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"Blue Oyster Cult - Shooting Shark" (Watch on YouTube)

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.

▶ Keep all Hands and Feet inside the Burning Vehicle at all Times
Iris Moon, Government Center (Arrival) and Outer Space | top

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 mix tequila with xanax 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. Eventually you’re called back from exploring, escorted to the docks, and led onto a large transport vessel that makes frequent trips back and forth between the moons and the planet. Faces onboard vary from both old and new Moonblessed as well as Prismal locals. The next destination: Prismatica.

A. After settling into the ship and selecting the current in-flight movie, Back Door Slugs 9, you and those around you may eventually feel a bit of turbulence during the movie’s highly anticipated climax. Did anyone notice it, or is everyone too focused on the hot characters?

At first, it’s a small jitter that’s easy to miss or brush off. But as the transport vessel travels on, the shaking progressively escalates to erratic tremors strong enough to cause severe nausea. A minute later, a voice over the speaker announces the ship will have to make an emergency landing, citing technical difficulties.

Sparks can be seen overhead as more ship parts malfunction. This is a good time to hold your neighbor’s hand, say your last goodbyes, and apologize for that horrible thing you did in the sixth grade. Grip your seat with the might of every god you can think of.

B. Another minute later, a follow-up announcement states that external entities have breached the transport vessel. Everyone is warned to be careful and watch out for each other. Small fires will have to be put out before they worsen with either magic or emergency equipment onboard such as extinguishers. In-flight robotic attendants will be scuttling around to perform immediate repairs.

Eventually, an entire power panel bursts, and prismatic jellyfish unnaturally spill out. The jellyfish will try to latch and suction onto any technological devices close by such as the television screens on the seats or communicators and will show preference to Iris Moonblessed over the rest. Be ready to help and pull numerous jellyfish off both the faces of Moonblessed and Prismals!

▶ Jaws IV: Jaws Harder
Planet Prismatica, Outer Lunatia | top

The emergency landing successfully completes and the transport vessel will safely land on top of a gorgeous lake filled with tiny glaciers floating by. When reached out and touched, you’ll find out that the “glaciers” are surprisingly cool crystals and not ice.

The ship will be left hovering idly on the water surface while passengers are ferried to solid ground using portable emergency boats. However, civilization is still a distance away.

A. You’ve probably heard of flying sharks from a veteran Moonblessed. But how about sea lions? These aquatic lions are born with scaly skin and gills outside of their crystallized manes. Unfortunately, they haven’t tasted fresh meat in quite some time. If there are any injured onboard or near your boat, the chances of the sea lions detecting people will be higher as they are drawn to the scent of blood. Growling hungrily, they will be quick to latch onto the boats, biting the edges, and trying to knock everyone overboard for dinner.

After surviving through so far, the Prismals guide everyone to a nearby encampment run by humanoid rabbits. They are tall, built, and have a habit of mentioning their virility an awkward amount of times. They are also generous and will share their game meat and fresh crops while allowing everyone to rest for the night at the only inn in their village.

B. There is no running water all the way out here, so if anyone wants a bath, they’ll have to do it traditionally. The village protects a natural spring, which is a good place to bathe away the sea water. Around the spring, the rabbit folk’s friends — little scintilla chinchillas — will shock away any predators that dare to approach their sanctuary! Be at ease and feel free to offer your friends shampoo massages.

The next day, the rabbits can be seen hacking away at some of the wilder-looking plants for an easier pathway. If you wake up early enough, you can ask some of them for a tour of the beautiful greenery. They mention that it’s thanks to the Moonblessed that their crops have been doing so well lately — the result of all the chroma influx. The rest of the journey to the city will be smooth sailing.

▶ It’s Free Real-Estate
Level 2, City of Lunatia | 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. After a quick tour of the city, new arrivals can find themselves getting cozy in their new homes.

A. Find new roommates and say hello to your neighbors! City officials will give you directions to the designated districts across Level 2 and instruct you to pick out a unit. Each apartment complex has a different aesthetic, some may look cozy, some stylish, and some bizarre. The free accommodations have a basic living space that can only fit two or three people at most in one unit.

Starter Chromaspace furnishings are provided which can be controlled with the touch of a built-in panel. Examples are color-changing curtains, transforming sofa beds, cabinets turning into tables, etc. Customizing your apartment or moving out will have to wait until you earn more chroma. Until then, why don’t you check out your new neighborhood or explore the city levels? Maybe your new roommates or neighbors can give you a “hand” with allowance for dinner.

B. A new high-end boutique, Prissy Polyp, has opened in Level 2. As compensation for what happened, both Moonblessed and Prismals that were affected in yesterday’s flight will receive 50% off their total purchase. Those unaffected will receive 30% discount coupons as a promotional gift. All are encouraged to visit with their friends or special someone, try on some things together, ~~enjoy each other in the fitting rooms~~, and deal with the loud, ear-blistering background pop music.

Their clothing collections are characterized by bright iridescent designs, some features such as design patterns may glow ethereally in the dark. One of their signature dresses features a one piece (also available on their trench coats) that can amplify the appearance of one’s decolletage, gluteal muscles, and/or bulge with the press of a neon button. Another item among their collection is the maiden sweater: a sleek, backless sweater that shocks those who attempt unwanted touches. Others include skin-tight leggings (also available on their shorts or pants) which produce pleasant and relaxing vibrations on all lower extremities and fashionable polyp-shaped hats for all kinds of people. It’s a huge shop, you never know what else to find in there.

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

▶ IMPORTANT! By request, we've uploaded image samples for the Prissy Polyp clothing collections! Note these are merely samples for a visual guide and we will leave more selections to players.

▶ As a reminder, test drive memes are for new characters only. However, current players are more than welcome to use these prompts for their own posts in the IC communities, personal inboxes, catch-all posts, etc.!
▶ As our test drive memes are game canon, feel free to keep any threads that happen here as canon for your character should they be accepted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While Yuri's normal state of dress involves showing off a lot of leg, a lot of the clothing here seems designed to show off everything else and leave little to the imagination. It's frankly incredibly embarrassing, and the only reason Yuri hasn't turned tail and fled is a displaced sense of politeness that tells her she hasn't endured long enough to be able to delicately retreat.

So she stands around, back straight and her expression carefully neutral, even if her face is a nice shade of pink and her ears are bright red as an indicator to her embarrassment. She's trying really hard not to stare too much at people modeling their new clothes, and it's Imriel's voice that gets her attention-- Well, that, and what exactly he's actually saying.

"Um." She coughs a little, looking amused despite herself and like she's not sure if he was trying to make a joke or not. "I don't think a lot of people would take that as a compliment." Yuri speaks up in a delicate tone, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I think it's for anyone to wear, if...They have the confidence for it. I guess."

Imriel frowns. Given how much better traveled he is than most of his countrymen, he's not exactly surprised to hear this woman speak as if 'courtesan' was an insult... but he is disappointed.

"I see," he says, finally. "It was only a custom from home that I wondered might be also mirrored here." Since the Prismals seemed to have a slightly more d'Angeline attitude to pleasure than many from other lands did.

"Well..." Yuri trails off, humming thoughtfully as she clasps her hands behind her back, considering that. "There are a lot of people here from all sorts of different places. A lot of different cultures represented."

A lot of differing opinions and ideas mixing together. "I guess it's hard to tell who might be offended or not though...This place in general is a lot more, umm..." She feels her face heating up again, but she continues on with, "open about... These sorts of things. But where I'm from, it's all largely taboo."

Sort of, anyway. It's a weird mix of taboo but teased constantly, or just pretending not to realize how in your face a lot of it is, and the double-standards and--

Yeah, a little too confusing. Yuri'll just try to keep it simple herself. "Words just don't always mean the same thing to different groups of people. It's interesting." To her, anyway, who finds cultural differences the best thing about this place.

"It is," Imri says, his frown vanishing. "And not only because languages differ. Even within the same language, one might devise a code, mayhap, or a word used casually might acquire new meaning over time."

(Sorry, we're venturing close to philosophical territories and guess what he studied at University?)

(Un?)fortunately, this is Yuri’s area of interest too. While she doesn’t exactly get all giddy and perky in the conventional sense, her expression does soften and there’s a certain light in her eye.

“Mm, that’s true. Language can evolve as people do, for better or for worse. There’s an entire language game in my country based around how some of our words can sound exactly the same, but the characters used to write them might be different or just how you space the words out can give the sentence a completely different meaning.”

The puns are stupid and silly but she’ll gladly break them down if need be. “Even beyond that, slang is constantly changing from generation to generation. Someone says something and more people latch on and suddenly it’s a figure of speech that sometimes becomes so common that people don’t even know the origin of it anymore.”

"I used to play this game with my foster mother," Imri says, with a hint of an actual smile, "where we would take a quotation or a bit of verse and translate them into other tongues at each other, until we ran out of languages to do so with."

Of course her first thought is wondering what might’ve happened to his biological mom, but it’s not a question she’ll voice aloud. She’d lost her family not that long ago, after all, so she doesn’t want to go digging into potentially fresh wounds.

Also they’d just met, and that’d be rude. “That sounds like a fun game. Unfortunately I only know Japanese and English... and I suppose whatever universal language this place translates as so we can all understand each other. It’s be interesting to try learning each other’s languages though...”

She trails off, crossing her arms lightly over her chest and tilting her head again in thought. After a moment she mutters a soft “oh” and then straightens up only to bow politely. “I’m Kozukata Yuri— That is, my given name is Yuri. I should have introduced myself earlier. Sorry...”

He ought to use his full name. He was going to stop running away from who he was. He'd promised himself he would.

"Imriel no Montreve," he says instead, out of habit. "Imriel's my given name. And I would be interested in exchanging language lessons if you are. My native tongue is d'Angeline, but I've traveled much in my time and know a number of others. I've never heard of Japanese or English, however."

"I haven't heard of d'Angeline before." It sounds, to her, vaguely French? Or at least just Western enough. Who knows. A language exchange sounds fun though, as Yuri wasn't really one to pass up an opportunity to nerd out about these sorts of things.

"Pleased to meet you, Montreve-san. I suppose this will be your first lesson then. '-san' is added at the end of someone's name as a show of respect. It's like... The equivalent I guess of saying 'Ms' or 'Mr.' Or something like that. It's polite. Umm, but since you're foreign, a lot of the rules don't really apply to you anyhow. YOu don't have to worry about using those with me. I just... Do it out of habit."

Technically probably should've been translated by the universal translator thing anyhow, but whatever. She looks at the maiden sweater again, considering. "...You associated this with courtesans. Did those girls in your world wear things like this...?" She also assumes they're girls since that's...usually what courtesans are, with her limited knowledge.

"It would only be polite to try, Yuri-san," Imriel says, for as rude as he often was when he was younger (and still could be, in his darker moods), he has learned to be courteous to strangers.

"And yes, both men and women who served that way in my country will bare their backs to show that they are accepting patrons." It was slightly more complicated than that with Servants of Namaah who had yet to finish making their marque, as showing a half-finished back was deemed vulgar, but he doesn't want to bore her with the finer details.

It's a bit strange to hear the honorific from a foreigner, but she's pleased by the attempt anyhow.

"Oh, men--" Right. She supposes that shouldn't surprise her, but it still does give her pause and she tries to imagine a guy wearing that sort of backless outfit. She opens and closes her mouth a couple of times and feels her face turning red again, bringing a hand to her mouth to clear her throat a little. Well maybe it's more like with the maiko and geisha in her world.

"Ah, sorry... Here, things are a lot more open, so I'm getting used to it slowly, but it's... different in my country..." Some things are just habit and she can't help getting immediately embarrassed by things.

▶ TDM .007

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