{ dream notes: #24 - august 1, 2023 }

[dreamkeepers]

DREAM NOTES #24: AUGUST 1, 2023

August is such a weird month. It's like summer but not the fun summer, and means fall is coming but not there yet. ANYWAY next month is a second anniversary and we have plans 👀 This month's event will be tied into things coming in September.

CALENDAR

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

8/01: Plot With Me Meme

8/05: EMP/ATP

8/07: Date Auction Mini Event

8/14: Event/TDM

8/25: Reserves Open

8/29-31: Activity Check

9/01: State of the Game, Apps open

9/03: Final apps due, begin processing apps

9/05: Player Intro, Open Log, Cr Meme

9/28-30: Activity Check

DREAM TREND: This month's dream trends may involve any of the following themes: something treasured, what you most desire, and traveling.

WEATHER: Hot. Hoooooot. Sooooo hot and humid things might actually feel sticky.

OTHER NOTES: None.

We have two events this month. One is a mini event and the other is for our TDM, so be sure to read the details and previews!

ACTIVITY CHECK RESULTS

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

Aera Mirus Fleuret | mementomoracle
Zero Kiryuu | moonlitknight
Shionne Imeris | nevercravetherose

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 75/90, which means our new player reserve/apps slots are at a maximum 15.

ORGANIZATION THINGS

New Writing Helper Mods! As we previously announced, we have two new writing helper mods to help us for primarily the Dream Board, but also for prompt ideas for our events! Once again, thank you Mich and Unkie for volunteering!

Updating Event Post Format. After some feedback, we are going to try a new layout for our event posts. We know they can get lengthy and it's a lot of scrolling, so we've discussed different ways to do this. While detail cuts were the initial suggestion, our prompt formatting doesn't lend very well for practical purposes—we could have 4 or more cuts and that's a lot of clicking since there's no "Expand All" option—and it didn't look visually appealing. We are still leaving the cuts on the table, however, and will use them where we think it would work well, such as a prompt with a lot of choices or cut for extended details, but for now we've come up with a different solution that we think will work.

We'll be using the target window pane layout with a sidebar used for navigation. We use this type of layout for the Bestiary and a different version in the World Directory. It used to be used for the Game Info, which will be reformatted to use the style again (just nicer looking than what it was before). Because the size is restricted to fit what you see on the screen, scrolling will be cut down dramatically and you are limited in viewing 1-2 large prompts at a time (more for smaller). It is divided further by sections which you will navigate via the sidebar.

Good news for mobile users, it's been coded so that it will work on mobile. A little skinny, but still readable. We did notice some weird size inconsistencies between mobile Chrome browsers, but it should still fit on the screen.

Finally, we will try to pare down the length of our prompts to make it easier to read while still providing enough necessary detail to allow players to be creative with the prompt. Again, we will utilize cuts if needed for extra details.

We have a working mockup that players can test here using the previous Summer Beach Episode event. You can use this to compare and get a feel of how future posts will look. Please leave feedback on this post on what you think! We recognize everyone will have different preferences, so we're trying to compromise as best we can.

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:

Places:

• The Wild Harvest serves various western and eastern style earth-based street food dishes. A special menu is rotated every month.
  

  Korean-style Hot Dogs: Skewered hot dogs battered in a yeasted dough, cooked to perfection and dressed with sugar, cheese, ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Potatoes and crispy ramen are also available—patron's choice!
  
  Tomato Pie: By Reverein's own Solanaceae, a winner of July's contest. A tart, savory pie filling of fresh, ripe tomatoes, herbs, and roasted peppers, baked in a buttery crust topped with flaky salt and a little parmesan cheese. Invokes fond reminiscence of memories of home. Vegetarian friendly!
  
  S'mores Cheesecake: Tasty and sweet, this cheesecake is made with a layer of chocolate over graham-cracker crust, topped with toasted marshmallows drizzed with hot fudge. Can be ordered in slices or a whole cake for a special occasion (or just because)!
  
  Dream Ade: Putting the spotlight back on one of our permanent menu items, it is a calming fruity drink with cider. The glowy, rainbow colours come from the glowing moon-shaped fruits around the pub, and there's a slight essence of Dawn flowers added to help one sleep better at night. (One might feel slight discomfort if they have a bit of nightmare energy already in them.)

  
  
  
• The Starflower Sanctuary and Cafe is a small eatery/bar and animal sanctuary located in the quieter, northwestern corner of Reverein's plaza. If you are looking for a furry companion of your own, please stop by for a visit! There are several animals up for adoption and are looking for a good home, such as rabbits, turtles, and fairy kittens! If you would like to adopt an animal, please fill out this form.
  
  
• Flip Factory is an indoor skate park located on the north fringes of the Markets. It is found within a refurbished warehouse and can be easily spotted by the myriad of paintings on its exterior, known as the Commemoration Wall to many. The wall mostly depicts the residents of Reverein banding together to bring about the fall of the Story Eater on May 2023.
  
  Painted with similar graffiti art on the inside, the skate park contains a number of half and quarter pipes, ramps, handrails, and stair sets for both beginners and experts alike. Though said to be a free-for-all, Beat offers lessons to anyone interested in skateboarding as well as deck detailing at the park.
  

Other:

• Eustace made a journal post about using baubles to temporarily return to his home world.
  

DATE AUCTION

Our first mini event will feature a special Date Auction thrown by a traveling troupe of fae from the Wildlands! Composed mostly of cherubs, they are here to get some matchmaking done. To make things easier, we'll have OOC sign-ups and try to do some "pre-planning" with winners. Although the auction is catered for those who'd like to do some random dates and get their ships moving, we also have some general prompts for others to use if they so wish. This log will go up on Monday, August 7 with an IC date of weekend August 11-13.

It should be noted we will have a "catchall" prompt in the TDM reference back to parts of this event in case players would like to make plans with those who may be TDMing instead.

🎡 Carnival Grounds. The troupe will set themselves up at the Carnival grounds located just outside of town. The grounds have been under steady development and are happy to serve as a fun venue for the event. Thus along with the date auction event, the standard rides and game booths will be available.

📝 On the Auction Block. While characters can voluntarily sign themselves up, they can also be forced on the stage, either by other characters setting them up or the fae just thinking, "Hey this person looks like they could use a date!" and shove them in. During the event, the character will get on stage, have to say something about themselves, and then wait until the bidding is over. We may use one of those "Tindr" codes for the actual thread to spice things up a little.

💎 Crystal Hearts. Every participant will receive a special crystal heart to use for bidding. Instead of offering a price, they must pour out all their wishes and desires for the person on the stage to make the heart grow brighter. The brightest heart will be declared the winner. Because the hearts cannot be reset, all crystal hearts that have been charged, even just a little bit, must be turned into the staff and new ones will be given out. We'll ask for a tally during AC!

🥇 Winning Dates. Those who win their bid will be able to take the person around the carnival for the date! And good news, multiple dates for both groups are allowed. A character could go back on the stage to try and score another date, and likewise a character can bid on multiple people, even at once. So if someone wants to have a harem date, this is their chance.

✏️ Sign-Ups and Pre-planning. To make things a little easier on everyone, we request those who will be on auction to comment here. If you already know who the winner(s) should be, please indicate it and make sure to make it clear you have spoken with them beforehand! Even if someone has a predetermined winner, others are still encouraged to bid to help with interaction and make things interesting. Please also note if you are open to others having a date with your character. Additionally, we know not everyone has a set "partner" but would still like to participate for fun. Thus we'd like to ask all our players to help and sign-up for those who do not have a predetermined date. Dates do not have to be romantic, friend dates are good, too!

🌠 Wishes and Fortunes. Since this is a mini event with the date auction itself being the main focus, there won't be too many other prompts. But besides the general carnival attractions, there will also be a special Wishing Well and a Fortuneteller.

THIEVERY AFOOT

For the "major" event and TDM, things are getting stolen—including dreams! This event will have two parts, one for around town and the other within a dreamscape. The log itself will be posted on Monday, August 14, however the events within will ICly span from August 11 through the 25, with the dreamscape portion isolated to the 25th.

🎡 Carnival Reference. Just a quick reminder that we'll have a prompt to reference back to the carnival and the auction for those who may want to participate in it.

💸 Stolen Items. Starting Friday, August 11, various things will suddenly disappear. It starts small, but as the days go on, more important items that characters have a strong emotional ties to will disappear. This can include people and animals! Also, size does not matter.

🫧 Bubblegum Fountain. Fortunately, the items can be found…though some may not appreciate where. The fountain will malfunction throughout this time period and turn into bubblegum. While there will be the main issue of the fountain itself and people getting stuck in it, the stolen items (and people/animals) will also appear in the sticky goop. Some may even be floating in giant bubbles that will require dreamotion to catch and pop. When the weather said it was going to be sticky, this isn't what it meant!

📚 Library Problems. Not only are personal items being stolen, but books from the Tree of Stories are as well, prompting the security system to activate. Unfortunately that's going haywire, too, as if it were sabotaged.

💤 Stolen Dreams. The third and final type of thing being stolen are dreams themselves…at least parts of them. The stolen portion will take on a symbolic form and leave the victim feeling a bit hollow and want to chase after the thief. This will lead them to a larger dreamscape where others will also appear, and the environment will be a mishmash of story settings that will create challenges for the characters to get past to follow the thieves. No actual harm will come to the character, but they don't know that. Players can be creative in what the item is and what form it takes. Whether they are successful in catching the thieves is also up to the player. Should the character manage to catch the thief, they will disappear, leaving behind the stolen piece of dream. This portion of the event will ICly occur on August 25.

🕵️ Investigation. The main reason why we're throwing this up so early is to allow characters to investigate in what's going on. Are the thefts around town related to the dreamscapes? Were the stories stolen the same as the ones used? Could there have been clues left behind? Can the character chase after the thieves!? The answer is YES! and it would help lead to September's events which will follow up on this. So to that end, we have a sign-up for those who are interested in investigating what's happening! We'll provide enough clues and information for characters to work with.

➡️ The Chase is On. We would like to allow a group of characters to be part of a "chase" group to go after the thieves. This would allow more of an IC connection to help lead into the next segment. However, we have a few restrictions:

• Limit to 5 people. A max of 5 people in the group or things may get unwieldy.
  
• Consistent, faster taggers. We'll be looking for our more active players to handle this because—
  
• Two week time limit. You'll have roughly two weeks to thread things out. You will start roughly around August 26 and have until September 9th. Of course we will coordinate and can work out some parts of how it will end so we can push things along and not be stuck waiting. Because of this, we'll have the final call on whether to accept a sign-up based on what we've observed via Activity Checks.

We hope everyone understands the restrictions! Those who are part of the investigations will be providing the group chasing with the clues and info needed. There can be overlap between investigation and chase members. There is no deadline on investigation threads.

IMPORTANT! We may end up pushing our usual open log after apps to a few days later than usual to accommodate the chase group. This could be delayed up to September 10th or so, but we'll be playing it a little by ear. We'll be able to know for sure by the time the mod notes go up for the month.

ANNIVERSARY PREVIEW

Next month will be our SECOND YEAR ANNIVERSARY YAAAAAAAS!!! And as implied for this month's events, it'll continue what's going on and we'll see where it will lead. Oooh aaah. We will have the annual State of the Game next month that will include the (tentative) roadmap for the rest of the year and into 2024 as well as other musings and feedback requests! That post will also discuss more of the kind of direction and concepts we'd like to have in future events, so if you're still wondering, just wait a little longer!

Thanks everyone!

ID	QUEST	REWARD
801	Help the Choya! ...Or don't? A friendly choya was seen placing a request on the board. This tells us two things: 1) there are friendly choya, and 2) they know how to use the dreamboard. However, the paper was filled with scribbles and random scratches, so it's hard to tell what they actually want. Maybe check out the local friendly tribe and see what's up? Or don't. You know. Up to you. (It turns out they need help protecting their pups, procuring fruit to eat, and they want to teach you their dances.)	We don't know. Sorry. A sense of pride and accomplishment for helping the choya?
802	Snail Slime. A massive snail is on the loose through Reverein, leaving globs and globs of slime in its wake. Directing it out of town isn't the problem–it's getting the slime that covers the streets and buildings cleaned up that is. Get rid of it and enjoy a clean town. Alternatively, hand a jar of the slime in to a local researcher who claims to know how to make a sick bug repellant out of it. Might be worth a shot.	A surprisingly effective bug repellant made of snail slime.
803	Fairy Mosquitos. If you thought mosquitoes couldn't get any worse, think again. New fae-like mosquitoes have made their entrance in Songerein, and these ones drain emotion instead of blood. Isn't that neat? There doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of the mosquitoes themselves, unfortunately, but those drained can be replenished by dreamotion input from another. Got bit? Time to find help!	The real mosquito bite anti-itch cream was the friends we made along the way.
804	Dragon Eggs. It's that time of year! The dragons have begun laying their eggs, except the more adventurous–or perhaps naive–have left them in very precarious spots around Reverein. Do something to make sure these eggs remain safe, either by stabilizing their spots or moving them to a better location nearby, so that the dragons don't lose their next generation.	Trinkets of varying value and quality from the dragons' hordes as thanks.
805	Searching for Inspiration. A rather handsomely-dressed lion-like man has appeared in town, claiming to be an author who calls himself the Interdimensional Champion of Love. His claims are questionable, but he's here collecting stories about all kinds of love to help combat his writer's block. He's especially interested in the more unorthodox types of romance. Share a story, either real or made up, with him or a friend, and this stranger will be eternally grateful.	Detailed feedback on your story, and a copy of your tale immortalized in the Tree of Stories.
806	Sketchy Frog. A talking frog is requesting you take it across a lake in the wildlands for a special reward but there is a giant snake there and won't let the frog pass. Speaking with the snake it says that if the frog gets across it'll set the trees on fire. Either defeat the snake and help the frog or feed the frog to the snake and possibly avoid a forest fire. If you choose to help the snake, it sheds its shimmering skin which can be used to barter in town. Otherwise, aiding the frog will give you a special lilypad that can be used as a step on top of water. And a sloppy kiss.	Reward outcomes depend on who you help.

END NOTES

If you have any questions, be sure to comment to the designated thread here!