prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .015

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CW: Contains potential body horror in Prompt D.

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.

▶ My Anaconda Don’t-
Inari Highway, Amegahara | top

As promised by Lord Bairen, the leader of Amegahara, the route between the cities of Amegahara and Lunatia has been completed. The Inari Highway will improve both travel time and security, letting the Moon Knights deal with any potential threats in a more efficient manner. With the Oracles of the Sinless having cropped up a second time last month, the timing of its completion couldn’t have been more perfect.

Shortly after the Inari Highway’s opening, the Moonblessed are invited to come. Using the highway, attending Moonblessed can quickly and securely traverse the Nothing to personally witness the impact of their Chroma through their stay so far on Prismatica.

Upon entering the glass tunnels of Inari Highway, the glass first displays images of the Nothing before the Moonblessed’s arrival. It was entirely bereft of any life, and only gigantic monsters roamed the barren land. Then the images on the glass walls vanish to reveal the sudden miraculous growth of plant life, astonishing the entire planet.

Scientists at Amegahara have been hard at work testing the Nothing’s capacity to support life. They have determined that a constant and heavy flow of Chroma is required to maintain the baby ecosystem in the Nothing. Otherwise, the existing plant and animal life will die before reaching full growth. The Moonblessed are encouraged to support this endeavor.

B At the greenhouses across Inari Highway, you will find multiple rows of wildflower sprouts and small trees planted near solar panels. In order to help them grow quicker, veteran Moonblessed already know what to do. And if they don’t, Prismals have stitched together some floral “Get Along” t-shirts for this very purpose. These shirts can fit up to two people inside them, making moonlacing practically unavoidable. Everyone will be rewarded trying these out, as the shirts have a built-in feature that amplifies the release of Chroma.

Other activities that can be performed to aid the plants include measuring chemical quantities in the soil, trimming dying leaves and petals, pulling weeds, chasing away bugs, and watering the plants using the Anaconda 5000.

The Anaconda 5000 was created with the same state-of-the-art technology as everyone’s favorite Raging Hydra 5000. This thick and heavy talking snakehead device requires a little love and tenderness to get it started. It will not be shy in giving instructions. The user must vigorously caress its sides to make it spew water. The more firm and powerful the touch, the more water it will release everywhere. However, should you and your friends go overboard with your ministrations, the Anaconda 5000 will promptly explode and set off sprinklers, drenching everyone in the greenhouse, which is bad news for them unless they want a wet t-shirt party.

▶ Beez in the Trap
Amegahara and Lunatia | top

With all the new flowers blooming at the edge of the Nothing, pollen is in the air, attracting a rare type of insect known as the Viscosus Bee. Huge honeycombs will start appearing around both Amegahara and Lunatia, their size and numbers growing rapidly by the hour. The cities will be abuzz about these bees — literally!

A public advisory by the Lunar Scientiae appears: please exercise extreme caution when walking by open spaces, especially around parks, farms, gardens, and anywhere else that has flowers. Better check that nice bouquet of yours before giving it to someone. Chances are that you’ll meet the bees right in their trap!

C Lots of bees means lots of honey. Giant globules of the sticky stuff drip and fall on innocent bystanders, practically gluing them together. Unbeknownst to many, the Viscosus Bee is known for producing the stickiest kind of honey across the galaxy. It will take more than nail polish remover to pry yourselves off each other! Thankfully, there is a special type of lubricant that can help those who are trapped — one that local news stations will tell you repeatedly to stock up on. Local pleasure emporiums will be selling this “Slippery When Wet” brand of lubricant at an affordable price. What you lose in dignity purchasing it, you gain in helping yourself and maybe a new friend.

▶ Flower Power
Amegahara and Lunatia | top

As the weeks pass, you may notice some strange gradient discoloration on the tips of your fingers, and your veins (or wires) have gradually turned green. It’s certainly a peculiar affliction. Even stranger, a light touch like simply brushing against another’s shoulder will discolor parts of their body as well.

All becomes clear when three moons finally appear: everyone affected will not transform according to their usual Moonblessing. Instead, you find vines and leaves growing along your body. Flowers sprout from open cuts, between your lips, out of your eyes, through any available orifice on your body, or in place of certain limbs. You are not too different from a walking plant.

D Your emotions towards others will also cause certain flowers to spontaneously burst out of you as soon as you exchange words with them. What do these flowers mean? Well, if you ask the Amegaharans nicely, they may give you a few guides to let you know, or you can check your local library.

Otherwise, you will be left to try and guess on your own as your body slowly germinates itself in front of others. This effect will naturally wear off once the three moons disappear.

Scientists at Amegahara will later postulate that the phenomenon originated from some of the intense cross-breeding of the plants in their greenhouses, which had released unconventional spores that had attached themselves to the Moonblessed and spread about.

However, they will assure you it’s nothing to be alarmed about. Just another hiccup in the name of science! The effects will be completely gone soon.

▶ 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.

DO I HAVE TO PARTICIPATE? ▶ As always, all content is optional. You do not have to be affected by any of the prompts if you wish to opt out.

AMEGAHARA ▶ With the opening of Inari Highway, the city may now be permanently accessed. You may travel freely between Lunatia and Amegahara anytime. Refer to this announcement for more details.

FLOWER POWER ▶ As always, the severity of effect is up to you. You may choose to have minor effects and only have one flower grow on any desired body part.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Welcome to the Jungle

[Considering she's on a new planet full of people with animal traits and other weirdos, Allie feels like she's handling things pretty well. She's downright docile in the infirmary, allowing them to poke and prod without batting a lash, and when they're finished she eats like a horse. Three days of wandering with nothing to eat but rocks? She's starving, and she's gonna start shoveling. She then spends the ride down to the planet with the bill of her black cap pulled low, arms folded across her chest, gear piled at her feet, and catches a cat nap.]

[Once she shuttle has docked and the passengers disembarked, Allie wanders out, making a casual beeline toward Level 2 with her gear hoisted onto her back once more. She's not picky about buildings. They all look the same to her, fancy and bright, so one's just as good as any. The elevator takes her up to the second-to-last floor (as she figures the penthouses probably aren't free), then shuffles down the hallway.]

[Huh. No way to tell who owns which apartment, unless someone had the forethought to individualize their door or put up a nameplate. She picks one, knocks, and waits. If someone answers, she blinks tiredly at them, utters 'Whoops, looking for an empty one. See ya,' and heads to the next door down. If there's no answer, and if the door isn't locked, she'll open the door and take a look around. If it turns out to be occupied (or looks like it's being lived in), her response is much the same: 'My bad,' and closes the door to try another place.]

[Should she find a place that seems free of personal belongings, then she dumps her gear on the ground, unzips her heavy-duty steel-toed boots to leave them in a heap by the door, and flops onto the couch to get some sleep. Perhaps your character's looking for a room too, and if they should wander into hers, she cracks one eye open to get a good look at the person and determine whether or not they're an asshole.]

Anaconda 9000+

[Come to an alien planet and get to work watering some flowers!]

[Okay, why not. The sooner this planet heals, the sooner she can go home, right? Besides, what else is she going to do around here? Growing up on the southern fringe of Wyoming, she's used to places like this.]

[Rubbing the hose vigorously doesn't really equate to anything dirty in her point of view. It seems stupid, but more akin to friction to warm up your hands or polishing a lamp for a genie to pop out. Not that, you know. Not that anything like that ever happened in her line of work. Yet.]

[Being the insensitive thug she is, Allie goes to town rubbing the shit out of that hose, figuring that's what it'll take to keep it going that much longer. It explodes and she flinches back, and boom, sprinklers.]

[She stares at the ruins of the hose on the ground, then grits her teeth as her black t-shirt is firmly plastered to her strong, toned frame.]

Why the hell are we usin' these hoses if the sprinklers work just fine?! Son of a bitch...

[Her red curls, pulled back in a ponytail, are plastered darkly against her neck and back. She snaps her wet cap out of the back pocket of her worn jeans, jamming it onto her head so at least she isn't getting sprayed in the eyes.]

Flower Power

[Allie smells like she went rolling around in a giant pile of thyme. It doesn't seem to be growing on her arms or neck, so one can only assume it's growing somewhere under her clothes. Atop her head is a single flower, a little beat up and crumpled when she tried to put her hat on to cover it up, but found that doing so was physically uncomfortable.]

[She was pretty grumpy about it until she saw other people literally coughing up petals, or sheathed nearly head to toe in vines and grass. Heaven help the poor bastard that had flowers growing out of his friggin' eyes.]

[The mini-mart doors slide open and she shuffles out, holding a crinkling plastic bag jam-packed with instant meals and snacks. She pulls a non-Prismal cell phone out of her pocket, checks it, then stuffs it back with a huff of frustration.]

[Lifting her head, she makes eye contact with another moonblessed. Flowers are supposed to bloom when people interact, ordinarily. But nothing else sprouts on her, her stare dull and dispassionate.]

Hey.

[If you happen to have way more flowers and plants on you than she does, she adds:]

That sucks.

[And still nothing else pops up. Look, she's not great at the sympathy thing.]

[OOC: Wildcard starters are also welcome! Allie is kind of the equivalent of a 'ghostbuster' with a mildly magnetic draw for ghosts/wholly supernatural beings. She can generally detect the presence of the dead/supernatural and gauge how strong/weak they are. More details in her journal, along with a draft of her app.]

Edited 2020-05-10 06:39 (UTC)

[ Malcolm would have to be blind to miss the overtly sexual nature to the Anaconda. As with most of the sexual things here, he just kind of rolls his eyes and tries to go about his business as usual. As someone who likes to read into the subtext of things, the more blatant stuff is tiring to him. The aliens want him to fuck. He gets it.

When the hose explodes, Malcolm looks over at the woman standing above what's left of it as the sprinklers activate and soak him. ]

I think these are supposed to be some kind of emergency sprinklers, but you do have a point.

[ He's wearing a T-shirt and a pair of dark fitted jeans that say Diesel on the back. ]

[Allie looks at Malcom, blinking the water from her short fringe of lashes, then glances up at the sprinklers with one eye squinted shut.]

And an explodin' hose counts as an emergency, I guess.

[It's mildly embarrassing to lose her temper the way she did. Not much startles her, but she's never had a hose explode in her hands like that before. No one would expect something like that to happen. Still. This guy seems pretty unflappable, so her anger cools down just as quickly as it flared up.]

This mean we're done for the day?

[ He shrugs as his wet shirt starts to stick to his chest. ]

If the task was to water the plants, then the plants are getting watered.

[ Basically, they should have blown up the hose a while ago.

Malcolm peels his shirt back away from his body as the two of them escape from the raining sprinklers. ]

Honestly, that was the most ridiculous hose I've ever seen in my life.

[...Huh. Allie regards him with a faint tilt of her head. Given that she was directly responsible for the hose blowing up, she half-expected some sort of display of temper, or at least a twinge of annoyance. But he seems fine with it, even amused.]

[She probably shouldn't have lost her own temper. Seems she's still got a ways to go in fixing that. At least they're in agreement about the hose, and she's this close to a relieved smile.]

Yeah, no shit.

[A pause. Uh. Yeah, he seems a little too refined to appreciate her vulgarities, and losing the foul language was supposed to be part of her anger management steps.]

...Sorry. No kidding. Least the tech stuff they give us is waterproof.

[When they reach the wall where she left her backpack, she picks it up, sweeping away from of the water that pooled in the wrinkles and slings it over a shoulder.]

You new here too?

[ It wasn't his hose and he isn't really isn't too upset about their work being finished. Why even bother with the hose if they have sprinklers anyway? He's not thrilled about being wet, but it's just water. It'll dry off. He's gotten worse fluids on his clothes.

The change of language, apparently for his benefit, amuses him and he smiles wryly. While she gets her backpack, he tries to wring out his shirt without taking it off. ]

Yeah. I've been here about a month. My name's Malcolm.

[Only a month, and he's as affable as they come. She stares at him for a moment, digesting the conflict of a friendly and easygoing demeanor and being yanked out of his own world for only a month's time. Not what she expected. But it seems like a good thing.]

Allie.

[She wrings out the corner of her shirt once they're in the much dryer, much warmer tunnel of glass that encapsulates the path between the two cities.]

So uh...these donuts really worth the two hour walk?

[Because maybe, just maybe, they should go eat donuts.]

[ He'd be curious to learn that she's analyzing him so much. Despite the fact that he's a profiler, he hasn't really been analyzing her beyond an initial appraisal. Malcolm has been through a lot in his relatively short life. It takes a lot to faze him. Honestly, being mad about being here isn't going to get him home, so he might as well make the most of it. ]

Nice to meet you. [ Malcolm turns to her. ] It did seem like a lot of the shops in the market were selling donuts, weren't they?

[ He's never been out here before, so he can't speak to them being good or not. ]

S'what I heard.

[She squints one eye against the glare of the sun reflected through the tunnel glass, mulling things over. It's not really in her nature to make open invitations to hang out to strangers, but Malcolm's all right, and she doesn't know anyone else. If she winds up needing to do this moonlacing shit, better him than some dickhead.]

...You wanna go? Guessin' we'll probably dry off on the way.

Ember was as surprised as anyone to find herself in this strange world, but she had learned to roll with the punches a long time ago. This place wasn't all bad! There were plenty of weirdos and interesting people here. So she didn't draw any undue attention by her own appearance. She wanted to be noticed, but not for the wrong reasons.

She was just sitting at a cafe when she suddenly got the urge to get up and walk towards someone. That someone was Allie. When she finally got to her she managed to shake it off, but now she was curious.

"Hey, you're one of these moonblessed too, right?" Of course she had no idea that Allie would be able to tell she was a ghost, and a pretty strong one at that.

Allie stiffened, coffee cup frozen in her hands. Her gaze flicked up to stare at Ember, and for a few seconds that hard stare seemed as if it might terminate in a gruff warning not to start any shit. It had been a while since a ghost had openly approached Allie like this, and if she hadn't let her guard down in thinking she wouldn't have this same problem on an alien planet, it probably would have continued for a good long while.

But here she was, and here was Ember, and if Allie had hackles they would have all been raised.

However.

Based on her prior experiences, ghosts with a primarily human shape weren't that malicious. Far as she could tell, this green-haired girl wasn't sporting fangs, or claws, and had the same number and generic shape of limbs that any normal person would. So why was she leaking that much raw supernatural power?

"...Yeah."

A very delayed response, but much milder than it might have been if Allie hadn't taken the time to size up the facts.

"And what the hell are you?" She set down her coffee cup and leaned back in her chair, arms folded as she eyed the (much friendlier) girl.

The stare didn't get much of a reaction out of Ember. Other than she did get the distinct impression that Allie wasn't totally clueless as to what she was. She decidedly didn't wither under the other woman's gaze though.

Ember frowned at that response "Well rude, but I could ask you the same thing baby doll. I'm just sitting down one moment and the next I'm moving without knowing the reason. Never had that happen before."

She rolled her eyes "I guess I can answer first though. My name is Ember and I'm a ghost." Maybe she would be bothered by revealing that outright to a human like this, but she clearly knew more than the average dipstick human.

"Alright now your turn for show and tell." She waited for an answer, because as she said she'd never run into a human that could do that.

...Yeah, fair. She could have phrased that better, but she remained tense waiting for things to sour. At least this ghost behaved more like a living person than a ghost, and she wasn't making any undue demands.

Yet.

"I figured. What kind." It was a question, but she sure didn't make it sound like one. Instead she rocked back a little, tonguing the inside of her cheek in beetle-browed scrutiny. "If I say my name you aren't gonna sit down and roll out a Christmas wishlist of all the things you didn't get to do while you were alive, are ya? 'Cause I'm not into that business."

"I don't know, a tough kind? We really don't do the whole category thing at least where I'm from." She shrugs, she's being honest there just wasn't any way to answer that.

Her next actual question made her lift a brow "Lady, I think you have the wrong idea. I don't need anybody to get the things I want. Watch."

She then went up to the nearest rando within earshot of Allie and asked them what time it was. They answered her even if they were a little confused and she returned to Allie "See?"

No boasts of godhood, then. Put a mark in the plus column.

Her head turned to follow Ember's path, and the deep valley of her brow eased up a little at the brief exchange. Huh. A sarcastic ghost. First time for everything, and a hell of a lot better than a sobbing one tearing out her hair in grief.

The legs of her chair clacked solidly on the ground as she leaned forward, scooping up her coffee cup once more. "Allie."

No demands? No hostility.

"Usually you guys don't talk to me unless you want somethin'." She pushed the chair opposite from her outward with her foot, a casual invitation for Ember to sit if she so chose. "How long you been dead?"

Ember pulled out the chair further, establishing she was very much able to do things on her own, before sitting down. "I've got not clue what you even are. All I know is I started moving towards you without thinking and I wanted to see what that was about." She'd literally never heard of anyone like Allie.

"A few decades." She responded simply, not wanting to get too deep into it right here.

"So what's your deal exactly?"

Allie glanced up over the rim of her mug, drinking leisurely. Her shoulders hitched and fell, and she lowered the coffee before thumbing away the excess from her top lip. "Human. And hell if I know." It was weird talking about her mystery ability. She didn't usually bother to clue people in on her knack with ghosts. Until recently, the reactions weren't worth the effort.

Her eyes moved about the cafe before looking back at Ember, and she slouched forward a little further. "Been like that since I was a kid. Didn't come with an instruction manual, you know?" She finished the coffee, then slumped a cheek into her hand as she pushed the mug toward the end of the table. Hopefully the waiter would-- Yup, a smiling Prismal with small horse ears and long glossy black hair bore a fresh pot and refilled Allie's morning fuel.

"Was kinda hopin' you'd be able to clue me in. You're the first to make mention of its effect in any kind'a coherent fashion." She toyed with a sugar packet, shifting her jaw back and forth. "You sure you're not lookin' for someone to challenge you to one last game of basketball, or write a goopy love confession?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .015

Allie Stoklasa | OC

Anaconda

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Wildcard

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