets once I'm done here. And you can show me those butterflies. Those sound neat." She might actually like to copy that, if you don't mind, good sir. Especially since it sounds like something she might be able to do, once she gets better at making lights.

[raveyardpatriarch]

Oh, right. His face falls just a bit when the idea goes from pleasantly hypothetical to potential demonstration, and he remembers he might not be making any talismans at all any time soon. Easy to have forgotten when 'disrupted' is, to put it mildly, the normal state of his abilities. Sparkly glitter secrets will have to be tabled, perhaps indefinitely? Sobering, and unfair. Though, talismans might be doable still, if he's just given time (and paper) to prepare? That's kind of the point, after all.

But that's not a first encounter conversation, even if that encounter is with someone seemingly with abilities of their own, so he just grins an entirely different yet no less horrible to look at grin than any of the previous ones and moves on. "Sure, sure. But we're getting ahead of ourselves, right? You haven't even gotten to the ceiling, yet. Maybe it'll just be an illusion, once you get up there. Maybe it's just rocks."

[sulit]

Klaudia takes note of the way his expression slips that little bit, her head tilting instinctively at the question it raises. But whatever is on her mind, she doesn't voice it. He makes that silly grin with his face, and she looks back down to her book, which she lowers from her chest.

"I doubt it's just rocks. Regular rocks don't make words on the ceiling." Words that are currently shifting from whatever they said before to curiosity. That's apt enough, she thinks, as she starts tracing a large circle in the sand with the toe of her boot.

"You'd best stand back. I don't know what happens if wayward limbs get caught up in the equation, and I'm not interested in finding out today~" Is she joking? Is she not? Difficult to tell with a tone that sits somewhere between those two states. She starts adding symbols to the circle, referencing that book in her hand frequently.

[raveyardpatriarch]

If quasi-joking about innocent bystander limbs (for some definition of innocent, anyway) getting caught in arrays is wrong, Wei Wuxian wouldn't want to be right. Is the implication supposed to be that there'll be a day she does want to find out? Because wanting to know is not a crime, unless you actually go to the trouble of finding out.

But that's not the point, the point is he gets to scrutinize the setting up of a fascinating, completely foreign array, and to his credit he does this with a minimum of interference. Physical interference, anyway. "You know, life is really so funny sometimes. Have you ever thought about using a sword? Would save a lot of time, with the drawing."

[sulit]

There is absolutely a day in which she's going to be interested in finding out, but as she said, today is not that day. The near future is looking promising, though.

She keeps drawing in the sand, even as he remarks on her technique--like he's not the only one standing there with a sword tucked into his belt. It does warrant a small glance in his direction, though.

"Are you offering? I'm not as exceptionally good with swords as I am with other things, but won't say no to a very ornate stick."

[raveyardpatriarch]

Would Klaudia believe he really forgot he had that, this time? Probably, because she has no reason not to, any more than Suibian has any reason to be sealed, or even particularly heavier or harder to use than a garden-variety sword (or very ornate stick), just now. Probably she does have some reason to expect a hasty renege on the non-offer, which easily makes up the difference in motivating him to lend it, just out of a kind of helpful spite.

But not without a little theatrics, as compensation, of course. He's really leaning into the drama, even as he gathers the sword to hand over. "What a thing to ask! And people say I have a thick face. I don't even know your name and I'm supposed to just hand you my sword?"

[sulit]

She doesn't honestly expect him to hand it over, which is why she's prepared to keep marking out these symbol in the sand with her foot. When he starts to gather up the sword, though, she'll pause and properly observe his theatrics.

Well... One good turn of drama deserves another...

"If you don't know my name, then it's because you didn't ask~ A terrible oversight on your part, but I can understand that you were very busy with occupying this space and generally being very important, I'm sure. I couldn't possibly have asked more of you."

[raveyardpatriarch]

While he can appreciate having a handle on dramatics, this does not pass fairness muster, and so it is time to protest, wide-eyed and strident. "I didn't know I had to be important to sit on a cave floor! Maybe I would have asked if you hadn't led with the cave donkey thing, straight into asking me to move!"

Well now he needs the sword to add some panache to his bowing, which is textbook to a degree that can only be pointed, sadly likely wasted on an otherworldly being. Though that probably just makes it funnier, if you think about it. "This humble sword-lender is called Wei Wuxian. Now I'm asking."

[sulit]

Despite his protesting, she really doesn't see how it's her fault if he's forgotten to ask for her name. But they're being a little silly right now, so silly is what she'll let him be.

Including that weird sort of bowing... It's certainly some kind of bow, she notes, though not one she's ever seen before. New worlds, new customs. Still, it's not so odd that she doesn't know what he's doing. It's a proper introduction and all, so she'll stop what she's doing and turn to face him properly. Taking up a bit of her skirt in hand, she gives him a proper curtsy.

"This humble sand-drawer is called Klaudia. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir~" It's hard to keep a straight face at all of this pomp and circumstance, but she tries her best, even if her best is not very good.

[raveyardpatriarch]

The idea that anyone is letting him be silly as opposed to just getting hauled along for the ride? Hilarious. But he appreciates Klaudia's impressive degree of commitment to the bit, and with barely any coaxing or goading from him, even, that's pretty rare. It is hard to keep a straight face, so why bother trying? Decorum is just another word for not making so many faces it becomes impossible to play a flute.

But the requirements of formality have technically been met, so he can offer the very ornate stick of a sword with Wei Wuxian typical insistence and disregard for caution--they're friends now, and he's eager for his newest friend to get on with the inscrutable platform project. There has to be some silver lining in having to give up his lounging and not getting to see any lizard-esque wall climbing. "Yes, how fortunate we both are. But mainly you. I'll be keeping an eye out for sticks, from now on."

[sulit]

"How gracious, thank you. I shall never need to hunt for a stick myself again~"

Klaudia takes the sword with both hands and much fanfare on her side, despite his disregard for caution. She will treat this like her own precious heirloom and handle it with all the dignity and care that it deserves. Right up until she's forced to use it to draw lines in the sand--because that's what it was being offered for, after all.

It takes her another minute of drawing and double-checking her notes and making corrections before she hands the sword back to Wei Wuxian.

"Alright, be careful. I haven't done this one before." And that's about the only warning she gives before crouching down and touching the edge of the circle she's made.

Magic flashes brightly long the lines for a moment before the sand heaves and pulls in from the sides. A lone column of glass gradually rises up, hollow on the inside with thick walls and not quite circular or square in circumference, but somewhere in the middle. The top is not quite flat, either, and a little slanted, but it should do well enough to stand on. The structure stops at about five feet tall, having consumed most of the sand within the circle and also some outside of it.

Rising to her feet, Klaudia gives the column a look over, then puts both hands on the edge of it and pushes. It doesn't move, so it seems stable... Enough so that she grins at the accomplishment and whispers a quiet "Cool."

[raveyardpatriarch]

Okay well. Alright. That's sure a thing, an actually pretty cool thing, which he has no problem appreciating academically and enthusiastically. Sand cultivation? You know, if he'd invented that instead, things would sure be a lot different. Though getting on roofs was not historically the problem so much.

Not to be outdone but with unfortunately no other choice, Wei Wuxian joins her in attempting unsuccessfully to budge the glass column, though he rapidly gives the endeavor up in favor of offering her a slightly bemused thumbs up. "I don't know what I was expecting. Not that, but I guess you did say. Good job?" Maybe nudging it with his foot will prove more enlightening, or at least make him feel involved. Lending the sword suddenly doesn't feel like enough.

"If not this one, what have you done?"

[sulit]

The pushing and nudging is appreciated. If she's going to climb up on this thing, then she wants to make sure it's not going to move.

She takes a step back to give it another look-over. It's... a little tall. She might need some assistance getting up there; but for the moment, she smiles at his thumbs up. There's a glow of pride about her.

"I've been practicing transfiguration sigils until now. Mostly metal and wood. They let me shape things, mold them like clay into whatever is useful at the moment. Here, I can show you--"

She goes back over to her backpack (with perhaps a little excitement in her step) and digs around in it. Despite her professed indecision on whether to share magical secrets with him, she seems all too eager right now. When she returns to him, there's a rod of iron in her hand, about the length of her forearm.

"Iron was easiest to work with when I first started. Only one element to worry about, so I could focus on which symbols directed how to shape it." She shows him the rod, rolling it in her fingers to display the series of sigils she's carved along one of the ends. "All I have to do is focus on one of these sigils, and I can make this into a bunch of different tools."

She touches one of the circles with her thumb, and there's a small flash of magic underneath as the iron melds into a short blade on the opposite end of the rod.

[raveyardpatriarch]

So she had her own stick the whole time, is the takeaway here. Nonetheless, this is all very fascinating. He nods along, and very graciously does not snatch the magic thing, even though he might really like to. This isn't what he was looking for, from this chill-cave, but he's certainly willing to roll with it, most silliness put behind him in favor of scholarly fascination.

He looks from her to the rod and back, "And this is something you learned here? Why you want to get at the ceiling?" Her interest in putting any ceiling related discoveries to meaningful use seems less and less like a whimsical pipe-dream. He gestures very un-elucidatingly at their general surroundings, clearly considering his own questions rhetorical, carried away by the spirit of inquiry. "Sand isn't wood or metal. How far does it go?"

Her warnings about limbs may be a factor in his line of questioning.

[sulit]

To be perfectly fair, it's a very small stick. It wouldn't have helped her much in the long run, so she doesn't feel at all ashamed for having borrowed his sword as a tool. Maybe if she thinks about it later, she can add a sigil to make a longer, thinner stick.

She's in the midst of considering an answer to his rhetorical question anyway, when he gives her a much more interesting topic to discuss--one that's a particular sore spot for her these days.

"Just about as far as you'd like, from what I can tell? Aside from learning the symbols that relate to the materials and knowing how to arrange them, the only limitation that I've noticed is that the material can't belong to something living. But whether that's a hard limitation or simply a matter of no one figuring out the right equation, I don't know." At least, she doesn't sound particularly satisfied with any of the answers she's read about.

[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?

[sulit]

Klaudia starts to answer his first question, but stops abruptly when his second comes. If she takes any notice of his defensive stance, it's only to tilt her head a little in confusion.

"Yes. I mean, why wouldn't I? I tried transfiguring a tree--not much different from a wall or door, but the magic didn't work with that. Not that it produced anything weird or had any sort of dangerous backlash, it just simply didn't function.

"But when I tried the same thing with some dead branches, those worked fine." There's a small pause, before she continues: "Extrapolate how you want to from there. I haven't tried it with living or dead creatures, no; but I can imagine it's basically the same result if I were to try it."

Not that she sounds particularly opposed to that sort of experiment, but she is opposed to getting yelled at. So there's that.