prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .013

Entry tags:

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

"I will accompany you while you store your items," if he were in possession of his snakes he would have used one already to keep Shang Qinghua permanently observed, however, he was currently lacking so his presence was required.

They could go to this market, and then they could go to the next place and the next.

He smiled, it was deceptively soft. "We have all day to check everywhere you may have ever crossed paths with him."

... This was bad! This was very bad!!

Does he have to move after this?! He's pretty sure he doesn't want this character knowing exactly where he lives! Maybe he should just drop his groceries right here and hope they're still there when he gets back! If not, he can pay for them again? That sounds like a good plan!

"Ah, it's not that far."

That didn't exactly solve the other problem, of what the fuck, this guy is going to force him to go to every place he's ever seen Shen Qingqiu?! He didn't remember writing such a yandere character! Even in the drafts, wasn't this character just supposed to be quiet, loyal, and kind of stupid?! This is way beyond what he scoped out for him!

But he didn't know what to do about that yet!

Shang Qinghua took his groceries and carefully deposited them into the package delivery area of the entryway before turning back to Zhuzhi-Lang as if this were perfectly normal. Good luck, defenseless groceries! May you still be here when he returns!

"Then, ah... this way..."

He had at least a ten minute walk to figure out how to lose this guy once they got there.

He was naive, and in his way innocent, but he was still a demon. A fiercely loyal demon without his lord, and thus, only one other person to follow; Master Shen. Having grown up taking care of Tianlang Jun and following him everywhere, he had learned quite a bit. Just because humans confused him and his thought process was simple, did not mean he was stupid.

But then, a half-written character could evolve on their own.

He found it curious that the groceries were simply left there, but he did not further question it. Humans were strange creatures after all, and this city was even a stranger.

He followed quietly, keeping an eye on Shang Qinghua. Though no doubt the silence just made the entire encounter more uncomfortable, that was not his actual intention. He simply had nothing further to say until they had arrived somewhere.

The silence gave him longer to ruminate on a plan of action. And of course, that plan of action was how to best run away! No way he was escorting this guy all over the city!

Luckily the marketplace was just as crowded as Shang Qinghua was hoping it would be. A wide variety of stalls were set up in the area, mostly street food but also some more crafty things and some produce. People crowded the area shoulder-to-shoulder, making for slow going once one started wading through.

"It was here... on the other side, I think."

Edited (let's not switch tenses halfway through the tag) 2020-03-19 01:38 (UTC)

"I see," not helpful. The place was too crowded and there wasn't much in the way for clues. This was going to be harder than he expected.

He searched around the market place trying to see if there was something useful, or if perhaps they were lucky and Master Shen was already around to be found. Of course, that was not the case. He did, however, sense something else in a direction, something that could be worthwhile. Before Shang Qinghua could scurry off somewhere while he was distracted he went to grab him by the back of the collar and drag him to a pet store nearby.

It had been the perfect plan. Perfect! Wait until Zhuzhi-Lang got distracted by something, then slip away!

What he hadn't expected was for him to be one step ahead. Maybe his reaction was a moment too slow, or maybe he didn't actually have the opening in the first place. But the moment Shang Qinghua turned to try to casually but quickly walk away, he felt something grab his collar and suddenly he was being pulled back the way he came.

... Curse you, past Airplane! Why didn't you give yourself any way of escaping this situation?! Shang Qinghua could have been a stronger character, or Airplane could have applied himself to cultivation more to make him a stronger character, or even something as simple as investing in a sword here! Any of those would have done it!

"Ah, did you spot him...?"

Airplane was more than willing to fib and claim that he had, but he didn't want to do it if this person had already spotted him! There's no way he'd believe the excuse that there were two Shen Qingqiu, even though it was actually true!

"I did not," his tone was of disappointment. But he wasn't dwelling on it, he did not expect to see him. From what he knew, he expected to find him somewhere quieter.

Still, there was something useful here, pet snakes. Little ones. Of course, they were basic pythons and boas, but that was fine. He let Shang Qinghua stand there as he spoke with a shop worker, don't run too quickly though, he wasn't completely distracted. After he was handed several snakes and letting them slither into his robes comfortable he came back over.

"I will have to request that you pay for them. But, I assure you, reimbursement will be coming shortly," there was no room for refusal.

"I--pardon?"

He stared in surprise, then turned to the shop employee, then back.

"Why are you so certain I can afford that? How will you reimburse me?"

Just because he was responsible for paying for most things at Cang Qiong Mountain didn't mean he was the one to pay for everything here!

"Are you poor?" This was suprising to him, he had not considered that fact. "I was planning on simply giving you funds once I had procured some... but if something more instant is required...."

He would not leave a debt unpaid.

"Rather than calling me poor, it would be more correct to say I don't have very much extra money to spend..." Which was different! Very different!

Especially since he almost certainly had to buy more groceries now...

Despite the fact that Shang Qinghua had a bit of a windfall recently, of course it had been spent immediately on some purchases he'd been putting off, leaving him no better off than before.

"I see, that is a bit of a problem then," and rather an understatement. But, it was a problem that should be easy to fix. And of course, like a demon, he went to settle the matter in the most direct way possible.

He knew enough about how this world worked to know a way to solve their cash flow, and though he was quite aware of how such actions can be taken, he didn't care about it. So, without warning, he grabbed Shang Qinghua and kissed him. His role was to solve problems as best he could after all.

...

What the fuck?!

This was not what Shang Qinghua was expecting today! Or ever?!

If he had to make a list of "demons he was most likely to be kissed by", this character would have been somewhere in the bottom five, easily! They'd only met like twice?!

Why was his second time kissing a guy coming just days after his first?! He hadn't even finished panicking about that yet! Never mind that that and this were totally different things; it was still far too similar!

Of course, none of this made it to his outward expression. Outwardly Shang Qinghua simply froze in place, too shocked to actually do anything more than scream internally.

Zhuzhi Lang had never kissed anyone before, but this was the simplest and most direct method to generate what was needed to procure funds in this world. Of course, there were quicker ways, but one had to draw a line somewhere.

Of course, he did not really consider this anything in particular, it was an exchanging of energies in a way. If he were to kiss someone in a romantic sense it would definitely be different and never Mobei Jun's pet.

After enough time to hopefully generate something usable he let Shang Qinghua go.

"From what I understand that should be enough to help cover costs and time," he had now compensated Shang Qingua apropriately.

... Yes, right. Kissing makes money. That was entirely it, that was why this had happened.

Was he ever going to get used to this place, Shang Qinghua had no idea...

"I... I suppose so, yes."

Shang Qinghua stepped forwards to pay, and the transaction was already most of the way over when he suddenly realized... didn't this mean that Zhuzhi-Lang could pay for his own snakes now?! How did Shang Qinghua still get roped into this?! He'd better count this as hugging thighs!

"There. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Time to turn and casually flee for his life at a casual strolling pace!

It did, but, he had made the request when he could not. Oh well.

He was becoming increasingly aware that this untrustworthy lackey was just trying to run away without giving him anything. He should have expected his attempts to find Master Shen would prove futile.

Still, before Shang Qinghua can get too far away he places a snake around the back of his neck. He will be watching.

"If you see Master Shen, you will tell me, won't you?" That wasn't a question or a request. If you don't tell him, then you are against him.

"... Ah."

Oh no. Shang Qinghua shuddered and tentatively glanced back at Zhuzhi-Lang.

"But... what if he doesn't want me to tell you? He's asked me not to tell him about things he doesn't know yet, and if he doesn't know about you..."

How troublesome. But then, Master Shen seemed to want many things that were not convenient.

"To pretend I don't know him is asking too much," in a world where he was without his lord.... He could reintroduce himself. He didn't have to speak of later events, that was fine.

"I... understand." Sort of? Sort of! "But I don't want to be the one to tell him about you. And I don't want to tell you about him without him agreeing to it first."

Never mind that Shang Qinghua was the human spy for the demon realm for decades! He could pretend to have loyalty to Shen Qingqiu enough to not want to betray him! Especially if it got him out of getting involved between these two people...

Sorry Cucumber Bro, he'd warn you, but spoilers!

"Then simply tell him there is someone who would like to meet him," he could be mentioned without any real information being shared. Otherwise, Master Shen's arbitrary desires may have to be violated a little bit.

"I can do that.

"Now if you'll excuse me."

Time to resume casually fleeing!

"Until next we meet" he let Mobei Jun's pet flee. There was no reason to keep him around as he was mostly useless. Though, useful in at least gaining some friends and a little chroma.

He wasn't particularly worried about where Shang Qinghua went or did, he could keep track of him, at least as long as he didn't kill his snake. Would you be so cruel as to kill a defenseless little snake?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .013

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject