A Beasthood · The Green
Cloudy Gardens
To be from here is to tell your dream before good morning, and trust a path that wasn't there yesterday.
Their gift: The Dream. A dream told before good morning becomes a path. The cost: Believers only, or a doubter behind a believer; paths into the Grey don't hold.
About 500 Beasts call Cloudy Gardens home.
The place
Pears and moonflowers on one vine; stairs up to roofs with no building under them. The light holds its last golden minute for hours, then night falls at once. Two Beasts on the same stair call that light pear and rose, and both are right.
Their gift, and what it costs
The Dream. Told before either of you says good morning, a dream becomes a path by noon. It holds only for those who believe the teller; one doubter out in front leaves a whole crew standing in a flowerbed. A dream-path into the Grey lets go where the Grey begins. Lost dreamers are found by someone telling their dream again.
What they want, and what they fear
Want: the bottom of the Door's stairs. Fear: a path that won't hold, halfway across.
People you might meet
- Bryn Penhallow (Lopped-Ear Rabbit, Mapper). Wants a map that holds a week. Last week the Mappers spent a morning walking one Bryn drew asleep, before agreeing it was a goose.
- Odalys Vale (Original, one of the Seventeen). Wants the Door kept as found until the Gardens agree what it's for. Keeps a list of everyone who has asked to go down, which is everyone.
- Lio Okello (Koala, Wanderer guide). "The most reliable way to get lost in the Gardens," says Bryn, who has fetched Lio home twice this month. Lio loses first-timers on purpose, so they learn the way back on their own.
Neighbours and old business
- L33T Labs: both have drawn the same stairs. A Labs crew can walk a dream-path only with a believer out in front.
- Nowhere Parks: an old quarrel over whether a dream written down alone counts as told.
- Beat Street: sends its stuck players, who go home humming something new.
Books from Cloudy Gardens
A Beast's Book is written from their holder's choices.
No Book from Cloudy Gardens is open yet. A holder of a Beast from here can begin theirs in the game.
More about Cloudy Gardens
Their scarIn the Grey Year the Gardens dreamed one-night roads out to the cut-off; every dream has been told since.
In the Grey Year the Gardens dreamed one-night roads out to the cut-off; every dream has been told since. Seven months ago seventeen strangers dreamed the same door and found it next morning in the Gardens, hinged to nothing. Behind it, stairs go down past any lantern's reach, the stairs forty dream journals have drawn since. The Seventeen keep the Door, and everyone has an opinion on how far down is far enough.
What they argue aboutMappers against Wanderers: Mappers chart the Shifting Paths each morning so first-timers get home; Wanderers say a charted path stops…
Mappers against Wanderers: Mappers chart the Shifting Paths each morning so first-timers get home; Wanderers say a charted path stops dreaming.
This seasonOne house sleeps in shifts to win the Good Morning Ambush.
One house sleeps in shifts to win the Good Morning Ambush. The old road goes dark; the Gardens dream paths to the cut-off, more dreamers stray, and the Mappers lead.
A customThe Good Morning Ambush.
The Good Morning Ambush. A dream only becomes a path if it's told before anyone says good morning, so Gardens houses wake like a siege: dreamers creep downstairs with a hand over their mouth, and housemates lie in wait to shout "GOOD MORNING!" first. Being ambushed is a compliment. Whoever reaches the Breakfast Lawn untouched gets the first pear.
PlacesThe Door: hinged to nothing, warm on the side that faces nothing.
- The Door: hinged to nothing, warm on the side that faces nothing.
- Breakfast Lawn: every path starts here, and the Botch is held here when Old Can't settles on someone.
What they think is going on"There's a door under everything."
"There's a door under everything." Generous to strange ideas; impossible to hurry.