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!

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Comments

[meteorman]

Good shot!

[If there's anything Ford Pines can get hype about, it's kicking things. The normal course of action now would probably be to put the kid down, but he doesn't. More height means better kicks, right? Meanwhile if he puts Shu down then that's just asking for him to get stuck in the mud again, which would be stupid and put them back at square one. So really continuing to hold him is the only logical course of action.]

I've seen shields before but never literal combat boots. That's fantastic.

[breezyplayboy]

[Nothing turns a guy back into a smug little kid like kicking a monster square in the face. Shu giggles to himself.]

Thanks, man.

[The armored toes are nice and sharp, too, as is part of the heel. Almost like a riding spur, but not quite. Another thorny torment comes slithering up, hissing and snapping vines.]

Hey! [And another swinging kick, this one lands with a thud, and his boot leaving a hole where his toe was, but this torment is bigger and heavier and doesn't go sailing.]

So, uh, you gonna find a solid place to set me back down, or-?

[meteorman]

That's a good question.

[Is there anywhere solid to put this kid down? That's the trouble with this place, it's all gunk and muck. Ford simply tends to walk across the top of it, because dream logic allows for a little bit of bending of the laws of physics and by now he's very good at taking advantage of that.]

Technically anywhere can be solid if you decide it should be.

[breezyplayboy]

It cannot be that easy.

[Right??? Because it's a lot of people whose dreams have sway over this place, right? It can't be as simple as he just wills the ground not to let him sink. That's like cheating! Also he would just feel really stupid if it was that easy all along.]

[meteorman]

It can be. Whether it is is up to you. We are in the unique situation of being in a dreaming state but also being fully lucid, and a fully lucid person often believes the dream sphere will work like the waking world because they lack the suspension of disbelief a dreaming state otherwise provides.

[Ford you are literally in the middle of a fight this is probably not the time oh my god]

If I drop you and you just decide not to sink, what laws of physics are going to stop you?

[He's gonna demonstrate this by fully just letting Shu go

sink or swim baby boy]

[breezyplayboy]

Yeah, but... we aren't the only ones with power over the dream sphere so we alone can't- hey!

[He can't even get his thought out before the one-two punch to his pride of being dropped along with being told he can't suspend his disbelief well enough. Excuse you old man he can suspend his disbelief with the best of them!]

[By the power of spite, he lands and does a little lightfooted dance away, barely out of arm's reach. His armored boots sink slightly into the muck, but don't get stuck. He slides a little in the low friction, sweeping one foot to knock a few torments away, the sand in his shin guards swishing meditatively.]

[meteorman]

Since when has dream logic ever been universally consistent? There are no rules; you make them up.

[This is a gross oversimplification, but it's how he thinks about it. There's certainly things he can't do, but he's talking in terms of little things like defying gravity just a tad. Dream logic still has to be logic at the end of the day, but there's leeway there a person can bend to their benefit if they're clever. Ford likes to think he is very clever.

Now that he's not got his hands full of child he re-equips his gun. Not that he doesn't believe in Shu's ability to kick things, but a laser is going to definitely eat through this horde of Torments a little faster.]

[breezyplayboy]

[He sounds like some new-age motivational speaker or something. Shu isn't sure he buys what the guy is selling, but he doesn't seem to be wrong. Willing himself to stay unstuck has managed to keep him from doing so, and Shu is able to wind up another hard kick at a Torment, sending it sailing.]

[He sees that Gun out of his periphery and side steps a little more, switching his boot gauntlets back to a shield to prepare for potential Flying Torment Bits.]