prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .016

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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.

▶ How to Train Your Dragon 2: Electric Boogaloo
City of Lunatia and Kingdom of Lyestellus | top

As the weather grows warmer and the skies around Lunatia clear up, the toxic fog that once clogged up the airways is dissipating. This is great news: air travel has now become easier, safer, and more enjoyable. The recent increase of renewed flora and fauna must have led to these new developments.

While a clean atmosphere benefits Prismals and Moonblessed, it invites dangerous predators to lurk closer to the border. Fortunately, friendlier creatures also start to flock to the city, including familiar faces from the Lyestellus Kingdom. Indeed, the baby dragons once raised and nurtured by the Moonblessed have grown into the mighty, noble scaleborn they are.

The dragons’ giant shadows blanket the metropolis as they fly overhead for a friendly visit. One of them carries their sovereign, King Shiryn Lyei Drastellus XIII. In light of the Nothing’s recovery and the Inari Highway’s success, the king says that Lyestellus is inspired to further deepen their relationship with Lunatia. He announces that the kingdom has developed a construction plan for a skyway connecting Lunatia and the mountains of Drasomnis.

The Moonblessed are welcome to join their efforts. Lunatia and Lyestellus will be sponsoring a labor exchange program to ensure that everyone is well-rewarded and kept safe on their way to Lyestellus. The dragons will be flying and protecting Lunatian locals and any volunteering Moonblessed alike. But as there are only so many dragons, everyone is expected to share seats.

Several of the dragons are known to be excitable. As they’re looking forward to inviting the Moonblessed back to the kingdom, some overly eager dragons may snatch even the most reluctant person in their jaws to carry the whole way. And when we say excitable, they might destroy a wall of your humble abode to reach you as they are particularly good at sniffing out anything hidden. But how long can you resist their puppy eyes and wagging tails?

B In Lyestellus, one of the available jobs is to wrangle and care for small chicken-sized dragonlets that seem to be especially attracted to Sanguis Moonblessed. Their parents are away because of the skyway construction plan, so someone has to babysit them. These wily dragonlets love to run around in their coops, leaving rainbow-colored droppings everywhere, pulling at your hair or clothes, and cutely singing to try and coerce the Moonblessed into spoiling them rotten or helping them get away with mischievous behavior.

They are also attracted to Chroma and will be attaching themselves to Moonblessed. If they are too excited, they might bite onto their arms, mouth, neck, legs, nipples, and just about anywhere they can reach to drink their Chroma-infused blood. If you experience excess blood loss, you can recover it easily with moonlacing, but it’s best to avoid getting cornered and overpowered by too many dragonlets.

▶ Rise and Wine, It’s Wine o'Clock
Kingdom of Lyestellus | top

Several job openings are now available at Lyestellus’ wine distilleries. The kingdom is famous for its Dragonfang Wine, a luxurious drink pressed from the fragrant wildflowers and aged in barrels of wood found only on the mountaintops of Drasomnis. The wine itself is a vibrant violet with a rich scent the locals describe as heavenly. It is traditionally served during special occasions. With the skyway construction plan in motion, they will be needing to speed up production in time for upcoming celebrations.

C One of the job openings is for flower pickers. This line of work is not for the fainthearted. As they climb up the Drasomnis mountains to pick flowers, they need to watch out for wild wyvern attacks. Their majestic wings are powerful enough to blow a person off the mountain tops and they are proficient in wind magic. Try to avoid fighting near flower fields, as their gigantic feet may end up crushing the poor flowers.

Another available task is to participate in wine tasting to ensure the quality is consistent in each barrel (spit buckets will be provided to each person) as well as to create a menu benefitting to serve for the celebrations. The goal of the menu is to bring out the best flavors of the Dragonfang Wine. For inspiration, the locals will be providing large platters of cheese and draconic mood music.

Be careful not to drink too much: the violet-shaded wine’s delectable taste could lead to overconsumption. Those who get drunk may display flirtatious “peacocking” behavior towards other Moonblessed. Watch out for the cheesiest of pick-up lines!

▶ Slime Beneath Me, Slime Up Above, Ooh, You Love My Toxic Love
Kingdom of Lyestellus | top

Like their previous visit, the Moonblessed will be allowed to stay in bubble-shaped dwellings surrounding a breathtaking mountain springs known to have mysterious effects during the evenings.

Bathing in the springs during the day provides great relief, especially to any hardworking person. It has restorative properties that accelerate healing and the relaxing experience paired with gorgeous views can reduce stress and anxiety. The Lyestellus locals consider it as one of their treasures and will encourage all their guests to bathe in them at least once.

D Unfortunately, the largest hot spring in the center known as the Eye of Basti has turned disturbingly discolored for reasons unknown to the locals. It was reported that anyone who comes too close to the water will be swallowed inside. For public safety, they’ve closed the center area of the springs but there is a job listing that will grant access to it.

Those who investigate will notice that the discolored red waters have a strange, thick slime-like consistency. Standing too close will cause the waters to rise and form blood-like tendrils that will indiscriminately grab at anyone within the vicinity. They will repeatedly attempt to drag people into their watery depths. If they fail to pull their target into the water, then a curse will be cast on them. Cursed targets will be turned into translucent slimes which will mindlessly crawl onto any potential source of Chroma to suck their Chroma dry. This includes another Moonblessed, local Prismals, the nearest lamp post, or somebody’s car.

Nothing you try seems to affect the bloody tendrils. But fight long enough in the waters, the natural Chroma of the Moonblessed will gradually purity and restore it to its former beauty. Those who were swallowed, including lost locals, will be able to resurface safely and those who turned into slimes will transform back to their original forms.

▶ 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.

HOT SPRINGS ▶ As stated, only the Eye of Basti spring is badly affected. All other hot springs are completely safe.

TRANSLUCENT SLIMES ▶ Color, size, and appearance are all up to player discretion. Yes, you may choose to have only certain body parts to be slimed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a. welcome to the jungle.

[ In some ways, this place has given Usopp a lot better luck than he's used to having in terms of "someone sits him down and explains exactly what is happening and answers his questions." While one cannot definitively say that Usopp did not, at one point, completely lose his shit freaking out about waking up somewhere new without anyone he was just with, it's at least safe to say that by the time he reaches Prismatica proper, he's got it a little more under control.

So he does have exploration on the brain sooner over later. It's possible to find him in his new unit first and foremost. Because he spends a lot of time with the front door wide open, playing around with every single built-in control panel he can get his grubby pirate hands on and making a variety of sounds in the range from WHOA WHAT THE HECK to THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN AND I WISH THE OTHERS WERE HERE TO SEE IT. In so many words.

Exploring the city itself is something slightly, or actually a lot, more cautious. That's his nature. It's a cool-looking place with so much to try to take in. And on one hand, he's very interested in taking it in. On another hand, he knows full well that he and his friends have a long-running history of arriving in a place that seems very cool and flashy and fun, and then within 3 days it turns into a hellish near-death experience that may or may not end in liberating a country or something.

Kinda just got done with one of those, in fact. So Usopp is inclined to take it slow.

(It's just less fun to get distracted with no friends to get distracted with anyway.

He has a sinking feeling he's not gonna magically run into a conspiracy to bust that will get him sent home ASAP while he's out here, and his own preemptive disappointment is tough to bear.)

While he is regarding some technological marvel or restaurant or showcase with part amazement, part suspicion, he does a cool guy thing and accidentally walks right into a person. Git gud, Usopp, wow. You're a sharpshooter, what are you doing. ]

Oh- sorry about that! [ Have either an offered hand up or some apologetic shoulder pats. Yep, there it goes. Friendly and sociable? Yes. Potentially also trying to avoid getting punched? Maybe, depending on how outright scary the person he walked into is. He laughs. It is a nervous laugh. ] Man, I gotta pay more attention to where I'm walking! I can't use everything going on out here as an excuse! You okay?

[ Yes. On yet another third hand, which in the spirit of the metaphor is more of a plastic dinosaur head grabber he keeps just for these prioritizing occasions... Usopp is a very social creature who would prefer a lifestyle in which he has a person he can talk to. ]

b. baby(sitting) draaaagon(s).

[ Usopp may not be in the Sanguis lineup, but he's still doing pretty well for himself in the babysitting department. Kids are kids once confirmed not giant dragons looking to roast you alive and feast on the remains, right? It would only be better if they were a little more inclined to be interested in sitting down for storytime or something.

That's alright. Back in the day when he ran around causing trouble with the Usopp Pirates, sitting still for a long time just couldn't cut it. Not for him or for the kids. He's always been pretty high-energy, so it doesn't seem like a problem to let them have their fun.

They're still cute, though. They're so small! He lets them hang off of him like he was designed to be a baby dragon jungle gym. Actually, he might make a brag to that exact effect-- "I was practically born to be entertaining for baby dragons," the Usopp biopic. He's having a grand old time. He's covered in rainbow dragon poop and honestly kinda having the time of his life, laughing it up, trying to feel out if baby dragons like to play pirates, and 100% encouraging them to cause trouble. Sometimes the baby dragons that are mischieviously stealing hats... are great. He'll be the guy openly laughing or calling out "good job!" to this gang of chicken-sized dragonlets.

Kids are supposed to cause some trouble, dammit. He won't stand for any kids being told to be well-behaved on his watch. Unless he personally is trying to be the boss, which right now, he's not.

But if the general vibe of running around toeing the line between super immature and not letting any babies get caught underfoot or hurt doesn't suit you, consider joining him for the inevitable conclusion:

There was an Usopp here. It's gone now.

Oh wait, he's just under that small pile of dragonlets in the corner. False alarm. He's got a dragonlet or two for every limb and there's absolutely, 1000%, one hanging from his nose like it is a personal feeding tube. ]

H... help...

[ He raises a shaking hand. A dragonlet zooms in from downtown to latch onto it. He still has shrieking energy, it turns out. ]

THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FUN AND MURDER--!

[ Look, Usopp is a resilient guy. He takes damage like a consummate professional and comes back kicking, broadly. That doesn't mean that blood loss is not his least favorite form of damage. ]

c. flower picking.

[ Wow... who knew that 2 years on a giant man-eating archipelago filled with vicious wildlife and even more man-eating plants would come in handy for something like this-- oh. Actually, looking back, Usopp knew that already.

He is still in a firm position of regretting agreeing to take this work on. He hyped himself up for flower picking because it sounded like a cool time and now there's all this... this.

Pros: he's a sniper. Long-range work is what he's best at, and he did get to bring his weapon of choice to this planet or whatever with him. It's ideal in many ways for work where the best advice anyone had to offer was "well don't let them get close enough to hurl you off a mountain with their wind magic and don't let them land on the flowers."

Cons: he's hard-up for ammunition because a lot of his ammunition is plant-based, and if it didn't outright get left back home for some reason, it's extremely hard to grow anything around here.

Creative problem-solving. It always comes back to creative problem-solving. What we have is Usopp, tied at the waist to some tree he's hoping has good deep roots, trying to ward off a wyvern from a pretty good distance with rocks. He doesn't seem to be missing his shots by any means, but wyverns don't seem especially weak to rocks. If he lets up too long it gains more ground, but there's also no leaving until flowers are picked, so. Time to lean on teamwork, tbh. If teamwork happens to include someone doing the heavy wyvern lifting for him, all the better in his professional opinion. ]

Jeez, these things are a pain in the ass! Everything's supposed to have a weak point!! It's only fair!

[ If he only sounded calm and asspained instead of freaked out and asspained.

Like with most dangerous inconveniences, Usopp makes the assumption that he'll probably die, so he can be pleasantly surprised when he lives. ]

d. hot springs.

[ Usopp mostly grew up doing his own thing. His dad was out doing pirate stuff, he lost his mom, and then he just kinda lived by himself until he left his home island. Called his own shots! Made his own house rules. Learned how to do stuff for himself.

And the biggest lesson to take from that all is that Usopp, at least in the very specific case of going to investigate horrific red waters that try to drag people to their doom with blood-like tendrils, didn't raise a fool. There is no way in any world that he will go try to scope out the Eye of Basti situation unless he has been bodily dragged there.

Few people in his life have the authority to drag him to such a place.

He'll totally hang in a regular ol' hot spring, though. You kidding? His body is 90% stress. Let him at it (feel free to specify daytime or nighttime at your leisure). It's summer, he's got his hat on backwards, and he's here to sink all the way down to chin-level in good vibes. ]

Aaaaaaaaaaah, this is nice... everyone must like a quiet time like this sometimes, right?

[ Whether he's legit about just having a chill time or trying to gauge if he's hanging with someone who'll wanna have a dumbass splash fight with him remains to be seen. ]

[ Wrathion also lived by himself, called his own shots, made his own rules.

He's also incredibly curious, to his own detriment. Dragons age at a different rate to humans, and he has always hungered for knowledge. For understanding of his surroundings.

Which is why he's stood by the pool Usopp is lounging in slowly shedding heavy, wet layers. His dark curls are dripping, sections of his undershirt that are white are tinted red. It's late in the evening, and he would indeed enjoy some quiet time after all those... tentacles.

This pool does, indeed, some quieter.

He lofts an eyebrow, curious, then lets his long, heavy coat hit the ground before he goes to undo his boots. ]

I would suppose so, yes. We must take solace in what limited peace we are afforded.

[ Usopp places his personal bets. This extremely intimidating stranger will not want to have a splash fight like children. In fact, he may be fresh out of losing one, from the looks of things.

Or in any case, Usopp is enough of a coward not to want to test those proverbial or literal waters. ]

'Limited peace'? [ A concept incredibly familiar to him. How disappointing. ] I knew this place was gonna turn out to be worse than it already is, but that doesn't mean I like hearing it, either.

[ Which actually helps refresh for him the fact that this man is in a state. ]

Ah... are you alright, though? You look pretty rough for a guy in a hot spring.

[ Notoriously places of peace and relaxation. ]

The other pool was less... hospitable.

[ Well, unless you enjoy tentacles he supposes. Wrathion is quite tired of them himself. He takes off his boots, which squelch, and begins unlacing his now pinkish shirt.

We're not talking about it, Usopp. Okay? Agreed? Good. Agreed. It's absolutely fine. This pool is nicer. Don't go to the other pool. ]

Yeah, no kidding! I spent two years on an island that was constantly trying to eat me and I still wouldn't touch that job listing with a ten foot pole!

[ He doesn't do the tall tales thing as much as he used to. It's a low bar to clear with how often he did, sure, but he definitely does that a lot less.

This is still way more on the honest side than his instincts tend to skew. Usopp isn't thinking much of it.

Good for this guy escaping, though, he thinks. He must be pretty tough or pretty fast. ]

Man, definitely take a load off for a while. This is the last place anyone should have to get that stressed out by something.

[ Employees: ah yeah it tries to drag people in with tentacles--

Usopp: oh I thought it was stressful enough that it was a weird color, but OK that's even worse ]

Hmmmm.

[ Wrathion drops his once white shirt to the ground with a sigh, begins trying to finger-comb his slime-coated hair.

Foul, honestly. He can feel his pendant sticking to his chest. This is all... so unpleasant. ]

The magic of this place is stronger than I anticipated, as are its... limitations.

[ The exchange and use of chroma. Wrathion had not realised how much it would impact him. It appears the answer is 'just the same as anyway else'. Being a dragon doesn't make you immune, who'd have thought. He turns glowing red eyes on Usopp, lofts an eyebrow. ]

It appears there is much still to learn.

[ Spoken with the true confidence of someone who has been here all of five minutes and only just accepted that. ]

[ Note to Usopp, from Usopp: magic is real. He sails with a captain who ate a fruit that turned his body into rubber, but that's obviously different.

The overall sentiment pulls a broad, genuine grin out of him.

There's something to be extremely worried about every day. It's a job that Usopp boldly cannot stop performing even if he'd like to. But it's kinda nice to take a couple of minutes in a nice hot spring and talk to someone, and not feel like death is set to rain down from above at any moment. Or, well, he's hoping it won't. ]

Don't worry. You get used to feeling that way about weird places. They've got a way of showing you what they're made of even if you don't go looking! [ Even though that fact of life never reassures him personally, maybe there are people that would find it reassuring. ] Talk about a real pain to deal with.

usopp | one piece | cordis

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B also ayyyyy hello!!

hello!!

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A-Welcome the the jungle

1/3 im sorry bear w me

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3/3

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a; we've got fun and games

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