prismaticrap | ▶ TDM .012

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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. After an hour or two of wandering through the crystal wilderness, a group of people find you worse for wear. They are the gallant Moon Knights from the planet of Prismatica. Because of the strange phenomena 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? — 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. You will then be escorted to the docks, and led onto a large transport vessel that makes frequent trips back and forth between the Iris moon and the planet. Faces onboard vary from both old and new Moonblessed as well as the local Prismals.

The next destination: Prismatica.

▶ I am the Terror That Flaps in the Night
Iris Moon, Government Center (Arrival) and Planet Prismatica, 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 Settle in your new home at Level 2 to 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 Your new flat is covered in a sprinkling of feathers here, there, and everywhere! They appear to be coming through the air vents. This seems to be a city-wide problem in all buildings, as many news outlets are informing people to stay alert. They believe the feathers are from the masked seraphim, King Majestas, who attacked the Elaran Amphitheater a few weeks back.

You are advised to destroy the feathers on sight. Prolonged contact with these feathers cause hallucinations and paranoia. You will feel as if winged creatures are always after you, be it one-winged angels or dark-winged ducks. Other side effects include hearing the chanting of voices in an indecipherable language out of this galaxy. These hallucinations may cause headaches, dizziness, or nausea. Thankfully, a bit of moonlacing will heal these symptoms away.

▶ Got Milk?
Level 2, Crystal Beach | top

With the Coiled Hearts Festival fast approaching, local fishermen have already begun procuring food across Crystal Beach’s clear waters to meet next month’s demands. Around this time of year, the popularity of octopus dishes dramatically rises. The Lunatians have an annual tradition to prepare flavorful octopus dishes for the romantic season, such as the much-lauded dark chocolate-coated octopus or the mouth-watering octopus braised with red wine.

Everyone is welcome to join this heart-throbbing affair. During the Second and Third months, everyone is encouraged to give your loved ones something special for a long, successful relationship. Friends, family, and new acquaintances are traditionally given a small amount of Demichroma in tiny cute cases, while lovers are given something that reminds the gifter of their homeland.

A Interested in catching your own octopus? Horned taurus octopi very frequently migrate to the shorelines to perform their elaborate mating rituals. It’s easy to find clumps of taurus octopi participating in a vigorous dance, filled with undulations and strange moaning noises that octopi should not be making. You can lure the octopi by either using a special flute which mimics their moans to gather them in heavy droves. It’s ideal to have a partner with you to scoop the octopi quickly into water containers once they’ve become entranced enough.

Play the flute carefully! If the taurus octopi grow too excited by your music, they will squirt white ink. If you are spritzed with the thick substance, you will start either randomly puking or uncontrollably secreting a milky sweet substance from any body part that secretes liquids. Luckily, the high-end boutique Prissy Polyp is nearby in case you need a change of clothes due to any sizable stains. Effects will naturally wear off after an hour.

B Come with a friend and enjoy learning some octopus recipes together. The Crystal Beach Resort has opened a seminar where several professional chefs will be demonstrating and teaching how to cook various dishes of different flavors and ingredients guaranteed to impress your date, and taste-testing is free!

One dish makes use of horned taurus octopi skin as the star ingredient, renowned for its irresistibly delectable scent. The chefs explain the palatable skin is a potent ingredient in various love potions and aphrodisiacs, so add or mix them to your dishes in moderation! The effects have a significant delay, so you may feel fine for a while, but when it hits, it hits hard. You will become enamored with every little thing — hey, you just met them and this is crazy — but that person’s smile, the sound of their voice, or the way they say your name will make you unable to resist the urge to shower them with your affection.

▶ Going Viral
Level 2, Moonlight Medical Center | top

“Help Wanted” posters can be found on virtual forums and announcement boards across Level 1 to 3. The Moonlight Medical Center has put out a call for volunteers due to a recent shortage of medical staff. The work involves filling in for overworked nurses, performing tasks such as feeding patients their meals, wiping away their sweat, changing their clothes, encouraging their spirits, and so on. Any volunteers may directly walk-in at the hospital. You will be provided a nurse uniform and any necessary equipment while on the job.

The shortage has resulted from the hospital recently taking in a severe number of patients from a nearby small village to the west of Lunatia, Port Sylvel, a known shipping and freight destination. The number of patients worryingly keeps on rising by the day and will soon fill all available rooms.

A Some of the patients are experiencing varying degrees of paralysis. The worst cases have crystallizing parts of their body. The hospital staff will stress that you should be careful around patients with crystallized limbs. Patients like these have a history of aggressively biting anyone who comes close hard enough to draw blood. Those bitten will exhibit similar symptoms as the victims, including crystallization on their bodies, and experience a steady drop in Chroma. An uncomfortable heaviness will cause you unable to move without the aid of others as well as an uncontrollable urge to aggressively bite someone.

While affected Moonblessed can cure it by moonlacing, the Prismals can only be cured by a gluteal inoculation the Lunar Scientia has recently managed to develop. The sick and beleaguered will probably hate you less if you aren’t the one trying to stabbing them with injections in the hindquarters.

B Aside from nursing duties, other available tasks to be completed include making coffee for fellow nurses and doctors, delivering flowers to patients, and general housekeeping. Specifically, disinfecting medical equipment, tidying up rooms, and cleaning the spaces around the hospital. As a result of the current situation, many crystal shards can be found decorating multiple surfaces, such as floors, walls, toilet seats, and so on. These will have to be swept away!

However, as your work day progresses, some of the shards can be seen suddenly moving on their own. These crawling shards will start clustering together to turn into elaborate, floating monolithic formations that will then begin attacking anyone nearby. Their main ability includes shooting diamond spears to impale any unfortunate victims in their line of sight. In the midst of the chaos, nurses and doctors will beg the Moonblessed to please protect the sick and wounded. The crystal formations can be destroyed by any method, though because of their incredibly sturdy composition, they require multiple hits before they shatter into dust.

▶ Questions
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Impressive arsenal. He's all the more grateful that this didn't turn to blows. Aura would have protected him for a limited time, especially seeing as he wasn't as up on chroma as he should be to use it effectively.

Something he'll have to deal with later.

For now, though, he puts a partially gloved hand to his chest, initiating a slight bow.

"Lie Ren. As odd as the situation is, it's an honor to get to meet you."

"It's... good to meet you too, Mr. Ren." He'll correct her if that's not how he wants her to address him, she figures. "You can just call me Summer."

It feels easier, somewhat, to walk closer to him now. Maybe those feathers really were influencing her. Or maybe it's just a placebo effect since he told her they were. It's hard to say, but she does feel better.

Even if those rustling feathers haven't completely gone.

"So, I don't suppose you can show me to my daughters, can you?"

Tossing the feathers away was a good start to feeling better, though chances were terribly high that something else would get to her in the future.

Something always does.

"Just 'Ren' is fine."

It's what most people call him anyway, and really "Mr" just sounds weird to his ears.

"I can, but it's a bit of a ways out."

Not discouraging her, just putting it out there that it might be a lengthy trip.

"Mmmm, I wouldn't want to take you too far out of your way. Can you tell me how to get there, then?"

She should probably figure out how she's going to greet them first, anyway. Yang will almost certainly freak out a bit on seeing her, and Ruby... Ruby might not even remember what she looks like from anything more than old photos.

She clamps down on how that thought makes her feel. She's already scared poor Ren by waving one of her knives around at him. Making him watch her break down sobbing would really be entirely too much.

It's probably better Summer learn some of the things that they've been through from the sisters directly anyway. He really doesn't want to be the one to tell the "dove down the barrel of a massive mecha gun and petrified a behemoth grimm" story to her...

He wouldn't fault her for crying, though. That's going to be a tearful reunion no matter how it begins. He could offer his semblance if it came to that.

"Do you have the communicator they gave you? I can send you their address and directions."

"Oh, so it's like a scroll. I hadn't actually looked into it much."

She knows how to use a scroll just fine, though, so she should be pretty good with the device they provided.

"I just look up their names, then?"

"Similar, yes."

Certain functions were absent but they were ostensibly the same idea.

He nods and takes his own out, showing her where to find the directory to look for them.

"There's an elevator to the other levels, and public transport to get around the city. I believe Qrow is living nearby them as well, but I don't have any information on Raven..."

"If Raven wants to be found, she can show herself in front of me at any time."

And if Ren understands her semblance, that is an interesting (if not necessarily surprising) statement.

"I do want to see her again if that's what she wants, but my priority is my girls, above all else."

Because of course it is.

"Even if I'm not entirely certain what I'm going to say to them yet..."

That sounds very much like Raven.

"I wouldn't know what to say to them, either..."

Would anyone?

"I know things go over better with Ruby when there are cookies involved."

Yang on the other hand he's less clued into, at least as far as her favorites are concerned.

"I am quite confident in my baking skill."

Heck, she might be the main reason Ruby even has that yearning for cookies in the first place.

"And there's nothing to soothe the soul quite like a warm cookie."

Oh, he landed on a good idea!

"Would you like to use my kitchen? I wouldn't mind helping you with that."

"That does sound lovely. If you're sure about opening up your home to me like that."

Well, he is one of Ruby's friends, after all, so perhaps that's not so surprising.

"Of course."

Ren wouldn't be so crass as to reject now after already extending the offer.

His place wasn't too far away, either, and he motions for her to follow.

"I know Taiyang has Zwei but are you alright with dogs? I have one and he's already big but he's surprisingly relaxed for being a puppy still."

She falls in by his side easily, and the mention of a dog actually makes her smile.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll love him. I adore animals."

If only because they're so much different than the Grimm, but resemble them just slightly. A reminder both of what she fights, and what she's fighting for, in one.

Zwei, though... that's not a familiar name to her. Did Tai get a dog after she passed? Hopefully it helped him cope, if he did.

Ren had no idea how old the dog was, but now that he thinks about it fifteen years would be fairly old for a canine. Tai getting a pet later on down the line would make more sense.

Oops.

Ren leads her down the hallway with a nod, pausing at a door to unlock it and head inside. The apartment was quiet and the lights were off, indicating that his teammates were still absent, but a rattle of a collar and tags preceded the large puppy bounding out from a bedroom excitedly.

"Hello, Tadashi."

No one else around. Just as well, really, thought she liked to meet new people. Right now may not have been the best time.

She was glancing around, taking in the room, when those sounds announced the arrival of an adorable little ball of fluff. Delighted, Summer knelt down to greet the dog.

"Hello there! Aren't you so handsome?"

New person!

Tadashi trots up to Summer and promptly sits at her feet, patiently awaiting those pets. He is a good boy and despite being about twice the size of any average puppy his age behaves very well, though he may sneak some loving licks in there.

"I may have to get him something to distract him from the kitchen. He's a good boy he just also likes being underfoot."

Her hands go immediately to his ears, scratching them happily and leaning in to coo over him.

She's interrupted by a wet doggy tongue swiping across her lips, but she just laughs and keeps going.

"Oh he's a sweetheart, yes indeed. Aren't you precious?" One could say they know where Ruby gets it now... except Tai's probably the exact same way.

Oh he is very happy with this attention. His tail is practically turning into a helicopter and he even starts making little content noises.

"He really likes you."

The whole scene is really cute and Ren is perfectly fine with letting it continue on for a while.

"He's very friendly. You must treat him very well."

And he's not even trying to jump on her, which was honestly her biggest worry. She wouldn't mind that much, since he's still just a puppy, if a large one, but she knows enough about dogs to know they shouldn't be doing that if they're properly trained.

"Tadashi, you said his name was?"

"I've honestly never had a pet before him, but I was here without my team for a while and it felt like the right choice."

As much as he considers team RWBY friends of his he's never entirely sure if they're the "barge into your house unannounced, flop on the couch and ask what's up" level of friendship yet. Not that he's the sort of person to do that anyway.

Tadashi does do the little excited paw to paw dance, but he's good and doesn't jump on her.

"Mhm. My girlfriend helped me name him."

"You were alone? That must have been difficult to deal with."

She never did deal well with being separated from her team, back when she was going to Beacon... or afterwards, for that matter. Though she hadn't really had a choice but to get used to it.

"But it's good to hear that's no longer the case."

Assuming his girlfriend was a teammate, of course. But that was pretty common among hunters, for obvious reasons.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .012

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