Hello, using bash-4.4, setting PS0 to '\[\033[1;36m\]started at \t\[\033[0m\]\n' makes it output PS0 with a non-printable \x01\x02 prefix and suffix.
00000000 01 02 73 74 61 72 74 65 64 20 61 74 20 30 33 3a |..started at 03:| 00000010 31 38 3a 30 37 01 02 0a |18:07...| -- Benoît Dejean