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

▶ 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.

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[Since Yang's elected not to have a normal steady job while in Lunatia, preferring to pick up bounties or tasks as her whims take her, it's probably no surprise that she answers the hospital's Help Wanted calls. She doesn't have any medical experience either (besides field first aid too probably) but her innate strength makes her a great candidate for orderly work and her generally sunny disposition, along with her terrible sense of humor, has been great for bolstering patients' moods.

And now her combat training is coming in amazingly handy now that everything is going to shit??

Yang's first priority had been evacuating as many patients as possible, destroying the floating crystal menaces as needed or where possible, but largely focusing on defending and shielding patients as she gets them to safety. Her Aura's running pretty low after multiple encounters but she figures she can handle a sweep of one more wing.

Down the next hallway she can hear the sounds of a struggle, an interesting mix of angry shouting interspersed by what sounds like somebody trying to stab a piece of rock with a sharp object. That's...probably somebody who could use some help. She rounds the corner, focused more on the floating crystal cluster than the person it's after, and takes a running jump towards it, firing her gauntlets to boost the flying roundhouse kick she sends it crashing off to the side with.

It's down but not quite Dusted and Yang's fully prepared to unload a few rounds from Ember Celica to finish it as she glances aside to check on the other person.

And that's when time completely stops for her.

It's like looking at a photograph come to life. Summer looks exactly like the photo Yang still carries with her. Exactly like she does in every fond memory Yang has of her. Exactly like she did the day she left and didn't come back.

Suddenly her entire body feels like ice, insides twisting as she stares at Summer with wide eyes, her expression simultaneously startled and haunted as one word manages to tumble out:]

Mom...?

[However, time never truly stops for anyone. It's only a small moment of distraction, but it's a severe enough break in her concentration.

Enough that the diamond spear the monster shoots at her in retaliation easily tears through the remains of her Aura, the golden glow shearing off of her and dispersing as she's sent sprawling to the ground with a sharp cry of pain.

Thankfully, it doesn't look like she's been impaled, but she's definitely down for the moment.]

[OOC: I hope this is alright!]

[OOC: It's wonderfully traumatizing!]

[Wrapped up in trying to stab a piece of rock to death with a knife, she doesn't even notice anyone else coming to her aid. She's actually managing to chip away at it, a testament to the strength and sharpness of the weapon, but it's definitely for the best that she's getting some help.

Even if she's utterly blindsided and can only stand there flabbergasted for the moment as what looks mostly like a yellow blur slams into the crystal, sending it flying away. She lands on the floor and stares perplexed at the girl who aims a pair of what look like gun-gauntlets at the creature...

And freezes, just like Yang.

Unlike her daughter, Summer doesn't have the benefit of having seen any photos of Yang to help her realize just who she's looking at, but she does have five years of memories, and they're much fresher for her than they are for Yang or Ruby. The hair color, her eyes, even her face...

Then she speaks (it's still "Mom", still "Mom" after all these years, and despite what she must know now, and she feels tears come to her eyes) and she knows to her heart.]

Y-

[And the spear fires. Summer's face twists into a mask of horror. She rushes to her daughter's side, crouching down next to Yang, looking over the sight where the spear impacted with eyes long-since used to assessing injuries quickly. Thank Ozpin for field medicine classes.

But at the same time, a massive cloud of white rose petals flutters out of her cloak. Unlike Ruby, though, this doesn't precede Summer going anywhere. The petals hang in the air for a moment, and then launch themselves at the crystal.

She barely hears them cutting it into little sparkling chunks, she's so focused on her daughter.]

Yang, sweetheart, just hold on... Mommy's got you. Mommy's here... I... I'm here...

[Don't. Don't break down. Not now. Yang needs her. She has to focus.

She can collapse into a sobbing mess later.]

[OOC: I love dying and being dead. 8'D ~~Also had to make sure Yang couldn't just...nope out of this. XD;~~]

[A cursory once-over will reveal that Yang's Aura must have taken most of the brunt of that spear, but there is a nasty looking gash across her left side where it scraped past as she fell back. She's curled up somewhat on her uninjured side, her right hand clenched slightly over the wound and the next thing Summer will no doubt immediately notice is that her right hand...is not a real hand at all.

What's perhaps even more unsettling however, is that Yang is staring at her with an almost terrified yet far-off gaze, jaw clenching and unclenching as she tries to force some words out.]

G...Get...get away f-from me...get away...

[Abruptly, she curls even further in on herself, shutting her eyes tightly as several small tremors shake her form, repeating the same words over and over like a mantra.]

You're not real, you're not real, you're not real.

[It can't be Summer. It just can't.

It was one thing when Pyrrha showed up in Lunatia but this...? It has to be a hallucination, or a trick, or something. She's seen things that weren't there before. She doesn't dare let herself believe what she's seeing and hearing is real and between that, her fatigue, and the shock of her injury, it's all too much at once.

Her short, quick gasps for air are slowly interspersed with choked sobs as she curls even further in on herself.]

[There's so much to absorb, here. Her mind slips into analyzing the injury first and foremost, and though there's agony in her at seeing one of her precious girls injured like this, she can see the wound's not life-threatening. Painful, and it needs to be cleaned and treated right away, but she'll be okay.

That hand... Summer's brain screams to know what happened there, but she can't ask that right now. She has to deal with the current injuries before she can look to the past ones. No matter how much they horrify her.

But nowhere near as much as hearing Yang say that to her. Her eyes jerk up, pain and shock clear on her face, not that her daughter can see how crushed she is. But then she hears the rest, and she realizes what's happening. Oh, her poor baby...]

Yang. Sunflower. Breathe. In, one, two, three, four, five. Out, one, two, three, four, five.

[She can't treat her if she can't calm her down, so that takes priority now. At least she's got long experience calming people who are in the midst of panic. Part of the job, after all.]

Keep breathing like that, and when you think you can... Open your eyes.

[Look at her. Please.]

[Sunflower.

The name has her body going rigid, memories flooding in that she's tried very hard to keep firmly in the past. To look upon fondly every once in awhile but otherwise keep them at an arm's length where they can't hurt her. Where they can't weigh her heart down because there were other people depending on her to shoulder that weight and keep moving on. It was always so much easier to focus on something other than her own grief anyway.

But there's nothing else for her to focus on now.

She hasn't had a "freakout" this bad in a long while, long enough that there's no small element of shame in realizing she's in the middle of one now. She knows how to do the breaths, but the vocal coaching goes a long way to saving her the trouble of trying to work out the counts for herself. And there's no denying Summer's voice has a soothing effect all it's own on her; it always had.

It's a subtle transition, from panicked gasps to broken sobs that slowly grow quieter and quieter as her mind and body calm down. With the calm comes the realization that her lungs and side now feel like they're on fire, from the panicked breathing and crying as much as from her injury but at least physical pain is something she can shoulder like a pro.

The much harder thing is opening her eyes and facing the truth, whatever it may be.

With a resigned whimper, Yang finally opens her eyes, dulled lavender taking in Summer's all-too-familiar silver before tears begin to overtake them again.]

Mom...?

[There's less shock to the question this time, the hesitance and disbelief still there if tempered, but underneath it all there's also...hope.]

[Inside, Summer's still freaking out over Yang's injury and her reaction to seeing her. But she keeps it crushed down. She can break down somewhere else, on someone else's shoulder, when this is all done.

For now, she forces a calm, soothing smile onto her face, focusing on the fact that she is really seeing her daughter again, that Yang, despite the arm and the gash across her ribs, seems to be doing pretty well. Physically, at least. Her eyes lock with Yang's as they finally open, and she nods, just slightly.]

I'm here, Sunflower. I'm sorry I've been away so long.

[As if she'd just left on a trip one day and hadn't been able to get back until now. And the irony in that comparison is so thick Summer wouldn't be surprised if one could cut into it and serve it on a sandwich.

She reaches out with one hand, not actually touching Yang but offering her hand if Yang thinks she can bear it. Her voice is specifically light as she brings the subject back to where it probably should be at the moment.]

Looks like you've got another scrape, dearest. Can you be a brave girl and show me so I can patch you up?

[For a few moments the spark of joy is clear in Yang's eyes at Summer's answer, the remnants of her panic attack finally melting away as a watery smile threatens her features.

This should feel like something out of a childhood dream. It does feel like something out of a childhood dream...only, Yang is no longer a child. Too much has happened, too much has gone wrong for her to not brace herself for the other shoe to drop, and it's Summer's next words that have her realizing what that proverbial shoe might be.

...Of course.

Yang huffs out a breath of a laugh but the humor just isn't quite there.]

You don't have to talk to me like that. [Quietly.] I'm not a little girl anymore.

[Gritting her teeth, and in spite of any following protests, Yang presses her left hand into the ground to start pushing herself somewhat upright. It hurts obviously but nothing she can't stubbornly soldier through. There's a wall nearby that she manages to half-brace, half-roll her upper half up against so she can sit against it and also give Summer the opportunity to check the damage done.

It's a decent slice, around 2 or 3 inches along her side, but it looks like it's only skin deep. She has lost some blood though and her Aura breaking has no doubt put a serious drain on her energy reserves as well as her Chroma, although luckily there doesn't seem to be any crystallization in response to that last one.]

I'm usually more careful than this.

[Of course, Summer is free to question that given Yang's current state. Careful people usually don't have robotic limbs either.]

[Oh thank everything good in the world, she's smiling. Weak, and clearly just a moment away from fading entirely, but it's there, and it makes a world's worth of difference.

When she speaks up, Summer shakes her head and turns the full force of her gentlest, mom-est smile on her.]

You'll always be my little girl.

[It comes out automatically, and Summer almost has to laugh at herself for it. Could she have come up with a more cliche, corny response if she'd tried? Tai's been rubbing off on her.

Tai...

She stomps down that thought (she's doing a lot of that today) and moves to inspect Yang's side carefully. She's seen much, much worse than this, but there's no question it needs to be treated right away. Fortunately, they are in a hospital.]

Right, I distracted you. I'm sorry about that. But don't worry. I've treated much worse than this, and with much less in the way of supplies. Here...

[She grabs an absorbent pad from a nearby table and hands it to Yang, straightening up to glance around the room. Her eyes fall on a white box with a red marking on it. That should be just what she needs.]

I'm guessing you know the drill by this point? Hold this to the wound while I get the first-aid kit ready and all.

[She would have learned that in Signal... probably from Tai. Or Qrow. Her heart clenches at the thought, and Summer violently forces her reaction back down. She. Has. To. Focus. On. Her. Daughter. Everything else can wait.]

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▶ TDM .012

Help Wanted | aaaaaAAAA???

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