songerein | { when it snows }

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{ when it snows }

WHEN IT SNOWS

All items on this post will last/be available for the entire month! So timey wimey shenanigans are allowed.

More details on everything can be found here. We will request any thread submissions for certain prompts during A.

I. REVEREIN

II. DREAMS

COMMENTS

I. REVEREIN THAWED

After freeing the Ice Queen from the glass shard from her chest and clearing the dreamscape, the blizzard that affected not only Reverein but the Wildlands and beyond finally dissipates and soon everything returns to…mostly normal.

A. Glitter Snow. While the freezing sleet and ice of the blizzard is no more and a more gentle winter has entered Reverein, the fresh new snow that falls is not one one might want to stick their tongue out to try and catch a snowflake. Unless one likes the taste of glitter.

🎉 Good luck getting it out. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad if the glitter melted like snow, but it does not. It sticks to everything everywhere and while some might like a splash of colors, others may not.
🔮 Dreamglobes. Some fae are passing out empty spherical glasses, suggesting those who are interested to collect some of the glitter snow into them and then set the snowglobe next to their bed before sleeping. Whatever dream they have will be captured into the glass and upon waking will create a physical representation of the dream to create a little special "dreamglobe." Hope it's a good one!
✨ Glitter Collector. There are a number of people and shops that actually want the free glitter and ask for anyone to collect as much as possible. Works well for those trying to clean up and not sure what to do with it. What kind of products will end up coming from them well.

B. Mari Lwyd and Family. Mari Lwyd has finally returned to Reverein, and she's bringing along some family she's found. However, they can be a bit of a handful. Some are friendlier than others while others are going to make full use of this glitter snow with pranks and mischief. But they all just intend to have a good time, something that everyone may be in need of after that blizzard.

💃 Little Pranksters. The young Lwydlings cannot sing or speak, but they love to dance around and make all manner of noise—they also bite if you're being a big fat party pooper in their presence, and are a lot more likely to pull a few harmless pranks than their dear older cousin Mari Lwyd is. Very quick, they have the same vanish-and-leave-you-with-bad-luck if harm is attempted on them. Have a dance off with them, or aid them in pranking those who are being big fat grumps/meanie-butts.
🔥 Bonfire. One of the merry friends looks like a very tall pile of long hair and arms, but with them they seem to be carrying a basket and filling it with sticks and other kindling. This is for giant bonfires! Help gather wood and kindling to make a great bonfire to welcome some warmth in this winter, and aid any lost to not wander in this cold.
🥜 Nurturing Gifts. There appears to be another skull-faced being wandering around with their own 'little one' in tow—and despite the horned and frightening appearance of the larger fur and hyde clad figure there are small gifts to be shared. An act of kindness rewards one with a bundle of magic beans that if nurtured and cared for will bear a great gift come spring. Great.

C. Hot Springs. The dragons are holding an open invitation to anyone who wishes to use their hot springs to warm up after that frigid blizzard. The dragons in particular will be practically living there, so hopefully others can squeeze in a spot. Rooms will be available for anyone who wishes to stay the night, and all amenities will be available: food, recreational games, etc. Just beware of the monkeys that have descended down from the mountain seeking warmth as well. They are prone to stealing things, particularly clothing—and wearing them.

D. Dream Board. This is the perfect time to do many of the Dream Board prompts, and while the full details are on the notes, here is the quick list of what they are:

Dream Board List:

⛄ Snowball Tonics: Transform into massive, different colored snowballs.
🔔 Bell Choir: Grab a bell and play for a concert!
🧣 Never-Ending Scarf: Help untangle the beautifully, extremely long crocheted scarf, dodge cats, and get the whole thing together in one place.
🍻 Keg Brawl: A game where one must carrying a keg of ale from one end of a field of ice to the other while avoiding the other team trying to stop you.
🐶 The Inugami. Help a pair of spirit dogs find each other.
🌠 Falling Stars. Make wishes upon the falling stars before they cause too much damage!

II. SHATTERED DREAMS

Although the Dreamwalkers were successful in removing the strange glass shard in the Ice Queen's chest and ended the nightmare dreamscape that caused the blizzard, the Ice Queen still has yet to awaken. Jack Frost has taken her to Orkili to try and purify her with the pods, yet it only caused an adverse reaction, prompting the Orkilins and Jack Frost to ask for help from the Dreamwalkers once more. Isolated in a separate room where neither dreamotion nor nightmare energy can enter, those who are willing to investigate the Ice Queen's dream will be able to freely dreamwalk, with the warning that she seems sensitive to positive dreamotion so everyone should take caution when using it.

In the meantime, there are some other happenings going around in Orkili, including investigation into some nightmare crystals.

A. Piecing it Together. Those who enter the Ice Queen's dream will find themselves free floating in a dark void with large reflective glass-like shards with blurred, fogged scenes reflecting on their surface. They float aimlessly through the space, and a closer inspection will reveal that these shards can fit together and likely form a larger image. The goal is to now try and put the pieces together, though it's not as easy as it might seem.

🪞 Nightmare manipulation. For whatever reason, those who either have high nightmare resistance or can control nightmare energy will be able to move and be around the shards with very little effect to them.

💥 Too much of a good thing. Because the shards are dark and clearly exude nightmare energy, there will be those who will try to use positive types of dreamotion to purify the shards. Some dreamotion will be safe to use and will help clear up the image on the surface. However, too much focus will have a negative feedback where the dreamers are pushed back with a freezing gale and the shard they are focusing on will crack and break into smaller pieces. Nightmare energy can help mend the cracks, so it's better to try and use both at the same time.

💔 Blurred visions. As the surface of the shards clear up, various scenes of different themes can be seen, both good and bad. Love, heartbreak, hatred, anger, joy, jealousy, loneliness, fulfillment, family, abandonment. Those who experienced the ice mirrors in the previous dreamscape will feel a strong familiarity with these larger shards, except these are clearly towards the Ice Queen herself.

This is where we want players to come up with any scene that the Ice Queen may have experienced that could be reflected on the shard! We'll request submissions and piece together a story based on player input. Don't worry about any contradictions, we'll work it all in one way or another. The only constant is that Jack Frost and the Ice Queen do have a close, romantic relationship, which is why Jack is very worried about her.

B. Unwanted Intruder. While in the dream, a grotesque looking noctaere will appear and try to attack and consume the shards. Should it succeed, the Ice Queen will receive physical damage that everyone will be able to hear and feel inside the dream. The void will contort and turn more like sludge. Attempts to use dreamotion will only worsen it, but those who can control or absorb nightmare energy will take it away from the Ice Queen. How it affects them however, will vary between dizziness to momentary lapse in judgment and may need to leave the dreamscape.

Those monitoring outside the dream will witness the Ice Queen scream and her skin blackening as if charred by fire. Same thing applies here: those who try to use dreamotion to heal her will only worsen it, but those who use nightmare energy to either draw it out into some other container or absorb it themselves will be able to pull it out of the Ice Queen. Those who absorb the nightmare energy will have similar varying effects, from just light dizziness to becoming more irritable and hostile. Attempts to try and directly pull out the nightmare energy otherwise will be unsuccessful—it will only work when the noctaere has consumed a shard and caused the physical side effects.

No one will turn noctaere through this method because not enough nightmare energy will have accumulated.

As for the noctaere, it will sometimes appear outside the dream, and those who encounter it or deliberately try to hunt it down either within or outside the dream will find both dreamotion and nightmare based attacks effective against it. However, it's a very tough and difficult foe, so while it can be damaged, it cannot be defeated at this time. Those who investigated the claw marks from a few months ago will notice it leaves behind the same claw marks. Those who witnessed it will also find it familiar and can safely say it's the same.

I. REVEREIN

II. DREAMS

COMMENTS

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I don't know, but...

[There's that pang again as she stares up at the image glistening in the light. That same one that she felt earlier, and with the mirrors in the cave. Almost like she can feel what he's feeling, too. She wonders if that's the case, or it's just some severe empathy kicking in that she's never quite felt before, but it makes her heart twist in her chest.]

If these are her memories then... he was looking at her like that?

That's if we assume they are true memories.

[A slight frown.]

Remember, she had that shard in her... And just like how those mirrors twisted your own visions, it's possible this could also be twisted as well.

Right...

[She forgot about that part, and it makes those pangs hit her even harder when they come again.]

You think Jack might be up for talking about it when we get out of here? See if he remembers this?

[... And maybe get the truth.]

...Maybe. It's a bit vague so even if there was an actual incident he might not remember, but it is worth investigating.

[She'd offer to try more shards later, but... after seeing what just happened with him and that nightmare energy, she's not so inclined anymore.]

We can ask the others what they saw when we get out.

[And she looks back up to the shards, her eyes continuously drawn to them, but her hands rub small, warming circles over his.]

Whatever it was, true or not, she wasn't happy about it. It's just like those mirrors. Again.

Mm... There's definitely a connection.

[He then gently squeezes her fingertips.]

Let's go.

Yeah. It's getting a little cold.

[It's with a rueful, unsure smile that she climbs to her feet, wincing only a little when she pulls him by his hands to help.]

... How do we get out of here anyway?

Same like all other dreamscapes—we just need to wake up.

[Oftentimes, that sounds easier than it feels, especially when a place like this grips her as hard as it has, but with another, soothing look at him, she nods, opens her mouth to agree, but—]

... Do you hear that?

[There's a faint whooshing noise, either like a wind or something else beating through the quiet air. It's distant, but not so distant that she can't pick up on it through the otherwise calm snowfall...]

[Fair, it can be difficult to just will oneself awake, especially after all this and not your own dream. But upon her question, he frowns and perks his ears.]

Hear...

[But instead hearing he flinches as he feels another sharp prick at the back of his neck followed by an ominous chill that creeps down his spine and then back towards his chest. It makes him tense and more alert, looking up and around...and then above—]

Shit!

[Immediately he grabs her and rolls out of the way just as a large, grotesque looking noctaere jumps down from where it had been hiding, claws digging into the ground as he roars at them.]

[She cries out when he rolls out of the way with her, his body helping to break the rather fast fall that they take when he does. She tucks herself in against his chest, the snow cold and clinging to her, but she doesn't even have time to think about that before a much bigger problem presents itself.

One of its large clawed hands swings back and comes crashing down to swipe at them, and it's Tifa's turn to kick Eustace away, separating them just in time for it to slam into the snow, a giant cloud of snow and ice erupting between them. And upon seeing the markings, there's a familiar twisting in her stomach... a slight twinge of recognition...]

Eustace? Are you okay?

[She tries to force her hands shut into fists, and to awaken her dreamotion, but all she gets is the tiniest flicker of energy before the flames die away.]

No...

[He doesn't answer, instead forming Flamek in his hands as he fires off a burst of lightning. Except that lightning is tinged black, crackling nightmare energy along with the usual dreamotion.]

Tifa, get out! Now! I'll hold it off!

[Surely the noise will garner the attention of others.]

[She's already rushing around the claw by the time he calls out to her, her lack of dreamotion and her inability to curl her fingers posing a very bad problem, so just as that crackle of black electricity dissolves, he'll feel her small frame colliding into his, arms wrapping around him as if she intends to not let go.]

What, and just leave you here?

Yes.

[His voice is firm as the noctaere seems to ready itself.

And since she's not willingly leaving...

She will feel a strong surge of dreamotion flow through her, one that's a mix of both hot and cold, as if to shock her awake.]

Eustace, don't—!

[She feels it. Both that violent burst of dreamotion and that even stronger pull as the world outside of the dreamscape reaches for her to yank her out of there. She may not be in a condition to fight, but she could have—would have—figured something out. She wanted to at least stay and protect him, help him in whatever way she could...

But it's too late, and the last look that he'll see from her is one of panic and then anger before her hold on him fades along with her, immediately spitting her back out of the dream...

...

....

...and snapping her awake in the rooms of Orkili, startled and disoriented for a moment as researchers rush over to check on her, their voices and faces all a blur as one tells them to get a medic to look at her hands while another tries to force her back into the bed...

Except she doesn't adhere to their orders or pleas. Instead, she looks down to Eustace's sleeping form, takes a deep breath, kicks herself up off the bed they'd been using, and yells at whoever will listen—]

Send someone in there. Now! Please.

[They're confused. What is she talking, who, where? Did something happen in the dreamscape? Words of reassurance and concern flow out from the people, and already there were volunteers in the bed than there had been when they first entered.

But it's not long after that that Eustace's flutter open and he groans as he rubs his head and neck.]

[No words of any reassurance will get Tifa to calm down. Not until she's sure that there is someone in there helping him, and she's already getting ready to shove them all off of her—she does manage to get a few away—when she hears Eustace groaning on the bed beside her.]

Eustace!? You're awake?

[Whatever anyone had to say to her is all but ignored as she leaps at him and wraps her arms around his shoulders.

And before she says anything more—]

Don't ever do that again!

[There's a surprised grunt when Tifa flings herself on him, still slightly disoriented. But feeling her warmth there, his arms immediately go around her, a sigh of relief escaping.]

I'm sorry, but you were the one at most risk.

[Regardless of that sound, she holds onto him tighter, ignoring the sounds of surprise and the onlookers as she just rests on top of him, her head on his chest.]

What happened? ... After I left? Was that thing...?

[She has to pause to take a deep breath, and remind herself to slow down, her adrenaline kicking into worry, the thousands of questions spilling out of her before she can stop them.]

[He first gently strokes her hair.]

Others came in right after I pushed you out, and together we drove it back. But it did try to aim for one of the shards.

[There are people taking notes of what he says as they stand around them, and Tifa wishes that she could shoo them all away to give them a moment, but... she also understands how important this all is, too. So, she just spends all of her focus on him, lifting her head to look at him as he explains.]

The shards...

[She bites down on her lip.]

... Did something feel a little familiar to you, too?

Familiar?

[A small frown.

....Hm....]

No, but... I did feel a chill before I noticed it above us. But since I had been using nightmare energy more, I'm not sure if I had just grown more sensitive to it or not.

[Tifa slips her arms out from around his shoulders and drops them to his lap, fumbling around for his hands before she finds them and takes them.]

... Remember that cavern down below the city, in the mines? When it came down between us with its claw and scratched at the snow, it reminded me of what we saw on the walls.

[A pause.]

And... that cold, awful feeling I got right before you pushed me out. I mean... I could be wrong, and maybe it was all just part of the dreamscape. [She looks around to the researchers surrounding them, taking notes.] It might be worth something.

Edited 2024-01-15 05:49 (UTC)

Now that you mention it...

[He had been so buy trying to get her out and then fighting the noctaere, he didn't pay as much attention to its claws or the marks it left behind. But when she brings up the cave, there's another prick to his neck, similar to when he felt the noctaere's presence. Perhaps it's not so much of a coincidence after all...]

It could be the same. Perhaps someone else could examine the records of what's been found and then enter the dreamscape to look. Like I said, we managed to drive it away, though where it exactly, I don't know. Those still within the dream are at least aware and alert.

[She nods, glancing around to the others, and then back to him, and finally, she lets out the breath that she'd been holding in and allows the relief to finally take over. She brings a hand up to caress his cheek.]

Yeah.

[Still, she looks him over, her eyes searching and watching for any signs of injury or... the other things that she saw in the dreamscape.]

That's enough for now, though. Let's share what we know, and I'll find Jack... and then we can go rest?

[She doesn't want to be here anymore, her own exhaustion starting to kick in.]

Edited 2024-01-15 07:04 (UTC)

(no subject)

flamekthunder - 2024-01-15 07:11 (UTC) - Expand

💙❤️ moving~

starshower - 2024-01-15 15:14 (UTC) - Expand

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