Friday Update #7 (The Holidays) (Patreon)

Happy Friday everyone, and Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays if you don't celebrate Christmas).

Today's festive Friday Update covers holidays, and how they relate to re:Dreamer’s story.

As covered in Friday Update #4, re:Dreamer’s story begins a few weeks into the college semester on the first Friday of October. This is a date just before the fall/winter holiday season starts kicking off in earnest with a slew of notable holidays, most of which factor in to re:Dreamer’s story in one way or another. Let's cover the major ones for Keisuke and Britney up until New Year's Day.

Warning: some of these are potential story spoilers (some of which are major), so don't read any further if you want to avoid those.

Keisuke

Halloween

A recurring theme is Keisuke's route is Keisuke forcing Zach to break out of his shell and try things he wouldn't do otherwise. Day 3 has a party that Keisuke drags Zach to, which is something that Keisuke will try again on Halloween with a costume party.

Zach is not comfortable with the idea, but Keisuke is so insistent with the request that he can't say no. Keisuke provides Zach a few outfit choices, notably a bunny girl like a playboy model and a sexy modern take on a vampire outfit. The Halloween party resembles the Day 3 party, but Zach is less reserved about getting drunk and being perceived as a sexy woman, and he drinks like a monster. Unlike the Day 3 party which ends on a rather lackluster kiss that nonetheless mortifies Zach, this party will end with blatant sex with Keisuke while Zach wears his costume of choice.

Amusement Park Visit

While not an actual holiday, this is an event loosely placed on the weekend around real-life Veteran's Day meant to be a big day for fun and de-stressing for Zach and Keisuke from their re:Dreamer responsibilities.

Keisuke pitches the idea to Zach after he had already purchased tickets to the amusement park partially described in Friday Update #4. Depending on Zach's T.E.A.C.H. stats and his previous choices, Zach can either be happy for the chance to relax and have fun, be thankful for the opportunity to try and please Keisuke, or be against the idea altogether but feel obligated to go with Keisuke as he already purchased tickets.

Zach soon realizes that this amusement park visit between these strange "friends with benefits" pair has all the outward appearances of a date. Zach's Trans stat largely covers his acceptance of being perceived as a woman; lower Trans means that Zach will fully insist that he's not on a date, while higher Trans Zach will be willing to entertain the idea that this is in fact a date.

Zach has already been stated as being prone to motion sickness, while Keisuke is deathly afraid of ghosts and other malevolent supernatural forces. Zach is dragged on a roller coaster; to get revenge, Zach drags Keisuke into a haunted house. Both of these are meant to show that Zach and Keisuke work far better as a pair that covers the others weaknesses than as individuals.

The day ends with Keisuke doing something incredibly sincere and heartfelt (the specifics are still being decided, but think something like "a very personal talk in a Ferris wheel" or "Keisuke winning Zach a stuffed animal in a rigged amusement game.") The important thing is that Zach is unable to think his way out of viewing the act as anything but a blatantly romantic gesture.

This causes Zach to ask himself a lot of questions all at once. Does Keisuke have romantic feelings for him? Is Zach allowed to have romantic feelings for Keisuke? Does Zach want these feelings? Was today's amusement park trip premeditated to make Zach think these things?

Zach and Keisuke leave the park long after the sun sets, but the seeds of doubt about the nature of Zach and Keisuke's relationship have started to take root in Zach's mind.

Thanksgiving Break

A lot of things have changed in the alternative timeline of re:Dreamer’s universe where Japan has territorial control of the American Pacific Northwest, but one thing that hasn't is Thanksgiving status as a national holiday.

From the outset, Zach is not able to stay in his dorm over Thanksgiving break (Espeon and I jokingly call it "TG break").

Zach has to return home to his family, and as a matter of courtesy, he invites Keisuke to spend the break over at his home. Depending on stats, Zach can either be sincere with the offer from the start, or it'll be one made with the failed expectation of Keisuke declining.

Keisuke is welcomed with open arms by Zach's mom (Zach's dad is traveling for work and will only be home for the day of Thanksgiving), but Zach's reception is chillier. He's been ducking his mom all semester and she's pissed at him, but she can't fully act on her yandere mom punishment with a guest over, so all is forgiven for now.

Zach's house is rather small, and there's barely a guest room for Keisuke to stay in. Keisuke quickly gets settled in, and the two spend time reminiscing in Zach's room about the past in the nostalgic home environment.

In the broader sense, Zach's home was where he began. Zach moved to his current home as a very young child, and he has no memory of anything before that time. But if Zach isn't himself, is it his home still? Is he returning to it? Is he saying goodbye to it?

In the context of TG, there's a lot of cool stuff to do with a home visit, like:

• Zach finds a spot in his closet where he marked his height as a kid on his birthdays. He goes up to it and realizes he's shorter than the last mark now.
• Zach and Keisuke know the area around their houses very well. Zach now has to see those things through the eyes of a woman, and that will overlap with his memories and in a sense overwrite them. How would Zach react if he goes to say, a river bank he used to play in as a kid, but he can't go in it now because he's unsure of his footing with his new body, or he's wearing a long dress and heels?
• A childhood bedroom has a lot of power to it. For the longest time, it's the only way people have to reflect who they are in a physical space. Zach has made one that fits his tastes, but if he comes back to it, what if his tastes have changed? Is he embarrassed by his old self? Will he think "I was such a kid back then" or "I was such a boy back then"?

Anyways, Keisuke and Zach don't waste much time before having sex with a focus on thinking of the past. It's a poignant moment for Zach, as he's really been struggling with his identity recently, and this is a huge chance to validate his identity as Zach, invalidate his identity as Zach, or validate his new identity as Zoey.

Zach's mom is coming up to the room with refreshments for the two boys and is seconds away from bursting into the room as Zach and Keisuke are fucking. Thinking quickly, Keisuke props Zach against the door (similar to the pose in the placeholder with the mirror sex) and Zach manages to tell his mom to leave the refreshments at his door as he's getting fucked from behind and stifling his moans.

The rest of the week is Zach and Keisuke going through their childhood town and fully catching up for the first time in years, but Zach's mom is growing increasingly suspicious about her son's activities.

On the day after Thanksgiving Dinner (Zach's dad came and had dinner before leaving for work again), Zach's body is discovered as him mom comes into his bathroom as he's showering to give him a towel (it's an invasion of privacy but something that's in character with her). She basically tosses this woman she doesn't know out of the shower by force, which alerts Keisuke to something happening.

Miraculously (and with a large amount of help from Keisuke), Zach is able to prove who he is to his mom, and he's able to do it in a way that explains his new body without revealing re:Dreamer, but as he's scrambling for an explanation, he says something that implies his change is permanent.

Zach's mom reacts in an unexpected way to finding out that her son has become her daughter by being thrilled with the idea. She's simply incapable of containing her excitement.

I've heavily hinted at it, but Zach's mom was a very controlling influence on his life which he only started to reject in his late teens. Is Zach going to accept that influence from his mom back into his life because it's the easy thing, or is he going to reject it? Keep in mind that it's not a black-or-white decision based on accepting his new self or not. If he rejects his mom, he's saying "I'm a man" and/or "I want to be myself;" if he accepts his mom, he's saying "I'm a woman" and/or "I can't find myself" (though his mom being so supportive is a very good module for trans happiness/acceptance that won't be wasted).

Zach essentially ends the week break with the full blessings of his mom and a dramatically changed relationship with her that sees her icy yandere tendencies defrosted and reshaped into an ocean current sweeping him to accepting himself as a girl, permanently.

Fall Semester End

Keisuke becomes busier with swim meets after Thanksgiving break. Zach starts to feel like he and Keisuke are back in their high school years where they went to different schools; outside of occasionally getting their schedules to overlap (which is largely done as a necessity to have sex for re:Dreamer points), Zach is left to his own devices, which means stewing in his thoughts much more than he would like.

Those thoughts are primarily concerned with how he's supposed to view himself and his relationships with other people. Zach is at the tipping point for his identity, and one more push could either set him back over to being Zach or forward to being Zoey.

Christmas Break

Zach finishes the semester with lackluster grades, but unlike in other routes, his mom is so encouraging and sympathetic of his plight that she hardly even cares. He returns home to an environment that's pushing him even more to be Zoey, and he's desperately looking for a sign of what to do.

Eventually, Zach realizes that he's looking for that sign to come from Keisuke, but Keisuke is busy with his own family obligations, which further leads to Zach realizing what he's looking for isn't a sign, but approval.

Zach realizes he wants to be something more than Zach (and to Keisuke as something more than a friend), but he's terrified that Keisuke will reject him, so he's unable to make a move.

Eventually, Keisuke has his schedule open up a few days before Christmas to spend with Zach, who stresses that he has something important to ask him.

On Christmas Eve, Zach can no longer bear not knowing what Keisuke thinks, and he very bluntly asks Keisuke if he's fine with who he is (the exact wording will depending on certain stats or flags: "devoted" Zach will ask if Keisuke is fine with Zach loving him (despite being manipulative), higher Trans Zach will ask Keisuke if he's fine with Zach becoming Zoey forever, lower Trans Zach will ask if he's fine with Zach being replaced by Zoey and not coming back, etc.)

This is a hugely emotional moment for Zach, but Keisuke responds with an almost dismissive "just be yourself" or something to that effect, but he's fully sincere with it because to Keisuke, the answer is literally as obvious as "be yourself."

Even with that affirmation, Zach/Zoey starts to doubt himself/herself here. They start referring to themselves with gender-neutral pronouns and their name box is blurred, indistinct text, which leads Keisuke to say that she's the most incredible women he's ever been with, and he goes whole hog on all the ways that she's so great to the point that Zach/Zoey has steam coming out of their ears and has to beg Keisuke to stop.

Despite the tears coming down her blushing face, she's satisfied with those affirmations. Zach is finally okay with identifying as Zoey.

New Year's Eve

Ai spends the next few days gloating from her high horse that she was right about Zoey all along, but Zoey and Keisuke let her gloat. They're too busy having sex and settling into a cozy winter break with Zoey accepting of her new identity to really give a shit. On New Year's Eve, Ai gets Zoey a late Christmas gift: the half-season scores of re:Dreamer and Zoey's projected chances of winning. They're pretty good, which leads Zoey and Keisuke to postulate what to do with their wishes if they win. Keisuke never even cared about his wish in the first place so he's whatever about it, but Zoey starts thinking that as she no longer needs to turn back into Zach, she'll use it to retroactively make her identity Zoey. Keisuke gets mad, saying that she's still denying who she is, so they eventually agree to only making a wish that would have the effect of letting Zoey get through her life without people questioning why Zach turned into Zoey.

For the remaining wish, they decide to use it to shut down re:Dreamer forever. Zoey and Keisuke are having a very positive experience with the game, but it's a giant avenue for sex crimes to be committed. Mirroring what Zoey said to Ai on the day she transformed when she realized how powerful re:Dreamer was, while the game only works to edit reality for perverted things, there's nothing stopping a winner from using abusing their wish to ruin reality, so they need to prevent anyone from ever using this game for harm ever again.

Britney

Halloween

Britney's love of cosplay is no secret. She's been to numerous anime conventions to showcase her handmade cosplay and was integral to her high school's theater department as the costume designer. Halloween is a cosplayer's dream holiday as it is the one day of the year where it is socially encouraged to dress up in handmade costumes.

Britney takes her cosplay seriously. Even before Zach walked back into her life in a body with porn star proportions, Britney was planning on going all out for the day, going so far as to reserve time in the college theater department's workshop to make her costume with state-of-the-art equipment and high-quality materials.

Making two costumes (one for herself, one for Zach) is double the work, but the opportunity to dress Zach up in whatever costume Britney's heart desires is too good to pass on. Zach narrowly avoided her advances once by refusing to cross-play as a magical girl, but now that he has a woman's body, there should be no issue, right?

If you weren't aware, Britney is the type of person who holds grudges and refuses to let them go until she gets her revenge, however petty that might be.

Amusement Park Visit

While not an actual holiday, this is an event loosely placed on the weekend around real-life Veteran's Day meant to be a big day for fun and de-stressing for Zach and Britney from their re:Dreamer responsibilities.

Unlike Keisuke's version of this holiday, Britney and Zach go into it fully knowing that it is a date. The only real question is whether or not Zach insists on going out with Britney disguised as a male, or if he relents and goes out with her as a female.

As a date, it's much more of a fun romp than any serious set for a character arc, though Zach manages to get some explanation from Britney that gives backstory and context for her sexual preferences and family history.

Thanksgiving

A lot of things have changed in the alternative timeline of re:Dreamer’s universe where Japan has territorial control of the American Pacific Northwest, but one thing that hasn't is Thanksgiving status as a national holiday.

From the outset, Zach is not able to stay in his dorm over Thanksgiving break (Espeon and I jokingly call it "TG break").

Zach is anxious about returning home to his family, which he sees as his only option, but Britney comes up with a solution by offering to let Zach stay over at her house during the break.

Zach is initially skeptical about the plan for many reasons (such as Britney's Catholic family not being okay with a man spending over a week at their home as Britney's invited guest), but Britney manages to convince him. Zach needs a reason for why he isn't visiting his own family, so isn't dating Britney and spending time with her during the break a perfect excuse for Zach to avoid them?

Secretly, Britney is hoping that showing up at her house with a boyfriend will get her parents off her back for her lesbianism, which they are starting to suspect.

Zach's intrusion is an unexpected one, but Britney's parents are so happy to see their daughter dating a man that they're okay with letting him stay the week.

Before the Thanksgiving Day dinner, Zach's new body is discovered by a member of the household; thankfully, that member is Britney's younger shota brother who promises to keep it a secret (not fully knowing what the secret he is keeping is).

Thanksgiving Dinner is rather tense. Zach tries his best to veer the conversation into safe topics (like highlights from his year of travel), but it quickly turns into an argument about LGBTQ+ issues.

Britney's relatives: "Wow, I'm so glad Britney decided to stop fooling around with girls and date a man!"

Zach: *sips water nervously*

Zach narrowly manages to avoid anything truly bad from happening, but the dinner is a high-stress environment that makes Zach wish he were at his house instead, even with all the drama that situation would cause.

On Sunday, Zach is dragged along to a church service for the First Sunday of Advent, a relatively important holiday for the Christian church that functions as a prelude to Christmas. The exact service depends on how much Zach is willing to show his agnostic/spiritual side (a more outspoken Zach will cause a bit of a ruckus), but upon getting home and packing up his stuff to return to campus that evening, Ai lets Zach know that he has a mandatory quest involving sex.

Zach covertly drags Britney to his guest room for a quickie, but something slips up as two try to cover up their suspicious activities, causing Britney's parents to realize that they had premarital sex (an extreme no-no to devout Catholics like them). Zach is normally just kicked out of the house by Britney's parents and told to put a ring on their daughter if he ever wants to come back, but should suspicion be raised about Zach's body during the week, both Zach and Britney are kicked out in a dramatic confrontation, which leads to their relationship exploding, which leads to Zach being unable to progress further with re:Dreamer and reaching a bad end.

Fall Semester End

Now that Britney's in college, she feels that she's able to fully express her identity, largely because college affords her the freedom of not having her family's conservative-value social circle keeping tabs on her sexuality or other quirks. In her mind, there's no better place to show who you are than under the glare of a theater spotlight.

Britney has only had minor acting roles in her high school's theater productions, but she's auditioned for a leading role in her theater department's take on either Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew or Romeo and Juliet (I still need to decide which would work as the better production).

As stated in Friday Update #4, Zach had been conscripted as a general theater tech at Britney's behest back in high school. In college, Zach once again gets volunteered by Britney for help with the theater department as some point during the semester, but Zach's new body makes doing the same manual labor and set design nearly impossible, so he ends up helping in ways that his new body will allow for, such as minor character acting.

The two plays I mentioned earlier are rather clichéd theatrical productions that have been done to death (especially the latter), but the important point is that Britney ends up cast as one of the leads and Zach (who has been showing up to set as a female) as the other.

This poses a conundrum, as both plays have one male lead and one female lead. Who gets what role is determined by decisions made throughout the semester, which leads to two different versions of the play being performed. Regardless of the specifics, the play solidifies Zach and Britney's roles in their relationship, as well as solidifying their relation as an actual couple rather than one of necessity. It's more nuanced than gender roles, but it's broadly that, as well as broadly determining who the dominant force between the two is.

Christmas Break

Unable to return to Britney's house for the longer Winter break, Zach has no other option but to go to his house. His mom quickly uncovers his new identity. Like in Keisuke's route, Zach explains his transformation without bringing up re:Dreamer, and she is supportive of her new daughter who she pushes to identify as Zoey; though unlike in Keisuke's route, Zach's explanation for his transformation doesn't imply that it's permanent.

Britney has been getting chewed out at her home (largely for her theatrics with the fall semester play that makes her family cast new doubts on her sexual identity). Eventually, unable to take it anymore, she comes over to Zach's house to spend the rest of the break with him.

Britney lives in an entirely different part of town than Zach does (unlike Keisuke, who had been his next-door neighbor), so she's always asking Zach to do things with her (not just sex, though that's a frequent activity).

Eventually, Zach has a talk with Britney about what their long-term goals as a couple are. Their relationship had been one of using each other (Zach needed a partner for re:Dreamer, Britney needed a "guy" to date to show her family that the rumors about her being lesbian were baseless, both wanted to have sex with each other), but they're actually dating now, and Zach wants to set some ground rules (if he's the less dominant force in the relationship, he phrases it as wanting to know what the ground rules are).

To Zach's surprise, Britney displays a surprisingly lack of indifference on the matter. Outside of agreeing that Zach has to appear as male any time her family is involved, she doesn't mention that Zach has to stay as Zoey forever, which was what Zach was really hoping to get her to comment on.

Unable to make her say anything by being subtle, Zach specifically asks her about her thoughts of staying female or going back to being male. Britney expresses a preference for Zach staying female forever, but she's not forceful on the point, saying that she likes Zach for more than just his porn star female body now, and wants Zach to do what he's happiest with, even at the cost of some of her own happiness.

Zach spends a good portion of his next few months deciding on what his final choice is going to be, but just like Britney, he feels that he wants to do whatever will make Britney the happiest, even at the cost of some of his own happiness.