▶ TDM .012

[prismods]

love getaway

navigation ⬤ faq ⬤ reserves ⬤ world ⬤ moonblessings

Watch on YouTube

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.

Comments

[doctorize]

Oh, I'm sorry, is this a bad time for you? When would be a better time to discuss the fact that, last I checked, you weren't here before until now? Or that you barely seem to be shocked by seeing me here, despite what happened the last time I saw you?

[Then again, this is Gray we are talking about, so on the one hand, Gray's poker face is pretty damn impressive. On the other hand, Danny's a little pissed off that Gray seems to not care either and potentially see this as a bit of a nuisance for them to chat when they're both supposed to be doing other jobs right now, but Danny already didn't actually care about the patients here to begin with.

Though, at the very least, he still has enough restraint to not start in on talking about the whole "getting shot with a crossbow" thing and the like while they're still here in the hallway.]

When did you even get here anyway?

[divinesight]

[Most of the bristling that gets is inward, which is likely not helping any impressions Danny may be forming now - of Gray's thoughts, of the conclusions he's come to and the things he hasn't saying just as much as the things he is - but on the other hand, this is not something he wants to get into in front of an entire damn hospital ward that is only being somewhat less overtaken by crystal...whatnot on both the patient and external ends.

Not a matter of caring, and even less a matter of the patients. Entirely a matter of priorities.

But fine. If you want to do this now, we'll do this now.]

It was incredibly recent. A matter of days, if that. I was hardly keeping it from you; I wasn't aware of your presence.

[doctorize]

[it's not even so much that he wants to do this in front of everyone so much as having the unfortunate luck for Danny to see Gray here now rather than at the end of the day where they could have then go off somewhere more private with only God as a potential witness, but it is what it is.

and even though what gray says is pretty logical, danny still frowns a bit deeper at that.]

I suppose, but it's still very sudden, seeing someone like you here of all places. Of all the things you could have been doing instead, why decide to help out here?

[The role of "kettle calling the pot black" will be played by Daniel Dickens for this evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Also theres still some sort of crystal abomination loose in the hospital somewhere but Danny has long since stopped giving a fuck about that.]

[divinesight]

What would you have suggested I do otherwise?

[Really, Danny.

He understands that the answer to that is, presumably, "something where all of this would not currently be an issue" but at the same time, really.]

[doctorize]

[You say this as if Danny being petty is new, Gray.]

... I don't know. Probably something that didn't involve seeing you here at all right now.

[Because even if Danny has remained calm enough to not start yelling at the guy, he was never exactly prepared for what he would do if he ever saw Gray again. What do you do in regards to someone that you still resent quite a bit, but also had missed having there despite what happened? And that somehow hurts more than any hate he has for Gray having essentially signed his death sentence.

Did he really expect Gray to be emotional or something about seeing him again? No, of course not, that would be ridiculous, but the cool appearance of indifference doesn't exactly make him happy either, despite how familiar it is. It used to be a relief to have, even, but after Rachel...]

... You know what, never mind. Do whatever you want.

[Like Gray always has. Like they both have, really.

Danny turns to leave before he can potentially embarrass himself further or give into the seething urge under his skin to scream or something... and freezes because hey, there's that crystal abomination heading this way down the hall. Right. Forgot that thing was around. We should probably be doing something about that.]

[divinesight]

[...You know, there are so many things he could say to this right now, almost all of them along the lines of pointing out that this is precisely why he did not want to have this conversation now. But he won't, he'll just...prime the crossbow again and when he speaks his voice is tight.]

If you're armed, you have the clearer shot. I suggest you take it. If you aren't, stand aside.

[There are several layers of irony present here, all of which he doesn't feel like getting into right now. Just. Shoot if you're going to, if not move it so he doesn't hit you, yes he is aware that last time we spoke he was doing the polar opposite of trying to not hit you.]

[doctorize]

[Of course he's armed, this is Danny we are talking about here, though even as he's drawing his gun, seeing Gray prime the crossbow momentarily gives him a sick feeling of unease. Not that he thinks Gray is actually going to shoot him right here in the hospital ward, but it's still an unpleasant reminder of the last time he saw Gray armed and he's wary about having his back to the other man here.

Thankfully his attention draws back quicker to the moving crystal, and despite having only one working eye, Danny has used a gun enough times to know how to aim properly in order to shoot something. (Or someone, as we all know too well.)

However, it looks like this mess of crystal isn't going to immediately stop just from his bullets, so it looks like he will have to stand aside to let Gray try to shoot the damn thing as well.]

[divinesight]

[Good to see that some things don't change; granted, some things undeniably do, and those are things that neither of them have much time to focus on right now. Maybe they will later, maybe things will just continue on the trajectory they've decided to take in the past several minutes; it's hard to say.

It isn't as though Gray planned on Danny being here, if only because he's still getting used to the idea of either of them being anywhere right now.

It likewise isn't as though he doesn't know why this isn't the best possible configuration to be doing this, given that again, he spent the entire last time he was armed doing the polar opposite of trying to not hit Danny; when he approaches his demeanor is brisk, professional, but perhaps more importantly trying to get on more of a level plane with him so he isn't just shooting from behind. The crossbow is slower to load just by nature but he's practiced with it; getting a few bolts into this thing shouldn't be overly difficult, assuming nothing truly stupid happens.]

[doctorize]

[Thankfully, the creature doesn't seem like it can stand up well against two of them shooting at it. It slows to a crawl, broken crystal spewing everywhere. But as long as they don't touch it with their bare hands it should be fine?

Still, Danny keeps his gun trained on the fallen creature in case it tries to get up again somehow.]

What a nuisance... I'm getting really tired of these things.

[divinesight]

[...That's fucking great, isn't it.]

A particularly common occurrence...?

[doctorize]

[Isn't it just.]

For the last couple of days here, at least. I don't know if there's been a similar epidemic somewhere outside the hospital, but I've already grown sick of seeing these crystals by now.