❖ MOON CYCLE 135 ❂ 10/24 - 10/31

Phase: Full moon.

Weather: Well what do you know. Looks likes the weather has settled a bit. At least this week's weather seems more reasonable than the previous weeks? Mostly sunny days and cooler nights. Light jackets are recommended for early mornings and late evenings.

WED	THURS	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUES	WED
24 84/56°F 29/13°C ☀	25 84/58°F 29/14°C ☀	26 84/57°F 29/14°C ☁	27 74/46°F 23/8°C ☀	28 68/42°F 20/6°C ☀	29 67/39°F 19/4°C ☀	30 67/43°F 19/6°C ☀	31 71/48°F 22/9°C ☀

Legend:
☀ - Sunny/Clear | ☁☀ - Sunny but cloudy | ☁ - Overcast | ≈ - Windy | ☂ - Rainy | ☂☂ - Stormy | ☃ - Snowy | ❇ - Ice | + any other combination

Effects: Facing your fears. Details to be expanded below, but in short residents may find themselves dreaming of something they fear. It could be a person, a creature, or an event. However, depending what they dream, they might find a surprise upon waking. Note: These dreams do not have to be actual nightmares. It could actually be rather comical, for reasons to be seen below.

Notes:

• Activity Check. Activity Check goes up tomorrow on the 25th! Be sure to start gathering your threads for it.
  
  
• Test Drive Meme. Planning on apping someone new during the next cycle? Why not toss them at the test drive meme to get a better grasp of their voice! The meme could be found right here.
  
  
• This is Halloween. Halloween is a week away and the final decorations have been put up! Jack-o-Lanterns abound (including the scarecrows), decorative, but spooky, paper lanterns, costumes, creepy dolls—even some of the stores might play a few tricks on their customers. But it's all in good fun, and there's more to come.
  
  
• Pumpkin Scarecrows. We mentioned the scarecrows last cycle, but now they've been upgraded. Not only do we have Jack-o-Lantern head scarecrows, some may have bedsheets and hop around like ghosts. Others may have other strange costumes on them as they hop through the streets. Like before, their faces will depict their personality. Generally happy looking ones are just there for fun. The ones with angry/scary masks? You might want to stay out of their way unless you want to be chased with various farming tools and rocks.
  
  
• Strange dreams. As mentioned in the Dream effects portion, characters will be having dreams of some of their worst fears. These can be anything from a person to an event. However, they do not have to be actual nightmares. If a character is afraid of bugs, they could have a (bad) dream about giant bugs attacking them. OR it could be silly and instead the bugs look oh so adorable and just want love, but it's still terrifying to the character. You can spin it in either way, but just know it doesn't have to be dark and gloomy. It's full moon, things should be a bit more lighthearted!
  
  But there's something else to these dreams that you should be aware of (all of these are OPTIONAL):
  
  • Costume of your...dreams? If a character dreams of a person, creature, or thing, then it's possible for them to wake up in a costume of that person, creature, or thing . This includes any fears they may have about themselves (perhaps another personality or something kept inside them) and any appearance changes they might have. The costumes are not removable and will stay on for that whole day. They will disappear the next morning, but will reappear every evening until Halloween unless the character is wearing another costume during that time.
    
    Note: The costume change only works for tangible things, and it must have a canon reference. EDIT: The costume can be whatever attire the character is wearing in the dream OR some kind of costume symbolism of the fear if the fear is something intangible. It is also just an appearance change—no additional abilities or complete personality switches. Everything should be as if it were a costume constructed out of actual material, so blood would be fake blood, masks for change of face, etc. However, there may be personality glitches where there may be brief lapses of time where the character takes on the persona. By brief, we mean at most ten minutes, and they will remember when it happens.
    
    
  • Creatures made real. If a character dreams of monsters or creatures of their world, those creatures could appear within Somarium for a day. So if Mickey were to dream of the Heartless, a few of those could pop up and start wreaking havoc. IMPORTANT! There is limit in terms of number. At max, only a very small group (like 5 or 6) of these creatures would exist at any time. Also, they would actually not cause any real harm. They would take on a more ghostly appearance and serve more as a tool to frighten anyone who encounters them.
    
    
  • Dream posts NOT required. Just a quick note to say that you don't need to write up a dream post for the costume or creature to manifest into Somarium. This is so we don't get flooded like before. Instead you can have reactionary posts or threads about the sudden appearances (or change of appearance).
  
  
  
• Haunted Maze. Available from Friday through Sunday, the locals are setting up quite the treat for the characters in a kind of celebration for their return from Ob Holm. Out in one the large parks in Somni, a large maze has been constructed for anyone to go through. However, this is a rather strange maze indeed and requires teamwork.
  
  
  • Costumes. Everyone who participates will be put into a random costume. They have very little say in the matter—but don't worry, the maintainers will be sure to choose the most appropriate costume...maybe.
    
    
  • "Torch" light only. They're fake torches. But there will be very dim lighting available throughout the maze, which will make going through difficult. Instead, those going through the maze will only have a (fake) torch to light their way.
    
    
  • Traps. There are also traps throughout the maze, such as spinning walls or things popping out to give maze goers a fright.
    
    
  • Directions from above. With all these difficulties, how is someone supposed to get out? That's where we explain why teamwork is in bold. Whether going in solo or in a small group, there will always be at least one person to help direct them through the maze. How? Via headset communication. A character will be designated to be the "pathfinder" and are sent to an isolated room with a monitor that allows them to see the maze and their partner in the maze. From there they will give directions to their buddy, so better hope your pathfinder isn't the type to deliberately send you to a dead end! But here's an example of how it would work.
    
    Kid, Beat, and Alphonse go to the maze. Alphonse is designated as the pathfinder, so he goes into another room. Kid and Beat proceed to go through the maze. From his place, Al can watch the duo from a monitor and tell them which direction to go. He can also make notes of any traps or paths that they've already taken in case they get turned around. He can also redirect in case Kid or Beat get separated. Example, they hit a trapped dead end and the wall next to Kid activated and spun him around so that he ends up on the other side and separate from Beat while Beat has to deal with a bucket of rubber snakes that fell on him.
    
    It's actually pretty simple, and as players you guys can make up whatever happens or what path to take.
  
  
  
• Haunted Castle. And for the grand finale, there will be a return of the great floating castle! What, don't remember it? That's okay, it fell out of the sky and crashed out into the desert to form that sinkhole out there a few years back. However, this isn't a permanent stay. It will only be available on Halloween night.
  
  
  • It's a floating castle. Once the sun sets on Halloween, the image of a floating castle will slowly appear high in the sky above the sinkhole. At first it might look like some sort of mirage, but it quickly reveals to be quite real. It also looks like it's seen much better day. Towers, windows, and walls are broken in places and everything about it looks dull in color.
    
    
  • Gateway. What looks like a type of dream gate will appear right at the edge of the city directly in front of it with a sign that says "Enter if you dare." This dream gate will look more like an empty archway, but anyone who goes near it will feel a very strong pull of energy—as well as a chill wind.
    
    
  • Someone call an interior decorator. Should anyone go through the archway, they will find themselves suddenly inside the floating castle. And it looks like a complete mess. Cobwebs will cover everything, furniture and walls torn up and scratched through, vases shattered, statues broken—it doesn't only look abandoned but as if something horrific happened. Like...say...it crashing into the ground?
    
    
  • Noctaere and Nightwalkers. Of course they're not alone in this haunted castle. Noctaere and Nightwalkers will appear and attack those who enter—but there's no real threat. In fact, these creatures will have a more ghostly appearance and will disappear in ash and smoke upon contact. However, they will leave a very intense feeling of fear and terror upon those they hit and this will last for several long minutes.
    
    
  • Other ghostly images. Characters will see other ghostly figures wandering through the hall, one of them looking rather familiar—Sylvani herself. But they will not react to anything. Just pass through walls and appearing to ignore everything and everyone around them.
    
    
  • Why is this happening? It's one last dose of dream energy instability. After this, everything should (presumably) be back to normal. At least, that's what the explanation will be. But is that really all there is to it...?
  
  
  That should be it. Should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here.