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

He's making an effort. That isn't lost on Roxas, makes him think... he should make an effort, too. They're on the same side. They both have connections to someone who is a light in their lives. If not for his own sake, maybe he should try for his.

"Yeah," Roxas says, "But we did meet. I remember... hearing you call to him." Was it Riku? Was it the memory of Riku? Or... something else? Understand that Roxas, having become a part of Sora, wasn't exactly in a position to understand everything that was happening to his other.

He looks down for a moment.

"Have you seen Xion?"

"You remember that?" There's only one time Riku can think of when Roxas would have had the chance to meet Sora in any capacity, and when he would have been able to hear Riku calling for Sora. "That was... in his dream, wasn't it?"

When Roxas asks about Xion, the last of the smile fades from Riku's face, and he shakes his head regretfully.

"Not yet. But I'll keep an eye out for her."

"..."

The look that Roxas gives him now? It's one that doesn't need to give it words, just the knowledge of experience. He remembers Riku's voice calling to Sora through the dark, trying to reach him, trying to call him back, to steer him from the dreams that sought to snare him ever deeper into the dark.

And he watches Riku's face for signs of falsehood, until he breaks it off to look down at his plate. It isn't an expression of defeat, just... the poignant ache of ~~failure~~ disappointment.

"Thanks." For telling him. For keeping an eye out. "Hey... the last time we met like this...

"You cheated," Roxas says, something like pride tugging at the corner of his mouth, "You owe me a rematch."

Riku looks up at that, smiling again.

"I sure did, and I sure do," he says, an amicable warmth in his voice. "But I should warn you, I've picked up a few new tricks since then... I might even not lose."

Now that there's no stakes, nothing riding on the outcome of any given battle, Riku doesn't mind poking fun at himself.

He'll hand it to you, Riku.

You don't treat him like he's lesser, like he is something less than human, or like he's some kid, and those are serious points in Riku's favor.

So he... believes him. He believes, even if a part of him warns about betrayal.

Does that sentiment belong to Sora, or is that part of his own trust in the good intentions of othee people?

"You're on," Roxas settles on, grinning a little.

That was something he never could agree with DiZ on, right from the start. Too much of Riku's life has been shaped by people who 'shouldn't have existed', after all. Replicas and Nobodies who had all touched his heart too deeply for him to ever deny that they had a right to the lives they lived.

Convincing Xion to accept an end to hers, and dragging Roxas forcibly to the end of his, are acts that will always sit painfully in his heart. Even when time and the second chances that Roxas and Xion have been given wear away the sharpest of the edges.

"After we're settled in, then. One on one, fair and square."

And yet... in the end, it had been Even, Ienzo, and DiZ who toiled to bring Namine back into the world as her own person, hadn't they? That wasn't to say that Roxas had yet found it in his heart to totally forgive... He had his own unresolved issues, just as they had their own paths to absolution to traverse.

But saving another Nobody had scored points with Roxas, to be certain.

"...Sounds good," Roxas says, extending his hand, curled into a fist. He means for it to be settled with a bump of fists.

Riku smiles, completing the fistbump readily. Contract sealed.

It'll be kind of fun, he thinks, fighting Roxas again with nothing at stake but pride. Maybe their friends can watch, even; they'll probably at least need a referee just to declare an end to the fight at some point, as stubborn as the both of them are.

Oh yeah, they are definitely gonna need a ~~chaperone~~ referee. Riku AND Roxas are Ride or Die for their friends, but throw a competition with their pride at stake and they could be at it well after sunset. The question is whether a net loss of Chroma would take them down before they actually ran out of stamina.

Not that Roxas knows about the whole Chroma thing just yet. He's had a lot of other stuff on his mind.

"Hey, did anything weird happen to you out in that desert?"

"Anything weird?" Riku tilts his head a bit, thinking. "A couple things... there was some kind of bug bite that made me really thirsty, and... a pool of water that reflected an illusion."

He doesn't like thinking of that one so much. The bug bite had been weird, the thirst unbearable... but once it was over, it was over. The image in the pool...

Well, it's just a little harder to shake.

"What kind of illusion?"

Roxas idly scratches at the side of his neck, the bite is gone, so is its mysterious mark, but the memory of what it had done to render him so helpless is still fresh.

It's... probably not what Riku wants to talk about.

Riku's quiet for a long time before he answers.

"... I saw my body lying on the ground," he says quietly. "Sora and Kairi were mourning me."

"That can't be true."

Roxas speaks with such conviction, but how could he know, really?

"They're here. So unless they're here to bring you back, I don't believe it."

But hey, if they're here to bring Riku back, wouldn't that mean they're all... dead? Sure, that's not lost on Roxas, but he's pretty certain that's not the case and for a pretty simple reason. What point would there be to having food when you're dead?

He's a goddamn genius. Roxas returns to his meal, adding, "I couldn't move. I thought I was broken, somehow, but I guess it was nothing."

"I know." Riku's smile is a little tired, but not disbelieving. "Aqua was there at the same pool. She was seeing her body, and I was there. That's when we figured out it was just messing with us, since those couldn't both be true."

His eyebrows go up a little when Roxas mentions being immobilized and thinking he was broken. He can only imagine how harrowing that must have been...

"Did you get bitten or see a mark on your body anywhere when that happened? Because there was a mark on my shoulder when I was so thirsty. And I ran into Ienzo, and he was seeing things, and there was a mark on his hand."

There's still a lot Roxas doesn't know about... having this body. What other conclusion could he have come to when all but one of his limbs abruptly ceased working? And due to the placement of the mark when it appeared, Roxas couldn't see it, so he only shakes his head, at a loss to explain.

"Maybe... I couldn't really check."

But if Ienzo is here, Roxas wouldn't be amiss having a chat with him about it, just in case. If he seems to be playing it suspiciously cool, he is. Roxas is NOT admitting in front of Riku how scary that had been.

There's also an unfair kind of irony in Ienzo being afflicted with illusions...

"Do you know where Ze- um, Ienzo is?"

Riku shakes his head again.

"No, I lost track of him after that. I'm hoping we'll catch up with him again planetside."

As uncomfortable as his history with Zexion was, Riku sort of likes Ienzo - and it would be good to have at least one of the Radiant Garden apprentices around, just to make sure everything's okay with the replica bodies.

Nobody wants Roxas or Xion or Naminé to break down, when they finally have their second chance.

As much as Roxas disliked being poked and prodded and asked a lot of confusing, weirdly invasive questions, no one seemed to treat him any differently than they might have anyone else.

He did find out what a refractory period was, but only after he badgered a bemused scientist until she relented and explained, and the only consolation prize Roxas got out of it was realizing he'd managed to make one of them as uncomfortable as he felt the whole time.

It's been an odd day.

"Ok, I'll find him. Thanks. You know, it's weird. We weren't really... friends, but I'm still worried about him."

It's been a couple of odd days, for sure. Riku doubts it's going to get much less odd anytime soon.

"Yeah, I get it. I've got... history with Zexion, but Ienzo's actually pretty alright."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM OVERFLOW .001

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