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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[ Xue Yang has to dig his own nails into his palms, hard, to keep himself from giving the plot away by smiling when he sees the exact moment his words take hold, when doubt takes root in the dark of Wei Wuxian's mind. Drawing closer still, expression one of concern—or at least his best approximation of it—Xue Yang reaches out carefully to slide a hand over Wei Wuxian's forearm like a lover might. ]

I'm not. There's just too much to tell. But the Wens are gone, to the last. They were hunted like dogs. Women, children, even the elderly.

[ It's hard not to smile about the injustice of it all, but Xue Yang bites it back in favor of his game. It's not even that he finds the deaths funny, really. Mostly he just finds it ironic. But he smiles about most things, however inappropriate, because he never learned any other way to respond. Things make him smile or they make him mad. There's never been much in the way of in-between. ]

You tried to save some of them, but it didn't last.

Jiang Cheng would've said something. Lan Zhan would've done something. The sect leaders wouldn't just ignore the helpless, that's—

[ in his heart he knows that they would stand by what's right. the slaughter of an entire sect goes against that, no matter what the patriarch of the qishan wens might have done. how many families belonging to the gentry are there? how many of them uphold the unspoken rules of helping those in need, no matter what their standing in society may be? how many of the minor sects would reach for the chance to make history and a name for themselves through noble deeds?

there's nothing noble in the massacre of old men and women, of children and the invalid.

wei wuxian, with all of his great imagination, cannot fathom it coming to pass. not even xue chonghai had been so cruel, for all that he decimated great numbers indiscriminately.

he looks down to where xue yang is touching him, intimate like moonlight. ]

Tell me.

[ wei wuxian returns the touch, but it's rough, demanding. his nails dig into xue yang's sleeve as though they might cut through to flesh and bone. ]

Tell me.

[ Rough and demanding is just how Xue Yang likes it. He lets out his breath in an airy laugh, eyes sparking with satisfaction as Wei Wuxian grips him like a promise, like a threat. Good, he thinks, wetting his lips to speak, look at me.

At him, and only him. These days, all Xue Yang wants to feel is anything at all, and all he wants to be is real. Xiao Xingchen's death has made him a ghost, has made everything Xue Yang was and had and knew nothing more than a memory, but this, Wei Wuxian's hold on him, is real.

He fixes Wei Wuxian with his gaze and speaks as asked, relentless in his chase. ]

And what were the Wens before His Excellency grew drunk on power?

[ Murmuring this, he drags Wei Wuxian in by his arm until they're mere inches apart, leaning in to paint this terrible picture directly in Wei Wuxian's ear. ]

The Jins grew greedy next, arrogant and self-important. They plotted, and murdered, and schemed. [ Xue Yang should know; he helped. ] You alone wouldn't stand for it, wouldn't look the other way. You wanted to do what was right, and you paid dearly for it. You were blamed for the deaths of the guardsmen keeping the last of the Wens, and after that there was no turning back.

You lost everyone. Your sworn brother. Your friends. [ Xue Yang pauses a moment, formulating the next step of his story. ] ...you lived alone in the burial mounds at Yiling with the last of the Wens until you found me near death on the way to town.

[ At this, Xue Yang's voice at last grows thick with emotion, a real thread of grief strung through his words. ]

You saved my life, and I came to stay with you as well.

Edited 2019-11-22 06:42 (UTC)

[ for a handful of heartbeats, xue yang's words don't register. he hears them, understands them, but the picture they paint don't become clear until later, much later than wei wuxian should have allowed. but he can't swallow around the meanings, can't accept them as truths.

he's moving before he realizes, his vision blurred from disgust and anger so intense that hot tears threaten to spill from him. by the time wei wuxian's grounded himself again, brief as it had been, he's pushed xue yang up against a nearby wall, his once-free hand tight around xue yang's throat.

wei wuxian hasn't let go of the xue yang's arm either. like this, they're pressed so scandalously close to each other, their stances painting a different story if not for the look of distilled rage on wei wuxian's face. ]

You.

[ there's so much wei wuxian wants to say. so much, yet only this one word comes out of him. he doesn't dare speak the rest. not like this.

slowly, he moves away. fingers peel themselves one by one from exposed skin and rough cloth, the space between their bodies growing inch by slow inch until wei wuxian is at arm's length.

not out of reach just yet. he's too angry to move away from this terrible idea. ]

Prove it.

[ he sounds desperate to believe this all as lies. there's enough room for it all to be true, and wei wuxian hates that he even considers it. the jins, the lans, the jiangs, the nies, and all of the smaller, younger families - would they really stand for such a massacre?

what kind of justice would that be? ]

You must have something.

[ The light in Xue Yang's eyes brighten with interest as Wei Wuxian charges, the revulsion on the other man's face comfortable and familiar to Xue Yang in the way someone with a different life might feel about a parent's embrace. The tears, too, glimmering in the soulful dark of Wei Wuxian's eyes, clinging to long lashes as they're blinked back. Some people are ugly when they cry. Wei Wuxian is not one of them, and Xue Yang finally does laugh, the sound broken and stifled by the hand clamped so intimately over his throat.

You, hisses Wei Wuxian. With real emotion, like Xue Yang matters, however hated, however scorned. Xue Yang tilts his head back in something like bliss, the hint of a pout on his lips as Wei Wuxian thinks better of their proximity and backs away. Coughing to clear the dull ache Wei Wuxian leaves in his throat, Xue Yang then lets out another low breath of a laugh as he snatches up one of his companion's hands, bringing it right back to his neck with a wild grin. ]

Does it feel good to blame me, Wei Ying? [ He croons out the familiar address that's never been his to speak, pocketing it swiftly like any other stolen thing. Life has never granted Xue Yang a single kindness or mercy, after all. All he's ever had, he's had to lie, cheat, and steal. ] That's fine. I'll take all your hatred, all your hurt. I'll carry it for you. It doesn't bother me.

[ That much is true, at least. These little cruelties don't hurt Xue Yang the way they hurt most people. A starving man will learn to eat grass, to drink mud. Hatred is Xue Yang's bread and butter. It's a feeling, and it's for him, and that alone is reason enough for him to keep it. ]

What proof can I offer…? [ He pauses, a memory sparking in the back of his mind. He drops his smile, caressing the back of Wei Wuxian's hand with his thumb where he's still holding it to his own throat. ]

They killed Wen Ning. The Jin sect of Lanling. They wanted more power, and when you wouldn't turn over your creations they looked to make their own. They were interested in how he'd been affected by the Shadow Iron, I think…?

[ Xue Yang's free hand reaches to stroke over Wei Wuxian's cheek. ]

So they used him and several other Wens for their experimentation. The Wens were no longer people to them, after all. Just animals, good only for slaughter. I heard they lanced him through, still alive, with a corpse luring flag.

[ His voice drops, down to something Wei Wuxian will have to lean in to hear, low and soft and sweetly fatal. ]

It takes hours to die like that, alone and in agony. You looked for him alongside his sister, Wen Qing.

You didn't make it.

[it's difficult to swallow.

what is truth? even absolute fact can be twisted by interpretation. humans are horrible like that. they're unpredictable and unreliable and relentlessly cruel given the chance, but wei wuxian hasn't yet given up hope on humanity.

the sects uphold the peace and order in the realm. they are noble, they are righteous, they are good. not all of them will be, wei wuxian knows, because the laws of probability allows for the variation of human spirit, and for good to exist then evil must too. there's a balance. they swore to uphold this balance, whether by word or by action. there will be awful men, just as there are good men - but wei wuxian is yet young and bright-eyed, innocent in a way that has yet to be melted away by the reality of the world he lives in.

yes, xue yang. it's easier to blame you.

it's easier to assume falsehoods in the face of things one would rather not hear. but who does the lie benefit? not xue yang, certainly; all of this is an invitation to be cut in half, and for what? a moment's amusement? wen ruohan wouldn't keep such a fool by side, much less trust them with shadow iron. if they're lies, then why does wen ning bear those strange markings, all while demurring to divulge the truth?

deathly pallor. the coolness of skin. cracked lips, but no wetness to the tongue to soften them. he's seen similar before, in gusu lan, with wen ruohan's name hanging unsaid in the air should the walls have grown ears.

no one doubts the jins' ambition, too.

there's just enough room for the allegations to be true, and wei wuxian shakes his head not out of disagreement, but disbelief - all taken together, the details bear out.

he doesn't flinch when xue yang reaches out to touch him. he doesn't loosen his fingers around the other's neck, either.]

If you're lying, Xue Yang, may the gods have mercy on you. [wei wuxian relents, then, a great exhaustion descending upon him. his fingers slacken, hand dropping to the other's shoulder, and his eyes fall closed. dangerous, that: closing one's eyes around xue yang.]

Why do you touch me the way you do?

[ Heaven has never smiled upon Xue Yang once his whole life, so the idea that there will be any mercy waiting for him should Wei Wuxian learn the truth just makes him laugh again, the sound quiet and harsh with an edge of self-deprecation. (Well, perhaps there was one time, one single mercy he did not recognize for what it was and squandered, but... that hardly bears thinking about now.)

The words are promising ones, at least, implying acceptance on Wei Wuxian's part however cautious.

When Wei Wuxian drops his hand, eyes shutting in that same moment, Xue Yang snakes a hand around his companion's waist to pull him that much closer, taking the brunt of Wei Wuxian's weight upon himself in light of that visible weariness. It's almost effortless, this act, now that he's imagining someone else in Wei Wuxian's place. If Wei Wuxian is expecting a knife in chest letting his guard down with Xue Yang, it doesn't come. There's only silence and the protective embrace of sturdy arms as Xue Yang mulls over his answer.

He's not surprised by the question, exactly. He hoped to be obvious enough, but even at the height of his fame as the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian was never known for his people skills. It's the next best thing to Wei Wuxian coming to understand on his own, honestly, the words themselves arming the trap Xue Yang set.

Look at that, they're already quite the team. Before long they'll be finishing each other's sentences. ]

...you saved my life.

[ Xue Yang repeats this, eyes going half-lidded, gaze picturing another place, another time. ]

Told me you didn't care about my past, that there were things you also regretted. We grew... close.

[ With this one, it'll be easier to show than to tell. Leave no room for doubt. Xue Yang leans in. ]

Very close.

[ And with that last word, he claims Wei Wuxian's lips in a forceful kiss, the arm around his waist pinning him in. ]

[questions die on wei wuxian's tongue, as xue yang pulls him close - so close, too close - and kisses him.

it's not like the kisses he's initiated back in yunmeng, the close-mouthed chaste brushes of lips on cheek, or the sighing kisses that have more in common with the touch of cherry ice on the mouth that anything so carnal. xue yang kisses like a storm, taking wei wuxian's balance by the throat and throwing it over a cliff.

he gasps. it's a sound made in surprise, yet xue yang takes liberty and presses on, as a lover would - just as he's insinuated, just as wei wuxian was too slow to catch onto. it's the most irrational thought in the world, and also the most fitting, considering the situation: xue yang knows what he's doing.

when they part, wei wuxian's cheeks are flush with color, high on his cheeks, and his hand on the other's shoulder frozen in place. he neither moves forward nor back, stunned into speechlessness and breathless too.]

[a picture: wei wuxian, adopted son of the jiang clan of yunmeng - rendered quiet from shock.]

[ As they're each pulling back, Xue Yang studies Wei Wuxian's response to the kiss with the sharp scrutiny of someone who's survived only through constant vigilance and careful manipulation. Wei Wuxian appears stunned but pliant, ready to yield, and Xue Yang doesn't hesitate a second longer to take up Wei Wuxian's hand, turning his head to press an affectionate kiss into the palm. His arm remains around Wei Wuxian's waist, grip loose but steady. ]

They were the best years of my life. [ As Xue Yang speaks these words, he can almost hear the dry rustle of the wind that blew through that quiet, empty town. He can smell the burning of the hearth, hear the distant echo of A-Qing pouting, Xiao Xingchen's soft laughter— Xue Yang blinks, shaking his head to dislodge the past. ]

We were happy. [ He goes on quietly, swallowing hard. ] ...before all the rest came to pass.

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▶ TDM .009

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i'm yelling into my hands

im a good person

/doubt

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