▶ TDM OVERFLOW .001

[prismods]

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!

Comments

[garb4ge]

People who are completely open books are utterly bizarre anyway. He can deal with this kind of thing anyway.

He pauses.

"Honestly, the only thing I'm unbearably curious about is those ears of yours. I was assuming they weren't real before, but -- well." Since the whole 'magic' thing is on the table, why not pointy-eared folk?

[somethingsharp]

There are plenty of things he doesn't mind discussing, but everyone has their secrets, or at the very least things they won't tell strangers at their first meeting.

Although admittedly, questions about his ears of all things certainly isn't what he expected first thing. That same, quizzical look crosses his face again briefly before he arches an eyebrow.

"There are no elves where you're from, I gather." Which is to say yes, they're real.

[garb4ge]

Klaus has so very many things that he doesn't even want to admit to himself -- never mind to other people. His lips twitch into a smaller smile at the indirect answer.

"Unless we're talking about people who run around in the forest and pretend to shoot each other with fake arrows as a thinly veiled excuse to fuck under trees -- no, no actual elves."

Which begs the follow-up question, "Are they , you know, 'sensitive', or is that just some sort of shitty fantasy trope?"

[somethingsharp]

"Well there are actual elves who do that, yes. Although the arrows they shoot are real."

And technically not at each other, but. Details. The Dalish aren't much different as far as he's concerned.

Fenris just. Blinks. For a moment, then cocks his head with a slight smirk.

"Why, are yours not?"

[garb4ge]

"See, that's an important difference."

At the question about the sensitivity of his own ears, one of Klaus' eyebrows quirks up just slightly. "Well, not that I've been able to figure out, but ... maybe I just haven't had someone who knows what they're doing have a go at them."

He can definitely match that smirk. This sort of talk comes easier to him, works much better as a distraction for him.

[somethingsharp]

That makes him huff a bit in amusement, flexing his toes briefly before glancing away.

"Yes, well, in my experience it depends on the person, even for humans."

[garb4ge]

"Just like most other things."

He pinches the bridge of his nose and yawns -- now that Fenris isn't so worked up and he's actually starting to settle in, Klaus is noticing...well, a few things. One, that there haven't been any spirits bothering him so far, and two, that he's pretty damned exhausted.

With the former, he might actually be able to sleep. Absently, out loud, he mutters, "Huh. Must be my lucky day."

[somethingsharp]

Even though the lingering effects of the tranquilizer are slowly wearing away, there's still no small amount of trepidation that is making him anxious. Whether to try to run again while they're still moving, or to try to escape once they've stopped - in such a foreign place, either option could just as easily be a death sentence.

Fenris casts Klaus a sidelong look. "You call this lucky?"

[garb4ge]

"Hm?" And then he catches the fact that he probably spoke a little louder than he'd meant to and just shrugs his shoulders, an easy roll backward as he looks over to Fenris.

"Thinking I might actually be able to get some rest before we end up getting moved, that's all. I don't sleep much." Between the drugs, the ghosts, and the dreams ... yeah, it was a difficult thing to do.

[somethingsharp]

Fenris is quiet for a moment, then nods minutely.

"Sleep. I'll wake you if they come."

Klaus has little reason to trust him so easily or so soon, but he had seemingly left Fenris himself well enough alone when he had been unconscious. It only seemed fair to offer him the chance to rest and have someone watch out for him in return.

[garb4ge]

See, Klaus is incredibly lucky that he ran into someone who just happens to not want to stab him in his sleep and steal all his stuff.

He's been at some shelters where that had been a real risk, and the only thing that had actually helped him was the fact he'd rarely slept for long. He blinks, mostly surprised that Fenris has actually made the offer to wake him, and -- nods.

"...y'know, I'm sure I won't be out that long. But -- thanks." With that, Klaus tucks his other knee up to his chest and leans into his corner of the bunk, the way you'd sleep on a bus or an airplane, and lets his eyes settle shut. As quickly as he drifts off, it's probably obvious he really doesn't sleep much.