[By the time he's gone from Miri's cute daycare Christmas party to the portal and the tree of life and ended up in a futuristic looking train station, Kazuki has pretty much decided this has got to be a dream, courtesy of probably those old sci fi fantasy movies that come on late at night when he can't sleep. And blood loss. The blood loss probably factors in.

Not that he's bleeding anymore, the gunshot wounds in his shoulder and shin seem to have disappeared, though the bandages are still there and he's still in the cheap Santa suit (thankfully sans beard) he'd been wearing at the party. And, he's pretty sure, the painkillers are still in his system, just a little, taking the edge off. Making everything seem a little more surreal, more like a dream.

It feels easy enough, to just listen to the teenager explain where they are and how they got there, to get the low down on the phones they're handing out, to get on the train. After selecting a seat, he takes the phone out to fiddle with. What the hell, he figures, why not make a post?]

un: papa.kazuki

Wild dream, am I right?

[It's a good thing he'd had those drinks and snacks at the Bean & Berry because when he finally decides to try the DreamDives on the train, he's buzzing with laid-back energy and ready to learn.

What happens when he selects the DreamDive is mind-blowing, a simulation or VR or something subsumes his body and he finds himself standing in the city proper, holding a rune and knowing that he has to find something fire to match it. It doesn't take long, surprisingly, before he runs across a restaurant with a patio that has little braziers and he matches the rune with it. When an incantation comes to his mind unbidden, he says it almost without thinking, and it's like something waking up inside him.

Next is some kind of labyrinthine structure that's glowing and pulsing with fire. Thankfully, there's some kind of effect that stops it from burning him. Probably because, as he's still assuming, this is all a dream. So he's not taking the whole thing entirely seriously as he strolls into the maze as if he were in a corn maze at Halloween or something, one hand out to brush lightly against the wall because he'd read somewhere that keeping a hand on one wall at all times is a good way to get out of a maze in a pinch.

Most of it is just maze-crawling, really, but it's...invigorating. Like a nice walk in nature in the summer or something, it just really gets to him, leaves him feeling suffused with some kind of warm energy that pulses and thrums in him like a living thing.]

This is the coolest dream ever.

[He mumbles that to himself as he rounds a corner and comes upon the first of the fire flowers that glow in the semi-darkness, beautiful and otherworldly. The fire rune is in his hand, and he runs his thumb over the surface. Still looking pretty unbothered, he looks around and then speaks casually.]

So we've got a rune and a flower made out of fire. What next?

[Once Kazuki is done with the whole magic thing for a while, he checks out his apartment and starts exploring. The dream is starting to drag on, he thinks, it's almost getting a little old, and he's sure he should be waking up to get Miri off to daycare any minute now, but his alarm doesn't ring. Instead, he wanders until he comes to the Red Rose District and finds himself outside the Neon Oracle.]

Whoa. Jackpot!

[After all, he has four month's wages burning a hole in his pocket, and what better way to spend it than at a big old casino!? Throughout the evening he can be seen downing drinks and playing at poker, blackjack, and hanging out around the roulette tables, placing bets and socializing with the people around him.

Find him at any point in the night as his usual luck holds - spectacular at first, and when he's riding high on some wins, he's very generous with his money; then much poorer as the night goes on, leaving him barely breaking even.]

[After he's run out of luck at the casino and finds himself breaking even with that four months of wages, he does the smart thing for once and heads out to explore more of the Red Rose District. It isn't long before he finds a dance club advertising something called Verve.

Since this is just a dream and he's already pretty tipsy, he wanders his way in and over to the bar, ordering a drink that looks tasty with a shot of Verve, just to try it out. Why not get faded too? It's been way too long since he cut loose, after all, between taking care of the house, Miri, and Rei.

Slipping out onto the dance floor, he takes a pull from his glass and relishes the enhanced flavour of the drink, eyes sinking shut as it starts to kick in and the music sounds amazing all of a sudden, the colours of the neon lights flashing so bright they're almost loud, leaving impressions of rainbow colours on the insides of his eyelids. Laughing, he takes another long drink and then looks around for the nearest person, holding a hand out, still wearing that stupid Santa suit, and grins. The grin is wide, a little sloppy, and very, very genuine. This is a man who's simply enjoying himself in all the hedonistic ways he loves so much.]

Dance with me?

OOC: I'd love to do more of the DreamDives and get ahead on magic, so feel free to toss me a starter with any of those! Or anything else on the TDM, really! I'm open to all of it and Kazuki would be participating happily. If your character is the withdrawn sort, feel free to just have them exist in his presence and he'll drag them into something! If you want a custom starter or to chat out some plot, hit me up by PM, onlilypads, or onlilypads at Discord (I'm in the game server)!