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

[ Caduceus returns the arm-clap as well as he can with a tea cup and his staff, but he makes it work. ]

I'm honestly not sure what happened since I woke up among crystals and until now. Things have been a little overwhelming.

[ To say the least. Not bad, of course, just A Lot. ]

It's a strange place.

[ Gods, it's such a relief to have Caduceus here with his absolutely bewildered non-answers, what a comfort. Fjord sticks close on principle and lowers his voice. ]

It's crazy here! [ He needs to begin somewhere. Okay, so. ] Do you remember the grave of Mollymauk, the one we showed you with the coat on it? The way you did your — [ wiggly-finger touch thing, if Fjord's gesture is to be interpreted correctly ] — on the ground there?

I asked the earth to remember him.

[ The firbolg replies easily, because of course he remembers that. Something is definitely up, though, and he gives Fjord a curious look. What did this mean?

What happened? ]

Sure. That's the thing, he's here and alive! I think. I'm pretty certain ...

[ Like, 90% confident. ]

With everything that's been going on back home, if I introduce you to him could you use that spell you have to see dead people and check if he's alright? Truly. But don't let him know you're checking.

Edited 2020-01-16 20:44 (UTC)

[ Okay. This was definitely not what he was expecting, and that mellow expression turns a little concerned instead. He leans in a bit to look at Fjord's eyes to make sure his pupils are the same size before he shakes his head softly. ]

That's not how this should work. I can look at him, certainly, but it would make no sense for him to be back as an undead. I asked to make sure no evil could touch him, that he could rest comfortably and undisturbed.

[ Resurrection was a more probable outcome, even though that opens up who and why. ]

Well, apparently he's been resting up pretty nicely in a mansion here, so either something weird happened unrelated to any of us or you're so powerful you're sending people to other realms of existence to find aquatic fiancés.

[ ... Yeah, no. ]

It's probably the first thing. I just can't figure out how.

Huh. That's nice.

[ Cad has no idea what it all means, but it sounds like Molly was having a good time?? ]

Perhaps he was sent here instead of to the Moonweaver.

[ You know, if they're talking about anyone sending anything to other realms and all that. ]

Why wouldn't the Moonweaver want him? Oh! Perhaps he was sent here as a quest of some sort?

[ This is literally just Fjord spitballing ideas. Theories to dredge up if this topic gets brought into light around Molly to like, calm a fucking Situation down if needs be. ]

We were here too, all of us. No, wait. [ His brow furrows. ] No one's mentioned Nott yet. [ That's something he's found strange, but moving on. ] There's a house where you built a garden, it seems.

It's possible. If he's here, perhaps it's easiest to ask him.

[ You know, before freaking out about anything.

That second part was a little worrying, though, and Caduceus has to take a moment to think. No, he hadn't been here before. He would have remembered a place like this, surely?

Clay, building a garden, though? That sounds like him. ]

It seems we might be missing some part of our memory, if this is true.

He told me himself, he's still confused about all of this.

[ It's been ... a really long couple of days. The look he gives Caduceus is curious, head cocked. ]

Have you tried contacting the Wildmother since you arrived?

[ Fjord tried and epically failed, basically taking an accidental nap. Only because he couldn't sense her! He's hardly at Caduceus's level of communing, though. ]

Then you should know if he's undead, Fjord.

[ Caduceus says with a little nod, as if that was obvious. Divine sense and all that. (Never mind that Fjord was a newbie and probably just forgot he's all holy now.)

He agrees with the very long days, though, so he nods for the half-orc and himself to find a place to sit. ]

I do feel Her, but it's very faint. Almost like something is blocking it, or we're just too far away. [ Somehow. ]

She's with us.

I don't know, that's what bothers me. I don't want Molly to be — ill. [ He can't seem to connect with the Wildmother for guidance and he doesn't have Caduceus's spooky abilities, so he feels useless when it comes to dealing with this one (not entirely irrational) fear. What if Molly's sick and no one bothered to check? What if he dies again and it's because Fjord never explored every single angle of his apparent resurrection? ] We'll see how things progress, I suppose. That's all that can be done on the matter.

[ Setting his empty teacup aside, he folds his arms and looks down as he admits, ]

I can't feel her here. What have I done wrong?

Nothing.

[ Caduceus answers with unusual certainty, and then reaches to put his hand on top of Fjord's. He's not sure if he's keeping a part of the goddess with him thanks to his cleric powers or if Fjord's head just isn't clear enough to feel, but he'll try to share what he feels. ]

She doesn't change her mind about her chosen.

[ He cannot help with this Molly confusion until he meets the man himself, but he can make sure the half-orc doesn't think he's abandoned. ]

[ The words help before the touch even happens; when it does, Fjord's lips part on a breath he didn't know he was holding and he looks at their hands where the warm pleasure is emanating from, like almost burning his skin with fresh wax but never enough to hurt. He blinks up at Caduceus wide-eyed, wondering if he feels it too, the same tingling sensation that Fjord first experienced on the street with an equally unwitting Sypha. ]

... That's new.

That... is new.

[ That was definitely not what he expected, but also not bad at all. Kind of like the warmth from the Wildmother's touch, only more physical rather than spiritual.

Cad drags his palm over Fjord's hand curiously, coming to lace their fingers together. ]

Well. This is nice. Is this the moonlacing?

[ Fjord's blinking goes into overdrive as he holds his tongue and lets Caduceus experiment, the tips of his ears feeling warm in a way that has nothing to do with the moonlacing when their fingers are intertwined. ]

This is it, alright.

[ He lets out a long, steadying breath, then runs the pad of his thumb down the centre of Caduceus's palm, trying to give some of the warmth back. Anyone else, outside their small band of friends, and he would have pulled away by now. ]

No more long rests, just ... this. I'm also going to look up some fighting pits, Chroma can be generated in combat, too.

[ He'll just get his ass beat three days out of the week. ]

I like it.

[ Not just because it means holding hands, of course, but it's up there. Pink eyes watches curiously as Fjord runs his thumb against his skin and the very fine fur. It's odd how much it seems to give from just this simple thing.

At the mention of fighting rings, Cad looks back at Fjord's face. ]

Would it not take as much of this Chroma to heal after fighting?

[ No matter if you win or lose, of course. Caduceus is not the smartest of men, but he understands the ebb and flow of energy. ]

[ Friends don't just stand around caressing each other's hands but it seems to be a thing here, in this realm, so that's Fjord's excuse for holding on. His grip twitches as he gives Caduceus a canny look. ]

You think it would be pointless to fight only to need to do this straight after. [ The thing is, ] But I could also win.

[ ... Well, he could. In theory. Mind his soft meringue ego now, Cad. ]

Mm. You would have to win without getting hit at all, to make it a favorable exchange.

[ He says, matter of factly and not really making it up to what chances Fjord has to win or not. Some of that is being nice on his padawan's ego, and also Caduceus doesn't know the people here, they might all be awful fighters. ]

Do you know what moon blessed you?

... True.

[ Caduceus is so good at tiptoeing around not saying what he's really saying, it's appreciated. Fjord will ... think over his strategy a little more. ]

Sangal. Sangui? Sanguis! [ Really remembering the important shit over here. ] No idea what it means. What about you, which moon were you landed with?

[ Idly while distracted, he chases the pleasant warmth of their connection and squeezes the fingers laced through his own. ]

[ To be fair, Fjord's insecurity and self-image problems are about as discreet as a tornado warning system... at least to someone with Caddy's eyes.

At the mention of Sanguis, he makes a little 'huh' noise. ]

Sanguis? I'm not sure what it all means, either, but it is interesting. I think mine is Iris, like the flower?

[ His fingers reply subconsciously to the little squeeze with one of his own, because somehow they're still holding hands and it's too nice to let go. ]

Sanguine is a bloody colour, maybe Sanguis is a blood moon. That wouldn't surprise me.

[ With his rotten luck. He looks relieved for Caduceus, checking with a lingering stare to see if the firbolg feels any particular way about it. ]

Of course you get the flower option.

Hmm. Then maybe Iris is a purple moon.

[ He doesn't seem to think it's a bad or good thing, because he has no frame of reference to go from other than 'blood' having some negative connections. ]

I grew some irises in the Grove. Perhaps that's why.

[ ..and, you now, his whole thing. ]

Either way, it's a mystery to see once our moons are up.

There's a purple moon? [ Should he know this shit as a Wildmum holy guy or is it, as he suspects, just Caduceus Stuff? Most likely the latter. ] Whatever will happen will happen, we can't put up much of a fight right now.

[ No use dwelling on it unless they have a plan to cope. Fjord has more current interests literally at hand as he takes Caduceus's under the drape of his cloak, hiding the fact they're touching. It also allows him to feel the brush of thin grey fur around a wrist and find out which way it grows. ]

If something bad happens then you come straight to me and vice-versa, okay? We've got each other's backs.

Well, I don't know? It's not the same as our moons, as far as I understood it.

[ You know, the very small part of that he actually understood at all. Damn that negative int, Cad spent a lot of time just smiling and hoping it would work out. Somehow.

...like finding a friend, so technically it did? ]

Of course we do.

[ You don't just drag anybody out of a monster stomach, after all.

There's a smile there that makes his nose crinkle a bit, amused how Fjord has now essentially kidnapped his hand in under his cloak. He could pull away easily (should, probably) but it lingers there for now. ]

Have you met any other moonblessed?

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