prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .011

Entry tags:

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

[ Makoto looked over when he realized he wasn’t alone. He unclipped the earphones only to hear that last bit. Huh, another student of Gekkoukan High, then? Looking at her, he got the same nostalgic feeling. She also wore the same headphones as him, only red. How strange.

He sat up properly, leaning back on his hands. ]

You went to this school too, then?

Edited (Icon) 2020-01-09 20:14 (UTC)

Yeah. [ a nod, as minako keeps her hands loosely in her coat pockets. ] I transferred here for my second year. Didn't get to graduate, though.

[ those headphones of his are standing out too. wait, could he be...? no, no, the odds of that are. low. right? but the sakura... ]

No? That’s a shame. Neither did I though, so I guess I know the feeling.

[ A little too well, if you asked him. But it just had to be a coincidence. Kids dropped out all the time, his headphones weren’t unique or rare, and obviously anyone could have gone to this school.

Nah, it was a coincidence. Unlike Minako, he had no inkling of another person who took the same path as him, made the same friends, and made the same sacrifice. Just in another world. ]

... Yeah. [ ... okay, she at least wants to be sure, now. she exhales, turning her attention back to him fully. ] Aa, but this takes me back...! Last time I was here, my friends and I had all promised to meet up here on Graduation Day. I made it, but besides Aigis, [ if he doesn't recognize the name, she'll play it off, but... ] everyone was late. They had a good reason, though.

[ Makoto sat up straighter at the mention of Aigis, eyes widened in both shock and confusion. ]

W-Wait, what? You made a promise to Aigis to meet here at graduation? I don’t understand, how do you know Aigis?

[ He stood up now. ]

I made the same promise to her. Her and my friends and...

[ This is beyond strange. What was going on? ]

[ and there it is.

minako exhales, sadness in those red eyes now, smile tightening. she looks over to him from the railing. ]

It's a long story. [ she reaches into her coat, undoing the clasp to her concealed holster and retrieving her evoker. just gonna grasp it by the muzzle and hold it up for him to see. at this point she knows he'll recognize it. ] And it's all really hard to explain. But... I'm Minako Arisato. What's your name?

[ Of course he recognizes it, the very same was holstered at his hip. His mouth tightened as he looked. It was sad, really. That someone else had to made the same choice he did. If even what he heard was the same as him, then why wouldn’t that be the same too.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, shoulders slouching. ]

Makoto Yuki. I’d like to hear the explanation regardless. Please.

[ So, this was the Minako he’d heard mentioned before. Some things fell into place. How some people recognized his uniform but not him. It was confusing but not impossible to understand. Still, he’d like to hear it from her. ]

[ she nods, stowing her evoker again. ]

I'm... not really sure about all the details. The Mitsuru and Shinjiro you knew were here a while ago, but they didn't really... [ she trails off, shaking her head. this next thing isn't something she tends to talk about at all, but if anyone would understand... ] If I had to guess? Different worlds means a different family was on the bridge. Or maybe we don't exist in each other's worlds at all? I don't know.

I'm sorry, I know this must be a lot.

I see...

[ He supposed there being proof that his friends from his... world? Timeline? was relief enough. But it was also a bit horrifying to know that someone else went through the exact same event that he did ten years ago. ]

Then... you... also had Ryoji inside of you. If you were on that bridge, Aigis used you as a vessel as well for Death. Right?

... Yeah. [ she nods, slowly, closing her eyes for a moment. ] Then ten years later, I got an offer to come to Gekkoukan, and... well! [ she waves a hand, not bothering to put on a smile or cheer in her voice right now. ]

You know the rest, Makoto-kun.

So it seems.

[ It came out as a heavy sigh and he sat back down again, hands still in his pockets. ]

Yukari... she’s from your um, timeline? I was told she was here but you didn’t mention her with Mitsuru or Shinjiro...

Yeah. [ she nods, moving to sit next to him, quiet for a moment. ] Ryoji too. He's here, he's... he's okay.

They'd love to meet you, you know. [ minako knows how this has to feel. she's been on the other side of this. ]

...are... you sure?

[ Wouldn’t it just be awkward? That he knows what knows about them but they don’t know him. He figured that might just creep them out, in fact. Well, okay maybe not Ryoji but probably Yukari. ]

I think I would just make things awkward.

Yukari knows about you. I was... actually pretty insecure about you for a while, after Mitsuru and Shinjiro told me...? But they wouldn't just turn their backs on you. And you'll have me backing you up.

[ she nudges his side, grinning. ]

Besides! Me and Yukari have been taking care of Koromaru, and I bet he's missed having you around.

Edited 2020-01-09 23:47 (UTC)

[ He huffed a small laugh through his nose, cheeks maybe turning a little pink at hearing that Mitsuru and Shinjiro told Minako good things. He wasn’t sure they would purposefully say anything bad and honestly, had their roles been reversed he couldn’t say he wouldn’t have been insecure too. But it was still good to hear all the same.

Of course, Makoto just about lights up at hearing Koromaru. Well, lighting up for Makoto anyway. ]

Koro-chan is here too? Then, uh... can I see him?

[ What? It didn’t hurt to ask first! ]

Edited 2020-01-09 23:52 (UTC)

[ she grins at that, ear-to-ear. yeah, she got a smile out of him! she loves when that happens. doesn't matter who. ]

Of course! He's the Koro-chan who remembers you, actually... I usually forget. It's easier with him. [ a slightly sheepish giggle there. ] Shinjiro brought him here a while ago. He's just outside the pod, want me to go get him? Or should we go somewhere else?

Edited 2020-01-14 04:50 (UTC)

[ The fact that Koro-chan would remember him did make Makoto happy. It didn’t matter that he was a dog, he was still a valuable friend. ]

We can go somewhere else.

[ He pulled the control in his pocket that had set up the pod, deactivating the setting so they could leave through the exit. ]

How was Shinjiro? When he was here.

He was, uh... [ that's a complicated question, for reasons minato can probably guess at. ] He was good, I think. Doing well. He was from September, so he didn't really know either of us that well yet... but he was really sweet to me, even though he didn't know me from home.

[ koromaru looks up from where he's patiently sitting and then stands with a bark, tail wagging and eyes lighting up at the sight of minato, barreling towards him and then rolling over at his feet. ]

Oop, there he goes--! I'm jealous, Minato-kun, he's gonna be giving you alllll his attention now.

Ah... yeah, I suppose that makes sense.

[ Shinjiro always had that hidden kind streak.

Minato immediately knelt down to Koromaru, laughing softly as he rubbed that exposed belly. The dog whined and cried loudly, earning a few looks from passerbys but it was okay. Koromaru was clearly just so happy and Minato quietly shushed him.

He got Koromaru back on his feet and then picked him up with a grunt, letting the albino dog lick his face. ]

Heh, maybe, but he loves everyone. Don't you, Koro-chan?

[ He barked and Minato leaned close to Minako so Koromaru could give her kisses as well. See? ]

Heh, he better love me, I've been spoiling him rotten! [ she laughs along with the dog kisses, scritching koromaru's ears. ] There's a pretty good cafe near here. It's not as nice as Chagall, but there shouldn't be too many people around right now. C'mon!

[ aaaand off she goes. after one more bit of headrubs for koromaru. sorry minato, this one's high energy. ]

Living the high life, I see, Koro-chan.

[ High energy indeed, it was almost delayed when he actually went to follow her. He quickly set Koromaru down, brushing off his uniform of the pale dog hair, and both were quickly trotting after her to catch up. ]

As long as the coffee is good, it should be fine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .011

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

rolling w the name change

o7

no subject

no subject