prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .011

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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. After an hour or two of wandering through the crystal wilderness, a group of people find you worse for wear. They are the gallant Moon Knights from the planet of Prismatica. Because of the strange phenomena 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? — 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. You will then be escorted to the docks, and led onto a large transport vessel that makes frequent trips back and forth between the Iris moon and the planet. Faces onboard vary from both old and new Moonblessed as well as the local Prismals.

The next destination: Prismatica.

▶ There and Back Again
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 As a Remooning gift from the Lunar Scientia Headquarters, the dedicated team from the Amphoria Room has released their latest perfected technology: Amphoria Pods. These VR Pods, which can fit up to four people at a time, have been set up in the gaming hub within Level 1’s PrismaPlace. They allow users to upload sceneries of their world in order to create a realistic holographic landscape of their homes that others can access and play around with, granting everyone the means to relive past memories with their loved ones as well as interact with the bestiary of other worlds. The pods also use the same technology that enhanced the popular virtual game, League Match Action Online (LmaO), which means you’re liable to feel the chill of cold environments, the burning heat from boiling water, the hard slap of your ex-lover, or the biting sting of a stray wasp. All who use the Amphoria Pods for the first time this year will also receive a small amount of Chroma in case things get too real.

▶ God Save Us from the Queen
Level 1, PrismaPlace and Level 2, Greatmoon Groves | top

The first month of the year is packed with two of the most important winter events this season: Queen Elara’s birthday and the League Match Action Online (LmaO) PVP semi-finals. It just so happens that the Queen of Lunatia is also a huge LmaO fan. Coincidence? Definitely not! LmaO players and royal family fans alike can meet her at PrismaPlace, where she will be appearing in cosplay of her favorite hero, Ah-Kari, while holding a body pillow of Commander GareBear. You, too, can get an autograph or selfie with the birthday girl if you’re willing to fall in line! Her bodyguards will also be in LmaO cosplay, keeping the crowd under control during the long wait.

Queen Elara

Good day to you all! This may come as a surprise to our guests the Moonblessed, but I am a normal person despite my exalted position. Please do not think of me today as Queen Elara. Instead... my name is Ah-Kari, sorceress of the crystal! With my soul fan blades, through the darkness, I shall slice all who dare hurt my commander in twain!

But when she is not meeting and greeting...

Queen Elara

My comrades, we're going to make history today. We're going for a new record. Perhaps the highest kill counts or the fastest clear for this map — it matters not. We’ve practiced day and night for this tournament, so let us show everyone that we’re not to be taken lightly! Also, the livestream is going in the royal archive, so make your successors proud!!

... she will be furiously grinding her character and training her skills in LmaO in the hopes of qualifying for the finals. Spectators will see her bring her own team full of hapless palace attendants who are there to either serve as her practice match partners or provide support to the one-woman army that is Queen Elara.

PrismaPlace is packed with giant crowds, many of them also in cosplay. While the semi-finals are taking place, new and old LmaO players alike can participate in the game’s current campaign: players who form teams get an improved chance of spawning unique monsters as well as winning rare items and skins in those prized lootboxes! Teams can also try to clear the event’s story together, featuring an aerial battle fought on griffin-back, which is heavily inspired by the popular Lunatian epic, The Battle of Abraxas, a colorful and complex story about the conflict between two families fighting over the fictional land of griffins, Abraxas.

A Progression in the event requires acquiring a griffin mount and getting it ready for battle. You can lure a wild one to yourself with a special veggie pie on a fishing pole. Should the griffin reject the lure, your character will be caught in a wind gaol and can only break out with the help of other players. Should you succeed, raising the griffin is a tedious task that involves players training alongside their respective griffins, running laps with them, taking them to hunt monsters, and feeding them properly. Depending on their diet, the food you give them will affect the color of its plumage and their battle stats.

Or you can skip the hard work and simply moonlace with your teammates through all the progression bars and required materials to save time. Once finished, you’ll be able to battle one another through the thunderous aerial domain of Abraxas. Clearing the event will net you an event-exclusive skin inspired by the royal family’s shining celestial robes and a weapon skin of a body pillow with your favorite character, so do your best!

B In celebration of Queen Elara’s birthday, the office of the royal household is hosting a modest tea party in the Greatmoon Groves. Swiffy bots that are normally programmed to remind visitors to keep the groves clean are now playing a birthday jingle on repeat. For people who prefer to be away from the blinding neon lights and the thumping techno music of PrismaPlace, this is the ideal escape. Unlimited tea and cookies are being served!

The tea is a soft-colored lilac concoction made from Ehrysian tea leaves that are known to cause a huge spike of alertness and is popular to Moon Knights and office workers with long night shifts as well as gamers for those all-night grinding sessions. The assorted cookies have either Ah-Kari or Commander GareBear printed on them. In case it isn't obvious yet, both are the birthday girl’s favorite LmaO characters.

Any Moonblessed looking for extra income is welcome to be royal attendants for the day; the hours are paid by Demichroma. They must be properly dressed up as maids or butlers (outfits provided by the royal household) as they serve tables.

▶ Say Cheese
Level 3, Caihong | top

Meanwhile, Caihong is in the midst of Remooning festivities in celebration of the new year, and merriment usually lasts a fortnight, filled with fireworks in the sky. Upon entering the district, beautiful Prismals with rat ears and tails greet you with a Happy Remooning and eagerly tug you along to join in.

Those welcomed will receive a pack of multi-colored sparklers, mooncakes topped with cheese, and a glowing drink called Champagne Supernova, poured in a thin glass in your hand. If you are over eighteen, the rat Prismals will ask if you prefer your drink with a kick. If you say yes, then they will add flavorful ice that causes extreme intoxication and might leave you to be susceptible to all levels of suggestion. Saying no (or if you’re under 18) will simply leave it as a sweet drink.

A One of the party games being played by the locals is called Lucky Tail, which is basically pinning the tail on the holographic rat stand-in — with a twist, it must be played with a partner! Another participant will blindfold you, spin you around, then push you forward. The stand-in is located at the end of unsteady elevated platforms forming a maze, filled to the brim with distracting objects underneath. They’re long, they’re thick, and they’re vibrating furiously in an attempt to knock you off the platforms.

Your partner must guide you by voice to successfully navigate through the maze! The game is rigged with various mechanisms, so stepping on specific platforms will activate a number of traps against you or your partner: machines that may tickle, drop colorful slime, or cause the platform to repetitively spin, and who knows what else?

Should you manage to get through the obstacle course and pin the tail successfully, you and your partner will win copious amounts of Demichroma, courtesy of Buwan from Buwan’s Stop.

B Another attraction is a fun magic glamour booth known for its face or body swap features. The booth staff, clad in their festive rat paraphernalia, will encourage you and your friends to take aesthetic shots using an illusion generator. The effects last an hour. Photographed images can be instantly uploaded and shared in Prismagram. New year, new you! Why not take the chance to celebrate this momentous occasion in a unique fashion? It’s all in good humor.

There are two buttons to press: (A) CUSTOM or (B) RANDOM. Pressing A will allow participants to customize their desired effects. Pressing B will cause the illusion magic to randomly rearrange participants in questionable positions, new outfits (or lack thereof), and you may even come out of the booth looking like your best friend or your worst rival. The possibilities are endless!

▶ 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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[ Okay. This helped putting the guy on the 'nice person' side better than before - and while it sounded almost incredulous coming from Fjord, he can kind of understand why. Molly had seemed just as surprised.

Connie's face softens from the relief of the nervous tension and he nods. ]

Yeah. It's so nice to see, he seems really happy. They just... they almost glow together.

[ He looks very fond as he speaks, green cheeks a little flushed among the smattering of freckles. ]

[Link wishes that he had his notebook (and his other hand free) so that he could be taking notes for all of this, but it isn't as though he's ever had trouble remembering details.]

So following that logic then it would seem that we were possibly in one of these stasis-like states upon arrival? That's hardly a comforting thought.

[His brow furrows a little more sternly as he mulls that over. As someone who has both known plenty of people who managed to escape death or seemingly come back from death and been brought back from the brink himself he would be inclined to share Shino's skepticism. Such things never happen without great cost and, more often than not, without changing the person in question in some way. Of course it's possible that- if what he says is true- then that would also mean they were actually dead upon arrival, which is a reality that Link is not really mentally ready to consider right now.]

I see, so one has to monitor even their basic energy usage to get by. That seems like it would be incredibly restrictive and dangerous.

[It sounds something similar to the concept of Ki or utilizing the Atuuda but even more stringent, something that ties into one's life force for nearly everything. If this "Chroma" will be drained even though basic movement then he'll have to be careful to ensure that he regularly has enough conserved to use his techniques should danger arise. This information adds a new level of difficulty to living here and it makes unease build in his gut.]

[ It's a nice idea, Molly alive and in love and living his best life, even if he's in a different dimension or plane of existence. He hopes it's true, Molly always deserved better than he got, but ... Fjord remains sceptical. He's been through and seen too much lately to immediately trust good news on a silver platter, and it still feels like he's talking about a fantasy rather than his actual friend and former roommate.

Only meeting with Molly will cement any of this in reality.

He keeps his doubts from showing, a softened smile holding up all his well-wishes for Connie to see. Two green tieflings on a bench, one huge and the other tiny. ]

Have you been friends with them very long?

Eh. I've dealt with worse than that. Dwarven tackbreads are actively bad for the stomach if you use them too long, and very few places know how to make an even decent cheese back home.

I don't miss my old world. Though I would rather have stayed where I was than wound up here, even if here's mostly more peaceful so far...

[She has heard some of what's going on here, but...]

I would appreciate that. It's been a confusing ordeal to try to understand on my own here.

[... she wants to hear it from Vincent to see how he's taken to interpreting the situation at hand.]

It's certainly harmless enough, though the ones falling into the wriggling vibrating bits aren't terribly pleased with the poor directions given by their guidance partner, and Angela's just holding back little stray curls of laughter to the resulting tiffs as she approaches.

"No dire risk, certainly. It is just a game at the end of the day. I suppose the prize at the end is worth the attempts even so. It's a fair lump sum for those newer to the city. Is that what has your interest?"

Well, she's holding a hand out to him regardless, smile softening from its mischievous quirk.

"I'm Angela. That's quite the arm you have, as well."

[ It's fair to be sceptical, especially in a world like this.

It doesn't make it any less true. ]

Yeah, ever since I got here... which must be about nine months now? I saw him on the street, and... um... I haven't really met any other tieflings before. We talked, and he read my fortune.

[ There's a little shrug, like he's not quite sure how to explain it. His own problems with his blood had made that meeting extremely important to him, something that was hard to get out in words. ]

Then I found out he and Fish were together, and we've also been friends for about as long, so it was even better. Now I visit them all the time.

Where will you stay, then?

[ That's a legit concern, right there: these rooms are being offered up generously, after all. But she hums at his last comment. ]

Sometimes, one follows along with what their captors say for a reason.

[ Twelve years a captive herself, she'd know very well, not that she's going to mention that. Because though their freedom is somewhat limited here, it's not as much to her as it was at home. No one here knows who she is, no one is trying to kill her or capture her again and she's going to enjoy that for as long as it lasts. ]

Even if for a while, listening to what they have to say and following their set 'rules' isn't a bad idea, you know. There is a lot of information to be had by following their dictations for a while.

[ Listening to Connie unravel the veil of what's been happening, Fjord feels an old brand of anxiety creep up the back of his neck. If Molly's happy now with his new lover and friends, maybe he wouldn't want to see Fjord at all; maybe that was why the rest of the Nein left. Fjord doesn't know. All he can do is worry that Molly would prefer not to see him, one of the people who couldn't save him (not being there was no excuse, not for Fjord) and that's somehow even scarier than the thought of seeing an undead Molly. That would truly be losing a friend.

(I still miss him.)

Fjord isn't sure what he should do.

He rubs his growling stomach, feeling sick. Also hungry, but mainly ill at ease, and his stupid tail hangs lank and dispirited over the bench. ]

That sounds like a nice life.

[ Connie has no idea what's going on in Fjord's head, only that he seems almost sad about it all. He's not sure why, but he also doesn't know what kind of friends they were or what happened between them, so he's a bit at a loss.

He takes the stomach growl for hunger, though, sinc that's easiest, and he sticks his hands into his bag of holding to dig out a cereal bar and some water. ]

Would... um, would you like some?

[ He can't offer any reassurances other than kindness, and so he will. ]

Oh. Oh! [ Gods damn it, he's got a pint-size tiefling offering him snacks. Is he that pathetic? ] No, thank you. Please, keep your food, I'll find somewhere to eat later.

[ Waving off the gracious offer, he straightens. ]

Ah, that's something I'd like to ask about though. The Chroma, how exactly am I to use it for purchases? You did something earlier with the vendor I knocked off the path.

You're the one imitating me! [ He accuses, clearly not that worried at just repeating back statements he also wants to make. Look, he's not thinking this through incredibly clearly at the moment. ]

Lanling Jin Sect, Jin Ling! [ His nose tilted a little higher into the air, gripping the hilt of Suihua tighter. Though the swords both carried the same name, it would be hard to tell their relation by sight. They looked completely different.

The boys, on the other hand...

Well, there was something to be said for attitude affecting appearance. ]

I know who you are! You're the other one! They told me you were gone, already!

[ Which-- Jin Ling, do you really expect that to make sense or be at all helpful... ]

Oh, don't worry! I give then out at work for performers and the security people, so I have a lot.

[ He's just gonna put the bar down next to Fjord, in case he changes his mind. At the question about Chroma, the little tiefling folds up the sleeve of his robe to show the bracelet. ]

This is... like a magical gold pouch? It stores the Chroma you make, and then you can use it to pay for stuff by waving it it at a similar thing that's usually located by the shopkeep.

[ He gives Fjord another look. He doesn't look like a magic user, even with a tiefling overlay?? (The twunkness throws him off). Still, just to be safe; ]

If you use magic, that... that also spends Chroma, so you have to make a lot to be able to use it for both things.

[ ~~twunkness ...~~ ]

I see. I thought it might be something like that but it's good to have a solid explanation. Thank you.

[ That cereal bar is going to live on the bench between them forever as a pointless prideful testament to how long Fjord can starve himself. ]

The whole idea of cultivating this energy for profit is new to me, and I must admit that don't like the idea of my magic weakening outside of the relationship I have with my patron goddess.

Edited 2020-01-15 20:33 (UTC)

[ Her hair is something decided by her heritage, worn short to discourage unwanted attention while traveling, like all the other women in her tribe. It's safer, and easier, to look and dress as male Speakers do, and that's the true extent of any thought she's given it. ]

It was the least I could do and no trouble, I assure you. [ Having become pretty well-versed in reading more subtle expressions lately, Sypha offers a smile at that look of amusement, and extends a hand. ]

My name is Sypha Belnades. [ Her expression turns a touch sheepish. ] The drinks are not nearly strong where I come from.

Sypha, hello.

[ A smile warms the corners of his yellow eyes as she extends a hand and he shakes it amiably. ]

I'm Fjord, and I might have guessed.

[ Little bit of wry teasing there. ]

[ Well that was... a title. Though one that mostly got a confused and slightly exasperated look from Jin Ling. ]

So, you're not even a cultivator at all. [ With an almost heavy sigh. He does put his sword back, though, and instead crosses his arms over his chest. His mood immediately changes when he hears the name Jin Zixuan. ]

You know my father? [ That trace of disdain disappeared. ] How did you meet him? Here?

You're welcome. It's very confusing, this place, and I'm still not sure how everything works.

[ That cereal bar better be looking for downtown real estate now, because Connie's too nervous a person to pick it up again even after being politely declined. ]

It's... not ideal, I know. I don't get my magic from an outside source so I don't know how it affects your magic, but... Kairon is a paladin? He's not happy about being taken away from his god, either.

[ There's a pause. ]

Oh, Kairon is a tiefling, but he's not from Exandria. He's red? I think he's the only one that's red.

[ About as convinced as when she told him the vampire apocalypse was bringing out the best in him? Anyway, it's go time! And to her credit, she's actually trying to rally her faculties long enough to get him through this unscathed. Deep breaths now. Would they get caught if she froze the wobblier platforms into place or tried to use a breeze to guide him? What exactly would be the consequences for cheating at the stupidest thing they've ever done? She'll hug him while he fumes until he makes back the lost chroma, she decides--

But she's getting ahead of herself. Deep breaths! Maybe this could actually result in a scenario where Trevor isn't scowling up at her from the dick pit. She peeks around him, tilting her head back and squinting until her tunnel vision aligns. ]

Yes... Four steps should get you to the first turn. [ But just in case her depth perception is wanting: ] Feel around towards your right until you find the path again-- it starts to slope upwards there.

Edited 2020-01-15 21:07 (UTC)

[ Cereal bar be sweating. ]

Well, [ here comes Fjord's incredibly limited but enthusiastic knowledge on Melora, ] the Wildmother grants her Paladins their power in exchange for their oath, which was somewhat done on a new pact-blade with me as I was originally a Warlock when I came to her. I can feel her presence here if I concentrate very hard, but it's different than normal. What she gave me won't be entirely lost unless I break my word to her.

[ PALADINS GET RESPECT YOOOO he is all about that trusting love with Wildmum. ]

Do you know which god this Kairon fellow follows?

[That's a sentiment he sympathizes with: attending events despite one's protests. Geralt gestures across the room, where a man with brown hair has lain on the floor in a stupor. Jaskier's not getting the shit kicked out of him, so Geralt isn't intervening. But he is watching just in case.]

Let's just say I know how you feel.

[Well. At least he's found a kindred spirit. It's better than nothing, seeing as he's got little to do except talk to people. Even he can only meditate for so many hours before he gets restless.]

You have a name?

Zizhen.

[ Sizhui's voice is a touch quieter than usual, but he also does sound certain. ]

If you want to join us in trying to fix this, of course. [ He smiles at the Ouyang heir, then tilts his head towards the booth. ] It's like a random filter, except it applies it to the actual us. We don't know yet if we have to fix it like this or it will wear off on its own.

[ Or it would get better with moonlacing. As so many thingsi in this world try to do. ]

[His first instinct is to let Jaskier go on his way. He's known the bard for a long time, knows Jaskier can take care of himself, and it's not as if they're going to...talk. Here. About things.

There's nothing to talk about. And even if there was, there're more important topics. Like where the fuck they are.

His weight shifts from one leg to the other. Dammit.]

Wait. [He gestures vaguely with his hand.] I don't know where we are, either.

Edited 2020-01-15 21:39 (UTC)

Uh, so... [He's bad at explaining and he feels like she's a teacher who's just waiting to give him a bad grade. This was a terrible idea. Nonetheless, he tries to pull together an explanation.]

The short explanation is that this planet is dying, and we've been brought here because we produce Chroma, which is like an energy source here? And we can get it just through touching. And, uh... Every month when the moons change, it can affect us in different ways, so we could wind up looking like the rat guy we saw before. Or a different animal, I dunno-- it's different for everyone.

So if we want to stand a chance of finding a way home, we need to make as much Chroma as we can to help fix things.

[Does that make sense? He hopes so, maybe it's just drunken rambling.]

Oh, Melora? My friend back home is a paladin of Melora!

[ Connie sits up straighter, immediately smiling more. Anyone who follows the same gods as Malawin must be amazing. He has no idea how you go from a warlock to a paladin, but hey. He woke up one day with magic; shit happens. (At least Fjord wasn't a necromancer.)

Pact-blades isn't something he understands either, other than that Fjord has a cool sword... somewhere? ]

Kairon's god... I think it's a very young god? Their name is Rem, but I haven't asked too much. It seemed something very special to him.

[ This is the guy he kisses on the regular, he should really know more about it. ]

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▶ TDM .011

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Never apologize!! Clearly, I have also been very busy XD

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