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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a; meet the neighbours
[ so here's the thing, doppo doesn't know how many years of therapy he's gonna have to have just to get over the trauma of waking up practically encased by crystals out in the godforsaken wildernes with only himself and mounting anxiety and an absolute belief that he's probably going to fucking die out here because he's just a salaryman with his life and his stupid luggage on wheels with paperwork that should probably be handed in yesterday and absolutely zero idea of how to survive this.

it should be his fault, right? somehow? he took a wrong turn somewhere, because of course something this shitty would happen to him, and now he's gone and inconvenienced sensei and hifumi again for the millionth time, and this time with no emotional support doctor or host to keep him in check, doppo spirals and practically slumps over on his knees in the sand --

-- up until he's discovered by a bunch of knights(?) and hauled off to their strange new world, transported to a moon, of all things, and doppo has lost track of how many times he's pinched himself to figure out that this, in fact, is not some alcohol-laced dream and he isn't really lying in a park somewhere blitzed out of his mind.

no, he's actually here, awake and named 'moonblessed' (when the moon knights told him that, everything in doppo just collectively decided to reject that assertion, and he'd only made a strained, weird wheeze-laugh and that was that).

anyway, the long and short of it is that doppo's finally managed to stumble his way into a too-loud, too-bright city, because of course it had to be a city, and him with his faithful rolling lugagge that's just popped a wheel so now it's rattling weird along the pavement, and naturally that's all his fault, right, all his fault? god, give him a break already.

finally, wretchedly, doppo simply decides to sit by the curb near a somewhat less busy road to wrap his mind around the overwhelming turn of events he'd just had. ]

A-aaaah. I just took a shortcut back from work, I didn't expect to end up here! I'm so sorry, they've got the wrong guy -- ! Augh, I'm going to be late to meet sensei and Hifumi and they're going to end up waiting, and it'll be all my fault if something terrible happens --

[ the muttering continues: he's so sorry that the right guy or girl, whoever the sucker might be, is probably circling around somewhere waiting to be taken to this weird place?? if he hadn't been so dumb to take that chance, if he had stuck to the proper road, like what his boss said today, 'ah, doppo, you should be more diligent in doing things the proper way', and if only he applied that to his normal route home... and oh, this is totally, completely his fault...

someone... please help him. ]

b; god save us from the queen - teatime

[ this is a really, really weird place, but doppo's at least gotten the hang of some of it -- at least, enough to figure out that he's somehow found himself in the midst of a party in the groves. it's quieter, more peaceful, and doppo's only a little mollified by the presence of tea and cookies.

he'll regroup here and figure out his next steps; he might have crippling anxiety, but this tea is strangely energising, like he could practically finish up a year's worth of backlog in one sitting, or launch a one-man expedition to figure a way out of here and back to sensei and hifumi -- he's not arrogant to imagine that they might be worried sick about him, because really, a lot of the time he's an inconvenience, and who knows, they might be tired of him already and -- nope. spiraling. no. sensei's always warned him against this, so. no.

right, then. he takes his last swig of tea like it could give him liquid courage, and goes up to the closest person he can find in this place before he can shrivel up and scamper away to nurse the inevitability of failed plans: ]

Um... I'm very sorry to bother you. Would you happen to know how to get out of here?

c; say cheese
[ parties are not his thing. they're totally not his thing, but he's there the way wallflowers usually dragged to these things usually are: against their will and firmly on the periphery. there is a glass of dangerously radioactive(?) drink in his hand that doppo probably shouldn't even be considering putting inside him (but he will, if it means the end of the way too raucous festivities exploding all around him.

and so he finishes it all in one go, wishes for a quick end to things (it doesn't happen), and decides to offer his pack of multi-colored sparklers to the nearest person. ]

Hey, uh... sorry. Do you want this? I was just leaving, s-so...

d; wildcard / text him

Edited 2020-01-08 15:34 (UTC)

[Wataru is just heading back to his apartment from rehearsal, hair up under a hat, sunglasses and a mask on, looking rather uninteresting, when he hears the man talking to himself. Curious and nosy, he pauses, ready to offer assistance or admonishment, whichever the guy needs.

But then...]

I'm sorry to interrupt your self-pity but... did you say "sensei" and "Hifumi"?

[ oh.

oh. doppo looks up to see some guy who looks like he's probably about to commit some kind of crime. but then again, he sounds like he knows the names, which makes doppo more inclined to forgo the potential greater civic good in view of getting information -- ]

Ah -- yeah. Do you know them? Are they here?

[ did doppo accidentally drag them here?!?! oh, no. he stiffens. incoming anxiety-fuelled mental gymnastics in three, two...]

Are they hurt? Oh, god, it's my fault, isn't it... I really shouldn't have taken that shortcut...

[He nods vigorously, taking off his hat and letting obscenely long, silver-blue hair fall free. Beaming, Wataru offers the dejected man a hand up.]

Doctor-san and Host-san are dear friends of mine! Why, they've been nothing but wonderful to me. Please don't worry, as they're quite safe.

[When he doesn't take the hand, Wataru settles a hand on his shoulder.]

They've taken very good care of me! They're wonderful people, and if you care for them so, you must be Amazing yourself.

Edited 2020-01-09 04:56 (UTC)

[ ahahahaha you're a very positive guy, mr stranger! doppo stares at the ridiculously long, beautiful hair that's tumbling onto his shoulders, momentarily distracted by just how gorgeous he is. but something about his words catch his attention -- dear friends.

sensei and hifumi are dear friends of his, and in the midst of his confusion (because surely they can't reach here all that much quicker than him) he can't help a cold sort of dread. has hifumi already replaced him? can't be helped, right? this man's shiny, gorgeous, sunny and warm and kind the way doppo can never hope to be. ]

A-ah, yeah. [ but they're safe, and that's what matters, right...? being alone isn't so bad, right? ] You've become close so quickly?

kannonzaka doppo | hypnosis mic

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