prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .013

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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.

▶ Welcome to the Jungle
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.

▶ Let’s Do the Time Warp Now
Lunatia | top

Time is relative, but the days do seem shorter — or longer — than usual. A minute passes like an hour. An hour passes like a minute. Everything appears to be moving along as normal, but the numbers and hands on clocks flicker and spin with an unusual and worrying slowness or quickness. Eventually you notice that the darkness of the night barely lasts long enough for you to fall asleep while the sun seems to glare down upon you for an eternity. The temporal shifts disorient your body, which now grows lethargic from being overworked and underslept. Soon, the temporal abnormalities reach a critical point…

B Due to the temporal distortions, Prismals and Moonblessed new and old feel their bodies sporadically transform in the strangest of ways. Your joints ache like they’ve carried a lifetime’s weight of misfortune and regret. Your voice turns high-pitched like a certain pair has yet to drop. You turn into a confused infant in one moment and the seasoned fighter you always wanted to be in the next. Your memories also shuffle around along with your apparent age, leaving you confused and unsettled. The transformations can occur and last for as long as the 11th, when everything turns back to normal without incident. That time your baby self peed in your pants? Never happened. Until then, moonlacing seems to stabilize the weird abnormalities.

▶ Starlight, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight
Lunatia | top

The city’s landscape is not spared by the erratic flow of time. Buildings and streets continuously flicker between the beautiful and vibrant paradise it has become to the ruins of glory days long past. Your eyes may struggle to adjust as you try and convince yourself of what is real and what is not. High rise towers one moment will become wreckage the next, filled with technological debris and the echoing cries of the terrified, and the mighty wingspan of an unknown creature continues to hovers in the distance. The illusion will only last but a minute before you’re back in the present, going about your daily business. However, your trip from the future and back is far from over.

Soon, breaking news reports will inform the city about the sudden vanishing of certain celestial bodies in the sky. Though the moons remain where they should, the nights grow longer and darker as the stars in the sky start disappearing one by one until only the sun remains, eclipsed by some mysterious force. Lunar Scientia has already sent capable teams to investigate the abnormalities, so they ask the public to be patient as they wait for the reports. Until then, they have issued safety guidelines and measures to effectively light the city. The Caelus Tower appears to burn brighter than ever.

C For these dark hours, Lunar Scientia releases their latest Chroma-powered technology for Moonblessed use: star lanterns. When a star lantern is held by two Moonblessed, it absorbs newly generated Chroma from them, enabling it to light up the missing stars in the sky as you travel from place to place. The light’s color and intensity will depend on you and your partner’s bond, the spectrum ranging from a violet of hatred to a red full of love. Indifference, however, will not light the lantern at all. It also comes with a float function so that it can be released into the atmosphere without needing to carry it everywhere. Since the technology is limited in stock, Moonblessed may only have one star lantern in their possession.

One of the issued guidelines is to never walk through dark alleys alone even with the lanterns, as the crime rate has increased lately due to those taking advantage of the chaos. This is especially rampant in Level 3, at the mouth of the Lightless.

▶ Oh, They Just Can’t Wait to be King
Outside Lunatia, Port Sylvel | top

On the ides of the third month, an emergency broadcast appears from Captain Natela:

Captain Natela

Greetings, Prismals and Moonblessed.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Port Sylvel has been completely crystallized. The Moon Knights are currently recruiting willing explorers and scientists to investigate the cause. Investigations are still pending, but the outlook is grim. The only survivors were among the few we carried out of the city last month. The rest perished from the crystallization.

Our heart goes out to those affected by this plight. There is no cause for panic. There is no sign that the crystallization is spreading beyond Port Sylvel. We Moon Knights stand with the people of Prismatica, as we have done for centuries. We are not mere defenders of a city but protectors of a planet. We endeavor to find the cause of this tragedy and bring peace and justice to the lives it claimed. Until then, we ask for your cooperation. Stay calm and press onward.

Those who volunteer to participate in the expedition will be rewarded for their efforts. They will be assisted by experts from the Lunar Scientia as well as the bear Prismal and Moon Knight Fahrouk, who looks worse for wear after hearing the news.

Officer Fahrouk

Oh, Moonblessed. It's you. Yeah, Hala is doing good. Won the spelling bee! I think she might make the nationals. ... I… I don't think I ever told you. Port Sylvel was our hometown. My wife is buried there. We’d go there every spring. Hala loved picking the flowers there. Did you know that different flowers grow in Port Sylvel compared to Lunatia? Haaaah...

Moonblessed! I know you think I'm not cool enough to hang out with you, and all I do is ask for your help, but please let me go with you! Please… This is something I have to do as a soldier, a husband, and a father.

… What? You always thought I was cool?

Finding strength and resolve after the participants tell him he's supposed to assist them on their mission anyway, Fahrouk distributes LIFE suits to the participants as he briefs them on what they're about to do. He and the participating Moonblessed will then be transported via a large transport vessel.

Port Sylvel is hardly recognizable. What was once an idyllic coastal town is now a site of tragic beauty — crystal formations encase buildings and Prismals like jagged glass coffins, as if preserving life in its final moments. Readings from life detectors tell you that everyone in the crystal has passed on, but you and your fellow Moonblessed think you can still hear their cries of distress carried along by the wind, warning you about the Prideful King.

D Gigantic crystal lions flank the passage of the port city, their wings spread open and blue flames pouring forth from their mouths. You hear rumbling guttural noises, and if you approach them, their roars will escalate to warn you about proceeding any further. Beware: a single bite from these lions can easily tear through the LIFE suit and cause your body to crystallize quickly unless someone rushes in to moonlace with you to halt the effect. These lions are unlike the beasts you’ve fought before: their otherworldly strength is overwhelming, and nothing seems to wear them down. Destroying them seems pointless, as they quickly regenerate the minute they are obliterated.

Eventually, transmissions from the LIFE suits announce an order for escape. Buildings collapse and shatter in your wake, and the ground quakes violently as something awakens in the far distance...

▶ questions

If you have any questions regarding this test drive meme, please ask them in the Questions thread below.

WHO CAN POST? ▶ Test drive memes are for new characters only. Existing players may not post starter threads in the test drime meme. 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.!

IS THIS CANON? ▶ 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.

ANNIVERSARY ▶ Happy first anniversary, Prismatica! Thank you to all of you who have been with us since the beginning. We appreciate it immensely! Remember that we always welcome input and suggestions from players. This event is a little out of the ordinary because of our anniversary celebration.

OPT IN AND OUT ▶ For current players, please do not be alarmed! As always, you do not have to be affected as there are safe areas across Lunatia that remain as is.

AGING UP AND DOWN ▶ You have free reign over how long and how many times your character will be affected. If a character doesn’t have a canon appearance from the past or future, you are welcome to provide one of your own from imagination and use your own PB. You are allowed to speculate on how they’ll look, act, their potential future, and so on. All of these will be temporary to this event. The intensity of the effect is also up to you: whether it will only affect appearance alone and retain their current memories.

IMPORTANT ▶ As a reminder, writing sexual content with characters below 15 years old is a violation of the game's rules and potentially Dreamwidth’s ToS. Players caught doing this will be banned from the game.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( their surroundings, even their selves, were just as ephemeral and fleeting as each moment. time seemed to preserve them in this instant of meeting, two unsuspecting creatures frozen in timeless amber. and yet there was something to this meeting that went beyond a stranger offering a helping hand to a lost child. like the blotted-out stars aligning in the sky — he felt the odd sensation of believing that something like this had been meaning to happen. like he had been standing at this spot waiting for this erune specifically to come across him.

his blue eyes scan around them as the stranger says this, though he doesn't seem... surprised. there's a hollow understanding in his sunken eyes, the kind that sees misfortune and does not welcome it, but accepts it as inevitability.

six did not need to be good at reassurances. they meant little to him, now and in the future.

the offer conflicts him; uncertainty appears on his expression like cracks in porcelain. ) I don't - I don't think anywhere's safe... ( his world had been karm, and then it had disappeared, wiped away in an instant. in truth, the world was so much bigger than that, but it had shown him no kindness, not since he had escaped from the bloodied ground and torn bodies.

he had been forcing those memories out of mind, all a reflexive instinct towards shielding him from further pain, but they are harder to displace now. ) ...but... ( and yet, despite all this, he reaches out to the stranger when he extends a hand. he hesitates a moment, sure, but is he going to discard every shred of kindness when potentially offered? was he completely devoid of trust yet?

the small hand takes the older erune's, and an immediate warmth suffuses it, running along the nerves of his arm and into his chest like a series of wires suddenly given power. it makes him gasp at first, very nearly pulling his hand away, but he doesn't. instead he holds on, feeling somehow like a drowning man having been thrown a lifeline.

he looks back up to the stranger's face to say something, but — he immediately forgets what it was going to be. because he realizes something.

the stranger is actually not so strange to him after all. his hair, his voice, the mask...

slowly, a dark recognition begins to cloud his clear, blue eyes. )

[ nowhere's safe, the boy tells him, and isn't that just an accurate reflection of the quiet world he lives in? it didn't matter how hard he tried; somehow, hell always finds its way to him. it sinks its claws deep until any and all of his attempts to leave peacefully are ripped away from him no matter how tightly he held onto it. it's because of this that he feels strangely responsible to make sure the boy remains safe—

(he tries to convince himself that it doesn't have anything to do with the nagging feeling in the back of his mind that says this is familiar, but it doesn't quite work.)

still, their hands touch and the spark that comes with the contact barely surprises him anymore. what does confuse him is how the boy's eyes have changed. how they've gone from looking so lost to suddenly filled with so much clarity and awareness that it's almost blinding.

the erune hesitates, but he keeps his grip steady. ]

... Shall we go?

[ he can't explain why it feels like he has to ask for permission. (and why it feels like he's just stepped on a landmine.) ]

( as the years had passed, nehan had realized that it wasn't so much that the seams had burst and that hell had leaked in — no, it was more like the world as a comfortable, understandable, safe place had simply been wool pulled over his eyes. most came to realize this much later in their lives, but this boy had already seen it. peace only lasted so long as the bubble remained unbroken. once it was, there was only pain, anger, solitude.

there is something in him that drags its heels. the boy doesn't; he gives a dutiful (albeit somewhat hesitant) nod when the question is posed. up until this point, everything about who he was, where he was, what he had been doing, all of these details had fled like trying to remember the specifics of a dream after waking. but as six stands and they begin to walk away, he begins to move together the pieces, step by step.

they don't get very far before the hand slips from the older erune's. )

...Heh.

( the voice is lower, older, plastered over with a cold cynicism that the boy had been without. if six turned to face him now, he would find nehan as he had been when they had found him in that inn, though conspicuously without his nearly-mortal wound. the man's eyes are still somewhat hollow, the same the child's had been. and as a cloud passes over the sun, causing the state of decay of all the buildings around them to warp — dilapidated one second, in construction the next — for the amount of time it took to blink, he could see the boy again, though this time with eyes filled with horror and confusion, bleeding from wounds across his clavicle, ribs, arms, back. the image fades again, replaced with the man as he lives and breathes now.

unfortunately. )

Where do you think you're taking me, Xing?

( if anything, he sounds tired. his head tilts back ever-so-slightly, eyelids growing heavy over his clear blue eyes. )

[ there is a sudden shift that six doesn't quite see coming. the boy's hand slips through his fingers and that compels him to turn around, just in time to see someone else standing in place. at least, that's his first thought because he doesn't recognize him, and then when he sees the boy again — scared, bloody, covered in wounds that resonate with the darkest parts of him — he nearly staggers back.

the whole world changes around them yet again, and in that same blink of an eye, six is so much younger and immensely more terrified. he's back to how young he was on that fateful day, with everyone's blood all over him, not entirely unscathed on the surface and completely messed up on the inside. it only lasts for the exact same moment and then it's gone by the next, replaced with what he has grown up to be.

his mask hides the look of disbelief on his face, but every other part of him betrays it. that name is something he hasn't heard in a long time, and the only way this person could know it is if...

there's no way. ]

How... how do you know that name?

[ even though he asks, he has a feeling he already knows the answer. ]

( his memories of xing when they were young were incredibly limited. it had been the fault of the clan, of course, and specifically of their leader — he had kept the powerful boy under lock and key, quoting trepidation of his strength, but more out of fear of what the others would do because of that incredible strength. whatever brief glimpses he might have had of the other youth had been wiped away by the shattered memories of blood, fear, a haze of trancensia in eyes he searched for anything that might appeal to mercy.

he blinks, keeping his eyes closed for a second longer than normal, sweeping the memories from the forefront of his mind.

he can't see his reaction, but he finds the silence not too strange — perhaps he simply didn't know the answer.

it's the actual response that he gets that causes a shadow of confusion to pass over nehan's expression. his brow furrows, one of his ears twitches, and he frowns. what an abominable feeling of déjà vu.

but surely that wasn't the case. he gives it a moment more of careful thought, and then his attention is pulled upwards. the skyline painted behind them in the bleeding crimsons and lush oranges of late afternoon flickered once more, holding up for five or ten seconds as ruins of high-rises, shattered by weather and retaken by nature.

then they return to normal. ah. he understands now. he gives an almost imperceptible nod. )

I see. The temporal disruption. ( he heaves a sigh, as if this is all just some horrible inconvenience to him. were it nearly anyone else, he would have just walked away, but he feels as though if xing and he were to cohabitate this city, they would need to have this conversation eventually.

therefore: ) Fine. I'll wait.

( he crosses his arms, seemingly set to do so. when he does so, the sleeves pull up several inches from his wrists, baring scarred forearms. )

▶ TDM .013

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