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yumemigaoka2023-07-06 05:20 pm
beautifuldreamermods) wrote in yumemigaoka2023-07-06 05:20 pm
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Event #3: Shooting Star Wishes
YUMEMIGAOKA
As it is every year, Yumemigaoka's annual Tanabata festival is held at the street just outside of the Hikawa Shrine. The street and the shrine itself have been closed off during the day beforehand, save for the volunteers running back and forth in the miserable weather to set things up and decorate every inch of the festival space. And all their efforts do pay off - by the time the festival starts at seven in the evening, the street has been transformed into a lovely spectacle; hanging lanterns twinkle with raindrops and cast a warm glow over the street, paper stars are fluttering gently down from strings strung between lampposts and stalls line the full length of the street with food offerings, festival games and just about everything in between. Unfortunately, the month's poor weather hasn't let up yet so the festivities are a little dampened by persistent drizzle, though it seems like everyone's absolutely determined not to let that ruin the festival atmosphere!
For folks looking for games, they can enjoy:
- ⧖ The most popular stalls, the shooting games! Using a gun loaded with paper bullets (so, you know, mostly harmless) the aim of the game is to get a clean hit on one of the prizes along the back of the booth and knock it down! The prizes are mostly candy, snacks or kids' toys but they're deceptively hard to get a good shot at...
⧖ Goldfish scooping, a summertime classic! Using a scooper with a thin sheet of paper for the net, try your best to catch as many goldfish swimming around the water below. Do well enough and you'll win a prize and you might even be able to take your goldfish home - make sure to take good care of it!
⧖ Senbonbiki is basically pure luck - bundles of prizes, usually candies and small toys, are strung up along the top of the stall and you just have to give the corresponding other end of the string a tug. Whichever bundle of snacks comes down is yours! Of course, if you're particularly unlucky then you might get a dud or penalty prize... but surely nobody's luck is THAT bad, right?
⧖ Ring toss! Throw rings onto targets marked "1" through "10", each worth different amounts depending on where they land. Beat the high score and you'll win a prize! Though do you really want to walk around the whole festival with a giant plushie under your arm all night...?
There's also a ton of options for Japanese street food; some traditional, others more modern takes. There's fried stuff, grilled skewers, rice balls, all manner of delicious noodle dishes and mountains of sweets too; taiyaki, chocolate covered bananas, shaved ice, cotton candy, and just about everything and anything else you'd want to spend an evening stuffing your belly with. And naturally there are plenty of drinks available including freshly squeezed fruit juice and tea and some booze for those who feel like playing with fire.
Aside from the rest of the festivities, the main event is really the hanging of wishes - it is Tanabata, after all. A few tables at the top of bottom of the street have been set up to carefully shelter them from the rain and have a whole rainbow of tanzaku for people to write and hang their wishes on the bamboo trees both in the street and in the shrine down below. You can hang as many wishes as you like, if you're feeling particularly greedy, but...
The festival doesn't really reach its peak until darkness falls and, undeterred by the continued drizzle, the Hikawa Shrine lights up the sky with its famous annual fireworks show - it's always pretty spectacular but perhaps out of spite for the nasty weather, it looks even more fantastic than usual this year.
With the fireworks done, the festival begins wrapping up and it's time to head home. But as you settle into bed for the night and drift off, it becomes apparent that the night's festivities have only just begun...
THE DREAM SPHERE
It's happened almost every night for a week now - when you drift away to sleep, your regular dreams are slowly, gently interrupted by a strangely vivid image, an enormous bamboo tree with a wide canopy of leaves under a dazzling night sky. It's maybe not a surprise, given the upcoming festival, but as the nights go by it just gets more and more intense... until the night of the Tanabata festival itself and suddenly everything changes. As you settle down to sleep for the night, whether you went to the festival or not, the moment you close your eyes and drift off... you find yourself distinctly Somewhere Else.
The dream – and surely, it must be a dream – unfolds as an expansive open field, drenched in the silvery light of a magnificently star-spangled sky above and cut through with a river of flowing water that reflects the sky so clearly, it looks to be filled with stars of its own. A fine, steady rain falls and fills the field with a soft mist and the fragrance of the hundreds of tiny, bell-shaped flowers swaying lazily in the grass. And at the center of the field is a familiar sight – that bamboo tree from your dreams, somehow huger and with branches even more widely spread than before. This time they hang low enough for you to reach out and touch and you'll realize as you draw close that the tree is weighed down with tanzaku strips, all glowing softly as if illuminated from within by the wishes upon them.
It's then that you also realize that you're not alone here. And that you're here at all – in the Dream Sphere. Slipping over to the other side isn't uncommon for Dreamers, but... hold on a second! Aren't some of the people here just regular people too? Whatever this strange dream is doesn't seem to have discriminated between Dreamers and the regular folks – maybe it's thanks to the magic of those two starcrossed lovers but somehow, the lowercase-d dreamers of Yumemigaoka have also crossed into the Dream Sphere tonight! The effect will only last until morning, at which point the dream will unravel, so you might as well enjoy it while you're here. Many of the mundane dreamers will find they're able to move differently in the Dream Sphere, running faster and jumping impossibly high and long distances with nary a scratch to show for it; no magic of their own yet, but at least enough to have a little fun while they're here.
There's a little bit of natural magic at play here in the environment, too. If you approach the tree with a wish in mind, there's no need to write it down; it'll appear in pretty, sparkly ink on an appropriately colored tanzaku strip, already tied to the tree. Or if you go to peer at your reflection in the river, you might see it take on a shape that reflects the wish you're carrying in your heart.
... Except...
What sort of things are you really wishing for? The things you won't admit out loud to anyone, or even to yourself? The deepest wishes right in the darkest part of your heart that you want more than anything? Unfortunately for you, this tree seems to be of a mind to grant wishes and once it's gathered enough of everybody's tanzaku, there's a bright flash of light...
And suddenly everyone's secret wishes have been made manifest... though only in the Dream Sphere, of course. These can be anything from silly wishes to something more serious - the important part is that these secret dreams and wishes have been pulled out of your head and put on display for everyone here to see! How on earth are you going to deal with this gracefully?!
Regardless of what you choose to do, the apparitions only last for an hour or so before fading away and the sky lights up with a beautiful meteor shower that seems to go on forever. You're free to stay and watch the meteor shower and enjoy your last moments in the Dream Sphere for as long as you like but eventually, as you're watching the stars streak down from the sky, the dream around you begins to gradually fade away until you find yourself stirring in your own bed. Though it was an exceptionally busy dream, you find you're well rested and... okay, maybe a little embarrassed after all that.
Nobody will be able to return to that strange field or find the dream to stabilize it but... maybe that's fine. Aren't some things all the more special for only happening once a year?
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That said... she'd be a very bad liar if she tried to say that Dreamer Peach's identity in the waking world wasn't a massive surprise. Honestly, Dreamer forms starkly contrasting to a person's real world appearance is pretty common, but she'd never seen something like this before. ]
Hup...! So long as they all stay around here it should be fine! Seems pretty safe here, after all. Making sure they don't go somewhere dangerous is our job then, right?
[ Of course, she can't help but notice Peach's trepidation... and while she can't exactly blame them, she can't ignore it either, right? ]
Are you okay, Peach-chan?
[ Still, even if Gungnir tends to be a bit... er, simple, she at least has enough tact to not address it directly. ]
no subject
Ah. ]
Peach-chan?
[ They blush a little. Shouldn't it be Peach-kun? They can't bring themself to protest, though. One hand is raised and waved as if to chase away the words. ]
I-I'm fine! Sorry! Yes, it's absolutely our job, you're right! I don't want any of them to get hurt. Heh.
[ Normal. They're normal. ]
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[ Alas, despite Hibiki's best intentions, the implications involving her use of honorifics flies over her head. She tries her best, but ultimately, while she's fairly dilligent in her use of honorifics (except with Miku), she practically always just blurts out whichever honorific "feels suitable" without thinking or realizing it. ]
Oh, sorry! Other Dreamers don't really use "-chan" and stuff with their Dreamer name, huh? Still, it's just a habit of mine! I hope you don't mind!
[ Alas, Hibiki's brain is not good about consistently being spot-on at times. ]
Still, come on! Following me around is a good way of learning things, sure, but actually leaping up to help someone is something good to practice too! The more you practice at jumping the right distance, the better!
[ It's a subtle nudge for Peach to loosen up a little, since that could also help with them getting a little more comfortable with their Dreamer body. Hibiki doesn't consider herself qualified enough to guess at the implications of their Dreamer form, especially since her own is ultimately similar to her actual appearance, but still. Getting comfortable with it would be for the best, right? ]
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[ Peach is always easygoing, go-with-the-flow type. Even in the physical world, where they've just always done what's expected and done their best not to disappoint. So of course, being forceful about how they're addressed here really does feel like too much.
Besides, Peach-chan feels... nice? Weird, but nice. ]
I've had practice since then, Gungnir-senpai--
[ They insist as they follow after Hibiki, skirts flouncing a little. ]
I'm more worried about the people who haven't had practice yet.
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[ Oh, Hibiki stops suddenly... ]
Uwah... did I just say something super cool just now!? Kyah! I'm getting really good at this whole Senpai thing!!
[ ...and it's just because she's giddy. She's giving proper senpai-like advice! She's clearly wise beyond her years, yes... ]
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[ Gungnir-senpai, like Hibiki-senpai, can be a bit overwhelming at times. ]
It did sound pretty cool, yeah. If I was a girl I might even fall for you, haha.
[ Peach laughs and rubs the back of their neck, desperately trying to make a joke. Is it a joke? Yeah. Definitely a joke. ]
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[ Granted, the concept of polyamory hasn't even come up with the two of them... mostly because neither of them have ever even considered it, but oh well. Peach tries to make a joke, and for better or worse, it comes across as a joke to Gungnir as well. Since, y'know, Peach is a girl right now and Hibiki tries to keep things lighthearted.
Though, of course, if Peach ever has any issue with anything... Hibiki does her best to try and at least be approachable about it. ]
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[ Oh God why are they blushing like it was an actual possibility? This is stupid. They're not a girl.
Stupid. Peach looks back over the crowd of lucid dreamers and chews at her lower lip in a show of anxiety. ]
...I hope nothing bad happens.
no subject
[ Relentless positivity... ]
Come to think of it, maybe this is somebody's wish coming true for Tanabata? If so, then lucky them!
[ And fORESHADOWING— ]
no subject
[ Fidget, fidget. ]
Oh! Maybe! Wishes and dreams probably have a lot in common.