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

Well, whether or not I'd say it's a waste is subjective. I do think it's probably a safe guess that it doesn't have any effect on where we come from though, since I literally just saw you a while ago. Maybe like a lucid dream that doesn't take up time.
[ Jyuto fishes in his pocket for a cigarette and his zippo lighter. He knows Samatoki won't mind the smell. ]

You and Riou staying here that long without me sounds like a show. Did you learn to get along?
[ He tilts the box of cigarettes towards Samatoki, should he want one. His own's hanging between his lips, now only waiting for him to light it. ]
The means of obtaining money are odd.

[ Samatoki oh-so-casually plucks out a stick. He has his own cigarettes, but it's a lot better to use Jyuto's stock. The best things in life are free! ]

What're you talkin' about? The two of us have always gotten along.

[ So cocky... but whatever differences he and Riou may have had are in the past. Now that the two of them are working together to change Japan, they're one. Jyuto brought them together, and the three of them have the same goal. Butting heads is inevitable, of course, but Samatoki doesn't regard any of that personally.

He places the stick between his teeth before he closes the distance between him and Jyuto. Give him that cigarette kiss that he's looking for. ]

Always, huh? [ Okay, he's skeptical. But if Samatoki wants to deny the two of them ever hadn't been like ice and fire, Jyuto will roll with it. It's a lot less work for him if the two of them have found a way to make the differences mesh together after getting to know each other more.

His cigarette's already been lit by the time Samatoki nears his face. His eyebrows defensively quirk upward, initially not realizing what Samatoki's up to, but they fall bored and relaxed when the other's cigarette presses into the faintly glowing orange tip of Jyuto's own. He lowers it from his mouth once Samatoki's been lit, expelling grey smoke a different direction. ]

All right, then. Where have you been staying? I expect you to be a good boy and show me around properly.
[ Sharp green eyes watch Samatoki from behind his glasses. ]

[ Samatoki pulls back a little once his cigarette's been lit, and he turns away to blow smoke. Just because he's comfortable with Jyuto doesn't mean he's gonna suffocate the asshole with nicotine. ]

The hell're you talkin' to me like a dog for? I ain't one of your blackmail victims.

[ He's always so critical when it comes to respect, after all. Then again, Jyuto's. . . Jyuto. He always talks like this. Still, despite his response, he starts heading in a particular direction. He really is a good boy... ]

It's a small apartment building. Used to be neighbours with Riou and Nemu.

[ He's never really acknowledged... Nemu being here before to anyone, but it's fine to talk about if it's with Mad Trigger Crew. ]

[ The small bite in Samatoki's voice makes Jyuto smile, though mostly musing to himself. While he can't fathom what half a year on this bizarre planet (with various others coming and going) must've felt like, he feels thankful not to have to experience that kind of isolation for himself. He hopes he never has to. ]

Your sister's probably home safe and sound, suspended the way I must've been in your time living here. Nothing to worry about there.
[ Jyuto's own attempt at assurance. He knows that Samatoki must worry— he's always wanted nothing more than to protect her. Riou's well-being isn't even worth questioning, because he's, um... Hama no Survivor.

After the next drag of his cigarette, ]

...But Samatoki, you mean to tell me you were offered any apartment in that huge complex, and you still picked something small? I picked the best one I could find. [ He's teasing. And he hasn't considered it best they probably live close to one another yet because he's too busy lowkey bragging. ]

[ Samatoki always worries. Nemu is his only family left, after all. They don't live together anymore, so having Nemu here for a few weeks? It felt... nice, familiar, warm. There's just one problem, though. . . ]

When Nemu was here, she didn't look any older. [ Not that... he's implying Nemu should look old or anything. ] She said she was just 17 and looked surprised 'cause I don't keep my hair back anymore.

[ You're smarter than he is, Jyuto. Help him figure that out. He doesn't say anything about his apartment for now. Jyuto'll see when Samatoki gives him the tour. ]

[ Jyuto grows more quiet as he takes it into consideration. For Nemu to come here only at 17... wouldn't make any sense, should she come from the same timeline as the rest of them. Meaning, at least in theory, that the past, present and future of various timelines may coexist all at once, but without intwining or ever interacting with one another. Jyuto doesn't, however, want to think about that too much...

...because it'd leave the possibility of three worlds out there, all with one of MAD TRIGGER CREW suddenly gone missing. Maybe the Samatoki he'd shared coffee with yesterday was actually still back there, worrying about him right now. ]

...
[ But he won't share that dead-ended anxiety with Samatoki, because it's not worth it. They're too helpless to fix it, so he'll protect him from coming to the thought by keeping it to himself. ]

I hate not to deliver, but I don't have any answers for you, Samatoki.
I'm just glad to be here not by myself.

[ Jyuto's gonna get a hard slap on his back. ]

Heh. I'm here, you don't got anythin' to worry about.

[ The two of them may butt heads all the time, but Samatoki's still got Jyuto's back. Their friendship goes beyond being teammates at this point. ]

Guess you gotta call me "senpai", though. Go on, Jyuto. Say it.

[ Ah yes, the manhandling. How Jyuto knows that Samatoki is indeed himself. His back stings, but he doesn't hate it. ]

Senpai? Living on this planet longer than me doesn't change the fact that I'm older than you. Why do I get the feeling that you only want to hold how much you know about this place over my head?

[ The corner of his lips tug. He has a horrible way of showing affection. ]
I guess it isn't often you know more than I do, hm.

[ Wow!! That's rude!! Samatoki knows he's dumb, but he just can't let Jyuto insulting him slide... ]

Ah, you don't even have the reputation of being a bunny cop in this place. I fuckin' hope your moonblessing's Iris so you can actually be a bunny cop with a wet ass.

[ LAKXKALF I DONT KNOW WHAT IM TYPING ANYMORE ]

[ What! Does that even mean! ]
You— [ Is there something about Iris he's missing out on?! Why would he get an anal disease?! ]

I don't know what you're even trying to wish on me...! What's wrong with the Iris moonblessing?
[ Jyuto's suspiciously defensive, and if that doesn't give it away then Samatoki really is stupid. ]

Nothin'. Just wouldn't wanna be Iris, that's all.

[ He shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. He figures Jyuto may as well just experience his moonblessing and have it be a surprise, but he decides against it.

He takes one hand out of his pocket, his index and middle fingers pointing upwards as he makes a shoving gesture up in the air. ]

Could easily slip these in. Probably even my entire fist.

[ Maybe he's exaggerating... He kind of wants to scare Jyuto a little. ]

[ It's working! What the fuck! ]

In where?! [ His ass?! No! ]

Don't fucking test me, Samatoki— try it and I'll shove the barrel of my glock up yours!

[ Wow!! He was just kidding, but Jyuto's threatening him now?? He stops in his tracks and looks Jyuto dead in the eye. ]

Fuckin' try me. You wouldn't be able to do shit.

[ Jyuto had said it with the intent to deter any further comments about the future elasticity of his rectum, but upon locking gazes, knows when it's time to hit the brake. Samatoki won't back down if he thinks his pride is on the line. Any more and the two of them would likely just wind up rolling around on the floor or battling with their Hypnosis Mics, not the brand of reunion he wants for himself first thing off the bat. He'll be the adult (he always is), and disengage with certain elegance.

An exhale, ]
I'm not going to, because I don't want to. Let's not talk about moonblessing symptoms anymore.

[ He grunts, a little pissed off. He's at least quick to calm down now that Jyuto isn't being a prick.

Samatoki heels pretty quickly as long as Ichiro or Nemu aren't involved. ]

Riou gave me a dog to take care of. [ Time to change the topic!!! ] Her name's Bones.

[ Samatoki should get over it quickly, as long as Jyuto allows him to. He knows this, so he continues as if they hadn't just butted heads. ]

That's cute. What breed?
[ In a place as big as this one, maybe there's more variety in commonly seen dogs, compared to Japan. ]

[ Hell if he knows! Samatoki doesn't... know dog breeds???? Come on, Jyuto. ]

Mix, I think. Riou's got puppies, too. Smith and Wesson. Since he's gone, I've been takin' care of 'em, too.

[ Samatoki fully intends to wait for Riou to come back so he can give back his puppies 😡 ]

[ Awww, Riou picked American names. ]

You seem busy, holding things down without us. But is it really such a good idea to raise an animal when disappearing at any mo— actually, never mind. Any world is the same, so it's no use thinking that way...
[ He's finished with his cigarette, and he finds a trashcan to grind it it out against. ]

Do you need help training them? I have experience with dogs, thanks to work.

They don't need training! They're good pups.

[ They are very, very good dogs who don't make much mess. Samatoki loves them all, even though he'd never say something as cheesy as the word "love". Gross. He's too hardcore for that. ]

You gonna try an' be a cop in this place, too? Gotta find a job unless you wanna fuck to get rich.

All right, I believe you.
[ He trusts that they're in good hands. Despite appearances, he knows that Samatoki is well capable of naturing something in need of him. His upbringing did that to someone... ]

I'm— [ Why is Samatoki always so crude and blunt. ] I intend to. "Fucking to get rich" feels a bit too much like bumming around, and I'd feel strange without more on my plate. What about you, Samatoki? Are you paying the bills with your dick? [ Somewhere along the line, Jyuto stopped caring about the dirty language, too. His expression is flat. ]

[ Of course, he is! He even lets out a proud huff as if to answer that question without saying any words. ]

I got a job at a cafe, too. Not worth much, but I got roped into doin' it.

[ Congratulations on all the sex. Jyuto keeps a polite smile. ]

Regardless of the salary, it's a good thing that your ties to a certain organization back home don't affect your chances for employment here. All things considered, having that bond severed without consequence is nothing short of a miracle. [ A good thing, he thinks. MAD TRIGGER CREW has too many skeletons in the closet. ]

...You didn't make friends with any unsightly characters, I hope? [ And no, Jyuto himself doesn't count! He means criminals, Samatoki, criminals! ]

[ Samatoki's brows furrow as he listens. It's not like he wanted to be where he is now. He had to do it for his family, and he doesn't regret any bit of it. Difficult as it may be, he doesn't really care as long as Nemu's well-fed and safe and is happy. It's put him in all kinds of difficult situations, but he doesn't care.

He opts to not say anything, though, but acknowledges it with a soft yet deep huff. He keeps walking too, and a four storey apartment can be seen nearby. It seems to be where Samatoki is leading Jyuto. ]

Just you.

[ :) You baited him, Jyuto. Totally taking that opening to rub it in. And yes, he's also saying they're friends. ]

▶ TDM .009

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