▶ TDM .003

[prismods]

Fear is never boring

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"The Raisins : Fear Is Never Boring" (Watch on YouTube)

▶ Tales from the Crypt
Moon Iris | top

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. Even the few shy moon creatures you find in the wild have strange crystal growths on their hides. This is far from home— perhaps a dream? You pinch your skin and slap your cheeks, yet nothing seems to do the trick. Searching for answers yields nothing but an endless expanse of purple dust as far as the eye can see. You have four options: one, panic; two, soil yourself; three, admire it all then soil yourself; or four, go into survival mode. Eventually, you’ll realize that you’re not alone.

After a day or two of living off the crystal wilderness, a group of people find you worse for wear. They are the gallant Moon Knights from the planet of Prismatica. After the strange phenomenon 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? Why did I eat those fifty cent street truck tacos last night? — 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.

While waiting for transport to be prepared, you may freely roam around the government center. Alternatively, you can ask the staff about the moon base. They suggest that you visit one of their excavation sites nearby: an enormous hole known as the Glory. The scientists have been excavating this site carefully for years, searching for a legendary ancient tomb sleeping within. They’re accepting volunteers if anyone is inclined to aid in their efforts. Perhaps the Moonblessed have the knowledge they need to make it a success!

A ⬤ A chroma-powered lift made of magically fortified crystal is used to access the lower grounds. Be careful not to fall off! On the way down, some translucent caterpillars and crystals light your way. Be quiet and keep an eye out for Queen Bowie beetles: these glowing neon bugs are attracted to music, and a single note will send them flying into your clothes and hair. Putting the beetles under pressure is not advised, as they will explode and send their sticky insides flying throughout the airspace, potentially stinging your eyes. This will make moving around in dark, cramped spaces all the more difficult! Thankfully, they get bored if no one tries to sing for one whole minute.

B ⬤ Scientists, engineers, miners, and archeologists are at the unearthed antechambers, hard at work. They will assign you to different tasks: recording observations and taking down notes, digging with advanced excavation tools, or collecting fragile relics with metal and crystal detectors. The Moonblessed may also assist with solving riddles the ancients left in the tomb’s doors, chests and walls. Solving them may lead to either treasure rooms or trap walls that close in on unsuspecting grave robbers. Others, well...

Golden jellyfish statues line the walls, encrusted with glistening jewels all over, some worse for wear. Tall pillars have numerous ancient runes which the Prismals are struggling to decipher. Soon, an eerie whisper reaches your mind: “Wander no further. A curse awaits all who enter our kingdom. Disturb not those who slumber in the deep.” True enough, the floor from this point onward appears to be blue sand combed in the pattern of ocean waves... Are you brave enough to continue drilling through?

C ⬤ If that is not enough to send you scrambling out with moist underwear, perhaps the seismic jolt to the ground will. A slimy substance begins to ooze out the tomb’s cracks, glowing lilac like the Iris moon... The Prismals are quick to usher everyone out before the shaking gets worse. As the lift may be too dangerous, climbing equipment will be provided. Watch out for falling debris or collapsing rocks while assisting each other out of cramped passages and up the walls to safety. Try not to get stuck in the slime!

This little adventure might leaving you wondering what or who exactly lies deeper inside, but the Prismals are just as clueless as you are. Cave-ins happen from time to time, but this might have been the strongest one recorded on this site.

Eventually you’re called to the docks and led onto a large transport vessel. Destination: Prismatica.




▶ Those Kicks were Fast as Lightning
Higher Lunatia, Level 1 | 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.

With the end of Harvest Boon, the city is calm once more. The streets of Level 1 and 2 are now sparkling clean as always, but Level 3 is still in the process of cleaning up. There are confetti and deflated balloons strewn all over the streets, but Swiffy bots are on the scene, sweeping up whatever waste they can get their hands on. Sometimes, they might even play tug-of-war with you for it. At one of the train stations, a Prismal doomsayer screams about the apocalypse returning. Passersby shrug at the conspiracy theory and move on.

A ⬤ In response to the unexpected rough events during Harvest Boon, the Moon Knights decided to hold free-for-all self-defense seminars at a large park near Lunatia Square. The live demonstrations include proper monster-wrangling procedures and how to efficiently keep a rogue moonheld (read: transformed under the moon) Prismal away. Participants are encouraged to learn and interact with each other to learn various safety practices and techniques. The training visors provided enhance the seminar experience, changing whoever your eyes focus on into a cerberus or other rogue moonheld Prismal on the visor’s display. Don’t use the visors for too long, or you’ll be seeing everyone as a cerberus well after you take the visors off! Fortunately, the effects only last for an hour. Energy drinks and free snacks are available to any worn-out Prismal or Moonblessed.

B ⬤ Virtual lunar conditions are also available via multiplayer VR pods in Lunar Scientia headquarters, simulating the Moonblessed/moonheld experience under full moons. Mental exercises and magic practice sessions are accessible in the virtual spaces, allowing people to test out their magical abilities and transformations. Simulation participants can either train by themselves, with a partner, or through a tutorial of instruction-based movements. However, the program is still in beta. You may experience errors or bugs like lagging, NPCs phasing into things they shouldn’t, weird physics, or body glitches.

▶ Meas Trees are the Bee’s Knees
Middle Lunatia, Level 2 | top

The rows of Meas trees planted this Harvest Boon are blossoming beautifully into view, painting the fields in Level 2 with colors of spring. Meas tree saplings each have a small sign next to them, displaying their owners’ written wish if they chose to disclose it. Interestingly, the color and aroma of each flower depends on the owners; fiery personalities might have red or orange flowers, those born in a coastal town might have flowers that smell like the sea near their hometown, and so on. Maybe you’ll encounter a familiar aroma if you’re lucky enough.

The Moonblessed who were most active with moonlacing the past few weeks have the largest trees, nearly rivaling the oldest Meas trees around. The older trees planted by Prismals over time can be seen in the next field, standing majestically with their swaying branches and flying petals.

A ⬤ Picnic grounds for flower viewings can be found near the fields. There are plenty of stalls selling homemade bruschettas, crostinis, sandwiches, wines, cheeses, and other enjoyable finger food. Notably, some wines may give you an insatiable desire to whisper things in someone’s ear. Sweet nothings, death threats, your secret kinks—no matter the words, you’ll want to kill someone softly with them.

B ⬤ The Swiffy bots that are assigned to the parks and gardens in Level 2 help keep things spick and span, but they’re due for maintenance and may attempt to sweep off any unfortunate picnics with their high-powered vacuums or leaf blowers. As they zoom across the paths, they chirrup about not treading on the grass and take off with picnic blankets, table cloths, and people’s clothes. Any nearby maintenance staff (who are all desperately trying to chase the bots) yell that a conk on the head will immobilize them. Once the malfunctioning bots are stopped, the staff approach to wheel them away while apologising profusely for the mayhem.

▶ Questions

If you have any questions regarding this test drive meme, please ask them in the Questions thread below.

Comments

Amanda O'Neill | Little Witch Academia

[witchwithoutacause]

Tales From the Crypt - B

Can you frickin' believe it?

[ Blurts out the redheaded gal probably pretty close to you. There are digging tools in her hand, but she's not too keen on using them any more than half-ass, maybe even a quarter-ass. ]

We show up here, all kidnapped across space and time, and bam! They put us to work right away.

[ She leans against the nearest rock formation. ]

After starving for a day and then getting bug goo all over my vest.

[ Sure, they fed them and cleaned them up and actually took good care of them, but complaining - she's good at it, and more importantly, it's a distraction from thinking about the broader implications of just being here. ]

Pumped Up Kicks - A

[ This is one bit of help Amanda pretty much entirely doesn't need. That means it's low effort; she can show off; she can snag some free snacks. The perfect arena for Amanda O'Neill, who already knows how to swordfight living suits of armor and chuck offensive fire magic.

Once she discovered that the whole planet and its moons have enough magic to keep her from running out of juice, she's been a little incorrigible too. ]

Wanna see something cool?

[ Whether she's got a sword or a wand or both - it probably is pretty cool. ]

Tree Rhymes - B

[ Another good thing about limitless magic is the part where she can fly on a broom, and no one is telling her to stop.

No teachers yelling at her to follow any dumb rules. As long as she doesn't run into anything or buzz anyone too closely, she's just... got all this freedom.

Freedom to bail out your picnic by zipping in and clubbing a Swiffy Bot on the head with a big ol' stick, for example, laughing to herself. ]

Oh man, it's like robot whack-a-mole.

Kicks A

[trivialization]

[ Oh. Some kid wizard is trying to impress her. How, uh, adorable? With a little wand and everything.

Yeah no she doesn't really give points for being adorable. ]

What, gonna take the training wheels off?

[witchwithoutacause]

Oh?

[ Amanda huffs, and flicks her wand. Well she thought she was gonna show off to the pretty lady but... ]

Alright, so what do you know?

[trivialization]

About magic? Or about you? Expert on the first, you... well, it's a cute wand.

[witchwithoutacause]

Wouldn't mind seeing a little of what you can do. ...and do you think they have wands here? This is just, y'know... for school.

[ Not the COOL wand she'll get when she's an adult. ]

[trivialization]

I'm pretty sure I saw a store for adult wands. [ Deadpan. ]

Or maybe you'd like to graduate to a proper staff? [ Makes her think of The Boy, always flying around on Nagi's staff. ] Big and heavy and ostentatious but being able to give the ground a good thump for your punctuation has a certain gravitas to it.

Pumped Up, A

[iwillbetheirshield]

[Brigitte looked a little dubious, perhaps understandably so. She was almost twice Amanda's size.]

Uh...sure, whatcha got?

[witchwithoutacause]

[ If there's ANYTHING magic's good for, it's for fighting people twice your size.

Her wand, a wooden handle with an extending metal bit, gets a little twirl and a flick. ]

This is all I need.

[ A few indeterminate magic words, and she chucks a couple of fireballs, arcing just kinda...

Onto the sidewalk, cracking and spalling it and kinda fucking it up more than she ought to. ]

Uh. Hope they don't charge me for that.

[iwillbetheirshield]

How the hell...

[It was pretty obvious how: Magic. But Brigitte was from the 21st century, and things that blatant were just a little hard to swallow without at least token resistance.]

[witchwithoutacause]

I'm a witch, and I made the magic happen. Easy.

[ Not as easy as it looks, maybe, but she's pretty good. ]

[iwillbetheirshield]

Just like that?

pumped up kicks - a

[dereban]

[So.

Inaba herself is a bit of a stranger to magic, so the fact that this world deals with it makes her feel even more foreign than usual. When Amanda asks about 'wanting to see something cool', she can't help but cant her head to the side curiously, arms folded over with a bit of curiosity sitting in her expression.]

What is it?

[witchwithoutacause]

[ Amanda's got a neat thing in each hand. In one hand is a dull practice sword; you could probably break someone's arm if you were really an asshole, but it's not a real weapon. In the other, her wand.

A quick incantation, and she holds the sword upright in one hand - and then the wand, and brings them together. A green glow washes over both as they fuse; her eyes flash a similar green for a split second.

And presto! She's holding a real-ass broadsword. ]

Check it.

[dereban]

[Inaba has only ever heard incantations in anime, or reading them in manga. Thankfully it isn't a real weapon, otherwise she would be a little wary to the point where she'd take up a defensive stance.

However, it just turns into a broadsword and she can't help but widen her eyes in surprise, jaw dropping just slight.]

That's... real?

[She's a little dumbstruck.]

[witchwithoutacause]

[ It wasn't a real weapon, no, and now presto! She could totally kill someone.

More importantly, though, she can show off. ]

Exactly as real as I want it to be.

[dereban]

How does that... [She pauses, looking at Amanda quizzically] ...work?

and more pumped up kicks

[wearingguess]

Oh--yes! Please show me something cool by all means!

[ ...says a petite blond who's... 100% also dressed like a student at magic school ]

[witchwithoutacause]

[ Good, good, she likes a little enthusiasm! Although people who actually know a thing or two about magic might be harder to impress, she flicks her wand out. With a little spin and an incantation, she summons a set of glowing, red hot orbs around herself. ]

No touching.

[ She looks up, scanning the sky, and making another, broader magical check - before launching each one straight up, one by one, to burst into a concentrated fiery explosion in mid-air. ]

[wearingguess]

[ applause!! ]

How lovely! That is a variation on Har-Har Rasas, is it not? You cast it very skillfully.
Perhaps you know this already, but if you use water magic first, then combine it with fire while compressing it down to a pinpoint... it will make a much larger explosion.

...Although we are in the middle of a city, so we should probably not make any very large explosions.

[witchwithoutacause]

Is that what you call that one where you're from? Nice.

[ Water magic. Water and fire... ]

I'll wait for a little more open space to try that one out. Probably gonna get in trouble if I keep this up already.

[wearingguess]

( continued! )

c-c-c-combo breaker~ (tree rhymes)

[pidgeypidge]

You know, there's an actual whack-a-mole game in the arcade~

[It was hardly the point, but she felt the need to point it out regardless.]

So where'd you get the sweet ride?

[witchwithoutacause]

Been there done that.

[ These are BIG and she gets to fly around. ]

And I brought this with, but I can work with just about any ol' broom, as long as the aerodynamics aren't too bad.

[pidgeypidge]

That's fair.

[It wasn't terribly exciting, but there was a certain nostalgic joy to be had. Still, bopping things was fun.]

Any old broom, huh? What about a mop?

[Pidge, why?]

[witchwithoutacause]

The moppy bits are too heavy, so you end up puttin' too much effort into just keeping your nose down.

[ So she's definitely tried it before. ]