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

1A

[meteorman]

So, here's the thing. Ford Pines doesn't like jazz. Sure, he can appreciate it in an abstract sort of way. Objectively one has to be pretty skilled to play jazz well. It's just even played well, he doesn't like it. He's only here because Larry likes jazz, and it's so rare that Ford gets to Have A Real Life Positive Social Interaction that he'll put up with a lot for it.

Besides, the power's still out at his place in Kihada, so what else is he going to do all day?

"Did you move here precisely when the Jazz Street Festival was set to happen on purpose or was that a happy accident?" He speaks in Japanese, because, well... he's been here for decades by this point, so it's become the default.

[loungelizard]

「Happy coincidence,」he answers cheerfully. He hasn’t lived in Japan for even a fraction of the time Ford had, but enough business-related interactions have made him fluent. Unpracticed but competent. 「I had no idea this even existed until I struck up conversation with my seat neighbor on the plane.」

Because of course Larry would try to make friends on a twelve hour flight.

「To my disservice, the responsible thing to do would be to be unpacking boxes instead of being here,」 Larry adds with a smirk. 「I’m still living out of my suitcases.」

[meteorman]

Well look at Mr. Fancy over here, still legally allowed on airplanes! La-dee-da.

"Nobody unpacks everything the second they move in." That is, some people probably do, but they're insane people. "I don't think I got everything fully out of the boxes until at least three years in."

He'd just sort of left stuff until he remembered some obscure book or another and had to go tearing through a ton of boxes and suitcases to find it. He still does this now, of course, but that's just because he has a bad habit of leaving things on random surfaces and then forgetting where he put them.

[loungelizard]

Some of us are the mild-mannered nerds that know how to cause trouble on a plane without getting caught, Ford.

Larry frowns.

「Three years?」 he asks incredulously. 「I hope it doesn't take me that long. I didn't bring that much -- by the time I ran the numbers, it'd be just as expensive to move it all here as it would be to just...start over. Besides, I left a fully furnished house behind in case I decide to rent it out.」

「I brought mostly sentimental or unique things...stuff that can't be replaced.」He stares off into the distance as he recalls it. 「Old tech, my sax, some small appliances, my favorite clothes and linens, toys, souvenirs...」

He returns his eye contact to Ford.

「Drag,」he includes, waving a hand. 「Which takes up most of the bulk. I brought it all -- I didn't have the heart to leave any it behind.」

Sentimental or unique indeed -- if something wasn't hand-made, it was heavily modified by hand, either by him or someone else he knows.

[meteorman]

"I had a similar approach to packing, I just..." Am a pack rat. And a dragon with a hoard of weird bullshit that is unique and only important to him. And a man with an extensive collection of animal skulls and things in jars and replica weaponry. Were those technically the sorts of things you could get through customs, even in the eighties? If they weren't, he sure did still manage it.

This is probably part of why he is not allowed on planes.

"... just couldn't replace most of it."

He hadn't bothered with furniture, of course, but he'd just sold the cabin as-is and washed his hands of it wholesale.

ANYWAY!

"Renting out the house is an excellent idea, though. Besides, Faith needs somewhere to stay for the two weeks out of the year she's actually at home."

[loungelizard]

In the pregnant pause between Ford's words, Larry gives Ford a long, knowing smirk as he pictures all the curios and oddities that Ford has collected. He hasn't seen any of it in the flesh, only pictures, but it's enough to understand the scope of Ford's packing.

When Ford turns it over to Larry, he pauses thoughtfully.

「...I don't think she would,」he guesses. 「She didn't mention it when I pitched the idea. I think it's more likely that she'd come all the way here. As they say,」he briefly switches to English, "home is where the heart is."

「She'd get bored there without me,」 he elaborates. 「I'd probably come back to find the place turned into a sex dungeon!」 Larry giggles.

[meteorman]

"You don't already have one?"

Is this a joke or a genuine question? Unclear! Could be either. It just seems like the sort of thing they would have.

"... Though I imagine that would make renting the place out more difficult. Or much easier, depending."

[loungelizard]

「Nah,」 he answers with a straight face and without a beat. 「We go to clubs for that kinda stuff. That type of equipment would ruin Faith’s…」

Larry waves a hand. 「…compartmentalising deal.」

[meteorman]

There's a joke in there about compartments that he isn't enough of an adventure game narrator to make. Besides, thinking about it, that tracks. Of course they'd go to clubs. They're probably friends with their entire local kink scene.

Wait, hold on, backtracking. She'd come all the way here.

"So I'll finally get to meet her, then?"

[loungelizard]

Friends and/or rivals, yes. Some like the competition, whatever that competition might be. Not that Larry himself is ever emotionally bought-in on it, he just rolls with what he's given. Faith, on the other hand...

「Of course! It's only a matter of time. Now, how much time...」Larry shrugs. 「Haven't the slightest idea. I wanna make sure that I get pretty well-established here first, scope out the kind of places she'd like beforehand, so we won't waste any time with trial and error. Speaking of which...」

He points at Ford.

「I'm taking recommendations. For everything and everything.」