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]

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.

[saynotobugs]

Genbu, look. You don't need to tell me twice. Failed actress, remember? I know it's a screwed-up system. All of show business is, even if you're good.

[thezekeinator]

[The way Zeke abruptly points at her to interrupt her is either rude or right next to it. Not like he cares, of course.]

Actress that stopped trying. You haven't failed till you can't try any more. And if you put half the effort into trying again that you do just keeping this whole place running despite all of us Dreamers, you'd succeed in time.

[saynotobugs]

Are you really gonna get into this? I didn't just drop it after I screwed up on one variety show. Do you know how hard I kept trying after that? How long I pounded on their doors and showed up to auditions after my phone stopped ringing? I gave up on them long after they gave up on me. One mistake and you're done out there, with how many people they have lined up to replace you.

[thezekeinator]

I don't deny what happened to you, and I also don't deny what I said.

[Wouldn't have gone down this road if she hadn't described herself as 'failed'. Huge difference between that and, 'I tried it, but it didn't work out, and I moved on', y'know?]

If nothing else, just take it as someone out there believing in you.

[saynotobugs]

That's --

[Maki wants to retort. But she goes silent, and slowly, her face falls and she folds her arms.]

...You two really are on the same page.

[thezekeinator]

What, me and Ai?

[That's who she means, right? Pardon him looking confused about this sudden turn of events!]

[saynotobugs]

Yes, you and her. What did you think I meant?

[thezekeinator]

You could've been referencing Secret Maki Backstory Character Number 1, that I don't know about. [How would he know? He didn't investigate her or anything!]

[But Zeke quickly shakes his head.] Don't mistake me for Ai. First, I practice what I preach. I've been going to therapy for years now. Second, there's none of me that's hidden. I'm not sacrificing jolly anything to live this life.

[saynotobugs]

...Hidden, huh. Whatever she's hiding is her business. I wouldn't wanna plaster my whole life to the world either. But I get what you're trying to say.

[thezekeinator]

Yeah, she's just got everyone trying to find anything she wants to hide, so she's gotta do it twenty times harder. Or not bother doing it at all, that's the real worry I've got.