buttrinthum | May 2025 TDM

Entry tags:

!modpost,
!tdm

May 2025 TDM

Garden of Dreams

Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see an inky starry nothingness spread out around you. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.

When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water, and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.

Will you drink it or not?

Though there is nothing to prove it, you just know you have made a promise, a contract of sorts, with something and someone who remains but a shadow in your memories.

💐 Blood Weed is a sharp as razorblades. It grows waist high on a 6'0" tall person in places, but never less than 5" tall overall. Small paths wind through the grass, and those who find themselves waking up near the blood weed will have to carefully navigate through the paths in order to come out without being cut. The cuts themselves are painful, the sensation of pins and needles is accompanied with a burning that reaches deep to the bone. It's not debilitating, not completely, but it will make it harder to escape and more likely a victim will bleed to feed.... the blood weed.

🌸 Witch Hair is a strange plant, soft to the touch and with the scent of marshmallows. If eaten plain it can soothe the ache of blood weed cuts temporarily, but it is far more effective as a medicine when brewed into a potion. The strangest thing about Witch hair is that it only grows at the water's edge, and then weaves over the ground through the blood weed. It's almost as if it is encouraging a sacrifice to save someone else. A cut for a cure. The one side effect of eating the weed raw is that it can give those who ingest it a temporary ability to affect the weather in a small radius around them. Perhaps this too, could be a boon? The effect only lasts a few hours, 48 at most. Maybe there's a way to have fun with it in the meantime?

No matter your adventures in the garden with its many plants, before long you are found by a gaggle of inhabitants from both the City of Stellari and Somnius. They seem excited in general, and excited to see whoever it is they stumble upon without pause. They approach with handkerchiefs of varied colors and wave them about as they take new Dreamer's hands.

"Please, come with us. The games begin soon! You have a team to choose. Don't worry, it'll be exciting!"

The Spirit of Competition

The chaos from last month has settled, leaving a celebration behind in its wake. Officials from Stellari explain that, every year, the city holds a massive event, meant to honor the spirit of competition. This year, they've decided to include Somnius in the competition as well. The crystal-clearing efforts have been fruitful, and slowly but surely, more of Visium is starting to become accessible.

To that end, Dreamers find both Stellari and Somnius transformed, dressed head-to-toe in festival stalls and decorations of red, blue, green, and yellow. Dreamers themselves are all divided into one of four color teams. They are selected automatically, and by traits inherent to their being.

Red team candidates are either extremely good, in a moral sense, or extremely bad.
Blue team candidates are either extremely emotional or show very little emotion whatsoever.
Yellow team candidates are either extremely powerful or extremely weak.
Green team candidates are either extremely average or exceptionally special.

A handkerchief of their team's color is magically fastened to every participant, and can only be removed when a game necessitates it, such as capture the flag. It's an important way of identifying who is on what team. You'll want to know who your teammates are, because teammates gain special benefits when interacting, such as increased strength and magical ability. As well as that, people can also communicate telepathically with others from their team for the duration of the event.

By the same token, however, being in close proximity with others who aren't on one's team cause negative effects. Different teams have different effects, depending on their color.

Red team members destabilize the emotions of opponents around them.
Blue team members bring confusion and disorientation to opponents around them.
Yellow team members destabilize magic/abilities of the opponents around them.
Green team members bring bad luck to opponents around them.

This is all, of course, in the interest of making the competition more interesting. Each team will also have a home base to work from, with team red's being the Amphitheater of the Mind, team blue's being Lake Termina, team yellow's being the (old) Church of the Moon, and team green's being The Stone Dragon.

For the duration of the festival, teams will meet to face off in various games and challenges, all earning points for their color team. The points are displayed on large scoreboards, stationed over the crystals in both Somnius and Stellari. Ribbons, medals, and trophies are offered as rewards during the celebrations and ceremonies that occur every night for the duration of the event. More than anything, though, the spirit of competition drives everyone, compelling them to dive headfirst into the games and give it their absolute best.

Some of the events are as follows, though pretty much any sport you can think of is offered - even ones one may recognize only from their own worlds.

🤾Dodgeball
🚩 Capture the Flag
🏃‍♀️ Relay Races
🏊 A Triathlon
🙈 Hide & Seek
🫱 Tag
🪢 Tug-o-war
🥇 Obstacle Courses
🔴 Kickball
❓ Etc.

So, get out there and start battling it out - just not to the death this time!

Living Scavenger Hunt

Perhaps the largest event of all is a scavenger hunt in which the items are other Dreamers. Competitors are given a scroll with a list of descriptions, and are asked to seek out other Dreamers who fit those descriptions, and get a signature from them.

The list is as follows:

🔎 1. someone who can fly
🔎 2. someone who has never killed anyone
🔎 3. someone who has killed more than ten people
🔎 4. someone who can turn into something other than an animal
🔎 5. someone who betrayed someone they love
🔎 6. someone who saved the world
🔎 7. someone who wants to leave this place
🔎 8. someone who never wants to leave this place
🔎 9. someone who sacrificed their powers to Vaeros
🔎 10. someone who arrived after Vaeros' death
🔎 11. someone older than 30
🔎 12. someone younger than 15
🔎 13. someone who didn't drink their gold/blue/red potion
🔎 14. someone who has drunk more than one gold/blue/red potion
🔎 15. someone who has returned to their world, then returned to this place

Dreamers then sign their name next to the descriptor on the competitor's scroll. Magic compels them to be honest when confronted, and to give their signature even if they're unhappy to do so.

There is also a variation of this game, though much smaller in scale. Dreamers draw slips of paper with descriptions written on them, then pass them off to others who match that description. Some of them include:

💖 Someone you admire.
❌ Someone you hate.
😱 Someone you're afraid of.
🫂 Someone you trust.
😳 Someone you wish to know better.
😖 Someone you need to apologize to.
😊 Someone you're glad you met here.
😡 Someone you're angry at.
😨 Someone you're worried about.
🤕 Someone who hurt you.

Dreamers feel compelled to respond honestly, and genuinely give their slip of paper to whoever they think of first, even if it's something they wouldn't normally confess.

Both games last the duration of the festival, the Scavenger Hunt promising a massive amount of cords for anyone who can complete the entire list, as well as a medal.

The Gametime Jubilations

Competitions can't be competitions all the time. Players need rest, the crowds need sustenance. But even though breaks are needed, parties never have to stop. Throughout the month-long Games, there's a Celebration along with it. Both Lumindeas and Stellari as well as Somnius are partaking in the celebration. No matter where dreamers wind up during this celebration, there's not a single location where Natives aren't doing their best to partake in a party that never ends.

The feeling and goodwill that comes with the games and camaraderie is infectious, and even the locals from Somnius are feeling more forgiving of Dreamers than they have in months. They visit Stellari while those who live in Stellari visit Somnius. It's the mingling and shared celebration that simply seems to warm up the town that has so long been alienated by crystal. With the glowing feeling of camaraderie in the air and the collaborative efforts to revive the land of Visium, everywhere seems to be in good spirits.

🪩 Dancing and Singing
There's music in the air and lights that shine on dance floors. It's hard to mistake the purpose of these portions of the celebrations, but everything is a game, even between the organized events. Every dance floor is a setup for a partnered dance competition. The genre is different in each location: romantic slow dancing, upbeat country music for line dancing, pop type music that thunders through the air and vibrates through the floor. The possibilities are endless, but the competition is stiff. Locals are paired with other locals, and dreamers with dreamers and everyone gets into the spirit, sweating and swaying to the music.
For more organized events there happens to be a cake walk, where dreamers and locals alike are encouraged to participate and win one of the many fruit flavored cakes. Be careful to not land on the same space as a competitor, or you'll both be eliminated and recieve a pie to the face! Don't worry though, towels and a change of clothes MIGHT be offered as consolation prizes.
For those that don't really feel the dancing beat, there's another way to compete for a little fun. Open mic is provided in some of these dancing locations, with magically powered instruments provided by Seravo himself. A simple request, a song title, and the instruments know the song to be played. Or perhaps in some cases a little poetry might be more someone's speed. In any case, the microphone is ready, the band primed to play.
🍔 Food and Socalizing
It's a bit of a task to get nourishment as well. There are food stalls installed in both cities, though every one comes with a bit of a game or competition in order to get your delicious sustenance. Those who approach the stalls of different kinds of food will be asked to win a compliment war with the guest next to them before their order will be fulfilled. Offer a compliment before the timer is up to win the competition against your chosen competitor. Each round you only get a certain amount of time to think up a compliment, with each round decreasing until no time is left. It might take several rounds before the attendant of the food stall feels inclined to hand over their delicious creations. Of course, once the game is over a plate or drink will be offered. If you want seconds, however, you're going to have to fork over another win.
Other ways of getting your tummies filled include participating in eating contests, several of which are set up throughout various locations. Burger eating, hotdog eating, even ice cream and cake or drinks themselves, the varieties of things offered are endless. Lucky dreamers might even find foods that are unique to where they come from. ...if a bit off. Its hard to make things exactly the same when the ingredients might be scarce.

If you're looking for a spot to relax while eating, there are tables and chairs aplenty. There is one catch, though. In order to sit and eat, one must play. Play what, you ask? Musical chairs. Both Dreamers and locals alike are encouraged to participate in a game of musical chairs with their tablemates, while eating of course. The winner will be given a small ribbon to remember the game by.

Well, perhaps even celebration can all be a competition after all.

OOC

Expand to see our Event Summary

Garden of Dreams

Dreamers arrive in the enchanted garden, after making a wish in their sleep / at their time of death
Blood weed grows, as sharp as razorblades. Dreamers must move through the thickets, avoiding being cut; the cuts are extremely painful.
Witch hair also grows, and can be used to heal the cuts from the blood weed. Ingesting it also allows the user to control the weather for a short period of time.

The Spirit of Competition

A festival is being thrown across both Visium and Lumindeas, celebrating the spirit of competition.
Dreamers are all divided into four color-based teams, red, blue, green, and yellow, depending on certain traits they possess (see section for list - players choose which team their character will be on).
Members of the same team can communicate telepathically, and increase each other's physical and magical abilities when they are close.
Dreamers will experience negative effects when interacting with members of other teams (see section for list).
There are several events for Dreamers to participate in (see section for list), and all feel compelled to compete and give the competition their best effort.
Rewards are medals, ribbons, trophies, and sometimes cords.

Living Scavenger Hunt

Dreamers are all given a list with descriptions befitting of other Dreamers. They must locate these other Dreamers, and get their signature next to the descriptor they match (see section for list).
Dreamers may also participate in a game where they draw a slip of paper with a descriptor on it, and hand that slip of paper to someone that it describes (ie: someone you like; see section for list of suggestions)
All feel compelled to be honest in their selections, or if they are confronted

The Gametime Jubilations

For the duration of the competition, there is a 24/7 festival, offering games, food, dancing, etc.; in every corner of Visium and Lumindeas, people seem to be participating in this festival.
There are various competitions like dance competitions, a cake walk, open mic/karaoke competition, etc.
To be served food, Dreamers must engage in a compliment war against each other, offering compliments within a time limit to win enough points to eat. There are also several eating contests (pies, hot dogs, etc.)
To sit with your food, you must play musical chairs (while eating)

A note that teams are ICly selected automatically for characters, but OOCly, we will not be assigning teams. Simply choose whichever team you think suits your character best.

Feel free to ask questions underneath the correct header! We also request of current players that most playing with the event happen on the event post so that those looking to TDM have a chance to play in all of the varied games and competitions we have provided! Overflows will be provided when and if needed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ At six-foot-two, it's not often that Reiner finds himself looking up at anyone. Rather than making him uncomfortable, it's actually rather comforting. As if some missing piece of his life has slotted into place.

(Normally, it would make Reiner feel an old ache of grief, too. But what has he to grieve, when that memory is gone?)

Reiner gives a half-smile, the expression easy but somewhat at odds with his perpetually exhausted appearance. ]

Nice to meet you in person, Dolph.

[ A little intimidating, too, since the sentiment doesn't appear to be mutual—but Reiner is careful not to let that show.

He glances down at the scavenger hunt form. ]

Can you turn into something other than an animal?

Nope. Never had that power and never had that potion.

[ he is a touch curious to see reiner playing a scavenger hunt. he wouldn't have pictured him doing it but. he can't say he knows the man well. ]

How's it going so far?

Could be worse.

[ Reiner tilts his form so that Dolph can see it. The few names on it mostly fall under "nice" things, like 'has never killed anyone.' The more questionable or objectionable ones remain blank. ]

Could also be better. A lot of these aren't the sort of things people like admitting.

[ dolph glances at the list. yeah, that's a fun bunch right there. he points a few out. ]

"Killed more than ten people, older than 30," — [ hm, he pauses a bit at the question about betrayal. shakes his head before moving on. ] — That should be good enough.

[ It's not the killing part that earns Dolph a quick look: it's the "older than 30." Reiner wouldn't have guessed that Dolph was that much older than himself.

Then again, Reiner knows he looks older than twenty-one. He's probably not a good judge of this stuff.

He notes the pause, but can't guess which question caused it. (If only he knew it's one of the questions he could sign off on.) ]

It is, yeah. Thank you. [ He takes up a pen to make a note of it. ] Are you filling one out? A few fit me.

Yeah, no. I'm not playing survey games with our overlords.

If they have an issue with it, they can drag me kicking and screaming.

[ Reiner's eyebrows rise. ]

You think of them as overlords?

[ He doesn't sound judgmental—just curious. ]

I think anyone who decides who comes and goes is a touch of an overlord. No matter how benevolent.

And I don't care for surveys.

[ collecting information, even if it's information they may already have. well. little good comes from that. he's from a fascist state. he's tetchy about these things. ]

Edited 2025-05-03 02:30 (UTC)

[ Reiner considers that for a second, studying Dolph's face. ]

Fair enough.

[ He folds the paper crisply in two, then four, and tucks in into a pocket. Effectively removing it from Dolph's sight. ]

I've never done a scavenger hunt before. It seemed … fun.

[ A slight shrug. ]

[ fun. yeah. he hopes it is. he just . . . can't muster it right now. last month hit him like a truck. he feels whatever good mood he ever possessed wilting, day by day.

he shakes his head slowly, mostly to shake himself out of it. ]

You should. Have fun. Don't let my feelings be a downer.

I'd rather understand your feelings.

[ A blunt way to put it, golden eyes briefly searching Dolph's face again. Then he looks away, brow furrowing. ]

I'm … I guess you could call me a celebrity, back in my world. [ That's one word for it. ] I'm used to people already knowing facts about me.

But you've been here longer than I have; you know more about how this place works. If you think "survey games" are a bad idea, I'm willing to take your word for it.

[ huh. ]

I was one too.

[ he pauses, considering his response. ]

You can't really pin this place down. It's a cage, but we all know it's the nicest one we've got. Especially when we're out of options. That being said, I'm leery of surveys. Giving information back about things they should already know. Things that could come back to bite us in the ass.

[ Reiner listens attentively. The talk of cages reminds him briefly of Eren—how could it not?—but Reiner understands it well enough. He knows what it is to grow up inside of walls. And he knows that cages don't always have to be physical. ]

Things that seem harmless until they're fed to the right person. [ His expression abruptly clouds. ] … Like a kid reporting on a neighbor.

[ dolph nods, pleased reiner got it so quickly. they were not a police-state but. you never know. and dolph just . . . doesn't like it. he never will. these inklings of eden that trickle down here, dolph will always fight.

a brief pause. ]

Why do you want to understand my feelings?

[ During that pause, Reiner's expression remains clouded. Things seem so free here compared to his homeland, where his right to live is subject to debate. He hadn't considered the harm collecting information might do. Even if it seems innocuous, how could he be certain?

He thinks of Falco, and all the harm caused by delivering a letter. By trying to be helpful.

When Dolph speaks again, Reiner has to blink a few times to clear his head. ]

Jean is a good judge of character. He always has been, even when he was too self-absorbed to say anything nice about anyone. He cares about you; and that means you're the kind of person I'd like to get to know.

[ self-absorbed is not the word dolph would ever use, but jean mentioned he was a bit of an ass when he was younger. still, it's . . . odd. he's just not used to being in connection with someone. to be regarded that way. ]

I'm not a very interesting person. Boring. Lots of trauma. Not fun.

But if you have questions, I'll answer.

We've got some stuff in common, then.

[ Reiner's cousin, Gabi, would strongly object to Reiner calling himself "boring" or "not fun." But even she couldn't argue with the trauma.

He rests his hands on his hips, putting on a slight smile. Again, it's somewhat at odds with his tired appearance. ]

It's tough to think of any on the spot… [ Not that that stops him. ] What do you do in your downtime?

[ dolph pauses, mulling it over. ]

Swim. I have a pool that's swallow enough for me. Some gardening. And the club.

It's . . . new still. Having hobbies. Having . . . time. Never had to fill it up before.

I know what you mean. Any downtime I used to have went toward sleeping or training the kids.

[ "The kids" is said with a distinct note of fondness. It may have been a tough job, but Reiner still loved those kids. ]

[ dolph shakes his head slowly. ]

Not like that. I was . . . property. I didn't have choices until much later.

[ "Property." That strikes a familiar bell, but one Reiner isn't sure he wants to explore. He doesn't know what it was like for Dolph. He doesn't know how closely his own experience in Marley's military can compare.

In any case, it wipes the smile from his face. ]

You … just obeyed orders, you mean?

I had no choice but to obey orders. That's why I'm a cyborg. They took my face and arm.

Lots of brainwashing, abuse, that kind of shit since I was young. Then I managed to break free.

[ Reiner's eyes widen slightly, startled. Not by what Dolph is saying, but by how blunt it is. How open.

His jaw flexes, and he glances away. ]

… Getting brainwashed when you're a kid isn't easy to break.

[ Reiner managed it, eventually. Saw the truth though all those lies. But he never rebelled. Never escaped the walls. ]

I'm glad you managed it.

[ blunt to a fault. he holds back the emotional parts, but what happened? people should know. he'll never cut back on that. he'll never balk at showing the worst of it. enough of closed doors, let the sins be known. ]

Me too. No regrets there.

[ Reiner, in contrast, can't say such things so bluntly. It's too raw for him. And after years of mandatory silence, opening up is still difficult.

So it takes him a second to admit: ]

It took me until I was seventeen. It was too late to undo the damage I'd done.

[ Far, far too late. ]

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