Tanabata Log

[beautifuldreamermods]

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?

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Comments

[determinationtofist]

[1] Festival Fun!

[ Hibiki's been... off for a while now. Her greetings have been less enthusiastic, her glomps less frequent, her smiles more... forced. To be honest, that can still be said for her, even now. ]

Ah!! I got it, I got it!!

[ ...but it does look like she's steadily getting better. Case and point, she just managed to toss a ring onto the furthest target, scoring a whopping 10 at Ring Toss. Earning her a very large and very round chicken plushie. ]

Uwah...! It's so big...

[ Seriously, she's squeezing it to her chest from the middle and it's still going above her head in height. She looks... happy. Proud of herself, even. Then she sees you. ]

...Ah! Were you looking at this one?

[ She smiles... and it's a real one, or at least the realest one this month. Coming to the festival must have been the right idea after all, huh? ]

[2] Festival... Unfun...

[ Hibiki was having fun. She was having fun. She was having a good time. She even had Miku with her. It was a fun little date... but they got separated in the crowd. So Hibiki was looking for her. You might've even heard her calling Miku's name as she waded through the crowd.

But... when you see her, she's not with Miku. Instead, she's with an older, middle-aged man with light brown hair, just like Hibiki's. He's working at one of the food stalls, and he's staring at Hibiki with wide eyes. A look of shock that Hibiki herself is returning.

Hibiki says something, but it's drowned out by the crowd of people... and next thing you know it, she's sprinting away with her head down like she's running for her life. ]

A-Ah! Hibiki...!

[ The man calls out to her, but doesn't pursue, stuck where he's standing with a dumbfound look on his face. Hibiki, meanwhile... she's still sprinting. Where? Anywhere but here... and she's fast too. ]

[3] Dreamsphere

[ It can't have been him. There's no way, right? Why would he be here? It's way too coincidental.

Even as the night ended, as everyone started slipping into one big dream, Hibiki hadn't calmed down at all. Outwardly, sure... but on the inside? It feels like she can't breathe. Why did she run? Why is she reacting this way? It's... this should be a good thing, right...!?

At some point, as Hibiki wandered the Dreamsphere trying to get her head in order... she found herself in front of the tree without realizing it. Last time she was here, it was... nice. Embarrassing, definitely, but... it had been nice.

This time, though, when she looks up in realization at where she is... she sees something new. It's not the same dream as it was last time. The same man from the festival is there, but he's younger... more well-kept, too.

There's also herself. Small, innocent, tiny little Hibiki Tachibana. She's happy, she's smiling a bright, wide, goofy little smile befitting a girl her age... and the man is smiling just as brightly, his big hand ruffling her hair and— ]

No!!

[ And there she goes, taking off running again... even faster this time, since this is the Dreamsphere. The image fades away like smoke in the wind as Hibiki runs from the vision the tree showed her, the wish deep in her heart. ]

2

[reluctants]

[ Do you know what the problem with sprinting is, Hibiki?

Sure, it's a good way to get away from something - but the problem is the you might run into something. Or someone. Maybe Hibiki was just so overwhelmed that she isn't thinking, but after a little while she manages to bump right into someone in the crowd. Someone relatively small enough to overlook.

And considering Illya is so small, she immediately falls down with a pained yelp when Hibiki runs into her like that at full speed. It takes a moment for her to even realise what happened, since it kind of feels like a freight train ran into her. But no, it's just-- ]

H-Hibiki-san..?

[determinationtofist]

Gah...!

[ To Illya's credit, running into her at full speed causes Hibiki to stumble and fall as well, if only because of how unbalanced she is as she sprints. She looks around frantically, her eyes eventually landing on Illya. ]

I-Illya-chan...!

[ But her eyes don't stay on her for very long. Instead, they turn to look in the direction she'd been running away from, as if worried she was being followed... ]

I-I...

[reluctants]

[ Well, this doesn't seem great. Illya can't think of any time she's seen Hibiki like this before. The other is already less prone to freaking out than Illya herself is, but even at the rare times she has seen Hibiki more freaked out, it was never like this. Never the other girl seeming.. scared, almost.

It seems like such an odd way to think of Hibiki when Illya has never seen the other as anything other than brave and strong. ]

I-It's okay!

[ Does Illya think she can do anything about something even Hibiki of all people seems scared of?

No. But she can try.

It means she quickly moves back up onto her feet, holding a hand towards the other girl. ]

Come on! Do you need to get away from here? I-- I'll come with you!

[ She can figure out what more to do later. If Hibiki is awkward and uncomfortable right now, then Illya's priority is absolutely with getting the other girl out of here first. ]

[determinationtofist]

[ Brave and strong has always been what Hibiki's tried to be, tried to match the image of strength in her own head. She wouldn't say she's managed to do that perfectly, but she'd say she's done an alright job with it regardless. She's strong, she's reliable, she helps people without bending or breaking...

But right now, she just can't get herself to feel that way, no matter how much she wants to. ]

A-Ah...! N-No, it's fine! I'm fine, Illya-chan!

[ But... she doesn't take Illya's hand. She gets up on her own, still trying to force herself back into her "normal" anyways. ]

I'm... I'm fine. Really...

[reluctants]

[ Illya watches the older girl with big, worried eyes.

You're clearly not okay, she wants to say, but it feels too bold in this moment. If Hibiki is trying this hard to say the opposite, then she's got to have a good reason for it, even if Illya isn't sure what it is. Still.. It's so hard to just watch the other look like this. What could even have happened to reduce Hibiki of all people to a state like this? ]

Did something happen..?

[ It feels like the safer question. It at least doesn't imply something is wrong, only that something happened! T-That doesn't even have to be a negative thing, right?

Even though Illya feels like something negative sure happened. Especially with Hibiki not accepting any help, Illya's held out hand uselessly dropping after it's not been taken to instead hang by her side. ]

[determinationtofist]

[ Alas, Illya... if there's one thing Hibiki is confident of, it's her ability to avoid roundabout questions like that. ]

...Nope! Nothing you need to worry about, at least!

[ Hibiki can see the worry in Illya's eyes, and... well, that just can't stand, can it? Hibiki-onee-san needs to be strong, reliable, unshaking. She's the one who kids like Illya go to when they have problems, not the other way around. ]

I mean, come on! Can you imagine anything that I can't handle? Trust me, I'm fine...

[ Everything's alright, everything's fine... ]

3

[thezekeinator]

Hey! What are we running from?

[Chaosbringer cheats, of course; keeping up with someone fast isn't too much of a problem when your movement power is ranked as high as his is. Also he's much larger, so longer legs is a cheap advantage.]

[determinationtofist]

[ Unfair! Hibiki is trying to run away from her problems here, dang it! How can she do that with someone keeping up with her!? ]

Nothing...!!

[ She's also not singing, a crucial part in what makes Hibiki so physically terrifying, so it's that much easier to keep up with her.

It also makes it easier to see that Hibiki is wiping tears away from her eyes as she runs. ]

[thezekeinator]

[EXACTLY]

Oh come on, can we jolly skip the unbelievable lie part of this? It's obviously something!

[determinationtofist]

[ It's something... it's something that she can't ignore... she can't run from it...

She suddenly turns on her heel, skidding to a halt so she can look right at Chaosbringer and— ]

It's NOT!!

[ ...With an anger very unusual to hear from Hibiki of all people, stubbornly yell back at her pursuer. ]

[thezekeinator]

[Chaosbringer comes to a halt quite dramatically, barely even needing to skid -- then folds his arms.]

Come on. You can't just sweep it away when it's hit you that hard. Unless you're angling to be our next Disturbance victim.

[determinationtofist]

[ …It occurs to Hibiki only after she’s done it that she raised her voice, and she immediately regrets it, shrinking back and looking away. ]

…It’s nothing. I’m serious. I won’t.

[ Something like this… it’s so small compared to everyone else’s problems when they caused a disturbance, it’s not about to happen for her. ]

…And it’s personal.

2

[rubykomachi]

--??
[Ruby witnesses this happen, and with a suspicious look to the old man, takes off to follow Hibiki. The other girl may be faster, but thankfully she's distinct enough that Ruby can keep an eye on her until she comes to a stop.]

H-Hibiki-chaaan....wait up!!

[Ruby breathes out weakly.] What that guy--oh god my lungs--was he bothering you??

[determinationtofist]

[ Honestly, good on Ruby for actually managing to keep up with Hibiki long enough to catch up with her... especially since Hibiki has plenty of stamina left to keep running. She only stopped because... well, she figured she was far enough away. Just think of this as an important and necessary exercise for becoming an idol, Ruby. ]

R... Ruby-chan...

[ Hibiki looks up from taking a breather herself, only now noticing that she's been followed, being so focused on running that she hadn't even heard Ruby's voice calling out to her... but at least it's not him. It's just... it's just Ruby. She likes Ruby. Ruby is a friend, Ruby is her friend, Ruby is... ]

Ah... Ah! S-Sorry, Ruby-chan! I didn't hear you! No, no I'm fine! I just... I really needed to run, y'know?

[ Not even Hibiki feels really proud of that reasoning. She could've just said that yes, that old guy was bothering her, but... she couldn't bring herself to say such a thing. Not about him.

So instead she just... tries to build back up her usual air of cheeriness as best she can. ]

[rubykomachi]

You didn't? Jeez, you're fast!

[She wheezes a little bit to get herself back together, and looks up at her with a frown.]

You're sure about that? Because you looked kind of upset...

[Ruby doesn't want to think that Hibiki is lying to her--then again, she also knows what it's like to have a good reason to keep some stuff hidden.]

I'll take down any weird men that try to bother you, Hibiki-chan! Hubert-san actually taught me all this stuff about vital points to hit someone at in a pinch!

[determinationtofist]

E-Ehhh? Did I? W-Well, I'm not! Ahaha!

[ It's forced, but it's the best laugh Hibiki can muster in response. She feels bad, lying to Ruby, but... what other alternative does she have? Bother Ruby with her dumb, family drama? It's personal, and she should handle personal stuff herself... that's only natural, right? ]

Ah, really!? Maybe I should ask him to give me some pointers myself!

[ Change the subject change the subject change the subject— As if Hibiki needs any help with knowing how to hit somebody... not that she's ever wanted to throw a punch at anybody outside of the dreamsphere. ]

[rubykomachi]

Hibiki-chan...

[Ruby can tell Hibiki is at minimum keeping the whole truth from her. She doesn't like it, but less from being lied to and more from how useless she feels trying to help her friend.]

We don't have to go back yet. If you wanna make sure you're okay and we don't run into him again.

2

[liedol]

[ With a festival this busy and Hibiki running so fast, a collision is kind of inevitable and it just so happens there's an idol with a mask slightly obscuring her peripheral vision who's in just the right place for the two of them to crash into each other. ]

Whoa! [ Thankfully, they're both tiny girls so neither of them barrels over but it's a close call. ] Jeez, what's the - Hibiki-chan?

[ Before she can get a chance to tear off again, Ai grabs her shoulders to steady her. ]

What's wrong? Are you okay?

[determinationtofist]

Gwah...!

[ Hibiki doesn't have the excuse of wearing a mask. With her head down, it was inevitable that she would crash into someone. That it took this long to barrel into anybody is a small miracle in and of itself...

Or at least it would be if it didn't mean crash into Ai specifically. ]

A-Ai-san...!?

[ She's a little stunned, the collision having knocked her off-balance, only to suddenly be grounded again by someone's hands on her shoulders. For a second, her brain irrationally fears that he caught up with her.

Her eyes are wide for that brief moment, but at the very least, it quickly settles in that this is Ai... but with the removal of that fear comes guilt over who she just nearly crashed into. ]

I-I'm...

[ ...So she can't rebuild her walls in time, and Ai gets a glimpse of a girl who is well and truly panicked. ]

[liedol]

[ Ice drops into Ai's stomach.

Hibiki's an expressive girl - all of her feelings come through so bright and so loud that even Ai has no trouble reading them most of the time. So she knows for certain that she's never seen Hibiki make a face like that before. And even though she doesn't know exactly what caused it, for her to be running like that...

She can make a guess. ]

Okay. [ It's so obviously not even remotely okay. But her voice is steady. ] Hibiki-chan, is someone following you? Should I call someone over?

[determinationtofist]

[ Her expression stays like that for a moment, frozen as Hibiki struggles to process what's happening... but what her face must look like right now is the first thing Hibiki figures out. ]

A-Ah...! U-Um... [ Panic... but for a different reason. She quickly rubs any forming tears away from her eyes with her arm as she tries to get rid of whatever expression she had on her face. ] N-No! It's fine! No...

[ She fails, and she looks back in the direction she was running away from... to see nobody there.

...To be honest, she's not sure if that hurts more or less than the alternative. Would it have been better if he had chased after her? The last thing she saw of him was him hesitantly reaching out... and uncertainty turned to panic, so she ran... ]

...No one's following me. I'm... I'm fine...

[ He's not there. He didn't run after her. Or did he run after her, only to lose her in the crowd? How did he feel when he saw her? Was he happy to see her again? Was he upset? She doesn't know... and she's afraid—

...Ah, that's it, isn't it? She ran first and thought about it later, but... that's it, isn't it? She's afraid to find out. Find out if he cares, or if he doesn't care, or... ]

...S-Sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, so...

[liedol]

[ She's babbling. It's not like Hibiki at all - she talks a lot but never like this, stumbling and tripping all over her words, pouring them out like she's scared of what will happen if she doesn't fill the silence. Like that, she almost sounds like...

Well. She sounds like Ai. And she's been doing this long enough to say with confidence that it's never a good thing when her trainees start taking after her. And while Hibiki might not be one of hers on paper, she sure is in spirit.

Ai's fingers tighten on her shoulders. ]

Hibiki-chan, did someone scare you? You don't have to say who or what happened. But we can go and find security if you're not feeling safe.

2

[ruinedsky]

[ In the moments where Hibiki is frozen, Sylvain notices her in the crowd. First because she stands out with that overly stiff posture, and then because her face looks so familiar. It clicks for him, that she's a student at Promised Morning and one of the dreamers he fought with during the anniversary event, at the same moment she takes off running. His attention is drawn back by the sound of the man calling her name. Hmm. ]

[ He doesn't take off at full speed, but this mans is a grown jock so he can run well enough to keep an eye on her. If she stops, he will catch up to talk, and if she keeps running and running he will call out to her. ]

Tachibana-san!

[determinationtofist]

[ Hibiki's pretty up there in terms of physical ability, but it's not like she diligently plays any sports, so she falls short of an actual jock—and an adult one at that—in terms of pure running speed.

Fortunately, she does eventually come to a stop... at which point her head snaps around in response to somebody calling her name again. Her eyes are briefly wide in panic... but the use of her last name is at least enough to tell her it's not who she thinks it is.

...not that she's sure about whether she's relieved or disappointed, in that regard. ]

L... I mean... Sylvain-san...

[ She's still catching her breath, and she nearly calls him "Luck-san" instead before she remembers his actual name. ]