!★! 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]

Heh. Don't put yourself out. You're working hard enough as it is.

[besides, she's not gonna push when everyone has caught her depression napping in the break room at least once.]

Besides, like I said. Better to have something that gives me a heads up on what's going on out there before it starts getting at people, because then it gets in their dreams and then you all have to deal with it.

[liedol]

So even when you're not working here, you're working here... [ She gives a little laugh. ] I sure know how that feels!

[ She's 'Dreamer Ai-Doll' even in her real world career, after all – not just in the Dream Sphere.

She's eyeing Maki up and down as she says it, though. ]

Do you really never think about taking a shot at acting again? Now you've got something more stable with the DU, I thought maybe you'd give it another try.

[saynotobugs]

[Maki bristles. She looks off, shoulders stiff, and shakes her head.]

Doubt they'd even want me. I wasted enough time on that dream, and all it got me was a reputation as the girl who chickened out on live TV. All I can do now is work with what I can actually do.

[liedol]

... I guess that makes sense... [ That's a surprisingly defensive reaction from Maki of all people, though. Ai's gaze lingers on her face for a little too long to be entirely comfortable to be subjected to. ] It's just, I've never heard you say you don't want to try it again, so...

[ So why don't you? is the unspoken end to that sentence. Ai doesn't get it. Maybe she just can't understand what it feels like to try and fail? It wouldn't the first time. ]

[saynotobugs]

Wouldn't go anywhere. I'm not the only one who decided I couldn't hack it. Just the last one after everybody else got the memo.

[It was just a rough patch, she thought. Everybody goes through that. But when the calls dried up and they never started back up again, eventually she'd stopped trying.]

If I'm gonna be a statistic, "washed-up actor" is one of the nicer ways to screw up your life. I don't want to waste any more time on it. Did enough of that already.

[liedol]

[ Ai makes a considering little noise. She still looks a little uncertain, but if Maki's so sure... ]

...Well, at least you gave it a shot, huh? Even if it ended up not working out.

[ That's how you commiserate in a situation like this, right??? She hitches a smile back onto her face. ]

And besides, what would we do if you went off to be a famous actress somewhere and had to leave the DU? This whole place would fall apart without you!

[saynotobugs]

[Maki manages a bitter chuckle. Waste of time or not, at least she doesn't have to think about it anymore. Time to bury this thought and never dwell on it again and become Nightmare bait but who's counting!]

You aren't that lost without me, I bet you'd do fine. Most of you. Might just not be able to get a discount on the pizza for those glad-you're-still-alive parties.

[liedol]

No way, the whole office would fall right over! Without you here to get discount pizzas, solve our tech problems and handle the mail, I'm pretty sure the whole building would just up and explode. What is it they call it... yeah, you're our load-bearing Maki-chan!

[ Ai gives her a friendly nudge. ]

So keep up the good work!

[saynotobugs]

[Maki's eyes widen and she stands there stunned for half a second. She needs to collect herself up before shaking her head and waving it off.]

I don't think the DU is such a mess that I'm that crucial. Everyone does their job. But, uh... thanks. Yeah. I'll make sure you guys don't fall over.

[Midorikawa Maki is currently inwardly cursing herself out for acting stupid. She doesn't get starstruck. Even if Ai provably has that effect on everyone she meets and -- ugh no this is work you're working.]

[liedol]

I get what you're saying, but you have met the people who work here, right?

[ there is a REASON zeke is begging on his hands and knees for everyone to go to therapy ]

[saynotobugs]

I mean. ...Yeah. I can't even make an excuse. At least not until Sakaguchi cleans up his desk so we don't have to call the exterminator any more.

[in two days she will regret snarking about him behind his back, but,]