▶ TDM .009

[prismods]

Now whip it

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"Devo - Whip It (Video)" (Watch on YouTube)

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.

Comments

[innkeeps]

[ recognition is slow but eventual, on Bardo's part. he's always prided himself on being good with names and faces— a real asset when your job is to be affable to get asses in seats and rooms— and it only takes a few awkward beats of silence to assign some context to someone who he realizes is, in fact, another Ribika.

the cloaked, skulking cat who showed up with the just-as-out-of-place country cat. right; that was only a few hours before he found himself on this lawless planet. the memory is still somewhat fresh in his mind.

and doesn't he just feel like an asshole, now? calling attention to a (mostly) disapproving crowd (yes, there are a handful of people who are giving Bardo the stinkeye for interrupting a perfectly pure and adorable moment), when he's sure that an ink-black cat had to field things like this for the entirety of his so-called wretched existence.

Bardo shifts on the balls of his feet. readjusts, so that he's blocking most of Asato's line of vision. his striped ears flick. the smile on his face, as usual, is preternaturally lazy. ]

Hahh, I'm not trying to blame you. Don't look like that.

[ scooping up a handful of string, Bardo tosses it in the air. swats.

ugh. he hates how stupidly fun this is, despite everything. ]

[roofwalker]

( his recognition is slow with good reason. asato had been wearing a heavy cloak to disguise his dark ears and tail at the time, and he had a rather bad habit of never entering the inn through the front door, where bardo might have actually seen him do so. but asato remembers how he had helped them sneak into the library to try to learn more about leaks, and he remembers how that had made him wonder what else there was to the amiable innkeeper.

the crowd seems to be kept at bay, assuming that bardo was "handling" the situation. those that had just been knitting earlier drift back to what they had been working on, their own yarn un-interfered with, though a few of the event organizers still keep a wary and/or harsh eye on the two ribika.

asato's ears flick back as bardo looms a little closer, though there's something in his expression, tone, and body language that disarms a lot of the guilt and alarm he'd felt a moment ago. the other cat had that kind of demeanor, and it eases asato out of his momentary anxiety — his ears turn forward again, and he watches with wide, interested eyes as bardo reaches out and... takes some yarn into it, tossing it up and swatting. a huge, bright smile spreads across the ensnared ribika's face. he wriggles into a slightly more advantageous position, batting one of the largely-unscathed yarn balls in bardo's general direction. )

[innkeeps]

[ it's really too bad for the onlookers that the adult they assumed would take care of this problem is only here to add to it, but isn't that just Bardo's brand? somewhere above them, the Cordis moon is watchful; it sings something invisible and rattles the Ribika's hindbrain, letting instinct take over where careful self-control usually prevails.

something small, soft, and inviting rolls into Bardo's periphery, and that's all the excuse he needs to reach out with one claw-hooked hand to lob the ball right back. just five minutes ago, he was mentally chiding this young cat for being unable to control himself around what amounts to a pile of string, and yet—

—and yet—

—hit him with a one-two punch of a wide smile and an innocent request to play, and Bardo buckles. at his core, he's always been too soft for his own good. ]

Oi, quit it.

[ says the thirtysomething currently finding a bigger ball of yarn to toss Asato's way. the skein he closes his fingers around is deep azure— the color of the other cat's eyes. it arcs, unspools, and cascades.

black-and-blue. a sight for sore eyes. ]

[roofwalker]

( asato probably would have given into his catlike ribika instincts even without the influence of the cordis moon magnifying them, but as it is, the rather silly draw of the yarn and string was almost overpowering, impossible to ignore. bardo had been making an exceptional effort suppressing it himself, but as asato invites him to partake in this very juvenile, very feline endeavor, that effort begins to slacken and weaken.

for which asato is very grateful.

when bardo rolls the yarn ball back in his direction, asato tries to lunge for it -- it would have been somewhat graceful if not for all of the yarn he was currently tangled in. it ensnarls him, causing him to come well short of intercepting the tumbling yarn ball. he watches it roll past his face longingly, reaching out to bat at it with a clawed hand but not quite reaching it.

he turns back towards bardo when he speaks up, ears pinning for a moment at his tone. but then he sees the older cat search for a while and then produce an as-of-yet-untouched yarn ball, one a deep, midnight blue -- a color asato was pretty fond of. his similarly-colored eyes go wide, the pupils almost eclipsing the blue of his irises.

bardo lobs it asato's way, and he's fortunate this time that the yarn doesn't impede him from sitting up a bit and catching it in the center of his chest. he falls backward, hugging the partially-unwound yarn ball to himself, purring loudly and happily as his tail twitches to and fro somewhere in a tangled mess of string. )

This is a good color. They are all good colors! And so soft... ( more purring. he finally forces himself to get up half-way, leveraging onto an elbow. he scans around and finds one yarn ball; he carefully rolls it towards bardo. it is a golden type of color like the majority of them, but it's a bit warmer, a bit more orange. asato offers a big smile. ) This one is like you!

[innkeeps]

[ stop... this is cute... a son

but really, it's the little things. time and age and difficulty wear down on a cat's inclinations to sit down and look beyond the realities of his every day, to turn off and do something that feels simple. years have made Bardo a creature of pragmatic habit— live, breathe, regret— but he's not so far beyond saving that he can't find joy in instinct.

(and, despite his self-loathing, it's in moments like these that make him proud to be a Ribika. he'd never choose to be anything else.)

he watches as Asato dives and swims, curling and uncurling in piles of string. a lithe cat with a warrior's build, acting like a kitten who could count his seasons on one hand— it's endearing in a way that he doesn't often see. doubly so when the other cat rears up and makes his offering in gold-amber; has the absolute gall to say that it reminds him of Bardo.

the nerve of this cat, to be this sincere. doesn't he know that it never pays to be earnest to a lowlife like him? ]

It is, huh. [ he picks up the ball of yarn, and turns it over on his palm. his tail arcs behind him in a lazy wave, content in a way he can't conceal; his rounded ears swivel to the cadence of Asato's soft syllables, attentive. ] Makes me want to buy a few to keep.

[ sitting cross-legged now, Bardo rolls the 'gift' from side-to-side, hand-to-hand. there should be absolutely nothing endearing about a middle-aged catman doing cat things... and yet... here he is, playing. a fool. he should leave the cute things to Asato, smh.

speaking of. while Bardo bats his yarn ball, he leans forward to nudge his forehead against the side of the kid's shoulder. a bit belated, but a gesture of greeting and acknowledgment: "i know you, good to see you." ]

[roofwalker]

( regret? what a regrettable past-time. the trick is to fashion for yourself a form of morality that doesn't call for such things. hey, it works for asato! look at how care-free and happy he is!

it is because everything for asato is so simple, so clear, so straight-forward. there is a straight, clearly-visible line between everything. action and reaction. injury and pain. past and present. he either erases the complexities so he doesn't have to bear their weight, or he genuinely can't see them. either way, there is no other way for asato to be. he is so painstakingly earnest in everything he feels, be it joy or pain or hatred. the only variables are the others and situations around him, and what emotion of his they call for.

fortunately, this one calls for joy. )

Yeah.

( he's never seen a fur color like bardo's before. the cats of kira are all so dark, and those that he had come across trespassing in their territory — even konoe — were often more earthy colors and tones. the orange, the stripes... it is striking, though asato would not have the diction to be able to say it. but there is something that bardo had said that sticks in his mind, and he echoes it now: ) Buy...

( there's a memory stuck in the gears and cogs of his mind. of him seeing a skewer of meat, wanting the skewer of meat, and taking the skewer of meat, only for the man at the counter to get very cross with him. konoe had had to come and save him, paying the man and then scolding him about "paying" with "money."

whatever realization he was about to have regarding that will have to wait, though. after playing with the gifted yarn ball for a short time, bardo rolls it out of the way so he can lean over and nudge into asato's shoulder. he's surprised at first, but then a feeling of warmth rushes over him — it's reflected in the warm smile on his face. he struggles up into a sitting position, and he leans forward to return the gesture in kind. it's comforting, these minute gestures of the ribika in this foreign place. not that asato had ever had much opportunity to share them with anyone else. he thinks it's the closest he's ever been to the older cat... but he is being nice, so he doesn't have any sort of problem with it.

them playing with yarn together is definitely a lot less strange than bardo continuing to pressure him to eat all different kinds of weird foods, after all. )

Um... ( he's returning to his previous thought, and he glances up at whatever gazes might still be stuck on the two of them. he looks back to bardo, his big blue eyes just now maybe starting to piece together that he's done something wrong ) Am I going to have to "buy" all of these?

( he looks down to the half-dozen unraveled balls of yarn he's currently covered in. )

[innkeeps]

[ the adjective that Bardo would attribute to joy is 'nice'. a first-grade term that means nothing and signifies nothing; the sort of patronizing half-sighed compliment that comes with folded arms and a halfhearted chuckle. "that's nice." if Asato is a manifestation of extremes, Bardo's defined the last decade of his life by staying fixed in neutral. neither nor.

(take a survey of what most Ransen cats say about Bardo. the majority of them will say "oh, he's nice.")

so. it's refreshing, this lack of pretense. the old tigercat watches as Asato wrestles first with his predicament, then with a foreign concept, then with the realization that he has to put predicament and concept together. Bardo has never seen anyone who acts quite the way Asato does, and though the reciprocal nudge to signify their solidarity as a Ribika resonates more acutely than things have in a long while here, he still feels like he's seeing something completely new.

incidentally, this is why he kept plying Asato with food. can't fault a guy for finding some forms of cluelessness endearing!!! ]

Well, I'm pretty sure no one's gonna be able to use these anymore.

[ press F to pay respects to all this tangled, banged-up yarn. Bardo actually has no idea if they've ruined this pile for knitting or what, but he's just trying to give the kid a hard time.

he smiles, lazy grin splitting his strong features. ]

Hmm... this is gonna cost you. Do you know how to pay for things around here?

[roofwalker]

( it's a simple, juvenile, and largely useless term, yes, but asato has to work with what he has; it works enough for him to differentiate between people who openly loathe him and who would like to harm him versus people who... wouldn't want to do that. yes, that's just how low his bar is. there is certainly so much more to bardo than what asato can sense, but a lot of it doesn't seem to matter past the most basic and tangible layer: he's nice to him. so he must be nice, right?

it's so much easier to work with assumptions like that.

his shoulders round and his ears droop at the reply. even if bardo was over-exaggerating just to elicit this kind of response, well... asato hadn't picked up on that. he's just shrinking into a remarkably small, yarn-covered ball for a six-foot-tall cat, his dark blue eyes flicking between bardo and the disapproving eyes of the sewing circle participants a short distance away. )

Sorry...

( not that bardo was the one that seemed upset, but it felt important to impress that none of this had been intentional or malicious. he just... had felt the urge. that overwhelming feline urge...

bardo's wide smile is incongruous with how he feels; it causes him to cant his head again, another loop of yarn falling from one of his ears to his shoulder. he's... pretty sure someone told him, but he's also certain he's forgotten. it sounded so complicated. it always does... even when konoe had tried to explain money to him. )

I didn't even know how to pay for things in Ransen... ( he admits it with some shame, his chin basically at his clavicle, his dark complexion growing a few shades ruddy. )

[innkeeps]

[ sweet, simple soul. he'd think that living in a place like Sisa would train a cat to be more unapologetic about standard atrocities (yarn destruction, nails on furniture, etc.), but Bardo wouldn't know.

the tigercat lounges where he's sitting, hands behind his back with his spine curved. thick tail curling at its end, waving in half-amused consideration. the body language can be interpreted in two ways: a cat who couldn't possibly care less, or a cat who wears his languidness like a first-rate persona.

if he feels bad for toying with Asato's emotions, he doesn't show it. at the end of the day, Bardo's jostling is as harmless as they come. ]

Ahh, don't worry about it. Isn't it an older cat's job, to clean up after a kitten's messes?

[ a kitten. an obnoxious denomination to attribute to a fully-grown Ribika, to be sure, but he says it with more affection than he intends; the fondness seeps from his joviality, how his expression brightens. ]

Besides, paying for things here is easy. I'll take care of it. [ he beckons for Asato to come closer. ] Oi, c'mere.

[roofwalker]

( no, but it does train a young cat like asato to think that wanton yarn destruction and the scratching of furniture was something to truly be remorseful for, but the casual killing of someone just having the misfortune of being in your territory is perfectly normal and scarcely needs batting an eye at.

you know, proper ribika priorities.

asato's ears flatten and his eyes narrow a bit at that comment. he makes no delay in muttering in a half-hiss, ) I'm no kitten, ( even if he is, kind of, or at least in comparison to the older ribika. he's used to getting poked and prodded at by bardo — he always seemed interested in pushing and pulling him out of his incredibly narrow boundary of familiarity.

at first he hesitates, a little wary of bardo suddenly offering something (the last time he'd agreed to this, he'd ended up drunk and had made a fool of himself to konoe). but, after a moment's longer consideration, he edges forward, a question visible in the deep blue of his eyes. )

[innkeeps]

[ poor Asato. in a timeline that Bardo hasn't lived, in a world where he actually manages to get in bed with Konoe without the pull of mating season (a literal miracle, we're all still in awe that Bardo route is a possibility), he antagonizes this earnest, well-meaning black cat with easy provocation.

what is it that Asato will eventually say in that timeline? ah, yeah. "I don't trust shallow cats like him."

but neither of them know this, and Bardo is more interested in the pragmatic solution to their yarn problem. the wary set of Asato's shoulders is enough for him to know not to push it (country cats are more likely to bite and scratch than not), but this is the law of the land. tactility is king.

first, he lays the flat of his palm on Asato's hair. if that gesture lands, and if he doesn't get his wrist grabbed and his arm twisted by the faint ruffle of fingers to black strands, the tigercat will push his luck.

a lean-in, and he'll land a quick peck to Asato's cheekbone. the Chroma that sparks will be negligible; it's not like he's seriously depending on it to pay for the mess (he's already got a reserve). ]

—There. Phew.

[roofwalker]

( time will only tell what the permutations of relationships between these cats will warp to resemble on their sojourn here from sisa. would he once again become annoyed by bardo's antics and mistrustful of his obfuscating nature? or would they find some different understanding just their mutual association with konoe and find some different attachment? who knows. all that asato knows is that bardo exists in a gray area, which is rare for him and his black-and-white view of the world. he is an adult that does not harbor ill will towards him, even though he has seen the color of his ears and his tail. that, alone, gives him some benefit of the doubt — even though he is certainly nowhere near trusting him implicitly yet.

he trusts bardo on a case-by-case basis. like now, where he carefully comes a little closer, watchful and wary of the older cat. by some miracle, he doesn't respond too sharply at the press of the hand to his hair. he flinches back a bit, but when the gesture proves to be gentle and not sharp, asato almost looks sheepish for the impulse.

that had been strange, sure, but it was nothing near as surprising as the peck delivered to his cheek. asato's eyes fly wide, and he's so stunned he doesn't move for a moment. it happened so fast! and yet, there is this odd and warm feeling which lingers in the spot even after bardo has straightened up. that faint warmth fades, though the more correct way to put it would be that it suffuses throughout his body. a small amount of chroma, sure, but some nonetheless.

asato places a hand on his cheek, confused by the sensation, and looks up to bardo with huge eyes. ) What - ?? ( he can't seem to find the correct words for it past that. )