songerein | { when it snows }

Entry tags:

{ 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...Hm.]

I guess we won't know until we piece all this together.

[And he had seen her try to reach out...]

Keep your distance... I'll try and touch it, see if it reacts.

[Her hand instinctively grabs tighter around his own, almost like she means to pull him back to her.]

Are you sure? Shouldn't I...?

[As one of the first pairs to venture into the dreamscape, little does she know...]

[A small shake of his head.]

No, I can resist it better than you can.

[Even with not knowing the truth of the situation at the moment, or even if he did, he still wouldn't want her too close. Doesn't want the potential of the nightmare energy affecting her.]

[She just gives him a small, discontent and worried sound, but holds him tighter.]

Okay, but... I'm keeping this hand.

[As if she were ever going to let him let her go besides, but it almost comes out as a warning more than anything else.]

[He still looks uncertain, but... A small nod.]

But I mean it if it becomes too much. I don't want you succumbing to the effects.

Don't worry. I won't.

[Her other hand comes up to wrap around his arm, where her fingers give him a reassuring and firm squeeze, her eyes fired up with earnestness.]

Even if I did, I've got you.

[Said without a single doubt in her mind. Not that she thinks it will happen, but she knows for certain that if it did, he would pull her out of whatever it is. Just like he always does.]

[Why she holds that much confidence he'll never know... But it helps bolster his own and assuage some of his concerns. Concerns that will still remain as he eyes her before he relents and nods.]

All right.

[And with a steadying breath, he stares up at the shard, brows furrowing as he once again feels that tingle of nightmare energy over his skin. But that's all it is, at least for now. And with a careful, slow movements, he'll reach out to the shard, the amount of nightmare energy browing heavier as the distance closes. It almost feels as if it's trying to wrap around his arm, and for a moment he stops, as if considering to pull back.

But instead he steadies himself and focuses his own out, as if to repel the one trying to enter him. And it works—although the nightmare doesn't disappear, he can feel the flow lessening and that constricting feeling lessens. With this, he continues until his fingertips brush against the glass...]

—!

[And then he immediately retracts his hand when he feels a sudden dark cold flash through him, the surface of the shard rippling as if reacting to his touch and energy.]

[She can feel it... the nightmare energy is thick and then thicker the closer he gets to it. She schools her expression, trying to ease the worry from it. The more she's worried, the worse it becomes, and so she holds her breath, watching his hand as he goes to touch it, her own magic at the ready should anything bad happen. She has no idea what, but in a place filled with hundreds and thousands of tiny glass shards made up of nightmares, it's hard not to feel that way.

He'll feel her tense beside him when he withdraws his hand back, and the mirror reflects a rippling effect on its surface. Her hand snaps up to reach for his, curling around it in all its warmth, though her fingertips are probably cold from how tight she'd been clenching them.]

You okay?

I'm fine.

[Better now with her hand already working to try and warm his. But his eyes are still focused on the shard that continues to ripple before...]

...I think the surface is starting to clear up... But all I see is... White?

[More specifically a lot of snow falling on an empty winterscape without much else.]

[Whatever happened, it seemed to have worked or done something, and Tifa lets him go so that she can step a little closer to the shard. Without touching it, she leans this way and that, trying to get a good look into it.]

You mean... snow? Look.

[If he leans closer, he might see it, too.]

It's hard to make out, but... [She narrows her eyes.] You can see where the land and the sky meet. But why? And where's the rest of it?

[This is... Hm.

Frowning, he leans in a little closer, and he wonders if he touched it again if it would change. But for now, he'll wait to see if anything changes on its own.]

Perhaps...it's her homeland?

[Ice Queen, land of snow, fits the bill at least. But still, there's nothing else happening that he can tell.]

Her homeland?

[There's a pause, and Tifa thinks back to the ice cave, and it's clear by the furrow in her brow that there are some gears that have started to turn, but there's a notable wave of heat that fills the air, making the reflection on the shard ripple once more.]

I wonder if this is like the mirrors in that cave, somehow?

...Hm... Only instead of your reflection, it's showing hers?

[He muses on that as he stares at the surface of the mirror now rippling in reaction to that heat.]

Possible.

[Tifa gives a small nod.]

Mm. When I was caught up in them, I saw all kinds of twisted things.

[Things she would rather not ever revisit again, but for the sake of this dreamscape...]

I wonder if maybe... showing it was a way to try to make us understand?

[She only thinks it because she can feel that same thing thick in the air as she did when she watched Eustace and all the others walk away from her. That emptiness that looms heavy in this very landscape. She could be completely off the mark, but it's something to consider.]

Then...

[A wary concerned look at her first, as if checking to make sure Tifa was still all right before he looks back at the mirror shard.]

There just be something to this field. And if we're going for symbolism... Perhaps loneliness? The way it feels... Is more discomforting than peaceful, too.

[He likes a quiet snowfall out in the vast snow field. But this feels different. He can feel the other side of it, an emptiness that isn't wanted.]

But it is just a piece... Should we try another shard...? See if it gives a clue?

[She gives a nod.

A vast snow field is one thing, but a vast snow field with seemingly no end to it is another. She thinks that they could walk and walk and walk through this place and never reach anywhere in particular. ... Maybe that's their job? At any rate, her thoughts are spiraling again, and so she focuses on the shards.]

Yeah, let's try that. [A pause, and she glances around.] Can we... collect these somehow?

I'm not sure... Let's look at another shard first before we do anything more with it.

[The pit of her stomach sinks just a little.]

... Do you want me to give it a try this time?

[After what she felt and saw happen, she wonders if her doing it would be any better? Easier?]

[Hm...

At this point, they don't realize the dangers of using with dreamotion so—]

Perhaps. Just be careful—the nightmare energy is strong so it could try to overwhelm you instead.

[Tifa takes his hand at his words, gripping it firmly, as she approaches another small shard twirling through the air like a snowflake. She knows the dangers of nightmare energy, but she also knows that for all the times it tried to get to her, she could overcome it with him there. She isn't about to get overly confident in her abilities, especially in an unknown dreamscape like this, but...

She wants to help. She wants to find out what it is that's plaguing the snow queen, and she wants to put an end to it. For the queen's sake.

Her finger slowly reaches out to the glass, and she hesitates again, her finger curling back just before it touches the edge... but with a deep breath, she taps it—]

Ow...!

[There's a cold, almost biting frost that bites the end of her finger, spreading up her arm and all the way into her spine, and she withdraws closer to Eustace, tucking herself away against his chest, unaware that tears have erupted in the corners of her eyes...

Around the mirror is a little spark of flame, only big enough to be visible before it fades away, and something ripples along the surface. A broken image, just like the last shard, only this one shows a piece of someone's face... Blue eyes that look so, so sad.]

[The moment he sees that reaction, he's immediately pulling her to him—]

Tifa!

[And looking her over, grabbing her hand to look it over before he sees those tears in her eyes. Dammit—]

Are you all right? What happened?

[And he's too focused on her to pay much attention to what is happening on the shard.]

[She sets her other placating hand on his chest, and only then does she feel the burn of tears on her cheek against the chillier air.]

I'm fine.

[Though, there is some confusion in her voice when she does, and she blinks them away, brows furrowed.]

I just... [She glances back at the shard, still spinning, the shimmer of eyes reflecting in it, however blurry the image might be, it's still easy to make out.] ... I felt something cold, like a frostbite, and then...

[There's a shiver, as she presses herself into him.]

That same feeling from the mirrors. There and it was gone, but... I really felt it that time. Like I was right back in that cave.

[He will destroy all of these shards for harming his wife—

No, he's not, but to bring her to the point of tears has him alarmed and no longer so willing to let her continue.]

...I don't think you should be close to the shards from here on.

But—

[She pauses, knowing that her protests will either go nowhere or make things worse, but as she swipes a hand across her cheeks, she shakes her head.]

I can't let you do all of it on your own. That's too much.

And if the next time you have a worse reaction or something else? I can't let that, either.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject