detectiveforhierophant: (small town detective)
ryotaro_dojima ([personal profile] detectiveforhierophant) wrote in [community profile] dreamcrystals2021-09-25 11:55 pm

01 - A Warning

Sender: Ryotaro Dojima
To: Everyone
Subject: WARNING TO ALL RESIDENTS:

An enemy from a world several of us came from is possibly here in the Dream World with us. It can shapeshift, potentially enter dreams and corrupt individuals, as well as control creatures known as Erasers. Caution is absolutely necessary. More details below.

My name is Ryotaro Dojima. Before arriving here, several other residents and I were in a world known as the Realm of Stories, where fairy tales, folklore, and mythological stories all reside. We were brought there- for the most part willingly, to help the Storyteller repair stories that had been destroyed by an Entity known as the Story Eater.

The Story Eater can be likened to an eldritch monster, almost a force of nature, that desires to destroy all stories in all worlds. If it has any ulterior motives, it's unknown at this time. It's sort of this weird, black molten skeleton…thing. It's hard to describe even after seeing it since it shifts very easily. It is sentient, very cunning, able to shapeshift into different forms as it sees fit, and controls creatures known as 'Erasers' who are able to enter stories and tear them apart from the inside out. And more concerningly, it's shown it has the ability to slip into people's dreams and manipulate them.

Because the Realm of Stories is connected to all worlds in some capacity, damages to the initial stories would cause Erasers and the Story Eater's influence to leak into and possibly destroy our own universes. That's why the Storyteller reached out to us in the first place. We'd "repair" the stories by acting them out—basically putting on a play with a story or several stories as a basis, taking up the roles of the characters while also helping to repair the world itself by doing small quests. Doing so would give them energy to restore themselves, and their energy would weaken the Story Eater and help fight it off. Sometimes the Story Eater would outright attack, and we'd need to fight it and its minions off.

Unfortunately, the Story Eater is extremely strong and at best we could only keep it busy until the Storyteller could repel it back. During our last battle against it, although there were signs that it had grown weaker it still had enough strength to rip through the story's dimensions and fling us all into the rift which led us to this world.

We recently received messages from the Storyteller informing us that while the Realm of Stories is safe, they're fairly certain the Story Eater is in the world we're in now, licking its wounds and trying to regain strength.

Due to its ability to enter and manipulate dreams, we all need to be extremely careful and keep an eye out for any outside influence—beyond the baby tapirs—that could sneak into our heads while we're still learning our powers here, or control the noctaere like it did the Erasers. We need to be especially mindful of any negative or destructive impulses that seem out of line of our usual mindsets.

I realise that dreams are personal and we're all being pushed into…bizarre circumstances with some of our dreams being shown to others

[Dojima hesitated a moment before…deciding to be candid.]

Believe me, there are some nightmares I have I don't want anyone to have to deal with—

But if you're experiencing something you know is out of the ordinary or you don't feel right, please say something. Last thing we all need is one of us to be used by this bastard.

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. I'm sure the others who were with me could add more.


[NOTE: This is an announcement regarding the Story Eater, the main "antagonist" of the game [community profile] forgottentales that is directly related to Songerein. Since it's confirmed to appear again, here's an IC notice for everyone so that whenever the mods start incorporating it into the game, the characters won't be completely blindsided! Other characters from FT will be around to respond to this post.]
allegedprisoner: Paramore: Decode (Default)

private to Dojima

[personal profile] allegedprisoner 2021-09-26 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
Dear Mr. Dojima,

Thank you for putting the more detailed explaination out there. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to adequately explain the matter myself.

- L. Balsa
grandduchess_anya: (Happy)

Sender: Anya

[personal profile] grandduchess_anya 2021-09-26 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
(Even though she has explained to a few individuals about the Story Eater and the Realm before, she is at least grateful that someone has released a post regarding this for everyone to read upon.)

I gratefully appreciate your explanation. As a fellow Aspect, I’m hoping that everyone who haven’t encountered the Story Eater beforehand will get a good idea of what it is capable of.

So if anyone here has questions, I am more than happy to answer them, even though I was only in the Realm for a few months.
silentends: (3)

sender: nier

[personal profile] silentends 2021-09-26 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
This sounds like really bad news. I'll try to be careful so thank you for the warning. Is the Story Eater really a black molten skeleton thing?

[ Huh. Nier has seen different monsters before so he's curious to know what it might look like in person. He has other questions he'd like to ask and many concerns weigh on his mind now that this topic has been put into light.]

Everybody dreams and has nightmares...even me. I don't think it's right that they're being shown without permission!

I'd like to ask you more questions if you have time.
spiritform: (pic#10971350)

sender: Milla Maxwell

[personal profile] spiritform 2021-09-26 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
That does sound like a rather problematic creature. And not one we can leave untended.

You said that you were able to fight it directly on certain occasions, yes? Is there anything you can tell us about what we can do to fight it, should the opportunity arise?
steadypulse: (Old as fuck and down to fuck)

Sender: 76

[personal profile] steadypulse 2021-09-26 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
Too many places for the damned thing to hide, and who knows the hell it'd wreck if it managed to figure out how the Noctrae work.

(ooc: open for questions being asked by others that respond)
Edited 2021-09-26 07:44 (UTC)
steadypulse: (I made my mistakes)

[personal profile] steadypulse 2021-09-26 08:44 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, and fought one of those fuckers. Place like this with what the Story Eater has shown capable of?

This place could be too good for it to gather strength and a new army.
galactichero: (pic#15184383)

Sender: T'Challa

[personal profile] galactichero 2021-09-26 12:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I've spoken to someone who had talked about something like this. If the Story Eater has the ability to enter our dreams, is there any way to protect ourselves from it?
whitefeather: ♫ please do not take. (Take it easy ;)

Private: Dojima.

[personal profile] whitefeather 2021-09-26 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
The short version is that this creature you encountered in another world is here, right? And while you and your crew came in, it hitched a ride.

So it's your fault.
perfectenn: (Can you see in the dark)

Sender: Tenn

[personal profile] perfectenn 2021-09-27 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ This is sounding more complicated than the standard 'fae play games and mess with humans again' scenario he was expecting. There's a lot here to think about, but Tenn starts simply: ]

Who is this Storyteller? Are they here, now?
perfectenn: (A world with no more night)

Sender: Tenn

[personal profile] perfectenn 2021-09-27 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
Could you elaborate on this mention of putting on plays?
steadypulse: (Seriously don't give me that)

[personal profile] steadypulse 2021-09-27 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
Anything you might see in a nightmare given a solid-ish form and vicious. They attack, but it's in best interest not to let them touch you. Can just- inject you with something, hurts like a bitch. Can be beaten with the dream magic we've got here, and best to stick to that.

Better to keep her safe with this shit hanging around.

At least can doubt the Story Eater meant to send us here, exactly, but can't tell if it meant to come here itself or not.
steadypulse: (... Yeah)

[personal profile] steadypulse 2021-09-27 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
A revolver might not do anything against these things, fair warning.

[Could understand it, really. He was one of those without anything to lose.]

Ending up here with us is probably the last thing it wanted then. Need to get a handle on the abilities this world gives u and keep an eye out for it and idiots fucking around.
grappleking: (019)

Sender: Balthus

[personal profile] grappleking 2021-09-27 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Alright, so bad news all around. Got it.
So, how do we kill this thing?


[He's a simple creature who asks simple questions.]

It's gotta have a weakness we can exploit! Maybe not in that other world, but this place is different, right? Dream energy and everything? Maybe that'll put us on more equal footing.
grandduchess_anya: (Default)

[personal profile] grandduchess_anya 2021-09-27 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
In the Realm of Stories, each story has Aspects (that’s what otherworlders like me called in there) taking on roles of various characters in scenes called Chapters: we would relive these characters’ story through our own eyes by acting out any actions that would move the story forward. While we are given a summary of what chapter entails at the beginning, we can also put in our own input to how it flows to the next chapter, in a way, putting our own spin to each chapter. We can’t stay in the same role per story however, so we basically had to take turns in portraying each role in a story’s Acts.

By reconstructing each chapter in a story and doing small quests in between, we are essentially restoring the Realm and repairing the damages the Story Eater and its Erasers have done onto it.
silentends: (#118)

[personal profile] silentends 2021-09-27 08:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ Nier isn't going to ask Ryotaro to draw thankfully! ]

Is the Story Eater really that powerful? It looks bad.

I've seen lots of different monsters before because I come from a world with many of them.

I'm just thinking if things start to get really dangerous then we'd need some kind of way to keep ourselves safe.

My name is Nier and you can call for me anytime. I know that other things are happening right now, but I'm pleased to meet you! I hope we can work together.
multidisciplinary: (🌱 023)

Sender: Zelda

[personal profile] multidisciplinary 2021-09-27 03:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Zelda has already heard mention of the Realm of Dreams and the Story Eater from a few other people, but Dojima's explanation provides a lot of new information. She carefully takes notes in the private section of her journal, on the pages headed "Realm of Dreams." But there is still at least one critical question (to her, at least) that no one has been able to answer for Zelda. ]

Thank you for this detailed explanation, Mr. Dojima. It is deeply concerning that a threat from a different world was able to travel here of its own free will.

I hope you can answer a question that I've had for some time: why does the integrity of folk tales impact the stability of an entire world? I certainly won't deny the importance of maintaining cultural heritage, but I fail to understand the physical impact of a metaphysical threat.


[ She just doesn't understand how losing folklore can destroy a world. ]

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