prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .012

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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.

▶ I am the Terror That Flaps in the Night
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 Your new flat is covered in a sprinkling of feathers here, there, and everywhere! They appear to be coming through the air vents. This seems to be a city-wide problem in all buildings, as many news outlets are informing people to stay alert. They believe the feathers are from the masked seraphim, King Majestas, who attacked the Elaran Amphitheater a few weeks back.

You are advised to destroy the feathers on sight. Prolonged contact with these feathers cause hallucinations and paranoia. You will feel as if winged creatures are always after you, be it one-winged angels or dark-winged ducks. Other side effects include hearing the chanting of voices in an indecipherable language out of this galaxy. These hallucinations may cause headaches, dizziness, or nausea. Thankfully, a bit of moonlacing will heal these symptoms away.

▶ Got Milk?
Level 2, Crystal Beach | top

With the Coiled Hearts Festival fast approaching, local fishermen have already begun procuring food across Crystal Beach’s clear waters to meet next month’s demands. Around this time of year, the popularity of octopus dishes dramatically rises. The Lunatians have an annual tradition to prepare flavorful octopus dishes for the romantic season, such as the much-lauded dark chocolate-coated octopus or the mouth-watering octopus braised with red wine.

Everyone is welcome to join this heart-throbbing affair. During the Second and Third months, everyone is encouraged to give your loved ones something special for a long, successful relationship. Friends, family, and new acquaintances are traditionally given a small amount of Demichroma in tiny cute cases, while lovers are given something that reminds the gifter of their homeland.

A Interested in catching your own octopus? Horned taurus octopi very frequently migrate to the shorelines to perform their elaborate mating rituals. It’s easy to find clumps of taurus octopi participating in a vigorous dance, filled with undulations and strange moaning noises that octopi should not be making. You can lure the octopi by either using a special flute which mimics their moans to gather them in heavy droves. It’s ideal to have a partner with you to scoop the octopi quickly into water containers once they’ve become entranced enough.

Play the flute carefully! If the taurus octopi grow too excited by your music, they will squirt white ink. If you are spritzed with the thick substance, you will start either randomly puking or uncontrollably secreting a milky sweet substance from any body part that secretes liquids. Luckily, the high-end boutique Prissy Polyp is nearby in case you need a change of clothes due to any sizable stains. Effects will naturally wear off after an hour.

B Come with a friend and enjoy learning some octopus recipes together. The Crystal Beach Resort has opened a seminar where several professional chefs will be demonstrating and teaching how to cook various dishes of different flavors and ingredients guaranteed to impress your date, and taste-testing is free!

One dish makes use of horned taurus octopi skin as the star ingredient, renowned for its irresistibly delectable scent. The chefs explain the palatable skin is a potent ingredient in various love potions and aphrodisiacs, so add or mix them to your dishes in moderation! The effects have a significant delay, so you may feel fine for a while, but when it hits, it hits hard. You will become enamored with every little thing — hey, you just met them and this is crazy — but that person’s smile, the sound of their voice, or the way they say your name will make you unable to resist the urge to shower them with your affection.

▶ Going Viral
Level 2, Moonlight Medical Center | top

“Help Wanted” posters can be found on virtual forums and announcement boards across Level 1 to 3. The Moonlight Medical Center has put out a call for volunteers due to a recent shortage of medical staff. The work involves filling in for overworked nurses, performing tasks such as feeding patients their meals, wiping away their sweat, changing their clothes, encouraging their spirits, and so on. Any volunteers may directly walk-in at the hospital. You will be provided a nurse uniform and any necessary equipment while on the job.

The shortage has resulted from the hospital recently taking in a severe number of patients from a nearby small village to the west of Lunatia, Port Sylvel, a known shipping and freight destination. The number of patients worryingly keeps on rising by the day and will soon fill all available rooms.

A Some of the patients are experiencing varying degrees of paralysis. The worst cases have crystallizing parts of their body. The hospital staff will stress that you should be careful around patients with crystallized limbs. Patients like these have a history of aggressively biting anyone who comes close hard enough to draw blood. Those bitten will exhibit similar symptoms as the victims, including crystallization on their bodies, and experience a steady drop in Chroma. An uncomfortable heaviness will cause you unable to move without the aid of others as well as an uncontrollable urge to aggressively bite someone.

While affected Moonblessed can cure it by moonlacing, the Prismals can only be cured by a gluteal inoculation the Lunar Scientia has recently managed to develop. The sick and beleaguered will probably hate you less if you aren’t the one trying to stabbing them with injections in the hindquarters.

B Aside from nursing duties, other available tasks to be completed include making coffee for fellow nurses and doctors, delivering flowers to patients, and general housekeeping. Specifically, disinfecting medical equipment, tidying up rooms, and cleaning the spaces around the hospital. As a result of the current situation, many crystal shards can be found decorating multiple surfaces, such as floors, walls, toilet seats, and so on. These will have to be swept away!

However, as your work day progresses, some of the shards can be seen suddenly moving on their own. These crawling shards will start clustering together to turn into elaborate, floating monolithic formations that will then begin attacking anyone nearby. Their main ability includes shooting diamond spears to impale any unfortunate victims in their line of sight. In the midst of the chaos, nurses and doctors will beg the Moonblessed to please protect the sick and wounded. The crystal formations can be destroyed by any method, though because of their incredibly sturdy composition, they require multiple hits before they shatter into dust.

▶ 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

In the flesh! Apparently.

[Oh hey she can joke about dying now. That was fast. And probably at least seventy percent adrenaline.]

You know I've always got your back. My knives can deal with any of the spears your barriers miss, so don't worry about the civilians.

So it would seem for the both of us.

[ So can he...apparently /sweats And his has nothing to do with that at all, he's just still in some disbelief he has his old body back. Call it what you will but the situation does require some levity. ]

Yes, so you do. [ He'll knock away some more of those projectiles, even having the nerve to redirect one back into the monolith with relative ease. ] There numbers are dwindling, so it shouldn't be much longer.

[ He has a lot of questions, obviously, and he's not sure if she can answer them or not. ] How long have you been here?

That's... a very ominous statement.

[Did something happen to Oz? How could something happen to Oz?

Well, she'll ask about that when they aren't protecting a bunch of innocent people from volleys of crystal lances.]

I can see that. You know, I never did feel like I got enough chances to see you in action.

[At his question, she shakes her head.] Not long. A few days. Nowhere near as long as most of the others from our world have apparently been here.

Yes. I would normally sit things out, wouldn't I? [ But things are rather different now. Ozpin is...different now. And something sure did happen to him. But Ozpin will tell her when everything here is sorted out. He does give a small 'hm' as he twirls his cane in hand looking to make sure the coast is clear. Aside from a few stragglers everything seems to be in order. There's one more monolith left but he might turn to Summer, nodding his head as the go ahead to finish it off. ] I see. The same for me as well. I suppose people are brought here in groups then.

[ Interesting if anything. ] Though more curious is how you and I are here at all, isn't it? It begs the question then on just how powerful the beings of this place might be.

[The last crystalline structure fires another lance at them, and her knife-petals casually swat it aside. Really, they'd only been a threat because so many of them had popped up at once, and around so many people who couldn't defend themselves. Now? This is a leisurely mop-up job. She's practically strolling beside him as they move towards it.]

Very much so. To be honest, when I first arrived here, I thought the afterlife was just very different from what I'd imagined. Obviously, something much stranger is happening.

[Something that shouldn't be possible. At least, not without the powers of a God.]

[ Ozpin can understand that, having been in the 'afterlife' himself for a...time. He does regard her with some curiosity as they walk, finding himself both intrigued and...relieved to see her handling it so well. But, well, it is Summer Rose and he can't imagine anyone more well equipped to handle something like this. ]

Yes. Undoubtedly something or someone has massive powers, akin to the brother gods of old from our world. [ And even then...bringing someone back was not in their nature. ]

I suppose it doesn't disrupt the natural balance of this world, then, if it's so easily done. But...enough of that. I believe talking of gods and their machinations to be circular. [ They're gods, after all, who ever knows what or how they think. They could think on it endlessly, really, but it won't get them anywhere. Ozpin once thought he knew how gods think...now he's not so sure. ]

Have you seen anyone else from Remnant here?

That's probably the safest way to go about it.

[She's really not sure what to think about the Brother Gods as it is, bringing in whatever force brought her here is just so outside her experience that not talking or thinking about it is definitely the right way to go as far as she's concerned.]

A young man named Lie Ren, who told me my girls are here... I haven't actually seen them yet, though. I'm... not really sure what I'll do when I finally do.

[It's going to happen, of course. She wants nothing more than to embrace her little girls and never let go. But at the same time... how is she supposed to approach them? "Hey girls, Mommy's back from the dead, sorry about the last fifteen or so years?"]

And then there was... Raven.

[Oh, Rae. Her expression falls for a bit as she thinks of her.]

I was kind of amazed she chose to approach me.

Gods will do what they wish, regardless of the wishes of those beneath them. [ Is there something of a sad undertone in his voice, there sure is. ]

Ah, yes, Ren. A very capable young man and wise well beyond his years. A blessing and something of a curse, but also powerful within a group. He is part of Ruby and Yang's group, you've nothing to worry about if he told you as much. [ Though at the mentioning of seeing them, he sighs and looks away. He's already run into Yang...he hasn't had a good time of it arriving here. But in retrospect it was his fault and he admits to that at least.

His voice is dour, but comforting when he speaks next, noting the uncertainty in her. ]

I'm sure they'll be delighted to see you, Summer. If anything I can't see why they wouldn't be. [ And there's another pause mentioning Raven as well. ]

Yes Raven...I ran into her as well.

[ That too went...as well as to be expected. He's totally not mentioning anything of his own encounters, because they were all rather...heated. ] But I'm glad you're...back.

I failed them, Oz.

[The rest of their conversation means little in the face of that grim certainty. Her head lowers, and she clenches her fists, both hands shaking.]

They needed me, and I left them. I can't even say it wasn't by choice. It's not like anyone forced me to do what I did.

[She was the stupid one who thought she could save the world.]

I don't even have the right to hold Raven accountable for her actions now. I did the same thing she did, just under different circumstances.

[ It certainly does mean little, doesn't it? Ozpin himself looks...weary at best. He'll pause and lean against the wall, cane in hand as he listens to her. ]

It was your choice, yes. But you can't blame yourself for the actions you took, the actions you thought at the time were right and true. I know because...I too have failed them, Summer. I abandoned them as well and now that I'm here...I'm not sure the correct action to take.

[ For once he's at a loss on what to do. Having run into a good few of them their conversations we understandably filled with anger, resentment, pain. All caused by him and he's not sure what to do to salvage it. If it can even be salvaged... ]

We all make mistakes and we all fear for things that might come from doing and not doing things we think at the time are right. That's just our nature as humans, to make mistakes and hopefully come out the wiser from them.

Oz...

[She's never seen him look like this before. So tired, so worn down, so... defeated. It's been a long, long time since she abandoned the belief that her teacher was somehow invincible, but seeing him look this is just hard to watch.]

I don't know what to do now, either. I want to run to them, through my arms around them and never let them go. But according to the people I've spoken to, I've been gone from their lives for something like fifteen years. Ruby... She might well not even remember me. And Yang must know about Raven by now.

[And, yep. The tears are leaking through. She's been trying to control it, but there's just no way she can hold them in forever.

On the other hand... maybe that's alright.]

Hey, Oz... if you let me break down on your shoulder for a moment, I'll lend you mine. That sound fair?

[Part of her is amazed at her own audacity to even offer that to him, but... he really seems like he needs it.]

It was my own doing, really. [ It's not a look he willingly shows to others, not when he can help it. But the sheer and utter weight of being here and running into everyone thus far has weighed down on him quite a bit. He's trying his best to pick up the pieces he's definitely scattered. ]

That doesn't mean you can't still see them, Summer. Even if you have been gone awhile...I still believe they'll be willing and happy to see you again. To go over the logistics, the what-ifs, and the possibilities will only make you delay it even more. This place is different, we know that much, and taking advantage of that might be just what is needed.

[ He looks a bit taken aback, again another expression not normally seen on him, before his expression softens and he lets out a soft sigh and shake of his head 'yes'. Well commiserating over their shared troubles is indeed helpful in a way. ]

Yes. I suppose that's alright. [ He's never been very...physical in the past. Displays of affection are not his strong suit, they haven't been for some time. But he can put that aside for a friend in need. ]

[Having him lay it all out like that for her helps. It always has. He's always had a way of making things seem so clear... well, when they aren't things he doesn't want to discuss, anyway. But even then, the lines are pretty well delineated between the two.]

Yes, you're right. And really, it would be cruel of me to hide from them. They should at least be able to choose for themselves if they want to welcome me back.

[Regardless of what Oz thinks, nerves and guilt gnaw at her ability to believe they will. But she'll cross that bridge when she comes to it.

She nods at a nearby door and opens it up to an unused room. They step inside, and she closes it behind them, turning to him with shining eyes... and buries her face against his shoulder, sniffling.]

You're still... so tall compared to me... [Funny the things her mind points out.]

Of course. Hiding will benefit no one, as I'm well aware of that myself. [ Oh, man, he has made some very big mistakes. But talking someone else through it definitely has helped. He had did the same thing, hiding away in Oscar's mind like that. But he finally realized just how hurtful and unhelpful that has been... ]

It's their choice and their decision on what happens next. You can only control so many things, but how people perceive and react to something is not one of them. It's a...daunting and frightening thing to think about, but it shouldn't determine the outcome of the choices we make. We can only hope to change their perceptions through guidance and understanding of the situation.

[ Though he's still for a moment he will follow her, allowing Summer to lead, and he'll turn abruptly when she outright hugs him. His expression softening considerably as he looks down at her. ]

In this body, yes. You should have seen the young man I was just with, however.

[ Is he making a joke? He sure is. Strange still. It's very odd to be back in a body that he knew was gone forever. On the one hand it was good, relieving Oscar of that burden, but on the other...still odd that he even has this one at all. ]

[Her response to Oz's advice amounts mostly to a low hum of acknowledgment. He's right, of course, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

But then, things that are worth it usually aren't.]

You keep saying things that make me worry.

["In this body"? Seriously? The only way that makes any sense is if...

Well, of all the things to have to contemplate. And to think she was already softly crying on his shoulder... Well, one more reason to return the favor for him once she's collected herself. He almost certainly needs it, and she doubts he'll ask.]

What young man are you talking about?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .012

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