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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Yes. A bit. At least I knew that I wouldn't be alone for my eternity of torment.

"I'm not royalty."

Not anymore at least. He holds up a small slip of paper that has what can be assumed to be an apartment number on it. His gaze doesn't relent just yet, perhaps he's just severe as a person.

"I need directions here since they suggested I look here for housing first."

[ That's a full body flinch. He can't quite suppress it; it makes him forget how to breathe for a moment. ]

[It had been awful. The fear, knowing that there was no way out. Talking to Daisy had been the only thing that eased it, even a little.

He catches the flinch, and does another of those aborted movements to reach out for Martin, but unsure of his welcome. He's never been good at comfort.]

Sorry, that was too much.

[ Any at all is more than Finn thought possible, but he pushes that to the side. She looks happy. She looks okay. Better than okay.

Finn lets out a held breath, tense shoulders collapsing and a little smile managing to show up. ]

All right. I don't know if-... I'm not sure I can switch how I see him so fast. [ Polite way of putting it. ] But I can... try. So long as he makes you happy.

[ ~~Someone needs to tell the Finn in the Kylo thread about that.~~ ]

[ Martin certainly doesn't close that gap. He'd really rather focus on remembering how breathing works. Instead he holds himself back, aching for Jon's touch but entirely unable to reach for it. ]

N-no, it's. I assumed. All things considered.

[Knowing this dude lived in a cave doesn't really come as a big surprise. Does make him feel a little bad for Shadow though. You really need to hit rock bottom to resort living in a cave.

He considers asking what kind of lame ultimate lifeform still needs food to sustain itself, but he doesn't want to get on this guy's bad side this early.]

You said this is the first room with someone you found. Were you trying to find someone to ask about something? I mean, since you are not planning on staying anyway.

[ Leon’s in no position to judge. It’s a difficult adjustment for anyone, and as good as he is rolling with the punches, it’s hard even for him to wrap his head around. He can definitely appreciate the lack of pretense, though; it encourages a much-needed laugh. ]

Not a line, unfortunately. I’m just another broke newcomer who has no idea what he’s doing.

[ Speaking of, he turns the palm of the hand he held out to stop her inward, signaling a handshake. Consensual touch was how you earned Chroma, right? Pretty weird, but he might as well introduce himself, seeing as he’s already here and putting her through this trouble. ]

I’m Leon.

[Jon drops his hand back down to his lap, fidgeting a little with the hem of his shirt.]

But we got out. Because of you.

[ ...sexual obligations. Slave-whores, denied their freedom and the dignity of control over their own bodies, the sketch of their form. The fog of Lan Wangji's cold indifference dispels in small, tentative degrees, the stiff lines of his shoulders breaking, arms shuddering slightly at his side.

He regroups, approaching the man before him with barely residual restraint, as if the stranger were one of the curious but forgiving bunny that Lan Wangji adopted from their fluffy ranks. This man might need no fond caretaker, but he has suffered, by his own word, enough to deserve protection the likes of which even Lan Wangji can offer. ]

You are safer here.

[ Not safe by anything but tender estimate, but still an improvement on his previous circumstances. A — guest of the city is afforded at least the base freedoms of an animal, restricted only by his cage.

Lan Wangji nods, this time in perfunctory greeting: ]

Name? Healer.

[ And now Jon is lost because of Martin, because Martin thought he could play a game with two avatars and win, and instead - and instead Jon came after Martin in the Lonely, and now Lukas has surely killed him. He knows one of the two died but that's exactly when his memories end.

He draws in on himself, dragging in a breath by inches. ]

Don't, Jon.

"Hm? I had chosen too. It was my destiny foretold and written in the stars since my childhood." He said mildly, but he appreciated her thoughtfulness. Here, he's no longer has any ties to the goddess anymore. He has tried to sense her across the universe, but there's no signal for him to connect to Athena.

It is crowded, but it's a happy atmosphere. There maybe an occasional bump, but it does raise the good energy as people chat and dine in one place. The hostess leads them to a table and sitting at one of the seats where it's the least crowded.

"Not many, but there are holidays here. The last one celebrates winter and gift-giving last month."

(There are vegetarian options on the menu!) With a nod, "Desserts and tea." He said as he placed his order with the waiter and orders a set of sandwiches, soup, and salad too. When the food arrives, there's a tray enough to feed for four.

"Help yourself. So, heron clan? Is your people are like that? With wings and grace such as yourself?"

No. No, Martin. I never got to thank you. And you deserve to know.

[Normally. Haru is the topic of gossip, so having this female wolf sitting across from her, leaning in with that same sort of girlish excitement the other females at Cherryton high had around lunchtime, is somewhat of a surreal experience. As with her friends at university, she's wondering just how she'll fuck things up this time, but for now...she'll enjoy it.

And it truly is bizarre just how comfortable she is staring down into the moving maw of a wolf.]

Wait, what do you mean all fours. Like-- [Well, when she thinks of being on all fours, one thing comes to mind.

But then Juno is showing her a picture of something she's never seen before in her life, and she nearly slams her mug down, standing up on her chair with her hands brace on the table.]

No! What the heck is that? [Just gonna grab at your device, sorry Juno. She minds the claws.] What's wrong with it??

[ A sharper flinch. ]

Please don't, you don't - the Buried would. Probably have been better.

What? [Jon's look turns into one of deep concern.]

Martin, what do you mean? What's happened?

[ sorry in advance to Rin, for when there's an event where she'll have to spill these deets in front of everyone for some weird Alien Reason or another... for now, her so-called 'secrets' are safe with Diarmuid. don't worry, he won't tell the whole world that you're a marshmallow inside.

hopefully.

he makes a mental note that there are more Servants rolling around in this place than he anticipated— a 'Wildcard' and another one from his future, great— and nods, to affirm that he's paying attention. ]

Understood. I'll do my utmost not to make a scene, then— for your sake, as much as mine.

[ because... lol... Servant battles. one wrong move, and it'll turn into a deathmatch.

here's another mental note, though: dial it back. he sees the blush dusting Rin's cheeks, and subtly turns his head so that his charm spot is obscured. just in case... just in case. ]

...And if I'm keeping you, there's no need to stay. I've troubled you for long enough. [ soft consideration, upended by another gentle tease. ] Your Servant will worry if you spend too much time around another.

[Shadow the Hedgehog: Ultimate Hobo.]

No, not really. [Then why did he even care if a room had a person in it or not? Probably because he wanted to see who would be dumb enough to just settle in like good little sheep.]

[ —And the shininess dims for a second. Haurchefant has his perceptive moments amidst the times where he's silly enough to bring a gift chocobo to the Tribunal. To not ruin the mood, of course. He'd want to ask Cid something like "What's the matter, has something happened in my absence?" Even a moment where someone aches and buries it should not happen in the first place. ]

[ Damn it. He'd hoped he'd gotten away for a moment there. ]

You don't want to know.

[ But if it's gone like it is now, with Cid giving him the okay to try out some silly virtual amusement, then he can do that instead. We'll skip to the part where he's all geared up and ready, trying to chat up with the others and getting promptly ignored because he should do that in game or something. ]

Ahaha...! My apologies.

[ Well his first attempt didn't go too well. He has to rub his neck since that sure was a flying scythe that ended him. There's some downtime before he respawns back on the field, so maybe can get some advice from a friend. Haurchefant lifts the visor from his face. ]

Cid! Are guns difficult to use? I am reminded of how adventurers comment on Ishgard's dated ways of combat.

[ Thus, he will try something new! No sword and shield for now. ]

This is me Martin, of course I want to know.

[Haru barely knows this guy!! For all she knows he could be getting off to it!

Her back is to him & the phantoms on the bed, trying to turn the door handle to get out. It rattles, locked, and she sucks air between her teeth, annoyed.]

I didn't choose it. If I was going to choose something, it would have been a park, or the gardening-- like I said.

[Ugh.. She rattles the door again, pausing when she hears him mention Legosi. Her ear flicks back a bit, towards him.]

Yeah, it's him. [And she can't even process this guy knowing him, because it's then the phantom-Haru cries out, her small rabbit form stopping short from entering the open mouth of the wolf.

My body...tried to enter your mouth. I'm sorry...

The real Haru then turns to face Josuke, still trying to turn the door handle as she looks at him over her shoulder, smiling a broad and fake smile.]

And since you know him, you're not going to talk about what you're listening to. Right?

[ Okay, fine, you win that point, Jonathan Sims. Martin makes an exasperated noise. ]

Then compel it out of me. If you want to know it that badly.

You really wanna come shopping with me?

[He teases lightly with a smile, but he doesn't mind the company, and begins to walk. The stranger looks like he could use some time getting out of his own head a little bit.]

Sure, Chroma's weird. But it's better than some alternatives. [It's less harmful than blastia and its effects on aer in Yuri's world, for instance.] Guess the only downside is that it's no good for tough guys who wanna do everything alone.

[He gives Asch a knowing look, although it's really the pot calling the kettle black in this particular instance.]

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▶ TDM .011

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