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

"Sure," Tachibana nodded, moving over to take a (somewhat careful) seat. "A lot of the past few years..." he trailed off, letting out another small, amused huff. "I'm sure if anyone else were talking about them, you likely wouldn't believe much of it."

But Kenzaki was well aware of Tachibana's serious nature, and that he frankly lacked the creativity to make up anything resembling the insane sounding stories his life had been.

"After the things that I've seen, I'll believe basically anything," Kenzaki said wryly. "And I trust you. If you're from a different reality to me, well, I'm still me and you're still you, even if you're not the you that I'm used to, I guess."

And that was a headache all in itself.

He moved the few feet into the tiny open plan kitchen area, and put the kettle on to boil. "Are you okay, firstly? Is - is Hajime?"

That... was a curious answer, and Tachibana's eyebrow rose.

But the next question.

"You haven't run into him yet, here?"

...in retrospect, this seemed obvious. There was no way Hajime wouldn't have let him know about having run into Kenzaki.

It'd been a curious few years.

Kenzaki shook his head, ignoring the flash of painful hope at the thought of seeing Hajime again. He couldn't. Wasn't safe. "You're both here, then? Is Mutsuki? Anyone else?"

"Not here, no," Tachibana shook his head, hands folding as his arms rested on his legs. "Mutsuki showed up briefly, in Liminal, when I had first arrived. From back before the Fight had been put into limbo even. And Sayoko...."

He trailed off, expression distant a long moment before he took a slow, deep breath.

"They might show up, later. Hajime had been in Liminal before me, but arrived here after I had. So there's a chance for anyone, really."

He paused before making a face. "Especially if Isaka somehow wound up here as well," he scowled. He'd almost forgotten about Isaka. He would have liked to have forgotten about Isaka...

Kenzaki dunked two teabags - well, they looked like teabags, and he was calling them teabags, and they didn't have anything psychotropic in them as far as he knew - into two cups, and poured boiling water over them.

He frowned in concern at Tachibana's pause. Just what wasn't he saying?

"Got it. It's all so weird, Tachibana-san, even for Riders."

Then he froze. "Isaka's here? Right, so when do you want help to go take him out?"

"I already beat him senseless," Tachibana assured with a smile. "There's no way to seal him, unfortunately, but I think his spirit was broken by how easily he was defeated."

Was there a touch of smug pride there? Maybe a little.

Kenzaki laughed, leaning against the counter. "Good. That must've been satisfying."

What had Tachibana-san said before about Sayoko?

"Mostly to see just how far I really have grown, since then," Tachibana admitted.

He wasn't about to go into the complex, uncomfortable feelings after. Kenzaki didn't need to hear about Undead Existential Crises. He had enough to worry about of his own.

"It's been a long time for you too, huh?"

Kenzaki wanted to hear all about it, but wasn't exactly the greatest at asking people questions in a way to get them to talk. He cared. He just wasn't used to having friends around again. Not like this.

"Both forever and yet no time at all," Tachibana answered with a faint huff. "Hard to believe it's been almost 15 years."

Especially when Hajime and Kenzaki looked the same. And when Sayoko had been there with him in Liminal so such a painfully brief time...

He glanced back over at his kohai. "What year was it, when you left our world?" he asked, curious.

That’s a relief, at least. “About the same,” he says, finally bringing the tea over. He drags a little bouncy table in between them and sets the tray on top. “At least something is the same. Rest feels like a dream.”

Not that he’s desperately needy for contact with the other man, for information about how they’ve all been doing. Not at all. Ahem.

"Wonder if it means something, that it's been the same amount of time," Tachibana pondered before glancing over at Kenzaki with a hint of an almost impish smile.

"Though I supposed being pulled into an alternate world would explain why you were silent on that phone call," he teased gently.

"You think someone's controlling it all?"

Kenzaki splutters half a mouthful of tea and looks up at the ceiling, at the floor, anywhere but at Tachibana, cheeks reddening. "You know about that? - of course you know about that."

"Mutsuki and I were having lunch there when you called," Tachibana confirmed, smile growing at that blush before he reached out, putting a gentle hand on Kenzaki's shoulder.

"I know that you feel like you need to keep apart from all of us," he continued, voice soft, but very serious. "But physical distance alone should be enough."

Kenzaki pinched the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb, appreciating the warmth of that hand on his shoulder. How incredibly embarrassing. He thought back to that day, when he'd had all kinds of plans for what to say but all the words had choked up in his throat.

If Hajime didn't care - if he'd gone on to live as a human, setting Kenzaki behind him as Kenzaki had wanted, then why call and bother him?

If he DID care, then why call and make it so much worse?

Idiot. Complete idiot.

"I'm sorry. If he's here, though," Kenzaki managed eventually. "Physical distance may be difficult. I'll be drawn to him."

"The Sealing Stone has no power over either of you, outside of our world," Tachibana pointed out, voice warm and encouraging. "And I know neither of you would be able to seal the other, even if you were to lose control."

He gently squeezed Kenzaki's shoulder again before slowly letting his hand fall away. "I can even set the Searcher up again, so that if either of you wind up in that form, I can find you and snap you out of it." He'd done it before, in Liminal. Multiple times with Hajime. And even if he didn't have some of the tricks he did in Liminal any more... he was sure he'd be able to get through to them long enough to break up any fight.

Kenzaki's head whipped around at that, and he stared at Tachibana. "A-are you sure? I was drawn to another me, before..."

He blinked rapidly, taking this in. If it was actually possible to see Hajime again.... it was already amazing to see Tachibana-san, and he hadn't expected even that. But both of them. Both.

Hajime.

"You - you sound like you know what you're talking about."

"Another you?" Tachibana repeated, blinking curiously. But reassuring Kenzaki was more important, and he couldn't help the faint chuckle at Kenzaki's observation.

"Liminal was... an interesting place," he half explained. "A lot of things happened that seemed to be designed to test everyone's limits."

“It was weird,” Kenzaki says dryly. That seems about the best summary.

He takes a grounding sip of his tea, then sets it back on the table. Ignoring, for the moment, the thought of a small cranky bug in a trench coat. “It sounds like it put you guys through a lot.”

"No worse than anything we survived back home," Tachibana half shrugged. "It is a bit easier to stop the end of the world when you can reach gods who are causing it," he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Gods?”

He settles back into his chair, hoping Tachibana will continue. It’s easier to adjust to this for a moment, to lose himself in the comfort of the other man’s presence.

He’s gotten very good at adjusting to new situations. This one is a mix of new, and old but something he’d never expected to have again.

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded, giving a warm smile. "One of the worlds we found ourselves in on our Travels was very similar to the mythological version of Greece. The world was starting to fall apart because something was lulling the gods into a drugged stupor, and my overlay -- the version of myself native to that world that I was living the life of-- charged up Mount Olympus to yell at them all for abandoning the world. Would up taking over for one of them, in the end, to watch over the new era born of the change of the gods."

Kenzaki just watched him for a moment, stunned by that, but Tachibana was right - it wasn't that amazing given everything they'd been through. Together, and separately.

"...wow. How did that work? So he stayed there while you left?"

~~Seen the near-end of one world, seen 'em all~~

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded. "The time we spend in jaunts where we have overlays, we're mostly just along for the ride, living their lives with only their memories for that period before returning to ourselves in Liminal."

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