TDM #6 - Planned Outage

[perchancetodreammods]

TDM #6 - Planned Outage

Pardon Our Dust

Things are a little odd in the Dreamscape at the moment! Typically, newcomers are met with beautiful scenery, a note inviting them to come speak to the Dreamscape's host, an explanation about where they are, and a handy Constellation pendant connecting them to the rest of their new neighbors. But this time, there is something odd afoot, and nothing here to help you make sense of your new surroundings if you've just gotten here. Don't worry, though, it will all make sense soon! Hopefully! Just hang tight. More details to follow... probably? Oh dear.

​

This is our second Crisis Event, and as such, things are a little different from our usual fare! Details for entry will be in the prompts below, as the rules are a little different from our standard TDMs. There's also usually pictures.

DATE

2/12/2023 (ICly intended to begin 2/15/23, posted early because I love you)

THEME

Crisis Event!

QUICK NAV

Locations

Feather Info

The Outsider

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Valentine’s Day comes and goes, and the romantic atmosphere that the Dreamscape had taken on has dwindled after a good long month as the seasonal excitement begins to dwindle. Those who have been here for a while and are familiar with the Outsider’s antics will no doubt be wondering when and what the next big thing will be. They tend to begin a new and exciting project shortly after the previous one ends. However, regardless of how long you’ve been here, the announcement arriving today will more than likely come as a surprise.

A jingle plays from your Constellation pendant, and a stream of light pours from the little star. A suspended screen of light hangs in midair, displaying the Outsider. A video message.

To Bring You This Message From Our Sponsor

“Hello again, my friends!” The Outsider smiled, albeit a bit anxiously. “I hope that those of you who attended had a lovely holiday, however you chose to celebrate it. I do have a rather important bit of news to share, and it’s regarding a somewhat… unique… situation, so please listen carefully, as I will be starting the process shortly after this announcement.”

“Those of you who were here in early January might recall a certain mishap.” There were many words for the dream-shattering event that took place at the beginning of January. “Mishap” was certainly an interesting choice. Anyway, “Ever since that incident occurred, I have been working diligently to find the source of the problem and rebuild a stronger, safer, happier Dreamscape for all of us. While normally I have never fully lost control of my domain in that way, I’ve also never created anything as large scale or structured as this Dreamscape before, so all of this is new territory for me. As such, at this time, I think the best course of action would be for me to rebuild most of the Dreamscape from scratch, as much as I can without putting all of you into unmanageable conditions or giving you the boot.”

“What I intend to do is to shut down all non-essential functions. The outer structure that keeps the Dreamscape intact and separate from the Greater Illogic, the Nimbus Clouds, and parts of the Torn Oak will remain active. The rest of the Dreamscape will be--- well, a blank slate. You may find this alarming at first, but I assure you it is part of the process. While I am gone, many of the normal functionalities of the Dreamscape, including restrictions, will be non-operational. This means that in all communal areas of the Dreamscape, you all will collectively have as much control over the environment as you do your own Nimbus Cloud. So, feel free to experiment and paint the town, or lack thereof, red! Just be cautious with what you imagine, as I will not be available to correct any issues, and be respectful of one another.”

“Unfortunately I will need to be outside of the Dreamscape for this process, and thus will be unreachable, but I’m certain you all will be just fine. Have fun, be safe, and I will see you all soon!”

And then, without any further ado, the display cuts out, and the Dreamscape goes with it.

Have You Tried Turning it Off and Back On Again?

Before you can even process what’s going on, the world around you begins to break apart into tiny fragments and fall away like a dissolve effect on a bad Powerpoint. As promised, you are in very short order left standing in an empty white void. It’s a bit disorienting, hard to even tell what constitutes as the “floor” in this situation, though after a moment your brain adjusts. If you aren’t thinking too hard about it, you can almost see a flat plane of a slightly different shade of white that serves as your walking surface. The Torn Oak, with its blanched trunk and periwinkle leaves, and the cluster of fluffy pink Nimbus Clouds are all that remain. The Twisted City, the Barren Freeway, the Glass Lake, the forest, the sea, the mountain--- everything else is gone. Everything beyond the few remaining amenities appears to be just a blank, white void that goes on forever.

You have a few options here. You could retreat to your Nimbus Cloud, or take this opportunity to visit that of a friend. After all, there’s usually too much going on in the Dreamscape to spend much time dawdling around at home, so this could be a good time to visit one another. You could also explore the Torn Oak. There’s not much to it right now, but the Outsider is away and this might be an opportunity to wander their unusual home unsupervised.

Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to manipulate the Dreamscape--- with no restrictions. No wish required. Rebuild places from your waking world, create impossible feats of architecture or luxurious amenities, have an adventure of your own making, or just dream up nonsense. Truly the only limitation is what you can imagine. However, when shaping the Dreamscape, take care not to let your mind stray, as you may inadvertently create something out of a nightmare.

​

Aside from continuing to observe the blacklist and common-sense trigger warning guidelines, there is no restriction on what can happen in the Dreamscape. Create your own fun, or a disaster. The choice is yours. However, the Outsider will not be available to be contacted in relation to this event and will not return until March 1st.

Just Passing Through

Another interesting effect of this little procedure is that the barrier between the Dreamscape and the rest of the dreams of every sentient being in the multiverse is now far thinner. Normally, the Outsider hand-selects everyone whose consciousness is brought into the Dreamscape, but at the moment, it seems just anyone can end up here. Perhaps you are one such member of the unfiltered rabble. (No offense, of course.)

Instead of landing where most newcomers do, you’ll find yourself wandering through a version of a certain H.C Escher art piece that is done up in pink marble tile and wrought iron. Take a staircase or find a door, any door, to be released into the strange white void from a disembodied door perched on the stump of a blanched oak tree, while the severed trunk and canopy of blue leaves loom impossibly overhead. Without the normal orientation for new arrivals, you are on your own. No personal cloud, no instructions, no explanations. Just a beautiful, terrifying tree and a bright, blank world. Maybe someone here can tell you what’s going on.

​

New arrivals entering the Dreamscape during the Planned Outage crisis event do not need to abide by normal universe rules. They do not have their own Nimbus Cloud or Constellation pendant, do not require a plot reason to be here, and are not subject to normal restrictions. They can be doubles of existing characters, can ignore cast caps, and can wake up and disappear at any time. They don’t even have to ever figure out that they are in a collective dream. They may ask to remain in the Dreamscape after the event, get stuck by accident, or disappear entirely! Additionally, this is a great time to canon-update your characters by having them wake up and come back later in their canon.

Mod Note: Feather Leaderboard

Hello friends! Earlier I made an announcement regarding a Feather Leaderboard that we'll be launching next week, and the March 1st event, which will definitely benefit from folks knowing how many feathers their characters have. If you haven't read that yet, it's pretty brief, but the gist is that the feather tracker spreadsheet is available now and we'll be checking it on Feb. 22nd to establish the leaderboard and announcing the winners with the plotting post for the March event!

The prize for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place is a special RP prompt for just those characters and a friend of their choosing, plus bragging rights, of course!

UNRELATED NOTE: I am posting this TDM a few days in advance, meaning it slightly overlaps with last month's Valentine's TDM. I would like to note that while ICly the prompts here state that the event is over, the feather bonus that was in place for Valentine's day is still in effect until Feb 15th OOCly, so you can still collect on Valentine's day threads started between now and then!

Comments

[pride_of_pelicantown]

"Whatever we want, huh?" Joseph replied, watching Shane with a small smile. Yeah, he saw how flustered he got--and it was almost better than the way he smiled when Joseph gave him that very first daffodil. He kind of wanted to do it again...but he didn't want to push his luck. Last time he checked in on Welwick's show, it said his luck was limited for the day...

With a sigh, he let up and looked around again. The place wasn't much yet, but maybe he could show Shane the farm? During the day, of course, those stupid slimes were everywhere at night.

As he thought about it, tall grass started to spring up around them, while next to Shane, the plots for Joseph's latest crop of wild seeds began to appear, showing the first fresh shoots of leeks and the tightly shut blossoms of dandelions nearly ready to open.

[chickenboy]

Spring in Stardew Valley, just as he'd left it. There was even that distinct spring morning smell in the air. Though he'd never been directly, not since Joseph had moved there, he knew the sight of the farm from afar. It was still overgrown a bit, and the farmhouse needed some TLC, but he was working hard, even going so far as to plant wild crops to try and pull some money together, by the looks of it.

"You get to a magical dream world where you can do anything you want, and you wanna go home," he teased. "Funny guy."

[pride_of_pelicantown]

Looking around at the recreation of his farm (his farm, it still gave him a thrill to think about it), Joseph smiled to himself before Shane made his wisecrack.

"That's because the farm's still pretty magical to me." Joseph replied, glancing over at Shane with a small smile that was borderline shy even as his dark eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Besides, I wanna show you something." he went on, beckoning for Shane to follow him. "I mean, you kind of inspired it, so...c'mere. Follow me."

It was a short hike, past the crops and the little cave Joseph still wasn't sure what to do with until they emerged in a vast expanse of land that was in the process of slowly being cleared between the broken old greenhouse and the strange dormant shrine in one corner of the farm's border.

"See this? Once I get it all cleared, and the materials Robin needs--and the materials, that too--I'm gonna build a nice, big chicken coop."

[chickenboy]

"Yeah?" Shane tried and failed not to seem excited about that, before clearing his throat. "That'll be nice. Chickens are a real good source of income and food, if you take good care of them. Maybe if you prove you got what it takes... I can convince Aunt Marnie to sell you some of our real good hens."

[pride_of_pelicantown]

Joseph's face lit up at that idea as he turned to face Shane--not just that he might be willing to talk to his aunt for Joseph, but that he was visibly pleased with the idea.

"That would be amazing." he grinned. "I mean--cause I also found these plans for a mayonnaise machine, you know? So I could save some of the eggs to make mayonnaise, which would make more money...and the hens wouldn't be working as hard."

Encouraged, he turned back to the site of his future chicken coop, gesturing to the large expanse of tall grass he hadn't cleared yet.

"I'm gonna knock this all down so I have hay for the winter, but I also bought this leaflet from Pierre on making your own wild grass starter from natural fiber--I wanna collect some hardwood, and build a giant pen out that way I can seed every spring so they have fresh grass to eat instead of the hay. Your aunt told me the hens like it better than hay, and...y'know. I figure a happy chicken is a productive chicken."

He makes a face and shrugs sheepishly.

"I know I probably would have done better work at Joja if I'd been happy." he admitted, sneaking a glance at Shane. "It's not exactly something they think about over there, I've noticed."

[chickenboy]

Shane couldn't help a smile, listening to this guy talk about his plans for the farm. "You really got it all figured out, huh?" he remarked, fondly amused.

Then, talk turned to Joja, and his expression soured. "Yeah, I can't say the retail side of Joja is much better," Shane agreed glumly. "But it's a living. It's all I'm really cut out for."

[pride_of_pelicantown]

Joseph would have tried--and probably failed--to say something witty to charm Shane, but watching his expression darken like that...

"That's not true." Joseph replied with a shake of his head. "You're not just some dumb stock boy, man--I've seen it. I mean...when I first met you, yeah, you're kinda prickly. But...y'know, in a ruggedly charming kinda way."

He's not blushing. You're blushing.

"But when we talked at the Egg Festival? That's when I knew there was more to you." he continued. "The way you talk about animals, and chickens in particular? I mean...I bet if you worked more with your aunt Marnie, you could do some great stuff. Or...y'know...you could work with me."

Joseph is not blushing shut up. Maybe avoiding Shane's gaze, staring at his toe where it's digging into the dirt, but not blushing.

"Maybe help me pick the right chicks when I get the coop up? Or, y'know, figure out the right upgrades to make 'em comfortable, or just...come see 'em whenever you want."

[chickenboy]

"Work--- with you?" Shane sounded a little flabbergasted by the thought. He can't say he's never fantasized about a ranch of his own, or doing chicken husbandry full time... (Or get up to some husbandry in a different sense if you know what I mean SHUT UP GAY THOUGHTS. Although Joseph did just call him handsome. Oh my god. Shut up.)

"I mean-- it--- it's mostly just like a hobby, y'know? But I can give you a hand." Oh no. This situation is definitely getting too hot to handle. This is starting to sound like the beginnings of a date. Say something smooth so he knows you're into it but cool about it. Impress him. And for the love of Yoba, don't say anything mean. "Someone's gotta make sure you don't screw it up." Nailed it.