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.

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( asato would have no reason to tell someone no, so long as they were nice and they asked and they didn't hurt him. it was nice to have your ears touched. grooming another ribika's ears was an important gesture of closeness for them — petting or scratching wasn't exactly so good, but it still felt very nice. and asato, who had only really started experiencing any modicum of kindness only less than a week ago, is a bit starved for such positive attention. )

I have not seen very many people without them, before coming here. ( well... except for firi, and the devils, but let's not count them. they're mean and scary. he almost seems offended at the insinuation that they might not be real. he flicks one, swiveling the other back and forth. ) Mm. They are real.

( but, more about getting them out of this place. holding himself up like this is painful, yes, but sometimes pain is necessary. it takes a conscious effort of his not to flinch back at the touch, even though he knew it was only meant to help. a poor and ingrained habit, unfortunately. he nods at mika's words, though he already knows it would take quite a lot for him to say anything like that. he pulls, and it does hurt, but after a moment or two, his arm is freed from where it had been trapped beneath him.

and then a lot of things happen, very quickly.

now in a body shape that is quite "un-stuck," asato is freed. which is great! what isn't so great is that suddenly the suction of the tube is back in full force against him, so he starts to get dragged once more back through the tubing. except, this time, mika is holding on tight to his arm. )

...!

( he doesn't know what to do. does he tell him to let go, to try to safeguard him? but he will still be drug through the tunnel along with him. so, instead, asato flips his wrist and tries to grab hold of mika. as he tumbles backwards, he tries to pull him close to his chest, so he could do as best he could to protect him as they go. )

( a whole planet of cat-people... can you imagine that? truly, the dream. the ideal. or at least, as far as mika's concerned, fascinating and adorable. it's a shame he doesn't exactly have the time to ask any more about it; the act of freeing asato is quite luckily easier than it had first appeared at a glance, and the infallible technique of "pull randomly at what seems to be stuck" seems to have worked out well for these two. or, as well as it can be expected to. it still doesn't necessarily change the fact that they're trapped in this tube, and being trapped in this tube means being caught up in the intense vacuum of air.

for a moment it doesn't really click for mika — his fingers tighten around asato's arm as his eyes widen and he begins to feel himself pushed in his direction. with a yelp, he pulls himself instinctively towards the only thing that feels somewhat stable as his foothold rapidly begins to disappear, sneakers sliding against the smooth walls of the tube. an act which, coincidentally, it seems as if asato was expecting, already prepared to let mika hold on for dear life as they make their way through.

it is, frankly, a little embarrassing; mika can feel his face heating up.

luckily, it doesn't stay that way for long. it feels like only a few moments of the wind rushing in mika's ears before they've been spat out the other side, landing in a pile in the midst of a flurry of leaves. a glance around will tell them that they seem to be in a grassy, tree-filled area — a park of some sort? wherever it is though, it's the picture of autumn, where yellows, oranges, and reds coat the ground as a couple of tubes continue to rain their gathered leaves onto the two of them. give mika a moment and, with a start, he'll (gently) try to push himself away from asato's hold, face red as a tomato as he stammers out what words he can manage. )

Ah, s-sorry. I mean, thanks! ( and, finally, looking alarmed: ) Are ya alright?

( it definitely might have been the ideal if the ribika weren't slowly starving to death and dying out because of the twin effort of the sickness and the void. and not to mention all of the monsters prowling the forests of the island. but how is poor mika to know that? he just thinks cats are cute! it was a sweet thought nonetheless.

it was difficult to think about unforeseen ramifications of something when one is set to focus on the problem immediately in front of them. right now, that problem was asato being stuck in the tube, and they had fixed it! but that opened up the new problem of the suction that got them trapped in here in the first place now carrying them to its inevitable end. all asato can think is that mika had seemed so much smaller and more delicate, and so he had reached out to pull him closer, so he could try to protect him. asato was not a bulky cat, despite his height, but he was tough; he could weather the rest of their trek through this tunnel.

eventually they are spat out the other end with an almost comical thunk; they sail through the air and then land, blessedly, in the relatively soft pile of leaves gathered up by the tube. asato still emits a grunt as they land, but it wasn't nearly so bad as it would have been if it were concrete. he is slowly separating from mika just as the boy finishes the job by pushing away from him; he can see how red his face is... and he feels a little guilty, even if he thinks he looks really cute, embarrassed like that. )

Mm... ( the sound is noncommittal. he rolls over into a sitting position. he feels a little sore, and his tail aches from where it had gotten crunched in one of the last turns through the tube. but he could be much worse. ) I will be okay. ( he turns a critical eye onto mika. ) Are you hurt?

I'm fine. A li'l sore, but I think ya took the worst of it...

( he might have a couple bruises here or there, but truthfully? the reason for mika's concern is based in the fact that he could tell asato took the brunt of the tumbling for the both of them, and he feels kind of bad about that. feeling a little responsible, mika scratches absently at the back of his neck as he murmurs an apology. )

Sorry 'bout that. Guess I should'a known if ya got unstuck that we'd keep gettin' sucked through, huh?

( but, hey, it looks like they're content to just sit here for a bit. mika, at least, doesn't necessarily mind the leaves at slowly rain down near and around them, pulling his knees up to his chest to make himself comfortable in their pile of them. his eyes once more wander to asato's ears, but biting his tongue, he decides on a probably slightly more polite route to go instead. or maybe it's more of an indirect route — in any case, it seems about time he did so anyway. )

My name's Kagehira. Thanks fer, uh, ( and here he glances aside, avoiding eye contact, ) protectin' me, I guess.

( that is so! embarrassing! he feels like he might just shrivel up and die, but... it's only proper to thank someone when they go out of their way for you, so that's what mika does. )

Mm. It's okay.

( he hurt, sure, but that wasn't really something odd or new for him. the dull ache of bruising was something he could ignore. there was a twinge of pain in his tail where he thinks it had gotten crunched, at some point, and that is worse, but... it is nothing he can't deal with. just looking at this particular human tells asato one thing: he is more equipped, by measure of his body alone, to take the worst of the damage of the fall. he doesn't have any regrets. )

Falling... it is not so bad as being trapped. ( take this from a cat who spends most of his time traveling across rooftops -- he's fallen plenty of times in his life, but he would take that hundred times over being stuck in a tube somewhere until someone had to extract him or he had a heart attack and died.

asato rests a cheek on one kneecap, deep blue eyes peering at the newly-named kagehira through a fringe of wild dark hair. he can see his anxiety -- hell, he can feel it, roiling off of him like wild ocean waves. his ears flick back for a moment, concerned, confused. was it something he did? something he said? )

I'm Asato. ( the introduction was a little hesitant as the gears and cogs in his head continue to turn. eventually he continues, the words still seeming small, exploratory. ) Kagehira... Is something wrong? ( asato's expression is sheepish, and his dark tail flicks at the very tip, nervous of the answer. )

( it's a relief to mika — as long as asato isn't too hurt from it, he guesses that it's fine, if a little big unfortunate. when those thoughtful eyes look at him so expectantly though, questioning him further on it, mika's caught off-guard. )

Somethin' wrong? ( he considers it for a moment, but shakes his head. ) Nah, I'm just...

( trailing off, he watches asato's tail move to keep himself from focusing too hard on the situation. just, you know, give him a second to get the words for it, he loads a little slow sometimes but he's doing his best. being straightforwardly questioned further about it is also a little embarrassing in its own way, but his honest personality shines through. that's why, self-conscious though he is, he isn't necessarily hesitant to answer. )

It's a li'l embarrassing, gettin' all protected by someone else goin' through that tube, yanno? Feels like I was some kinda delicate maiden or somethin'.

( not that he isn't grateful! he is, definitely — that's why he made sure to apologize and thank asato first thing out. he can't help the way his pride takes the hit though, that's just the way he is. )

( asato is patient. he is familiar with this process, after all; his own words can often be awkward, slow, halting, all because he had had remarkably little experience growing up forming verbal answers for himself. so much of what he knew to do and say was informed from simply listening and watching others... there was still some delay in transposing that second-hand knowledge to his own behavior. )

"Maiden"...? ( parroted with a small tilt of his head to one side. given how removed the female presence was in sisa, he probably isn't even all that familiar with what mika is trying to describe. asato can piece together by context, however, that he was embarrassed that asato had helped to protect him. his ears flatten a bit, and he feels a little foolish. he had just wanted to help him, though he supposes he hadn't taken his feelings into account... )

Mm... I'm sorry. ( as with everything, he sounds earnest. his tail remains still and limp on the ground. ) I just thought... you seemed smaller, so. I didn't want to hit you, or fall on you, or something like that. But... I will be think more about it like that, next time.

( how many tubes are you expecting to get sucked up into, asato... )

Nah, 's not like I'm not grateful or anythin' like that. I'm jus' a lil embarrassed...

( which is more embarrassing to say aloud but you know what, it's important to say even so. he doesn't want to inspire guilt in the person — cat? — catboy who was just looking out for his best interest, so he offers up a reassuring smile, a bit shy, but pleasant and sincere nonetheless. )

But, uh, ( he pauses here, sheepish, ) Let's hope there's not a next time, yeah?

( a promise! or something. in any case, at the very least, a hope that they don't have to go through that mess again; it doesn't seem like it was an enjoyable experience on any front. though, well, mika can't really complain about the outcome himself. he kind of lucked out compared to asato now that he thinks it through. )

In any case, I really do owe ya one. Hey, how'd ya get sucked up in that thing anyway?

Mm. Yeah.

( asato certainly doesn't want to experience a second trip through the tubes, especially since this first one was traumatic enough -- even though meeting someone gentle and nice like mika was a positive, even if he is still a little worried about how he had embarrassed him. it kind of reminds him of how konoe acts, when he speaks or acts to defend him, though konoe's point is always that he could fend for himself (true, but it wouldn't stop asato from doing what he could to help).

asato is less certain mika would be able to fend for himself, but he keeps that to himself. )

It's fine. ( he couldn't imagine mika owing him anything else. he's already being so nice to him... isn't that payment enough? at the question, asato's expression goes blank, and then a shadow passes over it. he looks... simultaneously pained and embarrassed himself. ) Well... One surprised me. I tried to get away, but... my tail... it got me.

( he looks ashamed. a ribika's most obvious weakness is his tail, and he's let that weakness be exposed more than once here. he should be more cautious, to be honest... )

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▶ TDM .009

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