!★! 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

[liedol]

[ On the one hand, this is about the worst possible way they could have encountered each other at this party. On the other, that makes this the objectively funniest way for this encounter to have happened, more or less??? ]

Jeez, don't go spilling drinks all over the place. Does it look like I have anywhere to keep a hankie right now?

[ Hypothetically she probably could have come up with one given that this is the Dream Sphere but where's the fun in that? ]

It's not bad, right? I mean, we never took the bunny thing this far back in B-Komachi, but...

[darknesshotpot]

B-Komachi really missed out. But I'm guessing that outfit doesn't come with pockets, huh?

[Not a chance. Not even the Dream Sphere could manage that degree of spatial distortion.

Belatedly remembering that his powers are useful for once, Ango conjures a hankie out of thin air and uses it to blot at the strawberry cocktail stain on his pirate. It smells more like sugar than alcohol, but at barely over 150cm, Ai's probably an ultra-lightweight when it comes to liquor. If they were in the real world, he'd probably have to carry her home after a couple of drinks... but then again, Ai would never cut loose like this in the real world. She's the DU's idol, after all... if some social media stalker got a photo of her in the company of a loser like him, he'd get at least twice as many death threats as usual.]

Hey, you didn't get splashed, did you?

[He'd look, but he's not sure where it's safe to look. Normally, kinky cosplay is like, at least a second or third date kind of thing, and he and Ai haven't even gone out for coffee together... but it's Halloween so Halloween rules apply, right? What are Halloween rules, anyway?

...Damn it, he's overthinking. Ango has been to more than a few Kabukicho clubs with scantily clad bunny waitresses, so why is he so flustered?]

If you did, don't worry - this coat can hold so many hankies.

[He pulls another bunny print handkerchief out of his coat pocket... but it's tied to another hankie, and another, and another, until he's produced a colorful scarf. It's a cheap magic trick (and he's cheating with his Dreamer powers, anyway), but even after quitting his job as a writer, Ango can't help but be an entertainer.

[liedol]

[ Cheap trick it may be but Ai's face absolutely lights up. Maybe it's just that she's caught off guard or maybe it's the let's not count how many cocktails that had led the way for her spilled one but she bursts into a peal of delighted laughter and even gives him a little round of applause for his troubles. ]

Oh wow, you really have been practicing! You know, I think we can call the future of the Dream Sphere safe and secure right here, right now.

[ Still giggling to herself, she graciously accepts the bundle of hankies and gets to dabbing herself dry. The spill had mostly been contained to her arm, but there's a few stray splashes on her ne....ck.... area............ l–let's just tell ourselves that what she's dabbing right now is her collarbone and move on. ]

What else can you pull out of there?

[darknesshotpot]

[He has been practicing lately, and with surprising diligence. Current career nonwithstanding, Ango is still a mystery novelist at heart... so he can't resist a missing persons cold case. Finding Crimson (and Reverie, if she's still alive) could be the key to figuring out what's really going on in the Dream Sphere, but Ango's only chance of getting close enough to ask questions is to throw everything into developing his stupid cheat skills.]

It's a good thing I'm here to save the Dream Sphere from hankie-related emergencies, right?

[He manages to laugh off her little joke before his throat goes completely dry. He was so distracted by, well, everything else on display that he almost failed to notice her neck... and from there, his eyes follow the gentle path of her collarbone down to... someplace a guy like him could get lost in. He tears his gaze away, grinning sheepishly.]

Haha... I can make pretty much anything that I can imagine clearly, so...

[With a theatrical flourish, he pulls a bouquet of purple roses from his coat pocket. Roses in such a color don't exist in nature, but here, he's only limited by what he can dream up.]

[liedol]

[ Spill mostly dealt with, she loops the string of hankies loosely around her neck like a makeshift tie – again, no pockets – and promptly plucks one of those purple roses so she can give it an up close look. ]

Ohh, these aren't half bad at all! You got the texture down just right! [ because of course the DU's idol would have gotten enough bouquets to tell the difference. as occupational hazards for idols go, this one really isn't so bad. ] I never really took you for a flowers kind of guy, though.

[ That said, she's popping the flower right behind her ear. Th–the accessorizing on this bunny outfit is getting increasingly confused... ]

Next time we're putting together a party like this, you should volunteer! I bet you'd be a lifesaver when it comes to whipping up decorations.

[darknesshotpot]

[Ango has somehow managed to kill plastic houseplants, and his knowledge of flower language is limited to "red roses for dates, white chrysanthemums for funerals." An idol like Ai probably gets showered with bouquets from adoring fans, though, so maybe all flowers start looking the same to her after a while.]

Hell, I barely know the difference between roses and daisies. [He grins.] That color suits you, but I'm guessing you're a "food over flowers" kind of girl? You know, I'm a pretty decent cook~

[He's gotten rather proficient at making food in the Dream Sphere, even though being able to conjure snacks out of thin air lacks the fun of cooking an actual meal from scratch. But with only a secondhand rice cooker and an electric hot plate back at his tiny apartment in the real world, it's gonna be a while before he's hosting hot pot parties again. Not that he has anybody left to invite, anyway.]

I could probably get a job with the DU Events Committee... but then I'd have to move my rat's nest of a desk closer to Maki's, and there's no way she'd tolerate that!

[liedol]

Got it in one! Not that I'm much better at cooking than I am with plants... you know, I once got it into my head I was going to really buckle down and get good at raising them so I bought one of those little succulents – the kind that are supposed to be basically impossible to kill? And I got really good at remembering to water it, but then my schedule changed and I completely forgot and by the time I went back to check on it, it was dry as a bone and I was like – guess that's game over, then!

[ She laughs merrily enough, even if the whole thing had broken her heart a bit at the time. It sometimes makes her wonder if it's not a bit of a miracle that she managed to raise two entire babies without some major disaster or other. ]

Moving desks would be a good excuse to get it all tidied up, though, right? [ She gives him a friendly nudge in the side. ] Maybe this is the start of an unlikely friendship for you and Maki-chan?

[darknesshotpot]

"Impossible to kill?" Sounds like a challenge to me!

[It's gotta be hard to manage things like houseplants as an idol, with all the touring and on-location photoshoots... it was hard enough for Ango to handle taking out the garbage on time when he he was doing book signings and promotional appearances, even though he rarely had to leave Tokyo. Still, it would be kind of nice to have a pet or something to come home to, but a dog or cat is definitely out of the question for someone who can't take care of himself... he tried giving names to the cockroaches under his kitchen sink, but even he can't tell them apart.]

Me and Maki-chan are already tight. She always tells me when they're gonna clear out the break room fridge, so I can snag all the lightly expired stuff. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is. I mean, she probably wants to kill me sometimes...

[...Which is definitely not a point against her.]

But I guess I'm basically impossible to kill, too.

[liedol]

[ She huffs another laugh – certainly less merry, toned down just a bit to mirror the darker joke. Once again, though, she gives Ango a friendly poke in the side with her elbow. ]

I sure hope that's the case! We want you sticking around for as long as you can, okay? So definitely no getting killed if you can avoid it.

[ sometimes you just write a joke for an audience of yourself and nobody else ]

[darknesshotpot]

That's definitely the plan! You wouldn't believe the number of death threats a guy like me gets, haha... actually, maybe you would.

[Everybody in the entertainment industry has heard the stories about deranged fans stalking their favorite idols - even Ango has ocassionally received the kind of fan letters that make him want to check his locks and sleep with a kitchen knife under his pillow. But with Ango abandoning his social media and not publishing anything in well over a year, these days the threats are coming less from overly invested fans and more from creditors promising to burn his house down if he doesn't pay up. Living in the park threw them off his trail for a few months, but now that he's got a paycheck and an apartment, it didn't take them long to figure out where he was hiding.]

But don't worry! The ninja theme ain't for nothing, you know - I'm an expert at ninja-ing my way out of trouble.