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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[This is definitely going to have them going in circles...]

I can at least handle it.

[A circle that she is going to put a full stop on, because she knows where this is going. One of them is going to have to bend on this, and it should—rightfully—be her.]

... Fine. But don't think I'm letting those nightmares get you.

[If anything comes for him, Tifa won't be letting a single thing happen.

... She'll just keep that part to herself, though, and instead turns to focus on the glass, pointing it out.]

Anyway. It looks like another piece... almost like a puzzle...

[A small sigh as he looks at her, feeling a little bad... But it is true that in this case he has the advantage, and he just gives her hand a small squeeze, his head resting against hers for a moment before he looks back on the shard finally. Examines the strange eyes reflected on the surface before examining the edges.

...Hm.]

...It could be.

[He steps over to another nearby piece and looks at the edges, noting the similarities to the one she touched before.]

This one, too. The edges look as if they could fit together.

[She squeezes his hand back, hesitant, and a little afraid to find out what might happen if they do it, but—]

Should we give it a try?

[—they won't know until they do, right? The piece that he'd pointed out has nothing on it, but if the edges fit, they might be able to start making sense of it with just glimpses of what it should be.]

[He studies it carefully before he nods, already gathering his nightmare energy into his hand.]

Just be prepared.

I'm ready.

[A nod, and she steps a little closer to him, watching as the pieces spin slowly, blissfully unaware. She wonders if the Ice Queen can feel it—people playing with her dreams, and her memories... It feels a little wrong, in a way, to be given a glimpse of it all when it isn't her sharing them, but she supposes she has to stop looking at it from that perspective, and more that they are trying to help her.

That still won't stem that bubble of anxiety that forms in her chest and bleeds into the air as she waits and watches carefully for what Eustace might do. Or, rather, what the shards will do when he moves them...]

[A nod before he focuses on the shards, letting out a small exhale before he stretches out his hand and what looks like a dark blue rope flies out and latches onto the first shard. He flinches briefly at the suddenly chill that shoots down the rope to his hand and through his arm, but unlike with Tifa it's as if he absorbs whatever shock, and it quickly fades or seems to meld into his own. After steadying himself—]

I'm all right.

[—and giving Tifa some reassurance, he focuses and starts to drag the piece closer to the other. Would they automatically join if they're in close proximity? Can't hurt to at least try and see as he carefully floats it closer until they almost touch...

...]

There doesn't seem to be a reaction from them like this at least.

[She watches, not realizing that she's holding her breath until he offers her that bit of reassurance. It's small, but it's enough that she looses the air she'd been holding in a great big sigh. It's not relief because she is so far away from that now, but she can at least breathe a little as the shards spin slowly and closely together.

Disappointment sets into both her brows and her shoulders, and she has half a mind to grab them herself and rearrange them to see if she can manage a different effect.]

Well... if it's like a puzzle, then... we're going to need to do the same thing for every single one here. At least, until we can get something to form enough of an image.

[And after watching him do what he just did now, she's not so sure she's up for letting him take the brunt of it all on his own, as her expression seems to silently say to him.]

[He sees that look...

...

And momentarily ignores it—]

I was hoping they would connect on their own... But let me see if I can glue them together. If the method works, we can inform the others and that should speed up the process.

[... Excuse you, husband? Did you just ignore it?

Now she's really staring at him. Hard.]

Glue them? You mean with nightmare energy?

[HE'S GOT THIS... IT'S JUST ONE MORE ATTEMPT...]

Yeah. Remember that floating crystal a few months back? Did something similar with it, though it was with dreamotion.

[He studies how stable his nightmare energy seems to be right now...]

I'll just do the same just with nightmare.

[IT'S NOT THAT SHE DOESN'T TRUST HIM, OKAY...

Something in her expression tightens, and she resists the very real urge to pipe up and say no, absolutely not, he is not going to do it alone, but where will that get them? Just another round of arguments before she's finally forced to step down again?

...

Maybe she should learn to harness nightmare energy, too.

A thought that comes and goes, but those gears turn behind her hardened stare, because she's stepping back behind Eustace now.]

Might as well give it a shot. Is there anything I can do to help... make it a little more bearable?

Mm...

[He knows she's silently protest and against him doing all this, but for now this is the best course of action. And so try to appease her somewhat, he takes her hand into his.]

Focus your dreamotion on me. This is going to take a lot.

[Well, it does appease her... some. Not a lot, when she remembers what happened when she tried to touch the shards, but enough that she'll silence the worries for now. She trusts him unconditionally, and if he says he will be fine, she won't question it.

She might make a face at him, sure, but won't question it further.

So, she just takes his hand right back, fingers wrapping around it tight.]

Alright. But promise you'll tell me if it's too much, and I'll kick it back a little.

I will.

[Last thing they need him is him losing it...

But he'll give her hand a tight squeeze before he once again takes that breath to steady himself and then stretch out his hand once more to channel that nightmare energy, this time on the space between the two shards. With its dark blue color, it almost looks like ice as he slowly works down the line, his brows furrowing as he focuses and concentrates. One thing he worries is his own nightmare energy affecting the shards, so occasionally he'll feel some kind of kickback as the shard's nightmare energy shoots down his arm, and he while he tries to endure, halfway through he winces, his fingers twitching as he falters for a moment.]

[From the other side, he'll feel his hand growing warm against the cold, little flames dancing over their knuckles as if to tie their hands together. She might be squeezing just a bit too hard while she watches, not quite realizing her grip. She starts when his blue magic comes rippling out, stepping out from behind him to watch, her other hand balled into a fist and ready to attack or break or push it back should it try to retaliate against him.

But she holds fast, trusting that he will say so if he can't do it anymore.

And it's when he falters that her nerves get the better of her. She lets the flames around their hands grow, and he'll feel a surge of her dreamotion within him.]

Okay. Is that not enough?

[She can't keep doing this!]

[He can feel her frustration, but he just shakes his head as he also shakes his hand, as if to shake off the lingering chill that's grown around it.]

I'm only halfway through... I'll be fine, I just need to adjust and get used to handling this.

[He may have had some practice before, but not to this extent.]

The shards are pushing back with their own energy, but...

[He looks at it with narrowed eyes.]

I might be able to use it.

Use it?

[She's not sure if hearing that is any better.]

You mean absorb it and push it back out?

[It's one thing to harness one's own magic, and even that has her feeling anxious, but...]

Isn't hers unpredictable? You saw what it did...

I don't know.

[He'll be honest with this. After all, he doesn't know what all is going on here, this being completely new territory for him and likely everyone else.]

But for now, I'll continue what I've been doing, at least to finish sealing them together. We can examine and continue from there.

Okay.

[And she is going to assume that her dreamotion had helped, or hadn't been a burden, if he didn't say anything, so those little flames will continue to flicker around their hands.]

Just one more try and you can take a break.

[Can... No, will. And her voice, while gentle and quiet, leaves no room for interpretation or debate.]

[He looks at her for a moment before he relents.]

All right.

[As much as he wants to get this done, taking a break would be better for the both of them. And he doesn't want to risk himself, either. So his fingers thread with hers, as if seeking out more of those flames...

...Hm.

He holds out the hand he had been using to her.]

Mind warming it up?

[When he asks...

Something lights up in Tifa's eyes, the fear subsiding just a little bit, replaced with a smile, albeit a crooked one. But a smile, nonetheless.]

Not at all.

[Her free hand reaches for his, resting in his palm, fingers delicately wrapping around it. While her fingers are cold to the touch, the warmth that leaves them is anything but. He'll feel her relief manifesting within it, the tiny embers burning with the strength of a fully lit hearth.

But it flickers after a few moments, as if something had swept in to try to blow it out, and she stiffens, her brow furrowing in concentration.]

What...

[His expression softens as he feels her warmth, and he's starting to lean in towards the top of her head to sneak in a little extra...]

—?

[When he feels that connection suddenly stop, and he has to turn his attention back to their hands.]

What happened?

Um... I don't...

[She tries again, and this time, it doesn't last as long as it had at the start, the flames forming and then dying just as quickly.

Is it that she's more scared than she's willing to let on? After what she felt when she touched that shard, she's absolutely terrified of what will happen if one comes at her without her knowing, touching her and surprising her with those memories again.

Or maybe it's that they are in the middle of this cold, snowy void with no end in sight. No entrance, no exit, just them, the snowfall, and a bunch of empty glass mirrors.

A combination of all of it seems likely, but... then there's the worst thought, and her fingers tremble.]

I don't know... Is it the dreamscape?

[His eyes narrow at seeing her like this, and an arm goes around her protectively as his voice lowers to something more soothing.]

Focus on me and take some deep breaths.

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