video | forward date to august 6th

[thedarkbond]

[On the first day of the Cordis moon, a video feed is opened on several Prismatican social media sites almost simultaneously, as well as the app the Moonblessed generally use for this kind of communication. The camera's view is crowded with a bevy of nervous and excited looking young Prismals of various and sundry stripes, standing in front of a building with rainbow windows and led by one Ren Suzugamori, flagrantly obvious Moonblessed. Except he's flagrantly obvious in a different way this month, skin still ghastly and glowing and eyes still gold, but now with nine white tails that look thicker than he is wide and a set of long, foxlike ears. His fangs poke out of his mouth slightly, but at least his claws are covered by the ridiculous drape of the shirt sleeves he's wearing right now.

As soon as the feed starts, he waves at the camera with a light smile and winks, starting up with a cheerful and cutesy sort of tone.] Everyone, say hello~

[The crowd of Prismals all shout a greeting in muddled not-quite unison, and Ren curls a hand over his mouth as if thinking it's cute.]

They're enthusiastic, right? My name is Suzugamori Ren - nice to meet you all - and we're all here to welcome you to a new place to have fun on Level 1 - Sanctuary Gaming.

[They all gesture behind them to the unmissable building.] We're having a proper grand opening party on the 8th where everyone can come in and game together, but let's explain a little more first. If you need a place to play or buy tabletop or video games, we're right here for you for all kinds, even if you only really know the classics like chess or Go or shogi. And we're also taking custom orders for accessories and peripherals for all kinds of gaming - everything from card sleeves to headsets and keyboards, we can work out with you as well. We've got a lot of talented staff here to work on our own game releases in the future, so in the meantime, we can also offer you their skills on custom orders while we're working on bringing on a game that this world's never seen before~

[Ren puts a finger to his lips as if to say it's a secret, then points downwards.] If you want updates, make sure to follow us...and we're taking expressions of interest from anyone who wants to playtest when we get that far. Just come in and we'll put your name down, or if you're interested in joining our team, I can arrange an interview as well.

[Now that the important parts are out of the way, Ren puts a finger to his lip in a dramatic, thoughtful sort of motion.]

So here's a question we'd like to ask you all: If you could recommend one game to everyone else, or if you had to pick your favourite game, what would it be? It can be from your world or this one, we'll be happy to hear more from you whatever it is.

[Even if that's very broad wording and could potentially introduce some shenanigans. For now, though, they all wave at the camera.]

That's it from us for now. Remember to come to our opening party for food, games, and maybe some specials too~

[[OOC: Business information can be found here, including custom order form or expressions of interest for jobs or playtesting! The opening party will have some prompts on Ren's monthly log unless there ends up being enough interest for a mingle.]]

Comments

audio

[peerlesscucumber]

Congratulations on opening the doors of your business, Ren.

[ ............... yeah he doesn't even answer the question asked, since Ren should know his answer, and he doesn't much care if the employees do too? ]

audio

[thedarkbond]

[There's a light laugh, and the sound of moving fur like Ren's tails are swishing a bit.]

So are you going to come visit, then~? I can teach you some new games, or older games from different places if you really want to stick to traditional stuff.

[peerlesscucumber]

[ a rustle of fabric on this side; even when he's in full wings, they're quiet if he doesn't brush them up against anything else. ]

Perhaps in the wake of this celebration you're planning. One can imagine you're busy in the meantime.

[ and like hell is he going into a crowd when he has wings during cordis. it gets uncomfortable ridiculously fast. ]

[thedarkbond]

Well, a little bit...we've been working on this for a little while, but there's always some things you can't predict until you open, right? But I'll hold you to that one.

[And while Ren can't hear any wings right now, considering how Qingqiu's transformation went last time, he's going to hazard a guess for the sake of teasing him.]

Did you get all the feather caps off your wings this time...?

[peerlesscucumber]

Mm.

[ ... he breathes out in a soft sigh when it comes to being teased, since he knows he's being teased about this. ]

They did not appear to be an issue today, thank you.

[ though what he doesn't mention is he's definitely had two separate incidents today alone with different physical alterations. ]

[thedarkbond]

And what about knocking things over...?

[Congratulations Qingqiu, Ren's your new adult supervision for your wing problems, because Ren is definitely the kind of adult supervision anyone wants.]

Though if you got them again, maybe your blessings change a bit less from month to month than mine do.

[peerlesscucumber]

Not a concern.

[ because he's trained himself into being used to it, okay! don't call attention to embarrassing things! it's rude!

his note about blessings changing from month to month... is it just now, or each day, or... hadn't he been one of the people who were apparently affected by dragon blessings before qingqiu arrived? ]

There's something different this month?

[thedarkbond]

[He'll call attention to all the embarrassing things he likes, clearly nobody should be embarrassed about anything ever.]

Well, I meant normally, since I go between being a cat and a fox sometimes. But I would have thought you could tell what's different this month from the video...

[The normal Cordis foxes don't usually have nine tails, for one thing.]

[peerlesscucumber]

[ frankly... ]

I've seen a few people who were in the same situation.

[ Is what he says, given he's met those who've shown signs of having been fucked over by the Sinless at the end of last month. ]

What's visual doesn't tell me about the rest, and I don't have a history of your entire time here.

[ Pointing out what he doesn't know, because Ren's been on world longer than he has, too! It's not like they've sat down and discussed each permutation Ren's experienced from mooncycle to mooncycle! ]

[thedarkbond]

Shouldn't that be kind of a hint, though...? Usually only one cycle gets fox things. [If he's seen people in that condition prior to now, presumably it was during Sanguis, and thus not normal for them.]

Cordis foxes don't get nine tails, silly. You don't need my history to have noticed that, since you're Cordis too, right~?

[Clearly all Cordis people do Cordis research, or just go around asking people as many questions about their moonblessings as they can like Ren did when they first happened.]

[peerlesscucumber]

[ He tries very, very hard not to sigh, and manages to keep it all internal. ]

Five months of these cycles hasn't revealed the depths of their possibilities, have they? Or else we wouldn't be surprised at how things can change, or what might change them. Or what might not.

[thedarkbond]

No, but if it had happened before now we probably would have seen it...most people get surprised when something different happens to them, I think, not something they've never seen before.

[He gives a bit of a puff of breath, like he doesn't want to have to mention the next part.] Also, with what happened with the wine and how the last fancy moonblessing like this seemed to come from a drink as well, I'm starting to wonder if this is a pattern...

[First dragon tea, now nine-tails wine.]

[peerlesscucumber]

... I begin to suspect it is, based on exposure to elements native to different regions of this world.

[ He's sorry about that, even if he wasn't here for the dragon tea. He did hear about it at least, which helped give him his current working theory. ]

On the one hand, it seems likely that your system will be fully purged by the end of this moon cycle.

voice;

[punshots]

[ WELP, he knows where his first stop is gonna be today. It's a good thing he's not exactly...short on chroma, because it's all too likely that he's gonna spend wayyyy too much in Ren's shop. ]

M-me! I mean — put me down for playtesting. If you want a gaming guinea pig, count me in!

[ As for that last question...he gives it a good, long moment a thought. ]

My favorite game, though...gotta say, I'm a huge fan of LmaO! Buuut nothing will beat King's Knight for pure nostalgia for me.

voice

[thedarkbond]

[Well, that's one way of putting it. A light laugh comes down the line.]

Well, that's an enthusiastic answer, but technically for organisation we need to have everyone fill out a little form...contact stuff, you know, so my staff can get hold of you even if I'm not available to. But you can come in sometime and do that~

[It's probably not going to need calling in for another few months, bar maybe some minor piecemeal bits, but Ren will take it.]

Oh? You'll have to tell me more about that second one, I'm not sure we had it in my world. [LmaO really needs no introduction for anyone who's lived here for more than a week and been even adjacent to gaming.]

[punshots]

Youuu got it, friend! I'll stop by real soon. Like, real soon. I gotta check that place out, pronto!

[ And since he's currently more or less a freeloader without a job, it's not like he has anything taking up his day. May as well fill that with browsing the newest gaming shop in town! ]

Anyway, King's Knight is a mobile game. There's some kinda like it here, but none as good as the OG. It's an action RPG with a little bit of resource management and strategy — y'know, the good stuff!

[thedarkbond]

If you come for our opening party I can show you around properly...or today, really, but I'll definitely be here all day on the 8th.

[Whereas he's probably going to be in and out a fair bit otherwise and can't necessarily guarantee he'll be in when someone else comes in without prior organisation.]

Oh, that sort of thing...I know the kind of game you're talking about, at least. It's always nice when there's a bit of that kind of backbone to an action game, just action is fun but it gets kind of repetitive after a while if you don't need to seriously strategise...

[punshots]

[ Prompto is nodding quickly in agreement — before he realizes that this is voice and Ren can't actually see him nodding, whoops. ]

Yeah, yeah! My thoughts exactly, my dude. I like hacking and slashing as much as the next guy, but that gets old after awhile without somethin' a little spicier. Plus, it's got a great story! Y'know, for a mobile game.

[ Mobile games aren't exactly known for their expansive world building and lore, but King's Knight offers enough!! ]

[thedarkbond]

[Ren doesn't play a lot of mobile games (except probably whatever the Prismal equivalents of Neko Atsume and Hearthstone are), but he's familiar enough with the genre to laugh a bit at that clarification.]

Well, there's only so much you can do with a small game. I guess I'm more used to games that have lore in the background rather than a full story to follow when it comes to stuff I actually play anyway, but that still gives you more to think about than just hack and slash.

[Especially when it's the kind of game where the lore is trying to incorporate as many players as possible and ends up very flexible as a result.]

[punshots]

[ I mean, Prompto definitely plays those too, they're legit! There is no shame in cat collecting... ]

Yeah? What's your preferred genre? Aside from card games, I mean.

[ If those count as a genre. Really, they're probably more of a medium. ]

[thedarkbond]

[There's a bit of a lengthy hum at that before Ren answers.]

Fantasy, probably? Sci-fi is fun too, but just generally anything that makes you use your imagination more...I don't really like stuff that's modern or mundane unless it's something cute.

[Like aforementioned cat collecting games.]

[punshots]

[ And from his end, there comes a sound of enthusiastic agreement. ]

I know exactly what you mean! Why bother playin' a game of something you can do in real life? Though I guess my life did kind of start to be like a real life RPG...

[ This is getting meta. ]

[thedarkbond]

[Ren can't even say his life hasn't gotten like that on multiple occasions, but he doesn't tend to bring up that sort of thing, so instead he gives a bit of a laugh at Prompto's mention of it.]

Oh, you can't just say that and not tell me what you mean...if it ended up like an RPG then that must mean it got really interesting, right?

[And not, you know, dangerous or exhausting or whatever else.]

[punshots]

[ What if it got both really interesting AND dangerous and exhausting? ]

That's one way of putting it. Think a roadtrip, but throw in a bunch of monsters, some literal gods, and lots of enemy troopers following your every move. Let's just say we had no shortage of random encounters. And we were a perfect four-man party!

[ They even had a tank, a cleric, and two DPS! ]

[thedarkbond]

[That does sound interesting, and there's a sound which seems something like Ren clasping his hands together in excitement.]

Oh, that does sound pretty interesting...though the enemy troopers thing sounds like it'd get kind of dull to deal with after a while. People like that get pretty bothersome in RPGs too.

[Ren disdains mooks enough that he just lets everyone else deal with them instead of doing it himself.]