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yumemigaoka2024-07-07 02:09 pm
beautifuldreamermods) wrote in yumemigaoka2024-07-07 02:09 pm
Tanabata Log
YUMEMIGAOKA
As it is every year, Yumemigaoka's annual Tanabata festival is held at the street just outside of the Hikawa Shrine. The street and the shrine itself have been closed off during the day beforehand and despite the absolute rancid weather, the community has come together to get the festival space set up and ready for everyone to enjoy. And somehow, as they usually do, things just seem to come together somehow.
Come seven in the evening, the street opens to pedestrians and the festival finally kicks off. A steady, misty drizzle of rain persists through the entire evening but somehow, it just adds to the dreamy atmosphere. Hanging lanterns twinkle with raindrops and cast a warm glow over the street, paper stars are fluttering gently down from strings strung between lampposts and stalls line the full length of the street with food offerings, festival games and just about everything in between. In the wake of all the chaos over the last few months, isn't it nice that some things are still simple, quiet and unchanged?
For folks looking for games, they can enjoy:
- ⧖ The most popular stalls, the shooting games! Using a gun loaded with paper bullets (so, you know, mostly harmless) the aim of the game is to get a clean hit on one of the prizes along the back of the booth and knock it down! The prizes are mostly candy, snacks or kids' toys but they're deceptively hard to get a good shot at...
⧖ Goldfish scooping, a summertime classic! Using a scooper with a thin sheet of paper for the net, try your best to catch as many goldfish swimming around the water below. Do well enough and you'll win a prize and you might even be able to take your goldfish home - make sure to take good care of it!
⧖ Senbonbiki is basically pure luck - bundles of prizes, usually candies and small toys, are strung up along the top of the stall and you just have to give the corresponding other end of the string a tug. Whichever bundle of snacks comes down is yours! Of course, if you're particularly unlucky then you might get a dud or penalty prize... but surely nobody's luck is THAT bad, right?
⧖ Ring toss! Throw rings onto targets marked "1" through "10", each worth different amounts depending on where they land. Beat the high score and you'll win a prize! Though do you really want to walk around the whole festival with a giant plushie under your arm all night...?
There's also a ton of options for Japanese street food; some traditional, others more modern takes. There's fried stuff, grilled skewers, rice balls, all manner of delicious noodle dishes and mountains of sweets too; taiyaki, chocolate covered bananas, shaved ice, cotton candy, and just about everything and anything else you'd want to spend an evening stuffing your belly with. And naturally there are plenty of drinks available including freshly squeezed fruit juice and tea and some booze for those who feel like playing with fire.
Aside from the rest of the festivities, the main event is really the hanging of wishes - it is Tanabata, after all. A few tables at the top of bottom of the street have been set up to carefully shelter them from the rain and have a whole rainbow of tanzaku for people to write and hang their wishes on the bamboo trees both in the street and in the shrine down below. You can hang as many wishes as you like, if you're feeling particularly greedy, but...
The festival doesn't really reach its peak until darkness falls and, undeterred by the continued drizzle, the Hikawa Shrine lights up the sky with its famous annual fireworks show - it's always pretty spectacular but perhaps out of spite for the nasty weather, it looks even more fantastic than usual this year.
With the fireworks done, the festival begins wrapping up and it's time to head home. But just as with last year, the night's festivities seem to have only just begun and as you drift off to sleep that night, you feel a gentle unmooring as you're carried off to somewhere new...
THE DREAM SPHERE
Most people in Yumemigaoka seem to have known what was coming tonight and sure enough, it's happened again - a week's worth of dreams of a strangely vivid image, an enormous bamboo tree with a wide canopy of leaves under a dazzling night sky, just like last year. And, just like last year, when you fall asleep on Tanabata evening, you find yourself arriving Somewhere Else.
The dream unfolds as an expansive open field, drenched in the silvery light of a magnificently star-spangled sky above and cut through with a river of flowing water that reflects the sky so clearly, it looks to be filled with stars of its own. Just like the real festival, there's a fine rain drizzling down from the sky, filling the air with mist and the sweet fragrance of the hundreds of tiny, bell-shaped flowers swaying lazily in the grass. And at the center of the field, just as it was last time, is the bamboo tree from your dreams. In the year since last Tanabata, it seems to have somehow gotten even taller and even though it's so huge, though, it doesn't seem like a threatening presence at all. Its branches are spread out even wider than before, hanging low enough for you to reach out and touch and this time, they're not just weighed down by tanzaku strips but glass wind chimes, too, that tinkle and sing whenever the breeze rustles the trees.
It seems tht once again, the magic of those two starcrossed lovers has allowed everyone in Yumemigaoka to cross the Dream Sphere tonight, Dreamer or not! The effect will only last until morning, at which point the dream will unravel, so you might as well enjoy it while you're here. Many of the mundane dreamers will find they're able to move differently in the Dream Sphere, running faster and jumping impossibly high and long distances with nary a scratch to show for it; no magic of their own yet, but at least enough to have a little fun while they're here.
There's a little bit of natural magic at play here in the environment, too. If you approach the tree with a wish in mind, there's no need to write it down; it'll appear in pretty, sparkly ink on an appropriately colored tanzaku strip, already tied to the tree. Or if you go to peer at your reflection in the river, you might see it take on a shape that reflects the wish you're carrying in your heart.
... Except...
What sort of things are you really wishing for? The things you won't admit out loud to anyone, or even to yourself? The deepest wishes right in the darkest part of your heart that you want more than anything? Unfortunately for you, this tree seems to be of a mind to grant wishes and once it's gathered enough of everybody's tanzaku, there's a bright flash of light...
And suddenly everyone's secret wishes have been made manifest... though only in the Dream Sphere, of course. These can be anything from silly wishes to something more serious - the important part is that these secret dreams and wishes have been pulled out of your head and put on display for everyone here to see! How on earth are you going to deal with this gracefully?!
Regardless of what you choose to do, the apparitions only last for an hour or so before fading away and the sky lights up with a beautiful meteor shower that seems to go on forever. You're free to stay and watch the meteor shower and enjoy your last moments in the Dream Sphere for as long as you like but eventually, as you're watching the stars streak down from the sky, the dream around you begins to gradually fade away until you find yourself stirring in your own bed. Though it was an exceptionally busy dream, you find you're well rested and... okay, maybe a little embarrassed after all that.
Nobody will be able to return to that strange field or find the dream to stabilize it but... maybe that's fine. Aren't some things all the more special for only happening once a year?
no subject
[ And off Aqua goes, sprinting after Ango with everything she has. He's already so furious that being called a stalker barely even registers. This image of Ai that Ango's mind has dreamt up is possibly the greatest insult he has ever given this family, so repulsive that Aqua can only react in pure unadulterated fury.
...Not that their mother wouldn't be beautiful in a wedding dress, but that thing is NOT their mother. If anything, it's proof of how little he understands her.
Unfortunately for Ango, while Aqua is lacking in any magic abilities of his own... he and every other civilian dragged into the Dreamsphere do get to benefit from the weird movement mechanics of this place. Aqua's fist is going into Ango's face even if it's the last thing he does. ]
no subject
And how the hell does stalker kid know his full name? Ango is pretty sure that he never mentioned it the last time they met, and whether as a Dreamer, a novelist or a screenwriter, he's hardly a household name... did this kid background check him?]
You've got it all wrong, kid! If Ai were to marry anybody, it sure as hell wouldn't be me!
[He can't reveal that he knows about Ai's Secret Boyfriend, though, not even to save his own skin! If this Aqua brat knew how happy Ai looked that time Ango overheard her calling home, if he knew how warm and loving her voice sounded when she was on the phone with that guy... he'd probably burn down her apartment.
Which means that Ango really only has one choice. He has to take the fall and let this stalker think that he's the secret boyfriend, to protect Ai's happiness...
He stops running, taking refuge beneath the huge bamboo tree's waving leaves.]
...But if it were me, what's it to you? You don't get to decide what she does with her life.
no subject
[ Aqua doesn't even notice how fast he's moving. He's keeping up with this fucker, and that's all that matters. He knows nothing, he can't be allowed to know anything, he's the kind of scum that needs to be stay as far away from Ai as possible. Just seeing him is enough to make Aqua lose his cool... his inner fantasy of Ai only makes it worse.
He skids against the ground as he follows Ango behind his cover and immediately takes a swing at him. ]
A piece of shit like you needs to stay the hell away from her...!!
no subject
He can't hit a kid! Especially a kid who's the twin brother of Ai's mentee!
Okay, he fought Hibiki-chan that one time, and Hanako's evil twin, but those were both Night Terror incidents so there's gotta be some kind of kid-punching free pass!]Look, buddy, I know you care a lot about Ai... but...
But she's never gonna date you! You're like, 16! Eww! That's just gross!
no subject
Ango, you didn't fight Hibiki, you got your skull caved in by her fist.Aqua's face twists in... well, rage obviously, but more than that... there's a genuine disgust at what Ango just said that really adds to how badly he wants to bury Ango in the ground. ]
And you're a broke hack who'd only drag her down to your level...!
[
Yes, Ango, he did background check you. Another swing... meant to hide the following kick aimed at Ango's shins.Ruby would be proud, he's sure.]no subject
Ow. The kid might not have much experience, but he's got plenty of anger... it's a nasty combination in a young man. Ango would know.]
You think I don't know that?
[He rubs his bruised cheek, grimacing. If Ai's fans are like this, it's no wonder she's gotta hide her personal life... why can't these freaks just leave her alone?]
I might be a broke hack, but what are you? Still living in your mom's basement, right? What have you done with your life?
no subject
[ Finally... man, they say that violence doesn't solve anything, but finally getting to sock Ango in the face is quite possibly the most satisfying thing he's done in years.
At the very least, Aqua doesn't go in for another. He takes a step back and catches his breath, rubbing his fist and looking down at the man he just had to punch before he could think straight. ]
...More than you did at my age, I'll bet.
[ It might be unfair to count memories of his past life, where he went and graduated from the Tokyo Medical University and was a competent gynecologist, but he is currently doing assistant work for a movie director. Aqua's got a pretty good handle on getting somewhere successful in life no matter what happens, if only because he's gone through it once before. ]
If you know, then keep your delusions of grandeur in check. A man like you getting close to her? A single journalist gets lucky and snaps a good photo and her career goes up in flames. You think you're worth that risk? What do you think will happen if someone else in here...!
[ He points furiously at the bridal image of his mother still in the distance, but still trying to run after Ango. ]
Sees THAT!?
no subject
...What does some pampered kid like you know about guys like me?
[Not a goddamned thing, that's for sure.]
Who are you, the Thought Police? Believe me, I'm not the only dude having dreams about her. Maybe she'd be able to have a normal life and date a normal guy if it weren't for obsessive creeps like you!
no subject
[ Hah. Pampered. Aqua may not know everything about Ango, his ability to background check individuals has it's limits, but he knows more about Ango than Ango knows about him or Ai. Him or his family.
Which is good. That's how it's meant to be. It's necessary. Of all people he's the kind that can never know more, and Aqua can count Ango's ignorance among his blessings.
That didn't make it any less infuriating, though. Hearing him of all people talking about obsessive creeps. To him. ]
But you know nothing about me. And you never will.