33 - Sweet Dreams

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: A mysterious plague of dreams is sweeping through gods and shinki alike.
When: Jan 30 & 31
Where: Wherever the dreamers go...
Summary: A strange sleepiness is spreading through the Heavens. Those who succumb to sleep find themselves dreaming vividly, and even wandering into each other's dreams. Will they be able to escape the seductive power of their dream worlds and return to reality?






Waking World

Everyone in the Heavens, gods and shinki, new and old, seems to be vulnerable to this sleeping contagion. For those who remain among the waking, it's a frightening experience: people can be found slumped by the side of roads, white-robed shinki doze at their duty posts, and some people even fall face-down into their dinner plates or drift off in the bath and need to be rescued. If you're still awake, you'll need to help them out! Are you up for the challenge? Or is this a time to flee the Heavens before the sleeping bug bites you too?

Be careful -- touching the sleepers makes it much harder to stay awake. You might be dragged into their dream even if you've woken up once already. At least it'll be easier to realize it's just a dream the second time around....

Sweet Dreams

Some dreams are hard to wake up from, and some of the dreams that come with this mysterious sleep are especially hard to abandon. Friends and family, happy times, achieving your heart's desire, or maybe your best dream is living in a world entirely made out of giant ice-cream sundaes!

It's possible to wander into others' dreams whether you understand that you're dreaming or not; those who wander in not realizing that it's a dream will find themselves swept up into the dream logic in whatever manner suits their own subconscious. Those who know it's only a dream will have the unenviable task of convincing the dreamer that their ice-cream sundae world isn't real after all, freeing them to either travel into other dreams to save their lost dreamers or return to the waking world as they choose.

Shinki characters may have dreams that involve memories that they have not regained. However, when they wake from those dreams, they will not be able to remember any detail that hints at their past-- and although other characters who witnessed the dream may, any thought of telling the shinki what they learned from the dream will freeze them with a sense of impending doom.

Nightmare

Not every dream is a happy one. Those who find themselves lost in nightmares might be trapped in painful memories, pursued by terrible monsters, falling from a great height, or just called on to write the answer on the blackboard when they're not wearing pants. Whatever your nightmare is, this, too, has to be overcome before you can escape to the waking world, and while it's easier to accept that a nightmare isn't real life, it might be much harder to fight your way through it.

Those nightmare monsters might just be a dream, but any injuries that they inflict are real. And you know what they say: if you die in a dream, you die in real life.

Mystery Dreamscapes

It's possible for more than one person to wander into the dreams of a third, and among the many dreamscapes that a sleeper may travel, some strange ones appear.


• A vast, shining building of many rooms is hung everywhere with wooden plaques that rattle like dry bones in the breeze. Each one has an urgent and desperate prayer written on it, and they keep falling from the walls, only to catch fire and be reduced to ash as soon as they hit the floor. The sound of hurrying footsteps is audible, but the dream's owner never quite comes into view.



• The street is crowded, packed shoulder to shoulder with strangers who shove rudely and refuse to move out of the way. Their voices make it almost impossible to hear, and the crowding makes it almost impossible to move. Despite this, anyone who enters this dream will have the irrational conviction that there's someone or something at the other end of the street they have to reach. As they push through the crowd, though, the people around them grow angrier and angrier, and might even start to fight back.



• A giant crystal glows blue in the middle of a room, surrounded by dozens upon dozens of tiny straw dolls in intricate traditional clothing from all over the world. A middle-aged man is crafting small dolls on the far side of the room, muttering under his breath, "This one, this one." He can't be roused or distracted from his task, except if the room's door is opened, in which case he screams and flees outside into what appears to be an endless, dense, ancient forest full of strange shadows and ominous sounds.



• A huge lecture hall is filled with students sitting in folding seats. At the front, a vast man, easily eight feet tall and wearing a tweed suit with patched elbows and a traditional demon mask, is pointing out students in turn and forcing them to come to the board to answer increasingly bizarre, arcane or deeply personal questions. He turns to point at the newest arrival.



• A beautiful springtime meadow filled with fallen twigs spreads out around the visitor, who innately knows that picking up one stick in each hand will allow them to fly. Above, other dreamers circle and swoop in the blue sky. As they rise to join them, though, flocks of giant crows almost as big as people swoop in and begin attacking the fliers, trying to knock the twigs out of their hands and force them to plummet to their deaths.

In Summary:

• Help out the sleepers
• Have a good dream
• ...or a nightmare
• Explore others' dreams
• Have fun~

Comments

[yoshinocherry]

Floral Dreams
[Somehow, you've found yourself in an especially sacred place. That's the feeling you get.

Everything here is bright, almost misty looking, though the air feels clean and crisp, lightly and pleasantly fragrant. Like flowers. The ground is made up entirely of enormous, colorful tubes - they're roots, upon closer inspection, all roped together and intertwining, leading to an unbelievably large tree in the distance that you can't quite make out more than the outline of.

Yuna is here, she's in her hero form and standing tall and watching vigilantly on top of one of the higher reaching arcs of a root. The newcomer isn't missed for long, and as soon as Yuna sees that there's finally someone else here with her, she leaps down, landing soundly next to whoever has ended up in Jukai with her.]

Finally! [The rest of her team isn't here, not yet, apparently. The thought of fighting alone... she could do it, for sure, but it sounds sad, and would definitely be more difficult than normal. Which, naturally, means that you are the newest hero recruit, come to help her in the coming battle...!] Are you ready to face what's about to come?

[reloves]

[ Oh god, this dream feels like one of those nightmares where you end up at school and you haven't done your homework. (Granted, that's pretty much what Minako's daily life was like anyway before she died..)

Except the stakes seem higher, if not just because Minako has no idea what's going on here whatsoever. The surroundings look very odd, and the girl in front of her seems kind of familiar, even though she really can't put her finger on it in the middle of this confusion.

Which means she just gives Yuna the most plainly obviously confused look possible. ]

... What?

[ Yeah, she's clearly ready. ]

[yoshinocherry]

[Oh, clearly.]

Did nobody brief you before they sent you here?

[Is that even possible?? The Taisha can be cagey, but this is a little uncalled for!!]

There's going to be a Vertex attack, and we have to drive them back! There should be - on your phone - something to let you access your hero mode.

[reloves]

I.. Vertex?

[ She says it in a way that makes it very, very obvious that Minako has never heard that name before now. She's even starting to pat down her pockets to see if she even has her phone - or any phone - with her in this dream.

Do you actually die if you die in a weirdly induced dream? Minako doesn't know, but she would rather not face this attack and find out. ]

I'm not here to fight..!

[yoshinocherry]

[Yuna's eyes widen a little, a mixture of something like shock and possibly... at least 10% awe. How did someone manage to get into Jukai without knowing anything about what's about to happen? That's incredible, if not troubling.

But! She can't lose her determination now! If Minako was dropped here without the necessary preparations, then it's Yuna's responsibility to keep her safe.] Okay. [She'll take her word for it, there's no reason to force someone to fight if they aren't willing to.] You'll be fine, I promise. I'm a Hero, so I'll protect you no matter what! Just make sure you stay behind me, and we'll be out of here before you know it...!

[And, off in the distance, a massive enemy draws near.]

[reloves]

[ This whole situation is difficult. Not just because she's apparently landed in some dream with a monster - can you even call that thing a monster when it's so odd-looking? - she can't fight, but also because she feels pretty conflicted about not fighting.

It's not like she can do anything here, and Yuna clearly seems like she on the other hand can do something, but Minako still feels bad about just letting someone else do all the work. It doesn't feel right, so she frowns a bit. ]

Will you be alright though, fighting that huge thing all by yourself?

[yoshinocherry]

I am more used to working in a team.

[She can't deny that, and, speaking of which, where is the rest of her team...? She glances around, as if looking for the rest of her backup, but the rest of the Hero Club is nowhere to be found. Her focus seems to escape her for a moment, but she's quickly brought back to the situation at hand.]

I can fight by myself, though! [If Minako were to say, summon some kind of power surge to access a Hero form by sheer force of will, Yuna definitely wouldn't argue, but that's kind of a tall order to put on someone who's already pretty confused about the situation.] Especially if I have someone cheering me on...!

[She can count of you for that much, right?]

[reloves]

[ Maybe one day Minako will discover she's actually a magical girl and will feel really, really weirdly guilty and weird about this memory...

But right now she's mostly busy being worried about this situation. Even if Yuna says she can fight by herself, it still feels unreasonable to ask her to fight that huge thing on her own. Especially if she's more used to having a team-- okay, maybe Minako is worrying a little too much for something that's just all in a dream, but who knows what might happen to people who get hurt in this weird induced sort of sleep!! ]

I-- I will! Of course. [ Even though that feels like way too small a contribution. ] Maybe I could help try to look for your team? Do you have any idea if they might be around here?

[yoshinocherry]

[Someday, someday...]

They might be around somewhere. [Maybe they got split up somehow upon entering Jukai? That doesn't seem totally plausible, but she won't deny Minako the chance to look, if that would make her feel more helpful in this situation. Besides, if it turns out that the Vertex is weak to skills she doesn't have... backup would be incredibly appreciated.] There are five of us all together, one each in blue, red, green, and yellow. But - ! [And this is important!!] Don't put yourself in danger while looking for them. That might be the only Vertex, but others might show up after it, too. I'll keep you safe, but please don't be reckless.

[reloves]

Hey, come on, do I look like the reckless sort of girl?

[ Yes. 100%. Reckless might as well be your middle name, Minako. It's not said with the usual energy behind it though, since Minako still feels very much out of her league in this situation.. but she can't help but want to try and lighten things up even just a tiny bit in this situation. ]

I'll be careful and look, so you just focus on that.. that Vertex thing.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[That tree... something about it makes her heart ache.]

[Nia can't answer for a moment, but the truth is, she doesn't have a choice, does she? Always has to be ready. Always has to have an answer. Always has to keep moving.]

[She lifts her eyes to meet the other girl's.]

Yeah. I'm ready.

[yoshinocherry]

[It'd be hard not to notice the melancholy note that hangs in the air around Nia. Heroes, just as much as any normal person, are going to have their own worries, their own troubles, and bringing them along to Jukai is going to be inevitable. But, that's also why they work in a team. To support each other. To help ease those troubles.

Yuna gives her a confident, reassuring smile.]

Don't worry, I'll have your back no matter what. The two of us, we'll be a good team!

[And, off in the distance, an enemy draws near.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[Nia straightens her back, then spreads her arms slightly, hands open at her sides. A rush of light engulfs her, pouring from a spot on her chest out over her body. As it washes over her, it changes her, sweeping out to form long sleeves and long ears. When she opens her eyes again, she looks quite a bit different.]

I'm ready. Here.

[A weapon forms in her hand, the Catalyst Scimitar, and as soon as it does she offers it to Yuna.]

[yoshinocherry]

[The change in appearance and attire is definitely worthy of a Hero of Shinju, and for a moment, Yuna doesn't seem to find anything out of place with this whole situation. Then Nia offers her the weapon, and it gives her a moment of pause. Why would she do something like that...?]

You're going to need that to fight, aren't you?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

[Nia fixes her eyes on Yuna, her fingers tightening slightly on the hilt of her weapon.] We fight together. You wield the weapon, I give you my power. We're stronger that way!

[yoshinocherry]

[Yuna typically fights unarmed, her expertise lies in her kicks and punches over any weaponry handed to her. But... if she thinks this is the smartest way to do this, what's the worst that could possibly happen?

After giving herself a second to consider it, she accepts the scimitar.]

I don't have anything to give you in return, though. [As that's clearly how this exchange should be going.] Will you be okay without this?

[sassywelshcatgirl]

I told you, I'll be supporting you. And when I'm ready, you toss it back to me and I'll unleash an Art of my own. [That's how the bond works. Driver Arts and Blade Arts.]

[Honestly, she can use her fists and her feet as much as she wants. So long as she's holding the Catalyst Scimitar, that counts.]