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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They told me, um, that there might not be any more empty apartments, so I should look for a r-r-roommate...

[But paralyzing social anxiety is not a great thing to have.]

Oh yeah, think I heard something about that too. Guess there's a lot more people than they were expecting?

[although it still baffles him how they could really expect people tumbling out onto random space moons at all...this place really was a mystery. it makes him feel good about knowing exactly what to do here, not even having to think about it, even if he doesn't realize he shouldn't be pushing his own well-being so far down the list of priorities.]

You can take this one.

[That's the nicest thing anyone not named Fitzgerald has ever done for her.]

...Are... are you sure? I don't want to be a bother...

[his demeanor brightens up as he gives her a reassuring grin, pleased to be able to do something helpful for somebody. it wasn't often he managed to be useful.]

'Course! Not really much to move outta there I don't already got on me, and, uh...probably make you feel better, right? To have somewhere kinda quiet.

[he was hardly the sharpest crayon in the box, but even Styx got the feeling that it wasn't just his awful appearance that had this young woman on edge. a little solitude she could always retreat to would probably be really important to her.]

[She manages a weak smile, finally.]

Thank you - thank you so much! I don't know how I can repay you for this, but if there's ever anything I can do...!

[yeah, see? she looked so much better already. just the thought makes Styx beam even wider, a veritable sun here in the middle of the hallway.

...it's going to take him a little bit to realize he should probably let her in so she can get comfortable and he can grab his shit. alas.]

Nah, you don't owe me anything. It's, uh, neighborly, I guess? Or something.

[unless he ended up not finding anyone who'd take him in this particular building...ah, shit, he didn't think that comment through very much. hopefully she doesn't notice.]

[She's certainly not going to bring it up.]

Well... It's, um, nice to meet you, neighbor. I'm Louisa Alcott.

[you're a good girl, Miss Alcott.

you're also talking to someone only a few steps above illiterate, so there's absolutely no flicker of recognition when she introduces herself even though there probably should be. this is what happens when you drop out before you even graduate middle school. but he's smiling! he's really pumped to actually make it to introductions, like a normal person. he so rarely does.]

You too! 'm Styx. ...you, uh, you just get here too?

[It's for the best, as calling her an author and all kinds of things she's not might make her panic all over again.]

Just a few days ago. It's all still overwhelming...

[And likely will be that way for a while.]

Hey, me too! [he seems extremely pleased by this, like it's some kind of amazing coincidence and they aren't all in the same newbie apartment building together.] Still kinda feels like I'm gonna wake up any second, gotta be honest.

Everything is so strange... A-and, that part about needing physical contact with other people to survive, I don't know how I'll manage.

[It's hard enough for her to look a stranger in the eyes, let alone hug one or do - other things.]

Yeah, it's a little weird, isn't it?

[he rubs the back of his head, expression becoming sheepish and maybe a little bit embarrassed.]

I, uh...kinda fell asleep when they were explaining it anyway. Not really sure how it's all supposed to work.

[but she seems a little down again, so he decides it's ok to share his consummate optimism aloud rather than keep it to himself the way he's trained himself to.]

But it shouldn't be too bad! I don't think anyone's gonna let you die just 'cause you didn't shake enough hands or something.

You really think so? ...Well, the people I've met here have been kind so far, so maybe...

[She's mostly basing this on Styx, but Styx has been very kind.]

[Styx is a good boy!! if most people are half as kind as he is then the world would be a much better place.]

Definitely! I mean, you know, if it comes down to it you could even touch me so you don't gotta worry.

[it's kind of sad the way he seems to think even the most innocuous physical contact with himself would only be considered when one was teetering on the edge of starvation...but his offer is very sincere all the same.]

I - um -

[As kind as he is, Styx is still a virtual stranger to her, and the thought of physical contact with any stranger is terrifying.]

I-I'll keep that in mind... I'm sorry, I'm not very good with new people...

[She wants to sink into the floor and disappear forever.]

Nah, nah, it's cool!

[he's flapping his hands again, the ice in his drink clinking in time to each motion. if there's anything he could understand, it's not wanting to spend time with him more than absolutely necessary.]

Like I said, 's just in case things really get bad for you. You gotta go at your own speed, you know?

Thank you for understanding.

[But it sounded like things could get pretty bad... well, she'll do her best to survive without having to hug strangers on the street. The thought is terrifying.]

Do you, um... Do you also have trouble with strangers?

[it'd definitely be a sight to see...even if the people of this world didn't seem particularly bothered by any of that sort of thing. Styx isn't sure how he feels about that, in all honesty. could it really all be that ok?]

Who, me?

[he seems surprised by the question, as if he's never considered it himself. and...honestly, he hasn't. Styx isn't exactly one for self-reflection.]

Uh...I dunno? 'm not popular or anything, but I don't mind talking to people. Guess it's kinda in the middle?

[people took one look at him and were frightened. he's accepted that by now, but he'd be lying if he said it didn't color the way he interacted with others. it always made him so apprehensive to express himself in any way. so...perhaps it was a little more than the middle.]

I'm a little jealous...

[Being able to talk to people comfortably. Even if you aren't popular - and she doesn't think she'd like being popular, either - just being able to make eye contact with strangers would be nice.]

[don't get too jealous, Louisa. being able to make eye contact means that there's absolutely nothing to stop all of the sheer idiocy that falls out of his mouth.]

Of me?

[case in point. the idea of his possessing anything that another person might envy is simply inconceivable to him. if it wouldn't startle her so much, Styx'd be leaning in to make sure she was really talking to him right now. as it is, he simply looks deeply mystified.]

You don't gotta get so down on yourself. [because her self-confidence must be through the floor if she's comparing herself unfavorably to him...] Just takes practice if you wanna change something, you know?

[Through the floor? Try below the basement.]

I-I don't know about that... But I'll try my best?

[If only to not disappoint this kind stranger.]

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▶ TDM .009

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