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

[Thank you for the torture hint. I see you love me.

It really is something to through him into this kind of situation already!]

It's not, this is the first I've experienced it! Or...at least I think it is not.

[Is he already thinking about adventures? Either way, she's taking his hand now, and it's nice and warm, really.]

Then...thank you very much. [Still looks embarrassed!]

[ You know it! ]

It's worrying. The stars are supposed to be the world's constants. Even if they're different here, I can't imagine how much it would affect travel.

[ No... not everyone travels by star-chart, Qih'sae. But he'd much prefer if this world had only tiny adventures. He's had a lot of big ones. A small one would be nice. ]

You're welcome. [ He smiles, taking her hand and waiting for the lamp to light up. Wow, if she's blushing this much at just holding hands, she'll remind him of all his friends in Ishgard. ]

[CRIES.]

I remember how they used constellations for travel. They have maps now so it is a little less inconvenient. But...it is eerie, when they disappear.

[YEAH, MAPS, GOOGLE MAPS (or whatever equivalent it is here.

He's really endearing, however, with how he waits for the lamp. Since she's embarrassed like his friends in Ishgard (heh), the lantern is beginning to light up, a flicker growing.]

Maps are all well and good but they won't help much with naval travel, won't they?

[ Right? Right? He's found a lot of weird technology here, so maybe this is another... ]

There we go! It's working. That's a little better, isn't it?

[ He has to ask, since his night vision is so good. ]

You're a man of the sea?

[A sailor? A CAPTAIN? Cats on water?

Still, they have new technology for that too, but she's curious.

The light appearing does distract her a little, and she squeezes his hand a little in excitement.]

Yes, I can see now. It's rather lovely, no?

Ah -- not really. I've just been on a lot of boats. And I like to fish, so I keep it in mind.

[ Cats on water?? Only when it's for a big catch! ]

It is! I didn't expect the color to change like that. It's so curious.

[ He squeezes back, ears wiggling with joy. Sorry I just can't resist /joy ]

Back home, it would take magic to do something like this.

Oh! If you ever start fishing here, I can help prepare your fish.

[CATS ON WATER, but she'll cook him the good fish.],/small>

Likewise. It's...well I didn't know what to expect. Magic does not exist back home, you see.

[However, she pauses all of a sudden, and she keeps...looking at his ears.]

Oh, do you know how to cook? All I can do is scorch meat.

[ Very poorly. "Scorch" is definitely literal here. ]

It doesn't? Your world must be very strange.

[ That's rude. But then she's also staring at his ears... ]

Does your world not have miqo'te, either?

It is a hobby of mine! So I have spent many [hundreds of] years learning it. I'll help cook for you! Or if you wish to learn, I will show.

[HE CAN LEARN, LIKE IT'S A JOB.]

Strange? Hmm, perhaps many would say it is quite mundane.

[She nods right after.]

I have met miqo'te, but only here. All the beings in my world look a little more like me. Round ears, no tail.

That would be great! I'm not much for crafts that require precision, but I'd love to try.

[ He has 0 crafters leveled, he will mess up every time... but he'll try! ]

It would be strange to me. There are many races of man in our world!

[ All these hyurs... it's extremely weird, actually. ]

If you've met others than I'm sure they've told you that you would be what we call a hyur. They make up a majority of the population in Eorzea, but it's really rare to find a with city only one race. Even Ishgard has hyurs in addition to elezen.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so it will be okay!

[How do you think they make money making you make so much table salt or whatever it was.]

I have met Elezen as well! So Miqo'te...elezen...I am hyur shaped...

[She nods firmly. Smallest hyur ever but hey.]

It must be interesting to be mixed with so many different races. We have races as in, different regions humans...uh, what we call hyurs...are from.

I'm in your hands!

[ Job Quest accepted? ]

That's right, we have miqo'te, hyurs, elezen, roegadyn, lalafells, au ra, viera and hrothgar! There are yet more races throughout the world, but these are what we currently consider races of man. It changes from time to time, and depending on where you're from.

[ It's weird, actually. But Limsa had to go and call people "beast tribes" ]

It's normal for me, but it does lead to a more varied culture throughout the city-states. [ He pauses. ] You mean like, Midlander and Highlander? We have those too!

I'll do my best to look after you!

[CUTE QUEST MUSIC RINGS.]

That...that is so many! My! I wonder where I would be from.

[NAGXIA. YOU'RE BE FROM NAGXIA.]

And indeed! I think that is what you intended. Would there be different kinds of miqo'te as well?

[ He nods. You've got yourself a student now! ]

It's great, isn't it? Even the names can change, even if the basic race remains the same.

[ Definitely.... though would she technically be a primal? Don't tell Qih'sae, you know what he tends to do to primals. ]

Yes, we miqo'te tend to be either Seekers of the Sun, or Keepers of the Moon. I'm a Keeper of the moon, we follow the goddess Menphina and tend to live in smaller tribes in the Shroud. [ Haha, don't ask him about his tribe.... ] The Seekers of the Sun are much more widespread, and have 26 major clans, starting with the A tribe, all the way to Z.

[Call her teacher--wait. No, she looks younger anyway.]

Names can change? How so?

[Okay but what is he going to do if she's a primal!!]

Ah, that is...the naming is by letters, interesting. What of you? Does your tribe have such naming systems? [Numbers? Does this work like Mongolia?]

[ Sensei...... ]

I've been to a world where instead of the names I used, they called hyurs "humes" and miqo'te were "mystel." It was surprising, to see the same races but hear a different word entirely.

[ Elezen were elves??? What the hell's an elf?? (And he just like. Kills primals. It would be bad.) ]

There are 26 letters in the Eorzean alphabet, so I think they adopted them for ease of use. I don't know for sure, since I'm not a Seeker.

[ He gets awkward, a little more muted than he was talking about, well, things that don't apply to him. ]

No, in Keeper tribes, we use a matriarchal system. I'm named after my mother, Qih Moui. The added "sae" means I am her fourth son.

[Oh no, he's cute.]

Oh? So, for us, those who are shaped like this. Hyurs, we call them humans. [So it looks like even in OTHER WORLDS they have yet even more different names.]

Interesting. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet as well. Isn't that a strange coincidence?

[Now, she's interested in matriarchal societies, but something about his demeanour tells her this is something that may touch on something sensitive to him.]

I see. So your mother is the head of your family, and so you are named after her. Fourth son...I was taken in by two different families. I am not the oldest. Middle child, rather.

[ He's a kitty, it's hard not to be. ]

Humans? We use that term interchangeably to mean races of man.

[ ain't that weird. He's also totally noticing that she says "shaped like this" but he almost doesn't want to ask... ]

Is it? Perhaps the languages are similar. I'd have to see it to compare!

[ What strange symbols, roman letters are... But he continues explaining, if only in a detached kind of way. ]

It's normal for multiple families to live and travel together, with our tribes. But the men are expected to leave after they are old enough to fend for themselves. I left my tribe at a young age, so I don't remember my mother very well.

[Damn you right. pspspspsps--

She nods since that is an interesting way to refer to just common everyone.]

Humans...well, I suppose that is what all the mortals are. [In a way!]

Let me see...I can speak in Vietnamese too, which I wonder if there is anything similar where you are? [Nagxia, Sen-chan.]

Oh...that... [What a lonely tradition.] How are you now?

[ That's the secret to getting his attention... ]

It's a bit odd that we don't consider some races to be "human"... [ This is going a little over his head. ] There might be something similar, we have Hingan and Ala Mihgan and Yangxia....n? Doman? Not to mention Dragonspeak and Miqo'te... There's a lot.

Good! I'm very good. [ OK, sure, buddy. ] I don't stay in touch with my family from back then at all, but I have friends who care for me, that's all I need.

[Winning this cat game then.]

I suppose when they're all common, it's just...very normal. Seeing...I guess, more Hyurs here must be strange? And oh! Perhaps! If we can find some of the others to speak in a language and you find it familiar, that might just be the equivalent.

I'm adopted. [Perhaps that would help him a bit, that he doesn't have to front, but she gets it. She won't pry too hard either.] My older brother took me in, so some of us call him Teacher. Family can be by blood, but also what we make, no?

Hyurs are usually the majority, but never by this much. I'll have to see about languages -- I understand them all naturally, so I'll let you know if anything sounds familiar.

[ This dude just Understands All. The Echo is one hell of a super power. ]

Oh, that's great. I'm glad you had someone there for you. My fathers adopted me in a similar way. We weren't related by blood, but they taught me to hunt and all of the important things.

[ It's too bad they all hate him now (with good reason, but you know.) ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .013

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