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

[ unfortunately (?) for eichi, he's probably going to be pestering (again, ?) him for this sort of thing fairly often now. that's how it goes. it's like a social link or a sims friending ++ mechanic, except their ranking was already high, so the fact that it can climb higher is— ]

... [ ... ] ...

[ was that a pun?

...

was that a pun and a clown trick at the same time?

look, that was a horrible joke, but he's inclined to laugh despite it—his jokes aren't very good either—and wiggles his fingers in eichi's grip. ]

Aaaah... hahaha, very well, Eichi! Your trick was quite electrifying indeed! I had long since known that you wouldn't fail to entertain me at every turn, and you are living up to that quite well. Oya... I must work much harder now... ♪ If you become a magician yourself, whatever will become of me?

[ that last part is at least a joke. he doesn't sound too nervous about it.

however, he is very gently squeezing his hand in return. a thank you, of sorts. ]

It's amazing, isn't it? Ah, but for me to become a magician...

[The squeeze is nice, and it's enough to create a small bit of chroma. Just from his own feelings on it, or are they meeting halfway? To be honest, he's not sure, but he supposes it doesn't matter either way. Watching their hands, he places his free one over the top, making a sandwich of Wataru's hand for the moment.]

It doesn't suit me, does it? [There's a lot he's not saying there, but he feels as though it hardly matters, either. A whole year and a half of thoughts... well. He should live in the moment and focus on the current ones.]

There's no need to worry, as I intend to leave that role to you. Your place in fine is unique and necessary, after all. [Finally, he releases his hand, letting his own slip back to his lap, curling into themselves.]

In any case, Wataru, I'd like to ask you something. As I'm sure you've heard, the matter of time in this place is like something out of a scifi movie, so I'm curious... What time of year is it? Or, rather, is there a live, or some other special event that you recall coming up or recently passing?

I don't know if I'd say such a thing.

[ watching their hands, and when his is free he's tapping a finger against his chin in thought. ]

Time in years flows past so freely... [ he could probably recall the year if he put some actual effort into that, but he doesn't want to, so he's not going to. in all honesty... he doesn't really want to answer the question perfectly, either, but he's going to try to.

it's a bit close to a sensitive subject, to say the least. ] I had attempted to dissolve the theatre club before graduation, but the juniors wouldn't have any of it. They worked me so hard that I was in a dream for such a long time [ asleep on a train. ] and when I arose, they were preparing their counter-attack. I arrived here shortly after seeing their performances.

...It's rare to see you in such a state, so it must be that they surprised you with their efforts.

[Dissolving the theatre club... Near graduation. Of course, so much must have been going on at that time. He wonders what, exactly, but this is certainly in the future from his perspective, isn't it? How funny, to be both in the future and in the past. Still, he thinks he can understand what Wataru must be feeling, at least based on his own feelings towards Tori, for example.]

You see, the last I recall from Yumenosaki is my cute Tori running out into the snow with tears in his eyes, and the work that followed. Your scolding, for example...

[He smiles at Wataru.]

Our juniors have grown considerably since when the year first started, haven't they? You must be incredibly proud.

[ they really did. he was very (he is, not was, but since they're not here...) proud of them, honestly. they managed to take something he was worried about and... he was no longer worried about that thing. that's how amicable relationships work, he supposes. ]

Hmmm...♪ I'm happy to hear that stayed with you. [ a tiny bit of teasing. ] Fufufu... I even managed to tell them that. It was quite a profound moment.

Of course, I'm just as proud of our princess, but if I told him that he might have clawed my heart out.

Eichi... since you asked this, I imagine you've been here some time. I clearly remember seeing you after Christmas, so another sort of magic must be afoot.

I wish I could have seen your face. It would have been quite enjoyable to watch.

[The performance, his reaction... He smiles fondly, only growing at the mention of Tori's agitation towards Wataru. He says that, but he thinks that Tori would take it to heart, these days. But that's not what the topic has shifted to.]

Mm, you're right. [He gives in further to his slight lean to the side, until his arm can bump against Wataru's for support, a little shameless. He's tired, anyway.]

I wonder... Can you guess how long it's been since that very Christmas I mentioned? Or, perhaps it's for the best if you don't. I'd hate for you to feel as though I left you behind on this grand adventure when it was all unintentional.

[ he's gently adding "re-enact most of the glass mask situation to eichi in the future" to his list of things to do. it'll be an abridged version, missing the parts where there's concern about his future path. ]

Fufu... you can't give me a challenge and then back away from it. As long as you didn't abandon me on purpose, your Wataru here feels as if fate would have reunited us at some point.

And it did.

So, I shall guess... [ he's turning to look at him more closely, which is just optimizing the space against his shoulder for eichi to lean onto if he wants to— ] ...over six months. Have you grown any taller?

[ A relief, that Wataru thinks this way, and Eichi laughs softly for it. ]

I would never abandon you on purpose. [ He’s his Wataru, after all. So, that’s right. Fate again. Smiling at the guess, he settles more into that shoulder, ever the opportunist. Certainly, he’s a small bit taller, and his hair is kept at its usual length, but that’s only because he’s been getting regular haircuts. He’s dressed in clothes he’s purchased here in Lunatia, high quality, showing no lack of wealth in this place, but there are no marks or scars or anything of the sort ruining his skin. His health looks to be managed, for the moment, but not good, exactly— he’s pale, on the thinner side, like he’s been dealing with an assortment of attacks on it, especially recently.

He does have some sort of a ring around his middle finger, from someone who’d decided to match with him as a very useful chroma battery, but that may not be a very useful clue in how long he’s really been here. Not like the rest is. ]

Over six months is correct. I’m a centimeter taller, at least. I’ll allow a few more questions, since I’m certain if it’s you, you can get more accurate than that.

[ The actual time he’s been away from home is a year and five months, after all. Ah, but is it cheating to ask that, when it’s only been a year of that in Lunatia? ]

▶ TDM .013

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