▶ TDM .011

[prismods]

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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.

Comments

[firebranding]

[out of everything, the take away Jin Guangyao gets from this is in his rather grumpy (definitely not sulky!) response of:] Won't get trampled. I'm hardly that tiny.

[He's small, he knows, don't rub it in! Except that's not what Binghe was saying at all. He realizes that a few seconds later and closes his eyes, feeling a flash of irritation at himself. He shakes his head and tries to focus, his hands clambering for purchase against Binghe's arms.] I can stand.

[A broken golden bird? Terribly apt, really, and he grunts in irritation again as he struggles to his feet. His limbs are loose and his muscles too relaxed, but Guangyao holds his pride with a grip like a vice and refuses to let himself stumble. Despite his drunkenness, he rises gracefully, his jaw tense and his eyelashes fluttering; even if he has to lean against Binghe rather heavily to make it so, there's a triumph in his eyes when he manages to stand and remain so.

Granted, he's only remaining because Binghe is there and Guangyao's hands still grip at his forearms, but he's standing. He lifts his gaze to meet Binghe's, his smile showing a hint of dimples again.]

I can stand. [he repeats it as if to say See? I proved it. On his own however... That's the real test, though Guangyao doesn't seem about ready to let go of him just yet. Or maybe he's not even aware he's still clinging in the first place.]

[bailian]

[ There is a considerable difference in height between them. Roughly seven inches of empty air extends from where the crown of Jin Guangyao's head resides and Luo Binghe's own height reaches its zenith. Though that space doesn't read as a void in need of filling; where the absence of more to this slight figured man translates into him falling short.

The smallness of that space Jin Guangyao's body occupies only amplifies all else he does through the clutch of slender hands and a gaze that seeks approval. On a woman it would seem like vulnerability; the kind of fragile sense of being that silently asks for protection and support in it's every gesture.

A contradiction in the way the man caught within his hold struggles to regain a lost composure like it's his last breath, driven by some internalized sense of shame and willful pride to prove himself to a stranger whose judgment shouldn't hold the water it does.

A breath of a laugh is given at such triumph given over a man finding his own feet, breathed in a way that softens it enough to keep from reading as mockery. There is a teasing lit to his tone, lifted in equal measures of curiosity as well as the amusement over how simply standing is worth this much satisfaction. Ultimately it won't do any good if remaining upright in the middle of the street is the end conclusion of his abilities. ]

So you can. [ He hums in thought. ] The question is whether you'll be able to keep that up long enough to walk.

[ Every point of contact feels like the flare of stars coming to life; little flickers of warmth lit from within. A kind of simultaneous kindling of power that chroma provides alongside the healing factor only one of them is in need of. He feels it in the lean against his form, then bleeding down from the grip of jade-white fingers coiled as claws might into the muscle of his arms.

Well acquainted with how chroma makes a liar out of him, singing sensation into veins like a siren's subtle cries, Binghe knows better than to get swept up by the illusion it provides. But oh, it gives and gives all the same. Even as a slight frame tucks against his own, he's not confused by all those endlessly deceptive signals that would, in the company of a man he'd recognize even if blind, lead arms to wind around a waist so tight. Yet they move even still. There's no adoring slide of arms about the ornamentation of a decorative waist-belt, but a securing of hands there in hopes of steadying a body intent on pitching itself in whatever direction gravity dictates. ]

Try a few steps and see if you can manage to stay upright.

[firebranding]

[he's sturdy, the muscles beneath his hands strong in a way that reminds him of better times.] Ah, da ge... Such a simple challenge. Of course I can do that. [But no, it's not his 'da ge', it can't be, but for the moment it is. He leans in unconsciously, eyelids lowered in a dreamy, hazy look as he hears without really listening.

He forces himself upright and shakes his head to clear it--which does nothing to help, it only makes him dizzier, a bubble of giggling laughter welling up in his throat. He tries to clear his throat to hide it and turns away. Just a few steps? He can do that!

The alcohol makes his head swim and he takes one step, seems triumphant, and then tries to take another. The world seems to tilt drastically sideways and he immediately begins to crumple to the ground.]

[bailian]

[ Beliving he has a firm grip upon this fellow and the situation as a whole, the sudden wash of affection breezing in from out of the blue throws him off guard. Shuttled his way under the veil of crescent lashes against cheeks and soft-spoken names of endearment, it's enough to trip up even his tongue too long to dispell the accusation in time.

When he does find the words to speak they're silenced once more by peels of laughter ringing like bells. Each drunkenly chimes away, oblivious to the inappropriate looks they garner. Most come from the few passersby who have yet to drink their night away. Which means they're more than eager to judge with their sharp-witted lucidity and ample boredom. There's no reasoning with a man whose head is full of drink, with even less worth in reprimanding him for behaviors outside his own control. The onlookers, however, aren't so lucky, considering the black qi gathering around him as a result of being gossiped over and gawked at is enough to send the lot of them scurrying off for less dangerous entertainment.

As fate would have it soon as the few sober onlookers disperse, who might have been able to offer assistance in his place, Jin Guangyao takes it upon himself to give a repeat performance of his earlier fall. Stomach dropping as the man all but buckles as a puppet would once its strings are cut, he's there to reach out for him in a sudden grab. A cultivator's speed is all that keeps the man from dashing himself onto the ground for a second time. ]

That's enough walking for one night. [ He's exasperated but firm; this isn't a discussion. ] At this rate if you keep going your robes will wind up red instead of gold.

[ Removing any chance for a third attempt Binghe slides an arm under legs shaky as a new colt's while the other wraps itself around the man's slender shoulders and back. Settling the stranger into his arms before plucking him off the street, he takes a glance around for someone else who would like to lend a helping hand or claim this little bird who has obviously flown too far from a gilded cage likely as golden as his robes. ]

I don't see anyone rushing to take you home, so I'm afraid you get to sleep this off someplace that'll take us without calling the Moonknights.

[ Considering Jin Guangyao is bloodied and bleary-eyed in Binghe's arms, the situation seems...highly questionable at best. And only worth turning a blind eye to if the establishment is disreputable and willing to accept the level of chroma that will buy a room he can foist this poor fellow off on. Any doubts he may have on the immediate area lacking such accommodations are dispelled with a quick glance around, noting the copious if not negligibly sanitary rooms offered in spades alongside the festivities.

It's a suspiciously convenient solution to hordes of drunken party-goers, likely set up in hopes of all the questionably consequential chroma it will rake in. ]

[firebranding]

[The whispers and stares reach him a moment too late in his muddled mind. He goes still, the noise soft in reality, but in his mind a crack of thunder that shakes him to his core.]

Wait-- [He flinches as he's picked up, arms instinctively moving around his neck to cling to him.] Da ge, wait-- Staring-- [People were looking. And here he was, being picked up like he weighed nothing at all, like some precious princess or damsel in need.

He goes tense and still in his arms, hiding his face in Binghe's chest as his mind races--or struggles to try, anyway. He was... He needed to... What?] Put me down. They can't see me like this. [What would they say? What would they whisper next? He blinks slowly and breathes against Binghe's neck, little puffs of breath as he tries not to think about why being held so close feels so good or why the idea of leaving said arms sounds so terrible.]

Why does it feel so-- Ah. This is moonlacing, isn't it? Does it always feel so intense? [He makes a soft laughing noise, desiring more and yet knowing he shouldn't.] Is it always this potent?

[bailian]

[ Those arms latched around him make the embrace an equal one, with Binghe's support matched by clinging that's strong enough to ensure his charge won't slip from his hold. It means the reverberations of each step away, towards the nearest and most hospitable place of rest, don't so much as jostle the fragile cargo of a man locked in the throes of distress. Not even when he crosses the threshold and pays for a room with a swipe of his wrist-bound device that's blessedly charged by the night and not per hour. How Binghe plans to enter their room without dislodging the man in his arms, once he traipses around long enough to find it, is another matter entirely. ]

Who do you keep calling? [ There's a quiet scoff over suffering the pleas for a man who isn't here. ] Da ge isn't going to answer you no matter how many times you try.

[ Softer reprimands than necessary are tossed back in return for being mistaken for another. He knows how liquor is capable of working a kind of terrible magic on those afflicted, where things not present in time or space are still seen by the imagination. He can't fault the man for those effects; though Binghe can still comment upon them without an ounce of guilt. That is before he's reminded of their prior audience; squinting irritably at the recent memory of those willing to enjoy a drunken spectacle but not lift a finger towards this man's aid. ]

No one's looking at us anymore. Once they realized their amusement was going to cost them those cowards took off.

[ People never seem to change no matter the world. It's easy to sneer and judge those cast low by circumstance when they haven't got the power to do anything about it. But those same people who soak up the suffering of others are all too quick to beat a quick retreat when their bullying is bound to have consequences.

This time Binghe's not the one in the dirt, beaten and covered in blood. But rewind the clock and turn back two decade's worth of time, then he'd be no better off than Jin Guangyao. Although a heady drink hadn't been what landed him there, and the only one to lift him from beneath the ridicule and scorn of his supposed betters died there herself. ]

Mhm. [ Noncommittal agreement, because he can't argue that. ] It's an intoxicating thing, no better than the drinks tonight.

Maybe worse, when it isn't like we can simply refuse to Moonlace or control how it makes us feel.

[ Discussing the effects of contact suggests this man is recent arrival; unfamiliar enough with what Moonlacing is like to revel in it in ways that uptick his concern. While refusing to Moonlace comes with the kind of grave concerns he's experienced firsthand, indulging leaves one at risk of getting addicted to the feeling and losing some sense of yourself in the process. It's one of the many fears he'd had upon first arriving.

Whatever this man does with the information is up to him, but he should at least keep in mind the dangers that lie in both extremes. If not he may follow those feelings in ways he wouldn't otherwise act on.]

sorry for the delay!

[firebranding]

I-- [His mind goes a bit blank at the question, like it's rebooting all over again. Who? Who indeed. No one that matters, not any more.] A ghost. That's all. [He feels small--not just physically, as Binghe certainly towers over him, but in every way. Small, and exhausted. God, he was so tired. His soul felt tired.

He listens, rolling the words over in his mind and matching it up with what he's learned since he's arrived.] Convenient and dangerous. But intimacy in exchange for currency is hardly novel. This place just seems to take it a step further than normal. [His tone is rather bitter as he says that though, his pleasant buzz souring as his thoughts spiral]

[bailian]

[ He takes the meaning to be less than literal when everyone has someone whose lingers like a specter in the back of weary, home-sick minds. But those that haunt the Moonblessed here are typically only figments of want and longing; people remembered from a life that's been stolen away. Not often the dead who may or may not prowl this world too.

Perhaps he should second-guess the meaning when his own ghosts from the past have come here to roost in glorious flesh and bone. ]

By now I'm more surprised when someone here isn't haunted by something.

[ There's an abrasiveness to his words, not reflected in the way he shifts that fine-boned figure within both arms to key open the door to their room. How he manages without dropping his human parcel is a little bit cultivation skill and the rest nothing more magical than arm-strength alone. ]

It's not merely repayment for services rendered. [ Binghe scoffs through his nose, agreeing with the thinly veiled comparison. ] Sometimes moonlacing is all that determines whether you live or die.

[ A demolished rooftop became the backdrop for a battlefield and Luo Binghe's not so final resting place, all because of a loss in chroma. Or more importantly, a lack thereof, spurned on by stubborn-headed determination. No amount of kisses had breathed life back into his broken body. This planet had done that much later, but its lesson was left behind. Like one more scar he keeps, it reminds him to never repeat past mistakes. ]

Someone once told me to do whatever it takes to survive this place, instead of trying to fight it. To live, even when it hurts. It's not bad advice.

[ Shen Qingqiu's words find themselves upon his tongue, hoping to speak more reason into another than they had with him. ]

[firebranding]

Maybe that’s why we’re here. It seems meaningless to pull in people who are boring or aren’t useful in some way... [He’s also yet to meet anyone without some interesting story or ability or something.

His thoughts momentarily scatter as Binghe maneuvers him, however, lost in the impressed awe and amusement that he moves Guangyao with such ease. He supposed that the words he speaks are true—the words are different, but the dies behind them is the same as what Guangyao has been living by for most of his life. Survive, climb, don’t let go of that ambition... And what had it gotten him?

He doesn’t want to think about it. He presses a hand to his eyes and tries to clear his mind. A nod of acceptance—sure, he understands the advice.] Thats all I know how to do, survive... [Up until he couldn’t anymore.

Ah, well. It’s not important right now.]

Do I even weigh anything to you? [she focuses instead on an easier line of questioning, faintly amused at the difference between them.]