Daydream Circus

> *"And now onto our next piece of news. Four young men from the town of Milton, California state, have been reported as missing for the past few days. According to eyewitness testimony, they were last seen receiving tickets from a strange clown, before heading towards 'Daydream Circus'..."*
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## *Daydream Circus

Promotional poster from the AnimateCafe event.

### Illustrator

Saimoni*

**Daydream Circus** is the first installment of the Minecraft roleplay series BlackTales.

## Plot

### Episode 1: Daydream Circus

The story starts with the four members (Broooock, Sharken, Kintoki, and Smile) waking up in their bedrooms. The four soon meet each other outside and explore the town together, which appears deserted. The group then comes across a mysterious clown (played by Nakamu) that offers them a tickets to attend the ***Daydream Circus.***

The group then finds a circus tent in the middle of a forest. Despite entering a tent, they are taken into an open space. While they walk, they notice that the sky that was previously dark had turned bright, and are greeted once again by a larger circus tent and an entire amusement park.

The mysterious clown that they had met at the start asks asked the group to sign their name on their tickets. After signing their names, the clown offers to cut their tickets for them before they enter the circus tent. On their tickets were stamped numbers that they predicted to be their seats.

> *"Oh.. you've been here before.."* *- Nakamu to Sharken*
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Upon entering the tent, the four members must find their right seats: with Broooock on A-06, Sharken on C-15, Kintoki on B-21, and Smile on D-15. Broooock, Sharken, and Smile find their seats relatively fast, but Kintoki is unable to because B-21 doesn't exist. *(AN: By counting horizontally, the row C and D has 24 seats, but A and B only has 20 seats.)*

The puzzle was solved by Broooock when he realizes that the seats aren't counted with the row system, but rather by blocks. By counting the seats by blocks that are separated by stairs between them, Broooock realizes that each individual section has twenty two seats each.

With all the members sitting at the right seats, a man (played by Kiriyan) then appears in the middle of the circus tent, introducing himself as the leader of the circus. He starts the show with his first magic trick, creating fire with a magic stick. He proves the fire to be real by burning dolls and setting wood on fire. The next show is by the animals, featuring an elephant riding a ball and a seal carrying a ball above its head. The last magic trick is performed with the leader pulling in a member of the audience onto the stage, who ends up being Kintoki. The leader tells the members that he will transform Kintoki into a cute bird inside the cage. The magic trick was a successs, but it left the members wondering where their friend had gone. Even after some time had passed, Kintoki did not come back.

The episode ends with Kintoki trapped inside a cage with a blue lock on the door.

### Episode 2: Missing

The episode begins with Kintoki still locked inside the cage. After looking around, he discovers a chest containing an axe with the ability to break a certain block (described as broken-down fungus) and a note that writes:

> *"**Someone's Note 1***
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> *If you're reading this... That means you must have been chosen from among the guests to have a magic trick performed on, and have been brought into this prison.*
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> *Your goal is to regroup with your friends.*
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> *There is a drainage system in this room. It should be connected to an old attraction that used the system before. There is a wrench over in the room next to yours. If you use it, you should be able to get out of this prison."*
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> *"However the only way to truly leave this area is with a key: '666'.*
> *I wish you good luck."*
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After following the note's instructions, Kintoki comes across a chest in the other room. Inside was the aforementioned wrench, which could break iron trapdoors and destroy glowstone, as well as a memo that writes:

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> *"**Old Memo***
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> *Write down the code just in case.*
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> *'Connect the gaze of all the dolls, and by the time you look inside the castle, the gate shall be opened.'"*
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Using the wrench, Kintoki opens the entrance of the drainage pipe and swims through the water in it. After getting out of the drain, he is greeted by a new area, a seemingly underground basement. The architecture is cute, with a fake sky, pretty plants, the aforementioned castle in the middle, and several human-sized dolls all facing different angles. Reading the memo again. Kintoki concludes that he needs to connect all the dolls' gazes. As he turns the last doll's gaze to face the castle, the shutter keeping him locked in is opened. Kintoki finishes the puzzle but is startled, as all the dolls had turned their gaze from the castle onto him.

As he ventures off into another area, he notices little clowns on the floor and a room with a scoreboard. He figures that he has to start some sort of game, but is interrupted when he hears a sound in the distance.

The episode ends with Kintoki grouping back up with Broooock, Sharken, and Smile, who were riding a cart across the area.

### Episode 3: Seek

The episode begins from the point of view of the other three characters, just after Kintoki had gone missing. The trio decides that there's no option but to exit the tent and go somewhere else. However before they can, the leader, already standing at the tent's entrance, is presumably waiting for the three to come down. The leader gives them a Stamp Sheet, explaining that there are six Stamp Rallies that can be collected, reassuring them that if they manage to collect all six stamps, *something good can happen to them*. The leader also warns them to not lose their tickets, which have their names written on them.

After the leader finishes explaining about the Stamp Sheet, he attempts to lead the group to another attraction called Clown Rush. The group asks about Kintoki, but the leader ignores their questions. After arriving at the attraction, the leader tells the group to enjoy his park to their hearts' content, before disappearing into thin air.

Even though they arrived, the attraction was shut by iron bars and the group was unable to enter it. However, it then opened when they each stepped onto three foot sensors on the ground. Noticing a stamp stand, Broooock stamped the Stamp Sheet, leading to one of the six stamps to be collected. Unfortunately as a result, the iron bars that they had opened shut right back down on them and they are trapped inside the attraction.

Having no other choice once again, the group proceeds to a ride that has exactly three carts. As the cart starts moving, the group is told that each clown is worth 12 points, with the maximum number of points obtainable being 888. On their first run, the group finishes with 624 points. When they return to the start, they notice a chest inside a small room. Inside the chest is a note:

> *"**Someone's Note 2***
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> *If you guys are reading this... You guys must have lost your friend, and have ended up trapped inside a clown's mouth. You are probably in a lot of confusion.*
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> *I have set up chests that will appear once you push the stamps from this part onward. With this, these notes will hopefully not be found by that guy..."*
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> *"You guys need to enjoy this attraction to your heart's content. You will soon discover the reason for that.*
> *I pray that you all can meet back up again."*
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The three then continue riding the attraction with the hint of "enjoying the attraction", getting 708 points on their second run. They continue riding for a third run, aiming to get the max score until a familiar voice is heard in the distance. This voice turns out to be Kintoki, free from his enclosure. The three ask Kintoki if he can open the iron trapdoor that prevents them from obtaining the maximum score. Unfortunately, Kintoki seemed to have forgotten that he had a wrench and says that he can't open the trapdoors.

While the team prepares for their fourth run, Kintoki realizes that he could open the iron trapdoors and opens it for the three as they arrive. The group ask where Kintoki got the wrench from, who explains that he got it from a prison underground. Finishing their fourth run, the team is greeted with the number 888, the max score on the score board. Though they expect the door to open, nothing happens, leading the group to discuss while Kintoki reads out the note he got from the prison. Based off the note, the group comes to a conclusion that they need to get 666 points in order to proceed.

The group continues to discuss how they can get 666 points (with the fact that each clown is worth 12 points), before Kintoki realizes again that his wrench can destroy glowstone. The three then attempt to obtain the maximum score so Kintoki can destroy the glowstone from the score 888. As Kintoki destroys the three blocks of glowstone from 888 making it 666, the door keeping Kintoki and the others separated opens, and his wrench vanishing. The group finally escape the attraction, reunited with Kintoki.

The episode ends with the group being greeted by the leader once again at the front entrance of the attraction.

### Episode 4: Pray

The episode begins with the leader greeting the group, asking about how their experience with Clown Rush is. Broooock responds by saying "It's fun, but why would you lock us in?". The question was ignored by the leader as he continues talking about going to the next attraction while guiding the group about the existing attractions in the park. While the leader starts walking, Broooock asks another question about *what they should do when they want to go home,* but it was ignored once again by the leader as he introduces the Ferris Wheel.

The next ride to be introduced is the Merry-Go-Round. There is also a restroom available in the park, in which Sharken wants to go in right away, but is stopped by the leader as he said that he should go in later instead. Walking further, there is a tower for ***bungee jumping,*** but the group is warned by the leader that it is dangerous, and they should stay away from it.

After passing the bungee jump's tower, there is a minigame corner. The left side of the minigame corner seems to be out of business, but the right-side ones are open and can be played, though it lacks light and is completely dark. Further from the minigame corner is a foodcourt, in which the team can enjoy their pizzas, ice creams, burgers and other foods. The group was shocked at how fast the staff worked but seems to be enjoying their snack time. Since Kintoki just rejoined the group, Broooock shows him the Stamp Sheet that they got from the leader from Episode 3. Their next destination seems to be an attraction with a hammer icon, but it was mislooked as the Ferris Wheel.

> *"A troublesome Ferris Wheel nerd" -Broooock.*
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The group discussed what the hammer icon was, going to the length of looking at the park's map, but they still couldn't find it. In the end, Kintoki concluded the hammer icon to be the minigame corner.

Arriving at the seemingly turned off minigame corner, the group found a stamp stand at the end of the corner. The minigame corner lit up when Smile stamped the Stamp Sheet, and Broooock assumed that they have four games to complete, looking at a small tower with four signs.

The first game they played are ***darts*** which are completed by Smile, leading to one of the lights at the tower to glow. Walking towards the next minigame, they spotted a game with a difficulty rating of 11 stars, concluding that they leave the hard one for the last. The next game they played are ***ring toss,*** but the game seemed to be taking them a little time to clear, so they split the games to play. Smile, Kintoki, and Sharken left Broooock to complete the ring toss for them, while they play the third game, that is ***Whack-a-Mole.*** With the difficulty of 2 stars, Sharken completed it with no problem. With the third game taken care of, they move on to the last game. It is the ***Hammer Tower*** (*The one on the arcade where we slam a hammer onto a button)*, but in this version, they would need to right click the mouse as fast as they could then slam the hammer. Their goal is to ring the bell on top of the tower. Despite multiple efforts from Sharken, Kintoki, and Smile, their score isn't even close to the top of the tower.

Meanwhile, Broooock finally finished the ring toss minigame after a while and joined the group in trying to clear the tower minigame. While the rest of the group are busy clicking their mouse as fast as they could, Smile seemed to have realized something and is quietly walking towards the dart's minigame stand.

Without a single voice, Smile threw the dart towards the bell on the top of the tower and rang it, causing all the lights on the small tower to be lit, clearing the minigame's section. As a reward, the group receives a ***blue key***. Looking at the key, Kintoki recalls that the lock which was used to keep him in his cell is a ***blue lock***.

The group headed back to the circus tent with Kintoki's statement and the Stamp Sheet showing that the next stamp stand is located inside the circus tent. Arriving to the tent, the group spotted the stamp stand in the middle of the tent, but they seem to be unable to reach it just yet. So, the team opened the chest located in the middle of the audience's seats. Inside the chest is a note that writes:

> ***"Someone's Note 3***
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> If you guys have cleared the Minigame Area, then you must have known the roads you have to walk to use the blue key.
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> The tent's underground still has many space to be uncovered.
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> The way to reach the stamp that you guys want, should've been known by the one person that you have just met back up with.
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> I pray that this note shall be of a help to you."
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The group continues to wonder who has been in charge of the note this entire time as they read it.

The episode ends with Kintoki leading the group towards the prison that kept him captive.

## AnimateCafe Collaboration

On July 20, 2022 Animate Cafe announced their 2nd collaboration with White Tails for a DayDream Circus themed cafe.

As said in the tweet, the event would be held from August 17th to September 12th in 3 different locations: Ikebukuro, Nagoya, and Tennoji.