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.

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▶ 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

I shall pass it along to him - though I dare say you won't have to wait long.

[ her smile is a bit fond when she confirms it, and his mention of burying things in the snow has her chuckling. ]

Yes - better than smoking or pickling something so that you can eat it later. It even keeps fish fresh for a while. I am still getting used to some of the technology, but allow me to show you the basics.

[ she takes him to hers and alphinaud's apartment complex - waving her bracelet over a few doors until she finds one listed as unoccupied, and opens it. ]

Using the bracelet they gave you should allow you to claim this as yours, if you want. Let me show you about.

[ she steps inside. ]

Lovely! I have missed his clever conversation!

[ Not nearly as much as he himself has been missed, he's realizing, but prefers not to really think of it if he can help it. ]

Thank you, I am most grateful for the help.

[ And he really is, you can tell from his voice alone. This has all been overwhelming without the need to figure the technology out on top of it. So he'll take whatever lessons he can get. Even her trick with the bracelet is pretty amazing to him! Of course he doesn't have an apartment yet so he didn't know about that particular detail. ]

I see. I have only to wave it and it shall be mine? Mine and perhaps someone else's...

[ He isn't really sure who he'd room with exactly, but it's not like he's picky about strangers either.

Following her inside, he takes a moment to have a good look around. ]

[ this one is decorated to start in a fairly basic manner, cream-colored furniture and dark wood floors, a mix of pale yellow wallpaper and paneling. ]

Yes, waving it over like that should list it as occupied or unoccupied - and unlock it, if it's your apartment. You can also be granted access to other's apartments if they so desire.

[ she lets him have a quick look around, but then waves him over to a touchscreen panel near the door that lights up as they approach. ]

This should let you browse other, ah, design options, I guess they would call it? They have a variety of styles. You simply press the picture, then this button in the corner to "preview" it. This other button will change it permanently.

[ Haurchefant nods, committing that all to memory. Or at least, what he understands of it. It will no doubt make sense once he tries it! ]

I see. So it is imperative that I wear this bracelet at all times, then.

[ He wanders over to the touchscreen panel when she waves him there, leaning over slightly to look at it. ]

And you can change how your apartment looks just on a whim? I wonder if you and Alphinaud have the same tastes...

[ Otherwise he's imagining it going back and forth a lot ]

When you are first setting it up, it's free. After that, it does cost some Chroma, the currency here - so Alphinaud and I were sure to compromise.

[ thankfully, they both grew up in sharlayan, so while their individual tastes may vary, they can find common ground in those kinds of designs. it also helps they both have a room to decorate as they see fit. ]

Did they explain Chroma to you?

Ah, I see! That is for the best, then.

[ and having one's own room is definitely a plus for these two! He can already tell that despite looking almost identical, they are quite different. ]

Chroma, yes. More or less, I believe? It basically keeps the city, and ourselves, up and running, is that so?

That is correct. Almost everything here is powered or protected by it - it even takes the place of aether used in magic, for those of us from Eorzea.

[ aahhhh she hates chroma. ]

There is a synthetic version called Demichroma that the locals also use. Chroma itself is generated by us moonblessed in greater quantities. It's generated through physical contact - fighting or holding hands - and the greater the ... intimacy of the contact, the more it generates.

Is that so? Fascinating. There is much about this chroma that they don't explain in the welcome ceremony, then.

[ perhaps somewhere there is knowledge to explain how he's even standing here alive. or the different worlds thing. or anything at all.

though he must admit he never thought he would hear explanations of physical intimacy from teenaged elezens... even if it's not the process of intimacy so much as just...explaining that it's what is needed here. But still. ]

I do believe they said something along those lines, but I admit I was not paying all that much attention due to ... other distractions.

[ Breathing, being alive, etc. ]

They even ask this of -- well. You're quite young, but then who am I to say a thing about it!

I would imagine you had rather a lot on your mind.

[ dancing around the truth. at his words, though, she looks a bit indignant, though she doesn't direct it at him. ]

I will have you know I am of full legal age in Sharlayan. But I find it a rather gauche thing to ask of anyone, truly.

[ but, after a moment, she offers a hand. ]

However, it need not be so. I have been able to generate chroma just by holding hands with people.

Yes, that is so.

[ His smile fades a bit, only noticeable if you're paying very close attention. There's a tiredness that tugs at his eyes, but it vanishes into amusement very quickly. ]

Of course, of course. I meant no offense.

[ Though she is right, it's kind of a weird way to keep things running? He can think of worse things they'd have to do than cuddle a little, but the strangeness cannot be denied. With her hand offered though, he smiles to her and takes it gently. The sudden flow of Chroma is still new to him, a bit jarring, but not bad. ]

Any gesture of affection then will do, I wonder? Or physical contact in general?

▶ TDM .012

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