yumemigaoka | third flame 🔥 (late) May Catch-all

third flame 🔥 (late) May Catch-all

🔥 Who: Olruggio & ANY
🔥 When: May~
🔥 Where: Around Yumemigaoka + the Slumbering City
🔥 What: May Catch-all! Also serves to help your character get some background information on the Disturbance? Maybe??

i. May 5; Kokuhaku Tea

[It's Children's Day! ... Unfortunately(?), Olruggio has no children of his own. But his partner is a Mentor for a number of young Dreamers and so Olruggio has promised to send them photos of the much talked about but never actually seen cute desserts that Japan has for this occasion.

It's a very difficult job, as you can plainly see.

Which is why he's gone into Kokuhaku Tea to purchase some of the sweet treats for the occasion and taking a few photos of said snacks before enjoying them himself]

Hmm... Glutinous rice really is a fantastic backdrop for just about anything, isn't it? Delicious!

ii. Throughout the first half of May; Slumbering City

[while Olruggio in the waking world is trying to keep a healthy work life balance, in the Dream Sphere, Torch is always at work. Ai's Disturbance didn't leave any particularly lasting scars in the Dreamscape... And based on Chaosbringer's investigation, it seems that no Disturbance has caused lasting damage. They should be grateful for the little things like this, but Torch worries nonetheless.

Between Area Zero that the Figment - Miraidon, for now - has told him about and the residual damage from last year's Anniversary, the Dream Sphere has left a great deal of danger sitting on their very doorstep]

[If you've been assigned to be in a small group patrol with him;] ... We'll just be doing a quick patrol around the city borders. To make sure there's nothing major happening that we aren't aware of.

[if he runs into you while patrolling;] Did you have a good reason for being in here today?

[if you manage to catch him off guard while he's patrolling;] Gah-?! For crying out- Don't just sneak up on people like that!

iii. Mid-Late May; at the DU

[Olruggio can be found in the Union HQ nearly daily, chasing down people with steadily increasing concern following the earthquake and the thunderstorm at the start of the month]

[prior to the hailstorm, he can be found grumbling irritably to himself and looking like death warmed over in any of the breakrooms, curled over with his pencil in hand and what looks like ever more elaborate doodles covering the pages of his sketchbook] 'This is normal', they say... Like there weren't odd accidents that heralded the last few Disturbances...

[Following the hailstorm, Olruggio can still be found frequently visiting the DU, but this time he seems more pensive. Thoughtful, even, as he examines one of the hailstone crystals in his hand] ... I was told all the previous accidents were somewhat natural in form. This doesn't look like it follows the same trend, does it...?

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No kidding.

[Maki looks up from her cocoon sleeping bag in the corner of the break room. Clearly it's been depression nap hours recently.]

How do these things even reach into the real world, anyway? Think they're gonna spread outside Yumemigaoka?

[he looks up blearily at Maki and just... Gives her a tired wave. He wishes he could get some sleep right now, but he's not sure he'll actually but able to put work aside long enough to get some restful sleep out of it]

None of the previous ones have affected us over in Europe. We've only heard about it through friends, the reports that have been filed or the grapevine...

[he slumps forward as he rubs the back of his head, voice muffled a little where his face is smooshed against the table]

It doesn't bode well at all. Between the Anniversary event last year trapping people in the Dream Sphere and the Disturbances reaching out... Maybe we've been underestimating how the two interact, but where would we even start looking?

That's the problem. It's not like normal weather comes from anywhere, aside from a whole interconnected cycle throughout the world. But Disturbances come from individual people... and more and more often, people connected to us.

Well... [he taps his pen against the page for a moment] The Disturbances involve Dreamers, which will naturally involve us, the organization most closely affiliated with them.

[he runs a hand through his already messy hair]

Which raises the question of whether Dream Sphere influence is shared across the world or if it truly is localized. Where would we even begin to look...?

That's what I want to know. Aside from the Dream Sphere, and I can't help you there. But every Dreamer comes back here eventually. ...Even Crimson can't hide forever.

... Based off Genbu's reports, are we working under the assumption that she's involved in these Disturbances somehow?

[tap tap tap]

We've had our own disappearances in Europe too, but nothing concrete. Nothing that says they stayed in the Dream Sphere... And now I can't help but wonder how many warning signs have gone unnoticed because we simply didn't think to look.

I don't know. I don't know what to believe, or who to blame for it. That's the worst part. If there were something besides all this paperwork...

Who's to say there's anyone to blame? This could just be the natural evolution of Dreams that we were never even aware of.

[tap... He leans back in his chair with a groan]

I haven't felt this lost since I made my Archetype pivot.

And here I thought dreams were supposed to help people process the stuff going on in their lives. Not make it the world's problem.

As we've seen though, some people refuse to acknowledge their own problems, even in Dreams. It was a matter of time before it boils over... And perhaps it's the expectation of being a 'strong' Dreamer that makes it that much harder to confront one's own weaknesses.

You think it's affecting our world because it's coming from a strong Dreamer?

Or it could be the result of all the Disturbances that have happened thus far. As if all the energy gathered up and have manifested like this.

[he spins the pen in his hand for a moment before going back to scribbling]

Your guess is as good as mine.

What, like some kind of ultimate Disturbance? Sounds like something off a game. The final Disturbance, the suffering of everyone in the world or something.

[a laugh]

I would hope not! Genbu's reports indicate that the energy from the previous Disturbances have all harmlessly dissipated, so it was just me throwing theories around.

I'll take your word for it. But if it does happen, officially I called it.

[a chuckle] Of course. I'll even offer to take you out for the obligatory "I told you so" drinks.

[hopefully nothing that awful happens though]

Oop~sie~! My bad!

[The laugh and the entirely Not Apologetic grin on Hanako's face says otherwise, however, as he fully phases through the wall in front of him, floating lazily through the air. After the stress of the past few months, one would think he wouldn't be in the mood for childish tricks like this, but... well. He had to blow off steam somehow, and trolling the adults around him seemed to be as good of an outlet as any.]

Just think of it as me keeping you on your toes! You never know what's gonna pop up here, after all!

[Had this been a year ago, that statement would have been entirely in jest, but now... maybe not so much]

Edited 2025-05-21 10:44 (UTC)

[Olruggio has a hand over his poor, racing heart. He's usually on the backlines, but even on patrols, one tends to see Torments approaching rather than getting jumped. It probably can't be helped; the tension in the air was palpable as everyone prepares for some unknown thing to happen. No one knows when, or what, but considering no one wants a repeat of last year well...

They can't be blamed for being cautious]

I think I am adequately awake for this task, thank you very much.

[he has enough issues sleeping normally, he doesn't need this in his Dream Sphere sleeping moments too]

[Good thing one doesn't need to sleep in the Dream Sphere, then!! He hovers just a little closer to Torch's side, casual as ever, as if he didn't just startle the living daylights over this poor man.]

You sure? I can see those eyebags all the way from here.

[He's teasing, of course-- however tired a Dreamer was in the real world probably didn't reflect upon them here-- but he couldn't resist a little dig when he found the opportunity for it. Still, even with all of his mischief and stinky cattitude, he's well aware of the undercurrent of stress rippling through the Union at the moment; with the nearly back-to-back Disturbances, and the anniversary of last year's crisis... it was only natural that tensions were running high. It would be naive of him to hope they'd have a bit of a break, after everything, but...

He tucks his hands behind his back, his playful expression tempering to something a bit more professional, before adding:]

Sooo... you stumble across anything interesting yet?

[he swats at Hanako idly, like the young boy is nothing more than a fly]

I said 'adequately', didn't I?

[he's, frankly, too busy to worry about arguing semantics or worrying about the little details. He takes a moment to adjust his own pointed hat before sighing softly]

No. Whether that's something to be thankful for or not remains to be seen. It's hard to know what to look out for when every Disturbance has had only the loosest of connections. Even the Anniversary Incident came by without any warning...

[he looks at Hanako for a moment-]

Speaking of, shouldn't that be something you would have a better handle on? [Mr. I-Caused-A-Disturbance-And-Have-Been-In-Most-Night-Terror-Fights...]

[You swat at Hanako?? You swat at Hanako like he's a common fly???

... well, not that it seems to deter him much, as he only shifts slightly aside to give Torch some space. Still, he can't help but give the other man something of an indignant look at that question of his, brow furrowed as he glances down at him.]

Uh, excuse me, what's that supposed to mean? Just because I've seen a lot of 'em [and caused one, even--] doesn't mean I'm an expert at this sorta thing.

[And if that were the case, all the other previous Disturbees would have sense for this sort of thing too, which... are far as he knew, none of them did. It only just gave them the dubious honor of empathizing with some of the patterns within a Disturbance, not predicting when one would occur.]

I mean, if anything, you'd have better luck looking out for weird signs in the Waking World than here. Earthquakes, weather changes, weird power outages... stuff like that. [He shrugs, then adds:] But a lot of the time these things happen once the problem already takes root. Sorta like symptoms to an infection, y'know?

[it's what He Deserves.]

... [this is the flattest look being levied Hanako's way] No, but the frequency you've been involved in the Night Terror battles and the Disturbances themselves should provide some unique insight that others might not have noticed.

[kids...]

From what I've gathered from various reports, it seems that whatever assailed the Anniversary event last year came out of the blue. [pause] As a foreigner, I don't even have a point of reference for what counts as 'normal' here. The last thing I want to do is to jump at shadows in the real world, thinking any odd weather pattern is the result of a Disturbance. That's hardly productive.

[man also doesn't have the energy for it. He's brushed off the comment about his eyebags, but he has no illusions: Olruggio's sleep schedule is scuffed. It didn't even take a month before he went from being diurnal to once again being mostly nocturnal. On the plus side, the timezone difference makes it so that he can video chat with Qifrey and the girls fairly easily! On the other hand... Those video calls usually result in Olruggio getting an earful about not sleeping like a normal human being]

Are we not supposed to be?

[The Figment returned to the Slumbering City, after Ai's Disturbance was resolved. It sort of lives here - though, considering it doesn't sleep, it spends quite a lot of time out wander too.

This is the first time it's run into Torch since confessing its true nature. That makes things feel...strange. It stands at attention, arms folded behind its back, the way it once might have for the Doctor. Uncomfortable, but it's also sort of a relief not to be hiding anymore. It's started to feel a certain urgency to return to the crater.]

[a blink]

[then a sigh, sounding rather apologetic]

Right... I suppose you don't have very many options available to you in terms of places to stay... [he waves at the Figment, indicating that he doesn't need to stand at attention like that] Sorry, it's been tense on the other side but it's no excuse to take it out on others.

How have things been over here? Have you noticed anything?

[It just looks mildly confused at the wave, and doesn't relax.]

...nothing I can identify clearly. But I think something has happened, or...is happening. I've been thinking that maybe I should go back and check.

[It hasn't, really, since it left. It was too afraid. It's still scared, but now that the DU knows about the situation...well, it's accomplished its primary goal. There's nothing else it really needs to do now.]

What's been happening out there?

[It's a bit of a relief that it can just ask.]

[he gives the other a wry smile when it continues to stand at attention but doesn't push it. It wouldn't be any good to try and force someone to behave differently, after all. Best for them to learn on their own.

The smile fades away as he listens, brows furrowing in worry once again]

We had a minor earthquake and a thunderstorm. Nothing too startling, not for an earthquake prone area like Japan. But everyone's on edge, what with the Dreamer Union's anniversary approaching...

Ah, that's right. [for a second, the tension is gone. Maybe Olruggio figures that the Figment would appreciate some sort of idea of some of the more banal things happening in the waking world, rather than nothing but bad news and uncertainty] I think I heard some of the parents who work at the DU mention their kids had midterms coming up. I forget the Japanese school system has a slightly different schedule from the European schools, honestly...

Oh! Has it really been that long since New Year's?

[It knows when these things fall in the year, even if it can't properly tell time. The information immediately makes him think of Arven. Is he taking his tests? Is he doing well in school at all?

...it's afraid to ask if he knows about it.]

The last anniversary was when people got stuck in here, wasn't it? I was still in the crater then, but people have mentioned it.

Right? I can hardly believe it myself!

[Olruggio's worried that the school might get on his case if he pries too much into Arven's affairs, considering he's not even related outside of being the boy's father's coworker...]

So you're aware of that. [he rubs his chin] I wasn't here for it either. But you can see see it's after effects on the City. Based on reports from another Dreamer though, the Disturbances themselves seems to have left nothing behind.

... We're also still dealing with the fallout from what happened to Hoshino last month. I'm not sure when we'll be able to send people down to the crater for you.

[little did they know that the decision would be made for them...]

[Bruno's not openly a Dreamer, so he doesn't always get all the Dreamer news from the Union despite working there. It does make things more difficult than necessary, sometimes. He figures the natural disasters are a good excuse for being curious no matter who you are, though, so he sidles up to Olruggio.]

Do you...know what's going on with these? Is something happening in the Dream Sphere?

[Olruggio looks up and gives a wan smile to the janitor(?)]

Hey.

[he holds out the crystal in his hand for Bruno to see] Your guess is as good as mine. Not the most reassuring thing to hear, I'm sure, but we're doing our best to try and manage it.

[pause]

You've probably got your hands full trying to clean up everything, huh? Thanks for your hard work.

Oh - yeah, yeah, sure. You guys have the heavier lift, I bet.

[He'll take the crystal, turning it over in his hands. Looks like it comes from the Dream Sphere...not that he's supposed to know that, so.]

Seems like it must be a bad one, if it's doing all this.

Before, I would have said that you have the more taxing job. [he laughs] I've cleaned up my own messes before, I know how much junk I end up accumulating while I'm in crunch time.

... But you aren't wrong. If this is something to do with the Dream Sphere and it is affecting the real world like this then... There's no telling what's on the horizon.

How could this even happen? I've never heard of anything like it.

Neither have I. Having the waking world affect dreams is one thing, but seeing it the other direction...

It's a lot more intimidating. I suppose it's the fear of the unknown at work.

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third flame 🔥 (late) May Catch-all

3-1

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ii-3 because OF COURSE

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ii - on patrol

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iii-2

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