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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[ the only advantage this nie huaisang has is having been here longer. he can easily draw a conclusion given the idiosyncrasies of this place, and how whimsical its nature is. this is real enough, even though by tomorrow it may not be at all. ]

Yes. [ with someone else he would be playing a game of 'i don't know' and coy looks, every bit as feigned as the innocence the other projects. it is their only defence - their acting and knowledge, it meant they survived. ] May I sit with you?

You can have the rest of the raspberries for your little one.

[ the other huaisang nods, turning his head slightly towards the plain spot of ground beside him. little fortune seems pleased with this development, and squirms around on the ground like an oversized cat so he can drape properly across this nie huaisang's lap and stick his tummy out underneath the other one's hands.

pet him please. it's a nice distraction for huaisang, who glances over his companion when he reaches for the raspberries to continue serving his griffin. that feeling remains...a strange want for honesty he's not sure he's felt in years. slowly, still on guard, he looses a tiny bit of information. nothing dangerous. ]

I've always had a hand for them, admired them. [ he scritches underneath the griffin's chin again. ] Though, I never imagined I'd be able to ride on one. I've no sword or saber to fly on - imagine the stories that would be told if I showed up to one of those conferences like this!

[ the headshaker and his bird. ]

[ it hurts, it hurts, it hurts to recognise himself so clearly. at least he feels none of the naivety in his counterpart which makes things simpler, otherwise how could he have brought himself to shatter the thin veil of truth?

he presses a loving hand against little fortune's head, feeling the silk feather slide between his fingers slowly. what a sturdy and magnificent beast this is.

huaisang laughs, genuine and bright before he shakes his head. ] Even if we were to arrive on such a magnificent beast our reputation is far too cemented for it to change.

But this world is full of strange things, you may find yourself flying on one of these outside of here. Not for certain but less impossible than it would be back home.

[ ah.

well. this nie huaisang is no headshaking fool either. maybe he is a bit birdlike; he tilts his head, and parrots back to him. ] "We"?

[ a huff, and then, a shake of his head, as he glances back at little fortune between them. ] Strange things indeed.

[ he ducks his head, interested in running his fingers down the edge of little fortune's beak, he's smiling still. but between two of them there is no doubt who dominates the act that this nie huaisang has just started to craft.

he parrots back, sweetly: ] We, yes, I don't know, maybe, I don't know. [ he stops stroking, ignoring the disgruntled purr of the creature, in favour of reaching over towards the other, hesitant.

he does not reach his destination and instead digs into his sleeve for a fan. lovingly crafted, with the finest of materials and painted with care. it is his favourite, a gift from his brother many years ago. ]

In this place, these things are possible.

I really don't know. [ nie huaisang completes, almost automatically, his voice at a murmur. of course he doesn't really know...

does he?

the possibility reels, that there's some sort of -- other him, somewhere in this world. the colors of his robes are dark and not so different, and he's already there by the time nie huaisang pulls the fan from his sleeve, lovely in color and craftsmanship. he shifts where he's settled to examine the brushwork pattern of the paint, and turns his own to the side to pull out one of his own.

his is not from his brother, but one of his own, painted by hand. the handwriting of characters should look nearly familiar, as he flicks his wrist to open his own for this other person's inspection. ] I do know that I am Nie Huaisang, the second son of my father, the sect leader of Qinghe Nie. [ a beat, and his mouth curls just faintly. ] The headshaker, as it were.

[ the other finishing the trademark phrase makes nie huaisang smile. something about this makes him giddy, as if a long-lost friend has finally come home.

he examines the other fan with great care - the fine craftsmanship and colours blending into each other. truly expensive and fine and the sort of thing nie huaisang would covet. ]

What a coincidence, so am I. [ he looks down at the griffon, then back up at nie huaisang - expression shifting into something softer and trusting, something that he manages to retain and jiang wanyin has brought out. a willingness to be vulnerable in front of others.

well, not others, just himself. ]

And I am so very glad to meet you, finally.

[ that's where he was expecting that to go, but somehow, not.

nie huaisang is suspicious, but this feels a bit like a dream. with the massive "bird" on his lap, it seems even further than reality, so would a double of himself be so strange? this version looks softer, younger, even more so than nie huaisang now. his brow furrows just slightly, and he also looks over the fan, matching him in gestures, though his face belays no such trusting. in fact, if anything, he seems to draw up a little into himself further. he's had no such kindnesses in his world, only jin guangyao's death, and a sense of resolution that resolved positively nothing. ]

Have you been waiting? [ he asks, a bit slowly, still watching the other him. it's like looking into a pond, the ripples across the water making the reflection just that hair of difference. how many other of these 'doubles' would there be? ] ...You will have to excuse me, if it seems a little strange. I think maybe I really don't know.

[ he taps the edge of the fan. ] Tell me something I would know. If you wouldn't mind. [ because i'm suspicious--though his instincts tell him the other nie huaisang must be know so too. ]

[ nie huaisang stops touching little fortune with his free hand; while he recognises some expressions in the other he understands that doubles they may be but they are not entirely the same. there are nuances between them, perhaps discrepancies in their timelines that make them shadows of each other.

the same but their own persons too. ] I have been, ever since two Wei Wuxian's showed up, the possibility was in the back of my mind. [ he shakes his head, a demure look over his fan then replaced by a smile that further betrays his youth. ] If I had met you without knowing of this possibility I would have doubted it too.

[ he flicks his fan closed with a resounding 'thwap', then faces nie huaisang, expression grave. there are many things he could say, about their habits and hobbies. of growing up and the importance of nie mingjue as their only family.

but that seems insufficient somehow. so huaisang settles on a name: ]

Jin Guangyao.

[ and that is all he has to say.

even just the name sends a cold chill of displeasure down nie huaisang's spine. his expression doesn't change, but inwardly, it turns tumultuous, and the careful circling of each other, the lightness to their original conversation--has quite gone. nothing else said matters.

how strange it is, to hear that name and know the person across from him is feeling the same. how strange to have someone else who knows jin guangyao's crimes as well as nie huaisang--of course it would be himself who understands. he looks across at the other nie huaisang, his free hand stilling against little fortune's head. ]

What of him, where you are? [ does he live? or is he dead as he deserves? ]

[ the name sends such rage across his slight frame, who knew that nie huaisang is capable of such depths of rage and hate? of course, this is possible in part because once upon a time he had looked to jin guangyao as a friend, a confidant, and he had been used against his brother.

huaisang knows he too let nie mingjue down.

never again. ]

He lives, still. Chief Cultivator, Sect Leader, untouchable. [ he presses his lips in a thin line. ] And where you are?

[ there’s a strange rush of adrenaline, like leaping into an ice cold pool of water, sensation, then, numbness. he feels for this other version of himself, trapped in a hellish game of go with the end nowhere in sight.

nie huaisang will give himself the end. ] Dead.

[ it is a hollow victory, but a victory none the less. the word comes out of his mouth more grim than gloating. ]

[ hearing that word, it makes huaisang shudder and his eyes flutter as if he could see it; unfolding in front of him all the ways he would like to make jin guangyao suffer. he does not know how much his victory will cost, but knowing that it will come —

— that it's inevitable like the sun rising and setting. that he will avenge his brother — there is relief too. ]

Good.

[ This nie huaisang nods, and doesn’t smile: the expression is more determined than anything else, maybe a little sad. at the end he is here, his brother no less dead (though safely buried). the world continues to turn, even though it long should have stopped when nie mingjue passed away.

the temple was only a few weeks ago. it feels like centuries and minutes at the same time. nie huaisang looks from his strange beast to his near copy, and feels the same thing he must have then—a sense of small relief. ] You’re still young: I shouldn’t tell you a tale and spoil the ending. [ though not childish. he knows the distinction between the truth and a lie. ] I’ve told no one, though a few have learned since on their own.

[ wei wuxian, naturally, and lan wangji. He’s sure the other him could figure it out. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .011

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i am in love

HFJFOR liaaaaa ;///;

clutches your hands

you’re too kind

▶ TDM .011

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

i am in love

HFJFOR liaaaaa ;///;

*clutches your hands*

you’re too kind

clutches your hands