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

[As much as it would be nice to get praise, it really would be weird to hear it from Mephisto of all people.]

... yeah. It's a teppanyaki grill.

[....]

[It's gross how happy he is rn--]

Excellent! I was just thinking about where I might stop for lunch after this-- looks like you just found yourself a new regular customer!

[RIP]

[It really is.]

You'd better pay. I ain't doin' this shit for free and chroma is easy to get around here.

[Were this the village he had been in for a year and some change before this it would be an entirely different story, but he's actually trying to run a legit business here.]

C'mon, I'm gonna be late.

Of course! Just who do you take me for? I'd never stiff a bill!

[Lies-- but if he did, he'd probably get banned from eating there again, and like hell he's going to lose the opportunity to eat actual Japanese food prepared by an actual Japanese person whenever he wants!! Caihong seemed to have some pretty good alternatives, but his weeb heart just couldn't be satisfied by imitation.]

Ah, but all that aside-- just how have you been? I do hope this world has been treating you well?

[It's not like he hasn't noticed it. Rin may look leagues better than when he first arrived, but Mephisto's perceptive enough to tell that Rin's either lost weight, muscle-mass, or both. But there's too many potential factors as to why to make any real guesses.]

[Of course it couldn't...

Rin gives him a skeptical look but doesn't call him on it, motioning for the demon to follow so he can go out the door and lock it behind him. Keycard tucked away, backpack that he picked up before leaving slung over his shoulder.

He thought that might not go unnoticed by someone like Mephisto. As annoying as the headmaster could be he was incredibly perceptive, enough to even call Yukio out on something he thought had been entirely secret.

It made him all the more grateful it was still cold enough for long sleeves and sweatshirts that covered most of the scars he shouldn't rightfully have as well.]

This world has been.

[Emphasis on the first word.]

...this world.

[Well, this wasn't something he expected to come up so soon -- if at all.]

[But he's fairly certain the Rin he knew briefly back on El Nysa had lived a fairly comfortable life in his time there. He never experienced the worst that place had to offer. But then, while Mephisto is aware that his situation is not the norm among moonblessed, that doesn't mean it's unique, either.]

I take it this wasn't your first pit-stop after being pulled from Assiah, either?

[It's not, and Rin has run in to a few by now.

But he's also run into familiar faces who don't remember him, and frankly that hurts more than the other.

He sighs softly and doesn't respond right away, walking out of the building and down the road to the transit stop.]

I was there for a year and a half. I'd say "I was lucky to survive" but that'd be a lie.

[And even two years of absence from True Cross hasn't made him any better at it.]

[Mephisto silently waits for him to speak, following along beside him with his arms folded neatly behind his back. Even without words, he can understand a good deal from Rin's reaction. Maybe not everything -- for all his progress, he is still a demon -- but enough to know that this is likely a very touchy topic for him.]

[Better or worse than what he was fated to experience back on Assiah? Even that's hard to say, really.]

...I was wondering where this newfound air of maturity of yours had come from.

Would it be best I not inquire further for now? I would hate to put a damper on our little reunion. It seems it's been quite some time since either of us have seen one another.

[Maybe not nearly as long for Mephisto -- but experiencing time on a linear scale made everything feel so, so much longer than it ever did before. Even now, he's still getting used to it.]

[Newfound maturity for Rin, and apparently more empathy from Mephisto? My how things have changed indeed.]

It's... fine. Just still a sore spot.

[He'll get over it.

Maybe.

If the nightmares ever stop.

He does have to ask, though, because Mephisto is legitimately surprising him.]

You actually care about what happened to me?

[................]

[Don't call him out like this, now he's gotta be tsundere about it--]

Is that really so surprising? Surely I've put enough of an investment into you to warrant a little concern about your well-being?

[CALLIN' THE CLOWN OUT. HOLDING NO PUNCHES IN 2020.]

... yeah. I guess.

[He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, being a bit tsun himself as he looks away.]

You are my guardian-- ... were? I'm eighteen now, and the whole... world hopin'--

[WHATEVER. The tram is here.]

[If they keep this up while they're walking together like this, people are gonna start giving them looks.]

Legal guardianship aside... although I suppose I've never expressed it to you out loud-- we are technically brothers, as well. In a manner of speaking.

[He's making a genuine effort here, but he's also dying inside. How do humans do the things with the feelings all the time?? It's annoying.]

[They would if this wasn't "Furry yiff planet" as Lightning likes to put it. Though there's some "knowing" smiles as they get on the tram and find seats, Rin unable to fully get his red face to calm down.

Feelings are stupid.]

Yeah, I kinda figured that out. Later. A lot later.

[He's still Rin, and he's still dumb as hell.]

The place I was in before was some messed up broken fairy tale village that lost all it's color 'cause some moron did somethin' he wasn't supposed to and got everythin' cursed. We got dragged there to bring the color back but it also meant not... havin' a whole lot.

[Ah yes, let's get back to the much safer topic of horrific otherworldly trauma instead of talking about feelings. He can handle that topic.]

[...sorta.]

A cursed village devoid of color... that sounds like the plot of some low-budget anime.

[What better way to avoid paying colorists than not having color??]

I imagine it would have been significantly more obvious had I arrived here at the same time as you?

God, don't even get me started. It was terrible.

[They avoided a lot of shit. Like regularly feeding the poor suckers who got dragged there.]

... yeah. Yeah it was-- ... I was pretty bad.

[He had originally wanted to hide the scars to avoid being heckled, but having Mephisto actually give more than a passing care about his condition and past was actually urging him to be a little more open.

He won't show everything, but he does pull the baggy sleeve of his hoodie back, showing a few fading scars on his palm, fingertips and near his wrist. Small and thin but jagged, like he had been cut by rocks.]

They took my powers away once. All of them.

[He's not sure what's more surprising -- that there's a world out there capable of containing Satan's power to such an extent that Rin could actually be left with permanent scars, or that Rin is actually opening up to him about it in the first place. But perhaps that just goes to show how much the two of them have grown in their respective time spent apart. Which isn't unexpected from a half-human like Rin, but for Mephisto, it's more eye-opening.]

For as long as it took you to come to accept them, I can imagine that wasn't a pleasant experience.

[Nevermind the fact that they were probably pretty vital in a place that sounds like it was as dangerous as it was.]

...but I suppose I can relate to that, at least. Even now, I can't say my powers have recovered from what was done to me.

[They've clearly both been through hells that not even Gehenna would have put someone through.

Rin is still fairly self conscious about the scars, the incident that created them being the one he dreams about the most. Sharp teeth and hungry eyes and inhuman chittering as he ran all over that island just trying to make it through to the next night alive...

He pulls the sleeve back down, fidgeting a little as the neon colors of Lunatia go by the windows outside.]

How bad was it? The place you were before.

...not as bad, perhaps.

[Though the fact that he does sound a bit hesitant to say too much says a lot more. There was a lot of good in Nysa, and he met so many people who changed his life for the better. But when it was bad... well, Rin's not the only one plagued by nightmares these days. And traumatizing a demon who has seen the things that Mephisto has seen isn't a simple task.]

Rather, the circumstances of being there were what made it... difficult. Although I can say with quite a bit of certainty now that it was a lie, initially, we were told that we were the final survivors of our worlds. And the omniscient beings who "rescued" us brought us to a world of their own creation, called El Nysa.

[See, his experience was very Anime too, but at least it probably had a higher budget??]

But not everyone was rescued in one piece. Most of them were still in stasis, kept in a secret colony floating above the planet in the form of a moon. And even among those who woke up, some were simply left damaged beyond repair.

[He hesitates, but only for a moment. This is something he'd be wary of letting Lucifer or even Lightning find out about-- but he feels he can trust Rin with it. Not because he feels he's gotten more trustworthy in the brief time they've spoken here, but because he's sure he would understand better than most why he wouldn't want anyone else to know.]

...I don't suppose I can explain it to you in a way that could make you understand the gravity of it. But my powers are more than just what I can do. They're who I am. Though I'd hardly be able to say I became powerless, I lost nearly 90% of all my abilities and strength.

Even now-- I can tell that much of them are still gone.

[All the more reason for Rin to ask. Anything that makes Mephisto sound like that...

It can't have been sunshine and rainbows, that's for fucking sure.

Rin listens surprisingly closely, not interrupting or looking zoned out as he often was in school. Rin may be awful at lying but he's not one to go around blabbing people's secrets. It stays between them as long as Mephisto wants it to, even if the idea of the two of them sharing anything in confidence is quietly blowing his mind.

What the fuck universe.

What the fuck.]

A lotta stuff here is tied to chroma but I couldn't tell you how much of that you're gonna get back for sure even with it.

[He makes a face, worrying at his lower lip with a fang.]

I wouldn't be able to understand it completely, but... I kinda get it? When I lost my powers on that island I felt... wrong. Even before I pulled the Koma sword I had somethin' in me that was just always there and when they did that to me...

[God.

Are they actually bonding?]

...it felt like an important part of you was gone-- right?

[They're totally bonding. And honestly-- it's not that bad. He might even call it nice.]

In any case-- I've had a year's worth of living like this to come to terms with it. And some of my powers do seem to be recovering, albeit slowly. Perhaps I can even find the means of restoring them more quickly with the technology and magic available in this world. I'm not one for giving up so easily.

[It is... weirdly nice and Rin is probably going to be wrestling with that thought for a few hours after they part ways.

For now, though, he's letting the conversation happen naturally and pushing the fact that this is the same man who once refused to give him a larger allowance because he "liked the print of the smaller bill better".]

There's some pretty crazy stuff you can pick up once you've been around a while. I had to wait a coupl'a months to get my business license but I know the same place I got it from also sells things that can bring items from home.

[He hasn't bothered yet mainly because he's made due without for so long he wouldn't even know what he'd want anymore.]

We're almost there.

[He still stands by that, okay.]

Items from home, hm? I'll have to look into that later.

[It might be an easy to way to prove his theory that the Natha were liars.]

[...but also, the last season of Magical Sweetie Sally-chan was due to come out two months after their planet was supposedly consumed, and if he can find a way to get his hands on it, coming to this place will all be worth it.]

Oh, good! Honestly, after all this dreary talk, I'm famished!

Ah, but now that you can understand the context-- I haven't had proper Japanese food since I left Assiah. So I do hope you're able meet my standards, or I'll be oh so disappointed.

[Already back on his bullshit.]

[Rin is pretty damn sure they are considering Lightning and Lucifer are here and the Prismals have made no statements towards their worlds being destroyed or in any sort of danger.]

Rin finally looks at him, almost offended that Mephisto would think he would do anything less than his absolute best when it came to food.]

C'mon, what do you take me for?

[Don't piss off the chef, man.]

I gotta go in early to do the prep for the day but I'll make sure you're not wastin' away waitin' for me.

[Considering Mephisto's standards involve instant ramen and scraps of deep fried batter, it's not like the bar was ever set very high.]

Fufu, as expected of Okumura-kun!

[Too nice for his own good, even to assholes like Mephisto.]

[Ah, but Crystal Beach is their destination, right? Well, given the time of year and particular mating season for a particular special of octopus, as they walk towards the restaurant, a glance at the beach will reveal it to be filled with bizarre mounds of writhing and groaning (???) octopus, some within just a few feet of the restaurant.]

[...]

It's, er... a delightful view?

▶ TDM .012

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