TDM #1

[beautifuldreamermods]

TDM #1

Welcome one and all to the very first test drive meme for Beautiful Dreamer! 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 AU Planning meme to see what juicy ideas your fellow players are cooking up!

In order to not spoil the opening of the game for players, 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

It's a busy day just like any other in a town as big and bustling as Yumemigaoka. With the last days of winter finally at everyone's backs, spring has begun blooming in earnest and the cheery seasonal energy is pretty infectious. A number of events are taking place around the city, so why not take the time to look around and have fun?



⧖ The Tsubaki Department Store is beginning to hype up their upcoming Golden Week extravaganza with a number of small sales and promotions. Maybe this year you'll finally be able to snag that air fryer you've been eyeing?!

⧖ It's cherry blossom viewing season! Hina Flower Gardens are holding a free event with a number of special seasonal goodies and some absolutely beautiful scenery to take in.

⧖ 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, life doesn't grind to a halt just because it's nice and sunny outside. Now the city is getting busier and more touristy, the folks who keep things running are starting to get some pressure put on them! And if you happen to be a student, end of term exams are starting to loom on the horizon, with particular pressure put on those just about to graduate their respective schools... Not to mention with spring coming around, allergies are running riot!

Let's just hope you're not feeling too stressed. After all, with all this energy running rampant and regular life starting to really push down on everyone, who knows what those negative feelings could spawn...?!

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. Spring has sprung over on this side, too, with iridescent flowers and colorful trees growing right out of the streets and buildings all over the Slumbering City and the sky above turning a particularly pretty shade of pale pink to match.

That makes it especially bizarre that it appears to be snowing all over the Dream Sphere, no matter where you go but on closer inspection this snow is actually cherry blossom petals raining endlessly down from the sky. How pretty! Of course, for those of you with allergies, maybe it's just rubbing salt on the wound. Your nose isn't itching, is it? Achoo!

Pretty or not though, if you're on this side then you've got work to do! With the Waking World starting to gear back up after winter, some of the associated stress is starting to funnel into the Dream Sphere and cause no small manner of trouble. 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...


⧖ In the Vale of Sorrow, it's still raining and pouring despite the change of season and that combined with the dusting of petals across everything has turned navigating the place into a real task, even for a fully prepared Dreamer. The ground is even more of a wet and soggy mulch than before and to make matters worse, a group of particularly nasty Torments are gathering and seem to be made out of bristling vines and piercing brambles... they're unusually quick and vicious even for Torments so you better act fast and deal with them ASAP!

⧖ In the Reverie Necropolis, the season of spring hardly seems to have touched the place. If the sky has changed at all, it's hidden behind the bone white clouds that hang low and every single petal that touches the ground immediately shrivels and dies once it lands. Once you actually enter the labyrinth, frantic whispers can be heard and the scratching of disembodied pencils scribbling over papers can be heard echoing up and down all the halls. 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!

code

Comments

[grimnoire]

Huh. Did Caderyn's eyes just look off for a second? He's pretty sure the mood shifted just then. Did the guy have something against French fries? Or maybe the guy knew someone who choked and died on a French fry. And he proceeds to imagine the guy in front of him going on a French fry vengeance spree. No bag left uncut, no spud left unspoilt.

...Okay, that's probably much too dramatic. ...But still possible. He'll put that thought away, though. There's clearly no potato genocide going on at the moment.

"Well, I don't think my family plans on visiting any time soon." Traveling to Japan was expensive enough for him. He can't imagine his family would drop all of their plans to get plane tickets and drop by on a whim. "And the only thing I've got to manage other than myself are my plants right now. So, I guess this'll be perfect."

He picks up the one Caderyn indicated off the shelf, tucking it under his free arm. And, come to think of it, Caderyn's cart makes him think he should grab one of his own. If he's going to be browsing sales, after all. Might as well take all the room he can get. Though, maybe not quite as big as Caderyn's cart.

"Uhm... thanks for your help. I had no idea about toaster ovens." And since he's still adjusting to Japan, he wonders what the proper protocol for here is. He'll just introduce himself anyway. No harm, no foul, right? The worst is that he gets corrected (hopefully), and not laughed at (more likely).

"My name's Daryl. I'm new to the area. So I'm settling in."

[silverstorm]

He hadn't expected to make a friend. Cadeyrn's gaze shifts with the very slight cant to his head, observing the stranger for one more second than necessary. But there's no harm, and he doesn't have to shove people aside here. A slight nod breaks his wariness away.

"Cadeyrn. Cadeyrn Blackthorn." And, well, he might as well. "I'm new too." He starts pushing his cart along, the sheer weight of it making it slightly difficult to manage, but Cadeyrn seems well enough used to it.

"Where did you move exactly?" He asks, a little off beat, before adding "There's a park not too far that can be nice to go to, if you like plants. It has a cherry-tree that is just about to bloom." And a few other pockets of maintained plant-life between the cobblestones. Cadeyrn has no personal interest to it, but he knows someone who does, so he goes there on occasion.

[grimnoire]

"Walsh is my last name." Since Caderyn was nice enough to give his. "It's nice to meet you."

"Ahkuh... Ahkay... Hmmm..." He struggles with it for a minute. How did the name of that area go? He shifts the clothes to the inside of his arm as he reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone, to look at the address he put in his notes to himself, so he wouldn't lose it.

Akabeni.

"Ah-kah-bin-ee." And he says it completely wrong, too. "I'm... still learning Japanese," he adds with a sheepish smirk.

Look, they speak English in a lot of places here. He hasn't gone out of his way too much. And does he really need to? Okay, maybe it might help with his investigations a bit more. But really, he's not terribly pressed to learn it. And with the guy in front of him clearly speaking English, with an also-very-not-Japanese surname, he doesn't feel the need to try and switch to his poor Japanese conversation skills.

"I wouldn't mind seeing a cherry blossom tree. They seem to be particularly popular here. I bet the cherry bounty each year is incredible."

And he's not aware that the cherry blossom trees don't produce edible fruit, if any at all. They're strictly for show.

[silverstorm]

As a relief, bad pronounciation isn't something Cadeyrn is likely to be judgemental over. Small relief. Very, very small relief. It's not usual.

But he understand cognitive development; that most children recognize and learn to make specific sounds in tender ages, and that picking the same sounds up as an adult is far harder, so it is one, one of the things he's not picky about. Besides. His own paltry French suffers from exactly the same problem-- and he hasn't attempted Japanese in regular conversations yet.

Still.

"That makes it a bit far for you. Is there any entertainment in your area? Parks and the likes. Zoos, or--" he recalls the fast approaching summer-- "perhaps pools? We have a library nearby, and a few scattered parks, but these are hardly fun faire for long." And he does want to do right by his little charge back home. Or soon to be back home. He takes a glance at his wrist, where a small watch is nestled under his sleeve, all while not losing control of the giant cart ahead of him.

[grimnoire]

"Parks and pools, sure. Probably not so much on the zoos. But .it's got coffee, and a few local stores. It's not like I have to do without much of anything. It's a good place to think, I think."

Though, now maybe he wonders if she should have moved further into the city. A lot more hustle and bustle would mean more for information on the Dreamer stuff. Good thing he doesn't mind going out of his way, but even then. Well, starting small might be just as fine. You never know what you find on the outskirts, after all.

And as Caderyn steals, what looks like, a glance at his watch...

"Ah, sorry. I suppose I'm taking up your time. Sales to complete and places to be, am I right?"

Perhaps he's overstayed his welcome.

[silverstorm]

The coffee remark gets a short shift in his expression, his eyes hooded and darker and the curve of his brows in a completely unimpressed line. It barely lasts a moment.

"I've got twelve minutes to spare." If the number is rather precise to a point, Cadeyrn doesn't remark on it. His shopping is already done regardless, and the rest is all about getting this home, which he's already calculated will take less than thirty minutes. Even with the bagging and tagging everything. He snorts lightly at his own humor.

"I suppose it's much quieter than here? Less people too," he prods a little more, simply because any information at all would be helpful. Still, he keeps his own cards quite close as they make their way closer to the checkout area.

"But the shopping seems supbar," he adds, with a bit of a crooked smirk, considering why Daryl has made his way here to find a toaster oven of all things.

[grimnoire]

"Oh." He wasn't expecting that as a response. But still. "Well, that's good then."

And well, since Caderyn is on his way to the checkout, he decides to follow. He wanted to do more shopping, but... Well, maybe a toaster and a few outfits is fine. He'll come back later. When Caderyn's gone.

"It is a lot quieter. Compared to the hustle and bustle of here. But, with less to do, I suppose you can hear more things." People gossip. And he supposes with less distractions, maybe he can hear more of that gossip. That's what he's telling himself, now, anyways. To not regret being more local.

"And the subpar shopping is part of why I'm here. Along with sale. A few extra miles beats spending a few extra bucks. Or... Yen?" Slang is a weird thing to translate. And he's not sure bucks is applicable to this scenario.

"But you don't seem to mind it being incredibly busy in these larger department stores? I can't say I'm the biggest fan of the crowds on today, because of the sales."