▶ TDM .011

[prismods]

plays hard to get

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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

[shixiong]

[ there's a brief shake of his head to the question of sustenance--there wasn't much chance to think about those things--and besides there's a much more pressing concept. yin yu's brows furrow behind his mask. ] ...yes. [ it's a bit surprising that he doesn't know? yin yu was quite sure dianxia had been in contact with hua cheng--he knows he's not the most memorable person in the world, but he thought at least perhaps he'd made a memorable exit.

per hua cheng's inspection, he turns his wrist to let his sleeve slide backwards, allowing him to see the burn mark. the skin is ugly and miscolored, a scar, but it certainly is not the black shackle he'd been attuned to. ] Chengzhu, you don't remember?

[fafa]

[ Hua Cheng shakes his head. ]

People here come from different times. The last that I remember is Mount Tonglu, while His Highness and Shi Qingxuan are from much earlier, with no idea at all about what Shi Wudu did. And I'd rather that stays so, for now.

But this is different.

[ A moment's hesitation, but instead of sending a butterfly, Hua Cheng reaches to touch Yin Yu's hand himself, holding his palm and running the other hand's fingers over the scar, so lightly.

Moonlacing is important, after all. ]

He tried to break you, too?

[ More asking for confirmation than anything else.

He may not have lived it yet, but he has had a long time to study His Highness's enemy. Ready for when he strikes again, as much as possible, pending His Highness's decisions. ]

[shixiong]

[ ah... mt tonglu. that was a long time ago. he wonders if hua cheng remembers his first less than pleasant interaction with Someone Who Will Not Be Named Lest He Is Summoned from mt tonglu. he probably does, that's how yin yu's life seems to work most days.

best not to mention it. besides, more serious things are mentioned. he gives a brief nod - a non verbal i understand - when hua cheng mentions the windmaster, then lets his gaze drift back down to the hand offered. it's weirdly warm when chengzhu touches him, for someone with such cold ghostly fingers. it's all a bit overwhelming. (it's not like he's had the chance to moonlace yet.)

his expression changes behind his mask, only slightly. there's a hint of bitterness in his tone, wan. ] It was successful, though I was my own undoing, in the end. [ again. ] The last thing I remember is the shackle sucking away my life force. Taizi Dianxia was with me.

[ as well as... well. unimportant. ] Chengzhu, you knew from the beginning. [ about jun wu, anyway. it's not a question, just affirmation of something that doesn't surprise yin yu at all. jun wu...it was still a bit odd to think of, even after he had quite literally saw yin yu to his end. ]

[fafa]

[ Hua Cheng's mouth purses until his lips are pale and thin, but he doesn't withdraw the touch. Yin Yu will need this, no matter what. ]

I knew he would go after His Highness in every way that he can, and he is ruthless. He was so the first time, too - and he knows that His Highness cares about the people in his life.

[ He'd suspected that he would go after others with the curse shackle, too. But while he had tried to give shelter to Yin Yu, clearly his efforts were not enough.

He'd ask if His Highness was unharmed, but making him watch that probably means that there was still time for Hua Cheng to reach him. ]

You will be safe here.

[ He does let go now, tilting his head. ]

Take a look around the apartment. Let me know if there is something you need.

[shixiong]

[ ah...." ruthless". yin yu certainly knows about that, doesn't he? he listens to hua cheng's explanation of jun wu and finds it aligns nicely with his own experiences. ] If there's anything you'd like me to tell you about that time, I will. What little I know, anyway. His highness was running off to confront him the last time I... when it ended.

[ dianxia left him with yizhen, bawling and getting blood and snot all over him. that's the last sight he saw, which was dreadfully unfortunate and did nothing to unseat the guilt that has crawled around in his stomach since he first ascended. how tragic.

the comment to safety makes him nod, and yin yu shifts, turning to look at the apartment around them. it is quite nice, and... ] ...this place is strange.

[ actually what is all of this stuff. genuinely, actually: what the fuck. ] What I saw from the outside reminded me of the Ghost City, though.

[fafa]

[ Who here hasn't been killed by him, after all?

Anyway. Hua Cheng considers the offer, then nods. But instead of asking, he narrows his eye a little. ]

Not right now. Though I don't mind if you talk about any of it.

[ Because Yin Yu would have mentioned if Hua Cheng himself had been taken out of the picture at this point, so there is no point of asking - he either doesn't know, or the answer is no. The rest...

Oh well. Yin Yu is not exactly the most talkative, at least he hasn't been in the years since he has been working for Hua Cheng, but things like death. Sometimes one did need to come to terms with it with the aid of words.

... then his eyebrow rises just a touch. ]

Do you mean the city looks like the Ghost City, or just this place?

[ Just asking. He hasn't exactly been trying to make his residence any more conspicuous than it was to begin with, but, well. He is who he is, chaos clinging to him in ways that he doesn't care to smooth out. ]

[shixiong]

The city. [ yin yu clarifies, and steps past "i don't mind if you talk about it", because he's not planning on talking about it. in fact, if he's given the choice, yin yu will just internalize this until the end of time and say nothing - but if chengzhu needs to know, then he'll know. he's not exactly the type of person to talk about his feelings.

(especially after his pre-soul-shattering outburst. yikes! no thanks.)

yin yu shifts to look towards the window, peeking out on the bright city itself. ] The noises, the sounds. [ a beat. ] The behavior.

[ the general debauchery, more like. ] It's all strange.

[fafa]

Mm. There is plenty enough chaos that I don't get bored. Not that I would, with His Highness here, but even so.

[ Hua Cheng watches him for a long moment, then shakes his head and tilts it towards the spare bedroom. ]

Rest. It will be quiet, if you need it.

[ He is not under any illusion that relaxing will be easy. Doesn't mean Yin Yu doesn't need it, so he should at least try. ]

[shixiong]

[ ah, good. his highness is around... that must be nice for chengzhu, though he doesn't say anything. if anyone has ever been privy to hua cheng's giant crush devotion, it has been yin yu, though he's never breathed a word about it to anyone, hua cheng himself included. it's just an unspoken thing. ]

Thank you, Chengzhu. As always, I'm in your care. [ yin yu gives a polite bow as always, his head dipping downwards. ] It may take me some time to become acclimated, but if there's anything I can do for you here, I'll do so with honor.

[ aka please give him jobs to do. please don't make him think about anything that happened let him just put his mask on and pretend again. yin yu has questions, many of them, but none he would ask his more-or-less boss, and none he thinks he knows the answer to, anyway. ]