prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .009

Entry tags:

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

[Honestly, skittering about all over the place was one way to get to know your surroundings, and also make it all the more likely to—]

Slow your roll, Oxton! [More of a reflexive call out -less reprimand and more gruff reminder considering who it was, and no harm done- than anything at first, Reyes catching hold of a box he'd been carrying while Lena had been rushing by. Always had a pep in her step. Wasn't a stranger to her rushing through halls at times but

Wait.]

..... Oxton?

[What.]

[ When the crop means to come back down, a woman stops the descent, letting out a soft grunt of pain when she stops it with her arm. Oww... she didn't specify a safeword yet. She rubs the mark on her skin lightly. ]

You really shouldn't say something like that without thinking. [ It's reproach for Alibaba rather than the waitress, who looks a bit put out. ] Would you like to try that again?

This place is certainly much less subtle than my own homeworld.

That's it? I was expecting something more hardcore after the way you were talking.

But yeah, I Can do that. Just one question though, whose blood are we playing with here?

Stop squirming.

[ That's the first thing out of her mouth as she grits her teeth, one eye closed as she tries to wriggle the feeling back into her legs after he fell. She puts a hand on Cassim's head as she finally starts to straighten, probably taking the both of them up. ]

Where did you come from?

[Virus is a new arrival, and Aoba had meant to take care of him as such, trying to make the crazy transition to an altogether different planet a little easier for him... and yet somehow Virus already seems to be as settled in as Aoba is, casually plotting for better housing on the very day of his arrival. The urge to move up in the world is not surprising - Virus has always seemed to be pretty serious about these things! - but to have it happen so quickly is still kind of a surprise. Thinking back to his first day here, Aoba wasn't remotely that quick to settle in...

But it's a good thing, no doubt, that Virus is doing better.]

You really don't have to -... Just living together will be more than nice enough!

[ the appropriate thing to do is kill it with fire! not lob satan's lovechild at unsuspecting ex-mercenaries! kogami catches the projectile one-handed, gripping the neck just in case. when he stares down at it, however, the violently pink doll makes him pause.

licked him? the stranger looks way too unnerved to be lying, though. so the question is: ]

how?

[ HE IS SO THRILLED, REALLY, SO THRILLED to hear makishima's voice coming from someone who a hundred percent does not look like makishima, nor is that tone dripping with saccharine smugness. kogami almost drops him in surprise but doesn't, and instead helpfully sets him back down.

he's not makishima. build, bone structure, everything -- none of it matches. ]

So these tubes aren't your usual thing? Or are you new here?

Well, that's... nice to know? Aoba hovers awkwardly, not sure what to do with that information. Actually, he's not sure why the stranger talked to him at all (he didn't, probably, but Aoba can't be sure of that!), just that he would feel bad ignoring the man.

"A-At least you won't eat your door." Haha, he's so funny. No? Oh, well.

Actually, maybe that was culturally insensitive..? "Unless you do!" So many species and habits in the multiverse, who can be sure?

[ if anyone had told shang yu about the vacuums and that he'd be spending most of his day being sucked through the damned things, he would have stayed indoors. or at least in the nearest food place, just hole up somewhere until the whole thing goes away.

no such luck though and for the umpteenth time shang yu feels his feet being pulled from under him as yet another tube claims it's victim, unceremoniously dumping the speedster into the arms of someone new. it bets landing on his ass but shang yu can't help but stare and give a slow blink.

what is even happening? ]

Uh yeah?

I'm a hugbug! [The little creature pipes up, blinking at him. Yuri scratches the back of his neck. It's not the brightest, cute and as helpful as it is.]

Buddy, we already knew that. [He looks at Allen.] I guess that means he doesn't have a name.

[Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Yunlan scrambles awkwardly off this poor blue guy. Dixingren? No, surely not, this doesn't exactly look like China...]

Yeah, gimme a sec...

[And another yelp as he trips over himself and falls on this guy again, but then he manages to get to his feet. Whew. Those tubes leave a guy feeling woozy.]

Sorry!

Yunlan grins, turning to point at this guy in approval.

"Probably not! Unless I get really, really confused when I'm asleep. People do sleep here, right?"

Wait.

"Do you eat doors?"

[ Jin Guangyao never saw it coming (and later on would scold himself for not paying attention). He'd been headed back to his own residence, coffee in one hand when suddenly he's swept off his feet, tumbling through a tube designed more for leaves that people. Thankfully his coffee remained on the sidewalk he'd previously been on, a testament to his presence or something to that effect.

Before the ex-sect leader can even figure out what is going on he's unceremoniously dumped into the arms of someone and he peers up when a familiar voice asks a question. Unlike his birthday twin, Jin Guangyao doesn't suddenly push himself away, instead he raises his eyebrows, giving the smallest of nods.

Was this happening or was this Lunatia messing with him? Sometimes it's hard to tell.]

Ah. Nothing is hurt...

[Vanitas shoots him a bewildered look at that question, an eyebrow raised slightly. But of course he gets no further elaboration and he decides not to ask. He already figures that he either wouldn't get a straight answer or that the stranger was just purposefully trying to goad him into asking for some reason. Either way he's not taking the bait.]

Yes, poor you, I'm sure it would be very tragic.

[He rolls his eyes before making a vague gesture as he spins on a heel, starting in another direction.]

I suppose you can come if you want then, but keep up.

Confusion aside, at least the guy's grin puts Aoba at ease, and he smiles right back.

"They do! People sleep here a lot." ... Actually, that could just be him. With no one around to drag him out of bed, he definitely overindulges. "But even if you'd sleepwalk and chew on your door during, I think the splinters would wake you up before you swallowed."

He is seriously having this discussion in a serious way right now. Because apparently that is a thing he's decided to do.

"I don't eat doors?" Somehow he's surprised at the counter-question, enough to get more deeply into the topic than anyone ever should. "Unless you mean it like 'mouth'..." Kanji/hanzi lulz? It seems like a logical analysis, until Aoba realizes what it may well seem to imply, and he flushes a bright red. "A-And not even then! I definitely don't eat mouths either!!"

Someone should really stop him from opening his, though.

Yeah, I'm a generous guy.

[Can't hog all the murder fun, and all that.]

Same here. This was supposed to be the place I was assigned to live, but if it's with you, I'd rather find somewhere else to crash. [Hell, sleeping on the streets on the lower level is less likely to get him murdered in his sleep. He'll take his chances.]

So, what's the deal? Gonna carry on being Alexei's little minion here, or are you done with that? [He has no idea if Alexei's even here or not, yet, but it's worth testing the waters. Without the guilds and (probably) without Alexei, who knows what's going on in this guy's head.]

[A convenient subject change, huh? Yuri can already guess what he was about to say, but he'll get to his feet without mentioning it, dusting himself off. He can be nice sometimes.]

I'll live. I'm sure the bruises to my pride will fade eventually. [He's teasing, please don't get more flustered, buddy.] How about you? Any broken feathers?

Hmph. Knowing you, you'd do whatever you wanted regardless of what I, or even your Master, had to say about it. You must be quite the handful as a Heroic Spirit. Then again, I suppose the same can be said for me as well.

[Unlike them, Gilgamesh was not yet a Heroic Spirit, though he knew he would be, and he knew already exactly what form he'd take. He'd probably say that self is his truest self, but he is, most certainly, a handful.

He loosens his hold on the other now, but he does not step away, content to keep the proximity between them. He wasn't the sentimental type, usually, but it was different with this one. It always was.]

Perhaps I do not mind your foolishness.

[If that was what would make them happy, then he was more than alright with it. It would make him happy, too, truthfully, but more than anything, he simply wanted them to live the way they wanted to. Nothing more, nothing less.]

[ if he what, and what? he hears the words just fine, it's connecting them together that's tripping kogami up just a little. he studies his face briefly, but settles back on his heels before things get even more uncomfortable. ]

I see. [ as if this happens every day, meeting someone with such special powers. ] Does it hurt?

Happiness. There's nothing else that matters more.

[ Do your books spark joy, Leaks

Lobelia crosses his arms in front of him slowly. He's still smiling, even as he answers: ]

Do you think I'm ignorant?... There are probably things I don't know, but they're things I don't miss knowing. They have no relevance to me at all.

I was already born to do the things I want to do, without reading a single page. I derive knowledge and the highest pleasure from my own abilities, and there's no curiosity I can't satisfy through my own hands.

If you really need to read, then you should. After all, everyone has a right to be happy!

... But if use also matters, aren't you also good for something else besides reading, too?

[ It was about to get a whole lot more ridiculous, because the person who heard that last statement was currently coming from the air.

Konoka landed, not quite as gracefully, but a lot more spectacularly, as she had been chucked from that same vent not too long and had made the "mistake" of popping open her wings in an attempt to see if said vents would make a good launching point for her flight experiments. It.... didn't go so well, though on the bright side she managed to roll without getting herself hurt very much.

She at least landed just in time to hear that last statement, and perked up. She made her arm-wings disappear in favor of her regular arms, just in time to ask. ]

Who's 'she'?

[To be entirely fair, Atsushi can barely remember what Lovecraft did specifically during that completely decimating fight. But most of it was a blur of pain followed by waking up on Yosano's table, which didn't really help matters.

That being said, he's still a tiny bit reassured by the response, especially considering Steinbeck had said the same thing. He flails a little in place, but notably doesn't think to pull his hand away either.]

Ah...Oh... Um, D-did you leave when Steinbeck-san did?

[That would make sense...! They'd seemed close, hadn't they...? So-- Maybe...]

Daihannya's tails swayed lazily behind him as he turned to lead the way. Though he'd come here to visit someone else, he could always come back to that later. For now it was better that he help get this new sword settled in a home closer to his fellow swords.

"Have you run into anyone else here?"

Swords. He meant others like them.

Why the distinction between the two?
Is one side inherently more innocent and therefore trustworthy?

Isn’t it funny how that special treatment could be genuine kindness or an ulterior motive yet we are suspicious of it all the same.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 98 of 219

▶ TDM .009

byob

b

no subject

private message

vaccums

no subject

oh my god i love him already

no subject

whip it good

ii because why not

no subject

no subject

no subject

2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

A

no subject

no subject

I swear I’m getting more icons