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

Well... maybe they're idiots.

Or scared.

[ That's not a very nice thing to say about yourself, Jon. ]

Th-that's not it. I - look, I've only ever had three partners in my life? And none of them lasted past three dates.

[Jon has never been nice to himself.]

That doesn't sound so bad.

One of them was Tobias Fisher. In Research. The one who always insists that it's Tobias and never Toby.

[ Even in bed. Especially in bed. ]

Colossally bad idea, by the way. Hardly even had a date really. He just wanted to make his boyfriend jealous.

[Jon actually has to think to figure out who that was. He really had stuck mostly to himself, apart from Tim and Sasha.]

Wasn't he the one who made a big deal of showing off his skiing photos every few months?

[As if they should all be jealous when Jon had just found it embarrassing.]

And that sounds like a cruel thing for him to do.

God, yes. The prat had them plastered all over the ceiling of his bedroom. I wound up staring at them after we'd -

[ You know what, he doesn't want into any more detail. ]

Yes, well, pretty sure one of Jared's monsters got him in the attack, so.

[Jon gets the idea, and appreciates it. He has little enough interest in his own sex life. He's go no interest at all in someone else's.]

Well, I'm sure the research staff will appreciate fewer misfilings because he was looking at porn on his phone.

[ That's what Martin figured, yes. He'll spare you the details, Jon.

Also, he chokes at that. ]

R - really. I never knew he did that, but it makes sense.

[Jon manages a small smile at that. It's a horrible joke, but his humous has always tended towards the sarcastic.]

He did. It was unpleasant to encounter him.

[ Look. It's laugh or cry with some of these things. ]

Well, there you go then. A terrible relationship through and through.

You deserve better than him.

[ Does he. He's not sure. Martin glances over at Jon with an unreadable expression. Mostly ... fond? ]

Yes, well. I'd - confessed to someone recently, but it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped.

Oh. I- I see.

[There is a gaping pit that's opened up in his chest at that, something that threatens to strangle him.]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[ Oh. Wow. Instant regret. He hates that look on Jon's face, but he's terrified of explaining what he's actually referring to. When he'd been walking back with Jon, he'd promised himself that he wouldn't get into this, that he wouldn't apply even a little pressure to Jon on the subject, given his lack of memories and the fact that Martin hadn't really gotten Jon's response. But that facial expression ...

He swallows, thickly. Maybe if he navigates this in a way that makes it clear he doesn't expect a response? Ever? ]

It - it was - the situation was strange, I really thought I wasn't going to - to talk to you ever again -

[It's stupid really, to expect that- that Martin wouldn't pursue other people. It's not like either of them have said anything to each other, apart from Jon hearing gossip over tapes. And he's been unkind to Martin in the past, and Martin had made it very clear that Jon should stop trying to talk to him.

Martin does deserve better anyway.]

You don't owe me an explanation, Martin.

[ Well. These idiots deserve each other, at least. Martin reddens again, scrabbling for what to say next (again), uncertain of how he's somehow managed to fall even deeper into this verbal pit. ]

Yes. Yes, I do. Because - because otherwise you're going to get the wrong idea.

I'm not. I get it, Martin. It's okay.

[He was virtually dead for six months anyway. It's just natural that Martin would have thought over how terrible Jon was to him.]

[ Martin makes a frustrated noise. He'd hoped for a gentle, subtle explanation. Not ... ]

I - I confessed to you, all right? In the Lonely. Right before you went off and died.

[ ... that. ]

Oh. Oh!

[Jon stares at him, wide eyed but not hungry this time. Just... surprised? Relieved? it's a whole mess of emotions that he can't quite untangle.]

Oh, Martin I- um- that's not the best outcome. You're right.

[ Good. That is - better. He'd hated that hollow look; this bewildered relief is much better, even if it doesn't quite soothe Martin's heart the way he would have liked. Good job on making a mess of this, Martin Blackwood. ]

Right. So. There you go.

[ A pause. ]

You didn't - you didn't really respond before things happened. I don't expect - for god's sake, I'm from six months later, it wouldn't be remotely fair. But I didn't want you to think I'd - said that to someone else.

[There they went. And Martin- Martin liked him. Enough to confess to him at least. God, it makes him feel dizzy with relief, and maybe that's horribly selfish of him, but it's been Martin who- who'd kept him going in some ways.]

You would be well within your rights to have found someone else. I know I'm not the most- Well, I'm still glad. Because I do care about you. A lot.

[ Oh. Martin's expression softens. ]

I know, Jon. We haven't - had a good time of it recently. But I know.

I'm glad. I thought- I thought before the Unknowing how stupid I'd been, and that either of us might- well, die, or worse, without knowing.

[ That's - okay, that does surprise him. Martin has, of course, had a massive crush on Jon since ... the beginning? At least since Jon had invited him to stay in the panic room in the Archives. But he'd assumed Jon's feelings were much more recent. ]

You did? Is - is that part of why you agreed to my plan?

[ Keeping him safe from the Unknowing, etc. ]

[There'd been something there at least, the way his chest had seized up at the thought of walking into the death trap that was the ritual. Even if he hadn't realised what he felt then.]

I thought you were the person most likely to be able to make the plan work.

But I didn't want you to- to die. To be there with those horrible things.

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