prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .009

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You awaken amidst the darkness with only a faint light to greet you. Your body is hemmed in by shards of crystals, gently sparkling and possibly pricking your skin. The surrounding landscape is dyed in the pinks and purples of the dusk filled with crystals protruding from the ground, some as large as a skyscraper. Even the few shy moon creatures you find in the wild have strange crystal growths on their hides. This is far from home— perhaps a dream? You pinch your skin and slap your cheeks, yet nothing seems to do the trick. Searching for answers yields nothing but an endless expanse of purple dust as far as the eye can see. You have four options: one, panic; two, soil yourself; three, admire it all then soil yourself; or four, go into survival mode. Eventually, you’ll realize that you’re not alone.

After a day or two of living off the crystal wilderness, a group of people find you worse for wear. They are the gallant Moon Knights from the planet of Prismatica. After the strange phenomenon during the past months when scientists observed the sudden appearance of rainbow crystals in the sky, the government has been feverishly combing through the moon for more Moonblessed to be rescued. You’ll eventually be brought into Iris’s moon government center.

You all may have your usual inquiries — Where are we? Who are you? What's going on? Why did I inhale all those permanent markers in the third grade? — and the Prismals are almost too eager to answer. They tell you about their world and about the first appearance of the Moonblessed as the medical staff give you an examination to make sure you’re not carrying any viruses or biological hazards. If you react violently, you may be restrained and nerfed with a specialized neurotransmitting gun that releases a numbing agent through the top of your spine. Once the examinations are over, you’re informed that you will be provided accommodations on their planet during your stay.

While waiting for transport to be prepared, you may freely roam around the government center. Eventually you’re called back from exploring, escorted to the docks, and led onto a large transport vessel that makes frequent trips back and forth between the moons and the planet. Faces onboard vary from both old and new Moonblessed as well as the local Prismals. The next destination: Prismatica.

▶ Whip It Good
Iris Moon, Government Center (Arrival) and Planet Prismatica, City of Lunatia | top

Welcome to Prismatica’s hub, Lunatia, the city of your dreams! A bustling metropolis lush with bright lights, vibrant colors, luxuriant plant life, and all the conveniences of technology absent from your own world… It seems like paradise to all the uninitiated. After a quick tour of the city, new arrivals can find themselves getting cozy in their new homes.

A Settle in your new home at Level 2 to find new roommates and say hello to your neighbors! City officials will give you directions to the designated districts across Level 2 and instruct you to pick out a unit. Each apartment complex has a different aesthetic, some may look cozy, some stylish, and some bizarre. The free accommodations have a basic living space that can only fit two or three people at most in one unit.

Starter Chromaspace furnishings are provided which can be controlled with the touch of a built-in panel. Examples are color-changing curtains, transforming sofa beds, cabinets turning into tables, etc. Customizing your apartment or moving out will have to wait until you earn more chroma. Until then, why don’t you check out your new neighborhood or explore the city levels? Maybe your new roommates or neighbors can give you a “hand” with allowance for dinner.

B At the Crystarium Moonports is a new family restaurant called Grapplebears, here to serve your favorite dishes from all around the galaxy at affordable prices! The menu ranges from the atomically hot and spicy Chamakshalan curry rice, delectable dragonsaur steak served with mashed space-tatoes, to the sweet and creamy Lunatian milkshakes that bring all the boys to the yard, all prepared by their handsome and huggable bear crew.

As you might have noticed, the restaurant staff is a ragtag group with members from planets unknown to both Prismals and Moonblessed. The waiters and waitresses in particular are tall, muscular, leather-clad bears who take your order by whipping you with a special riding crop that compels you to bark out your order — but only if you ask to be, of course! They might induce you to reveal other unrelated interests so make sure you’re not thinking about anything embarrassing!

If you chat up the staff or customers, you learn more about the restaurant’s origins. The bears say their planets* were also wiped by the Calamity hundreds of years ago, and life for them has been difficult for them since then…

*Further information about these planets is unavailable at this time.

▶ Night of the Living Dummy
City of Lunatia | top

The last vestiges of Geistnacht have officially passed and the first chilly autumn breeze ushers in the new season. The city is awash in giant piles of browning leaves that decorate every walkway.

A To deal with the mass collection of fallen leaves, many buildings across the city have been retrofitted with a new disposal system to help clean up. A sprawling network of automated vacuum tubes around the city will efficiently suck all those pesky leaves right up. While children love playing inside and using them to “teleport” around Lunatia, they have also been known to spontaneously suck up anyone who’s not too careful. You may find yourself falling on some hapless bystander on their afternoon walk, or crammed in a tube with your new neighbors. Lunar Scientia officials warn everyone to be careful of where you walk, else you might need to crawl your way to sweet freedom.

B A pop-up shop in Level 1 is attracting much of the locals' attention, run by a peddler who speaks in a low, elongated hiss and wears a hood over his face. He assures you that his face is of no consequence. What is more important is his selection of wares! In contrast to his cloaked, enigmatic appearance, his travel cart is a Barbie pink explosion of frills, hearts, glitter. He will tell all visitors he comes from the Valley of the Crimson Serpents, which Prismals and older Moonblessed arrivals find odd. Wasn’t the Sanguis moon uninhabitable?

Among the peddler’s wares are adorable, wide-eyed and heavily perfumed dolls in all sorts of clothes a child dreaming of rainbows and tea parties could ever ask for. Hug and squeeze a doll, and you will be greeted by a pre-recorded voice telling you how they’re your bestest friend ever. It’s like they were made for lovin’ you! But if you look away for one moment, you can almost swear you hear a snake’s hiss, its long tongue licking the shell of your ear… The next time you see the doll, its body will be in a slightly different position or location. Is it… following you? Fortunately, a minimal amount of moonlacing will make it leave you alone. You can wait it out too, but why would you?

Destroy a doll and it will later reappear wherever you are when you least expect it, good as new, but leaking from their porcelain heads is a strange pink, glitter-covered liquid. The peddler calls it the “love juice” giving the doll an extra dose of affection for you.

▶ Bird is the Word
Level 2, Greatmoon Groves | top

As autumn paints Lunatia with its golden hues, pumpkin decorations and desserts are now in vogue. This is thanks to Chroma-infused pumpkin seeds, which allow them to rapidly grow in all sorts of sizes, shapes, and colors. The Moonblessed are invited to visit one of the largest pumpkin patches in the city housed within the Greatmoon Groves, where they can enjoy the sight of oversized, colorful neon and sparkling semi-phallic pumpkins, expertly carved to greet you with their buck-toothed smiles.

A The pumpkin patch is full of toddler-sized creatures called hugbugs. When they are not tending to the pumpkins, they follow the Moonblessed around, requesting hugs and treats in exchange for their obedience.

Reward them and they will do simple errands for you and give you compliments. They will also be your personal hype men, talking up your strengths, talents, and physical assets to all those special someones you’re trying to impress. Once you earn their trust, they will be your friends for life!

Ignore them, hurt them, or bully them, and they will cry and place a curse upon you, reducing your self-esteem to nothing and magically forcing you to cry along with them. The effects of the curse may last for up to a week if you’re not careful! But how could you do such a thing? The hugbugs are sensitive and want somebody to love.

B If you manage to survive your encounter with the hugbugs, you are welcome to join in on the Prismal knitting group and enjoy creating your own fanciful scarf made of Galadrian thread, which is known for its bright, golden sheen and aromatic properties. Give it to a friend or wear it yourself, and you will notice a strange ability to attract animals and insects of all kinds. Live out your Disney Princess fantasy! Or a Hitchcockian nightmare. It’s all a matter of perspective as a whole flock of honking birds comes bounding towards you.

▶ Questions
If you have any questions regarding this test drive meme, please ask them in the Questions thread below.

▶ As a reminder, test drive memes are for new characters only. However, current players are more than welcome to use these prompts for their own posts in the IC communities, personal inboxes, catch-all posts, etc.!
▶ As our test drive memes are game canon, feel free to keep any threads that happen here as canon for your character should they be accepted.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, to each their own. There are certainly bees not fond of bees, butterflies unimpressed with butterflies, and the like.

[Disliking your species is perfectly valid. Admittedly, slightly more so when there are other sapient species around to hang out with instead.]

System... [ he repeats, slow with curiosity. ] Then... I'm sure I wouldn't have hated it either. At least, if I saw the things in it that you did.

[ and that's that.

they travel further in, and the blocks stretch out before them, clean, beautiful, and efficient. there's green and white, washes of neon and crystal. everyday establishments are full of prismals, and it's mostly apartments that tower up alongside them. ryuu looks skyward in thought. ]

My Japan is... well, normal. As far as I see it. There's no magic, or monsters, or space travel. The sun rises and sets just the same. I came here and suddenly, the place I came from felt so small.

[ but there's a fond smile in his voice when he says so, as if it just makes him all the more aware of his home's importance when faced with a fantastical situation such as this. ]

If the inspiration strikes me...

[ He's not sure he'll be able to paint here either, but if the mood is right, certainly.]

As an author, you must have an appreciation for art as well?

I do. My favorite outside of writing is carved lacquer, though I have an appreciation for many different forms of art.

[Chinese history nerd continues to be a nerd about Chinese culture, news at eleven.]

Edited 2019-11-20 05:11 (UTC)

[She tenses as he approaches, expression wary. While she's never actually been physically attacked for her abilities, she can't deny the possibility might be there. Wei Wuxian doesn't seem the type for violence like that, but it's not like Yuri can help the way she braces for it anyhow.

It doesn't come of course. Instead Wei Wuxian is speaking to her like this, sincerely and earnestly and she doesn't know what to do with herself or how to respond for a long moment, just stunned.]

Wei Wuxian... [What is she supposed to do with him? What is anyone supposed to do with him?? Yuri's gaze falls to his hands and after another few seconds she finally reaches out to take it.

Nothing happens this time, just the little tingle of pleasure that comes from a little bit of moonlacing]

It really is impossible to say 'no' to you, you know. Maybe you're the one with the dangerous power to look out for here...

[Of course Yasusada doesn't do it. Once he's on his feet, Kashuu lets go of his hand. And reach out to dust his top a little. They can clean his hakama another time.]

It's a lot, you know? Maybe we can find somewhere and sit down for it. Or I'll tell you back at our place.

How carefree.

[The nap in such a random place and then take things in strides. The mafioso is somewhat envious of that mentality, he'd never be settled even if he could fall asleep anywhere.

Akutagawa frowns as the other mentions the beach. So that's his destination?]

I don't know where the beach is. However, we must still be close to the residential area. That's where I was before I ended up here. Perhaps, if we keep moving forward it'll lead us there.

[No promises though.]

[ oh.

if he saw the things in it that kogami did, huh? kogami watches him instead of the crystalline brilliance soaring around them for a moment -- for all of the beauty that surrounds them, ryuu proves to be the most alluring of them. the matter-of-fact honesty, the way he paints an image of japan before the sibyl system came along.

what he wouldn't give for japan to return to what it once was, free from sibyl's yoke, where people can be people again. so he listens, caught on the softness of that smile, his love for home. to bear that much feeling and still be strong enough to carve out that happiness here, that's something, isn't it? ]

Do you miss it? Okinawa?

[ Of course Wei Wuxian would get all the way through a rambling introduction before pausing for thought or breath or recognizing that the man in front of him is his brother, thus needs no such introduction. Jiang Cheng is about to mutter something about how some things never change, but his eyes pick up something... off about the Wei Wuxian standing before him, something that doesn't quite line up with the Wei Wuxian he last saw.

Even though his brother never became any less of a rambling, vapid, day drinking fool even during all that time he spent poorly masquerading as Mo Xuanyu, there were still innumerable subtle differences that left Jiang Cheng with enough doubt that he could believe the masked man to be a stranger. A certain exhaustion in the way he moved, an unsettling sense of maturity lurking just beneath the surface. Guilt too, perhaps, some sense of weight of all the lives, all the friends lost.

This Wei Wuxian is fresh-faced, bright and irreverent as Jiang Cheng has ever known him. Clutching Suibian, chattering away, not a single higher thought in his mind.

Jiang Cheng grits his teeth, forcing down his heartache, his longing, all his great and terrible regret. He lets the anger come instead, his old and steadfast friend. ]

Who do you think you're talking to?! [ He steps in, smacks Wei Wuxian upside the head. Swallowing hard, he takes that same moment to hide his right hand behind his back, working Zidian off his finger and his wrist to pocket, knowing Wei Wuxian will ask questions he's not prepared to answer should he see it. ] You need to tell me you're from Yunmeng? Stop introducing yourself as Jiang Clan, you're an embarrassment—

Sure.

[Lucifer nods, and turns to lead the way back to the place where he learnt to make that scarf. It's not far, and they arrive in no time.]

Come this way, all the necessary equipment is here.

...Oh. That is good to know. What can make big kinds of moonlacing?

[This whole chroma thing is still new to him, so Lucifer wants to learn as much as possible about it.]

Maybe they're special. Is there anything that has happened recently that did not happen before?

[ Mikuni smiles at that, giving a little laugh. And, apparently, when he laughs his age shows a little more. So they say. ] Did it sound that way?

[ he's teasing, maybe. Either way, he nods as his new companion confesses to being new as well, looking back over the sea of phallic pumpkins. ]

I did. Although I'm used to traveling, I can't say I ever imagined something like this ...

[why would he date your kid when he could date their hot dad instead--I MEAN]

Of course. What would you like to know about me?

Edited 2019-11-20 06:06 (UTC)

I can picture him arguing, even if I haven't seen it myself, but to become friends with an argument? How did you manage?

[ooh mr dickens ooh]

Hm... Do you have a profession of sorts?

[ Shigeru flusters at the question and shakes his head. He hasn't even thought about sharing rooms with someone yet. He needs to really think about that more seriously though for the future. Of course a roommate is bound to see him for what he is...will they even be accepting of him and his problems? His hands might clench his phone even tighter now upon that realization too.

He's getting so stressed out and he's only been here for a day, wonderful start. ]

I...haven't really thought about that. So no.

[ Why is his life suffering? ]

[ If she's content, then so is he. Seeing her smile is worth it, after all.

Honestly, he probably isn't as bothered as he should be about being here, knowing that Gonta and Konoha will be here with him as well. He can make a home out of anywhere but it's a bonus that they're right there along with him. Although he is a little disappointed that he probably can't continue his search for the others here...

Enough of those thoughts though, since Konoha is just suddenly running off from him. Or trotting off, and then running. ]

Wait, when did I agree to run all the way there?

[ But he follows her along closely anyway, deeper into the Groves, further away from the hugbugs and all the humans, to a place that is so different and very familiar at the same time. Ah... its name... Konoha and Gonta have worked hard for this place haven't they? ]

Konoha...

[ He stares at the sight before them a little longer, before smiling at her. ]

It's wonderful that you've made such a home for you and Gonta.

Well, I'm a doctor. Specifically, I provide counseling and therapy techniques for people who are troubled with mental or emotional problems of some kind.

A truly vital and underappreciated service.

[see the entire There Are No Therapists page]

All the time. I just thought... I'd rather do something to prove my time away was worth it! Things like that.

[ whether in tokyo or in lunatia. that billboard is proof enough of that. there aren't many indicators in level two, but level one will bear the marks of his tenacity, through and through.

for now, ryuu's a bit glad about that. ]

I've gotten pretty used to things here, with that in mind. If you have anything you want to know, you can ask me.

I could do with some food, if you're hungry. And a stiff drink.

[ kogami suggests, because he hasn't eaten in awhile and it's only just occurred to him to grab something while he can. and that he could probably sort out the whole currency thing. ]

Any place you would recommend for now, Mr Tour Guide? [ and places to avoid. he's paying careful attention to his surroundings at the same time, even if ryuu is proving to be incredibly, pleasantly distracting. ]

[Konoha had resigned herself to city living, when she’d first arrived in this place. She’d picked out a place on the ground floor as close to the groves as she could be, spending most of her time out and nursing sore hooves that hadn’t appreciated the sudden switch to hard metal streets and walkways. But she’d known that... she could deal with it. The crowds, the noise, the technology, the magic... eventually she’d settle. Eventually it would be fine.

But it wasn’t the same for Gonta, she knew that. He’d tried, he had, but when he’d voiced his desire to do this... how could she do anything but enthusiastically support it?]

Mmmn, it was Gonta’s idea.

[For the future, the chance they might be stuck here a long time, the children she hoped to have and was beginning to fear may never come.]

The name was his idea, too.

[It was where she was apparently going with him, after all. Mt. Tsurugi.]

t took us a while to get everything ready, to build, and to plant... and I know it’s more like my village than it probably is on the mountains like you two are used to, but...

[But it was world’s better than the neon lights and the bustle of metropolis, the shine of crystals and the constant movement of trains, cars, and feet. So she beams proudly upon it, a little slice of peace and quiet that made sense to her... that looked like home to her.

That felt more like home, now, too. Even though she’d only known Mikuni a few months since Sha had sent him to her yard... he was practically family now.]

Edited 2019-11-20 06:29 (UTC)

i mean
it's probably the second?? i feel like that's a more... government. thing to do
but also, it's still an improvement, i think?
yeah. definitely an improvement.

anyway maybe if i ask nicely enough they'll refund me or something??
do you think i could just like... explain the situation
or would that sound totally insane
it'd sound kind of insane right.

[Ranpo, does Akutagawa look like someone who plays video games?]

[ Though moonblessed, moonlacing and moonblessings he's seeing a theme there.]

Depending on which moon is full? So there are different moons then?

[He's able to gather that the different moons affect them in different ways. But what does he mean by strange?]

[ wei wuxian transforms in three stages. the first is a confused state, all questioning as though what he sees before him is a trick of the light; the second, a brightening akin to the rising of the sun, wei wuxian's joy effervescent and tangible; and finally, the third, the well-worn familiarity of fraternal adoration, mischief and fondness commingling in a sanguine embrace.

wei wuxian smiles like a cat, oblivious to the gestures of discretions his brother is attempting right in front of him. not even a thwap to the head keeps him at bay; wei wuxian makes a face just long enough for the initial sting to fade, before he's stepping even closer and bumping hip and elbow with jiang cheng. ]

Yah, alright, I'm an embarrassment - and you're a sourpuss! What's with your face? Your frown lines have gotten deeper, I didn't think that would be possible. What are you doing all dressed up too? Did you just arrive?

[ that begs a very specific question, doesn't it? ]

Jiang Cheng, [ wei wuxian turns to him, one hand firm on the other's arm as he affects some measure of seriousness. ] What's the last thing you remember of me?

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▶ TDM .009

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it's gotta be the one with the whip

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OF COURSE IT IS I'M HOWLING