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

[ Life is greatly ironic, or at least rather prone to fucking up, but for once, Zhuzhi Lang's horrible return to his less than appealing not snake, not human form is not a terrible thing.

Because frankly, Shen Qingqiu wouldn't have realise who, or what, he was if he wasn't. Encountering the demon who'd managed to sway his heart enough to not want him to die, so strenuous had been his fight to get the the fucking island in the middle of that lake... well.

The point is, Shen Qingqiu is presently looking like himself and utterly stunned when one of the many dark corners he tends to walk by produces a form he definitely fucking remembers. Months old, yes, and his memory is shitty, but Zhuzhi Lang's particulars tend to stick out in memory enough that Shen Qingqiu blinks, startled, and stops.

In all his months here, with the few people he's seen from back home... who the fuck is this guy?! What kind of fate do they all have together to have him show up? He doesn't have an answer, but he's not as on guard as he should be when he calls out to the still unfortunate formed demon: ]

... [ What the hell is he going to call him?! Demon?!?! No, that... is true but somewhat lacking, since he hardly calls out to humans as "human." Uh.

Fine. He's going the Old Man route. ] Excuse me, young man... do you remember me?

[ When you're asking snake demons if they remember you, you are perhaps too used to talking with demons at this point.

Maybe a little.

Or a lot.

Or you talked down a dog lord from murdering trains, but you know what, that's life. ]

[Hearing the familiar voice he raised his head instantly. He was not alone! But... something was wrong. Master Shen should know him, should he not? Talking was difficult in this form, and he wasn't quite sure what to say. He could neither protect Master Shen nor should he be seen at his side.

Large sad eyes looked down as he nodded slowly. He did know you.]

[ At the time, he'd wondered if not speaking was out of particular concern, but now...

The sight of those large, sad eyes was somewhat disturbing in that swollen, not really cute face. Please stop making those eyes! Please stop looking sad! For a man who doesn't realise his own weakness to tears, Shen Qingqiu is remarkably affected by the memory of them.

He sighs inwardly, anxious, and gestures for the poor demon to come closer. ]

The city isn't usually this chaotic. Temporal disturbances have been disrupting normal processes, but the unfamiliarity of it only wanes over time, this one is afraid.

[ But what's he supposed to do with a demon. One he knows, sort of? Does Binghe know him better? Not likely, given this demon was living in the human realm while Binghe was coming into his own forcefully between the endless abyss and the demon realm proper. Then what? ]

It's best not to stay here on your own.

[ Possibly also safer out of public eyes...? ]

[Oh! He did not deserve this, to have the kindness of Master Shen yet again, how could he repay such a thing? He had already failed his previous attempts. It was a fortunate event and only solidified his determination to follow. Of course in the current situation, there was no need to choose, there was nothing difficult that needed to be decided. So, even though he felt he was not worthy and unsure of why Master Shen did not remember fully, he found himself creeping slowly from the shadows towards Shen Qingqiu. Without Tianlang Jun, it was Master Shen he would follow to the ends of the earth instead.]

[ For no accountable reason, he feels the small hairs at the back of his neck stand on end: if he had any idea of Zhuzhi Lang's thoughts, he'd have hurried to stop them there. What kindness? What follow? Fuck, he's not worth it! Please don't, it's very fine, you're free to live on your own!

Sometimes a soul that wants to be a contented old hermit living a peaceful life is destined for no such thing at all.

As it is, with an elegance that is second nature, he goes down on a knee with his robes neatly arranging themselves around his legs, bringing himself down to Snakey's level. Faced with the memory of how this demon crawls, and how inelegant walking side by side with someone who literally has to slither along feels... he steels himself mentally, stonefaced as he looks down at this poor creature. ]

If you give your word to behave, this one would hasten our departure from this particular location.

[ ... He's going to have to go to the park. Or something. He's fairly sure Jiu would have a fit if he brought a pathetic looking snake demon home, even if they both have a tendency to collect strays, against all logic. ]

[He nods obediently, he had no reason to go against Master Shen's wishes and has always thought of himself as behaved. Though human ways were strange and confusing, he would do his best to understand them and do right of his current savior.

Do not worry, he was loyal and obedient, he would not bring trouble!

At least not willing trouble. Lapses might happen and he would have a learning curve.]

[ Acknowledgement is all he asks for. With that: ]

Then this one won't hold back.

[ He shifts and slips his hands, then arms, underneath two points of Zhuzhi Lang's body, hefting the horrific mess of demon up with his expression utterly unchanged. His stomach turns some, but less so than the surprise when he'd first encountered him: there's more pity than there is disgust, for the things which were not one's decision so much as one's fate.

That said, he's still studiously not trying to look at his snake friend's bloated face, because he's still not inured to it. Swiftly taking them away from dark corners and malfunctioning lights, he makes his way to one of the parks he prefers, bringing them to a place that feels less like the built up city of Lunatia and more like somewhere they might have room to breathe.

Granted, what else is he supposed to do? Ask if this demon can write? He has no telepathy technology, not unless he asks that one guy with the dimension crossing powers, and that meant having zero filter... but if this poor guy needs that to talk, isn't it important?

Distracted, as they arrive in the park, he asks: ]

Do you need to eat?

[Thankfully the issue of talking or not was not a long term problem, though unfortunately Shen Qingqiu had still been burdened with carrying this ugly misshapen creature, for when the question was asked and Zhuzhi Lang was about to nod yes or no whatever time distortion plagued him seemed to lift and he was no longer that unfortunate thing. Instead, there was a young man of fair standing now where that creature had been. The sudden change left him a bit startled as well, but he composed himself quickly to the fortune.

It was a relief to know that such a thing had not been permanent and that the gift of this body still stayed even now.]

Master Shen.

[ ... what.

What?

What the fuck.

It's not even a lack of awareness of the way time has been flirting with the concept of being anything but linear, but the fact he absolutely doesn't recognise this young man now but... what. Well. Uh.

No, he has no idea what to do.

He blinks once, his only outward sign of his confusion, before lifting a hand in a stopping motion. ]

You are...?

[ NOT THE SAD PITIFUL SNAKE HE REMEMBERS, WHAT THE FUCK!? When the hell did he get a glo up?! ]

[It should not be surprising that Shen Qingqiu did not recognize him with this body, clearly he did not remember later events as the way he had acted before. It was also obvious that there was a discrepancy as the Master Shen before him was free of his blood which would explain why he could not sense him anywhere.]

Tianlang Jun’s second in command, Zhuzhi Lang.

[It was the same introduction he had given before, there was no reason to change it.]

There is a debt that is owed to you. I will repay it in full standing.

▶ TDM .013

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