Happy Dreamerversary!

[beautifuldreamermods]

YUMEMIGAOKA

May is always a dicey time to have an outdoor event in Yumemigaoka but this year it seems like luck's on everyone's side. The morning of the 14th dawns with bright blue skies, beaming sunlight and a refreshing breeze - in other words, the perfect weather for an outdoor festival! As it does every year, the Dreamer Union is hosting its annual celebration of the first Dreamer Awakening now fifty-one whole years ago! Damn! Today's the day the entire community comes together to say happy anniversary, Dreamers!

Part of the DU has been opened to the public for the event - while the upstairs beyond the second floor are still off limits, a number of informational boards with quick and breezy rundowns of the DU's functions and how it supports Dreamers are set up around the atrium and on the second floor. Some are informational, some are educational, and a few have trivia quizzes on them that you can answer at the front desk to get a little token for some free food at the event.

The majority of the setup is outside, though - something between a pop-up market and a festival, with colourful sparkling banners and materials lining each stall. Some are small, independant businesses from around Yumemigaoka, some are larger organizations who sponsor the DU (they've gotta keep the lights on somehow!) and plenty of food and drink vendors. A few indie artists from the community are also selling merch and art catered to their fellow Dreamers, with imagery and in-jokes that wouldn't really mean anything to normal folks.

Some particular stalls to keep an eye out for include...


⧖ Dreamery Creamery are serving up scoops of their ice cream in all kinds of crazy flavours with a massive array of toppings and cones for you to choose from. To make things more exciting, Dreamers Sage, Soleil and Prisma are all helping out at the booth and serving ice creams themed after their Dreamer selves! How does Soleil Sorbet sound to you? Maybe Sherbert Sage? Or are you going for Prisma Pomegranate?

⧖ Dice and Dash have a shaded area set up for people to sit down, take a load off and chill out with some board games! They've got a selection of games to borrow, but so long as they're not too busy, you're free to take up a table with your own entertainment if you've got it.

⧖ Dream Weavers, famous for their position as the DU's go-to tailor, is strutting their stuff with recreations of some famous and well known Dreamers' outfits! As well as selling their goods, they're also hosting a little workshop where visitors can learn some quick and simple cosplay and sewing techniques to see how these outfits get made. Dreamers Luck, Gungir and Hanako will all be volunteering and... doing their very best at the cosplay workshop!

⧖ Hybrid Colours is selling portable wares like canvas bags, keychains and postcards of the various prints/paintings available at the gallery! Since they only just arrived at Yumemigaoka, all the locations are international or from other parts of Japan. (Aleena will do face painting or hand painted 'tattoos' for kids, teens, or the daring adult and has a small table set up with a catalogue or 'surprise me!' option for it)

⧖ The Yumemigaoka Cultural Museum has their usual setup! As well as a truncated version of their installation explaining the Dream Sphere and its history, they've set up several dioramas of places in the Dream Sphere, recreated in miniature! There's some moving elements like miniature Torments bobbing around here and there and some cute interactive gimmicks, like a button that will raise and lower the water level in the miniature Vale of Sorrow or a switch to make the volcano in mini Fury Peak go kaboom!

⧖ Finally, a soundstage has been set up just a little ways away from the rest of the stalls with plenty of sitting room for the audience. Dreamer Ai-Doll will be performing a small set of songs partway through the day and the rest of its time will be dedicated to hosting a Q&A panel of a rotating list of volunteers to answer questions about life as a Dreamer or day to day goings on at the DU. Please be aware that both Angelica AND Chloe will kill you if you post cringe on main so be on your best behaviour!

There's lots to do and plenty of time to do it in - the event runs from 10AM and starts wrapping at around 4:30PM so everyone's got time to head home for work the next day. Dreamers will be able to attend the afterparty in the Dream Sphere if they'd like to but for the most part, that's this year's event wrapped up!

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Comments

[thezekeinator]

Nah, I'm old hat by now. More of a sideshow attraction than center-stage.

[saynotobugs]

If that's the case, I'd hate to see who the star is.

[thezekeinator]

Still Ai, of course. Always has been, always will be.

[saynotobugs]

Yeah, that's basically a rhetorical question at this point. She's something, isn't she?

[thezekeinator]

Yeah, in the good ways and the bad ones both. I get exhausted just being in her presence sometimes!

[saynotobugs]

I would not be surprised if she actually just came from space or something.

[thezekeinator]

Naw. She's human, with everything that implies. It'd be easier if she was an alien.

[saynotobugs]

You say that now. Security's enough as it is, I don't wanna think about if we also had to deal with scientists trying to kidnap Hoshino and study her in a jar.

...Ai-lien.

[thezekeinator]

[That gets Zeke to snicker vigorously. Nice one.]

And yet I'd still worry about her less in that situation!

[saynotobugs]

She'll be fine. It's not her I'm generally worried about.

[thezekeinator]

[Well, that manages to sober Zeke up a little.]

The fact that she isn't is even more proof of why she should be.

[saynotobugs]

[Maki pauses. She studies Zeke with a frown.]

...Something's up. What's going on?

[thezekeinator]

Ai's an idol. Don't tell me you don't know what that means. And then you add in she's also a huge face of the DU.

[Ai may not have to deal with Idol Group Politics like some others, but all the other baggage remains. Always having to be 'on'. Dealing with the ridiculous expectations of fans, who would flip if they so much as saw a guy in the same building as her. Celebrity baggage like stalking. She can't even properly mentor people in the DU any more because of her own fame -- anyone who got attached to her would get all the wrong attention...]

That girl's a ticking time bomb that I'm desperately trying to defuse. Much like every other Dreamer, just worse.

[saynotobugs]

[Maki frowns. She doesn't speak for a while, but folds her arms and nods quietly.]

...So worst-case scenario, either she gets hurt out here, or we have another Dream World incident. And with how beloved she is, either way, the results aren't gonna be good.

[thezekeinator]

That's not worst-case. After all, we've been saving people from their Disturbances, not losing them to them... [And they occasionally get a little better afterwards? Mio's been doing all right for herself lately, at least.] But I still don't want it to happen.

[saynotobugs]

Yeah. Me either. She does a lot for us. Maybe we're not appreciating it enough.

[thezekeinator]

She's tied up in it too, though. She's got that feeling where she's got to be always on, you know? Can't stop and take some time for herself.

[saynotobugs]

You talked to her about that kinda thing?

[thezekeinator]

[Zeke glances at Maki out of the corner of his eye, because -- c'mon. This is Zeke. He never, ever hesitates to tell someone exactly what mental damage they're doing to themselves.]

Mostly now I basically just force her. You know, step in, tell her I'm taking over her duties for the next few days, go enjoy herself. I think it says a jolly lot that the DU keeps letting me do that despite me not even working there.

[saynotobugs]

You know, I think people just forget you don't at this point.

[thezekeinator]

Well, one of the advantages of being Director is that I can set 'DU liaison' as part of my work... But I still think people know Ai works way too hard as a rule.

[saynotobugs]

She sure does. I don't know how she does it, and I should.

[thezekeinator]

Constant mental and emotional debt and damage, of course. I'm amazed she hasn't thrown a Disturbance of your own yet, despite everything I'm throwing in her way to stop it.

[saynotobugs]

[It sounds completely foreign. Ai? Perfect, cheerful, flawless Ai? But Maki thinks to that incident with the weird fan mail, where she ended up screening Ai's calls for a while. What is going on with this? Is it... Zeke has to be right. Even if it feels wrong.

Nobody's perfect.]

...We'll get there if we get there. But I hope we don't. That's the last thing she needs.

[thezekeinator]

You know she can't openly be a mentor to younger Dreamers because they'd get all sorts of attention that'd wreck them if it became public? And let's not even get started on the idol industry. It's not a matter of "if we get there", it's "how can we stop this train from shooting over the cliff it's inevitably headed straight towards".

[His voice sounds like, but that just makes his overall impression all the more grim.]

She's not the only one, either. I see it coming in a whole bunch of people. She's just the one who's been bearing the most weight for the longest time.