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

[What does Sougo think Hijikata is, a new recruit? As soon as he senses that there's someone behind him he's ready to draw his sword, and when the lantern comes down on him he ducks out of the way and swings his blade around in a curve. He's expecting it to collide with steel or maybe wood, but instead it may just rip through Sougo's lantern if he doesn't move it out of the way in time. In any case Hijikata is not amused when he sees who it is that's attacking him.]

You!! You really have nothing better to do, do you?

[Luckily, Sougo's got some fast reflexes honed through his own swordsmanship as well as years of dealing with you. He sees you moving to draw your sword and he swiftly jumps back. As he sees the arc of your blade come closer, he clutches the lantern closer to him. It's safe, for now.]

I don't know what you're talking about, Hijikata-san. I'm taking a walk.

[Look at this innocent face.]

Taking a walk, my ass! What are you up to?

[His eyes scan him for voodoo dolls. At least Sougo hopefully doesn't have access to photos of Hijikata to pin onto them, but he wouldn't put it past him to have had some on his person at the time they both got transported here. Then he fully notices the lantern.]

Ah, you got one too... be nice to the people here, okay? If you get arrested for indecent behaviour I won't bail you out of prison.

[Don't dominate anyone into lighting that thing up with you, is what he's saying.]

But I was taking a walk. [Really, he was. He just happened to see you along the way.]

I just saw a bug on your hair. I'm killing it with this fly swatter.

[That metal lantern is coming your way to the side of your head again. Isn't this the intended purpose of this lantern?]

[He ducks the swing, and his anger is visibly rising.]

Will you give it a break?! If you won't help out with the star problem you're better off giving that lantern to someone who will!

[His grip on his sword and his own lantern tightens. He's just about pissed off enough to get in a physical fight with Sougo, but right now he's still struggling to be the voice of reason.]

[He takes the lantern back and cradles it in his left arm, while pointing towards your own lantern with his right.]

Doesn't look like you're helping out either.

[Yeah, Hijikata-san. Your lantern is just as dark as his is.]

It's easier said than done. This whole "moonlacing" business...

[He huffs. Granted, the lantern instructions said that it doesn't matter what kind of feelings the lantern-lighting partners have for each other as long as there are feelings, so--]

Seeing how you're here already, let's find a place to sit down and give it a try. I guess this isn't so much moonlacing as just the lantern gathering our chroma.

Alright. This'll be interesting.

[He looks around for the nearest bench and beginning walking there. As soon as you start to follow him, he'll suddenly turn and--]

F****n Punch!

[He proclaims in his usual deadpan manner, accompanied by a fist going for your gut.]

[UGH]

[Usually he would have seen this coming in time, but the darkness obscured the slight tensing of Sougo's body before he turned just enough for Hijikata to react too late. The punch hits him square in the stomach, and he hunches over, dropping his lantern to reactively clutch his abdomen while steadying himself against his sword hilt with the other hand.]

S-Sou--

[He breaks off because he's going to be sick. Or is he? After a brief moment of dry-heaving the feeling settles, but damn, he's still nauseous. It really hurts, and since he can't talk for the moment he just glares daggers at Sougo. To be fair, he really should have known better. Why did he not have his guard up?!]

[That's your fault if you didn't have his guard up around him! Sougo has an enormous sense of satisfaction right now. Usually you would've dodged that punch. You look so pained and angry; it's glorious.

He won't let his schadenfreude show, at least not for now. He pretends to be shocked, but you know better.]

Huh? Hijikata-san, what happened? Did a criminal get you? You gotta be careful when there's no lights!

Y-you...

[He is so goddamn mad. If it weren't so dark Sougo could see the angry veins bulging at his temples. He tries to draw his sword, but winces and gives up on it.]

G-get lost!! Just sod off, you bastard!

[He braces himself as he hears you shift to draw his sword, but that turned out to be a non-issue.]

Thought we were moonlacing. But fine, whatever you say.

[With both hands in his pockets, Sougo turns and walks towards the bench he was looking at in the first place. The lantern is floating right beside him. Once he takes a seat, he'll be listening just in case anyone else should try to attack you. That's because they would be stealing his job, of course.]

[He looks for his lantern and finds it on the ground, thankfully undamaged. Maybe he should also turn on the float function. After a moment of meddling around with it he manages to activate it. There, that's one item less to carry. He looks over at Sougo.]

...

[After this little stunt just now he doesn't really feel like trying to collaborate with him anymore, but also he's so done with everything for the moment, he wants a break before he drags himself home. He slowly makes his way over and carefully sits down at the other end of the bench, then takes out his cigarettes and lighter. If Sougo doesn't like the smoke he can move his ass; Hijikata doesn't want to take another step until his stomach stops hurting.]

[As if he's not used to having all shared spaces with you being filled with your noxious smoking. Meanwhile, Sougo is just chilling on the bench. He takes out his earphones from his pocket and plugs them into the mp3 player on his phone. He only puts one earbud in while he listens to his music; he's waiting for you to talk to him first. He won't say a word to you otherwise.

Sougo leans back on the bench. He can wait.]

[He lights up and takes a long first drag.]

Hey, put the other earplug in. I don't need the concert.

What'd you say? I can't hear you over the music.

[If he had some bubblegum right now, he'd be chewing it. But at least he got you to say something.]

[He feels too worn out to even press it. He just exhales and leans back too. For a moment all he hears is the faint music playing from Sougo's unused earbud. It's a nice night, actually, if one disregards the lack of starlight.]

...

[He can feel his eyes fall shut, and that's a sure sign that he needs to call it a day. Why is he so tired? He exhales once more, then gets up, still careful to not move too fast.]

I'm going home.

[Forget about the lantern. He'll try his luck with someone else tomorrow, maybe.]

Edited 2020-03-24 20:11 (UTC)

[Don't think he doesn't notice that lantern, though.]

Oi, Hijikata-san, didn't you want to light your lantern? You'll disappoint all the Prismals.

[Just to push your buttons a little bit. It's been a long day for Sougo too, not that he will let it show. The days in this strange place have been long in general. You're Sougo's stress reliever, although you may not agree with that.]

[Sougo has some nerve, trying to guilt-trip him over this.]

As if this would even work with you! Someone as malicious as you can't light any lanterns. You're too rotten.

[Granted, he was told that hate and resentment can fuel the lanterns too, but he doesn't really believe it at this point. He places his lantern on the bench between them and sits back down regardless, though.]

Prove me wrong.

[Excuse you, you want him to prove something to you?]

Nah, think I changed my mind. Guess you'll just have to disappoint everyone on your own.

[He says that, but he's not moving away. In fact, he's trying to grab your lantern. The authorities said each Moonblessed can only have one lantern, but does that count if you have two and want to hide one?]

[Why did he sit back down?! Just because he wanted to show goodwill after Sougo's shoddy remark? He should just have walked away without looking back.]

Oh no, you don't!!

[He can tell that he's about to bolt with it, so he grabs the lantern too, and Sougo's wrist as well, to pry his hand off--]

[And the lantern lights up INTENSELY, as if someone had just dumped a full bucket of glowing purple paint in it.]

[Well, then.]

Huh.

[Sougo was about to try and shake off your grip, but the lantern lights before he could act.]

You're good for something after all, Hijikata-san. What does the purple light mean?

[Yes, it is...violently purple, however as Sougo stares at it long enough, he's noticing some warm undertones. Some parts of the lantern shift to more of a red-violet.]

How should I know?

[He actually does remember that the colour scheme runs from red (affection) to purple (resentment), but despite being pissed off at Sougo he somehow doesn't want to tell him. It's not that he feels bad or anything, this sadist bastard deserves nothing else, it's just that he doesn't owe him any explanations. He could have paid better attention if he really wanted to know.]

[He eases his grip on Sougo' wrist, but keeps holding on to it, observing the lantern. This really is pretty amazing to witness... but hey, what's with the colour?]

[continued here]

Edited 2020-03-27 19:29 (UTC)

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▶ TDM .013

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