Beautiful Dreamer Mod Account (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beautifuldreamermods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
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
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...
no subject
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.
no subject
[ Her protest spills out almost immediately. Maybe too quickly. So quickly that even Hibiki is a little surprised. No? But she was scared. But not because of anything he did. Not in that exact moment, anyway.
...But that's not really why. Even if that's not what Ai meant, that they could call security on her own dad... Ai had explicitly said she didn't need to say who or what happened, but just the suggestion of doing that to the father she loved...
...Does he even deserve that? Does he deserve being defended like that? He left them. Left her. Without a single word he had just... disappeared. She should be upset. She is upset! But...!
It's... he's still her dad... and she can still remember how much she had adored him once. ]
N... No, that's not necessary...
[ She brings down her own energy, realizing how strongly she had reacted, and averts her eyes from Ai. Is it too much to hope that this is enough to convince her? Probably. She's already shown too much of her negativity, she can't expect Ai to just leave it alone, even if that's what Hibiki really wishes she would do right now. The last thing she wants is to worry Ai of all people. ]
I-I just... nobody did anything. [ That much is the truth. All he had done is stared at her with the same dumbfounded expression that was probably on her own face as well, reached out... and she ran. ] I just... saw someone. A-And I didn't know what to do, so I...
no subject
Mm. Okay. But I still think you need a minute to calm down and catch your breath.
[ Her hand drifts down and she takes Hibiki's elbow, gently but firmly starting to lead her through the crowd. ]
Come on. I'll get you some water and we'll find somewhere to sit.
no subject
T… terrifying……She can’t be frightened like this. That’s not who she is. That’s not who she needs to be. She needs to— ]
Ah…
[ Ai’s hand on her elbow snaps her out of her own thoughts and abruptly grounds her back in reality… and she’s so shaken that she can only go along with wherever Ai is taking her. ]
O… okay…
no subject
They stop off at one of the stalls as promised, buy drinks, and then Ai leads her to a quiet part of the festival and sits her down before pressing a condensation-soaked bottle of water into her hands. It's icy cold, enough to sting and hopefully to bring Hibiki if not back down to earth at least a little closer in orbit. ]
Here. Take a big long drink of this then take some slow, deep breaths - all the way down into your belly. Hold onto them for a second before you let them out. Can you do that for me, Hibiki-chan?
no subject
And now she’s taking up Ai’s precious time with what shouldn’t even be a big deal… yet no matter how many times she tells herself that, she can’t get herself to calm down. This is the worst, she’s the worst, she should just— ]
Ah…
[ Yet again she’s snapped out of the hell of her own thoughts, the coldness of the drink feeling like it might numb her hands if she holds it for too long, but… ]
I… I can do that…
[ It feels weird. She can’t imagine how this is supposed to help, but… she does as Ai asks. She takes a big long drink, swallowing the cold beverage down, enough of it that she can feel the cool temperature in her chest as it goes down, and when she goes to take some slow deep breaths…
Ah…
It comes… easy. Not as easy as it would normally, but… her breath is less shaky, clearer. ]
Aah… haaah…
[ Her head is… well, it’s still all sorts of messed up, but now it feels less like a whirlwind and more like… the mess left behind by one. ]
no subject
There we go. Just keep taking those big breaths until you feel like you can stop.
[ Her voice is firm but gentle. ]
Is there anybody I should go find for you? Were you here with your girlfriend?
no subject
Still, with no choice but to go along with it, Hibiki does what she says... her breathing slowing back to normal and her heart no longer threatening to burst out of her chest. ]
A-Ah... oh no, I was with Miku...
[ Aahhh... Miku must be so worried, or if she isn't than she will be when she gets back to find that her girlfriend is nowhere to be seen. ]
I'm the worst... she probably has no idea...
[ What kind of girlfriend just... runs off like that? It's not like she was there to see what happened, but doesn't that just make it worse? ]