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

If this was a joking matter, she'd blame it on Qrow, but it's not. Besides, right now, she wouldn't want to even joke about her twin, considering how he was.

"I can say for certain that there aren't any Nevermores here. Or any kind of Grimm." At least, there hasn't been any until now and that hopefully wouldn't change. Otherwise, they'd have a Salem problems to deal with.

"After arriving here, did something weird happen? This place is known to do weird things resembling magic."

"No Grimm. That seems so strange..." Grimm were a constant. An ever-looming threat. Especially in a line of work like theirs... well, like hers, now. But if there aren't any threats like that around, what has she been hearing, almost-seeing, feeling?

"Nothing that strange, just a bunch of feathers showing up in my room. I cleaned out most of them."

She reaches under her cloak, putting away the knife and pulling out a small box attached to a string. She opens it up, revealing several black feathers.

"I kept the ones that reminded me of you and Qrow. I wasn't... exactly thinking I'd see the real thing."

Raven eyes the box of feathers, almost smiling at her thought progress. Keyword being almost. She's trying not to show off too much emotion.

"Well, both of us are here, so you might as well toss those out, too. They could very well be a reason for what you're sensing." She's not going to touch them because she doesn't want to get affected by weird magic any more than she already is. "If that doesn't help, we'll figure out something else."

"So you think these are magic, and they're messing with my head?"

There's a logic to that, she supposes. They did just kind of appear out of nowhere. And if Raven and Qrow are actually here, she hardly needs them.

So she tosses the box aside, but then blinks as something occurs to her. Her eyes drift down.

"So then... what's real, and what have I just been seeing? Everything I saw and heard was related to black birds..."

Her eyes lift up, unsure. "Are you really there, Rae?"

That's actually a very reasonable question to ask, all things considered. But the minute Summer looks up, Raven flicks her forehead.

"There's your proof."

It's also a proof for her, actually, but it works both ways.

The familiar gesture makes her blink, then brighten, her smile finally breaking through.

"Raven!"

And then she proceeds to demonstrate where her daughter got her lack of respect for personal space from by seizing her in a hug.

"I... I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

Granted, before she came here she didn't think she'd ever see anyone again.

There it comes, the Summer hugs. Raven is a big awkward, but she does end up hugging her back, even if just slightly. At least the flow of chroma is a good indicator she accepts the hug for what it is. She's just even more awkward about it than before.

"... yeah. It's really good to see you." What else is she supposed to say to that, really? "Taiyang is also here, so the whole STRQ is now around."

Raven's arms are as strong as ever. Summer can feel that even though her return hug is so slight. The awkwardness barely registers. The only time Rae wasn't awkward and hesitant in reaction to her affection was when she was fully relaxed or so relieved to see Summer alive after she'd done something stupid that she forgot to be standoffish.

Neither of those things happened often, though Summer always worked at the former.

She hadn't intended to hold onto her all that long. Just a joyful little "good to see you" hug. And that at least partly to push away the myriad of other things she felt upon seeing Raven, including a not-insignificant urge to scream her head off at her. But she found the embrace lasting longer than she'd expected, and after a moment, something clicked in her mind.

"Huh. This... feels better than usual, somehow."

Raven is quite sure she'll get yelled at eventually, and she well deserves it, but she's glad they can at least have this moment before all that. She did miss Summer. They all missed her.

The comment about the hug feeling better than usual has Raven huffing slightly.

"It's thanks to chroma, that's generated through moonlacing. Physical contact. As long as both are on the same page with it."

"So that's what they were talking about back on that moonbase."

She'd gotten the general idea that she'd have to touch other people while here, but the exact specifics had kind of escaped her. She hadn't been all that bothered by the idea, of course, though she was a little surprised Raven was in as good of shape as she was.

Releasing her, but not backing up too much, she mentally caught up with everything else Raven had been trying to tell her. "You said Tai's here? And one of Yang's friends told me she's around as well..." She raised an eyebrow. "How are you handling that?"

Summer should have seen her in the very beginning. She had to accept help from Qrow in form of sibling spooning. Gross. She still feels like she owes him.

So she did bring up Tai now. Yang, too. Raven closes her eyes for a moment while decided the right words to say. "Better than I imagined I would." Or anyone, for the matter.

"Tai... he's way too kind, still. He hasn't given up on me."

"None of us ever did."

Her hand moved up to Raven's cheek in a long-practiced fashion, and she gave her the usual smile she used back in Beacon whenever her partner had tried to pull back in on herself. Open and reassuring, a promise that Raven could trust in her.

"I won't lie and say I'm not angry, but I never wrote you off, Rae. I'm not sure I ever could."

She can't help but notice she hasn't mentioned Yang, though. Well, small surprise there. That wound would take a lot of work to heal, if it ever did.

Raven has to avoid too much eye contact in order to keep herself from getting too emotional about what Summer just said. Though she ends up looking into Summer's eyes eventually.

Damn it, Summer. Don't do this to her. She doesn't do emotions. Yet, there are tears in the corner of her eyes.

"... I. Hoped you wouldn't."

She's not the only one. Summer moves her thumb over to wipe away the tears, trying to remember when she'd last been able to do this... was it when Yang was born? Had Raven cried then? She thought she remembered that, but her own vision had been so misty at the time...

Well, for that matter, it's getting misty now.

"I still love you, Rae. That's never going to change." What she means by love, well... they never did really figure that out, did they?

They never really did. Raven sighs at the gesture of wiping away her tears. It had... definitely been a long time since the last time this had happened. Very, very long.

"... I... love you too, Summer." Words that were hard to say these days, but Summer makes it all worth it. This... opportunity to talk with her again was precious to her.

Summer still treasured every little admission like that she could get out of Raven. She closed her eyes and took a moment to memorize this one. These rare moments of vulnerability were precious, to be held onto and remembered.

Of course, the fact that it helped clear her own vision when she opened them again was just a fringe benefit.

"Alright. I think we've taken up the road long enough. Where were you headed when I blundered into you fighting phantoms?" Because that's her destination now too, obviously.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

▶ TDM .012

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