{ dream notes: #19 - march 1, 2023 }

[dreamkeepers]

DREAM NOTES #19: MARCH 1, 2023

This was our last public app cycle before we have our big break to steamroll through some plot stuff, and we're starting to tee up some more things to lead up to it this month. Former Somarium and Empatheias players, hope you catch all the references!

CALENDAR

The Official Calendar has been updated. Here is our current schedule for the month:

3/01: Apps open

3/03: Final apps due, begin processing apps

3/05: Player Intro, Open Log, Cr Meme

3/29-31: Activity Check

4/01: New Mod Notes, Plot With Me Meme

4/08: Flower Festival

4/22: Closed Group Log

4/24: Reserves Open (Current Players only)

4/28-30: Activity Check

DREAM TREND: This month's dream trends may involve any of the following themes: ghosts, sense of confusion, and Escher mazes.

WEATHER: Because of the strange distortion in dreamotion energy, the weather will be in a state of flux and completely unpredictable, sometimes with weird combinations. Snowing while it's warm; one minute a torrential downpour and the next a beautiful, sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky; gale bursts strong enough to knock someone over; rain backwards from the ground; one entire street covered in fog; etc. The weather isn't even consistent throughout town. This means players can make the weather whatever they want for their threads. If they want it perfect they can, if they want it miserable, that can happen, too. Dreamotion can also help reduce or stabilize things.

We're going with a March Madness theme this year so things are going to get a little crazy this month!

We do have a few player plots and events happening, too! We listed the ones we know on the calendar, but listing them out again here: Trahearne's Noctaere plot, Zelda and the Book, Tifa's Cafe opening, and Madhuri's and G'raha's wedding. Another OOC post to start coordinating the Permanent Residence "questline" will also go up sometime this month.

As a reminder, although May apps will be closed to the public, we will open apps to current players only.

ACTIVITY CHECK RESULTS

Congratulations to everyone who commented on our Activity Check! The following characters were removed from the game:

Kenny McCormick | alwaysdead
Satan | angelbirth
Albedo | creationary
Soundwave | peacewithouttyranny
Mammon | stupidmammon

If anyone was swept because they missed AC, you can reapply in the next cycle. Just fair warning, we will notice if this happens more than once and we may not allow immediate reapplication the next time.

This puts our player population to 68/75. However we have temporarily raised our cap to 90 and we have 17 new players on reserve, so we'll see what our final number is post apps!

WORLD UPDATES

Be it new NPCs, creatures, places, or some other discovery or creation, the world of Songerein continues to grow! For official lists and information, refer to the World Directory and Bestiary. So here are a few things as a result of the Dream Board and other submissions:

NPCs:

• Ivan the Bat. The bat version of gossip magazines: spilling beans on the town going ons and any rumors that might be flying around. In addition he is a skilled magician who can do any parlor trick you can imagine. There is a good chance that he might put up magic shows every weekend and on town festivals whenever he is not busy bringing in fresh town gossip.
  

Places:
The Wild Harvest serves various western and eastern style earth-based street food dishes. A special menu is rotated every month. Wild Harvest's specials for the month are:

• Bun Cakes: Fluffy, Eastern-style hot cakes that are sweet and (almost!) too cute to eat. Each bunny rabbit shape is lovingly formed to whichever expression the patron wishes, with various options for filling such as pineapple or grape jelly, chocolate, and more.
  
• Liquid Luck: Your choice of drink infused with an essence of four leaf clovers to give you a small boost of luck for the day (makes you feel more energised).
  
  
  1. Green matcha tea (served hot)
     
  2. Sour apple cocktail/mocktail
     
  3. Sour apple soda
  
  
• Pizza: Cheesy goodness fresh out of the oven with your standard toppings: plain cheese, meat, or veggie. Customise however you want using the ingredients available!
  
• Japanese sandos: Sandwiches with both sweet and hearty option fillings available; from fruits such as strawberries and kiwi with cream, to meat such as chicken, pork or fish. Can be ordered as one or in threes.

New fliers for Tifa and Eustace's upcoming Starflower Sanctuary and Café can be seen at the bar for the taking, showcasing both the location and adorable photos of both dogs and cats alike. Grand opening to be announced soon!

Other:

• There's still a bit of a mess out in the farmlands from the dark crystal explosion, but cleanup is proceeding smoothly.
  
  
• Leo and Link both cut down a bunch of trees in the forest and upset some monkeys.
  
  
• Tifa and Eustace made an announcement for their café/bar and animal sanctuary. Grand opening will be sometime in mid-March.
  
  
• Beat has started giving out a handful of skateboards to whoever was interested, with custom detailing if requested.

EVENT REWARDS

Last month's event was more of a festival, so nothing really gained in terms of rewards. But everyone's getting some freebies anyway!

• Regain Bauble (x1). Within the first week of the month, everyone will find a special little bauble next to their pillow with a note that reads, "Hope you had fun at the masquerade! Throw this into the Wishing Well to receive a special item from home. Just imagine the item and it will appear. (watch out for the glitter) Can also be used at the Observatory or gifted to others!" As briefly described, this bauble is basically the game's "regain token." With this item, characters can throw it into the Wishing Well and receive the item they think about. All regains are manifestations of the item rather than the original and are affected by the game's limitations so nerfs may need to be applied. All regain submissions may be posted to the Regain Wishing Well entry. Other uses for the bauble can be read here.
  
  
• Item: Glass Slipper Brooch. This is more of a reminder that everyone could keep the brooches if they so wished. Those who do keep them will be able to use it to track the person it was paired with. Only useful within a one mile radius.
  
  
• Item: Masquerade Outfit. Whether it's wanted or not, everyone will receive their masquerade outfit complete with mask. If a character didn't go to the masquerade, well that's okay! They get an outfit, too.
  
  
• Item: Midnight Fashion Amulet. A special amulet made into a fashionable accessory that fits the wearer. It will change the wearer's outfit into something fitting for whatever occasion OR into whatever they have in mind. The only limitation is that it can only be used once per week and lasts until midnight of the day used.

And that's it! …Next month you'll get better rewards ahahaha.

Also to note, a total of ten (10) Bleeding Hearts were submitted. Six (6) were destroyed while four (4) were purified. We'll see the results of this later, but for now the Bleeding Hearts have disappeared.

MARCH MADNESS

As mentioned up in the Calendar section, the weather is going to be a crazy mess, and that's going to be in large part due to the dreamotion distortion that's going around. While most of it will be isolated to two designated areas indicated in the upcoming log, there are smaller pockets that can be felt by anyone. Within these small pockets, dreamotion becomes more exaggerated and sometimes even behaving opposite of what it should. The severity and how it is is dependent on the player, so you can have as much freedom and fun with it as you want. It could be a benign, minor nuisance, such as puddles of sunlight beaming up from the ground when someone is happy or sad; or it could be causing a major problem a character needs help with, like feeling lighthearted but gravity decides to strap them to the ground, or even the smallest emotion causes the ground to shake.

As for the game log, we have three designated locations that the prompts will be focused on…and former players of Somarium and Empatheias may be able to recognize the references. NPCs will also be helping so they can be used for prompts.

CASTLE REDUX

As mentioned last month, the castle from the masquerade has remained and the dragons have discovered that more of the rooms have opened. There are still many floors and rooms that are still sealed by a powerful barrier, but what's available will be plenty enough to keep those who venture inside occupied. The castle is available throughout the entire month.

An additional purpose of these prompts is to have characters (and players) exercise dreamotion in a more passive effect way by using general feelings and vibes to push back and stabilize nightmare corruption while also focusing on creating dreams. This is leaning more towards the "dream" side of dreamotion.

Mad Tea Party. A magnificent dining hall has opened up and after a bit of cleaning, the dragons have designated it as a place for those studying the castle to have a break and some food. The kitchens are still out of order, but the dragons can easily supply what they need. However, after everything is set up, the dishes come alive and start dancing and floating around. It would be considered harmless were it not for the sharp cutlery, boiling water, tea, and soups, and just food flinging around everywhere. Help wrangle everything down by utilizing dreamotion…or join in and add to the food fight. Maybe the castle still has a lot of energy that needs to be let out of its system.

Thieving Leprechauns. Many of the rooms that can be looked through are bathrooms, offices, bedrooms, and closets, but aside from typical castle furnishings and decorations, there is nothing notable. No books or documents in any of these rooms that would be useful. However, items are starting to go missing and the culprits are the leprechauns. Stop them before the dragons find out and start razing the place in rage.

Dreamcatcher. Found in the throne room, a mysterious, ghostly woman dressed in white will guide any who are curious to it. The dreamcatcher is completely corrupted and disfigured with nightmare energy. Purify it by infusing special feathers with sweet dreams to let it absorb. Directly channeling positive dreams and emotions will also work. Just be careful—staying too close for too long will cause black ooze to bubble up and form manifestations of ones nightmares to appear instead, potentially trapping them in place. The ghostly figure will try to help them out, but as a spirit she can only do so much. Success in purifying it will allow it to be used against the Story Eater. But who is the lady guiding them? Who knows…

"Slenderman." Lurking outside the castle within the dark woods is a tall, black, shadowy, slender figure, wispy tentacles whipping around its back. It remains within the shadows, never touching the light, but it has drawn in and attacked several victims already. Some receive grievous wounds, but while there are no deaths, a large amount of dreamotion energy has been absorbed and are now plagued with nightmares. It has also been seen appearing around the Dreamcatcher, absorbing the dreamotion energy and injecting nightmare energy before disappearing. This creature must be defeated, run off, or at least kept at bay so that the Dreamcatcher can be purified. A difficult foe, only dreamotion is capable of damaging it. Weapons and spells not augmented with dreamotion will deal no damage to it. For this prompt, we'll be using thread submissions to determine its fate. It is possible for failures (become overwhelmed and/or caught by the slenderman and not rescued) to count against a success (successfully drive it away and/or rescue someone who was trapped). Slenderman will only be around March 6 through 12.

FRACTURED CRYSTAL ISLAND

Around the 18th, there's a large broken, floating crystal island that is detected in the far distance close to the Wastelands. It seems to "glitch," appearing one moment and then disappearing the next. The two young kirins, Perlios and Elimei, are drawn to it, and after they investigate they come back yelling, "Chrissie, it's Chrissie!! Chrissie's here!!" One of the researchers in the Observatory recognizes the name and announces that this could be remnants of a large, powerful crystal. Regardless, it's causing another large pocket of dreamotion energy distortion, and should be taken care of before it gets worse.

An additional purpose of these prompts is to give the characters (and players) some exercise with dreamotion in a physical form, forcing them to actually create objects via dreamotion as well as use such objects to destroy things. This is also more heavily centered on the "emotion" aspect of dreamotion.

Despair and Longing. The shattered crystal pieces become more like a mirror and will reflect emotions of sadness, despair, homesickness, and longing. Sometimes what is seen on the surface is of another world, another time, of mysterious large creatures that fly through the air. But if one is not strong of heart, they might see something that they dearly miss reflected instead. And if they're not careful, they can become lost in it as if in a trance, the crystal absorbing those emotions. Happier memories will help counter it, but sometimes the person must be pulled away, the surface shattered, and the crystal healed over.

Piece it Back Together. "Fixing" the crystal is not an easy task. Dreamotion is required to first stabilize the disruptive emotions within the pieces and then manipulate the pieces to stick together. Anything could be used: heat, cold, sticky substance, even dreamotion tape. The dreamotion energy will be immediately absorbed by the crystal and make the piece whole. Fortunately the pieces will naturally be drawn to where they need to go, so that will help figuring out which piece goes where.

Crystal Creatures. Strange crystalline creatures appear to "guard" the crystal, however rather than attack they try to absorb certain emotions and cause the victim to behave the opposite:

• A green sprite will absorb all appreciation and induce jealousy.
  
• A pink liopleurodon will absorb all joy and induce grief.
  
• An orange phoenix will absorb all love and induce hatred.
  
• A black kirin will absorb all hope and induce despair.
  
• A blue crab will absorb all loyalty and induce distrust.
  
• A purple whale will absorb all calm and induce anger.
  
• A yellow dragon will absorb all bravery and induce fear.

The crystalline creatures will latch onto their target and will darken as they absorb the emotions. They are rather small, about 2 feet, and they can also be easily shattered which will release the emotions back to the victim, but they can only be destroyed by objects made by positive dreamotion. A plastic star made from joy, a rubber arrow heart from love, a fiery sword from bravery. Can be cheesy, can be serious, doesn't matter how big or small. If the creatures absorb too much from the victim, however, they will grow into something monstrous. Giving the creatures the positive emotions will help keep them small and will also make them disappear into the crystal walls. (art credit to Ryoko except for the liopleurodon and whale which were done by Laena; dragon from Dragon City)

AROUND TOWN

All the prompts in this section last for the entirety of the month!

Weird Weather. The weather has been completely unpredictable and it only gets weirder as the month goes on, especially after the crystal appears. To make matters worse, the weather can be affected by one's emotions, ranging from strengthening to weakening to changing it completely. This can be used effectively such as trying to subdue a sudden storm or warm up the road that suddenly iced over. —Until something else passes through. For better or worse, the weather madness occurs in small, localized areas, so one block of the road could be affected while the other remains normal.

Ghostly Apparitions. There are weird, ghostly illusions popping up all over the town. In houses, in gardens, someone even found one sitting on their toilet! They don't seem evil or malicious, just milling around as if going on about their lives, but they don't seem in any hurry to leave. The mockingbirds from last month are also hanging around, voicing out strange monologues from the ghosts that indicate lost desires: catching that last sheep, proposing to their love, winning the race, baking the best pie, traveling to another city. All simple, mundane dreams but must have meant a great deal to the lingering ghosts. To help get rid of these ghosts, the special feathers from the castle are brought in. Try to recreate what the ghost is reminiscing in a dream and let the feather absorb it. Handing the feather to the ghost will make it smile before disappearing, the feather glowing white. It can be used for the Dreamcatcher in the castle.

Chocolate Rabbit Fountain. The fountain in the plaza has undergone another strange transformation. The center statue has turned into a giant chocolate rabbit and all the water has also turned into chocolate. This is probably a delicious treat to anyone who dares to drink from or use it in general (is this sanitary…), but it's also creating a bit of a mess. Especially when the strange weather rolls through it…and the statue keeps exploding for no reason. It somehow comes back together, but when it explodes, that chocolate is HOT.

We're packing a bunch in here, but we'd like to reiterate that while everything is going to be on the one log, ICly, a lot of this is scattered throughout the month with the noted dates. So there's a lot of flexibility to figure out what your character is doing what, where, and when. We'll have a lot of thread submissions for this log, and we do have some follow-ups planned in April. How that follow-up will go, however, will depend on the progress made.

(Did I basically dump the log prompts in here again? Yes. Yes I did. Have fun prepping.)

LOOK AHEAD

We mentioned the Road Map before in our State of the Game, but going to put it back here again as a reminder (note, this is just our plans, this is not including any player plots that are already or will be on the Calendar):

April: Flower Festival — to be posted early in the month. The Flower Festival will double as a TDM for IN GAME PLAYERS ONLY. Although apps are closed to the public, current players can still bring in characters if they wish. We'll have to see how many actually intend to do so.

We also plan to have a follow-up, closed log after the results of this month's log. We'll have sign-ups for it so keep an eye out for it when April rolls around! This closed log will happen sometime in the second half of April (or the log could go up sooner for players to thread out, but ICly it wouldn't happen until later—we'll coordinate when it's closer to time).

May: STORY EATER!! All the pieces are starting to come together and we got a basic plan on how the log will go. The log itself will go up early in the month to allow as much threading as possible, and concrete IC dates will be hammered out once we get closer.

June: Finish up whatever is needed plus downtime. TDM for the public will be with the Event and apps reopen in July.

DREAM BOARD

How the Dream Board works:

• This is all optional, the quests are just extra content for players and while they can sometimes relate to upcoming or current events, they're just kind of "filler" stuff. Some will be set out in Songerein proper while others may involve dreams.
  
• The Dream Board can be found at the Plaza and quests will automatically appear on it like a bulletin board. Some will also appear in the journals. Anyone can accept them and rewards automatically generated upon completion of the task. It's a dream world, it's full of magic, it just knows.
  
• Quests can be done as many times as a character would do them and rewards will be delivered to the character upon completion.
  
• If you have any questions, comment to the designated subthread.

ID	QUEST	REWARD
301	Cloverfield. It's that time of year again and four leaf clovers are in high demand for various luck potions and amulets. A large field of them can be found by the plains just beyond the Old Cliffs. However, there are reports of fungal type creatures attacking those who go near them. Because they seem to be protecting the clovers, please do not fight them and instead lure them out or make peace with them to harvest the clovers!	Free luck charm
302	Lucky Rabbits. Instead of using a lucky rabbit's foot, they should carry around a whole rabbit instead! A new type of rare rabbit has been spotted and it's said they are so lucky that they will help find rare loot from the ground or from monster kills from hunting. Coming in white or black, try and catch these creatures (unharmed!) and have your luck boosted!	Keep the rabbit or trade it in for a few gems
303	Unlucky Clovers. A group of scam artists is selling fake luck charms. Instead of bringing good luck, it's bringing misfortune to those who wear them instead. Find the sellers and turn them into local enforcement, and try and help those who were tricked by taking away the fake charms. The charms themselves are being made by tainted clovers, so destroy any that are found.	The gratification of helping others!
304	Primate Escape: Due to the constant abuse from those meddling kids, the monkeys of Songerein have launched a counterattack of sorts, invading the village and causing general havoc among the populace. Some go as far as ransacking establishments and homes while others just happen to hang around the village where they might not be wanted. Some may just be seeking shelter due to the strange weather we’ve been having. Help these monkeys from causing too much destruction or lead them back to the wildlands and back to their homes.	A bushel of bananas for your troubles
305	Ghostly Wisps. Not to be mistaken by the ghosts roaming town, little wisps are floating through, beseeching anyone who would listen to their tales of woe. They are Dreamwalkers like everyone else, those brought in and still connected to their worlds. By a series of misfortunes, be it an accident, a hunt gone awry, or something more nefarious, their lives were lost…only to discover they are not fully dead. They have been informed their dreamotion has been depleted and will return over time. But that still doesn't change how some of them are feeling, especially those who may have "died" unjustly. Help put these "souls" at ease before they turn noctaere! (Note: This is the death mechanic at play, and it's some number of NPCs who have "died" thanks to all the misfortune going about. To keep things easy and interesting, we have a sign-up for those who wish to partner up and take on this quest. You will be given a choice of what type of scenario and we'll provide more concrete details for you to work with. LIMIT OF EIGHT (8) GROUPS.)	No noctaere running around a favor granted by the victim

END NOTES

And that's it! We're cramming a lot in here, but it will all lead to good stuff, some of which will persist beyond the Story Eater arc.

If you have any questions, be sure to comment!