prismaticrap | ▶ TDM OVERFLOW .001

Cybernetic dream, something like you've never seen

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▶ Lisa Frank's LSD Fun House
anytime, anywhere on the moon Iris | top

Everything is darkness except for dim lights sparkling in the distance, a faint gleam that greets you as you start to unfurl from your dormant state. 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. Throat parched and skin dry and aching, you grope your body in alarm to make sure your possessions are still in place. 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 only rewards you with 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.

A ⬤ As you traverse the near-barren landscape, you feel something sting your skin. It's small and subtle at first, then you finally catch sight of it: an elegant, crystalline mosquito buzzing around from the corner of your eye. However, a pest is still a pest. After a while, marks near your welts begin to form strange patterns on your skin, mimicking ancient runes. Each rune has with it a particular side-effect that may hinder you on your journey:
✾ The Mark of the Enchanter: Hallucinations, hallucinations galore. Your character will see everything and anything their imagination can conjure and will have difficulty separating reality from fiction.
₪ The Mark of the Destroyer: Limbs start to cease their function, causing you to stumble or try and get around one-handed. Other certain body parts may be affected as well. Look at the bright side: you can stop worrying about jiggle physics and hiding your fear boner.
⍢ The Mark of the Sinner: Your hunger, your thirst, your fatigue and your desire are at an all-time high. Your impulses are rabid and uncontrollable. Maybe you experience only one of those symptoms. Maybe you experience them all. All you know is that you want relief now.

These effects will eventually clear up with a bit of accidental or purposeful physical contact with another person, making you wonder if there was anything wrong with you at all.

B ⬤ Hunger starts to gnaw at you vigorously. Perhaps you consider hunting the moon's creatures to sate your hunger. That's when you see it: a thick, meaty, juicy meal on legs. ~~No, we're not talking about Alex Louis Armstrong~~. A wild silver-white pegasus runs across the purple landscape, its hair billowing in the wind as its hooves smack loudly against the ground. Try and shoot it, and you may find your efforts curtailed by its legendary rage. Eyes aglow and wings beating up a storm, this pegasus is no dainty horse. Two thousand pounds of pure muscle swoop down and charge at you, all blades and ammunition deflecting off its impenetrable skin. Taming appears impossible; it will buck anyone away and leave a sizable horn- or hoof-shaped hole in them for their efforts. Hunting it, however, should be easier. Relatively.

C ⬤ Or you may decide that you'd like to take a drink in the prismatic waters. A small pond can be found just a few miles away from where you first awoke, but gazing into it reflects what appears to be a window into your own world. You see the faces of loved ones or at least someone very close and familiar to you gathered around your prone body, shaking it frantically as though to try and rouse you, yet your image lies frozen and unresponsive, not even a whisper of life running through you. Did you die in your world? Is this your afterlife? The questions start to pile up along with the gnawing dread that you may never return home again.

▶ Camp Nowhere
anytime, anywhere on the moon iris | top

Time moves strangely when you're trapped on a moon with no sun to guide you. Hours feel like days, and days feel like weeks. Travelling has rendered you weak and tired. Luckily, a few crystal formations in the shape of a cavern may offer you a small place refuge as you decide to nap. You notice a few artifacts left over from previous explorers.

D ⬤ A comm unit abandoned within the cavern will display the former owner's idol obsession. As you tap the buttons indiscriminately, a holographic screen will appear, and you will see a fabulous recorded concert featuring three bubbly young ladies in animal print, singing to you about something called Cordis, a cat, and a bag of gems. Does this make any sense to you? Probably not, but the beat is catchy. You may even find yourself tapping a foot along to it. Don’t worry. We know it’s plastic love.

E ⬤ There's a small cooler-like container of preserved powdered food bags labeled with only the word “Edible” that can be safely consumed. Although the powder tastes as bland as you’d expect, it’s oddly filling, sating either hunger or thirst. But who will be the first — and the bravest — to try eating them?

F ⬤ A strange, pointed instrument is among the effects found in the cavern. It's silver, long, and thin with a curved end and a light. When you grip it with warm hands, it seems to vibrate enthusiastically and comes in three settings indicated by a frowny face, a neutral face, and a happy face. What could it mean exactly? No one knows, but you can fiddle with it to your heart's desire. Just don't ask yourself where it's been before. You don't want to know.

▶ Interstellar Action Force Assemble
prisma, iris | top

Over a day has passed when a group of people find you worse for wear. Some are full of uncertainty and fear while some are full of curiosity and excitement. They claim that they are scientists from the planet Prismatica here to investigate the sudden appearances of rainbow crystals in the skies. That means you and the others they’ve located within the area. You are all a surprising find to them, and they are quick to load everyone in their transport vehicles for examination and questioning.

You all may have your usual inquiries — Where are we? Who are you? What's going on? Why are the pegasi so ill-tempered? — and the Prismals are almost too eager to answer. They do have questions on their own, so it’s only fair to trade. They tell you about their world as they poke and prod you, trying to understand what you are and how you came into their land. If they’re not trembling in fear, some of them may ask you odd and invasive questions in return, such as what the rate at which your body achieves thermoregulation is, how long your refractory period is, and if you would be willing to submit various kinds of body fluids to them. It's up to whether you wish to comply or protest.

G ⬤ If you react violently, you will be restrained and nerfed with a specialized neurotransmitting gun that releases a numbing agent through the top of your spine. They came prepared, so have fun with that! In any case, conscious or not, you’ll be brought into one of the transport vehicles. If you choose to peacefully cooperate, you’ll be provided any necessary first aid and a refreshing drink to help you recuperate after the rough time you had for the past few days. Each transport vehicle has a few small rooms to rest in, but due to the limited space, you’ll have to snuggle up with someone else on that bunk bed. Unfortunately, the moonshine fruit the ship is also carrying in its cargo has an extremely sweet smell that’s been permeating through certain areas of the ventilation system… Taking a whiff of it may inebriate you for the rest of the trip.

H ⬤ It’s a bumpy ride as terrain vehicles draw over various crystal formations until you see a large dome-like structure up ahead. Within its confines lies the seat of the Prismatica's government, Prisma. It’s a bureaucratic wet dream: skyscrapers practically touch the upper surface of the dome, windows glimmer with a prismatic sheen as daylight hits them, and small ships can be seen flying to and from its spaceport. The scientists, members of the Lunar Scientia, usher you into their facilities for tests. Arrivals are likely to twitch, tremble, and panic as Lunar Scientia fellows take and broadcast every embarrassing, unfiltered detail about you — height, weight, age, strange odors, estimated frequency of sexual activity —- to one another. These scientists will ask you politely to undress, too, but understand if you don't want to. They're especially fascinated by the readings of pure Chroma inside you, whispering among one another excitedly about the possibility of the new arrivals being a new moon species. What should they call them? Moonborne? Moonblessed?

I ⬤ At long last, the questions and physical examinations are done. They’ve decided to call the arrivals as the Moonblessed. They’ll take you under their care until they understand more about you. You're allowed a very refreshing hot shower and a warm meal for your efforts. Don’t worry, the meal was imported from their planet. “Planet?” you might ask, but you won’t need to wonder for too long. The ships are preparing for their next destination: the nearby planet Prismatica, where you will be dwelling for the time being. You're free to explore the government center until then.

▶ Wildcard
Lunatia, Prismatica | top

It only takes a couple hours for the ships to reach their home planet. The ships drop the characters off at the city of Lunatia, where they will be given their communication devices and a plastic card they can present to certain landlords at any residential district for their subsidized (read: absolutely free) lodging. Officials at Prisma instructed the newcomers to await further instructions from the government, but you have a lot of time to kill before then. Why not explore in the meantime? Learn the ins and outs of the world, get a job, transform under the full moon, and explore the many mysteries of planet Prismatica!

This is this TDM's overflow. Feel free to move your threads from there and continue tagging!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It stays in his ears too - the mark of sloppy illusion work, or unintentional, in this case. ]

Oh. [ He sounds disappointed and slightly stressed out by the answer. ] Are you sure you're hearing it too, then? Of course you are, you're the one who brought it up. It's just - I think I've been seeing things that aren't there, but it was difficult to tell when I was by myself.

[ He reaches up to brush his hair out of his face nervously, and Riku might catch a glimpse of a small mark on his hand, centered around what looks like a mosquito bite. ]

I'm... pretty sure I'm hearing it, but it's weird--

[before he can put words to what makes it weird, though, he sees that mark]

--hang on. Ienzo, can I see your hand?

What? [ Ienzo glances down, spotting the mark for himself. That's strange. ] Oh, of course.

[ He reaches out, holding it up so Riku can see it. ] Is it anything you recognize? I don't think I've seen anything like it before, but now that I think about it, one of those strange insects bit me there shortly after I arrived.

[takes Ienzo's hand in both of his to steady it, so he can get a better look at the mark]

I don't recognize it, no... but if something bit you there and now a mark's showing up, seems safe to say there could be a connection.

Were you seeing things that weren't there before this happened?

I'm not sure. I don't think I was, but it all seems so real. I know I didn't see any Heartless before being bitten, though, and if you haven't seen any despite having a Keyblade then it's probably safe to say there aren't any here...

[ As they discuss the crystalline mosquitoes, the swarm around them starts to grow steadily denser. Whether it's a coincidence or a direct result of Ienzo having them on his mind is unclear, but he's looking steadily more unnerved by the whole thing. ]

Are you seeing this too? That there are more of them? I think it might be wise to continue this conversation somewhere else.

Yeah... we'd better move on.

[let's get away from the questionably-real but definitely evil mosquitoes]

[ Ienzo looks around briefly before just deciding to pick a direction and stick with it until a better option presents itself. He starts walking briskly away from the ever-growing cloud of crystal bugs. ]

What this doesn't explain is why you're seeing all of this too, unless you were bitten as well. And even then - oh. Oh. [ He stops abruptly, struck with a sudden realization ]

I'm an illusionist.

--Oh.

[Riku stops too, just as stricken.]

I didn't realize you could still... of course. [why should he have assumed that was unique to Zexion? Lea certainly didn't lose his affinity with fire.]

That... definitely explains it.

I can't do it quite as well as Zexion could, but - [ He reaches out and swats at another mosquito as it passes by, and frowns when his hand passes right through it. ]

This is so embarrassing. How strong is this if it's making me lose control of my magic like this?

Obviously pretty strong...

[watchnig Ienzo's hand go right through the mosquito he can also see, brings his hand to his chin in thought]

... New question. You're hearing things, and seeing things, and they're turning into illusions that are fooling me too... but, are you smelling anything that's not there?

Of course. None of this would have fooled me if I couldn't smell it too. [ He relies on his nose as much as if not more than his other senses for some things, and trying to see through illusions is one of those. It doesn't work as well when it's his own mind playing tricks on him, though. ]

I thought I sensed a fairly large concentration of Darkness earlier, which is why I thought there might be Heartless around, but it's possible that was just me as well. Either way, it's concerning.

There goes the plan of me blindfolding myself and leading you, then.

... Let me try and cast Esuna on you. I'm still a little shaky with it, but the worst it can do is not work.

Oh, that would've been clever. [ He's almost more disappointed that it wouldn't work for how good an idea it was. ]

It certainly can't hurt. If this is some kind of toxin that's affecting me I can't see why it wouldn't work, but white magic has never exactly been my forte either.

Alright... here goes--

Esuna!

[it's a rougher spell for him to grasp - he's only learned it recently, in the dream worlds, and even then it was usually easier for him to either tough it out or retreat and Cure than to treat the status.

but it's not a spell that can really misfire; either it's cast successfully, or it isn't. fortunately, this time, it is indeed cast successfully, and Ienzo is bathed in the swirling, curative light.]

Okay... check your hand now.

[ Ienzo shakes his head, feeling the odd 'existing slightly to the left' feeling he's been struggling with fade along with the sound of water in his ears. When he next looks at his hand the mark is gone, with only a small red lump of a bug bite remaining. ]

Excellent work. [ He says, brightly. ] We should likely still leave, though, before one of us is bitten again. I know at least some of that swarm was real. Here, I think I saw some caves over in this direction.

Yeah, shelter sounds good. Lead the way.

But hey, at least now if we do get bitten again, we know how to fix it.

As long as our reserves of magic keep up, yes. [ He tries to sound upbeat about it, but the fact is it's getting dark, and there's still no sign of a way off of this world. The hours of wandering have started to take their toll on Ienzo, but the caves aren't too far away. Retracing his steps, it's easy enough to find them again. ]

If we had something to burn the smoke would keep the insects away, [ he muses. ] But this world seems rather lacking in plant life. There's still magical fire if we get cold, at least.

▶ TDM OVERFLOW .001

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