!★! 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???

code

Comments

[reluctants]

Sorry, Keiwa.. Illya doesn't even realise she's making him look kind of ridiculous here at the party - or maybe just like he's the local designated babysitter or something, allowing this tiny young girl to give him a costume.

.. as far as you can call this a costume. But at least it's a little bit better than nothing at all in Illya's eyes, and considering the sheer amount of concentration in her eyes and eyebrows, it does seem like the girl is trying her hardest to apply the bandages carefully, trying to make it look as good as she can as she wraps them around Keiwa's head, fiddling with his bangs to allow them to fall over the bandages.

Sure, he's a mummy, but he's clearly a fashionable one.

"There.. Now it looks a little bit more like you're in the Halloween mood, right? You can go tell everyone you're a mummy if they ask!"

And they might ask.

Because he kind of just looks like a guy who bumped his head and so it had to be bandaged up or something. And yet Illya looks so proud..

[i_peace]

"A mummy... Huh," he sounds unconvinced, raising a hand up to touch the bandages on his head. He has a hard enough time saying 'no' to regular people he comes across, do you think he'd be able to do it when the little girl in front of him looks so pleased with her work? Keiwa just smiles at her all the same.

Someone is likely going to ask, what with this haphazard nature of the 'costume'. He's going to cheerfully say that the costume was Illya's idea (and isn't it nice?), because it was thoughtful of her to consider him like that. Even if the end results just made him look like he'd bumped his head on something. If it makes Illya happy, then Keiwa was happy to play along.

"Better than having nothing at all, right?" He lowers his hand from the bandages to hold in a high five gesture for her. He's still kneeling down so she doesn’t have to jump or do anything excessive to do the high five.

[reluctants]

"Exactly..!"

Because clearly there is no greater sin than being stuck without a costume at a Halloween party.. Especially in the eyes of a kid who is - relatively speaking - young enough that she just truly loves the dressing up in costumes part of Halloween. It's so important to her. How could any single adult - or just generally any older person - think of skipping out on the most important part?

Hence why Illya looks terribly pleased as she moves her own hand to give him that high five. She's practically sparkling over here with that smile on her face.

"S-See.. I can help out with a whole lot of things!" She sounds pretty proud of herself as she says it - and perhaps a tad surprised, since it's not something Illya ever thinks about herself.

But since this is the second time she's managed to help out Keiwa, it's a little harder to deny in this moment that she can do this.

[i_peace]

"Yeah, you've helped me a lot," he agrees gently, unconsciously reaching over to pat Illya's head as he stands up. From someone else, it might come off patronizing, but the look on Keiwa's face is sincere and honest. It's not his place to try and figure out what the surprise in Illya's voice meant but he could, at least, try and encourage her to keep doing her best for others.

And she looks so happy. How could anyone pop that bubble? It's the little bits of happiness you find in life that makes it worthwhile.

"Have you tried any of the food yet?" Keiwa asks. "At least, I wouldn't want to hold you up. You've already helped me find a costume, you should still show off yours... Right?"

[reluctants]

She slowly nods.

"You're right.. There's still so much to do at the party!" And while Illya is usually a little bit too shy of a type for a party this size, the Halloween theming does seem to help.. If nothing else, being able to show off her own costume - like he says - means that she actually has a pretty good ice breaker for conversations for once.

"I'll go and enjoy it, but.. um, you please do the same, okay? It's only Halloween once a year, you know..!"

[i_peace]

He makes a face, like he's seriously considering what Illya's saying for a moment, before nodding with a smile.

"Of course! Everyone put so much effort into this party, it would be rude if I didn't, right?" Keiwa says, cheerfully. Then he adds; "And that includes you too, Illya-chan.

"And don't worry, I'll return these the next time I see you."