!★! Happy Halloween!

[beautifuldreamermods]

⭐ Who: The Dreamers of Yumemigaoka!
⭐ When: Forward dated to October 30th
⭐ Where: The Dreamer Union & the Slumbering City
⭐ What: The promised Halloween party! The DU

YUMEMIGAOKA

Thankfully for everyone's nerves, despite the increased activity in the Dream Sphere that's typical of spooky season, there's been no major emergencies for the Dreamers of Yumemigaoka to attend to for the month of October – which means that when the company Halloween party comes around, there's nothing to interrupt it!

Similarly to the anniversary celebration, the party is split into two halves, with the first leg of the party an all-ages event starting at noon and hosted at the Dreamer Union in Yumemigaoka, with an open invite to all employees and registered Dreamers. Everyone's encouraged to put together a costume just to get into the spirit of things, but while the HR department who set all this up might give you a woeful look of disappointment if you opt out, it is still technically optional.

Of course, with this many Dreamers in one place, things are definitely going to be a little busy, but the whole building has been decorated with some truly spooktacular vibes... and there's a few quiet rooms here and there that have been relegated to letting people catch their breath with some spooky movies if the scariest thing about this party is the prospect of socializing.

There's all sorts of candy and seasonal food to go around as well as a healthy supply of regular-ass food that's been dressed up and served to look spooky – riceballs wrapped with seaweed to look like mummies, crab dishes with the legs arranged to look like spider legs, spicy snacks with sauce globbed on to look like blood... someone was really having fun with this, huh?

For the most part, this is a pretty low-key event, despite the huge guest list – there's some chill games, like a beer pong setup with a fake eyeball and a pretty chonky pinata that's taking a shocking amount of blows before breaking open but for the most part, this just seems like an excuse for everyone to come together and blow off some steam. Of course, that's probably because for some of you, the party's only just begun!

THE DREAM SPHERE

The all-ages get together in Yumemigaoka was only one half of the Halloween festivities and once that party wraps at six, the real chaos begins! A 21+ only afterparty springs up over in the Dream Sphere, taking over the Slumbering City's DU office and spilling out into the plaza outside as well. Of course, this is just in the Dream Sphere, so if you're really determined to sneak in and see what the grown ups are up to, there's nothing stopping you...

Like Yumemigaoka, the DU office in the Slumbering City has been decorated nicely and the city itself is contributing with a nice and moody purple sky outside - though pleasantly enough, the weather is unseasonably mild so you can hang out in the plaza without freezing to death. While it is still a work party on paper, things are definitely a little rowdier by design. There's booze for one and a much more implicit encouragement to let down your hair and bust out a really goofy costume – this is the Dream Sphere, after all, so the sky's the limit!

That philosophy seems to have applied to the food as well and again, much like the anniversary, there's a whole buffet of totally impossible foods. Among other things, there's...


⧖ Cauldron-shaped cupcakes with bubbling 'potion' fillings that fizz and pop when you take a bite.
⧖ Cotton candy spun into intricate spiderweb shapes and adorned with gummy spiders.
⧖ A bubbling cauldron of some hot and savory stew that changes color with each stir and releases tiny puffs of smoke.
⧖ Pizza topped with ghostly white cheese and spicy phantom peppers that live up to their name and vanish from your hand once you're down to the last bite!
⧖ Corn on the cob made entirely of candy corn kernels.
⧖ A franken-fruit salad, with a number of confusingly flavoured fruits - apples that taste likes cherries, cherries that taste like bananas, bananas that taste like... salted caramel?!?


And if you're looking for games, the office itself and the plaza outside seems to have been set up with a whole bunch of them!


⧖ A number of apple bobbing cauldrons that look to be full of slime and various other unpleasant things... but if you're brave enough to go bobbing, you'll see it really is just water.
⧖ Enchanted pumpkin carving! Using anything they have to hand (maybe even their Sandglass??), Dreamers carve pumpkins that have unique properties, such as changing shapes when they're cut into or spitting sparks into the face of the poor person trying to carve them! You have ten minutes and a guide to follow, with the winner determined by whoever got the furthest along with their pumpkin fighting them the whole way.
⧖ A floor in the DU office has been turned into a mini haunted house walk! As well as traditional scares, a little trick of dream magic has been set up so that the floor will also pick on a Dreamer's own personal fears. For the most part, these will be pretty surface level and occasionally silly – a Dreamer with a fear of spiders might be faced with a room decorated with spider webs and the odd spider – but when multiple Dreamers pass through at once, the floor might dig a little too deep and show off something just a bit too personal...
⧖ Stuck without a costume? No worries! A floor of the DU has been set up with 'dressing rooms' to help you with that. Just step inside and your Dreamer costume will be reformed instantly into something more appropriate for the party and you can jazz it up however you like!


The party lasts through the Dream Sphere's night, with everyone dropping back into the real world just as sunrise tinges the Dream Sphere's sky. Of course, it's still the middle of the night back in reality but it's probably in your best interests to just head to bed... you can't get a hangover from alcohol you only dreamt about, right? ... RIGHT???

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Comments

[saynotobugs]

Yeah, but don't let them skip you over anyway. You seem like a good kid. Don't wanna let you get walked all over.

[i_peace]

I'll be okay- Wait, 'Kid'? [laugh] I don't think we're that different in age... Are we?

[it's hard to tell sometimes and he doesn't want to offend]

[saynotobugs]

Heh, not by much. Just, I remember being new to this stuff too. Not the Dreamer thing, obviously. Just... life out here.

[i_peace]

[a pause before he says, a little teasing;] ... Office party life?

Hmm... I'm not particularly picky, so I don't mind everyone getting their favourites first. The lines will slow down later, right?

[saynotobugs]

Sure, if it works for you. Try the onigiri if you can, though. Looks like htey put some good work into that.

[i_peace]

[a nod] They all look really good. I might try making those designs at home when I have a chance.

[saynotobugs]

You into cooking or something?

[i_peace]

Well... I'm usually the one cooking back at home. It's nothing special but being able to cook your own meals helps a lot with budgeting. [yay, leftover!]

[saynotobugs]

That's true enough. Usually. The Tomoe-24 lunch boxes are pretty cheap, though.

[i_peace]

[laughs] It's definitely a live saver! But sometimes it's just nice to have a homecooked meal too.

[saynotobugs]

Guess so. And they sure put effort into this stuff here. I gotta say it's fun.

[i_peace]

The decorations are really nice too. It feels like everyone went all out with them.

[saynotobugs]

That's one thing about the Dreamer Union. They sure care about making people happy. Then again, dealing with the consequences when you're not is kind of a Dreamer's job.

[i_peace]

Makes sense, with how Torments and Nightmares are... Everyone's doing their best in their own way, huh?

[saynotobugs]

When you say it like that, you sound like either a hero off TV or a motivational speaker.

[i_peace]

E-Eh? [he shakes his head furiously, face red] No, not at all.

[saynotobugs]

If you say so. Doesn't have to be something you're trying to do.

[i_peace]

[mumbled;] I... Guess...?

[a laugh] It's definitely not something I'm trying to do.

[saynotobugs]

You sure? Lot of people come in thinking being a Dreamer makes them some kinda TV superhero.

[i_peace]

A hero, huh...? [he laughs again, but his ears are a bit red] There are better people to fill that role than me. I just want to help however I can.

[saynotobugs]

Least you don't have delusions of grandeur. You'll get along just fine at this rate.

[i_peace]

... Was that some sort of test? [/nervous]

[saynotobugs]

[She laughs and shakes her head.] No way. I'm not some kind of secret arbiter. I'm just me. I do my job in the background so you can do all the flashy stuff.

[i_peace]

[a relieved sigh] I can't tell here...! You never know when someone's a Dreamer or not or if it's something else. [gestures vaguely]

[saynotobugs]

Nah, I'm just here for IT and general office support. I know that's supposed to be important enough or whatever, but still. No worries.