TDM #2

[beautifuldreamermods]

TDM #2

Welcome to Beautiful Dreamer's test drive meme! If you're unfamiliar with the game, then you can check out the navigation to get yourself up to speed on all the relevant info pages then check out the most recent AU Planning meme to see what juicy ideas your fellow players are cooking up!

As the prompts in the TDM are based on events from the prior in-game month, the overall TDM is not canon to Beautiful Dreamer though players are free to treat individual CR/threads on this post as canon to their characters if both players are happy to do so.

Dreamers on the TDM will have access to all of their starter powers as outlined on the powers page as well as two unique abiliites to play around with as you please.

Some prompts and location details have been provided below for you to play around with but please feel free to go hog wild and have fun!

YUMEMIGAOKA

May comes rolling in full of blustery winds and heavy rain, blowing away the sleepy spring atmosphere with aplomb! While the second half of the month perks up a little and there's more sunshine to be seen, the first half of May is decidedly dreary and wet. Hopefully nobody's plans fall through on account of all this miserable weather...


⧖ It's Golden Week! The city is buzzing with excitement as the holiday brings in crowds of tourists and locals alike, all aiming to take advantage of sales and promotions or just enjoy some hard-earned time off. Of course, this unfortunately means the city is a little more jam-packed than usual and maybe it causes just a few traffic and transport delays... but it's better than being stuck in work, right? Why not go out and see what all the fuss is about?

⧖ Yikes, watch that forecast! A massive thunderstorm blows in just over Kihada, plastering the streets with rain and causing a blackout that lasts a good few hours. Some people might be upset, but there's nothing quite like a good storm to make things more fun and exciting... so long as you're viewing them from a distance, anyway. You WERE wise enough to find safe shelter as soon as it started bucketing down, right?

⧖ Moon Bunny Market are organising a stamp rally all around the neighborhood, with prizes on the line if you manage to collect them all. Just find the right stalls and speak to the right people and you could win a tasty prize!

Of course, even with the city being in such a jovial mood that doesn't mean things are all fine and dandy. With midterms and exam results on the horizon and the high-strung anxiety and stress of muddling your way through a major holiday it just makes sense that some of that might seep through to the other side...

THE DREAM SPHERE

The Dream Sphere might be a very different kind of place to Yumemigaoka but that doesn't mean it's any less busy. The weather is miserable over on this side, too – the usually pretty skies have turned bruise purple with low, heavy clouds that are swollen with rain. Thankfully, it seems like more of the places around the Dream Sphere are getting away with just a few light showers but things are still pretty cold and miserable over here. Good thing you've got work to distract you, at least!

As usual, the emotions stirring over in the Waking World have begun funnelling into the Dream Sphere and causing all manner of problems here and there. Torments and Nightmares won't hunt themselves so be sure to properly scout out all the available locations of the Dream Sphere you can access just in case - maybe you'll find a new teammate to work with while you're out there!

In particular, it looks like trouble can be found...


⧖ At Fury Peak, things are hotter than hot! There's no rain here but the volcano is steadily leaking a heavy black smog which has turned navigating the place into a real task, even for a fully prepared Dreamer. To make matters worse, a group of particularly aggressive Torments made out of volcano glass and black rock are gathering and ganging up on any Dreamer they see. Torments at Fury Peak are even more foul tempered than usual and they're hitting especially hard today so you better act fast and deal with them ASAP!

⧖ In the Reverie Necropolis, the sky is hidden behind black clouds that hang low and a horrible cold wild blows all through the inside and outside of the place. Once you actually enter the labyrinth, frantic whispers can be heard and the scratching of nails against brick can be heard running up and down the corridor. The vibes are absolutely rancid, is what I'm saying – made even worse by the fact that when you stumble into one of the open caverns, you come across a Nightmare just about to manifest?! Better hope you're not alone, because you'll need some good strong teamwork to keep things from escalating any further!

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Comments

[miracle_miruca]

Perhaps the day will come when Sachiko will understand that thought. Or perhaps normal just has different meanings to the two of them. To Miruca, the thought of normalcy is comforting, representing things like not having to worry about if she's going to run out of money, or wondering if someone she cares about is going to suddenly vanish in the Dream Sphere never to be seen again. To be 'normal' is not to have to worry about those things.

Perhaps to the other girl it represented something else, something like tossing away her dreams. Miruca was too practical minded to truly understand how Sachiko thought. She's not even sure why the girl seemed to like her, she'd really done nothing to deserve it.

Stepping out of the rain does letting already considering how drenched she already was. They'd be getting more wet once they got to the base of the building, anyway, but it was still a small relief to get out of the rain for a few moments.

"Sneaking? I suppose. We aren't going to break in or anything, though. They don't tend to lock it up. But I'm sure they wouldn't approve of people wandering around in the dark." As she starts to descend the stairs, it is somewhat slowly. The shoes matching her frilly dress are as drenched as the rest of her, and falling to her death is not on the agenda for the evening. Hopefully the hyper girl can hold in her enthusiasm.

At the bottom of the stairs, approaching the door, she turns towards Sachiko, where the girl might have dashed off to. "When we get out there, please do not run ahead too far, all the lights are off and I'd prefer not to get separated." She knows the hyper girl won't just walk at a casual, normal speed but maybe since she's feeling so cooperative she won't dash to far ahead in the rain. If Miruca's luck holds, at least!

[ficklepickle]

It's true that were she alone Sachiko would be taking the stairs two at a time, jumping over several or doing something else fun and dangerous, but as she's following behind Miruca she's instead simply walking with a jaunty step, lifting her legs a fair bit higher than needed so she can step down in a playful rhythm, swinging her arms as if to some beat. Her thoughts are in other places than the older girl's, too, watching the water drip off of her hair, her frilly dress, and her matching shoes.

"No, no! Not breaking in but definitely sneaking, and together!" She gives a cheerful smile at that. Even if it's the smallest, most inoffensive of crimes, it's a partner in crime that she sees in Miruca now that their plan has been made. "Hmm… though, I'm a little sad. You look so nice all dressed up, and I'm wearing something so simple. Your shoes match your entire outfit, and my jacket doesn't even match my dress! At least I have ribbons in my hair… but I wish I was wearing a dress like yours, too." Her momentary gloom melts away as she notes, "You're be grumpy lolita, and I'd be peppy lolita!"

Once out of the stairwell she does zoom ahead, laughing while running past Miruca, the sound of her shoes wetly slapping the floor as she goes, squeaking as she plants a foot to spin around at the door, bending forward and grinning back to Miruca with the drone case held in both hands behind her. Some poor janitor that had managed to wipe up the water she'd dripped all over the floor on her way in is probably going to be distraught to see an equal trail heading right back out the same way it'd come.

"Okay, okay! I won't run off without you. I wasn't planning on it anyway. I said you were leading, and I meant it!" She opens the door out of the building and pokes her head out, looking around. Dark, rainy, deserted and with thunder and lightning in the distance, slowly nearing. "You really want to go slowly out in that, though?" It strikes her as funny and she starts laughing, lifting one hand to cover her mouth.

"No, that's great! We'll look completely ridiculous, taking a leisurely stroll out in the pouring rain. You're hilarious without even trying Mircua, you know that?"

When the other girl reaches the door she switches the drone case to her left hand, and then without asking gets beside her and walks in step with her while sliding her right arm through Miruca's, hooking it elbow in elbow like girls their might have done two hundred years ago while going on a walk in the country. Miruca might even look the part, with her outfit, though Sachiko just looks silly despite trying to appear serious, unable to keep from smiling or hide her poorly suppressed giggles.

[miracle_miruca]

The younger girl was going at a mile a minute. Her thoughts seemed to never stop racing, and it was difficult for the poor beleaguered Miruca to keep up with. She was the type who tended to do as much as you could in a calm, collected manner. Sachiko, however, acted as if her favorite snack was sugar-laced sugar, with a side of sugar. The two could not be much less alike.

But it had not just been a feeling of obligation that had made her stop when she noticed the other girl out and about when she really shouldn't be. While Miruca honestly was not too fond of most people, she could not bring herself to actually hate someone who was so much of a free spirit. Sachiko might do a lot of foolish things, and could be counted on only to be unpredictable, but it came across as wholesome an innocent, so she couldn't justify actually disliking the girl.

"Outfits like this do not come cheap. The only reason I have the ones I do is because of an agreement with the modeling agency I work for. I wear them publicly, to attract attention to their designs, and of course answer any questions about where they come from. Even though I do dislike speaking to random people." And again with the 'grumpy lolita' line. It IS accurate, considering her state of dress and overall attitude, but she wasn't required to like it!

"I do not want to go slow in this. But with no lights we really must, unless you enjoy broken bones. The chance of slipping or running into something is far too high for us to go with any speed." She's still drenched, and not looking forward to getting more so, but she's been conscripted for babysitting duty, so she has to be responsible. She doesn't seem to mind the smaller girl walking arm in arm, it means she's in arm's reach if she decides to do something she shouldn't, after all.

"And I am not funny."

[ficklepickle]

Micura might have chided Sachiko and forced her to change her entertainment plans, but the fact she was walking with her now meant the small girl wasn't taking it personally. That the other girl cared enough to follow her and had mostly made arguments and demands based on her safety meant it was hard to hold such things against her. With that being the case, what else was left other than to be friendly?

"You're a model?!" Sachiko chirps out in excitement. It only takes a very brief look over the girl and her look for her to shake her head and assert, "No, I shouldn't be surprised. Of course you are. It takes a certain kind of person to look good in something like that even angry in the rain. And you can definitely look 'fierce' when you want to!" Once she gets over this she hums to herself, considering the fact that the outfit is an expensive one. "If you're wearing it to advertise, does that mean you get a commission when someone buys? Do you have an affiliate link or something?" She pauses again, but not long enough for Miruca to get a word in edgewise. "Maybe I really should get one for myself! If I get paid for stuff I do in the Dream Sphere, I'll probably have enough for one, right?"

Luckily for the older girl she seems to be keeping to what she'd consider a safe pace, though she can't help giving a little sigh when ~safety~ is the reason given for going slowly.

Then in a quick response she bobs her head up and down, "Yes you are! It's not the kind of funny that'd make people laugh out loud at you unless they were rude, but you like to do things in certain ways. Kind of like me! But different."

She continues walking along towards the school, almost looking like she's having a nice little walk if not for the pouring rain and sound of thunder ringing out in the distance every now and again. There is one small downside to moving slowly, though. When she was running around and climbing things she was using a lot of energy and making a lot of body heat. Walking slowly though? Not as much, and after a few minutes she sneezes softly, making a face at it and wrinkling her nose in annoyance.

[miracle_miruca]

A lot of questions assail her from the small girl, but for some reason they don't seem to bother her this time. Perhaps its because she knows the girl listened to reason enough to stop acting like she was insane. Maybe she used up too much mental energy being angry earlier, and couldn't muster it now. Or maybe she just realized innocent questions like this are ones better answered rather then ignored. A Sachiko with satisfied curiosity was one who would behave better.

"If you are trying to compliment me, you can go ahead and stop. With how soaked I am now, no one could look good even in an outfit like this, myself included." Her hair, normally naturally curled at the ends, was hanging straight, plastered to the back of the dress in a way that looked absolutely abysmal. "But yes, I do earn commissions, when a design is new at least. One year after it hits the market, the commissions stop. The company assumes by then the marketing period for that place is at an end. Of course as I have not been with them for a year yet, none of my commissions have hit their end. I shall show you a few pictures when we are out of the rain, I cannot afford for my phone to be ruined now, I cannot afford another."

Thankfully, it looks like it won't be too long of a wait. The dark silhouette of the unlit school building comes into view as the duo approach. It was dumb luck the building Sachiko decided to go out her crazy antics at was not too far from it. "You're going to run in the halls, aren't you?" She doesn't seem like she expects any other answer but yes. "Thankfully, my locker is on the first floor, so at least you won't break your neck in a dark stairwell."