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

[there's plenty of wide open space behind them (for now) but Styx somehow feels as if he's been pushed up against a corner in some way. he simply isn't used to people being so forward with him unless they were looking for a fight; the most attention that he usually garners is from people making absolutely certain they don't interact with him at all. and while he understands that, it also leaves him completely unprepared for dealing with something like this.

from a guy, no less. why was- why was a guy hitting on him like that in the first place!? the thought has his flush very firmly fixed in place, an unwitting boon for the man causing it. he should...maybe unlatch his hand from his shirt? it's nothing new, the way he allowed himself to be manhandled despite his massive size, but maybe it's not the best for right now?

at the same time...he's a little afraid to touch Cain, as if reacting too much might trigger even larger events that he doesn't think his poor brain can handle. instead his hands hover around the other man's, like some kind of frantic magic show or pantomime. it's a little comical just how out of his depth he is right now.]

Uhh, I-I dunno why you'd want to!

[it was a pumpkin? up your ass, presumably??? how was that even remotely comfortable?????]

[ The coloring is all wrong here. It should be blond hair and pale skin, that blush darkening until it's too much to hide, but it isn't and Cain doesn't know what to think about it. That he shouldn't be thinking about Abel right now, probably, and so, he shoves the thought as far down as he can manage, fingers curling just a fraction tighter into the other's shirt so he can drag him down. He's not putting up a fight, and even if he tried, Cain would have made it difficult to get away.

He leans closer, cutting the space so that their faces are nearly pressed together. ]

Do I need a reason? [ The answer is no, but Cain decides to give him some clarification. The edge of his mouth lifts into the sharp pull of a smirk. ] We can start with something smaller. [ And he's snaking his arm around him to get a good fistful of that hair, a different grip than the one in his shirt. Cain presses a thumb into Styx's bottom lip until it touches his teeth. ]

[have you ever heard an dialup tone before, Cain? if not you can get a good approximation of it right now, because that's the exactly sound your target's brain is making as it struggles with and eventually gives up on trying to process what's just happened here.

that's. it's. but? he's a guy????? whose name he doesn't even know???]

Um...

[except even this quiet murmur of utter nothingness is enough to press his mouth against the finger currently teasing his lower lip. Styx's eyes go wide, and he can feel his ears burning straight off his skull. oh fuck, oh shit, that is - fuck, he needs to do something right now or he's pretty sure the entire world is going to come down around his head. even if it's nice to feel fingers in his hair, rough as the touch is...

fuck he needs to do something right the hell now

his hands finally find a place to roost on Cain's shoulders, ceasing their inscrutable dance around the other man. he pats him once, twice, as if making sure that this is acceptable despite having his own personal space so thoroughly disregarded. receiving no violent outburst he...finds himself at a loss as to what to do next, but recovers his footing after another moment or two of silence and stillness. inhaling deeply to steel himself, he very gently pushes the other man back, completely forgetting that the guy's still hanging onto him and that this is essentially like trying to remove a burr.

oh fucking hell he's so stupid, and he's still trying. fuck.]

That's not really the problem - are you, uh, alright, man?

Edited (FUCK I HIT ENTER TOO SOON I'M SORRY) 2019-11-09 02:46 (UTC)

[ The blushing is cute, and it's probably the only saving grace Styx actually has at the moment because Cain honestly can't tell if he'd been born this stupid or is just having a moment. He allows for the slight push, moving only slightly, and when it dies down again, he doesn't bother gracing that question with an answer.

What's so hard to figure out, he wants to say. He's coming onto him—and quite strongly. Or maybe not strong enough, letting the touch to Styx's mouth slip away to press along the shape of his jaw and behind his ear so he can force him forward. Cain exhales and leans, using the hold in the other's hair to yank him into him so he can press their mouths together. The kiss itself doesn't last more than a few seconds, a taste of roughness in the graze of their lips, but it gives Cain a chance to test the waters a little. (Not that he's ever cared much about boundaries or consent or anything similar until recently.)

Good? Bad?

Honestly, he doesn't give a fuck.

He guides with the hand fisted in Styx's shirt and leans to slot their mouths together even harder this time. Probably with tongue, at least a little teeth because Cain's biting into his lower lip for leverage, and all talk of pumpkins is out because he knows in that instant that he's going to fuck this guy one way or another. The fingers in his hair tighten, pushing all the way to the scalp to force his head still as he kisses him and then says against his lips, ]

I don't see a problem.

[it wasn't about what was happening so much as why it was happening at all that Styx was struggling with. he was hardly an intelligent man, and had never professed to be, but even he could tell that there was something severely off about all of this. the people of Prismatica...even being so much more open about this sort of intimacy, it felt wrong. like someone playing a familiar song just a few keys off.

the tune, however, is still the same, and in this whirling moment of confusion and alarm it's really all that he has to hold onto. despite the impression he's given thus far he's actually quite a good kisser, and with his mind detached from reality in a panic his body has free rein to react as it pleases. that he's doing all this to a guy only occurs belatedly, when they've already come crashing against each other more than once. the most thought he's provided from himself is a faint gratitude for the taste of blood in his mouth; it helps him focus in a strange way, the pain something he can understand.

Cain is so close...too close for Styx's hands not to gently settle on his waist, even as he's looking down at him with uncertain gray eyes. the other man didn't see a problem with any of this, but he simply couldn't shake the oddity of this persistent moment. he's got no problem with being a pity fuck or stand-in for a more desirable partner - hell, that's probably the only action he's ever gotten in his life - but at the same time...]

You're not...

[his fingers flex, then rise to press gently against his companion's lips, a soft barrier between them. he's never been with a guy, he wants to tell him, but that doesn't sound right. there's a fire burning around him, he can feel it, and he's trying so desperately not to step right through it.]

You don't even know me.

[there was looking for a hookup, and then there was practically gluing yourself to a stranger in the middle of a pumpkin festival. surely more than a few steps had been leapt straight over here..?]

[ Whatever he's doing, it's not going to change his mind.

And more than that, he's not particularly keen on someone telling him no when it's such a simple thing they're doing. Or trying to do. Cain does let that touch rest against his mouth for a moment though, waiting to see what it might bring; maybe Styx would try to draw them back together for a kiss or whisper some lustful thing between them that would cause Cain to laugh. Neither happen, and his brows knit together as he processes the words, frowning until the annoyance causes him to brush off whatever issues this guy has with strangers. He doesn't have them, so why does it matter? And to prove his point, he tilts his head enough to nip at Styx's fingers before he fists his shirt again and yanks him close. ]

I'm Cain. Now you know me.

[ Not quite, but it's enough, pressing forward to take his mouth in another kiss and encourage some sort or response that isn't an interruption. He wants to see just how far this guy will really go before he starts to put up a bit more of a fight than just pressing his fingers to his mouth, and Cain drags his other hand up his shoulder and into his hair, anchoring a hold that isn't meant to cause pain. He uses it as leverage only, for now. Pulling him closer is the objective, and Cain ignores everything else to make it happen, letting his tongue follow the curve of his mouth and press to kiss him deeper. A soft hum, and a better idea comes to him in the midst of this like a second breath.

Getting on his knees might be a better way to help him along.

It's not as if he does it for just anyone, especially since he's usually forcing someone else down, but... he's feeling generous, ready to devour anyone and anything set before him. So, he tries to coax Styx back a few steps to find something solid to shove him up against with every intention of grabbing him by the hips and sliding onto the ground. It'll put him in a vulnerable position to be kneed or have his hair pulled, but Cain takes the risk anyway. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .009

i wish i had the icons for this, desperately

lmao i just feel bad I'M SORRY

don't feel bad this is the essence of Styx's life, in spirit if not situation

either his day is about to get better or become totally ruined l o l

it's gonna go downhill before it goes up, if it ever does, i can tell you that lmfao

don't worry it'll get there if you know what i mean ;) ;)