TEST DRIVE MEME ⚔️️ 7

[avalonmods]

✨ Greet new players on the OOC intro while apps are processed HERE! ✨

{ 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, helping to rescue any wayward travelers who look like they're struggling in the water. This month's helpers are giant pillow jellies, a species of jellyfish that is capable of ballooning itself at the surface to create bouncy pads for characters to hop across to the shore, should they choose or not be able to swim. They come in a variety of bioluminescent colors, but do not seem to be very talkative even to animal magic users. Those who try may find themselves being ignored, even if they hear the jellies talking amongst themselves about this and that. If anyone tries to ask the Lady of the Lake for directions, she will direct you to Archimedes at 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. *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 and a pair of special ear buds (the supplier was out of the regular ones) 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. 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. It may be a little chilly when you get out though, so make sure you don't slip rushing back indoors when you get out! 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. After the new arrivals come in, they'll find that this month they came in on the middle of a rather tumultuous time... people are arguing and debating about a future decision to be made. King Arthur recently tried to negotiate with Celliwig's people to open the doors to Camelot, but they refused, and the people have been left with a decision: 1. attempt long-distance, slow wooing of Queen Elphame via the Elphame Traders of the next couple of months, 2. attempt to prove a balanced and deeper understanding of the need for both pure and impure hearts by suggesting an acceptance of trials from Celliwig, or 3. band together under Camelot's flag to invade Celliwig. Celliwig is a place of communication between Elphame and Camelot that bypasses the need for weeks of dangerous, often fatal travel, so the choice is very important in regards to how Camelot both presents itself to the fae people in the future. To that end, people with strong beliefs about particular choices have arranged gatherings to draw people in to hear their perspectives on what the choice should be. A ⦿ Honey Over Vinegar A wide variety of people have sided with this group, including the Elphame Traders, as cutting Celliwig off from them would mean a much harder journey each month to the city of Camelot. (Though commerce always does find a way.) This group is hosting a Tree-Picking Tournament! Of course, the trees to be picked are out in the farmlands, and members of the lobbying group will be giving people free one-use Farm Totems to get to the tournament. The trees in this grove are a little different than normal trees, however. For one, they don't bear fruit. This is Camelot's cookie orchard, composed of special fairy tree hybrids that grow a variety of sweet treats on their branches instead of fruits. There are your usual chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, but also little puff-like wedding cookies on bushes or checkboard cookies blossoming out of stems instead of flowers. There are even some trees that have clusters of miniature French macarons! The best part, at the end when you turn in your cookies for the count and get your participation prize (and bonus pamphlet about how slow and steady wins the race), you can totally keep and eat them, so be careful not to drop them! How you get them down from the tree is up to you, of course. Try some magic, or maybe just some regular old tree-shaking will do the trick.. just be careful you don't accidentally knock down any wasp nests. Those stings will hurt bad! B ⦿ A Balanced Approach The party of people who want to try to woo Celliwig over to smooth things over see this little political gathering with cookie-based bribery and quickly fashion their own event to make sure the fanfare isn't all for just the one idea. To gather people in to hear their side of the story, this group has decided to host a bug catching contest! Head out into those flower fields between Camelot and the Red Springs that are now thriving thanks to April's plentiful rains. Whether you use a net or figure out how to use your magic to get the bugs, it's how many you catch, not what kinds you catch that count-- so make it fast and make it plentiful! And at the end of the day, what you choose to do with your captured bugs is up to you. Crush them or free them, keep them or eat them, whatever it is you want to do... ultimately, all moral choices are valid, right? So let's go along with what Celliwig wants! Don't forget that May is the season of the frog, however, and you'll be in competition with a variety of sentient and wise members of the Frog Tribe, a group of bipedal frogs who live in the southernmost part of the lake and come up to the flowerfields to stick their tongues out for some delicious bug treats. They have no problem sticking their tongues right into your captured bug nest, hopping on heads to steal your catches, and do all kinds of crazy interferences like snipping belts and tonguing ankles to trip people. You may want someone to watch your back for this event, lest you get done in by a hopper. C ⦿ A Show of Strength The more war-hungry citizens of Camelot seek to go to war. This whole issue will be over if Celliwig itself isn't the one in charge of communication and it's just made directly between Elphame and Camelot, rather than having a mediator who refuses to mediate. They believe that a show of strength is the only way to solve this problem, and as such, they'll be demonstrating that the greatest rewards come from strength by organizing an expedition to a cave at the base of the Ash Mountains. Taking a path squarely between the Dusklight Woods and the edge of the Lands of Rot to the base of the Ash Mountains, this expedition will lead into a cave known as the Giant Cave. It's a pretty on-the-nose name, since it really is a big cave. One of the cool things about this cave is that it's filled with geodes. Those who have enough strength can use provided pickaxes and drills to dig up their own crystals and gold, both great for jewelry and enchanting. In particular, there is a large amount of: • Rose quartz: dark mages can make their love spells much more powerful and healers can use this to enhance spells that soothe anxieties and self-doubt • Amethyst: siphoners increase the potency of counter-curses and light mages will find this stone makes their hard light shields stronger than ever • Agate: strengthen cognitive abilities like post-cognition for a clearer picture of what happened by enhancing perception, and death mages will find they're able to extend their possession times by about 30 minutes by using an agate to stablize their aura • Moonstones: will increase navigation as a traveler's protection for kinetic users-- no longer will you risk tripping over a rock while going at enhanced speeds, or can be traded to fairies to potentially bring down a steep price to something more reasonable • Black tourmaline: a crystal that shields from opposition/negativity-- for technomancers and elementalists, this means that technology is more likely to side with them over another technomancer, or elementalists will find that when using opposing elements, theirs will come out stronger-- like water vs fire, electric vs rock, etc. • Hematite: can soothe blood, leaving it a good tool to enhance animal and blood magic-- animals may trust you more readily by having a calming effect on them, and blood mages may find that they heal more readily after using their abilities • Boji stone: alchemists will find that this is a good stabilizer for for particularly volatile potion combinations, and the properties of this stone leaves green mages to sense new types of plants they haven't yet encountered in passing, even if they're not looking at them It's not particularly a contest in this case-- you can keep and use what you want, and this show of strength has given you more power than ever, so why not consider the same concept for how to deal with our unneighborly neighbors in Celliwig? It may be sweaty business, but surely hitting some rocks will show you the value of strength! With the surprisingly tame day in the Giant Cave, one would think that the Ash Mountains were something of a safe place. No one really bothered the travelers, but that's because no one had been home at the time. as it turns out, the Giant Cave is home to a giant... douchebag of a minotaur. Not a giant, despite the name. His name is Simon and he doesn't like to share, and now that a bunch of people have gone and taken his rocks (he didn't even know there were crystals inside, nor does he do anything with them). Now he has to take his revenge, regardless of not knowing who actually took the crystals that were never really his to begin with, they just happened to be in rocks near where he sleeps. A ⦿ A Stone's Throw from Revenge The minotaur is a very instinctive creature, and his instincts say that the people of Camelot, the nearest settlement, are the ones who need to be punished for this. He uses his superhuman strength to drag huge rocks and boulders all the way to the north-east edge of Camelot, seemingly for no reason, until he's got practically a wall built. At which point he starts picking them up, spinning, and then vaulting the rocks into Camelot's buildings. You may find yourself inside of one of those buildings and scrambling to check if everyone and yourself is okay, or perhaps you're rushing out to stop the minotaur from throwing another. Either way, it's a sudden attack and you're going to have to act fast. Trying to attack the minotaur will be difficult, since it has superhman strength and durability, sharp horns atop its head, and can smell you coming from a mile away. Get creative, and stop the minotaur before it's too late! B ⦿ There's Safety in Numbers Once the minotaur's attacks stop, it flees to recover its wounds, promising it will come back to destroy Camelot once and for all. It's a time for reprieve and to help clean up the damage. Use your magic to help clean up broken buildings and structures, or heal and help others who were injured in the sudden, mostly unprovoked attack. Many of the uninjured citizens will be going around town and providing drinks, towels, and cups of noodles to those who are helping out. Because of the impending threat of the minotaur's return, it's recommended that otherworlder's use the (Recipe) Buddy System spell. The way they explain it, it's a spell designed to alert your buddy if you're in danger and lasts about an hour. The way it actually works is you must be touching your buddy in any way at all times for the next hour. Unfortunately, it seems like the volunteers sharing the recipe may have missed that it was created in a kindergarten class, not for adults. C ⦿ Gross Thankfully, the Buddy System wears off before the Minotaur is back for round two. When the Minotaur returns, the castle has since gathered forces to the edge of town to defend it from another attack. It's unclear where the Minotaur went to get healed, but whoever he went to apparently had some advice, however, and the instinctive minotaur gave into a different instinct for part two of his revenge. Rather than go right back to his pile of rocks, he instead travels the day to get to the southernmost part of Camelot and barrels into town unopposed, as most of the troupes are where they had thought he would come from again. After all, minotaurs are not known to be big thinkers. Instead of violently destroying this time, however, the minotaur instead heads straight to lowertown's well-- and takes a pee in it. It turns out, not only does he have a giant-- ahem, but he is a giant dick as well. Now the entire lowertown has to be evacuated due to contaminated water up to other areas of Camelot. Many people who live there are relocated to live in extra castle rooms. After all, Minotaur Urine is known to be incredibly potent and stinky. Mages who are able to handle the smell are asked to come help perform a ritual of water purification for the lowertown's water system. This ritual involves multiple groups of people performing synchronic magic, a magic type that requires you to be in perfect sync with your partner. Draw a special ritual circle with four candles at equidistant points. Chant a spell in sync with your partner, and blow a special powder made of ground jasper, charcoal, and rosemary into the center of the circle. It will be drawn into the candles' flames and with enough people doing this, all impurities will be removed from the lowertown's water and dissipate into the atmosphere. KEY POINTS New arrivals drop into the lake and have to climb up a cliff to the Rent a Ride, where they are given their device and some headphones and can retrieve their personal materials. They travel to Camelot, which is a multiple day journey, so they stop at the Red Springs along the way and stay at an inn there. There is a vote pending for Camelot and each side of the issue is trying to engage otherworlders to their side of the vote. The slow/steady approach is hosting a cookie harvesting tournament from a grove of cookie trees, the middleground group is hosting a bug-catching contest, and the group that wants war is hosting a mining expedition. The mining expedition aggros an asshole of a minotaur, who throws rocks at Camelot. Driven away, the townspeople try to help by distributing a spell called "Buddy System" which binds two people together, not realizing it was intended for kindergarteners. (Oops.) The minotaur returns and pees in the lowertown's water, so a ritual of water purification must be performed because it's gross and stinky. The minotaur is still at large. **** The above key points are a new feature we're going to start including on TDMs and Events. Since it's new, the format is still fluid, so please let us know if you have any feedback for this section here. It should just include brief summaries of each prompt to make parsing information easier and more accessible. The original prompts should still be read and referred to for complete information and details. **** 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. • A poll will go up a little later this week regarding the mentioned voting, which should be answered ICly by each character you play. The poll will remain open through the 15th so that newly accepted characters may also vote if they choose to. •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. • 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

[sereneadherent]

[It's a relief to hear the Professor accept her wholeheartedly despite the difference in allegiance. But the rest of it is a large pill to swallow, and Marianne needs time to wrap her head around it. She's quiet for several moments, pouring herself some of tea and mixing in a little bit of sugar. The scent of lavender hits her nose first from the steam rising from the cup, and she tries to let it soothe her.

Claude has also said, several times, that he and Edelgard want very similar things for Fódlan. It's the methods, and probably the reasons, where they truly differ. It takes effort, but Marianne can imagine a world in which she follows the Professor to the Black Eagles, where Edelgard's vision is the one that's shared with her and captivates her, where Claude never had the opportunity to open up to her. Especially in those awful, awkward school days before she came to understand her own worth, it would have taken little more than a breeze to blow her in any given direction.

Really, all she wanted then and all she wants now is a world where she doesn't feel strangled by the curse she carries. (If it's even a curse--she's trying to view her Crest differently, lately.) If Edelgard and the Professor had promised that, she knows she would have followed.

The realization makes handling the strangeness of this situation easier, at least a little.]

Thank you.

[There's really nothing more to say to that. Marianne knows the Professor's words are sincere, and her gratitude is equally so.]

Are you still fighting, or is the war over for you?

[hegemonwings]

[ she simply smiles and hums affirmatively to answer her gratitude, looking down to her own tea and savoring a sip. ]

Once I woke, the war was done within four moons. We took Fhirdiad at the end of Great Tree Moon. I... changed back, [ she indicates a lock of her hair between her fingers, ] and gave up the Crest of Flames. I spent two weeks or so recovering, and... most of you scattered for your own reasons. Edelgard and I returned to Enbarr a week or so ago.

[ hm. ]

And you?

[sereneadherent]

[Marianne shakes her head.]

The last thing I remember is that the Alliance is preparing to move into Enbarr. Claude says we're successful and that we end the war, but also that there's another enemy. He called them those who slither in the dark, and said they hate humanity and the children of the Goddess.

[Marianne pointedly leaves out that the fight against this enemy was bequeathed to them. This version of the Professor doesn't need to hear about how Hubert and Edelgard die. She knows she wouldn't want to her it, were she in the Professor's place.

She also realizes that she never really asked Claude who, exactly, the children of the Goddess are. If he even knows.]

Do you know about these people, Professor?

[hegemonwings]

[ she lets out a breath. ]

I do. Those who slither in the dark... Flayn called them the Agarthans. They've infiltrated most places of power in Fódlan... we were their allies, in theory, but in reality it's more that we were their hostages. We defied them too openly once, when we took Arianrhod, and they destroyed it. [ another sip of tea, even as a stormy look enters byleth's gaze. ] They're arrogant. Overconfident. And they've overplayed their hand. With the Church defeated, they're next.

And the children of the Goddess... [ she tries to figure out how best to put this. ]

The Archbishop. [ not rhea. never rhea. but she knows by now that calling her seiros will only raise more questions. ] Seteth. Flayn. Indech. Macuil.

[ her lips curl into a wry smile. ]

I take more after my father's side of the family.

[sereneadherent]

[What the Professor says more or less matches what Claude said about the relationship between the Empire and those who slither in the dark, although she categorizes their alliance as far less of a mutual benefit than he had.]

They did the same to us at Fort Merceus. We only survived because the Death Knight had lured us away from the fort just before the attack happened.

I hope you're able to defeat them, Professor. For your Fódlan's sake.

[Marianne goes to take a sip of her tea as she continues, although ultimately the teacup never actually makes it to her lips. What the Professor is saying is... impossible, isn't it? It contradicts everything she knows about the Church of Seiros and about people she knows from the monastery both. And why does she mention Saint Indech and Saint Macuil, but not Saint Cethleann and Saint Cichol? Or Seiros herself, for that matter?

But Marianne knows in her heart of hearts that she isn't lying. She wouldn't lie, especially about something like this.]

Your... father's side?

[She sets the cup back down.]

You're related to Seteth and Flayn and Lady Rhea? And they're related to the Goddess?

[hegemonwings]

[ merceus. the tide must have been turning against the other empire at that point, then. she wonders, if jeritza diverting the golden deer away from the fort had been edelgard making some effort to work against those monsters, given that...

no. it isn't worth thinking about. and more than that, it's impossible to say—she obviously has too little information.

still, byleth... takes a breath, sipping once at her tea. she nods—she'll circle back to the main thing being asked, but— ]

The Archbishop, [ she repeats, only a touch of insistence in her voice, ] not "Rhea". [ and there's no hiding the scorn in her voice on that name. it's not aimed at marianne, precisely. promise. still, she takes another steadying breath. ] There was no such person.

[ hm. she'd posed this question to claude, to try to get him to follow her down a path of thinking—but it might work better on marianne. ]

You and your professor must have fought off the Western Church together at the Holy Mausoleum. Back at the Academy. Did it ever seem strange to you, that Seiros's tomb was empty?

[sereneadherent]

[Meant for her or not, Marianne responds to the edge in the Professor's tone by shrinking back slightly.]

I'm sorry. The Archbishop.

[What had Lady Rhea done for the Professor to hate her so?]

We did found it strange, but I don't think any of us spent much time thinking about it afterward. I thought maybe her remains were in the Holy Tomb when La--when the Archbishop took us there, but they weren't there either.

...you know the answer to that question, don't you, Professor?

[She wouldn't be asking if she didn't.]

[hegemonwings]

[ byleth winces at how marianne shrinks back, and she reaches out for her friend's hand in response. not how she had wanted this to go.

but... there's no stepping around that. ]

Seiros was not dead, [ she says that, finally, trying to keep her eyes on marianne's as she does. this is important. ] and she had remained at the head of the Church for more than a thousand years. All for her own control.

[ more bluntly: ]

The Archbishop is Seiros.

[sereneadherent]

[Marianne maintains the eye contact until the last part, at which point it becomes too much and she quickly looks down at the table.

It doesn't make sense, but it does. Marianne is not unaware with how Lady Rhea plays a bit fast and loose with the truth--it's something that has especially frustrated Claude over the years. But he never discussed it directly with her, and she never felt it was her place to question it to either him or the Archbishop herself. Surely, she has her reasons.

Whatever those reasons are, it's clear that the Professor--or at least, this incarnation of her--doesn't think kindly of them.]

Oh. I-I see.

[There are so many follow up questions she could ask, but she's pretty sure she doesn't want to hear the answers to them. There's only so much world-shattering news a girl can take in one sitting, so she keeps them to herself.]

I'm... sorry that the Archbishop hurt you. [It's clear she has, even if Marianne doesn't know the details how.] But I hope you won't think less of me if I continue to pray to the Goddess. It's... it's all I know.

[hegemonwings]

[ truthfully? byleth's feelings on the faith itself are... mixed. when all is said, it is built on a lie. sothis has been dead for more than a thousand years, and she was surely never as the church portrayed her. her actual scope of power, her actual effects on the world—all far less than seiros said. but she does think well of the sothis she knew, and she's seen firsthand the service that lower level clergy very often provide to their communities—the church as mercedes knew it, not the church as it exists structurally.

byleth takes a slow breath. she remembers marianne and many of the more pious of the other officers and soldiers arranging celebrations of feast days during the last moons of the war, separate from the oversight and strictures of the church itself. ]

Marianne, of course I don't. [ she says it quietly, but there's a firmness to it. her tone softens as she goes on. ] The church and the faith aren't the same thing. If prayer to Sothis brings you comfort—if you find meaning in it, then...

[sereneadherent]

[Marianne gives the Professor a small smile of gratitude, lifting her gaze from the table. They don't see eye to eye, but she's more than happy to respect their differences as they are. The Professor's feelings and experiences from whatever Fódlan she hails from are just as valid as Marianne's faith.]

That's all I can you ask for. Thank you, Professor.

[She exhales deeply, relieved, and finally drinks some of her tea. It's gone a bit cold, but not so much so that it's undrinkable.]

I just have one more question. How much did your Marianne... did I tell you? About me and my Crest?

[Might as well rip this bandage off now, since they're already mired in difficult conversation.]