2264/THAT Emi?!

THAT Emi?!
Date of Scene:	23 January 2025
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	Amy reads a notice about a new magical girl in the Shed, and decides to go surprise her! She does, but not in the way she expected...
Cast of Characters:	Amanda Faust, Emi Hoshino

---

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy swings by the shed to get the latest news. "We really need to get like, an online bulliten board too..." Amy sighs. "Wait, would anyone even know how to use a forum? They can't only be able to use social media, right...?"

    Sure enough, there's a new note today! Where has she seen that spiderweb pattern before? She walks up to the board to read.

    There may be an overturned milk crate left out for shorter magical girls and Chrono to stand on for a more convenient reading angle. It would be unfair to make the Hannahs and Mamorus of the world squat awkwardly to read, after all! Amy is fine with it! It's a reminder of how small and cute she is!~

    'Literal nightmares' she mouths. "Getting dark energy? How?""

    Her eyes scan the page. Emi, huh? Amy thinks to herself, I wonder what she's like. It's been a long time since I studied dreams... It'd be neat to talk to someone about that. Maybe she knows lucid dreaming techniques that actually work...

    A spider mascot.

    The spiderweb pattern.

    Her?!

    "No way..." Amy mutters. But now she remembers: Emi sleeping at odd times, being awake when everyone else is sleeping -- as if she's usually up anyway fighting dream monsters...

    Only has powers in dreams. "Like Nemurin, huh..."

    A place where dreams collect. Prettier than... she tries to imagine all those details in her head at once and isn't sure she's getting it.

    Amy pulls out her phone and looks at it. Should she just text?

    But it'd be cooler to surprise her, wouldn't it...?

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Tracking down Emi is not terrible difficult, really. Emi knows where she lives amongst other factoids, so it's mid-evening when she finds her outside of her dorm, talking to an older man that Amy would surely recognize as Mister Sato, the probation officer she'd seen her talking to before, seated across from one another at one of those little collections of door tables and chairs. Emi is still in her uniform.

Emi seems to be answering a question.

"... hm, terrible news," said Mister Sato.

"Oh?" said Emi.

"About that library. Some unfortunates vandalized it."

He's staring at her now. All suspect.

Emi clears her throat. "What are you looking at me for?"

"Just that I happen to have a girl in my purview who has a history of vandalsm and--"

"How unfortunate for her," interrupts Emi with characteristic snark.

"...and I wonder if my efforts are going to be in vain. This girl, I'm going to tell her again that she should keep clear of trouble or she'll risking a great deal more than I think she realizes."

As a teenager, it is Emi's obligatory duty to roll her eyes.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The mysterious and unrecognizable redhead searches the campus. Amy is in henshin but in a school uniform instead of her magical girl outfit, with some half-baked plan to do something flashy and make a dramatic entrance when she finds Emi...

    ...But all that goes out the window when she hears an authority figure accusing someone of something they (probably) didn't do! What happened to the library had to be magic bullshit, right?!

    "You really think she'd do all that to the library?!" the mysterious redhead objects, loudly, almost stomping right up to the pair to glare up at Mr. Sato. "You've already made up your mind. You don't care about finding the truth, you just want someone to look down on."

    She puts her hands on her hips. "I thought adults were supposed to be capable of more than that. What kind of example are you setting for us, huh?!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Excuse me?" says Mister Sato and for a change they both look equally bewildered, he and Emi.

"Students here are very rude. What is your name, child?" he asks of Amanda, seeming unrattled by her accusations for the moment. This is probably not his first rodeo with angry teenagers, though, given his career.

Emi raises her hand and puts it over her face.

Mister Sato is about to say more, about to rise to his feet, when his phone rings and he holds up a finger towards Amanda as if to say 'now you just hold on just a minute'. "Yes? ... oh. I will be there shortly. Yes." He lowers his finger, pockets his phone, and then stands up.

"You are in luck, ma'am. I have other obligations to attend to. I would ask that you consider y our words more carefully in the future or risk further shameful displays. Emi, I will be watching you."

And then he's striding away.

Emi turns to peer at Amanda. Who the hell is this out of nowhere?!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The mysterious exchange student stands her ground, and grins as he asks for a name.

    There is the briefest flicker of 'oh shit' on her face, though. Amy is a goody-two-shoes at heart, and his tone and words strike at her core.

    "Aww, what's the matter? You can't do anything without a name, huh?" Her tone darkens. "Funny how that works. I never got a name when people bullied me and ran away. I guess you'll just have to do the same thing teachers did then: Nothing."

    She keeps that glare on him as he takes a phone call, wondering if it's an act to escape an awkward situation. "Yeah. Sure. Baseless accusations aren't shameful. But standing up to authority is!"

    She glares at him until he's out of sight, then turns to Emi.

    Well, uh.

    Yeah she has no plan here, her mouth got ahead of her.

    There is an awkward moment before she speaks: "So, uh. You're the new dream girl, huh?" If she seems at all surprised, Amy raises her hands and wiggles her fingers. How'd she get this information? "I have my ways." Mysteeeeerious.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Mister Sato's eyes narrow at her. He's infuriated by her cavalier disrespect. Americans, he must surely be thinking, but it's not like he could make his phone ring on demand.

But he's go no time for this and he continues on his way,

Emi lets out a sigh as he's gone. "He's an ass but don't be so hard on him. It'll only make things more difficult for me and maybe for you, whoever you are."

Now Emi is giving Amanda a up and down as she's trying to place her and just can't. "Who are you, anyway?" She asks, and then she hears 'new dream girl', and her eyes close and there is a distinct inwards directed cringe.

"So I guess you're like one their friends or something, huh? Having bad dreams or something?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amanda pouts a little bit at the lecture. She watches Emi trying to place her. This is so weird.

    "Not exactly. My dreams are mostly pretty alright these days, I guess. But uh. I like helping people, and I'm interested in dreams..." She shakes her head. "Well, my plan was to come in all... like... magical and dramatic, but, when I heard him I just couldn't--"

    She sighs, and smiles. "Well. Wanna see a magic trick?"

    And then she drops the henshin.

    Amanda Faust says, "Wild, huh? It gets me every time from the other side. Like, there's just... no way, you can't even think of these two people being the same, no matter how similar they are, one moment, and then... poof! It's so obvious!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino is just kind of peering at her. Like -- a lot. This person is weird and then its Amy. Just ... Amy all of a sudden like a veil has been suddenly lifted from her.

She jerks back up out of her seat with a squawk of surprise, a completely undignified response. "YOU?!"

She is *so* alarmed right now, so suddenly on her guard. "Whwt the.. "

She pinches the bridge of her nose and immediately tries to paper over her initial reaction.

Deep breath followed by a casual, "Okay, then."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's expression becomes one of concern when Emi is suddenly all guarded. "Woah! It's just me!"

    She looks deflated. "I didn't mean to scare you, sorry..."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"...not scared so much as, uh, surprised!"

Emi scoffs. The idea of her /scared/? Impossible. Never happens.

She brushes her uniform jacket off and then gives herself a shake out. "That sure explains you coming in swinging like that, though. That's a very you thing to do. So, uh, you ... saw the note, then, and you know ... things."

Emi feels *entirely* awkward here. She has no idea how to talk about any of this, that much is broadly clear.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A very her thing to do? Amy smiles at that, "Thanks." She nods at the comment about seeing the note, and sits next to Emi on the bench.

    Awkward silence.

    Not how she expected this would go.

    "So um. How long have you been a magical girl?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"I knew that 'quick to judge a situation' part felt familiar!" Emi smirks casually as she finds her footing, now, and leans back on one of her hands. The other tugs at the collar of her uniform -- something she'd very much prefer to be out of -- before settling into similar place.

"Well. This is very weird. But a year. Thirteen to fourteen was a long time."

Peeking oujt from her collar, now, is also a brightly colored, very large spider that's staring right at Amy with unblinking eyes. It's almost cute. A common japanese jumping spider.

...but still a spider.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods. "Thirteen to fourteen... I don't even remember. But the past year and a half have been wild. More exciting than the whole rest of my life put together...Oh!"

    She does startle slightly at the spider, but...

    She does remember that a spider companion was mentioned, and jumping spiders are cute, as spiders go anyway. She reaches out with a finger, tentatively, bringing it close but not touching, offering either to pet or a sort of... shake hands? Shake leg-and-finger? gesture. "Are they one of those, only seen by magic folks things? But I didn't see them around you before..."

    Beat.

    "Weird, huh? I guess you didn't have someone to talk to, that whole time? ...Do you want to talk about it...?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"KenKen usually stayed in my dorm room. Ever since the library incident, I've been keeping her close."

"That's right," squeaks KenKen, it's a voice not out of place in some anime where you'd expect to see a cute, talking, adorable mascot of some kind that would definitely not be a spider. KenKen's colorations are bright blues and greens that almost seem like a shifting prismatic pattern on her body. As she reveals more of herself, it becomes clear she is ... lager, the size of Emi's palm and she is jumping straight to the extended arm.

"Emi just doesn't want me to risk getting crushed by someone."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    It talks?! She talks. She even sounds like a tachikoma. Setting expectations that perhaps she has side adventures while the magical girls are busy, investigating philosophical questions about the nature of humanity.

    "I haven't talked much to mascots lately." Amy admits. She jumps slightly as the spider jumps onto her arm, then freezes, then relaxes, the action processed. She supposes it could have been read as a 'jump onto me' gesture.

    Thinking back... Like, Kyubey was only around very early on to teach her the basics, there was Pin and Wuwu early on, and then Ula... she barely ever talked to Luna. Madoka's charas haven't been as chatty, or rather haven't been running into Amy as much, since Gretchen became Kamiko. Kururun doesn't talk. Chiyo's cat has retired and she hasn't seen Dory in ages.

    Amy smiles. "It's nice to meet you, KenKen! I'm Amanda Faust, Amy for short. You have enough room in Emi's backpack? Does she need to get a bigger one? Wanna see my backpack?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Of course it talks! How could it be an adorable spider mascot if it didn't talk?!

The spider crawls up Amy's arm and then sits on her shoulder to talk to her ear, more or less.

"Okay! See, Emi? Some people know how to treat a spider."

Emi puts her hand over her face. "Please don't spoil KenKen. She'll never let me hear the end of it."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles and giggles. She lifts a finger, trying to go for sort of a fistbump gesture (fingertip to legtip.)

    "Sorry, it was, uh, a whole thing." Amy pulls out her phone, "Let's see, where was it..." She swipes back through a photo roll of selfies, selfies, so many selfies, and finds and plays a video, holding it so both Emi and KenKen can see:

    The video is of a doll. There's a brief moment of confusion as eyes and brain figure out the scale of what you're looking at, dolls aren's supposed to be moving and talking and there's dorm room furniture for scale--

    The doll in question is about 1½' (45cm) tall, with a painted porcelain head and glass eyes that can look around under a red wig; There's articulation for her mouth to move like a ventriloquist dummy but when she talks it animates with much of the flexibility of a human mouth, except filled with creepy sharp teeth. The body must be some rigid material under her clothes; limbs have 'doll joints' although only her neck and hands are usually exposed. On the whole, she's still kinda creepy but not quite as much as you'd expect: For the most part she doesn't move like some unnatural puppet or doll creature, she moves naturally like a human being, which helps. She's wearing a plain blue coat over a simple, slim black dress.

Video: "Are YOU a mascot, or temporarily turned into one?" That sounds like Amy's voice...! "It may be important to consider your mahou's bag! Most might have something like this," *stands next to Ami's bag* "or this" *stands next to Hannah's bag*. "Now, you can see just from me standing next to it, these don't have a lot of room, and-- Lyra! Lyra I'm making a video here!" *is nuzzled and pushed out of frame by big floofy dog while Hannah laughs offscreen*

    Cut to: *whispering, with the sound of class in the background, using a little flashlight to light inside the bag* "Now, this is a nice roomy bag and I'm finding it pretty comfy considering I don't have muscles or nerves to get uncomfortable right now. As you can see, I've got these textbooks to lean back against, and light novels to read while the mahou is in class, and I can aaaalmost stretch out..."

    Cut to: "But this here is MY pack." Amydoll is standing on the floor of her dorm room. "This baby can fit so much mascot" *pats the side of it* "This is an American military surplus MOLLE assault pack, and it has /so much room/. *climbs into it* Look at this! Look I fit completely inside and like... *the bag rustles a bit* There's plenty of room for textbooks, reading... even some snacks, for you mascots that eat food! Now lemme just... ug... ugh... c'mere... oof! *the bag topples over and she crawls out, stands up, smooths her dress, and points at the camera* "Don't just accept being stuck with itty-bitty living space! Ask YOUR mahou for a bag upgrade today!"

    The video ends.

    Amy can't help smiling as she watches the video and Emi's face. By way of explanation, she notes, "When you get turned into a doll for half a week, you find ways to make fun." Beat. "But yeah, Rashmi carried me around in her pack so I wouldn't get lonely, and now... like now I have something to talk to mascots about, you know?" She keeps smiling.

    Also, she's conveniently provided another topic of conversation!

Emi Hoshino has posed:
KenKen extends a leg. Taps the finger.

"See, Emi? Not everyone is going to squish me."

"KenKen, you are going to annoy me and *I'll* squish you," remarks Emi. In the meantime, KenKen moves to get up on Amy's shouldr and folds her legs underneath her. She vibrates happily thereafter. Meanwhile, Amy is getting out of her phone and showing a video to her and both re observing, one set of blinking eyes and another set of utterly lidless eyes. She winds up staring for an awful long time as the video goes on, the doll speaking in Amy's voice is nmo boig deal. It's just a creepy doll woith Amy doing a voiceover. "I didn't know you were as into the creepy stuff --"

...and then there is an explanation that makes her doubletake at Amy before she just stares at her a long moment once more and closes her mouth to mull it over.

"Well that sounds ... like something." She isn't even sure what to say to that. What do you say to 'I got turned into a doll for a while!'.

"Oh, man," she utters, rubbing the top of her head.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Wait, you thought that was special effects? How do I... like, the face moves in ways porcelain can't! You know magic is real!" Amy says, grinning despite herself at the absurdity of this conversation.

    She takes a breath, and gets a moment to think, "...Okay, yeah. I guess maybe I have been around too much crazyness. Magic stuff. Like, if someone showed that to me a couple years ago... I'd go 'wow amazing effects' too. Yeah for all you know, I have access to, I'm a special effects whiz or have a friend who is... Huh."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Look. I've seen things you wouldn't believe in dreams, so we'll call it square," huffs Emi, irritated at being called out like this!

"I'm also not used to seeing it *here*. Just there." She puts her hans together behind her head and gives her spine a crack with a twist one way and then the other. This is followed by a yawn.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "In dreams. You can hear literally any crazy thing from someone and go 'what are you talking about' and they say 'oh I was talking about a dream I had' and you go 'oh, okay.'"

    Amy blinks. And yawns, yawns are contagious. "Ah... I guess the note did mention that. You've been... fighting these monsters in dreams and not... out here. So you haven't seen the crazy stuff out here. That's fine! You'll get to."

    She yawns again. "Dang..."

    "Look, I... I did kinda wanna talk about... I find dreams fascinating. I write them own, when I remember interesting things. I researched lucid dreaming, when I was young, but I never got it to work. But like..."

    Amy looks out across the campus, at the Tokyo skyline.

    "Before all this? Before my life turned upside down and my greatest dream came true? Dreams were... the only place where impossible stuff could happen. There were bad dreams, and bleh dreams, but any time I had a fun magical adventure, or..." there's that smile again, "I got... to be... myself? For a little bit? It was really special to me. So..."

    Amy looks to Emi, smiling. "So when I heard there was a dream magical girl, I got excited because I think dreams are fascinating and I hope you don't find that weird and I'm sorry if I'm bothering you and you don't wanna talk about stuff like that."

    She looks away awkwardly, then back to Emi, hopefully.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi doesn't look at her, not really, but she is listening. Instead, her eyes focus on something far away, or perhaps she's just revisiting a memory while she does listen? It's inscrutable, whatever it is, and she probably likes it that way.

"I don't know," she tells her after a minute. "I just kinda did it so I don't know if I can teach anyone how to do something that I can just ... do without thinmking about it. I'm, uh, glad your greatest dream came true." She holds her hand out and Kenken departs form Amy's shoulder back onto Emi's hand and then settles into her palm as she holds he there, looking into her lidless, eyes and pedipalp wiggling face.

"Naw. It's fine. I expected questions. Apparently, there's no one else like me around -- which figures based on my personal experience anyway, which I guess I do work on when I'm not busy vandalizing libraries."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    I don't know if I can teach. "Huh? Teach what? Oh, lucid dreaming. It's OK. It'd be cool, but life is kinda an incredible dream now, and I'm lucid for that at least."

    I'm glad your greatest dream came true. Amy smiles, and replies earnestly, "Thank you." Amy does give a short, sharp chuckle at the mention of the library. "Right? I wonder what happened there, I thought monsters weren't supposed to get in anymore. ...Can I pet her? Sorry," Amy looks at KenKen and holds out her hand tentatively, "Can I pet you?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Yeah, it sure sounds like an incredible dream when you're not turned into a horrifying little doll," remarks Emi, waving her hand to indicate she can pet KenKen on her back if she wants. KenKen seems ready for it, if the way she reposiitons herself is any indication. She LOVES pets.

"What do you mean 'not supposed to get in'?"" asks Emi.

"It was just a librarian;s nightmare. It got strong enough to surge through her into the real world. It was a thing I knew could *theoretiaclly* happen, but aside from KenKen here I've never seen a bit of dream get out of the dream before. Usually," she remarks, quoting a japanese proverb, "we let the dream stay a dream."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks at Emi for a moment, trying to parse that sentence. What...? Oh, life! Amy laughs lightly, not sure she should try to explain right now, when she's already bombarding Emi with so much.

    She does reach out and gently stroke KenKen with a tingertip or two, smiling.

    "Uhh... since the Crystal Heart... there's apparently this magic artifact the principle had smuggled into the school in pieces? And now dark energy stuff can't get in here so easily. No more monster attacks at school."

    "A dream becoming real though... That's wild. And I can see how it could also be really bad." she adds, seriously.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi just looks at Amy for a long moment like this is something she simply has no idea how to respond to. The school principle is on it. Okay. She works through this slowly for a moment before she lets out a breath and simply snarks, "I want a cigarette."

Good thing Hinoiri isn't here to hear that.

Then she realizes the source of the confusion after a moment, bring her hand up and then explains, "It didn't happen here anyway. It was out there," she gestures into the broad distance of Tokyo. Different library, apparently. She turns her head back towards her. "Yeah. It emerged through Gin and took hold of her. That's the librarian, like I said. She's okay now, at least. Was ugly, though, and I still have to figure out why it happened in the first place so it doesn't happen again."

It's gonna happen again.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy quirks an eyebrow. "Surprised you don't hide them on you somehow. Not like Radiant Heart is gonna search you... I hope. I'm not letting you use my lighters for that though. Or magic. Sorry."

    At least Emi can clear up the confusion. Amy's gaze follows the gesture. "Ohhhhhhhhhh." She nods. "So, a nightmare's never come out into reality before? Could it be from something Obsidian is doing with dark energy?"

    Amy holds a hand thoughtfully to her chin. "Maybe Hinoiri would have some ideas? Err, she, she's a scholar of magic. And has studied dark energy in the past."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Who says I don't?" says Emi with an incredulous arch of her eyebrow, "but it's not like I'm gonna smoke on campus. That's a way to get my room searched...." And then the rest of it sinks in and she blurts out, "MY NEIGHBOR? AN EXPERT?"

She just stares. Amy may at this point realize that Emi has not had a great deal explained to her at this point, if it wasn't made clear.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's eyes widen at the mention of such an extreme invasion of privacy. "They'd search your room?! Cripes!"

    She blinks as she realizes, right, Emi knows about literally no one but Usagi and Mamoru, apparently. "....Yeah, there are a lot of magic people at this school. I think Inai-sensei might've said the school specifically tries to recruit magical girls so that they'll have a better environment while they're... magical girling. And have friends and stuff."

    Beat.

    "Inai-sensei knows about magic. So does Nurse Meiou. Inai-sensei teaches a defense course after school... you should probably come."

    Beat.

    "...Adults generally don't know about magic. There's something called the Fade where around when you turn 18 you forget about magic, apparently. I'm not sure how that works in my case." Beat. "I'm not sure I count as human anymore. Like, mermaids and fairies and stuff know about magic just fine, the Fade and the Veil don't affect them."

    Beat.

    "The Veil is what we call the thing where people without magic potential forget about magic basically as soon as it's out of view."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"I knew about the forgetting bit. KenKen told me that's inevitable. That's all right," she says, looking up towards the sky. "Assuming I even survive, fading is just what a dream does. Best to let it stay that way," she murmurs, a sanguine mien falling into place like she's made a kind of peace with a result that seems, at least to her, to point one direction or the other. "Do me a favor, Amy. Watch yourself. You have a tendency to go at a high rate of speed and I'm just limping beh-- WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE THAT WASN'T NERD SHIT AT ALL WAS IT!"

She jabs a finger at her, staring accusingly.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods solemnly at the discussion of Future, Faded Emi. Then she cocks her head at the talk of watching herself. Going too fast. What? It's not like Emi's seen her charging into fights and talking about how there's no place for her in the future (and her friends are helping her get past that!)

    She just looks absolutely confused and bewildered at the vague accusation.

    Blink. Blink.

    "'Nerd shit'...?" she echoes, in innocent confusion.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"You gave me a TON of grief over that and you were talking MAGIC and just got CAUGHT, didn't you!" Emi still points, accusingly. KenKen chitters. This could be interpreted as laughter. In any event, Emi is awaiting further response to this! It is IMPORTANT!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks increasingly confused and nervous, she can tell she missed something that Emi considers obvious to neurotypical people, but she can't figure out 'what and she's no idea how big of a faux pas it was until someone can explain it!

    "Grief over what??? Caught doing what???"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"The first time I met you! You were talking about magic, weren't you," repeats Emi, finger still held aloft in an accusatory gesture like she's Emi Hoshino, Ace Attorney, and she has a serious objection. "And that's how we definitely did not start out on the right foot here." She huffs, grumpily, not having realized it until this moment. Then again, how could she have? It's not like she knew anything. Hell, she still knows a lot less than anyone else except for perhaps a small window. "PFffft," she huffs out.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy thinks back to that incident. "Ohhhhhhhh. Yeah. We'd just gotten back from fighting a monster. I remember now, you decided we ditched to play D&D and I told you I wouldn't skip for such a thing!"

    "...Nurse Meiou will write notes if you have to skip class to fight monsters."

    Beat.

    "...Man, I'm sorry. I just thought back to like, my first few days as a magical girl and like. I didn't know who any other magical girls were! I didn't know how they worked, or what was the deal with the veil, or anything! And it felt like my senpais must have been doing this for years, but later I found out most of them started maybe a few weeks before me!"

    She reaches out to pat Emi's shoulder. "Listen, if there's anything ya wanna know, or that I can help with to make this easier, let me know, OK?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"...I've been doing this over a year now. I'm not inexperienced. I just don't know about this bigger, badder world of problems, and I'd appreciate if we take it slow because I've got my hands full already." Emi lets out a breath and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Good to know about the nurse. Maybe I won't have to sleep in class sometimes." She rolls her eye and then stretches with a certain lazy languidness to it.

"I feel like I'm gonna get asked a *lot* of questions and I am kind of dreading that."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods. "Asked by who? Teachers? Other magical girls?" TEN

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Uh... yes?" Emi eyes the hand on her shoulder for a moment but doesn't comment further on it at this time until she gets herself to her feet. "Okay, so. That's *aalready* a lot I can infer from what you've said and its enough to give me a ballooning headache and I need to have WORDS with Hinoiri," she huffs.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy also stands, and holds her arms out to offer a hug. After a moment, she manages to process what Emi might mean. "You're saying I've already overwhelmed you with new information, and that in talking to others they will overwhelm you more. Did I parse that correctly? You were kind of vague."

    "...Hinoiri has been through a lot. ...Especially this month. Please don't go in there swinging and angry at her." Amy asks, concerned.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Is that right," says Emi on the matter of Hinoiri having had a rough month. "I'm sure," she mumbles, though she does withdraw from the hug. She is just way too Japanese for this. Hugging public? So unseemly! "Not that vague, just that I need things to be a bit slower so I don't lose my focus on some things I need to be focused on, like figuring out why Gin's nightmare broke through in the first place. Something not right about that and it's making me itch. Or maybe that's just the lack of cigarettes talking."

She begins to head towards the exits of the campus, glancing back over her shoulder towards Amy to offer, "You coming? I've got extra." A devilish smile flashes across her face.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Could you... switch to patches or something? Or gum?" Amy wonders. "To be clear: My continued help and concern for you is not contingent on you giving up cigarettes."

    She slips her backpack on -- it returned when she dehenshined, come to think of it -- and follows. "Extra what?" she asks innocently.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Cigarettes, Amy, cigarettes."

And then Emi leads the way off campus to where she can make a point of smoking. "And we've just gotten discussing how I may not survive the next four years. I have bigger problems than my enjoying a cigarette now and again."

But it's into the twilight she goes.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy sighs and rolls her eyes as Emi clarifies she's offering cigarettes. "No thanks. Even if they probably can't hurt me now, I hate the smell."

    When Emi points out the relative health risks of cigarettes vs yours of magical life-and-death monster battles, though, as far as Emi's own habit, Amy admits:

    "That's fair."