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beautifulmemer2023-11-12 01:21 pm
beautifuldreamermods) wrote in beautifulmemer2023-11-12 01:21 pm
TDM #8
TDM #8
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
November in Yumemigaoka takes over from the pleasantly chilly autumn weather and immediately doubles down on overcast skies, rain showers and nail-bitingly cold winds preceding a drop in temperature and a surprise early snowfall that hits the city like a brick on November 13th. Towards the end of the month, temperatures will drop to the point of covering the city in frost even when the sun is high in the sky, but everyone seems to be in reasonably good cheer, even with the stress of the holiday season looming on the horizon... surely two whole months will be more than enough time to properly prepare yourself, right...? RIGHT?!
- ⧖ IT'S SNOWY TIME! As a city in northern Japan, Yumemigaoka is pretty well prepared for the snowy, unmerciful weather that winter usually brings along with with a surprise snowstorm this early in the year, it looks like everybody's been caught off guard! A few stores are hurrying to take advantage of the situation with some sales of winter clothing and snow supplies but given how totally thrown off public transport's been by the weather and how clogged the roads are, will you even be able to make it down to the store?!
⧖ November 3rd is Culture Day and for the first three days of the months, schools around the city will be holding their cultural festivals! For students, this means a whole day where classes put aside in favour of a school-wide festival, including performances put on by school clubs, booths run by classes and, of course, lots of food stalls run by students. Even if you're not a student, these culture festivals are open days so if you're a family member wanting to come spend the day, a friend dropping by to hang out with a buddy from a different school or just a weirdo who wanted to snoop around a school you don't know, why not drop by to check it out?
⧖ Hoping to do some regular shopping at the department store this month? Unfortunately for you, Tsubaki Department Store are having a pre-Black Friday Sale Sale (??!??!) to hype up for the winter season and is usual for when prices drop at Tsubaki, competition is fierce! Nobody will judge you if you have to throw a few punches to pick up a new microwave today. With how dangerous things get during these sales, it's basically self defense.
⧖ Midway through the month, the holiday spirit really starts to show itself in Yumemigaoka! The Yumemigaoka Christmas Illuminations go up all around the city with a lighting ceremony in the evening to celebrate turning them on. Food stalls with tasty food and hot drinks will be available for everyone to check out or maybe you just want to enjoy the pretty lights. They're only here for one month a year, after all!
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. Just like Yumemigaoka, a cold snap has layered frost over basically everything you can see and lace-thin flurries of snow occasionally dance by on the breeze. It definitely hasn't turned all the way over to winter just yet but some cold, cold weather is very much on the horizon and even the Torments seem to be feeling the chill!
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...
- ⧖ With it being the season of ghouls and ghosties, it should come as no sur– wait a goddamn second, aren't these the exact same spooky Torments that were jumpscaring everybody last month?! Even though everybody else is moving on from Halloween, it looks like a few lingering spirits aren't quite so ready to let everyone get into their seasons' feelins without a fight! Even more bizarrely, a new batch of Torments more suited to the wintery atmosphere have also started to spawn and the two groups have immediately proven to be immensely hostile towards each other, to the point of distracting them from combat with Dreamers. J–just what kind of beef have you stumbled into here?
⧖ The Reflection Glades aren't usually a hot spot for Torment activity but with all the unusual happenings in the Dream Sphere lately, it looks like whatever force is usually responsible for keeping Torments at bay isn't quite as effective as usual and a startling amount of the little bastards have breeched the Glades' safety and started going after Figments in earnest! Thankfully, a whole bunch of Dreamers have been dispatched to take care of the issue so even though there's a fair bit more pressure than usual with all these Figments who need protecting, you're not alone – and who knows? Maybe this is how you'll stumble your way into a new team!
⧖ In a rare change for the Abandoned Dojo, its usually rainy weather has almost entirely cleared in favour of crisp, wintery fog that definitely effects visibility more than you would maybe like it to when hiking this path but something about it is kind of refreshing, too. Even so, there's an odd tension in the air today and all the Torments you face on the way up here seem on edge as well. It isn't until you reach the Dojo itself that the cause becomes apparent – a Nightmare is starting to spawn here, right in the middle of the Dojo's training arena, as if it's waiting for a truly powerful opponent to turn up and challenge it... If you act fast, you might be able to take this Nightmare down before it awakens and starts rampaging, but maybe not all by yourself...
TDM prompts suggested by Dragon and Luna!
i. snow day
Haha, that one's Ai, right? Whoa, the real one definitely isn't that stacked, but I ain't complaining... And that short, lumpy one has gotta be the brat!
[He's in the middle of making his own snow creation - a giant two-meter-tall dick right outside Dreamer HQ.]
no subject
Haha, you got them all right!
[Well done Ango! Have a little clap. Yay~]
What is this you're making? [He says, like he can't already tell.] Is this the shape of your soul?
[Is that Mahito's way of calling him a dick?]
no subject
[Or it would be, if Ango hadn't slept through all of his high school art classes. His sculpture is only vaguely recognizable.]
After all the trouble I caused last month, they still haven't fired me... I've become unfireable. I can do anything I want now!
no subject
Ahh, so you’ve discovered freedom. [Mahito has always lived his life that way; not necessarily in the spirit of rebellion, but certainly with disregard for consequence. He does just do whatever he wants. He speaks with a warmth of “welcome to the club”.] What else will you do with it?
no subject
[Wait, does Mahito live here too? Sure, everybody jokes about the DU's non-Dreamer staff being so busy that they must sleep at their desks, but Ango didn't think they meant it literally... still, they're both at work before the snow removal crews show up.]
What would you do with freedom?
no subject
So you’re a simple guy, huh?
[It is really more of an observation than a judgement, though he certainly seems amused by it.]
Hmmm, let’s see… [He makes a show of bringing a hand to his chin and thinking it over. Despite the cold, he’s not wearing gloves.] I think I’d do whatever I want, since there’s no reason why I shouldn’t.
[His face splits into a grin.]
We might have free will, but there’s no shame in following your instincts too.
no subject
[Mahito is unexpectedly the philosophical type... well, it's not not like Ango isn't guilty of engaging in a little philosophy from time to time, too. He even has a university degree to show for it, although admittedly he only chose philosophy because it required fewer math classes than any other course of study.]
Free will, huh? That always struck me as a way to judge people for making bad decisions under bad circumstances, so I've gotta side with Nietzsche on free will: it's a load of crap.
[Ugh, Ango is becoming the thing he hates most: the type of guy who will casually namedrop Nietzsche in the middle of a conversation. But self-loathing is kind of his thing.]
no subject
Do you favour determinism instead, Ango Sakaguchi?
[He hums, gathering up more snow.]
Or is that another load of crap?
no subject
[Knowing whether his life is predetermined by his future or by his past doesn't do much to help Ango in the present.]
I'm following my own philosophy now: "shit happens, don't worry about it." I think "Sakaguchianism" has a nice sound to it.
no subject
[He gives the lump of snow a hearty pat into shape. He’s making Maki next, though it’s not apparent yet.]
When you say “now”, does that mean you followed something else before?
no subject
no subject
[Which, he tried. But those things are kept under lock and key, and aren't for the eyes of receptionists.]
Guess that means you're born a new man now, huh? [He takes a pause from crafting his snow-Maki to clap his hands.] Happy Birthday~
no subject
[Ango doesn't feel like a new man. He feels like the same fuckup he was before, maybe with a little more perspective than he had last month. Kind of underwhelming, to be honest... but then again, most changes are at first.]
...Unless you know of any bars around here that do birthday discounts, in which case... happy birthday to me~ I'll buy the first round and tell you what happened - it was wild. Can you believe I didn't even get a free "I Survived The Dream Disturbance" t-shirt out of the whole thing?