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

Yeah, I heard.

[That, for what it was worth, it didn't go to waste. Not that he doesn't feel a little swell of pride at hearing it from Bucciarati, but he's not the kind of asshole to let it go to his head.]

Giorno was here for awhile. He gave me the rundown. I'm sure he left out parts, being the little shit he is, but I got the basic gist of what happened after.

How far down do you remember?

Giorno was here?

[ Was here? Not here anymore? Bruno is truly alive? He feels very aware of his own heartbeat and breathing right now. Okay. He is most likely alive. ]

The Coliseum. [ How can he even explain the events that happened in the coliseum when he couldn't even fully understand it himself? ] The last thing I remember was my soul leaving my body.

[ Did Giorno explain that? Did something happen after that? ]

For a bit, yeah. The scientists say when they disappear from Lunatia, they probably go back home. Honestly, it's a good probability he's fine either way.

[For all of the shit he gives Giorno, the kid will survive whatever he goes through. It's not something he's worried about. Not him.]

Yeah, you and the others end up swapping bodies with each other since Polnareff's Silver Chariot Requiem was activated to protect that damned arrow. It gets resolved in the end, but at a cost.

Bottom line, you guys beat the Boss.

[ He probably wasn't there until the end, not with his body failing on him when it did. He guesses the cost was him. There is no way Giorno would lose his men's lives like he did, he's smarter than that.

For a moment, he smiles with pride. Giorno, Mista, Trish, Fugo and Narancia will be fine. They're capable young adults. ]

I see. Thank you for telling me.

[ And for now, he won't pry on that issue. Nor will he ask if Abbacchio knows exactly when Bruno Bucciarati died. ]

What about you? Are you enjoying your time here? Going to take up fishing as a hobby?

Yeah.

[It's not the greatest subject. When Narancia had been here, he didn't experience his own death yet. Abbacchio failed to warn him, make any difference, as if he could. Now it's pretty much too late for Bucciarati, but at least they're alive right now.

The questions make him snort.] Been here a few months. It's not all bad, but it's not a vacation either. [He... should be more detailed, but he's going to pace it out. What rush is there, anyway?]

Anyway-- no, I was gonna leave you to the fishing. Honestly, I was probably going to buy an octopus off of someone.

You play the flute like shit, though. [Just gonna be real here, capo.]

[ That's no way to your capo who plays the flute like shit. ]

Buy one? No, let me catch one for you.

[ He insists. It's the least he could do. Also it might get Abbacchio to stay a little longer, and maybe talk about those few months.

He casts his line in the water. Hopefully his earlier "music" helped lure some octopus in. ]

And? Have you settled down? Made some new friends? A girlfriend, maybe?

Please. Comparatively to you, I'm probably loaded, Bucciarati.

[But he doesn't stop him, lets him cast the line. Even if he doesn't get anything, well. It'll be good to talk to him again.

He barks out a laugh at the suggestion of a girlfriend. Well, it's not like they ever really talked about romance much, did they?]

...Engaged, actually. [Which is incredibly weird to mention to Bucciarati. This isn't something he ever thought he'd discuss with him. Not like this, not with these arrangements, but maybe this is his way of getting closure, too.] Just recently.

[ Someday he'll have enough money to store in another stash behind a public urinal, and then you'll see. You'll all see.

His lips curl into a sad smile and why does he feel conflicted over that? Of course people would settle down after months of not being in the gang. Among his team, Abbacchio had the best chance of having a fairly normal life.

He keeps his eye on the water, his wrists and fingers deftly making the lure swim like it's alive. ]

Makes sense. Always thought you'd be the first to get married in the team. Is it anyone I know?

[ And, in mock seriousness ]

It's not Mista, is it?

[It's not like he can't see the way Bucciarati reacts, and his own heart sinks a little. There's no real changing what it is, and he knows he wouldn't change his mind now, but there's always that lingering thought. What if. What if he spoke up to Bucciarati, told him sooner, but none of that matters now.

So he leaves it alone, even if he knows he's probably going to dwell on it for fucking ages.]

Seriously, you thought I'd somehow manage to convince someone they could settle down with a guy like me? Guess you weren't wrong. Ended up this way and I still don't know how.

Hell no. I don't wanna be a father of six. [He says, as if he hasn't been feeding those little gremlins anyway.] Nah, you don't know this guy. His name's Mohammed Avdol. He's a good man. Way too good for me, actually.

[ He laughs softly. ]

It's not like you had much competition. [ Narancia and Fugo are too hot headed, Mista smells, Giorno has a dream, and Bucciarati? He's too deep into organized crime to ever find love. Anyone he falls for would be dragged into a dangerous life, it was much safer to keep things to short flings and and a couple of casual fucks. ]

Don't sell yourself short. You deserve a good man.

[ Wait, did he get a bite? Yes? Yes? Nope. Octopus lost interest. Maybe another one will bite soon. ]

Mohammed would be lucky to have you.

[He feels like he owes an apology. Which is... stupid.

He swallows hard, deciding to watch the water.]

Yeah, that's me. The promising ex-cop who went dirty and ruined his career. [And he'd normally say that so sourly, angry, a bottle of wine in hand, but he's trying. He's been trying these past few months to not be as much of a pile of shit.]

I don't know what he sees sometimes. Hell, I don't know what's in your head about me, but fine. I'm trying to just-- take it as it goes.

Should've shown up sooner, Bucciarati. Now I'm stuck with Mista as my best man.

[ He is aware that his reflection can be seen on the water, so he reels in his line and casts it again for no other reason than to make ripples. It hasn't been a week since they left his body in Sardegna, Bucciarati has a lot of conflicted feelings that he'd rather not bother his engaged friend with.

It wouldn't be fair to drag him back, when he can hear Abbacchio trying to be better. ]

It could be worse. Mista could be walking you down the aisle.

Do you think he'll cry? I bet he'll cry.

[ Please take the bait already, octopi. Does Bruno have to play the flute again? ]

Oh, he's definitely gonna cry.

[There's a pause, and he holds out his hand for the flute.]

Hey. Give it here. Can't do any worse than you, right?

[ Haha Mista's going to cry. That's one thing to look forward to. ]

Are you sure about that?

[ He hands him the flute. ]

What's the worst that'll happen? That it turns out I'm just as bad and the octopus still doesn't show up?

[There is exactly one (1) instrument that Abbacchio knows and it is not the flute, so his playing is about the equivalent of a 7-year-old walking down the street in America with their recorder and trying to play a tune but not quite reaching it. If one could grade Bucciarati with an F for his playing, Abbacchio's probably a generous D+.]

[ That is horrible, especially the parts where he thinks Abbacchio's close to playing a familiar melody only to be disappointed by the next note. But there's a violent tug. Oh, the octopus is feisty!

Bucciarati takes a step back as he reels the octopus in. It's putting up quite a fight! ]

Abbacchio! Quick, the bucket!

[OH SHIT here it comes! Abbacchio practically spits the flute out in the least elegant way possible before he's grabbing for the bucket.]

All right, just-- don't get it on me!

[ Woah woah! It's swinging around on the line! It's making it very difficult for Bucciarati to just drop the octopus in the bucket. With one swing, it leaps off the line and towards Abbacchio. ]

STICKY FINGERS!

[ He calls out his Stand to grab the octopus by the leg and stuff it in the bucket. Hopefully it didn't squirt before or after it got squeezed inside the tiny container. ]

[BAD FUCKING NEWS: that octopus landed a spritz of white ink right into Abbacchio's face, who in turn looks intensely irritated about it. Boy oh boy that octopus better be damned delicious.]

Damn it. [Sorry not sorry, he's spitting over into the water.] I think I got some in my mouth.

[ Abbacchio... if it's any consolation, Bucciarati tried not to laugh. He tried. But he will admit that he looked funny with his face full of ink. Not that he won't take care of him, because he will. It's just that you don't see your friend get attacked by sea creatures.

He tries to lead Abbacchio away from the port. The last thing he needs to do is to agitate the other octopi further. He leaves Sticky Fingers to keep their catch trapped inside the container. ]

Are you alright? [ He offers him a handkerchief to wipe his face. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .012

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