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

Xichen blinks at the display of transfiguration. It is not something that he has seen done, but it is not something inconceivable, either - but the ease with which it was done is impressive on its own.

"Ah... you did not need to." But his fingers wrap around the band still, even as they arrive at the residence. "It is very beautiful."

For all Xichen's hairpiece is elaborate, simple, unadorned things please him well, or ones with subtle detail rather than very obvious. So his appreciation is honest.

"I have little which I can give to return that, other than showing you how to reach me through the device that we are all assigned. If you are in need - of information about this place, as much as I have gathered, or of contact for chroma, or simply to talk - you can reach me that way."

He knows that by now Shuangyu should have recovered enough chroma to stand on his own, but ...

A little more is never a bad thing.

"It is repayment for your kindness and willingness to help a stranger. No further return is necessary," Runyu points out, even as he comes to the same conclusion regarding his energy levels. It still sits uneasily with him, the idea that this method of cultivation is all that is available to them here. Nonetheless, this is not his realm and to be here means to play by the laws of the land, and so leaning on someone of Lan Xichen's character to grow more accustomed to these ways does not feel a terrible thing. With the gift of his favor, he fully intends to keep in touch with this mortal's life, however fleeting or permanent he proves to be.

It would not be a terrible thing either, for Lan Xichen to attain immortality. But of course, Runyu knows little of the contents of the other man's heart at this early juncture.

"I would be grateful for any instruction on the ways of this world all the same."

"It feels as though you can, and would, do much more for me than I have done for you, Immortal Shunagyu."

Honest observation, because what a heavenly Immortal can do is ... different from what Xichen himself can.

And perhaps it won't be an objectively bad thing, for Xichen to achieve immortality. But it would definitely bring a lot of pain and even more loss with it.

"But I will do my best." He nods to the door, not setting the immortal down until he wishes to be set down - or not at all if he reaches to open the door while still held. "It is confusing, but I think not too difficult."

Glancing between the door and the state of himself, Runyu does briefly consider asking to be let down, but when Xichen makes no move to set him down he bites down briefly on his lip, then opens the door with nothing more than a gesture of his hand. Once they are inside, he closes it with another gesture, then smiles softly the mortal's way.

"...I believe I am well enough to stand on my own feet, but I confess I have not minded this closeness."

There is... the faintest of smiles back. Part amused by the use of power, part sheepish, all shy because smiling...

It used to come easily to him. It has not, in months now.

"I will admit that I find such things quite pleasant, too. Cultivators are supposed to conduct themselves with dignity, which I can and do do as appropriate. But the necessity of touch here... I do not mind at all."

Going to the lengths of moonlacing that some do? Not quite. But being close, holding and being held. He has not taken his fill yet, and he is not sure he will.

"I see nothing but dignity in your conduct in all things, Lan Xichen," Runyu observes, finding the longer he is held the more loathe he is to part. This closeness is not something afforded to the Lord of Night, the warmth of Xufeng's power when offered to him the nearest thing he gets.

"I misspoke earlier. Would that all realms encourage and allow such conduct, perhaps existence would be a kinder, brighter thing." Pausing, he flushes just faintly at his one remaining uncertainty with this arrangement, his one lingering discomfort, that being that Xichen has been standing holding him for a while. He should hate to tire the young cultivator, or have him feel put out. Besides, adjusting to closeness is one thing. This is starting to feel like talking advantage.

"Would it be amenable to you to... continue this from the couch...? Unless you have a prior engagement I am interrupting—"

That is partly the moonlacing and partly, yes, touch starved. But Xichen doesn't mind at all - he doesn't try to answer, or explain it would take a long time, at least in a reasonable scale, for him to get tired, instead taking the immortal to the couch - he does set him down, on the cushions, rather than his lap, but he might not reject it if Shuangyu chooses to do it anyway, after Xichen sits down, pulling him close.

"A kinder, brighter existence..."

Xichen considers whether this place has been like this. To him, somewhat. To others... like his brother, even, not quite.

"That is always a good thing to wish for, or work towards." He lowers his eyes, just for a moment, still saddened. "Does Heaven not leave its immortals free of strife and shadow?"

Runyu is not quite bold enough to clamber back into a near stranger's lap, is surprised at himself for chasing something he would not dare to even humor the notion of were this back home or even any of the adjacent realms. Even knowing this place is so far removed from his own domain that thus far no one has recognized or even heard of him, he can't help an instinctive anxiety that rumors will come of this night.

And yet still, his arms loop around Xichen's own, drawing the young cultivator in.

"...I have found that immortals are more similar to those in the mortal realm than we care to admit. Though we claim the mortal realm is a place unique for its suffering, all that is different is the passage of time, the swift brutality of it, the scale," he murmurs, idly stroking Xichen's arm as he speaks.

"Regardless of realm, people are fundamentally people. Those in Heaven conspire, they covet, they lie, cheat, and steal. There is... more loss than you would think, and danger. My brother was nearly killed recently, and I..."

After a moment's hesitation, he rolls up his sleeve to show Xichen the burn scar on his forearm, expression mild and grieved.

"...Xufeng has it far worse. As our primary peacekeeper, head of our military, his body is covered in far worse scars."

Xichen holds him, until the scar is revealed, and one hand moves to place gentle long fingers on the wrist below the scar. But still, his words are a little more general... if very warm and approving, and a little hopeful.

"You love your brother."

Not... exactly a question.

Then he focuses on the scar - with his eyes only, not prying unless asked.

"Are you in pain now?"

Flushing with embarrassment, Runyu shakes his head and covers the scar on his arm once more, unused to the concern of others to the point that it's an uncomfortable thing.

"Not at all. The burn is long healed," he reassures, smoothing over Lan Xichen's worry with a gentle smile. He puts his arms back around Xichen's own, settling himself in at the young cultivator's side once more as his mind turns to the topic of Xufeng.

"...my brother helped me with it, in fact. When it first happened. He has long been my greatest supporter, and in turn I have tried to be his." Pausing, he looks up at Xichen once more.

"May I inquire after your family...?"

"Tried?" Xichen's question is quiet, but there seems something there which it might be important. Not for Xichen, of course. For immortal Shuangyu.

His face softens a little. "I also have a brother. He has been through a lot, though I think... He will be all right, in the end. Though he has been brought here from a time that was difficult for him. The one from my world, there is another one who is still him, but a little different. He is... From later. Knowing he will have the happiness he deserves. His son is here, too.

"I... used to also have two sworn brothers, but that is... Complicated." He trails off. Very, very complicated.

"My position is more tenuous than his, so there is a limit to what I can do," Runyu elaborates softly, having nothing in particular to hide beyond not wishing to overly burden a relative stranger with the inner workings of his life. "The best I am able to manage for him is to keep my head low, but the heart wishes to to better for those we love..."

Listening pensively to Xichen's own tale, Runyu nods his head slowly, thoughtfully, inviting Xichen to speak more of his life if he so wishes.

"...families often are, by blood or otherwise," he offers, waiting to see if Xichen will go on.

"Mm. Sometimes, the limit of what can be done for younger brothers can't be altered. Not... in a conceivable way, though others may think of different paths."

Xichen is quiet for a little while.

"I suppose... one of them did not want to be - family. And I was fooled into believing otherwise." Quiet, almost quiet enough for the bitterness to stay hidden.

"Though I do not know the particulars of your life, Lan Xichen..." Runyu covers Xichen's hand with his own, then clasps it between both hands tightly as he gazes steadily into the mortal's eyes.

"I have never met a soul which did not long for family, for belonging. Perhaps circumstances prevented him from settling as he surely wanted. Or he did want it for a time, but something changed." Runyu's expression sobers, tightens, grows slightly pained.

"...I have often thought of the paths that may lead me from my own brother someday. But please believe me when I say I have loved no one more. There is a perfect world where we stand side by side in this life and the next, never looking back, never faltering," he murmurs, smiling mournfully off at nothing in particular, at the memory of being boys together held so dearly in his mind. "...but that world is not this one."

Xichen's eyes turn down, and stay down. It takes him a long, long moment before he speaks, and there is no anger, only sadness as what he lets through of his pain.

"He did, I think. But it was not us whom he wanted. He used what I gifted him to kill our eldest brother. It... it is what it is."

No hatred, either.

But, perhaps, a touch of despair.

"...he should not have involved you," Runyu voices softly, responding to Xichen's despair with a quiet grief of his own. "There are... rumors, in my family, that my father committed some similar atrocity to his eldest brother for inheritance and power."

Such a thing is blasphemy to say, but Lan Xichen tugs at his heartstrings, and Runyu feels sheltered by his assumed name as well as the fact of being in the presence of a mortal. Cultivator or not, unless Lan Xichen proves to be one of the rare few he too will be here and gone before Runyu can fully grasp this time between them.

"Family should always come first. When we forget, when we are clouded to it by greed or injustice or grief... tragedy arises."

Sighing out his breath, Runyu curls against Xichen a little closer, drawing an arm around his shoulders as an older brother might.

"I hope your family finds its way. I hope your burdens lessen, grow easier to bear."

Xichen stiffens for a moment at that reaction. Then his shoulders fall in silent defeat.

"He should not have killed him at all."

But that is all that he will say about this. He... Does not understand, but he can see where Shuangyu's heart lies. Perhaps it's different among those born immortal. But it's clear enough.

"Family should, but it very rarely does. I hope yours finds a better ground to grow, as well."

Xichen hesitates a little.

"What if, or while, none of them are here? What of you?"

"Forgive me, I did not mean to imply that killing is an excusable thing," Runyu amends at once, tensing himself as he finds that is how his words were taken. "Only that when evil is done, it is made worse still to sully unknowing hands."

Sighing softly, he withdraws a little, pulling his arm back to simply rest against Xichen's own.

"It is too big a thing for me to hope, that there is no evil in this world. I save my hope for the smaller things, like preserving innocence where it still endures."

Then he quiets, pausing to consider Xichen's question to his own family. How much to tell...?

"...it is impertinent for me to say," he ventures, voice quiet, gaze distant. "Unfilial at the very least. But... it is easier to breathe alone. My life is a solitary one, with or without them. ...at least without, I need not look over my shoulder with every breath I take."

Xichen helplessly barks out a sound that resembles a croak more than a laugh, before swallowing the rest down, closing his eyes and composing himself once again as Shuangyu pulls away. It takes him a moment. What good is his innocence when he lost both his sworn brothers? Can he be innocent, when he lost his brothers?

But no, that does not truly matter. It is not as though this immortal needs to get involved, or can change what was. What is, in human hearts.

"Either way," calm, he can do calm. Please forgive his slip a moment ago. "He chose very clearly to show he did not wish us as his family. It does not mean that I do not, but... it is also right to consider and respect his wishes, as well."

And Meng Yao himself told him, at least this time truthful, that he does not know if he can, or will, choose Xichen. Why is Xichen so weak, then, to hurt over what cannot be?

Instead, he focuses on the words said. He inclines his head slightly.

"I think it is all right to be relieved." Quietly. "You did not choose to leave, and less ache and worry, when no harm is caused, is a good thing."

"What is the difference between your sworn brother and I...? The lack of collateral damage?" Runyu ventures lightly, turning over his own situation in his mind. "Is it easier to let go of a loved one bloodlessly?"

He does not expect his question to have an answer, only just learning what it means to have something he cannot set down, cannot put aside. He's never been one for attachments, could never afford them, but now... No, that's not right either. Right now, right here, it's irrelevant. Those are the troubles of another man in a different life. Shuangyu has no such worries, even if he is nothing more than a fleeting illusion as his name suggests. Morning frost and nothing more, here and gone, ephemeral and free. The exact counterpoint to his true self, an night dragon with a heart of misty stone.

Touching his hand to Xichen's cheek, he searches the mortal's face for answers he knows will not come.

"Why do you long after that which does not wish to be yours, Lan Xichen?"

"I do not know enough to answer that." The calm for this reply is, at least, a little easier. It is simple truth - he has barely met Shuangyu. What similarity or difference there is, he can't determine from one conversation. Or one week.

The other part of the question, well. Xichen leans his face into the touch, just lightly.

"Because," there is an expression that could be a smile, but isn't quite, "if I abandon him, who will he have?"

Runyu has a hint of an answer in his own heart, that it is not as fine to leave his family behind as it seems. But a year or twenty year is nothing in the eyes of Heaven, and so he is not particularly worried for his absence. He only nods, cupping his hand to Xichen's cheek, drawing him back in again.

"...may he turn back and see the bridges you rebuild for him," Runyu offers as though in prayer. "May he understand how rare a thing that is, and may your devotion be returned in full."

But the thing is, he did not choose to leave his family behind. He is merely coping with their absence. And again, Xichen has seen more than of his peers whose parents...

Well, whose parents are better off being far away. So he can't blame Shuangyu. And he's not blaming or judging him, for all that he is aware it might not necessarily be considered the right thing.

At all.

But then his thoughts get drawn back to the here and now, and he is held closer once more, and it. (It feels so good.) (It's so much.) (Not too much.)

He only gives the tiniest head-shake.

"I do not wish him to suddenly want something he doesn't want. It is not for me that I wish at all. Any of it. Everyone deserves to be a human and have trust and respect, for their own sake. That's...

"That's all."

He's suddenly exhausted, drained for words. He knows any of this, all of this, sounds arrogant. But it's the best he can put into words.

After a few long moments, he adds, too, "thank you. All of those would be good."

Edited (When I look in a day later and see I ate a letter...) 2020-02-26 20:50 (UTC)

"Lan Xichen," Runyu murmurs, sighing the man's name out in patience, but also in sternness. He trails fingers through the mortal's hair, fixing him with a steady gaze. It is not arrogance he hears, but despair, but the words of a man refusing to tend to his own house while it burns, eyes only on the troubles of those around him.

"You cannot pour from an empty cup. You cannot give from an empty purse. You cannot love from an empty heart," he goes on, pressing the flat of his hand against Xichen's chest at his last words. "You must want for yourself before you can want for others. You must have for yourself before you can share with others. Once you are able to come from a place of substance, perhaps you and your sworn brother will be able to find solid ground."

Xichen shudders, just once. You cannot pour from an empty cup. He knows. Oh, he knows, but there is so precious little to get in his heart. His brother is so broken still, and knowing that he will only get to more heartache, however soothing this place might be. The other version of his brother is content now, at least... There is da ge, young and innocent and healthy. There is Song Zichen, who both needs him and gives to him steadfastness, but it will...

That will also not last. He knows. Song Zichen will return to his own world, to suffer for the malice of another and his own mistakes.

"Wanting for myself... had I not done this in the first place, so many people would be alive, happier. I do not know if I can do this again. If I should.

"If I find solid ground with that sworn brother, am I not betraying the other one, the one he killed? He is here, too. So young." There is nothing more important than family. Xichen closes his eyes, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "There is no right path. Least of all... being selfish."

▶ TDM .012

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