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

"You...!" just a moment, Tachibana's...

... a little overwhelmed at the strength of emotions that are hitting him. And it shows very strongly in his face, as ever.

"When did you get here? Are-- You remember Liminal, right?"

There's a bit of an intensity in his voice at the question as he starts walking towards his fellow Rider and hopefully, his friend.

"I just got here." Hajime flicked the box of cards clipped to his belt open, removed one, and swiped it down the middle of his belt buckle, returning to human form. "And I remember Liminal."

He didn't want to look so relieved, but dammit, he looked relieved.

The small breath Tachibana hadn't been aware he had been holding released, as did much of the tension in Tachibana's frame.

"Thank goodness." The words were without thought as he came to a stop not to far from his friend. "It's been a few months, for me here."

"It's been months for me there, too." Hajime shook his head. "You...missed a lot." He allowed himself a small, self-satisfied smile. "Some of us actually managed to kill Tower."

"You--!" Tachibana stared, eyes wide. "How the hell-- Didn't their whole game start because one of their number died?!"

The "why" did not have to be asked. It was Hajime.

"I think they were doing it before one of them died. They're just assholes that way." Hajime shrugged and shook his head. "Anyway, don't really ask me how. One of the others was able to portal the group over to Tower's lair, and I...ah." He frowned. "Let's just say Tower was able to get me a bit too wound up to the point I don't remember the fight after a certain point."

"...you lost control and became a lesser Undead in the moment?" Tachibana all but sighed.

That seemed to happen when Hajime didn't have someone around to keep him from utterly going out of his mind, and he was fairly sure there was no way in hell Lyall would have gone along with that scheme....

"Actually, I started in wolf form to try to stop that from happening," Hajime pointed out, "but the wolf's kind of prone to getting ragey under the right circumstances, and I was an Undead again when we finished." Whatever happened there remained a mystery. "I think it got kind of cold there for a bit, but doesn't matter, we did it. And the other Arcana never figured out who was responsible. They were pretty pissed, but I guess they need us enough that they couldn't do anything about it."

"...meaning that he knew exactly what to do to deal with you..." Tachibana frowned deeply, not at all liking that implication.

"At least you're free of their game, here."

... even if there was a noticeable absence that got him to hesitate a moment.

"...Did Ryo go back to his world, like Garren did?" he asked, voice softening.

Hajime's expression hardened. "He didn't show up with me." The absence hurt more than he'd care to admit.

Tachibana nodded before hesitantly reaching out to put a hand on Hajime's shoulder in wordless sympathy.

With that touch came the small tingle of Chroma being generated, something Tachibana had already gotten fairly used to, but for Hajime would be new and possibly confusing.

That was absolutely new and confusing and enough to jerk Hajime out of the mope he was about to get going with. "...the hell is that?"

~~A useful distraction from being emo in public.~~

"This world's version of Liminal Matter, in a way," Tachibana explained. "When two people who aren't from this world have physical contact, it generates what they call Chroma, a sort of energy that's used for revitalizing the world."

"...seriously." Why were their lives just weird now? "So does it work if you punch someone?" Because of course that's going to be where Hajime's mind goes first.

Tachibana paused, blinking. "I'm not sure." He hadn't really tested anything like that. Or really gotten into any fights other than....

"...it might not work when you're transformed, nothing happens when I beat the shit out of Isaka, here."

"...that explains the feathers, I suppose." (Is pinning randomly-appearing sketchy feathers on the only sketchy bird monster he knows profiling? It's profiling.) "How did he get unsealed?"

"I doubt they're all his, though I'm pretty sure I saw at least one that would match," Tachibana scowled.

"And he wasn't unsealed. Likely his existence was pulled directly from his card, directly from our world, since my Jack has the same energy level as before."

"Wouldn't put it past him to hide a few in there..." Hajime did not look happy about any of this. "I suppose we'll have to seal this one too, then."

"...How?" Tachibana asked with a bit of a curious frown. "I don't have any blanks, and after I defeated him, he just reverted to human form and seemed unable to transform back again."

"...dammit, I don't have any blanks, either." Which at least meant that nothing could be used against him, he supposed, but he'd rather have something they could use against Isaka. "You're sure that wasn't a trick of some sort?"

"Yeah," Tachibana nodded. "He was..." he hesitated. "He was almost in a state of shock, after I beat him. Worse so than after I defeated him the first time."

A small pause.

"And after I told him there was no way he could win the Fight here..." another awkward hesitation. How the hell to even describe it...

"He looked broken."

And with how much Isaka cared about appearances... there was no way in hell he would fake that.

"The Fight's a...well, I guess you could say it's what most Undead live for." Not that Hajime wanted to feel sorry for the asshole. "I don't know that many of the others would be able to figure out what to do with themselves without it."

Funny how that worked out. No one would have thought the Joker, of all Undead, would have developed such an affinity for doing literally anything else.

Tachibana nodded, expression growing distant. "Tiger Undead, when she found out the Fight was unwinnable..." he trailed off before shaking his head.

"Seeing Isaka, of all people, having that sort of emotion so visible... I'm sure he would have prefered being able to hide in his Undead form," he sighed, shaking his head again.

"Not knowing what to do when your reason for existing is gone... I wonder if that's the first step of becoming human."

Hajime was silent for a moment. "It was probably easier for me in that once I rejected my reason for existing, having it taken away wasn't an issue." The Battle Fight sucked. Joker's role in it was even worse. Getting away from it? Not a problem. "That still doesn't mean I want anything to do with the asshole."

Tachibana made a face. "Does anyone?" It was Isaka. The worst of the Undead.

... if you ignored Wolf Undead. Or King, from what he had heard of Kenzaki's relaying of his encounters. Or Spider. Or--

...

"At least if he does try anything, either of us can take care of him. And while Liminal's power might not reach here, but from his reactions, the mental reinforcements I worked on there still held."

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