▶ 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

[dissonyance]

( he doesn't like the answer, but not even leaks enjoys responding with something that flimsy and without confidence. to stick to a plan that he isn't sure is worth following--- leaks can't be entirely correct about everything, and assumptions can be just as dangerous as non-answers. still, how else is he supposed to respond to asato and why does he feel the faintest bit guilty about giving him nothing when he doesn't feel obliged to in the first place? )

I do not know. ( again, he repeats it. ) Would you rather I lie and say that I did or did not? ( asato couldn't even fathom the complications of why it's necessary to dislike konoe, why his mere existence wounds him despite there being no distinct presence of said cat? it would be much easier to just say that he simply hates and move on.

but no, he continues to pull and pluck until asato is almost bereft of yarn. )

I am not like the rest, surely you know that. ( he's always held himself to a standard that no normal cat could reach. but now leaks has to think about whether he hates asato, whether the anger that he felt that one day could extend out to touch this dark furred cat whose eyes are a stark contrast to his own.

no, he can be sympathetic. their situations aren't that far apart. )

I do not hate you.

( and leaks brings one of the pieces of yarn back, above asato's head and a little outside of his reach. he dangles it, hopefully making it look tantalizing. )

I would rather you hate me.

[roofwalker]

( sometimes the truth is harsher than anything one wants to hear.

if leaks had told him the truth, would he have believed him? would his brain have retained the information, even though it was something difficult to hear and to hold, simply because of the finality of it? asato could say that he never knew why the cats of kira hated him so, but that would be a bald lie. they had always been so honest in their loathing. it was his blood, tainted with that of the cursed meigi. it was his body, having been wrapped in the flesh of a monster upon birth. it was his mother, who had betrayed them for the enemy. it was his father, for being one of them.

he knew it, and yet he forces himself to not think about it. they have to be wrong. his parents committed taboo, yes, but that didn't make him a monster. the rumors of his birth were simply that: rumors fabricated to hurt him.

right? )

...No. ( he doesn't like to be lied to, even as he lies to himself.

he is free of his prison of yarn now, though he still feels entangled -- captured in the presence of this cat. his dark blue eyes narrow. ) You are still a cat. ( and that's what he means, even if leaks no longer wants to associate with the species that killed the only person he had ever loved. even bereft many of his emotions, he couldn't completely separate from that...

he can sense leaks isn't lying. and yet, he doesn't want to believe it. it makes no sense. if he hates konoe so much for such a nebulous reason, wouldn't he hate a cat so dedicated to him? and why on earth would he want that cat to hate him?

his gaze looks up to the string. his jaw sets, and his ears flatten. he doesn't like the feeling of feeling tempted, played with, especially in a conversation such as this. )

You... want to be hated? Is that why you did what you did?

( the sickness and the void... it was enough for any cat to hate him. they all suffered so much. )

[dissonyance]

( playing with people is exactly what leaks is good at doing; a serial manipulator, a sociopath who used his magic to toy with the emotions of those he wanted to hurt most. killing someone outright was never out of the question if it was a way to get to someone. his every action was a layer to something nefarious at its core. that is what he used to prey upon konoe and to those who wanted to aid him. otherwise, leaks could've been easily stopped and his plans broken almost immediately.

that was, of course, a leaks who didn't have chances like he does now: one on a one-track way to destruction. but now? he's the kind that holds the string out for asato to take it, silently hoping to see some of that purity and innocence again in those eyes. instead, he sees the look of someone who would surely dig his claws into his skin and...

he swallows thickly. )

I am still a cat.

( leaks lets go of the one thread, keeping his eyes low and toward the ground. )

And yes. That is the simplest answer, I suppose.

( the last thing he wants is sympathy. honesty, and a desire to return to what made him the most comfortable, is what drives his actions now. even if those actions were to be 'good' and a functioning member of society.

he sorely misses his clinic now. )

Easier and more direct than whatever else might try to take its place instead.

[roofwalker]

( were it someone else, were the situation something else, it would have certainly been different. asato could have returned to the simple, pure mindset of a cat playing with string, and the world would have continued to turn without the negativity that this interaction was bringing into it. but that just isn't the case. asato's entire life has been shaped by the misery that this man had brought into their world. because of that alone, he had reason to kill him. it might not save anyone or change anything, but it would be justice for every person who the Void claimed and who had to watch their loved ones slowly disappear piece by piece as the Sickness eroded them away.

leaks had wanted the ribika to hate him; he had single-handedly put them on the track towards extinction. and he finds the gall to be disappointed or upset when this cat looks at him in the same way?

his blood is a low simmer beneath his skin.

asato growls, a low and warning sound. ) It worked. ( leaks had not directly caused the pain in his life. that had been his parents and their insistence at love despite the circumstances — their pride and their cruelty, bringing a child of such a poisoned union into this world. leaks' hand was nowhere present in their mutual sin of giving life to him. but he had created a world where compassion, empathy, and love were well and truly on their way out, disappearing from ribika culture as they reverted to "every cat for himself." he can't look beyond that, and he can't look beyond what he had done to konoe. what he would continue to do to him.

he doesn't understand what he means. it makes his head hurt, and it makes him angry. it would just be too simple if he were straight-forward, wouldn't it?

asato, now free of all of the entangling yarn, stares at leaks with hatred of such a bright clarity that it seems as sharp as steel. his head lowers, and he grows very still. unfortunately, he is aware of where they are, of who might or might not be watching. )

Get away from me.

( or he runs the risk of attacking him right in front of all of these people. )

[dissonyance]

( like leaks is afraid of catching a claw or two the side? or fangs gnashing and plunging into his skin? or maybe even better, a sword that could slice and dice him with the extra strength coming from a cat looking for current and future revenge? he's had plenty of time to think about how his death may come when he can't protect himself with his magic, unable to break the confinement that is socially acceptable behaviors. perhaps yoshiwara did something to dull his own anger, declawing him in some ways that he couldn't predict.

but here, he has no fear of that. even asato's implied threat can't make him flinch. )

I will do what I please, as I always have.

( which is why leaks lingers longer, slipping some of the yarn pieces into his robes. the scarf he wishes to make for himself can be easily made here, but what he plans to use these for later would remain a secret. there's something magical about them to begin with, which make him want to pull apart each fiber with a focused eye. )

You will find me unavoidable. Whether you like it or not, you will have my company.

( the one that has changed and leaks will never find the same, is his need to be with others. a desire to have the warmth of someone nearby, despite how cold they may be to him. where there once used to be a hermit whose exploration of magic allowed him to keep others away, there stands a cat who found some comfort in perhaps not being forgotten to those foreign to his world.

his story sounds better to a non-ribika. )

Asato...

( but his name dies on leaks' lips, beginning to frown. he wants to say something, but the words don't come easily. )

... I will see you again and sooner than you think. Or want.

[roofwalker]

( the feeling of societal pressure forcing him into a state unwilling civility is an annoying one, one that is still largely unfamiliar and novel to him. in the wilds surrounding kira there were no such laws; he had been free to bare steel against whoever strayed too close to the village, leaving the corpse at the borders with no lingering sensation of guilt. it still doesn't nag at him, even as konoe had tried his best to sound the bells of his conscience. were they in the deep forests of sisa, asato would have drawn his sword on this sorcerous cat -- even if he might be overwhelmed by magic he didn't understand, it was seemingly the only response he could have to him.

but they are in a foreign land, in a foreign city, surrounded by strangers. if asato attacks leaks now, he would be the one singled out as dangerous and wrong. annoying, but none of these people knew what this cat had done to their country, to their race.

with this in mind, it only makes his words acid in asato's ears. the muscles of his shoulders tense, and his tail gives another angry thrash.

asato listens, frustrated, angry -- made clawless by their being surrounded by others, though he would love to respond to these odd, cordial threats by a slash to leaks' too-familiar face.

but, in addition to all of this... he is confused. by much (by pretty much everything), but specifically: ) Why? ( he demands, wresting what remaining yarn clings to him and standing to set the magician in an angry blue stare. ) What is it you want from me?

( hm i wonder... )