yumemigaoka | insurance must be having a time

⭐ Who: Maki, you
⭐ When: The aftermath of the crystal hailstorm on the 16th
⭐ Where: The DU office
⭐ What: Regular office stuff... and a public art project?

[1) the front desk]

At this time of year, the biggest worries would normally be cleanup after the DU anniversary celebration and kids coming in complaining about their midterm results. Unfortunately this is not, in fact, the case.

Maki can be found at the front desk, dealing with not an IT problem but a stack of emails and running a hand through her own hair. She looks up.

"Anyone got any tips for office insurance claims for rocks falling from the sky? Asking for a friend."

[2) still the lobby, but???]

Well, as long as all that sky crystal has been littering the ground for a few days and the adjusters have finally come to look at it, they can't just leave the mess outside, can they?

Maki's got work gloves on and has trucked in a bunch of the weird crystal and fallen debris, and she's... working it into a large wire sculpture? It's hard to tell what it's supposed to be, but maybe it doesn't really matter. She looks up at anyone passing.

"Hey. The emails died down, so I thought I'd do some cleanup. You wanna help, there's more gloves over there. Careful of the broken glass."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mmm...yeah, that's it. How can you really just not, y'know? Like in, uh, superhero movies and stuff.

And of course it's not like this is all just gonna stop. ...I hope this part does, though. The "last couple years" part.

We had fifty good years or so, right?

So the constant disasters are karma or something?

Karma? For -

[For what? Like, all the child star stuff?]

Well, I don't know, maybe. Not really what I meant, though...you think it's been that bad?

Joking, joking. [She shakes her head.] Just that we were apparently overdue for something going wrong, so now we're getting everything.

Oh!

[Yeah, maybe he jumped to that for personal reasons, but NEVER MIND THAT - ]

Eh, maybe. There were Nightmare fights the whole time, but I guess it doesn't sound like any of them went...that bad.

Unless we just didn't get the reports, but for that long?

People would've noticed, I think. It's a bunch of kids, they can't all keep secrets that well.

That's true. Not that there aren't adult Dreamers, there's a ton of 'em. But...

That's true, but it does seem like most people start as kids. Maybe they're more...open to Awakening, or lucid dreaming, or whatever.

Something something kids have dreams before the real world hits them? ...Yeah.

......yeah. Kinda a shame, really.

Not looking forward to Tanabata this year. I mean, if we make it that long.

[Bruno snorts.]

I'm not really looking that far ahead.

Taking it as it comes, huh?

Mmmm...yeah, something like that. One worry at a time, I guess. At least, that's the idea...I'm not always so great at it.

Hey, it's hard. Can't recommend what I do. I think the depression naps in the breakroom are scaring people.

Oh, I've been doing that forever. I used to think it would freak people out too, but they're, uh, weirdly okay with it?

Maybe by this point it's just what everyone feels like doing.

.....eh, yeah. That'd be understandable.

We're all kinda a mess these days. Probably caused this.

Heh. I'm a little surprised it didn't happen sooner, I guess.

You think the Dreamers 50 years ago were this bad?

I was born around the time all that started, so I don't really know. It didn't seem like it when I was a little kid, but -

[Shrug. They rarely met other Dreamers in the Dream Sphere, especially early on.]

Kids don't always notice stuff like that. Especially back then, I wasn't, uh, around Dreamers like I am now.

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saynotobugs - 2025-06-04 15:44 (UTC) - Expand

predecir - 2025-06-04 16:01 (UTC) - Expand