dream_station | Dream Station TDM

You dozed off. Or passed out. Or perhaps you were experiencing a more... permanent 'sleep'. Whatever the case, your eyes were shut and now they're not as you awaken sitting on a train. Around you, others in similar situations. At your feet sits luggage. It has a name tag on it with your name. Inside are some of your clothes and small personal belongings.

Out the window you see that the train is rolling into a sration. Cherry blossoms line the track leading up to it. A beautiful, scenic town lay beyond those gates.

Welcome to Dream Station.

Home Sweet Home:

As the train rumbles into the station and stops you step out onto a platform. A perfectly normal looking station, all things considered. There are people waiting. Guides here to help the latest batch of residents. People who live in this world. Either due to being born here or having been brought here sometime before and agreeing to help newcomers.

The guides explain to you the situation you are in. You otherworlders are common here in the city of Dream. Your guide reassures you that it's fine. They have accommodation for newcomers. And you are brought to the Sleep Tight Apartments. While outside it looks a little small, it's actually quite expansive inside. Must be magic of some kind.

Your apartment will be a one bedroom with a kitchen, living area and bathroom. But don't worry. There will be ways to expand later.

For now you are given a cellphone with an app installed on it for the local social media, Sleepr. As well as a Nightmare Tracker that will alert you when Nightmares crop up. And finally a little banking app where you will find you already have an account that has a decent amount of money for you to spend for the month. Don't worry about rent or bills. That's all covered in return for you helping with those Nightmares.

If you refuse to help... well. Best find your own accommodation and a job, friend. They can't help anyone unwilling to help in return.

There's a lot of new faces so maybe you should get to know your neighbors or get a walk around your new neighborhood.

This Is A Beach Episode:

The Dream Beach is open for business! Come lay out a towel and get some sun. Or go splash in the waves! Seashells are a plenty and there are designated fishing spots. Just don't swim too far out.

Hungry? Thirsty? The boardwalk has plenty of delicious options from icecream to fries to ice cold lemonade.

For those seeking something fun to do, there are paddle and pedal boats available for rent. And some diving to see the beautiful coral reefs. As well as a boat that will take you on a little trip out to an island resort!

The Resort:

I mean, you're basically all on vacation from your regular lives already in the wonderful world of Dream! That said, who doesn't love to spend a little time with their feet up in a nice resort?

Come out and stay in an ocean front room with complimentary continental breakfast and free room service. There are lots of little souvenir shops to check out, run by some bipedal frogs? They don't accept money here. But they'll glady trade their wares for any seashells collected on the beach. Lots of fun tropical themed goodies and swim gear galore!

For the adventurous sort, there is plenty to explore including a forest with hiking trails and a supposedly haunted cave. Legend says some tourists got lost in there and never came back out. They were looking for a treasure apparently. But... maybe don't follow their example and get lost in there?

The Nightmare Fuel:

So remember you were told about Nightmares? Seems they're cropping up throughout the city. Some are taking the form of shadowy crabs about four feet tall that are stealing from people and carrying them off in their little crabby claws. Give them a beat down or just trick them into dropping their stolen goods.

Others look like reverse mermaids. Fishy heads atop human legs. These ones are causing problems for the local restaurants and shops by slipping on in and stinking up the place. You can fight them if you want, but they'll be just as easily dispersed by herding them to the beach where they will return to the waters. They don't seem very threatening, just confused.

However while those two aren't very dangerous, there are some very aggressive bipedal seacreatures with the heads of crocodiles and some very sharp claws that have taken to lurking around the island out in the woods. These ones won't leave peacefully. You'll have to fight them or run away from them. Watch out they don't catch you. Those teeth and claws aren't just for show!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. Dream Beach

A large chunk of the sand of the beach is taken up by a large, black, scaled creature, at least fifty feet long with what would probably be an even wider wingspan. The unfamiliar might even call him a dragon, albeit one with a whole lot more spines and long feather-like frills around his head and wings. When he lifts his head at someone's approach, it's clear his body is more human-like than animal-like, with a short neck and a blunt face, but the spines around his head and neck raise like a bird's feathered crest with interest.

He politely shifts one massive wing out of the way with a friendly (?) nod.

II. The Boardwalk

The black scaled dragon is long gone, and instead a very tall, rail-thin old man with strange, bare feet and one cloudy eye strolls the boardwalk with curiosity. "What's that?" he asks a passer-by, or perhaps a shopper, pointing to some trinket or another, or a foodstuff. "Never seen anything like it."

III. Nightmare Fuel

Now this is more like it. Stone lets the children handle the fish-heads, focusing first on the shadow crabs, smacking them mercilessly and completely without fear until they drop whatever they stole and scuttle away.

Then it's to the woods, stalking through the trees in search of crocodile-heads. He lets several corner him, or think they've cornered him, then smiles a smile full of sharp teeth and melds up into his winged form to simply pick them up and fly them away back to the sea.

Of course, that winds up with his hands kind of clawed up, so one might find him later sitting on the sand licking at cuts on his hands with a too-long tongue.

"Your guess is as good as mine," comes V's response.

They think it's a sweet, but it could just as easily be some kind of squeeze-toy or decoration.

And while V isn't wired to eat most foodstuffs as organics think of them, they did finagle a way to taste and smell... not that that's helping them decide if it's worth risking in this particular instance.

"Though I've overheard someone else call it a cupcake."

Naturally, the title of the vendor booth uses a different name, to add to the confusion.

Dream Station TDM

Stone of Indigo Cloud | Books of the Raksura | OTA

The Boardwalk