prismaticrap | ▶ TDM OVERFLOW .001

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▶ 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

[Well, then, he is lucky to have ended up with Temple, who does think about such things and is a good leader. Maybe not the best leader but good enough at it to not be a complete failure, at least.]

Yeah, but the future can come surprisingly quickly and if you don’t think about it before it happens, you might get blindsided by it.

And if you don’t prepare enough for it now, you might regret it later, when it turns out that you don’t have what you need to deal with it.

So, please, try to care a little more.

[He might be lucky, but Temple might end up incredibly frustrated before long.

He thinks about how little time they had to prepare for the apocalypse, and how it had ended up happening anyway despite all of Five's statements about preventing it.]

So I take it you're not a big believer in fate, then.

No, I’m not.

People can change their destiny, if they try hard enough.

[And that means that, if he had made a different decision, he maybe could have prevented Biff’s death. But he doesn’t like to think about that.]

[Instead, he prefers to apply his philosophy to other things - trying to bring down Freelancer and the UNSC despite the odds being against him, surviving in this alien wilderness - things that hurt much less.]

[He has agency and power over his future, and he intends to use it.]

You sound like Five.

[He shakes his head. Almost word-for-word, in fact, he sounded like Five -- and that was fine, because sure, it was good for the family to have goals. It gave them purpose after dad's death, he guessed, and maybe it had brought them all back together. If there was one thing, maybe it was that.

He wasn't sure if that was a good thing, though, or the actual reason the world had ended in the first place.]

So -- we spin the wheel of direction, then.

[Confused:]

Five? Five what?

[He nods.]

But yeah, that’s exactly what we do. Spin the wheel of direction and see where we end up. And if that place doesn’t have what we need, we keep on going till we reach somewhere that does.

Mm. No, my brother.

[Who, despite his appearance, was actually his 'older' brother by virtue of having been to the future and back and -- look, it's a long story.

He sighs, looking put out.]

And I assume this is one of those things where splitting up is a "bad plan".

[A brother named Five. Huh.]

[Temple wonders if it is just a nickname or if it is really what his name is.]

You’d probably die without me so yes, that would be a bad plan.

[He suddenly thinks of something.]

What’s your name by the way? Is it a number like his or...?

[It's true - most people think that the numbers are their nicknames, and that their real names are the ones they were given. The opposite's true, actually.

Only Reginald ever called him Four, and he isn't about to let people here know that's even an option.

He sticks out a hand for a proper shake (even if his will be rather flimsy, somewhat distracted).]

Klaus.

[Temple shakes his hand.]

I’m Temple, leader of the Blues and Reds.

[He ponders whether or not he should mention what exactly happened to them, and opts not to.]

[He also decides not to mention that Temple is his last name since he prefers ‘Temple’ to ‘Mark.’]

[If Temple had asked him to call him 'Evangeline', Klaus would have -- it's not as if he has any room to talk since his legal fucking name was Four Hargreeves.]

Right, well. Good to have you around saving my ass, Temple.

[Temple smiles at him, pleased to hear Klaus express some gratitude.]

You’re very welcome.

And besides, we all need to look out for each other in this wilderness, don’t we?

Sure, some people might be master survivalists who can do this entirely on their own but... most people need at least some help when thrust into this kind of situation.

So, yeah... anytime.

[At heart, Klaus might still be that sweet and caring boy that he used to be as a child -- he just covers that sweetness in a lot of toxic behavior and harsh words most of the time.]

Oh, but I'm sure you're not talking about yourself in this situation.

[Master survivalist? Really?]

[Sighs:]

I’m actually not.

[And he isn’t. There are other people who are actually master survivalists. Like, the Freelancers, probably.]

[And they wouldn’t need any help. And they might not help anyone else either.]

[They might be perfectly fine with other people dying if it got them higher on their damn leaderboard.]

[But he is just a sim trooper, who ended up in hard-to-handle situations and learned how to handle them. And he has never done it alone. To Klaus, he might look competent enough to do that but to him, it really doesn’t feel like he is.]

Well, word of advice? Don't tell anyone else that.

[And he grins, because honestly -- you just fake it until you make it, or do something so stupid that someone finds you out. It had gotten him through a surprisingly large number of situations, that kind of attitude.]

[Temple grins back.]

Well, then, I guess, if I do meet anyone else here, they’ll have to find it out when I mess things up.

[Which he is sure he will, eventually. There’s a reason he wasn’t allowed in the fight in the real war, after all.]

See, that's the spirit.

[And he's laughing again, glancing out to the horizon. First way to screw up: trying to figure out which direction to go.]

So, should I spin you?

[Temple laughs.]

Sure.

Spin me right round.

Oh, and he has a sense of humor.

[So much for being worried about this guy being a stone-cold asshole.

Klaus places his hands squarely on Temple's shoulders, though.]

Well, close your eyes, then.

[And once he does, he will spin him fairly thoroughly so he can point the way using their highly calibrated decision making tool.]

[Temple can be a bit of an asshole and he can be cold sometimes but he’s not too cold for a laugh or two.]

[If he was that cold and humourless, he probably wouldn’t have befriended Biff and a whole lot of his life would have been very different.]

[After all, for him and Biff, joking around with each other was a big part of their friendship.]

You thought I didn’t? Really?

[He then closes his eyes.]

Lot of you survivalist types don't, all right?

[He spins the other man, hand over hand on his shoulders, until he's good and dizzy.]

All that 'man vs. wild' mentality kills humor, I think.

Most of the time, it wasn’t the wild I was fighting.

[He laughs.]

Though I did end up getting rather good at fishing after I moved into my underwater lair.

Now you just sound like some sort of supervillain. We're not destined to be sworn enemies, are we?

[There's a tiny part of him that's kind of serious. Like, two percent.]

Well, are you an agent of Project Freelancer?

[Temple is sure that the answer will be ‘no’ but he supposes he should ask anyway, just to make sure.]

[And he’d rather not say that he does bear some resemblance to a supervillain - and plays it up for fun when it suits him - because he wants Klaus to keep on liking and trusting him.]

[Klaus is definitely the most morally flexible of the Umbrella Academy, anyway, so unless he intentionally murders busloads of children or something then he's probably fine.

He scratches absently at his forearm, where the umbrella-shaped tattoo sits.]

Ah, that would be a no.

Yeah, that’s what I figured.

[Temple hasn’t and wouldn’t murder busloads of children but he has murdered people. And done raids on places. And almost destroyed the Earth by accident.]

[Hopefully, Klaus is okay with that because the only part Temple is even close to regretting is the last part.]

[And the only reason he doesn’t regret it is that he is not sure if Loco’s machine would have actually destroyed the Earth.]

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