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

Another Lion King. Does fate never tire of sending all of you my way? Yet I have not met one that disappoints. Formidable foes in battle, all of you. Worthy opponents. Yet make no mistake-! I will not yield to you my new kingdom.

[ They can challenge him as much as they'd like for the title, but he's already set his sights on repairing the city after the earnest plea from the Prismals who summoned him. Considering they had beseeched their own gods to bring him here and save them from their own calamity, he will see to it that the city is reborn anew under his rule and law. ]

Certainly, you have already reconsidered even trying by now. You would not have given me your restorative chroma otherwise.

[ He's wise to try and become his ally rather than approach him with hostility. ]

I will remember your name in exchange, King Richard I. Is that satisfactory recompense?

Richard is enough, if you would let me call you by your name.

[Calling him Sun God would feel like an insult of his own beliefs after all. That said...]

I would never dream of taking your kingdom. I am quite satisfied simply basking in the wonders of their arts here.

A wise king knows when to bow down to another, greater king. Very well. You may call me Ozymandias.

[ It's also an effective way of getting on his good side. He may have use for another protege with Nitocris currently being absent and Ozymandias being short on servants to obey and worship him and to fulfill all his orders without question. ]

Have you arrived on your own? I imagine you must have been granted a similar purpose -to rebuild what the calamity had taken from the Prismals. Tell me of your intentions with this world. I will judge you not kindly but fairly.

[He technically did not bow to him but Richard won't argue semantics. What is pride but a concept now that he is dead? Except that's not true, he is prideful in other ways. This isn't it.

The question makes him pause, because well...]

As I was summoned for such a reason, I will certainly fulfill my duty. However, to ask me of my intentions, I must speak true.

I wish to look for the King of Knights himself. I have word that he resides here at the moment.

The King of Knights?

[ That piques his interest, brows rising up slightly before he cocks his head to the side. ]

What business do you have with Saber? Or is the lance-bearing Lion King you seek? I have battled both, and both have proven formidable foes in their own right. Do you come to challenge him for the grail?

[ Does such a thing even exist in this land? He hasn't heard of it from anyone yet. He'd abdicated his own to his master back in Camelot, but that doesn't mean there aren't other masters or servants who may yet hold theirs. ]

Oh, I have no need of the Grail. [Wait, what?] Certainly, it would be magnificent to be chosen by it, but there is notjing I wish from it at all.

... You imply there are two of him?

[Wait. Wait wait waaaait.]

Two of King Arthur... how is that possible? Perhaps a different class? A Rider perhaps? Oh! That is quite curious!

[He looks so excited though.]

[ Oh, are there ever two king Arthurs... and more. So much more. ]

Hoh? How little you know. It is possible the same figure can be reimagined over and over again in different forms. Old, young, male, female... the human imagination is limitless. Except when it comes to myself. The only one is me.

[ They won't talk about the corrupted version that was later summoned... that is not him but a perversion of his memory. ]

The one you know as King Arthur, I have met him many times now in Tokyo, in Camelot, in Chaldea.

[ He can't say which is the "true" one or the one closest to legend nor would finding out be of any interest in him. Let the Britons ruminate on their own myths. ]

Which one do you seek?

Oh, I have no preference. After all, I have read countless of stories and versions. If I could meet all of them, or even one, I would be ecstatic.

[It sounds flippant, but he is sincere in his words, looking bright and cheerful.]

Simply proving he had existed in any way is enough for me.

So you wander blindly searching for what you may never find?

[ He chuckles at the thought. Well, he certainly has passion and ambition, Ozymandias will give him that. Having known all the Arthurs/Sabers/and such as he has, he can also almost see why many would gravitate to their side in the same way they do his own. Almost. ]

And what will you do should you never find the King of Knights? Have you no further desires? I will not grant them. In fact, you should consider yourself fortunate I am even asking to hear them.

[ He'll call it idle curiosity. He doesn't have much else to do at the moment but clean the sticky residue of lactate off his skin. ]

"The believe is to see."

[He states it, quoting it from somewhere, definitely, and not at all troubled by the doubt.]

Though, I have already been disqualified once! I can simply enjoy the hunt for what it is. Is it not the journey that is more important than the destination?

That is something fools murmur to themselves to convince themselves their quest was not a failure. I would never return to my homeland without a victory for my people.

[ Not that he suspects this particularly lion king of having ambitions that grand. Well, lucky for him, he's bound to find an Arthur or two here without even really trying. That's been Ozymandias' experience so far in dealing with their ilk. ]

I will let you be then as I am finished with you, though if you find the knight of blue and silver in your travels, tell me immediately. I wish to see him again for my own eyes.

[ He has his reasons, of course, but he has no urge to divulge that to a stranger at the moment. Let Richard think what he may. ]

To each his own, so... How would I do that then?

[Like. Who even uses these devices. He hasn't got time to learn how to use it, not when it was a non-essential. For now, at least.]

[ Really? He thought Richard was supposed to be the more advanced one. He holds up his device and taps on the screen- ]

Of all the modern inventions I have come across, I am rather fond of this one. To be able to reach all eyes and ears across the land... it is a true marvel. I only lament that it was not I who invented it first, but my people were sophisticated in other ways. You held onto yours, didn't you?

[ Or was he stupid enough to throw it out, thinking it was merely some trinket. He really has some Concerns about this man's ability to lead if that were the case. ]

Oh, it is... somewhere. I believe with my master.

[Look, modern devices are nice and all, but he is here just a day and it is the least of his concerns. For now.]

I was out looking for a flute, you see.

[What does he even do with his free time? It is hard to tell.]

[ Looks like there is some common sense in this one. Just not a whole lot. He has never felt more needed for this world and its advancement than now. ]

What good will a flute do you here? I suppose entertainment is one way to cope when in duress, but you will hardly need it around me.

[ That doesn't solve his own problem of how to get in contact with him if he does find that particular Arthur but no matter. There are other ways. ]

Very well! Come find me in the building that shines the brightest and stands highest and closest to the sun should you find him.

That is where I will be.

Are you offering to entertain me in your majestic building then?

[He says with some amusement, considering the words. Sure, he is very entertaining, but he is not certain he can match up to a flute. Music, after all, is like the fine wine in his veins. It is not something so easily matched for him.]

All guests will be received well as is customary. I see no reason why you would be excluded, especially after your contributions today. Yes, when you come, you will be greeted by fine wine and a sumptuous meal.

[ Mostly prepared by Arash as he has no other real servants working for him at the moment. Still, he does manage rather well, so Richard will not find himself disappointed should he decide to visit. Hopefully, he doesn't think that as an invitation to drop by as he pleases. Ozymandias doesn't need anyone leeching off of his generosity as king. ]

Now, have you finished?

You are much too kind.

[He says earnestly, even if he probably will hold him to that. A promise then.]

For now, I should let you go. I will have to simply make sure to find the most appropriate place then when I visit.

Until then, Lion King Richard. Now, leave my sight! I require a bath in private.

[ He's still rather sticky from all the residue and would very much like not to be at the moment. He motions to Richard to leave him alone as he looks for the nearest bathing station. The ocean may have to do, but he will worry about that on his own. The lion king has already taken up enough of his time. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .012

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