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JAWS • DECEMBER 2025 EVENT/TDM
TDM & EVENT: JAWS
ᛗ
Show Me Those Pretty White Jaws
The dream has been coming in waves for those new to Sleep's touch, as a shoreline that never stays still. As a sky that never remembers to include its stars. Beneath it all, there is a voice. Her voice: silk-sweet, coaxing from just beyond the approaching wave that towers like a moving mountain. She tells you to come home. She promises it won't hurt, even if she never tells you what waits beneath. You see the shape just before the dream ends: a massive black tidal wave, yawning wide and black until it looks like a pair of jaws breaking upon you. You don't have time to resist.
You and your veteran Vessels will awaken in water.
There is no surface. No bottom. No sky. No sound but your own heartbeat and the echoes of water being slashed though, dull and endless in the still, frigid dark. You are suspended, weightless— Some may have difficulty to breathe without inhaling water the first few times, while those aligned with the waves will feel it come like second nature. Once you acclimate yourself, you'll notice that around you drift glowing filaments; thin, pulsing threads that coil like jellyfish tendrils, softly luminescent. They curl and twist through the water, and when you look closer, you realize: they show you things. Memories, maybe. Dreams, maybe. Each one unique to your gaze: a hand reaching for yours in the dark, a goodbye that never finished, a face you haven't seen in years. They are what you think love looks like. What you once needed it to be. And when you touch them, they wrap around you, gently, warmly . . . Hungrily— and begin to pull you down.
To ascend into the next level, you must let go. But not everything that binds you wants to be released. The filaments drifting through the water show you what you think love looks like— what you've built it into. They are gentle at first, beautiful even, but the longer you cling, the more they pull.
There are ways to escape them: You may bind your filament with another's and together speak aloud a shared truth: what you believe love really is. If your hearts align or at the very least come to an agreement, the threads dissolve into light and lift you upward. If your beliefs clash or contradict, the threads knot tighter, and something . . . May take interest in you.
Beneath you, something moves. Huge, silent and almost regal. It glides through the deep like a phantom, almost too large to be real. You feel its presence before you see its flash of pearl white and glowing red eyes, three on each side of its face: a shark.
The shark is here to choose its next meal. It smells grief, fear and seeks out trauma most of all. It is drawn to the most unspoken parts of you, the very parts you thought were buried, roused from the tightened ropes of what you crave in your heart. And when it chooses you, it does not bite immediately. It invites, with its jaws opening like a sanctuary and slow towards you.
Inside is I, whispers Sleep. Allow Me to have you whole, and you will be at peace. Show Me love.
Fight against her, or even with your current partner about what love is, and Sleep will open her maw, spilling tendrils from her throat and begin to stalk you. Best be prepared to fight the possessed Megalodon— She will laugh, amused as you do, like a great cat playing with its food. And if you were to be caught, well. You'll wake in the dream's next level with an undeniable prey drive, whether Token or Offering.
She will do anything to keep you here.
NOTES:
OFFERING EFFECTS
You and your veteran Vessels will awaken in water.
There is no surface. No bottom. No sky. No sound but your own heartbeat and the echoes of water being slashed though, dull and endless in the still, frigid dark. You are suspended, weightless— Some may have difficulty to breathe without inhaling water the first few times, while those aligned with the waves will feel it come like second nature. Once you acclimate yourself, you'll notice that around you drift glowing filaments; thin, pulsing threads that coil like jellyfish tendrils, softly luminescent. They curl and twist through the water, and when you look closer, you realize: they show you things. Memories, maybe. Dreams, maybe. Each one unique to your gaze: a hand reaching for yours in the dark, a goodbye that never finished, a face you haven't seen in years. They are what you think love looks like. What you once needed it to be. And when you touch them, they wrap around you, gently, warmly . . . Hungrily— and begin to pull you down.
To ascend into the next level, you must let go. But not everything that binds you wants to be released. The filaments drifting through the water show you what you think love looks like— what you've built it into. They are gentle at first, beautiful even, but the longer you cling, the more they pull.
There are ways to escape them: You may bind your filament with another's and together speak aloud a shared truth: what you believe love really is. If your hearts align or at the very least come to an agreement, the threads dissolve into light and lift you upward. If your beliefs clash or contradict, the threads knot tighter, and something . . . May take interest in you.
Beneath you, something moves. Huge, silent and almost regal. It glides through the deep like a phantom, almost too large to be real. You feel its presence before you see its flash of pearl white and glowing red eyes, three on each side of its face: a shark.
The shark is here to choose its next meal. It smells grief, fear and seeks out trauma most of all. It is drawn to the most unspoken parts of you, the very parts you thought were buried, roused from the tightened ropes of what you crave in your heart. And when it chooses you, it does not bite immediately. It invites, with its jaws opening like a sanctuary and slow towards you.
Inside is I, whispers Sleep. Allow Me to have you whole, and you will be at peace. Show Me love.
Fight against her, or even with your current partner about what love is, and Sleep will open her maw, spilling tendrils from her throat and begin to stalk you. Best be prepared to fight the possessed Megalodon— She will laugh, amused as you do, like a great cat playing with its food. And if you were to be caught, well. You'll wake in the dream's next level with an undeniable prey drive, whether Token or Offering.
She will do anything to keep you here.
NOTES:
• There is no surface visible at first. Light only comes from the filaments. As characters resist, act, or ascend, a faint stained-glass shimmer begins to pulse upward, hinting at the dream's next layer.TOKEN EFFECTS
• Sound is muffled— speech emerges as bubbles, but meaning travels regardless. Words feel heavy here. Some phrases may literally change the water (turn to light, birth dream-objects, or ripple with tension). You will do better using The Murmur as a means of communication. Luckily you have your mask on!
• The Shark always circles once it senses trouble within you. Sometimes close, sometimes far, but always felt. If characters listen closely, they can hear the echo of One's voice coming from inside it: pleading with a haunted, at times screaming melody.
• The dream bends subtly around Tokens, especially at the whims of an Aquamancer. Walls of pressure open before them, and filaments shift course as if expecting them. This can make their path easier, unless they start to doubt their purpose.
• Tokens perceive emotional resonance as currents in the water such as subtle flows of energy. These can guide them (or others) toward escape paths, or signal when the shark is near.
• When a Token speaks or acts with strong intent, the dream sometimes translates it into a symbolic structure: A word might become a floating glyph. A gesture might alter the filament's shape. A moment of clarity might reveal a hidden path. Other characters can interact with these dream-objects, but they're fragile, unstable, and prone to distortion by doubt.
• The deeper Tokens go, the more they feel themselves pulling apart and begin to experience dual awareness: one part dreaming, one part watching— some may even see flashes of within the shark's belly, and One's voice much louder. The deeper they go, the more detached they become, and the more they lack the ability to act at all.
OFFERING EFFECTS
• The shark is more fascinated by Offerings. It circles them often, sensing kinship— or potential. The more monstrous the Offering, the more the shark "pauses' near them, almost curious.
• Offerings feel "the pull" more clearly, particularly Merrows and other aquatic-based Offerings—they can sense where the surface might be, and where the shark intends to strike next. They may even see pulses in the water that others miss, similar to Spider Man's "spidey senses".
• An Offering may experience rapid body changes submerged. Fins may appear, bones may shift, teeth may lengthen without warning and so on. This makes their movement easier or harder, depending on how much of themselves they're holding back or how apt their monstrous forms are at swimming.
• Some Offerings may feel drawn to the shark— not in fear, but in understanding. They may see themselves in it, and vice versa— One's song in particular is hypnotic, and for split moments you may understand his pain through his words. This might make you more prone to being consumed, though, so hopefully your partner can help you out of it—?.
ᛗ
Watching Me With Eyes Of A Predator
The surface you breach is not water— it's glass.
You strike it with the force of falling sky. It fractures beneath you in a bloom of painted light. For one weightless moment, the dream hesitates, sputters. Then the world shatters, and you fall with the cascade.
Water pours through the crack in the ceiling, carrying you down in ribbons of color and a shattering splash. Stained glass shards drift like petals through the now collapsing roof, and you eventually land not in sand, but upon a cathedral floor, slick with tide. Around you, the water spreads, pooling across the stone and swallowing the walls in a rising hush as it finds escape through the doors.
The cathedral is vast, impossibly so. Its architecture towers, crooked and immaculate, built more from longing than stone. No altar awaits you. No congregation. Only the sensation of having trespassed into something meant to be private. Veteran Vessels may recognize this cathedral as St. Patrick's— before it was drenched in One's blood sacrifice.
High above and surrounding you, the stained-glass mosaics churn with captured light. f you linger beneath one of the window's rays, your appearance may begin to change under the light. You appear as someone else sees you. Be it a hero. A monster. A disappointment. A god. A weakness. A temptation. Even a burden. That version of you clings to your dream-body like a second skin; uncomfortable, intimate, and undeniable. For some, it may be beautiful. For others, unbearable.
If you and another stand beneath the same window, you may each appear as the other secretly imagines. There is no control and no negotiation. Only truth twisted through the lens of want, resentment, fear, or love. And it doesn't go away until you leave the light.
Eventually, the cathedral doors open by dream's will. Beyond them lies a cloister garden: narrow paths, pale trees, and wild flowers that bloom in stillness. At the far end, behind the overgrowth and ruined arches, you see a hollow.
It is a corridor where the dream collapses inward, twisting, warped, half-swallowed in fog and dread. Its stones pulse faintly beneath a shallow film of water. Black tendrils reach from its depths like roots, veins, twitching toward sound, warmth, and movement. You see them dragging matter into the earth, and between them lie bones, contorted and fresh, half-consumed.
And farther still, a body that still breathes. Glimpsed only briefly, A masked man's form is stretched by the hollow's gravity, arms pinned behind the veil. He does not move, or speak. Or perhaps, he cannot. The hollow does not let him go and will not, should you make your attempts. If you step foot in the hollows that have consumed him, you too will be consumed. A three eyed Tod sits at the hollow's edge, a single bushy tail splitting into three, as its body plays with illusion like smoke put to dance over fire. It says, as its head floats up and its maw splits into a grin too cheshire to ignore: Wearing shoes, yet no feet in sight. You'll hear steps pound in the death of night. What is it that you need, to cross this narrow blight?
It disappears and only leaves you the riddle to chew on.
Nothing living can cross the hollow, you'll soon find. Nothing except . . . The Nightmares.
Just outside the garden's boundary, you'll find horses built from wind and shadow, flickering at the edge of your vision. Their bodies are black— not the color, but the absence, swallowing all light. Some of their craniums cound be seen, others have a jutting horn of bone from their foreheads. Where eyes should be, there are six: three stacked on each side of the skull, glowing dimly red like distant embers beneath ice. Their manes flow like torn fabric, like drifting vapor that trails behind them like the smoke from a snuffed candle. Their maws are too damn wide to be herbivorous, yet they seem to enjoy the act of grazing. They wait, unchained and wild in a herd.
This is the only way forward. Only they can pass through the hollow untouched. But how to ride one—? You may chase them. You may plead, command, kneel. You may offer them all your need and all your love, promises that you will provide if they become your steed. But they were not made to answer it. For every Vessel, there is one single Nightmare that will choose them, and thus you will choose each other. They have their own personalities, some more aggressive or shyer than others. The harder you reach, the faster they vanish or harshed they will attack if unready. Try to mount one through force, and you'll regret ever trying. Try to bind one, and it will break you.
But if you are patient, if you figure out its nature and how to please it— your Nightmare may come closer. One may circle you. It may bow its head. Their snort is warm and real against your palm. If successful, it will lower itself to its knees. If you've got the height, they will simply wait, patiently, for you to get on their backs (Or not; there are plenty of sassy mares out there).
If you accept, you might not be taken somewhere safe, but you will be taken somewhere true, away from here. And if you force your want upon them, if you cannot let go— you will be left with something else.
In the distance, across the flooded cathedral floor, you may see One again. Flashes, glimpses. Always chasing a mare he never reaches, or the opposite— the mare chases after him.
NOTES:
TOKEN EFFECTS
OFFERING EFFECTS
You strike it with the force of falling sky. It fractures beneath you in a bloom of painted light. For one weightless moment, the dream hesitates, sputters. Then the world shatters, and you fall with the cascade.
Water pours through the crack in the ceiling, carrying you down in ribbons of color and a shattering splash. Stained glass shards drift like petals through the now collapsing roof, and you eventually land not in sand, but upon a cathedral floor, slick with tide. Around you, the water spreads, pooling across the stone and swallowing the walls in a rising hush as it finds escape through the doors.
The cathedral is vast, impossibly so. Its architecture towers, crooked and immaculate, built more from longing than stone. No altar awaits you. No congregation. Only the sensation of having trespassed into something meant to be private. Veteran Vessels may recognize this cathedral as St. Patrick's— before it was drenched in One's blood sacrifice.
High above and surrounding you, the stained-glass mosaics churn with captured light. f you linger beneath one of the window's rays, your appearance may begin to change under the light. You appear as someone else sees you. Be it a hero. A monster. A disappointment. A god. A weakness. A temptation. Even a burden. That version of you clings to your dream-body like a second skin; uncomfortable, intimate, and undeniable. For some, it may be beautiful. For others, unbearable.
If you and another stand beneath the same window, you may each appear as the other secretly imagines. There is no control and no negotiation. Only truth twisted through the lens of want, resentment, fear, or love. And it doesn't go away until you leave the light.
Eventually, the cathedral doors open by dream's will. Beyond them lies a cloister garden: narrow paths, pale trees, and wild flowers that bloom in stillness. At the far end, behind the overgrowth and ruined arches, you see a hollow.
It is a corridor where the dream collapses inward, twisting, warped, half-swallowed in fog and dread. Its stones pulse faintly beneath a shallow film of water. Black tendrils reach from its depths like roots, veins, twitching toward sound, warmth, and movement. You see them dragging matter into the earth, and between them lie bones, contorted and fresh, half-consumed.
And farther still, a body that still breathes. Glimpsed only briefly, A masked man's form is stretched by the hollow's gravity, arms pinned behind the veil. He does not move, or speak. Or perhaps, he cannot. The hollow does not let him go and will not, should you make your attempts. If you step foot in the hollows that have consumed him, you too will be consumed. A three eyed Tod sits at the hollow's edge, a single bushy tail splitting into three, as its body plays with illusion like smoke put to dance over fire. It says, as its head floats up and its maw splits into a grin too cheshire to ignore: Wearing shoes, yet no feet in sight. You'll hear steps pound in the death of night. What is it that you need, to cross this narrow blight?
It disappears and only leaves you the riddle to chew on.
Nothing living can cross the hollow, you'll soon find. Nothing except . . . The Nightmares.
Just outside the garden's boundary, you'll find horses built from wind and shadow, flickering at the edge of your vision. Their bodies are black— not the color, but the absence, swallowing all light. Some of their craniums cound be seen, others have a jutting horn of bone from their foreheads. Where eyes should be, there are six: three stacked on each side of the skull, glowing dimly red like distant embers beneath ice. Their manes flow like torn fabric, like drifting vapor that trails behind them like the smoke from a snuffed candle. Their maws are too damn wide to be herbivorous, yet they seem to enjoy the act of grazing. They wait, unchained and wild in a herd.
This is the only way forward. Only they can pass through the hollow untouched. But how to ride one—? You may chase them. You may plead, command, kneel. You may offer them all your need and all your love, promises that you will provide if they become your steed. But they were not made to answer it. For every Vessel, there is one single Nightmare that will choose them, and thus you will choose each other. They have their own personalities, some more aggressive or shyer than others. The harder you reach, the faster they vanish or harshed they will attack if unready. Try to mount one through force, and you'll regret ever trying. Try to bind one, and it will break you.
But if you are patient, if you figure out its nature and how to please it— your Nightmare may come closer. One may circle you. It may bow its head. Their snort is warm and real against your palm. If successful, it will lower itself to its knees. If you've got the height, they will simply wait, patiently, for you to get on their backs (Or not; there are plenty of sassy mares out there).
If you accept, you might not be taken somewhere safe, but you will be taken somewhere true, away from here. And if you force your want upon them, if you cannot let go— you will be left with something else.
In the distance, across the flooded cathedral floor, you may see One again. Flashes, glimpses. Always chasing a mare he never reaches, or the opposite— the mare chases after him.
NOTES:
• If a character successfully forms a bond with their Nightmare, it will return with them in the form of a waking world steed, officially introduced in the next event. You're free to give it the personality you wish.
• If a character attempts to force a connection with a Nightmare at any point (tries to catch, mount, command, etc.), the mare will bite or kick, which Vessels will suffer as a persistent dream-mark that will carry into the waking world.
TOKEN EFFECTS
• Light clings unnaturally to Tokens in the cathedral, especially near the stained glass. It bends around their bodies like a false halo, casting them in divine or monstrous outlines depending on who watches.
• If a Token casts or channels any magic within the cathedral or near a Nightmare, the spell does not manifest, but instead, a cold mist escapes their mouth, and the Nightmare turns to look. The dream rejects force.
• When a Nightmare looks directly at a Token, their eyes eclipse, pupils vanishing into rings of shadow. In that moment, a fragmented vision floods the Token's mind . . . not from the Nightmare, but from another character nearby. It shows the Token how that character once dreamed of them, what they feared, needed, or hoped they would become.
OFFERING EFFECTS
• The stained glass causes a subtle change in scent and physical appearance turning into a more grotesque version of this— Offerings begin to smell or look like what others most want from them.
• Offerings may always know where the Nightmares are, even when hidden. But the more they try to act on this knowledge, the harder the Nightmares are to reach.
• An Offering's body will react before they realize it, flinching from lies, bristling in moments of emotional pressure, pulling away from contact, and so on. They may startle even at gentle contact, as if something inside them is as reactive as they are.
ᛗ
Where The Delicate Stops
As your Nightmare takes you through the misty hollow, you may begin to notice the empty city of Manhattan as veterans remember. There is no warning but the eerie silence that surrounds you like impossible weights. The cathedral once behind you folds inward— wrong, deep and full of pressure. It bursts through the hollow's path, through the city's street, and then— The dream ruptures.
Stone peels backward like paper. Glass liquefies mid-air. The sky above the city pulls itself inside out. Time bends sideways. And from the edges of the dream, something, someone, begins to hunt. Sleep's presence moves like the very shark she chose as a vision of her physical manifestation. She does not speak or rage. But you feel Her, rising like fever beneath the skin of Her world as the hairs at the back of your neck do. She does not want you this deep, and neither does One.
Somewhere within the collapse, you may see them— entwined, shifting, trembling. One's face is turned toward you, screaming something that doesn't reach your ears. Sleep's hands are tangled in his body. She pulls him back with a gentleness that breaks the sky, and he screams, reaching for you with his last breath before consumption. The dream convulses.
The Nightmares bolt with you still on them.
The city rises to meet you from the shadows, but it's not the city you know. Skyscrapers twist at unnatural angles. Streets flood, then dry, then flood again. Tendrils burst from subway grates and gutters, slashing upward like tongues. Streetlights spin like compass needles. Cars levitate, crash, freeze midair. You move through it all at breakneck speed, but the exit keeps shifting— a hole in the world that flickers just beyond reach where you see your body, fast asleep.
Somewhere in the chaos, a few Nightmares are caught. Sleep strikes like lightning— she coils like a viper and tightens like a vice. One touch from Her, and your Nightmare collapses mid-gallop, its body unraveling into smoke and light. No sound. No scream. Just absence. And you fall right off it like a ragdoll.
Others fall beneath impact, too— a wrong turn, a shattered wall, a burst of heat from One's grief. A broken leg. A crash. A wound too deep to ride through. If your steed is lost, you fall. And if no one reaches for you, you stay fallen. Others are near, and their Nightmares still run. All of you have a terrible dread in your bones— if you are caught or left behind, the consequences will be dire. You might not even wake up. So, call out. Cling. Climb. Share. Two Vessels on one mount. Anything to survive and flee as the dreamscape tightens its wrathful grip around you.
Sleep calls inside your spine. You can't make out what She says. One answers, the same blur of garbled words in your marrow. And then, just before the dream can take you, just before you reach an exit— you rise.
Your body lifts from the Nightmare as it paddles the air with desperation, it too rising. You're pulled upward, weightless, as if a thread inside your heart has been yanked by a furious god. You float, twist in the air. Your vision glows white.
We've got you.
And then you wake up— mid-air in the waking world.
Your body slams into your bed, floor, street, soil, wherever it was that you had slept. Reality greets you with terrible impact.
NOTES
TOKEN EFFECTS
OFFERING EFFECTS
Stone peels backward like paper. Glass liquefies mid-air. The sky above the city pulls itself inside out. Time bends sideways. And from the edges of the dream, something, someone, begins to hunt. Sleep's presence moves like the very shark she chose as a vision of her physical manifestation. She does not speak or rage. But you feel Her, rising like fever beneath the skin of Her world as the hairs at the back of your neck do. She does not want you this deep, and neither does One.
Somewhere within the collapse, you may see them— entwined, shifting, trembling. One's face is turned toward you, screaming something that doesn't reach your ears. Sleep's hands are tangled in his body. She pulls him back with a gentleness that breaks the sky, and he screams, reaching for you with his last breath before consumption. The dream convulses.
The Nightmares bolt with you still on them.
The city rises to meet you from the shadows, but it's not the city you know. Skyscrapers twist at unnatural angles. Streets flood, then dry, then flood again. Tendrils burst from subway grates and gutters, slashing upward like tongues. Streetlights spin like compass needles. Cars levitate, crash, freeze midair. You move through it all at breakneck speed, but the exit keeps shifting— a hole in the world that flickers just beyond reach where you see your body, fast asleep.
Somewhere in the chaos, a few Nightmares are caught. Sleep strikes like lightning— she coils like a viper and tightens like a vice. One touch from Her, and your Nightmare collapses mid-gallop, its body unraveling into smoke and light. No sound. No scream. Just absence. And you fall right off it like a ragdoll.
Others fall beneath impact, too— a wrong turn, a shattered wall, a burst of heat from One's grief. A broken leg. A crash. A wound too deep to ride through. If your steed is lost, you fall. And if no one reaches for you, you stay fallen. Others are near, and their Nightmares still run. All of you have a terrible dread in your bones— if you are caught or left behind, the consequences will be dire. You might not even wake up. So, call out. Cling. Climb. Share. Two Vessels on one mount. Anything to survive and flee as the dreamscape tightens its wrathful grip around you.
Sleep calls inside your spine. You can't make out what She says. One answers, the same blur of garbled words in your marrow. And then, just before the dream can take you, just before you reach an exit— you rise.
Your body lifts from the Nightmare as it paddles the air with desperation, it too rising. You're pulled upward, weightless, as if a thread inside your heart has been yanked by a furious god. You float, twist in the air. Your vision glows white.
We've got you.
And then you wake up— mid-air in the waking world.
Your body slams into your bed, floor, street, soil, wherever it was that you had slept. Reality greets you with terrible impact.
NOTES
• If a character does not find a mount in time, they may be caught in the dream collapse. They still wake— but they wake broken. These characters may wake up bruised, disoriented, or emotionally fragmented, and this can be explored in the next waking world event.
TOKEN EFFECTS
• Any Tether they feel becomes unstable—splintered. For brief moments, they feel it breaking and re-forming again and again, with slight differences each time.
• The more emotionally charged they are, the more the dream pulls toward them; tendrils snap faster, debris veers unnaturally close.
• Their body flickers with signs of their own magic—sigils, symbols, runes— burning just beneath the surface of their skin like constellations. These glow brighter as the dream collapses, as if trying to tear free.
OFFERING EFFECTS
• Where Offerings are grazed or injured, they bleed light, not red. It floats up like mist.
• They hear One's heartbeat, not theirs, and it speeds in panic. It affects their own pulse, the mare under them . . .
• The Nightmare no longer follows the Offering's will—it will respond to their fear instead.
ᛗOOC NOTES
➤ Welcome to Somnia's third TDM, which doubles as the month's gamewide event!
➤ This TDM is considered game canon. You are free to have your character remember as many details as possible when they wake up.
➤ Only new characters are free to experiment with the Vessel options, Token or Offering to your liking; this is a dreamscape, so multiple/different situations for you to really test which option you like most is possible. Current characters must remain as their chosen Vessel type unless you requested a switch, which can be done on the Taken page.
➤ All TDMs take place within a dreamscape, meaning characters can interact with the setting without needing to apply. Come have fun with us!
➤ Veteran players, I ask to please refrain from making post-event threads for the time being! We have some important information to take into account in next month's event when characters are slated to "wake up". At the very least, please wait for the information to be offered on the next plotting post. Thank you everyone for your patience!
➤ Please comment on the TDM's INVITE TL if you are a new player interested in joining the game, but don't yet have an invite. Current players or the mod may reach out to extend an invite. Once you've got one, please don't forget to comment on the Invite page so you may properly link it in your reserve and app.
➤ Questions? Please direct them to the designated questions comment linked below!
➤ This TDM is considered game canon. You are free to have your character remember as many details as possible when they wake up.
➤ Only new characters are free to experiment with the Vessel options, Token or Offering to your liking; this is a dreamscape, so multiple/different situations for you to really test which option you like most is possible. Current characters must remain as their chosen Vessel type unless you requested a switch, which can be done on the Taken page.
➤ All TDMs take place within a dreamscape, meaning characters can interact with the setting without needing to apply. Come have fun with us!
➤ Veteran players, I ask to please refrain from making post-event threads for the time being! We have some important information to take into account in next month's event when characters are slated to "wake up". At the very least, please wait for the information to be offered on the next plotting post. Thank you everyone for your patience!
➤ Please comment on the TDM's INVITE TL if you are a new player interested in joining the game, but don't yet have an invite. Current players or the mod may reach out to extend an invite. Once you've got one, please don't forget to comment on the Invite page so you may properly link it in your reserve and app.
➤ Questions? Please direct them to the designated questions comment linked below!
no subject
I will keep it on. I only wanted to prove my resolve, that I won't back out of anything, no matter how frightening it may be. Something like this won't stop me from accomplishing what I've decided on. And that includes not losing against Sleep or her influences.
[ With that said, Caelus puts the raccoon mask back on gently, his mannerisms the opposite of the stressed "Roe Deer." Even without a tether, hearing the man's worried voice like that, it's easy enough to tell how distressed he was just now. But then again, is it really only "just now?" Caelus has been keeping his eyes on him since earlier, after all.
He's seen the subtle hints. He's not blind. But he won't point it out, keeping it to himself as he reaches to protectively hold both of "Roe Deer's" hands, trying to reassure him that he's all right. That he will continue to be all right. Slowly, he entwines their fingers as well, sharing the warmth of his own hands. ]
I wonder if Sleep will choose you. If she doesn't… [ This might be the last time that he'll get to hold these hands… ] I'll still remember you. The concerned, kind Roe Deer. So, thank you for worrying about me all this time.
no subject
to stop endangering himself.
at least do it when soleum isn't around, that way he can't even complain! he sighs, his fingers curling into his hand, nails digging into the palms until he stops doing so. ]
Stop it.
[ control the situation, keep it from escalating, don't think these things about him. there's no fear, there's no concern, right now soleum holds some sort of annoyance, but isn't it okay to feel that way when someone endangers themselves in front of him? ]
It's not about being chosen. [ ... ] If this is how you think I feel, why do you choose to frustrate them?
[ if soleum is so concerned, if soleum is so worried, then why does caelus make the choices that only makes it worse for soleum mentally. it's one of those times where he wishes braun were here, not because of his penchant to lighten the mood as an entertainer, but someone who will listen and keep soleum's beliefs in mind. ]
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[ Didn't Caelus make that clear by now? That no matter what happened at this point, or what will happen in the future, he will still get through them and survive. He has too many things to accomplish to fall to Sleep's petty tricks. It's been months since he came here, and he has no intention of giving in to her. Never will. ]
Stop what, exactly? Trying to prove myself? Or trying to befriend you?
[ How many people has Caelus dealt with at this point, across so many planets? He's familiar with this kind of behavior. He can tell there's a wall in front of him, but that doesn't mean he'll give up on trying to connect. He'll keep trying no matter what. Because that's his mission as a Trailblazer. ]
If it's not about being chosen, then what is it?
[ Is "Roe Deer" trying to say that he's above Sleep's power? Does he have a guaranteed means to get everyone out of here? Caelus wants to believe him if that's the case, but that doesn't seem to be likely at all. It just looks like… this person will have to learn it the hard way. Because the rules are different in Sleep's world.
Whether or not "Roe Deer" arrives in Manhattan, he'll realize it either way.
Making it back home means potentially losing contact with everyone here, unless Sleep pulls him into her dreams again. And making it to Manhattan means facing the harsh reality of everything that Caelus warned him of. The threat of Sundowning is only one among the many. ]
Do you see me as someone helpless, Deer hyung? Even I have something to protect. So, even if you don't believe in my strength, that fact won't change. And I will continue to be fine.
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[ he doesn't have to prove anything to soleum, he knows there are people the boy wants to protect. he's heard that! soleum knows this because hasn't their conversations prior been the well-being of those here? he doesn't need to befriend soleum, but he's not reacting this way because he doesn't want to be his friend. it's so much more than that. it's not about limiting him, or keeping up a wall that prevents caelus from coming near him. ]
I don't want you to put yourself in unnecessary danger. If there's an option where you can be safe without repercussions, then you should take it.
[ what does removing his mask do but cause pain like he said, he told soleum this, and then he just does it!? for what!? what is he proving! stop it, stop it! then he says his name aloud, soleum gets it, he's contaminated, it probably matters little, but that doesn't mean it doesn't fuel the oddity of this darkness by hearing it over and over again.
soleum's frustrated, but he has to reel in his feelings because that's not what matters. why did he even think the reasoning of: "if you care about my feelings, then why...?" would help. he realizes it was a stupid way to address it, why would anyone care about that!? ]
You have an advantage. [ he acknowledges that. ]
What you did is one of the many, but why do it now, when there's no need to?
[ they'll come a day where removing his mask and saying his name may prove fruitful, but all it's done is give soleum a headache. he doesn't have to prove anything to soleum, all soleum wants him to do is listen.
protect himself. ]
Save your strength for when it really matters. That's all.
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[ The removal of his mask is more meaningful than it seems. Is it dangerous? Maybe, but nothing's happened so far every time Caelus did it, only a lingering discomfort at most. It becomes dreadful longer without it, but he hasn't gone that far. He only does it for a few seconds at most. It wasn't the first time he had done it, and it probably wouldn't be the last.
But it isn't that he's intentionally doing it to harm himself. He only does it to reach across to another person. There's always going to be an issue of trust in strange places like this, right?
What is the meaning of a mask in the first place? A cover to protect one's self. But in another meaning, it also means to lie. A mask hides so many lies. Caelus doesn't want to lie. That's simply all he wants to do. So, showing his real face with his real name, not hiding behind anything as he looks into a person's eyes— it's an act of sincerity, an honest desire to connect past every overwhelming illusion in this place. Because he wants to show that he's real.
That his heart is true.
Just like right now. How Caelus wishes he could see what "Roe Deer" actually looks like. He wants to see his full expressions without a cover… He wants to get to know him so much more.
But Caelus won't make the older man remove his. Of course not. It's just a desire that the trailblazer keep to himself. Besides, there'll be plenty of admiration for that obscured pretty face later. Either in Manhattan, or he himself will go to "Roe Deer's" world, by means of the Astral Express, when he manages to escape this place. ]
But I wasn't wrong about you. You're still worrying about me even now. You really are kind. Don't worry, I won't be removing it anymore.
[ At least, not anymore today. And certainly not in front of him, now that Caelus has witnessed just how much of a worrywart this kindhearted hyung is. ]
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[ he is no different from the position that caelus is in now, he is a victim inside of this darkness that wants to get out. the only difference is that soleum is not the same, but that isn't anything to elaborate on. his frustrations, his concerns, and even the reiteration of his advice is given because he wants to ensure that caelus is safe. he doesn't mind the sort of person caelus believes him to be, a kind person, then so be it.
even though he may be, that doesn't mean he's accepting of the young man doing stunts like this that hold repercussions. ]
That weapon you have, the one gifted to you by Sleep, will be used to protect others.
[ they too had this conversation, and as he reflects on it, he can tell that caelus is one who wants to get his beliefs through, that he wants to appear dependable, that he will do what he must. however, soleum never asked for that, all he asks for is his safety, to work with him properly, and to see him unharmed. even though all the people around him are characters thought up by different people: given a name, a backstory, and a will, that doesn't mean soleum is unable to feel something.
like now, there's something, and it's for caelus' well-being. ]
I believe that.
[ he can tell from the other that he isn't lying, that he wants to change from being helpless to someone reliable. ]
That's why it's important that you protect yourself, because sometimes a weapon isn't enough.
[ and caelus has been here to know this place could be unpredictable, some people couldn't help themselves from attacking before. it could happen now all because they heard his declaration of who he is and what he plans to do? luckily, it's nothing like that. ]
That's how you can show me who you are.
[ he wants caelus to think before he acts. ]
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[ A quick correction, because Caelus is bothered that "Roe Deer" calls it as "Sleep's gift." ]
It was always mine. She just took it when she dropped me into this place. But as a reward, she returned it.
[ There's so much more that was taken from him, but Caelus is hoping that he can regain his precious belongings and abilities without relying on Sleep in the future. But maybe that might be difficult, considering how far that god's influence extends. Until then, he's always at her mercy…
Anyway, Caelus is more natural with his reflexes and is very impulsive. This isn't the first time that someone has scolded him out of worry because he does tend to be reckless. This happens a lot more than "Roe Deer" could expect, but the trailblazer won't mention that. He doesn't want to be scolded more than this! So he just gives him a resigned smile, looking quite familiar with the situation. ]
Geez. I promised that I'll be careful, right? And look, I am okay…
[ These are attempts of reassurance. ]
Don't be sad anymore, Deer hyung!
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...
[ if he didn't want to be scolded or for soleum to be "sad", he would have avoided this all together. all it's done is drive a wedge into his patience and what he expects now, though he's sure with caelus' personality that he'll try to do better. ]
I'm not sad.
[ he's tired, that's different, it also highlights through the way he looks out into the distance as though he's tired of everything out there. he should keep looking for a way out, it'd eat at his nerves if he played around learning how to horseback ride. ]
You said through them was a way out of here? I still have my reservations, but if you trust your instincts, I will see you off.
[ soleum looks to caelus, his voice neutral to the situation as he isn't trying to impress him by being strong and staying or send him away. he's simply doing as he always have. ]
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Caelus is exhausted, too. Regardless, he hasn't given up and… he refuses to. He has to maintain his smile to encourage those around him. There are already too many saddened people around him in Sleep's Manhattan. He's been told a lot that his cheery aura helps them feel better…
So, he'll always maintain his strength and continue to cheer on the friends he's met here. Also, he doesn't regret the earlier gesture despite "Roe Deer's" worried reaction to it. Because Caelus's feelings remain the same. An action that was done out of sincerity and a measure of trust. If he has to be scolded for it, then so be it. The important part is laying his honesty.
When "Roe Deer" looks off into the distance, Caelus notices that tired aura. The man looks calm, but he likely has a lot on his mind. After all, being in this place for the first time can do that to anyone, even to the strongest people. It never really gets easier… Just… more familiar.
Maybe "Roe Deer" wants a moment to himself to process everything. In that case, Caelus will grant it. Besides, the trailblazer hasn't forgotten the way "Roe Deer" seems so hesitant around the Nightmares, that's why Caelus stood between them earlier on. It wouldn't be good to push him, then. ]
You don't have to. You can rest here.
[ One hand up to gesture that it's okay. ]
… I'll see you later, Deer hyung.
[ How much later is the question. In Sleep's Manhattan… or sometime much farther in the future, outside of this world? Only time will tell. With that, Caelus politely bows his head and then starts walking off. ]