▶ TDM .001

[prismods]

Cybernetic dream, something like you've never seen

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"Michael Sembello - Automatic Man (original music video)" (Watch on YouTube)

▶ Lisa Frank's LSD Fun House
anytime, anywhere on the moon Iris | top

Everything is darkness except for dim lights sparkling in the distance, a faint gleam that greets you as you start to unfurl from your dormant state. 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. Throat parched and skin dry and aching, you grope your body in alarm to make sure your possessions are still in place. 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 only rewards you with 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.

A ⬤ As you traverse the near-barren landscape, you feel something sting your skin. It's small and subtle at first, then you finally catch sight of it: an elegant, crystalline mosquito buzzing around from the corner of your eye. However, a pest is still a pest. After a while, marks near your welts begin to form strange patterns on your skin, mimicking ancient runes. Each rune has with it a particular side-effect that may hinder you on your journey:

✾ The Mark of the Enchanter: Hallucinations, hallucinations galore. Your character will see everything and anything their imagination can conjure and will have difficulty separating reality from fiction.
₪ The Mark of the Destroyer: Limbs start to cease their function, causing you to stumble or try and get around one-handed. Other certain body parts may be affected as well. Look at the bright side: you can stop worrying about jiggle physics and hiding your fear boner.
⍢ The Mark of the Sinner: Your hunger, your thirst, your fatigue and your desire are at an all-time high. Your impulses are rabid and uncontrollable. Maybe you experience only one of those symptoms. Maybe you experience them all. All you know is that you want relief now.

These effects will eventually clear up with a bit of accidental or purposeful physical contact with another person, making you wonder if there was anything wrong with you at all.

B ⬤ Hunger starts to gnaw at you vigorously. Perhaps you consider hunting the moon's creatures to sate your hunger. That's when you see it: a thick, meaty, juicy meal on legs. No, we're not talking about Alex Louis Armstrong. A wild silver-white pegasus runs across the purple landscape, its hair billowing in the wind as its hooves smack loudly against the ground. Try and shoot it, and you may find your efforts curtailed by its legendary rage. Eyes aglow and wings beating up a storm, this pegasus is no dainty horse. Two thousand pounds of pure muscle swoop down and charge at you, all blades and ammunition deflecting off its impenetrable skin. Taming appears impossible; it will buck anyone away and leave a sizable horn- or hoof-shaped hole in them for their efforts. Hunting it, however, should be easier. Relatively.

C ⬤ Or you may decide that you'd like to take a drink in the prismatic waters. A small pond can be found just a few miles away from where you first awoke, but gazing into it reflects what appears to be a window into your own world. You see the faces of loved ones or at least someone very close and familiar to you gathered around your prone body, shaking it frantically as though to try and rouse you, yet your image lies frozen and unresponsive, not even a whisper of life running through you. Did you die in your world? Is this your afterlife? The questions start to pile up along with the gnawing dread that you may never return home again.

▶ Camp Nowhere
anytime, anywhere on the moon iris | top

Time moves strangely when you're trapped on a moon with no sun to guide you. Hours feel like days, and days feel like weeks. Travelling has rendered you weak and tired. Luckily, a few crystal formations in the shape of a cavern may offer you a small place refuge as you decide to nap. You notice a few artifacts left over from previous explorers.

D ⬤ A comm unit abandoned within the cavern will display the former owner's idol obsession. As you tap the buttons indiscriminately, a holographic screen will appear, and you will see a fabulous recorded concert featuring three bubbly young ladies in animal print, singing to you about something called Cordis, a cat, and a bag of gems. Does this make any sense to you? Probably not, but the beat is catchy. You may even find yourself tapping a foot along to it. Don’t worry. We know it’s plastic love.

E ⬤ There's a small cooler-like container of preserved powdered food bags labeled with only the word “Edible” that can be safely consumed. Although the powder tastes as bland as you’d expect, it’s oddly filling, sating either hunger or thirst. But who will be the first — and the bravest — to try eating them?

F ⬤ A strange, pointed instrument is among the effects found in the cavern. It's silver, long, and thin with a curved end and a light. When you grip it with warm hands, it seems to vibrate enthusiastically and comes in three settings indicated by a frowny face, a neutral face, and a happy face. What could it mean exactly? No one knows, but you can fiddle with it to your heart's desire. Just don't ask yourself where it's been before. You don't want to know.

▶ Interstellar Action Force Assemble
prisma, iris | top

Over a day has passed when a group of people find you worse for wear. Some are full of uncertainty and fear while some are full of curiosity and excitement. They claim that they are scientists from the planet Prismatica here to investigate the sudden appearances of rainbow crystals in the skies. That means you and the others they’ve located within the area. You are all a surprising find to them, and they are quick to load everyone in their transport vehicles for examination and questioning.

You all may have your usual inquiries — Where are we? Who are you? What's going on? Why are the pegasi so ill-tempered? — and the Prismals are almost too eager to answer. They do have questions on their own, so it’s only fair to trade. They tell you about their world as they poke and prod you, trying to understand what you are and how you came into their land. If they’re not trembling in fear, some of them may ask you odd and invasive questions in return, such as what the rate at which your body achieves thermoregulation is, how long your refractory period is, and if you would be willing to submit various kinds of body fluids to them. It's up to whether you wish to comply or protest.

G ⬤ If you react violently, you will be restrained and nerfed with a specialized neurotransmitting gun that releases a numbing agent through the top of your spine. They came prepared, so have fun with that! In any case, conscious or not, you’ll be brought into one of the transport vehicles. If you choose to peacefully cooperate, you’ll be provided any necessary first aid and a refreshing drink to help you recuperate after the rough time you had for the past few days. Each transport vehicle has a few small rooms to rest in, but due to the limited space, you’ll have to snuggle up with someone else on that bunk bed. Unfortunately, the moonshine fruit the ship is also carrying in its cargo has an extremely sweet smell that’s been permeating through certain areas of the ventilation system… Taking a whiff of it may inebriate you for the rest of the trip.

H ⬤ It’s a bumpy ride as terrain vehicles draw over various crystal formations until you see a large dome-like structure up ahead. Within its confines lies the seat of the Prismatica's government, Prisma. It’s a bureaucratic wet dream: skyscrapers practically touch the upper surface of the dome, windows glimmer with a prismatic sheen as daylight hits them, and small ships can be seen flying to and from its spaceport. The scientists, members of the Lunar Scientia, usher you into their facilities for tests. Arrivals are likely to twitch, tremble, and panic as Lunar Scientia fellows take and broadcast every embarrassing, unfiltered detail about you — height, weight, age, strange odors, estimated frequency of sexual activity —- to one another. These scientists will ask you politely to undress, too, but understand if you don't want to. They're especially fascinated by the readings of pure Chroma inside you, whispering among one another excitedly about the possibility of the new arrivals being a new moon species. What should they call them? Moonborne? Moonblessed?

I ⬤ At long last, the questions and physical examinations are done. They’ve decided to call the arrivals as the Moonblessed. They’ll take you under their care until they understand more about you. You're allowed a very refreshing hot shower and a warm meal for your efforts. Don’t worry, the meal was imported from their planet. “Planet?” you might ask, but you won’t need to wonder for too long. The ships are preparing for their next destination: the nearby planet Prismatica, where you will be dwelling for the time being. You're free to explore the government center until then.

▶ Wildcard
Lunatia, Prismatica | top

It only takes a couple hours for the ships to reach their home planet. The ships drop the characters off at the city of Lunatia, where they will be given their communication devices and a plastic card they can present to certain landlords at any residential district for their subsidized (read: absolutely free) lodging. Officials at Prisma instructed the newcomers to await further instructions from the government, but you have a lot of time to kill before then. Why not explore in the meantime? Learn the ins and outs of the world, get a job, transform under the full moon, and discover the many mysteries of planet Prismatica!

TDM OVERFLOW can be found here!

Comments

[raisedbybirds]

I never said it was. [Her voice still carries that flat edge. If he was thinking that was going to make her question herself or pry open some contradiction in her character he could think again. Good people do bad things for good reasons all the time. She fights for peace and also takes dirty jobs and offs people for money. She thinks plenty enough about her morality and sense of justice on her own time without his suggestion, and he hasn't earned any trust to hear those intimate, brooding thoughts quite yet.

She thinks about making a snide remark about how his visor must only let him see in black and white but she doesn't sincerely think that's the case. He thinks peace is a nice thought, even if it maybe truly, only a nice thought. Maybe he understands the unfortunate fact peace can't come from clean hands.

Instead she embraces the oppressive silence that follows and just stares him down. He can try again, if he feels inclined for the conversation.]

[mylawn]

You just said you fight for peace.

[What's more altruistic than that? It's war that's profitable--peace is most certainly less so. It's possible she's aware of this apparent hypocrisy, but 76 wants her to know that it's not getting past him. He might be physically helpless, currently, but that's not going to last forever and in the meantime he can still think straight.]

Must do a lot of mental gymnastics.

[raisedbybirds]

[Either he's normally this persistent in his needling or she should have said something about that visor after all, she thinks. She'll give him the benefit of the doubt; he might have dementia just got pumped full of sedatives. It's easier to feign a low chuckle just to fill the air.]

I know it's complicated. Don't strain yourself.

[She's not interested in his acceptance or proving her valor. Actions will do that louder than words, if they ever even see each other again after this transport ship makes planet fall. Speaking of which, she idly wonders how close it is to doing that. She grows quiet, listening for any recognizable cues. All she hears is the soft rhythmic hum of the ship's engines, then a loud T H U N K in the wall several rooms down. She cranes her head in the direction of that sound and tenses. All that moves is a gleam of light across the inside of the visor. There's a muffled low whistle, like someone was impressed. A moment later a pair of feet shuffling in the hallway, boisterous and drunk sounding.

She sighs, irritated someone else's boredom interrupted her quality conversation. She looks at the door then looks at him, considering leaving him to investigate. Just to ensure no one barges in here foolishly. She anticipates he may also take an interest in this.]

How are you feeling?

[It's coming from a place of genuine concern, but she also doesn't want him following her around.]

[mylawn]

[76 offers her a derisive snort. Luckily (unluckily), their mutual moralizing is cut short by a noise somewhere nearby, and 76 gives the very clear impression that he's trying to stand at attention. Sitting up, however, seems to be the most he can do at this moment.

He can tell she wants to go check it out, and 76 is instantly angry that he likely won't be able to join her. He grumbles.]

It'll wear off.

[Faster than for a normal human, he imagines, but she doesn't need to know that.]

[raisedbybirds]

You shouldn't even be sitting up.

[She suspects more it's his force of will than anything biological but she won't write that off either. Or that he's feigning it to some degree. Either way, she thinks the most effective way to find out exactly how much it's wearing off is to absolutely not rely on his word. She stands and makes for the door.]

I'll check it out. Stay put.

[mylawn]

Well, I am.

[He says that as if it’s a challenge, like he can make the neurotransmitter wear off by sheer force of will. When she says that she’s going to check it out, his eyebrows furrow together right at the top of his visor.]

I’ll come.

[Don’t leave him out of this! 76 grunts a little, trying to get his legs under him. To his credit, he manages it, and soon enough he’s bracing himself against the bunk bed.]

[raisedbybirds]

[He really shouldn't be standing at all, even if he was drugged up a while ago. She'll pause and watch him with a clinical kind of fascination but then turn around and proceed to continue on her way out the door without any other words. She shouldn't be gone long enough that he'd have enough time to do anything that would make her worry about his well-being.

Right.]

[mylawn]

[No! He will not be left alone and (relatively) helpless in this room, even if the thought of scouting around with her is not particularly desirable, either. 76 doesn't want to wait around for her to get back, at the very least, and starts working on standing.

It takes some bracing against the bunk bed, but he manages to get upright. Taking a step forward, however, is something else entirely, and when Samus returns she'll find him dragging himself across the room, hugging the wall as he goes.]

[raisedbybirds]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpO2rk2PPE0&t=19m23s

[raisedbybirds]

[Samus isn't gone very long and that's in part due to her remarkable efficiency at her task and in part due to her not wanting to leave her mysterious new acquaintance on the floor. When she returns she listens first through the door and then slowly opens it (concerned she might hit him) when she hears him shuffling about.]

...

[Well. At least he doesn't surprise her.]

It was nothing. Two men inebriated in the hallways.

[mylawn]

[It certainly looks like 76 is expending a not insubstantial amount of effort to stay upright, but his hidden face certainly helps. He doesn't seem able to stand without the support from the wall, though he'll do his level best to make it look like that's not the case.]

That's disappointing.

[It's clear he's sort of jonseing for an opportunity to find and potentially lay into their kidnappers, but obviously that's not going to happen anytime soon.]

[raisedbybirds]

Yeah. [On one hand she's relieved it was no concern, but on the other she prefers to serve a purpose she's more suited for than waiting around idly, or watching over someone who also seems hellbent on not keeping still. She's (hypocritically) not terribly empathetic to him pushing his body when rest is what it needs right now, but she is empathetic to his current state of vulnerability, perceived or real.

Watching over someone... when did she decide that's what this was? Hmph.

She'll respect his agency enough to not stop him from slumping like a rag doll against the wall for as long as he likes but she will walk back to the edge of the bunk bed and take a seat, her helmet again greeting the underside of the upper bunk with a tiny little whunk.]

One of them had a large sword, and the other a prosthetic arm. All kinds of interesting visitors on this moon.

[mylawn]

Good to know they’re not being discriminatory with who they’re kidnapping.

[76 growls a little at the fact that she enters the room just to sit on the bunk bed, because he’s on his way out, thanks very much. He looks a little more stable with each step, but it still might be some time before he can handle a confrontation on his own.

At the very least, his pulse rifle makes a good crutch as he leans away from the wall.]

You sure they weren’t with the Prismals?

[He doesn’t like that one has a weapon, naturally.]

[raisedbybirds]

I would hope the natives know how to navigate around on their own ship. These two seemed to have no clue.

[He raises a good point; she had no definitive way of knowing if they were Prismals or not other than to go back out there and ask. She only cared if they posed an immediate threat. With one of them carrying such a large sword and in such a state of inebriation... she rubs her helmet, rethinking how much of a priority she should be placing on this lonesome guy's state of vulnerability just because she'd been personally exposed to it for an extended period of time. If she had to pick between protecting one person (who's greatest threat was probably the floor) or multiple persons from a potential (drunken) threat, well... now all this just seems silly.

Seemingly snapped out of her thoughts she points disapprovingly at the way he's leaning on his rifle.]

You shouldn't be putting your weight on it like that.

[mylawn]

It's my gun.

[And he can lean on it if he wants to, thanks very much. He can tell she's got her eyes on the piece, so now that there's no impending threat the best thing to do seems to get out of here, one way or another.

Even if that means finding the nearest unoccupied room to continue getting the agent out of his system.]

Have a good rest. I'll see you around.

[There he goes...]