▶ TDM .001

[prismods]

Cybernetic dream, something like you've never seen

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▶ 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

[princessences]

That is a close call--much too close. And Allura would prefer not to lose any limbs to this stranger. Whatever is the source of his ire will have to be found out after the fact. She moves to disarm him but instead finds his hands at her throat.

She inhales a sharp, choked breath.

"I have done nothing! I'm not your--" Breathe. "Enemy!"

Allura reaches out to grab him by the collar and, if she can, tosses his weight to the side with the hope that he will release her in the process. It wouldn't be the first time that she's thrown a grown man around.

[somethingsharp]

It's the strength that catches him off guard - even being slighter than most humans, he's that much more dense. Years of enforced training for several hours a day to be able to protect his master against any attack, then followed by keeping up his own strength to survive and keep his freedom meant that Fenris is not so easily thrown aside.

But then, he's encountered few who are so similarly deceiving, shrouded though she still is in his eyes.

Yet Danarius had never been so strong, and part of him had assumed that he would not have been able to escape his grasp no matter how he struggled.

He hadn't, before.

So he's unprepared as a hand reaches back, latches on, and wrenches him to the side. His footing slips as he's thrown off balance, and both hands release - on her and the sword - to catch himself as he stumbles, rolling quickly back up to his feet to prepare again for an attack. Lyrium thrums in his skin, building in power now that he finds himself too far from the sword.

Yet as he finds himself ready to face Danarius again, his form wavers and warps, twisting like smoke for a few brief seconds. Fenris blinks hard to clear his vision, and the person before him now is someone new entirely.

A woman. Elven, by the look of her, but dressed in fine clothes, the style a kind he's never seen before. But even with Danarius' image gone, he doesn't relax or let up his guard. If anything, he's that much more suspicious.

"Who are you?" he growls lowly.

[princessences]

Her first full breath is a relief and she coughs once or twice as she pulls herself together. He recovers quickly and her own stance is defensive in turn. Approaching him was clearly a poor choice on her part, but whatever has him vexed so could be a very real threat to everyone in this wasteland. But the next attack doesn't come--instead, he stares.

Allura stares back, arms raised and slightly crouched to dodge or cut him off if she must.

But then he asks that--which gives her a moment's pause. He'd just been accusing her of something a moment ago, hadn't he?

She puts on her most authoritative tone,

"I am Princess Allura of Altea, Representative of the Voltron Coalition, and Paladin of Voltron. I am not your enemy."

Those names might mean nothing in a place like this, but she has to try.

"And yourself, warrior?"

[somethingsharp]

"Fenris," he answers shortly, offering nothing else. Not that he has anything of significance beyond it, anyway.

A short, derisive snort follows. "An Elven princess? I don't know who you're trying to deceive, but that's going a little too over the top, don't you think?"

Fenris skips the rest of it, as it bears no meaning whatsoever in his mind. An elf trying to pass herself off as royalty, however, is positively ludicrous. Not even the Dalish would be so bold.

[princessences]

Not a name she's familiar with--not that she had anticipated as much--but not one she can place the origin of, either. She doesn't take lightly to someone treating her title as a farce, if in no small part because she knows that's all it is now--a title. With no home and no people, what exactly is she a Princess of?

Still, she narrows her eyes and levels her gaze on this Fenris.

"I'm not sure what 'Elven' is, but I am of Altea. Is that this place? 'Elv'?"

[somethingsharp]

He shifts backwards, not quite lowering his guard, but surprised at her response. Could someone really be so deluded? Or was she merely elf-blooded, still technically human but 'cursed' with enough elven features to betray her true parentage. At least that could possibly explain the "princess" part (except that it didn't).

Still.

"...no. Elven. Being an elf." Fenris feels ridiculous having to explain it at all.

"I've never heard of Altea. Where is it?" From the way she spoke of it, it sounded like if it were a place in Thedas, he would have heard of it - unless it was some backwater province in Antiva or some place similar, of no actual importance that anyone would actually know.

[princessences]

'Being an elf', he says, as if it should be obvious. Clearly he is familiar with or of a people that she isn't, but the universe has changed much over ten-thousand years and there is no way to possibly know every life-form within it.

Allura exhales sharply through her nose, knitting more tightly together.

"It was in the inner third quadrant of the Bequryl Galaxy."

Was being the operative word. But since they're playing twenty questions--

"What is an elf? And why do you call me one?"

[somethingsharp]

The look he gives her is a bit akin as though she had just grown three heads. Both for the string of words intended to be a location that amounted to gibberish as far as he's concerned, and also for the fact that she might as well have declared herself a giant talking toadstool.

This time he does lower the sword, a little too confused at their conversation, and gives her an incredulous stare.

"Pointed ears, lankier than humans, sense of superiority."

[princessences]

He lowers his sword and she straightens a little, though not completely letting her guard down. They are clearly at some sort of impasse, though is explanation starts to make things clearer.

Of course he has some features that appear characteristically Altean--the areas, most of all--she hadn't assumed as much of him despite it. He lacked the proper facial markings, though he has something else running down his chin and disappearing--places--and the eyes were off as well.

The final appraisal is what makes her huff, eyes narrowing.

"Is that mean to be a reflection of you as well? As I stated, I am Altean. But if you're comparing my people to Humans then I presume you're of Earth, are you not?"

[somethingsharp]

continued here