▶ 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

[keythatconnects]

"Right, and probably if you did you'd just break them," Sora mumbles, mostly to himself. He'll just have to resign himself to being happy they don't have access to doors that will take Vanitas directly into the bedrooms of innocent children here. That had been a real headache.

They're both stuck. Which will at least make it a little easier to keep an eye on him.

"Listen, have you seen anyone else familiar? I've run into a few people I know, what about you?"

[darkcharge]

"Oh probably," Vanitas grins, a light chuckle in his tone.

What? He isn't going to lie. Not outright anyway. Mislead, perhaps. Redirection is another possibility. Though as a general rule Vanitas isn't about to make promises that he already knows he isn't going to keep... Unless he knows that making it then breaking it will hurt the other party's heart.

At first Vanitas doesn't seem to inclined to answer Sora's question. He just walks around, looking at whatever's been discarded. Maybe that might irritate the person who shares his face, but Vanitas is going to get around to it when he feels like it. Not before.

"A few of the other real members are floating around," he offers. They aren't really his allies nor his friends. Giving them up isn't exactly a betrayal or anything like that.

[keythatconnects]

As Vanitas walks around, Sora keeps his eyes focused on him. Moving to angle his body so that his back was never turned towards him.

At the mention of the other members of the Organization, Sora doesn't seem too surprised. He has run into some of them too but somehow hearing Vanitas talk about them just rings all of the alarm bells.

"And are you guys planning on getting the group back together?" He honestly doesn't know how the Organization members think. Would they see no reason to join ranks now that Xehanort had been defeated?

Half of them had seemed like they hadn't actually wanted to play along, and the other half hardly acted like team players, but that didn't mean they wouldn't see the value in numbers. If Vanitas wanted to hurt people, he might be able to hurt more of them with the others.

[darkcharge]

It's a smart move not to turn his back on Vanitas. If it ever comes down to a fight, the guy isn't above playing dirty and cheating. He most certainly is the time to strike when someone doesn't expect it either. Whatever it takes to win, honestly. Vanitas will do what he thinks is necessary in order to achieve what he wants. To get what he wants.

"Why would I do that?" He asks instead. "Most of us weren't like you and your friends. We don't need each other."

The question itself is stupid and the way that Vanitas sounds downright offended should give Sora a clue he has no intentions of it. Being a member himself had been the only way to further his own ambitions. He doesn't care about any of them. In fact he hadn't even cared about what Xehanort had intended to do. Vanitas rolls his eyes, ready to settle this stupidity.

He puts his hands on his helmet, taking the entire thing off this time before actually looking at Sora.

"I wanted one thing and one thing only. To forge the χ-blade. Whatever was going to happen after that didn't matter to me," he frowns. "We did just that, didn't we? So, Sora, what makes you think that I'd want to team up with those losers a second time?"

Though in the end, Vanitas never got what he really wanted: to be complete.

[keythatconnects]

Sora looks back at that face. It's so uncomfortable how it's so familiar and yet so strange. He feels a weird tug in his heart that he isn't clear he understands. His hand presses against his chest as he watches Vanitas for a moment.

"So... you don't need them, but you do need us, don't you? Me and Ven? You called us brothers. You said we defined each other."

It's strange, too, how fighting against the Organization had made up so much of his life the last two years, but when its members had faded one by one after their battles they had left words that worked their way into Sora's head, into his heart.

Vanitas had left so many more questions than answers. Maybe some of them could be answered on this world, now that they were both stuck here.

[darkcharge]

Oh he won't deny that it's odd staring back at his own face. Sora wears such different expressions than he does. He's as open as Vanitas is closed off. Looking at Sora, one can definitely tell what he's thinking and read him so easily. Vanitas contrasts that almost perfectly. Most of the time he's actually calm and collected, rarely giving away what he's thinking.

There are exceptions of course. Usually anything involving Ventus sort of makes Vanitas lose his cool.

"I did say something like that, didn't I?" Vanitas muses, half surprised that Sora had been paying attention. "So yes, I suppose I do need you. Out of self preservation."

[keythatconnects]

"Self-preservation?" Sora asks, uncertain what Vanitas means when he says that. Is he planning on using them in some way? He's so exhausted by having to constantly protect his heart from people who would use it.

[darkcharge]

That is a very distinct possibility, isn't it? Vanitas could likely try something on both Ventus and Sora.

"Let's just say, if something happens to Ventus I would know about it almost immediately," he offers. "Depending upon what that is, I can't just let the person that has the other half of me just fade, right?"

Meaning he isn't quite ready to let go of his other half yet. Maybe Ventus doesn't need Vanitas to be whole, but the reverse isn't true for him. Strange as it might be, Vanitas is invested in what Ventus does and how he grows. Though aside from that, Vanitas closes the distance between himself and Sora. It's not really an aggressive move. He merely wants to jab a finger at Sora's heart.

"Part of you always will exist within Ventus and thus effects me. If something were to happen to you then that will also effect me."

[keythatconnects]

"If that's the case, then I don't understand why you don't join us," Sora points out.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to be on the same side as us?" He had made that offer before after their battle and he still didn't fully understand the reasons why Vanitas hadn't responded.

"We could look out for each other."

[darkcharge]

Such a strange offer. Vanitas doesn't really understand why Sora insists upon it. Doesn't he realize that Vanitas is made of darkness? Even if it isn't always evil, it doesn't really have many good qualities. Vanitas is not a good person. He's not even a nice person. To top it off, Vanitas doesn't really see where he needs to change.

"I couldn't be me," Vanitas says simply. "What I am isn't what you and yours stand for."

[keythatconnects]

"So instead you just want to keep being alone?" Sora asks, because somehow that seems really sad to him. Though he isn't sure how Vanitas would take that so he doesn't share that thought.

[darkcharge]

"What a dense kid you are..." Vanitas shrugs. "I'm never alone."

[keythatconnects]

"Because of the Unversed," Sora says, as that fact dawns on him. "So, what you want is to hang out with your Unversed and remain a shadow for Ven?"

[darkcharge]

One day Vanitas would like to know what it's like to actually be alone. While yes, he is referring to the Unversed, it's not the only thing. He can always feel Ventus and, in a smaller part, Sora. That's a bit more difficult now that Ventus isn't resting within Sora, but if Vanitas really focuses...

"Hang out isn't the word I'd use. I'm fine the way that things are."

[keythatconnects]

"What if there was a way for you to be more than a shadow? Would you want to try that instead?" Sora asks. He has no idea how one would even accomplish that, but he had had no idea how to make Roxas his own person too, and somehow they had done that.

[darkcharge]

Every now and then one of these guys is bound to say something that just makes Vanitas either laugh at their stupidity or it just baffles him. Right now it's definitely the later. There's really no way for him to be something other than darkness and shadows. That's what makes him. Yet here Sora is, yet again, trying to help someone be more than just what they are.

Really it's no wonder he and Ventus had bonded so well. Either way the expression Vanitas is wearing is one of surprise. He has to look away to laugh, but there's no bitterness or mirth in it. It's forced.

"Sure, little brother. You go find a way and then maybe I'll actually consider it."

Only because there's no way he can succeed.

[keythatconnects]

Sora's shoulders square then. He stands up a bit straighter. He looks as determined as ever. If he can figure out a way to offer Vanitas more, then Ven will be happier too. Everyone will be better off. The fact that Vanitas doesn't simply deny him outright, no matter how impossible it seems, makes him feel a sliver of hope.

"All right then. I'll find a way to make you whole, and after that, you can make the choice." He balls up a fist, but it's not an aggressive move, it's a way to show how serious he is.

"But it will be your choice, Vanitas. I'm not going to force anything on you."

[darkcharge]

Nor should Vanitas deny Sora outright. He might be pretty guarded overall, but it's not like his desire to complete his heart is a secret. If anything Vanitas has made it clear that it's what he'd want more than anything and that he's pretty much willing to do whatever he deems necessary to get it. If Sora does manage to find a way then why not benefit from someone else's hard work?

"Not all of your little friends will agree with your choice," Vanitas snickers. "What will you do if they disapprove? With a completed heart I could just make things worse."

Ideally that's not the case. In fact the Unversed may cease to be. No one really knows what is going to happen if Vanitas actually does heal the wounds in his own fractured heart.

[keythatconnects]

"My friends believe in me," Sora points out. The statement isn't defensive, it isn't reactionary, it's just a fact. He knows that they'll understand his choices.

They let him go, after all, when he had everything to lose from that choice.

"And I'll help them believe in you too."

[darkcharge]

There are moments where that bright, cheerful attitude is just nauseating. The amount of faith that Sora puts in his friends and vice versa simply baffles Vanitas each and every time. He can't fathom what that must be like.

"I don't need all that."

Vanitas is still convinced that he's fine how he is.

[keythatconnects]

"When I figure out a way to do it, if you still feel that way then we won't do it," Sora points out. He is going to keep using that kind of language, 'when' instead of 'if.' They are on a totally new world, Sora somehow came back from what had happened to him, and there were a bunch of Keyblade wielders running around this moon.

Finding a way to give Vanitas the ability to be his own person doesn't even feel like the most impossible thing he's ever set out to do, not when they already have so much luck on their side.

He's ignoring all of the ways their current situation isn't so lucky, of course, but he's always been really good at that.

[darkcharge]

The kid certainly is good at ignoring all the negatives and focusing on just the positives. At the moment Vanitas is uncertain if that's a good thing or a bad one, given their current predicament. On one hand it would be good to be aware that they are not quite at their best - or Vanitas knows he isn't - and that this world may hold a few surprises in store for them. Though on the other there's no denying that Sora does get things done.

Vanitas sighs and raises his hands. It's whatever it is. He reminds himself that he has thrown in with Sora because it is, unfortunately, practical.

"That's great and all but first maybe the focus should be on figuring out what's going on?"

[keythatconnects]

Sora grins in an embarrassed kind of way. "Yeah, we really should," he agrees.

He focuses again on the computer that they are near. Before, it had just played a concert but maybe there was more information about the world.

"Can you work this kind of stuff? I really can't computer well, so if you can maybe we can see if there's any other information here!"

whistles and makes things up i guess

[darkcharge]

"Sora... Do I look like the sort of person that bothers with that sort of thing?"

It might be that none of the people that share in Sora's heart really know how to deal with computers properly. Honestly Vanitas could probably figure it out with some observation time, but as of right now? Yeah, no. His exposure to such things have been pretty limited.

[keythatconnects]

"Well, considering you look like me?" Sora asked, offering Vanitas an embarrassed grin. "I guess not."

He sighs and glances around them before focusing on Vanitas again. "I think the best thing we can do is try to find someone who can work it, and see what information they can find. Who knows? Maybe we'll find a local and they can help us."