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

[[The fury in Isaka's eyes are met with a cold burning, smoldering hatred of Tachibana's own. It was a credit to all the work he had done in Liminal, all the efforts of his friends there that there was utterly no visible reaction to Isaka's voice in his head.

That power over him had been finally broken.

Message pointedly sent, he lets his mind go blank. The power behind all the mental defences he had learned may be lacking, but the form of them would work well enough. Isaka had never been able to directly control him in the first place (or just simply hadn't bothered) and for once, Tachibana felt fully and utterly in control of himself and his future. Whatever weaknesses Isaka had exploited before would not work now. He was sure of it.

So it's with a very stoic ice cold fire that burns in his veins as Isaka aggressively approaches, his entire body tense and at the ready for anything Isaka would throw at him.

Because Tachibana would not be the one to throw the first punch.

But he would throw the last one.]]

[There is still a mind there for Isaka to trace, as well as a body that he has seen with his own two eyes... but it's not until he is right up alongside him, looming above, that he realizes that something very important is different. There is no swirl of thought for him to insert his own into. He is being defended against. How...?

The next thing that he realizes is that the crowd around them is turning to look, muttering nervously. This is drawing attention. And he recalls, from the experience of the science authorities having successfully managed to paralyze and subdue him when he made too much of a scene upon pickup, that starting something here and now could potentially turn against him.

He is not a mindless low-rank Undead. He is superior to that. And so he sets his teapot down heavily upon the table, and he talks.]

It seems fitting that you'd be here, somewhere.

[[There's something almost gratifying in seeing Isaka have that realization and shift his plans. There's a small, almost amused huff as Tachibana's posture shifts arms crossing. Because that opening line seems like a weak attempt for an insult.]

Helping to restore this world after stopping you from destroying mine? Yes, very fitting.

[What little bit of amusement exists in that huff, Isaka can easily detect. He does not like it. Does not like the effect... no, the lack of affect that he is having on the man. There's an unpleasant cast to his skin now, because blood is rushing to his face.]

Fitting that I've been unsealed somewhere that we can pick up where we left off.

[He smiles very, very unpleasantly... but very tightly, too. About as tight as the way he's clenching his fists.]

You haven't been unsealed.

[[It was instinct, more than anything else, that lead to those words. After seeing Hajime's copy of the Jack of Diamonds existing at the same time as his... no, no he was sure that somehow, his still existed.]]

But if you're in such a hurry to leave this world, a replay of our last fight can be arranged.

...yes, I have been unsealed.

[It is said very slowly and deliberately, as if talking to someone very stupid.
Isn't it obvious? Isn't he here? He would not be here, wearing this demeaning outfit, struggling with his temper, if he had not been unsealed.]

And I fully intend on us having a rematch.

[Although... while his blood sings for it to be now, now, now, there is still enough of him that recognizes that he'd be going into a rematch woefully uninformed. Garren must have gotten stronger. How much stronger? He doesn't know. And that uncertainty, paired with lingering irritation and confusion, has him frowning deeply.]

You haven't.

[[With a very calm, confident ease, Tachibana reaches into his pocket for his deck, pulling out the card he needed by feel and holding it up, first with the back facing Isaka (to double check that yes, yes he was right) before calmly flipping it over to show the Undead his own card.]

[He is about to protest again that yes, he has been when Tachibana pulls out his proof. He narrows his eyes upon sight of the back of the card, and seems prepared to sneer and call his bluff, for that must surely be a blank...

...that's the Jack of Diamonds. That's... that's a peacock on there.

Is that what he looks like when sealed? He suddenly does not like that he has this knowledge.]

Put that thing away.

[He likes it so little, that he wants it gone. Wants it gone so much that he dares to lean in, dip down, hiss the words in as demanding a way as he can. Something about this all is terrifying, but that terror seems only able to be expressed as anger.]

...How?!

[[Tachibana's eyes narrow as Isaka moves closer the arm not holding the card moving up to block the Undead from getting even further into his personal space, even as his other pockets the card to keep it from being snatched away.]]

Because you haven't been unsealed. The moment you leave this world, your existence goes back to being in that card as if you had never left.

[[There's a hard glitter of something... almost bordering resentment in Tachibana's expression and eyes. But he's not letting those thoughts surface enough for Isaka to read]]

All that's left for you in the future is being reborn as a human when the world finally does end.

[The paradox in Tachibana's efforts at explaining what's going on has Isaka sufficiently lost that he actually retreats subtly from Tachibana's block. It's just a slight inclining of his posture backwards, but he doesn't snatch forward, either. He does not understand, not fully, and in his desire to understand he pushes harder against Tachibana's mental defenses to try and get a glimpse of something, anything that will give him the ability to grasp this...

And what he gets is a flash of an image. Half-familiar human faces. His guise, and the guises of other Undead. Chalice and himself, smiling?.

He is left briefly speechless, briefly stunned, the murderous look draining from his face. Which is probably why one of the other staff members, a short-ish Prismal with pink hair and dog ears, dares approach.]

'Um. Mr. Isaka? Your... your shift's over...?'

[[That shift... Isaka must have seen something in his mind, but what it was, Tachibana wasn't going to speculate. Not if it might give the Undead the chance to read any more of his thoughts.

He glances over at the staff member, giving him a small nod before turning back to Isaka.

He says nothing, but his look makes it very clear; if Isaka still wants an ass kicking, he'll be happy to provide one. Somewhere else away from people]]

[Isaka's head turns sharply, and he gives the pink-haired Prismal a look. This is a very sensitive moment, and he does not appreciate the interruption. A look is all it takes to convince him to go away, though, and he's doing so with a bit of a cringe and a bow and a nod to Tachibana. 'Geez, aren't Moonblessed supposed to be nice?' is the thought that he gives off, and it's one that Isaka actually picks up on. It's a small comfort, to know that his telepathy still works...]

...I'll come find you.

[It is absolutely a threat, but his delivery of it is so flat, one might think that he's talking about tracking him down for a polite chat and coffee later. But it is absolutely not going to be for a polite chat and coffee. He takes a step back, then turns and steps away into the crowd.]

The quarry outside town. In two hours.

[[The words are curt, almost like an order.

Because he'll be damned if he lets Isaka set the terms of anything, ever again.]]

[Well. That just makes it easier to find him, then.

That absolutely wasn't an order. Not at all.

And so, one hour and fifty minutes later, Isaka has located what he is fairly sure is "the quarry outside town". There is no construction equipment, no sign of recent work having been done, just a sign up warning against entering at one's own risk. Though even the dirt pits on this eyesore of a planet are surprisingly eye-catching. The grey and white stones are shot through with pale-colored crystal.

Isaka stands there in the middle of it, in his usual clothes, waiting.]

[[He doesn't have to wait long.

Tachibana's stride is confident, full out purpose, his mind again the stoic mask, so very practiced. That it had been almost 15 years since their last fight was visible in more than just the wear and fading of Tachibana's habitual jacket. It likely was already very clear that this was not the same, frightened mess of a man Isaka had taken advantage of, nor was it the barely contained bundle of rage and anguish that had so brutally beaten the Undead who had been the cause of his deepest fears coming to pass and no longer holding power over him.

He had lived many lives in those 15 years; yelled at gods, faced the approaching end of more than one world, struggled through seemingly impossible situations and been hauled by the hands of friends from the depths of his own mind.

Compared to that... Isaka was nothing. Just a shadow of a past that no longer held any power over him.

And that he would make sure would never hold power over anyone else, ever again.]]

[In the time between leaving the party and arriving here, Isaka has managed to recompose himself considerably. It was enough time to not just locate the source of the fight, but to think the whole matter through and devise a strategy. Tachibana will find him to be, outwardly, the very picture of coolness and calm.

His approach, so stoic and so composed, makes clear what Isaka has already reasoned for himself. However it has come to be, this is not the same man that had sealed him. Time had gone on. How much, he could not say. What had happened, he could not say, either. But he knew to expect far, far more of him than before.

But he doesn't have that rage that had ended him, last time. Perhaps he has grown overconfident. And so, the Undead thinks he has a chance.]

You seem confident.

[And then, all at once, he drops his human guise, and manifests his sword.]

So show me what you can do!

[[A small snort escapes at the challenge]] So eager to be defeated again?

[[but the Buckle is already in his hand, going to his waist in an automatic motion, pose assumed and ready as the familiar sound of the Belt on standby echoing off the exposed rock face.]]

Henshin!

[[Buckle flipped, the projection shoots out, Tachibana already moving forward, all but running through it. As the armor materializes around him, he's already reaching for his Rouzer, every sense heightened and focused on the Undead in front of him, ready for anything Isaka would lash out with. ]]

Edited 2020-01-20 03:57 (UTC)

[As he runs into the belt's projection, Isaka rushes on forward as well.
At just the right pace so that he'll be able to come in for a rising blow with his sword moments after Tachibana has completed his transformation. He has seen it before, seen it but days ago, in his own estimation, and he believes that he knows his limits. Now, though? Now is the time to test those limits.

He is still very powerful, as far as Undead go. Seven feet of muscle and armor and psychic malice, the same opponent from nearly 15 years before. Surely that will be enough.]

Edited (wait that was entirely wrong) 2020-01-20 04:19 (UTC)

Tachibana is already ducking out of the way, shooting in a quick burst as he did so. He may not have the extra powers from Liminal, but all of the training with Kinji had still taught him a few new tricks that even at his most mundane, he could still use.

Especially since Isaka wouldn't at all expect misdirection, considering how utterly open, direct and without forethought Tachibana's normal fighting style was. But that sort of fighting simply hadn't been enough to even keep pace with the hyperactive ninja, forcing Tachibana to learn how to be calculating in his attacks, to maximize the strengths of his armors dexterity and flexibility. Especially when Isaka's moves were blunt, heavy and relied on brute force when he wasn't using his own projectiles.

[He'd been expecting a parry and a burst of fire, not a dodge... but he could work with that, he was sure. But the next time Tachibana does something unexpectedly dexterous, he starts to wonder if it's not a coincidence. By the time that he has driven the man halfway around the damned quarry, slicing and striking and being relentless, that he has a sense of what has changed. He feels no stronger, his sync is as optimal as it could hope to be, but he is... better. More skillful.

He'll have to do better, then. Another slash of his sword, but then he leaps back and makes a grasping motion with one hand. If Tachibana's not quick, he'll find himself being bombarded with rocks from behind, ferociously lifted from the quarry floor.]

Ah, there is finally is.

Keeping a tight hold on his mental defenses, he turns, shooting rapidly at the rock onslaught, creating a large cloud of dust, obscuring himself and the rockslide.

The sound of his Rouzer silences, the scene seeming to go still as the dust begins to clear.

[Hm. That's fast. Fast enough that he's just as impressed with the success of the move as he is frustrated at its ineffectiveness. But that's not all he has to bring to bear. That extended hand pulls back, and the feathers upon his shoulders charge with energy and burst forward in a wide spread. If he's lingering in there (and he has to be, Isaka is sure), then that should stun him long enough for the dust to clear.]

[[There is a long, tense moment as the explosive energy seems to ring out against the exposed rock walls of the quarry, the dust slowly clearing to show nothing but a pile of pulverized stone, shimmering with fragments of crystal shards.

It is only then when a very familiar sound can be heard. The deep swoosh of a card going through Garren's Rouzer:]]

Drop

Fire

Gemini

[[The sounds ring off the exposed walls, echoing around Isaka, making it difficult to pinpoint the location of their source.

That is, until he thinks to look up.

Standing on the edge of the cliff face above him, Tachibana stands, the energy of the activated cards sinking into his armor. As the last beep of ticking numbers echoes, he looks down, shifting his posture as the attack name is announced:]]

Burning Divide

[The sparkling dust clears and... nothing. There's nothing there. He's been tricked.
And then the familiar voice of the Rider System rings out, echoing from all around, and unwelcome fear rises inside him. This is like the last time, like before, only he can't even find him...!

It is only after Isaka does a full turn about, he thinks to look up. And it is in time to catch Tachibana crouching and readying an attack.

Shit. Seeing nowhere to dodge to and nothing else to be done, he throws up his sword before him as a makeshift defense, hoping that he'll be able to withstand it.]

[[The intensity of the attack would be familiar, but at the same time, stronger than before. What was previously fueled by righteous fury of revenge is now, instead, given the weight of something far more solid: Purpose, duty and confidence.

There's a terrific blast of fire that roars up from Tachibana's boot as it hits Isaka's sword, the intensity and weight of it causing the metal to buckle and bend--

--before giving way with a loud snap as Tachibana's boot breaks through Isaka's last defence and lands firmly on the Undead himself]]

▶ TDM .011

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I have added some new icons and am excited to use them

:3

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