Penacony, Land of the Dreams

The attendants bow and salute with uniform smiles, and greet the guests with music: "Welcome to the Planet of Festivities! Beautiful dreams await you." The guests smile as they move forward, accepting their drinks infused full of bubbles and gulping them down. The scenery gradually becomes more and more incredulous, and the senses feel as if one has been lifted by silk. Guests from other lands defy gravity and walk on walls. Strange toys come to life and roam the streets in celebration. The water from the spring turn into a giant whale and swim through the halls. Opening a window no longer show a view of the stars in the deep sky, but of the city's shifting streams of light and shadows, holding up the constant echoes of giant clocks and theaters. The guests finally realize that they were never awake, but are instead witnessing Penacony's true nature in a dream — a place where time stops in a neverending dreamscape. Everyone knows that, under the rule of "The Family," the doors of Penacony are open to everyone amidst the stars. For a transcendent experience, for an inspirational excitement, for the soothing of worries and wounds — guests of the highest caliber come to surrender their pain in exchange for peace and tranquility, to drink the best of the best, and to wander in the sea of dreams. Some spend unforgettable holidays here and leave content, while others become obsessed with the festivities and settle down here. The star-studded hotel is the jewel of dream weavers, the kingdom of dream makers, and the playground of dream seekers. Few guests are aware of the dusty history of the past — the thread that weaves the dreams comes from reality. The velvety splendor of today's Penacony was born of salty rust, heavy shackles, and deprived freedom. The Planet of Festivities was once an IPC prison, where countless inmates were relocated to salvage the overflowing Memory Bubbles for the Garden of Recollection. People repeated their endless toils until their bodies were as heavy as lead, but their souls became as light as bubbles. At some unknown point in time, the small cells cut off access to reality, but people's consciousnesses became linked in dreams. In the midnight bell, that shared dream seemed so real, reflecting the sheer hypocrisy of reality. It lasted until the Destruction melted the chains of the IPC, the Trailblaze connected this frontier to the other stars, and the Harmony arrived upon invitation to sow the seeds of peace. Freedom finally broke ground and added a new name to the original dream — Penacony. Today, there is no trace of the crumbling prison. In the dream world, a myriad of skyscrapers has been erected and the desert has been rebuilt and transformed into a metropolis — a new world for dreamers in search of wealth and opportunities, and a utopia for those in search of indulgence and pleasure. The past of the Planet of Festivities is like a photo that fell to the bottom of a cupboard — it exists, but is seen by no one. Nowadays, the land of dreams is filled with songs of joy, and the noise of the past have been relegated to gossip, silently lost in the interlude of a comedy, in the behind-the-scenes of some cartoon, or in the side column of some magazine.

Those who have visited Penacony will agree that "built on dreams" is not just some saying, but is a very real statement. The opulent hotel is just the tip of the iceberg of the Planet of Festivities, and it is only when you "stay and dream" that you are considered to have officially arrived at Penacony. From then on, the land of dreams, consisting of twelve dreamscapes, slowly expands before the guests' eyes. Guests who are new to the place may be overwhelmed by this carnival stage, but do not be alarmed. Look up and see the metal tracks crisscrossing the skyscrapers and the Spheroids rapidly rolling along them. They are the most visible means of transportation in this dreamscape metropolis and guide guests to each and every place around the city. Starting from the central station, the complicated Spheroid tracks are like the blood vessels of the metropolis. Whether it is the underground tunnels of the Moment of Daybreak, the vast fields of the Moment of Scorchsand, or the glittering stadium of the Moment of Stars, the colorful Spheroids roll on and on, delivering people to each station accurately, efficiently, safely, and comfortably, pouring a sleepless energy into the dream world of Penacony. Dreams give a light and delicate texture to everything, and the nut-like Spheroids are regarded as both vehicles and as toys in the land of dreams. However, few remember that the Spheroids are actually imprisonment cages — the vehicle towards dreams are tools originally used for locking up prisoners. A long time ago, the IPC sent a huge number of prisoners to the Asdana star system in an attempt to stop a catastrophe from spreading. There, people reclaimed memoria, gradually becoming lost between fantasy and reality. The spherical work chambers in vacuum became an unforgettable "memory" for the prisoners — the hard curved interior walls, the awful experience of tumbling around, the unbearable daily attendance — perhaps these pains ran too deep. When those who regained their freedom pioneered the barren dreamscape, the spherical cages came along with them. But now, unlike in the past, peace and freedom have given birth to optimism. Instead of trying to destroy the inescapable nightmares over and over, it is better to add to them the color this place should have, to take them in, and embrace them. So, the spherical imprisonment cages of the past have become today's Spheroids. In the present, the fast-moving colorful Spheroids moving all over Penacony and the slight reverberations coming from within them... are all quietly hidden in the light of the dream city, blending in with the ambitions and laughter, like a land of dreams where time forever stands still.