▶ 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

[oncebrokenway]

[Riku's life has been nonstop metaphysical fantasy bullshit for the last two years, and has included things like "Heartless" and "Nobodies". By his standards, "moonblessed" is only slightly cheesy.]

Yeah, I am. I'm guessing you are, too.

[takingchances]

Seems like it. It's all been a pretty weird experience so far.

[Even for someone like her who's job is all about traversing through the mental landscape of the terminally ill where it's all about imagination at times.]

I was really hoping to read up more on the town and this planet in here. Maybe about where we were before too.

[oncebrokenway]

Well, it looks like they're already printing up pamphlets.

[holds up one that looks very hastily-produced, regarding the moon cycles]

Not real in-depth yet, but I guess that'll get better when they can put a little more time into it.

[takingchances]

[Eva's brows shoot way up. She leans forward a bit to get a better look at the pamphlet and then sits back, seemingly surprised.]

Color me impressed, they move a lot quicker than the bureaucracy I'm used to.

[oncebrokenway]

They were pretty excited about us. This... "Chroma" stuff we've all got seems pretty important to them.

Besides, every scientist I know is ready to start lecturing at the drop of a hat. They probably had plenty of volunteers to bring us up to speed.

[takingchances]

From the way I understood it, Chroma seems to be their life force. It powers most things here and can be gathered straight out of the air after those with Chroma end up producing heightened amounts of it. Apparently it counts as currency too.

[Eva smiles a little.]

Sorry, I'm sort of one of those boring scientist types, I guess. I ended up interviewing the researchers looking us over when we first got here as much as they interviewed me.

[oncebrokenway]

[omg. he laughs]

Hey, I didn't say I thought they were boring.

Thanks for the summary, that's more than I managed to get on my own.

[takingchances]

[She quirks a brow, obviously amused.]

Are you saying you like lectures then?

[oncebrokenway]

Wouldn't quite go that far, but I do like knowing stuff.

[takingchances]

Oh, you're an intellectual.

[Sudden flashback to Neil and the memes he bombards her with. She runs a hand down her face after the words leave her mouth.]

[oncebrokenway]

[there are so many potential responses he could choose from, but few of them are good and a lot of them require dunking on his best friend more than he cares to. (at least, with someone who doesn't already know Sora.)]

Let's just say... I have a healthy curiosity?

[takingchances]

[She gets over her shame in short order, deciding to keep a list of the times Neil haunts her without ever being physically present so she can enact some sort of revenge one day.]

Well that's lucky then, I'm guessing you'll probably need it around here.

[oncebrokenway]

[If Riku knew what was going through Eva's head at this moment, he would feel a deep spiritual kinship.]

Wouldn't be the first time I've had to adapt to a totally new setting.

[takingchances]

[It's a bit frightening how many similar notes she striking with this teenager. What sort of job did he even have exactly? She cocks a brow up, her curiosity obvious.]

Do a lot of traveling?

you know, I was just excited to tag an Eva but they DO also have a lot in common, huh

[oncebrokenway]

Oh yeah. [He chuckles.] Part of the job.

Minus a few Disney characters and some Keyblades unfortunately.

[takingchances]

[She huffs out a breath, once again amused.]

Same. Not that most places are as... unique as here.

[oncebrokenway]

Actually, the moon did remind me a little bit of one place I've been. More crystals than I remember, but pretty similar aesthetic.

[takingchances]

[The first words in her mind are the same as how she described it to the fellow by the pond she had met on the moon - "a Lisa Frank nightmare". Her brows rise up even as she gives him a bit of a wistful smile.]

You've been to some colorful places then. Most of the places I've been to have been pretty typical. ... Mostly. Some people have more colorful imaginations than others.

[Johnny Wyles and Colin Reeds weren't their only clients after all. And as Neil put it, memories were the fiction people told themselves so sometimes that fiction was outlandish too.]

[oncebrokenway]

Imaginations?

[he tilts his head, seeming more curious than confused.]

You're not talking about dreaming worlds, are you?

[takingchances]

[Her smile grows.]

Something like that. It's more memories than dreams but they aren't that dissimilar in the grand scheme of things to be honest.

[oncebrokenway]

[ah, so more Castle Oblivion than Realm of Sleep.]

No, that's true. Some dreams aren't much more than memories themselves.

[takingchances]

Pretty much. Some memories aren't much more than dreams either.

[She pauses there and sits back in her seat, reminded again of Neil's words.]

Memories are the fiction we tell ourselves after all.

[oncebrokenway]

[his gaze drifts off into the middle distance, his expression turning melancholy]

... It's a little scary when you think about it. The power of memories.

[takingchances]

[She falls silent for a brief moment, considering his melancholy. She understands the emotion well honestly. And the power of memories, well... nowadays that power was sort of rolled up into one word for her.

Faye.]

It is. I think though that a lot about life is scary. And in a way memories are some people's way of setting right what they found the scariest about their lives. Or the things they didn't like the most.

[She tilts her head, looking skyward. Eva was always the more quietly philosophical one, Neil the loudly bombastic. Her feet were supposed to be firmly rooted in reality. They could both be taken by their emotions of course but it was supposed to be a rare thing with realistically-minded Eva.

After Colin Reeds though... after the protesters... after seeing her own ghost on the roadway that winter night... well. Maybe she's become a touch more philosophical. This guy seems a fair bit younger than herself and maybe it's not fair to talk about such a heavy topic with him but it's not like he doesn't seem to have his own opinions either.]

this reminded me to go buy Finding Paradise

[oncebrokenway]

[she could just as well be describing Naminé with those words, and he can't help but think back on Castle Oblivion. Naminé's terrible power, and the profound damage she had done with it at the bidding of her Organization masters... and the even more terrible sorrow and loneliness that had driven her.

but that isn't what he thinks of first, when he thinks of Naminé. what he thinks of is her gentleness, and her quiet strength in setting those sweet lies aside.]

... I can understand that feeling. Sometimes, the real memories are too painful for the heart to bear.

Still, it's not for me. I'd rather keep the memories that hurt. They're important too.