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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[It feels weird, carrying on like normal with him. Acting as they used to behind closed doors, though this time as just friends. She finishes up the apple, setting the core carefully aside, and she takes the offered glass of water.]

I know he was leaving to do...something, before I arrived here. [After he got all worked up about marrying her and making her happy, not that she's going to talk about that with Louis of all people. She takes a drink of water, using both hands holding the glass.] His fur was all white, like he had a really intense nightmare or something.

[A pause.]

You know what, I bet he left me to see you. Whatever it is you've been up to.

[Ah. now she's going to touch on it.]

[ He knows she's trying to find out what was going on, and yet - he's finding it easier to go on pretending that there was nothing happening in those times that he was missing. Not that he'd say it because she'd know it's a lie. Who disappears for months without a word and does nothing?

When is Louis doing nothing? ]

Maybe, but the last time I saw him, he looked his same old self and we weren't doing much. Just...talking.

[ About Melon, though. And enjoying coffee. It was hardly a simple conversation, but it's pretty easy for him to pretend as much. After all, the last thing he'd want to do is drag Haru into that part of his life. ]

I've been in college.

[ And... as if he thinks this will help complete the 'totally normal life' idea -- he adds. ]

And spending some time with my fiancée.

[ See, how totally normal. Not spending time with the lions who abducted you all that time ago, becoming their boss, and leaving - only to return and help Legosi find a serial killer with them.

Totally. Nothing like that at all. ]

[He's avoiding talking about something. She knows it. And though she's no longer in love with him, it still really bothers her as someone who still cares about him that he's not giving her a straight answer.

Why does she wind up with males who get caught up in secrets? And it's not that she's trying to bring down the mood or anything, so she shakes her leg a bit, kicking the leg of the chair as she processes through her annoyance, and pretends that the cup of water is the most interesting thing in this room at the moment.

But, because Haru is Haru...]

And that's why you haven't taken my calls or answered my texts? [It's not accusatory, but her annoyance is bleeding through a bit.] I don't get it. Juno and Legosi get to see you and seem to know what you've been up to, but I didn't even know Legosi ate your foot until he tells me?

[A pause, and then because she feels like she does have to clarify:]

I don't like you like that anymore, but I was really worried when you disappeared.

[ At some point, he had a feeling, that this was going to be brought up. Somehow, he knew that she would mention it because he really hadn't made any sincere effort to contact her. But... even if he felt bad about it, he's not sorry that he did. It was for the better, as he always thought of his own choices. But this in particular, it kept her safe.

And, it wasn't like he had intended to run into Juno. Or even really Legosi. It just sort - happened. ]

Yeah. I was busy. Very busy, you know. And it's not like I meant for them to run into me. They just did. [ And honestly, some of that probably sealed his fate, and it's not that he hated how he was now, but it wasn't where he was expecting to be at nearly nineteen in his first year of college - minus a foot, friends with carnivores. ]

If I contacted you, what would you have done about it? Come and found me and gotten me? Convinced me to come home? [ There's a shift, almost a challenge. Curious. Legosi was only successful in that Louis had feared for his friend's life enough to appear. It wasn't that he wanted to come back even days before it happened. It was a spur of the moment decision. ]

[She does a small mmhmm of annoyance, left leg slightly kicking the leg of her chair again as an instinctive rabbit habit to convey how what he's saying is getting under her skin a bit. It feels dismissive, and while she wouldn't mind it were he anyone else, having someone you used to be in love with challenging you like this is...

It's not a nice feeling. And though she's moved on from feeling that way towards him, she still cared a lot about him.

Why are all the males in my life so secretive??]

Right, and I was busy too. Being kidnapped, you know. [She sets the glass of water down, hands on her knees, looking straight at Louis.] I knew you well enough to know I couldn't convince you to do anything. And I don't know, maybe I would have tried to find you and try to get you back home, but--

But you went dark on me before the meteor festival, and I hadn't heard from you since. Is it wrong that I wanted to talk to someone I cared about?

Edited 2020-01-29 15:12 (UTC)

[ Being kidnapped. He knew, he knew so well because he had acted late, and did what he had to do in order to get by. It was the right choice at the time, and he didn't regret it. His time with the Shishigumi hadn't been bad, either. He had made a difference in their lives, and he had learned a lot about himself, too. But to disappear for months, only to return different than he had left, surely was concerning for the very few who cared and were close. But he had no issue with causing concern if that would help him reach the end goal at the time. And then, it shifted. ]

Wrong? [ Hm. ] No. But you also didn't need to know. [ Again, he's going to be cagey about it - so he'll just leave it with a small, vague note. ]

I was getting in touch with my roots. [ Close enough. ]

[Here she is, having a bit of a bleeding heart moment with this guy, and he just puts her off and avoids answering. It's typical of Louis, sure, and would probably have hurt more if she still felt those things she felt for him in the past. Instead, it just keeps her annoyed, and her ear twitches a bit.]

Right, by letting Legosi eat your leg because he was fighting Tem's murderer, and now by spending time with your fiancée. [She hops down from the chair, brushing off her skirt and leaving her half-drunk glass of water & apple core up on the counter.] Sounds like you're back to focusing on having loads of purebred red deer babies in your future after college, huh.

[She's crossing her arms.]

Sounds fun. You're right, I don't need to know. I guess you don't need to know what I've been up to either!

[ There's a quick look of annoyance and the slightest bit of dread at her bringing up his fiance. He briefly recalls his night with her, and it's just -- no. It's not as if that's ever really stopped or slowed down anything he was doing. Louis just leaned into doing what he wanted to do most of the time, and keeping up with the minimal of what he had to do for his father or to maintain an image.

Those two things didn't always coincide, but sometimes they did. ]

Finding Tem's murderer had nothing to do with what I was doing before that. That was a last minute decision and I almost didn't return for that either. [ There's a huff. ] But that dumb wolf insisted, and I showed up. Which he should be so lucky because he's still alive. [ Oh, look at that, distracting from the subject again. ]

It's not like I regret doing what I did, you know. Not even Legosi eating part of me. [ With what she said. ] You can tell me whatever you want to, Haru. Nothing, everything, whatever.

I'm not telling you because I think you'll be better off not knowing.

[He keeps distracting her and changing the subject! It's so...Louis and it's very frustrating. But she can tell bringing up his fiancée is a sore spot, and honestly Haru would dig into that a bit more if she didn't...well, if she didn't still like Louis.

But through it all, she still cares about him. Because she was one of the few guys she's slept with that she had genuine feelings for, and that does mean something. He's important to her even if he's been dark on her ever since the eve before the meteor festival, when everything changed.]

Legosi I get. You and him always seem to be falling into each other. [her arms are still crossed.] Juno though...how come she heard from you?

[It's not jealousy that has her bringing Juno up though. It's genuine curiosity.

Because...she wonders...]

You're becoming a wolf magnet too. Aren't you?

[ Wolf magnet? Probably. It was something that just kind of... happened. How it always happened. His eyes narrow and he stares at Haru. Why did she have to word it like that, though? The 'too' was especially important to note. They both fell into this sort of trap, didn't they. ]

Juno finding me wasn't intentional either. [ He had tried. And he had asked for them not to share. He was pretty specific about his intentions to stay where he had, and didn't intend to return quite when he did. ]

I must be. It's a curse, Haru. [ There's almost a teasing grin as he gets himself a cup of water. ]

I didn't want you to worry. I knew you would worry.

[He keeps teasing her, and she keeps pouting.]

You certainly are cursed with something... [said with a half-mumble. But, instead of leaving like she had intended she kind of just sits herself down on his couch, feet not reaching the floor as usual.]

I still worried.

[ It lingers, sits on the tip of his tongue. Using the word Shishigumi seems so wrong to him. Weird, like something he shouldn't talk about. He has manners, one doesn't just casually bring up someone else's abductor. ]

...I'm sorry you were worried.

[ He only half means it because it seems like the right thing to say. And that's not really a good reason to say it. Because he's not sorry. ]

It fine, I'm dealing with my curse. Are you? [ Yeah, he's shifting it almost immediately to a tease. ]

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