2707/Dream Training: Dinner in the dreamscape with Emi Hoshino

Dream Training: Dinner in the dreamscape with Emi Hoshino
Date of Scene:	26 July 2025
Location:	Dream Restaurant
Synopsis:	A slumber party training session with Emi has people trying to find the dreamer responsible for a restaurant setting. And there's free dream food.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Usagi Tsukino, Roman Talleday, Catra, Ami Mizuno, Amanda Faust, Zoisite, Minako Aino

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
While Slumber Parties are perhaps a little less common amongst Japanese students than they might have been in the west at one point, they are a common feature of knowing Emi Hoshino, and with good cause.

Tonight, she has gahered her compatriots together for a bit of what she calls 'dream training', readying one's self for the challenges of the dreamscape should one be called into it, breach it on accident during their own dreams, or face a foe who can utilize it. She seems very sober about this. Grim and determined, even. People HAVE to learn these things ... so far as she's concerned.
Sheettling into the tight confines of her dorm room as its the best space she's got for such a thing this time and there's just enough people to make it a tight squeeze. Her television is apparently on a cooking show -- but she considers it a plain bit of background noise, a low hum second to the conversation.

In one sense, Emi's presence is almost soothing. Calming. It's easy to feel the sleepiness coming on, even easier to slip into a soothing, peaceful slumber around her. After all, the Guardian of Good Dreams is here. What could go wrong?

... nothing, it seems, at least in this case. Eventually, each of the girls present feels themselves drawn from whatever dream they were personally in and comes to lucidity seated in a busy looking sit down restaurant, realized in vivid detail. The smells of it hits them right away as the waitress -- a waitress who simply has no face -- serves them each a 'Matsusaka Beef 5-Variety Platter', that they each have apparently enthusiastically ordered. They can feel their stomachs rumbling. This is, after all, a dream about food.

And it -looks- delicious as hell.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Training in her sleep isn't exactly something Usagi would normally be enthusiastic about - she's not even enthusiastic about training while she's awake - but Dream training - if it didn't include nightmares - seemed like the kind of thing that could be both fun and interesting, the two tickets to getting Usagi to join in on just about anything.

Once sleep has taken over (she's starfish spangling on her sleeping bag in a cute pair of pink and white shorts and a spaghetti strap top), Usagi finds herself at restaurant, at a table, being served something that smells amazing, looks amazing, bordering on too wonderful to be believed, and immediately uses her chopsticks to grab a chunk of beef from one of the platters, adds it to some rice from a nearby bowl, and pops the whole thing in her mouth.

"Ooooooh it's so good," she moans happily, cupping her cheeks with joy. "Emi-chan, lets always train like this!"

Roman Talleday has posed:
This was all very new to Roman, who-- at least for the purposes of being introduced to new forms of Mahou training by Ami-- was to be considered 'one of the girls' tonight, if anyone asked. To that end he had put up his blond hair, just shaggy enough, into two incredibly short and slightly crooked pigtails to the effect. This was his only poor effort, more humourous than practical.

He hadn't really known what to expect, but the arrival of food-- which looked and smelled very real-- left him very optimistic.

He nodded along to Usagi, "Man, this is tops... Ain't even gotta pay for food like this?" Blue eyes turned to Emi, and rather than use his chopsticks he simply stabbed some meat with a single one. "You're sellin' me on this dream trainin', like."

The meat disappeared into his face.

Catra has posed:
Training sounds like work.

Training in your sleep sounds like it entirely defeats the purpose of being asleep.

However, Catra has already once had to participate in rescuing Hinoiri from being trapped in bad dream land or whatever it's called, and had not the greatest of experiences in the process, and she can't actually deny the value of training. So, here she is, dressed in her Horde jumpsuit (does she even own a pair of pajamas?) and falls asleep curled up in a corner, tail wrapped around her and ears perked up to listen for all threats even while sleeping.

And in the dream, Catra's stomach is indeed rumbling. How does that make sense? She doesn't usually dream about foo-- oh right, this is someone else's dream.

But the faceless waitress is almost as creepy as Joker, so she just... stares at her plate of food, at least initially.

"Okay but, what's the point, anyway? It's dream food. It's not like we'd really be eating it."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ever sensible, Ami appeared in her sleepwear even as some kind of a dream avatar and the smell of the food hit her stomach like a lead balloon. She closed her eyes, tilted her head a little, and hummed out a sound that was a little harrassed in the face of the protesting noises rumbling from her abdomen.

"It does smell amazing." The blue-haired senshi murmured to herself, a little surprised that the scenery would be quite so vivid.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Oh boy, dream training! Amy is excited, even if last time went kind of badly for her, even if she's been feeling kind of down most of the day (aside from the bright spot of texting Miho about relationships, which is not something to bring up right here and now,) she just... can't not be eager for a dream adventure, or for learning to be better at dream adventures!

    This time the PJs are a matching shorts and tank set with abstract splotches of peach-pink on a cream background and it is, again, very soft. There are strings dangling from the sides of the tank she has not figured out the purpose of.

    Although under the enthusiasm, she does still feel a bit... on edge? Off? Annoyed? and as they start to settle in, she announces, "Wait! Is... is this the dream? And the trick is to realize it?" Some quick reality checks indicate that isn't the case. "Sorry. I've just been... feeling kinda shitty today for some reason."

    At a thought, she anxiously checks her phone, looks like she might say something, then excuses herself to the bathroom, and when she returns can finally settle in for sleep.

    But regardless of feelings or what's going on in her head, she starts to drift off. "This really is a great pwer, 'mi... y'can... fall sl... nom..."

    Amy's soon sitting at the table with the others in not PJs but a green field jacket over a black T-shirt and cargo pants. She glances over the others but looks over Roman with a bit more curiousity. And although the waitress is creepy, she's 'in a good mood, the food looks and smells really delicious, and... "I really wanna find out how it tastes. Will it taste like a real food or some impossible dream flavor?"

    She has to know.

    And Usagi diving in alleviates any anxiety or reservations about it, she cuts off a piece with her knife and fork and lifts it to her mouth to chew and taste.

Zoisite has posed:
He's present, in a way. As Izzy. Don't ask him. Only once was he ever present for one of these dream sessions, and back again he was for his second dose. Mamoru put him up for this. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

"I wish the beef was already cut." He's handling his own pair of chopsticks, and for some reason he's back to being Izou in the dream. "Hell." It's the first time he looks upset and pensive over a small detail on beef.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Yeah, it's tasty, isn't it?" says Emi, thoughtfully, grabbing a piece of beef with her own chopstick as more food is being delivered for each of them. This was just the first course, after all. As they enjoy the vividly realized meal, Emi gives them a little time to do exactly that, choosing to address Catra.

"You got hurt when you confronted the salarymen, didn't you? Banged up a little? And you hurt the next day?" She pops a piece of beef into her mouth, chews, swallows.

"Are you sure, are you *absolutely sure* you're not 'really' eating something? Does it not count because you did it in a dream, even if the dream world is a real place, where you're doing things that feel real in the moment? Are you *really* sure about that? Because all my old injuries beg to differ."

Her mismatched eyes rest on Catra a moment longer before she cracks a ghost of a smile and lets her eyes scan the interior of the restauraunt, its shojo doors, the people coming and going, the ambient dinner music, the faceless crowd and wait staff. It's an odd contrast. The place, the food, all vividly realized and yet the people inside ... hardly so."

"There's a dreamer in here somewhere. Tonight's exercise -- aside from enjoying a -lovely- meal, is to identify the dreamer. It could be anyone."

Zoisite has posed:
"A dreamer? Like one of us or someone else? Because I have an idea of who it could be." Glances over to Usagi and Ami. Why? Just a small hunch as he pokes at his own beef. Honestly he would have preferred some desserts instead. Imagine cake, or mousse? Mousse cake. Gods alive...

Why did his beef have to be a slab? It looked damned delicious. Fuck it. He grabs the 6 ounce beef with his chopsticks and takes a bite.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Just as in the real world, Ami disappeared food without any real evidence to suggest that she was eating it in the first place. Beef just vanished when people weren't looking--and, if they did, she was really just snatching at it with chopsticks lightning fast to deposite into her face.

"We have to identify the dreamer?" Ami clarified, glancing at Roman and the mechanism by which he used his chopsticks.

Chopstick.

She shook her head and then continued with her inquiry as her attention wandered the restaurant. "Is it one of us? Or someone else?"

Roman Talleday has posed:
"Oh man, is this like bein' a Gengar or somethin' and eating people's dream juice, but it's beef or something, yeah?" Roman's brows rise, looking between another piece of beef and Emi, "Magic is wild, like. Do you even pay for food? You just be hoppin' into dreams and eatin' free? That's a hell of a job perk, Emi-san."

He starts, very obviously, looking for the dreamer. He's looking around, twisting in his seat, and generally his table manners are awful. He leans back to look past Usagi. "Is it somebody with a face? Like, other than us."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The beef tastes as delicious as it looks, melt in the mouth tender and succulent with rendered fat, seasoned lightly to let the essence of the beef through - Usagi is so, so happy. Izzy has become Izou again, and she's positive there's a way to switch back if Izou wants, but she isn't sure, so she doesn't say anything.

"I don't think I was dreaming of good food and creepy faceless people, but if I was you found me!"

She's sampling a very thin cut if raw beef next, ladling some beef broth over is and a spoon of rice until it's a perfect medium rare beef and rice soup, the entire bite stuffed in her mouth.

"If it's not me, they have great taste in dreams," she concludes as they chew, and starts scanning the those in the restaurant, looking for anyone who seems more detailed than the rest.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Mmh!" Amy nods as Emi praises the food's taste... and then feels a chill when Emi says 'are you sure you're not eating something?' and looks at the beef. "But... like... what, 'a boy dreamed he was eating a giant marshmallow, and when he woke up, his pillow was gone'?" She considers this, but, she's lucid now. "That wouldn't... I mean, unless the food magically appears in our stomachs? Or maybe magically satiates and gives nutrients to our bodies?" She slumps a bit, and pushes her half-frame glasses up her nose over her blue eyes.

    She slumps her shoulders a bit. "Man. Can't I enjoy some dream beef? I've been living in Japan for years."

    Emi continues eating, though, so, Amy lifts a second bite to her mouth, brushing aside some long strands of white hair that get in the way. "Ugh. You know, shortly after I got this body I had a dream where I had accidentally eaten my hair and I had to pull and pull and pull it out. It felt real, too. Pulling it out of my throat. Ugh."

    There's a dreamer here. It could be anyone.

    Izou is the first to speak up and Amy now gives him a close look. "Saitou-san? Dude, you weren't with us, is this your dream?" She looks around. "Come to think of it... where's the other one? I was... a bit out of it when we got together, but besides me and Emi there was one, two, three... yeah, where was the girl I didn't know?"

    Amy's eyes widen and she blinks. "Wait, did I dream that, too? Is this one of those dreams-within-dreams things and we got faked out? Is that the real test?" she looks to Emi, concerned as she re-reviews her memory of recent events.

Catra has posed:
Catra listens to Emi, and doesn't immediately answer. She just looks down at the food in front of her, which she can't deny does smell pretty fantastic. Also, Emi is right, after previous excursions into the dream world wherein there was violence, she did feels sore later. So it feels rather difficult to deny the expert in these matters.

She's not really certain of anything, actually.

The feline picks up her chopsticks, and clicks the two ends together before taking a second good, hard look at the faceless waitress. "That is so creepy," she mutters, ears flattening out before she looks back down at the food. ...And honestly, she did go to bed hungry anyway. So she sighs softly, and plucks a piece of beef to pop in her mouth to chew up slowly and enjoy the flavor.

"If there's a dreamer in here other than us, it's definitely not one of the waiters," she asserts. "I mean... unless there's someone out there who just... I dunno, doesn't like faces and dreams of not having one, but that feels way too weird to be the answer."

Minako Aino has posed:
Perhaps it's the scent of beef, delicious decadent beef, that has lured Minako here? Because rather suddenly the blonde appears into this dream as well. She was late to the party, took a bit to fall asleep (because she was trying so very hard not to giggle at the sight of Roman with his hair all done up) and now! Now she was here in all her orange and yellow movie vixen clad glory!

Of course she would dream herself up in fantastic attire.

"Oh WOW this all looks amazing! And everyone's here!" She chirps cheerily as she leeeans over to snag a pair of chopsticks for herself just past Ami. Carefully arranging them she pulls out a rubber band. The reasoning is simple: She uses the rolled up paper of the wrapper to act as a pivot and uses the rubber band (where did she even GET that?) to tie it all together. The doctored chopsticks are then offered to Roman with a beaming smile. "Here! It's kind of a cheat but it helps until you get the muscles trained up right to use them."

"Oh are we trying to figure out the dreamer?" She looks around quickly blinking. "Fancy place like this, they have to have money to know what it's like. Is Masato around?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Are you -sure-?" says Emi.

"Some people don't 'star' in their own dreams, after all." Emi takes a moment to glance back and forth, then stretches herself out lazily in her seat, all boneless comfort and amusement at the various questions and reactions the moment is having. She likes this, even if there's a sober undercurrent to it all.

"But, yes. Tonight's 'mission' is to work together to identify the dreamer. The only clues I will give you is that it's not one of you, the dreamer is not aware that they're a dreamer. They're not lucid like we are," she gestures around, "and that they can be anyone here ... or maybe anything."

A grim smile.

She stares at Amy a long moment, clearly biting her tongue to hold back some amusement.

"But there is a dreamer here."

"One of the tasks I have to perform is finding dreamers lost in the dreamscape and making sure they get safely back to their dream. Sometimes its because something like the Salarymen takes them out of their dream into the dreamscape where they'll be more vulnerable, easier to drain. Other times, dreamers just make it through their boundary into the dreamscape without meaning to. It doesn't happen for anyone all that often, but it does happen frequently given how many dreamers are dreaming at any given time. That said, it can be hard to -identify- a dreamer if you don't know what you're looking for."

She takes a breath, turns to glance around the room. The crowd is flowing in and out. The waitstaff is busy. There's a kitchen, in which people are 'working' but no one is actually 'cooking'. The food just sort of manifests and is carried out by the waitstaff as the 'chefs' pantomime the -idea- of cooking.

Zoisite has posed:
He blinks at Amy, mid second bite of his beef. Once swallowed, he's frowning lightly at her. "You mean Izzy?" Another blink, slower, before pointing to himself.

"I guess it was your first time meeting me in crossdressing." Clears his throat, his more feminine tone lulls out. "But tis I, Izzy Izono~" Bats his eyelashes.

Finally he looks over to Emi and sighs. "Ah, so it's not Usagi-chan or Ami." Then his beef poofs into several neatly cut pieces like his head was slowly catching up to the scene. Izou looks delighted now. "Oh lovely!"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"It would be more sandwiches and sandesh for me, and there's not nearly enough cake here for it to be Usagi-chan, Izou-kun." Ami smiled pleasantly at him.

But, then she paused.

It could be anyone or anything.

Sapphirine eyes drifted slowly down to the beef and she briefly managed to look--well, not quite horrified but definitely concerned.

"We should probably be careful with what we're interacting with then, shouldn't we?" Ami said slowly and set her chopsticks down. "Still, I'm going to need more clues first."

The blue-haired senshi set a hand to Usagi's shoulder briefly before she rose from her chair to look around properly. A surveyance, trying to spot anything that might warrant closer investigation.

"Now would be a good time for my Visor..." She was muttering mostly to herself.

Catra has posed:
Someone here is a dreamer. They might not be starring in their own ream. They might be anyone here... or anything.

Catra looks down at her food.

Catra carefully puts down her chopsticks.

The feline stares at the food, running her tongue around the inside of her mouth and carefully examining the lingering remnants of flavor from what she just swallowed. It was just beef, right? Perfectly safe dream beef. Surely nobody's dreaming is that weird. Surely.

"So uhm. You're not going to give us any clues." She pauses, and ahems. "If it's a something, would it react if we... did... something to it? Like if I went over there and abused the crap out of that potted plant and it was actually the dreaer, would it be all like oh god it hurts stop that please? Or would it just get ripped to shreds?"

Catra watches Amy stand up, and mirrors the action. No more beef for now, or rice or whatever. Eating in the real world is just fine and who cares what counts or doesn't count.

"I wonder if dreamers smell any different?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stares at Izou when he does that trick with his voice. "Oh..." And then she grins, "Cool!" And then she looks thoughtful, tapping her fork to her lips. "Are you ever a girl in dreams?"

    At Catra's comment about the dreamer, Amy says, "I didn't have a dream in a face one time." She looks to Catra. "I mean... The other way around." She relates to the others, waving her fork lightly, "But I was playing some videogame, some kinda class-based RPG on a Playstation, and then when I looked in a mirror there was just like... no face? Kinda lumpy, like a potato. And I knew it was off but somehow I like, also knew that if I didn't think about it, I'd be okay?"

    "...Then me and some of my old classmates were in another dimension, some housing development that had been abandoned. Like, cold-but-not-moldy-food-on-the-tables abandoned but no people. And then giant wheels and lawnmowers outside attacked the house we were in but we escaped and hid in the town hall. It was like something out of SCP Project."

    She pops another piece of food in her mouth and chews.

    "There's not gonna be some twist ending like the dreamer imagined themselves as food, right? ...Or the flatware?"

    Despite her increasingly-less-anxious-sounding suspicion, Emi can tell she's not really worried -- not like when they went off to face Bliss-chan after the briefing, and Amy sounded damn fatalistic...

    "Maybe I'll cover all the wild possibilities while the rest of you search for normal stuff. Like that someone's dreaming they're shrunk in a normal-size place, or ooh!" She lifts a lock of hair above her head and mimes pulling on it, "What do you think the odds are someone's got a Ratatouille situation in the kitchen?"

    She is at least starting to look around the diner for anything out of place becides the faceless waitstaff. Are there any other customers at all?

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman's incredibly taken with the simple solution Minako offers him, charmed as he gives a few practice snaps. Like a delighted crab, he grins to Minako. "Cheers, that's brilliant..."

And it will indeed make things easier for him, as he continues to shovel meat into his motuh-- much more effectively now. He seems delighted, even as he listens idly to what's going on around him. He watches Izou for a small tick, and seems earnestly a little bit surprised that he is, in fact, a man.

"True? You're well good at that, you went up a whole octave and all. I was just messin' around for kicks," He gestures to his hair, "You actually look like a bird."

Chewing away happily, Roman returns his attention to Emi. Like Ami and Catra, he slowly arrives at the thought-- the beef could, potentially, be the dreamer. His eyes lower to it, and he stops chewing for a moment. Some people are into this sort of thing. The subconscious was full of weird things, right?

Then he keeps chewing slowly. It's probably fine.

Minako Aino has posed:
"It's probably the waitress." The simple guess comes from Minako, even as she leans over to give Izou a little hug from behind, before moving on to plop herself down seated next to Roman. A bit close to him. While grinning giddily. Sure this was a training but...

It's her turn to reach out and snag some of the beef with her chopsticks, tucking it away into her mouth with a quick bite and hum of appreciation at the dreamy flavors. "Mmm! I mean, they don't have a face. You don't usually dream your OWN face, right? You do dream of yourself doing things. So the chef is out, they're just going through the motions. Although dreaming of work would kind of suck."

Another bite of beef is taken--And then Amy suggests the dreamer could *be the steak* and her face turns a particular shade of green. A napkin appears in her hand as she just bleps out the bit of unchewed meat into it.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The beef is so delicious, and Usagi is happily nomming away when she catches the look on Ami's face - the look on Catra's face - and she pauses. Considers Emi's warning. Considers the food they're eating.

Takes another bite, slowly.

"If a Dreamer gets eaten in their dream, do they like... die, or do they just wake up? Because there's no way Emi-chan would let us eat a guy if they'd die... and if this wakes them up... then does that count as finding the dreamer?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino gives Usagi a wide eyed, innocent look. She'd never do that, right?

Right.

Emi does look pleased. "It's good that you at least considered the possibility," she informs them after the various suggestions that it might be the food itself, "Dreamers can -- like -- be influenced by their experiences into a shape in their dreams. Someone who's like thinking that they're being 'consumed' by something, or feeling used up, might experience that in a dreaming about food being eaten, with the food representing them. It's not really 'them', per say, but it's a point of view. And what's a dream if not a point of view?" she asks them. AS the guesses and the questions come quickly, Emi nods along wit hthem, taking each in stride.

"Good, good. Keep 'em coming. You're getting closer."

Yes, there are certainly other customers. Also enjoying their meals, and people coming and going appropriately. They all seem as faceless as anyone else, though, aside from the dreamers.

Emi does nod towards Catra, however, "Hey, you're asking the right questions," she tells her, "Yeah, they'll react to a certain extent. You could defintiely throttle them and something -would- happen. I wouldn't recommend random throttlings to find a dreamer, though. Disrupting a dream experience can cause unpredictable consequences -- but it might do in a pinch."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    After Roman comments on Izou's performance of gender, Amy notes, a bit anxiously, "Apparently it's something anyone whose voice has dropped can learn to do, but I hear it's really hard..." She sets down her fork and self-consciously fidgets with the ID on her lanyard as she steps out of her seat to look around more.

    "I've looked in a mirror a few times in dreams, but it wasn't common, no. But people don't act like I'm faceless, and if I'm third-person-viewing a game avatar or watching like it's a movie, the main character still has a face."

    She nods to Emi at the explanation about food being a viable point of view.

    "Okay, everyone being faceless is kinda weird...do animals dream in the same dreamworld?"

    Her eyes widen. "Are they the restaurant?" How would that even work.

Zoisite has posed:
"More careful?" The line of thought was not lost to him, but his thinking was not necessarily a nice one as he puts one more piece of beef in his mouth. "They taste delicious, either way." He leans into the hug from Minako, an expression on his face that suggests he could easily a purr.

"Oh, thank you! I do look rather smashing as a bird, yeah?" Only for a moment, just an instance, that feminine lull picks up a more Welsh accent. But just so. "If you need some tips, I can definitely share with you." A wink.

One more bite.

Emi's confirmation that it wasn't a person per say or necessarily someone they were actively eating, had Izou sigh almost upset. "Awr, so this isn't a small horror movie. Shame." Another bite. "Them being the restaurant would be slightly unnerving simply because we are inside of them in a sense. So we are the ones being indulged upon." Nods at Amy.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami was puzzling her way along, still taking in whatever she could see. Still quietly pondering the advisability of becoming Sailor Mercury for the added benefit of her Visor. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly certain what that would even do. Her body was still asleep in Emi's dorm room, would she henshin outside as well?

She shook her head. No, that wasn't the current direction of experimentation and consideration. They'd been tasked with finding the dreamer--better to stay on that task.

Ami wrinkled her nose. "Izou-kun..." It was all in his choice of words. "Alright--uh..."

She bit at her lower lip, thoughtfully.

"This dream would also be an isolated little space, wouldn't it? Like. The dreamer doesn't have to make an entire fully functional world, the restaurant on its own would do the trick." A glance was spared for the chefs who weren't doing anything more than a pantomime of cookery. "And the state of the dream also seems to be limited to only what the dreamer can know about--us excluded, of course. So--"

Ami returned her attention to Emi. "Are we also influencing this space by being here?"

She was trying to isolate the variables and reduce the problem to its simplest parts in order to find a solution.

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman glances at Amy, considering several singers he knew. "Falsetto voices and whatnot... That's popular on the radio these days, too, back home." He gestures at Izou again, "I think I'd need a bit more than tips. It's a good job though... Point about the restaurant, though."

Listening to Ami muse on it next, he idly considers things, from his limited scope. He eats more, chewing. "Well, it's a dream about a restaurant. So, I reckon-- like them kitchen lot are all goin' through the motions, and so is everythin' else-- everythin' else that's part of the dream should also be pretty... normal for a restaurant. Like, expectin' that much."

He looked back to Emi. "So, it could also be somethin' that's unusual to find in a restaurant, yeah? Or... not goin' through the motions?"

Catra has posed:
Catra is, at least, asking the right questions -- though she hasn't yet come up with the right answer. But at least the right answer is not the beef. Just the same, she has not gone back to the meal. Just the thought that it might have been the beef was a little on the 'too much' side of things.

"Okay so it's not the beef," she vocalizes, and meanders off, tilting her head and sniffing at the air, and at the waitress, and around near the furniture. Well, hey, you never know. And it turns out that it all smells like air, waitress, and furniture, which is entirely non-helpful. She folds her arms across her chest, and pffts audibly.

"I feel like I need more to go on," she complains (albeit mildly). "Like... we're looking for something that is in some way out of place. But the problem is this is a dream. Anything could be out of place but entirely belong -- or at least seems like it belongs."

The feline looks around a little more, and meanders past the table everyone is (or at least was) sitting at.

"Anyone see anybody --besides us -- who does have a face? 'Cause I'd bet they don't belong."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino stares down into her napkin woefully at the loss of the beef. She'd only had ONE bite before she was grossed out by Amy's suggestion! Sure, Usagi was trusting, but she was... rather... not willing to think on that because once the idea was in her head it was just shudder worthy.

Folding the napkin up she plops it down on the table with a sigh of defeat as her head rocks back over the chair. "Wah. This is taking too long. I don't think sitting here is going to work, really."

Abruptly she kicks her feet out to push her chair back away from the table again so she can hop to her feet. The movie-starlet gown is suddenly gone as she instead lifts her head high, reaching up to adjust an orange bowtie around her neck. A short skirt and blouse is worn making her look like the waitresses, only more like a manager. "Let's do this Sailor V style!"

Abruptly her hands clap together sharply, loudly, and her voice raises to call out, "Attention everyone! We have a birthday girl here tonight!"

Twirling a step to the side dramatically her hands plant on the back of Usagi's chair as she beams a bright smile, and begins to belt out a fairly solid rendition of, "Happy birthday to you! Please have lots of steak, before we bring out your cake-uuuu! Happy birthday to yooou~!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Of course the Dreamer isn't the food! Everything on that score is fine, so Usagi chomps her way through a bit more of the platter, then transforms, light spilling into her transformation, Sailor Moon taking the place of Usagi.

"If I used my supersonic, do you think they'd hear it? The dreamer I mean! Or would all these creepy faceless waiters and customers hear it too?"

And then she's - theoretically - the center of the whole restaurant's attention, Minako calling everyone's attention to her, and it's a good thing she isn't easily embarrassed, because she just grins and waves.

"Yep, totally my birthday! So Emi-chan, would super singing help or not?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"The fact that -no one- has a face is definitely a clue," says Emi, keeping her face straight and easy. She's very good at not giving anything away. She'd make one hell of a dungeon master if she played the 'nerd shit' games.

She does smile, at last, and starts to say something to Catra, Ami and Amy but then Minako is is declaring BIRTHDAY GIRL and it is now the Moon-Princess' birthday.

All those faceless people are -turning- and -looking- directly at Usagi now. The waitstaff and the chefs, too. Everyone has paused.

"Well," begins Emi, taking a sip of her drink -- where did she get that? -- "Does that answer some of your questions?"

She seems pretty pleased.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "It's not the same thing as falsetto." Amy immediately replies to Roman. He'd need a bit more than tips? She gives him a curious look, "Is that something you want to learn...?"

Are we influencing the dream by being here?
    "I mean... we were served food, and we made stuff appear like the silverware..." holding it so it's covered, she pulls the ID off over her head and stuffs it in her jacket pocket. (It reappears a moment later after everyone's focus goes off of her to Minako and Usagi.) "But I don't think we have like, lucid level control.

Attention everyone! We have a birthday girl tonight!
    "Dbuh?!" Amy, whose birthday was just weeks ago, makes a startled noise and is suddenly in a pink party dress -- more 'child's birthday' party, really, with poofy shoulders and a big red bow around her waist and a gauze-y overlayer in some places -- and then she relaxes with a mix of relief and maybe a little disappointment as the focus is on Usagi instead, and she proudly shows off her singing skill by singing along.

    Emi comments, and the waistaff all look.

    After an awkward pause, Amy looks to Emi. "Is the dreamer... blind? Or all of the staff at once...?"

Zoisite has posed:
"Actually no, it doesn't answer my questions. But it does make it interesting." Izou blurts out, crossing his arms as he finished his plate and was hoping an unlit cake would be brought up.

"So funny thought, what if I set something on fire? Would the same thing happen? They would look at something burning dumbfoundedly?" He doesn't set anything on fire however, not yet. He was saving that for the candle.

Catra has posed:
Catra raises an eyebrow all the way up above her turquiose eye as Usagi is declared to be the birthday girl, and people go off transforming into their super-powered selves. Two (or three?) can play at that game, as blue flames dance across Catra's form, leaving behind a blackened tuxzedo with orange and brass in their wake, with a katana hanging off her belt. The feline takes a moment to check her cufflinks, before thrusting her hands into her pockets.

"is it something here that does have a face, that we might not normally consider?" she muses, resuming her wandering about the place while Usagi is participating in being the center of attention with a little help from Minako. "Like, the clock, or example. That has a face. Just not a human face." She glances at Amy, and snaps her fingers. "That might be a clue," she agrees. "So mayube, in that case, the Dreamer could be the one person here who doesn't have a reflection?"

To test that theory, Catra unsheaths her katana -- not to do violence, but just to hold it up to use it's mirrored shine on the blade to test the latest ideas.

Roman Talleday has posed:
"I wasn't exactly lookin' into drag, like, I just mean I'm obviously a bloke." Roman gives Amy a quizzical sort of look, and then shrugs. "I mean, they is lookin' ain't they? They just don't have eyes. I though it was more like... anonymous." Roman muses, swallowing his food and taking a moment to look around. "Just part of the scenery, not the focus... or that's what I woulda figured."

Catra's trying on questions, and Roman already asked about a face earlier, and figured out Emi's not going to give it up easy. Girl's got a poker face with the best of them. So, he stands up instead, and starts to clap.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you--" He turns to give an expectant look to the crowd, to see if anything goes on. They may not have mouths, but can they sing? Will they join in? "Hip hip--?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I'm not wondering about control specifically," Ami clarified, mostly for Amy's benefit at this point. "It's more about how this little pocket of dream is shaped. I think Rome-kun has it right and this is mostly the result of expectation."

She pointed off toward the chefs--halted now and staring back at Usagi along with everyone else. "Someone would expect there to be chefs in a restaurant, while maybe not having a specific idea about how the cooking gets done. So they look busy, but they aren't actually doing much. My question was about whether our expectations would be polluting the space with additional information."

A glance was offered toward Sailor Moon and then Minako as they shifted through shapes without much concern, and then nodded. That, too, was information for. At least some of the rules seemed to be distinctly dream rules.

Ami turned and made her way purposefully away from their group. Off toward the kitchen and the faceless chefs.

Minako Aino has posed:
With attention on Sailor Moon the birthday girl, Mina steps back again to draw out a cake with a flourish. It's held above her head server-style with a grand, "Ta-da~!"

Down the cake goes onto the table. It's a nice white cake with strawberries decorating all around it, and a big candle in the middle and sparklers that weren't lit *yet* at least.

Quieter she remarks to those around the table, "This should at least get a reaction from the rest of the dream around us right? I'm sure Ami-chan can figure out who it is from here. Especially since--"

Abruptly she pauses, standing again with hands flying up to her hair which was suddenly standing on end as if someone invisible was pulling it. "Ah!? Artemis!?"

Eyes wide with surprise and shock she fades out suddenly as she wakes up thanks to Artemis' efforts for whatever reason.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"The thing is," says Emi to Catra, "You're going to be operating from zero a lot of the time, just like this, in this situation. You might know you're in a dream. You might know there's a dreamer who needs help ... but all the evidence you have is all the evidence I've given you and you have to go from there. Given the danger we all work with, there's a not inconsiderable chance that sooner or later you'll all have to deal with something in the dreamscape without me. That's why we're here." This acknowledgement of the potentially dangerous or even fatal reality doesn't seem to bother Emi any. It's just the way things are. She brushes her hands over her skirtse and picks her chopsticks back up to enjoy another savory piece of beef before returning to observation.

As Amy arrives in the kitchen, she is stared at by the chefs, but they turn and pantomime baking a cake. Vaguely, nebulously. They at least know to stick it in the oven -- which dings right away -- and they pull out what looks like cake already frosted. That doesn't make any sense but then ... why would it? The cake is carried out towards Sailor Moon and placed before her with some lights that hover above it. Little flicker-flames without a candle to attach it to from their point of view but it looks fine looking down on it.



As Minako fades out, Emi blinks and her eyes glaze over a moment. "...she's fine. Everything is fine in the real world," she tells them. She doesn't really know who Artemis is after all, but she had to check.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    (When Roman clarified, Amy's curiousity immediately evaporated. Scrutinized with a quizzical look in turn, she looks away embarassed and mutters a half-hearted recovery of "Well, she did say to treat you like 'one of the girls' tonight...")

    Catra thinks the dreamer won't have a reflection. "Is that a thing?" Amy wonders. "I've always seen a reflection in dreams when I expected one, even if it was weird that one time. It's more that I just never saw a lot of mirrors..." She furrows her brow in thought. "Wait, is that normal in dreams or because I avoided looking at them as much as I could until... recently?"

    Catra is using Sword. Ami's inspecting the kitchen. Amy wonders, "...What if they're outside, looking in and wishing they could be part of this?" She glances at the windows for any such person, and heads to a door -- if any -- to go look around the immediate outside.

    ...Still in the somewhat ridiculous dress only made moreso by the card purporting that a man is inside this body. At least it's only in a dream... It's better than having forgotten her clothes completely. And the staff don't have eyes, anyway...

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Emi-chan." Ami glanced back toward her. "Am I able to henshin here?"

If there was a chance that she was going to have to deal with these sorts of things at some point in the future, it was important for her to know if that was an avenue of resource available to her or not. She could just try, but Ami was also a little reluctant to do anything that might cause unnecessary disruption to the dreamer. Flashy sparkly suddenly magic things could definitely be disruptive.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
If they could all hear that, there's probably no reason to risk deafening everyone with her scream... and that would be something rude to do, when there's cake around. Instead, Sailor Moon stands and bows to the waiter who brings the cake, thanking them.

"We appreciate this so much! You're very kind! But, there's someone else here having a special day, do you think you could give them cake too?"

Trying to see if the dream can find the dreamer themself might be cheating, but it's it like Usagi Tsukino cares about that. The goal is to find the dreamer, by whatever means they can get ahold of, right?

She might have tried to carry on in this fashion, but something happens, outside of the dream, and she jolts - "Minako-chan!"

And vanishes as she wakes up in the real world, where Minako's elbow had ended up accidentally planted in her stomach.

Zoisite has posed:
"Oh no, not drag. Gods, that's a bit more showy with glittery and extra bits to it. I'm not talking about that. Just casual trading of hacks and make up tips." Shrugs, but there's a little smile there. A subtle invitation. Not often does one run into someone crossdressing for shits and giggles.

He looks over to Ami and just snaps his fingers, where petals and flames follows him and he is now Zoisite. "You can, Ami. Usagi-chan just did. I don't see why you can't."

Catra has posed:
"You can henshin here," Catra confirms in response to Ami, glancing over her shoulder to look at her before returning to checking out people's reflections on her sword. "But you can't be transformed both here and in the real world at the same time. Right?" She glances Emi's direction briefly.

"But it's fine, in the real world I was just wearing my Horde jumpsuit and that's nothing special." Well, except that it's familiar. And she actually has more than one of them. The things you can get made when you work for Obsidian...!! Like, extra pairs of clothes. Yeah. Amazing.

"I sure hope I'm looking up the right tree," she grumbles, "Or I'm going to feel real stupid when someone does manage to figure it out." She moves on from checking people's reflections, to just... checking reflections in general. "What's that book kids read? Find Waldo?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
With the answers given, Ami nodded and turned back toward the kitchen only briefly. A small blue pen in hand, the air about her rippled like the surface of a pond to replace the pyjamas with fuku. From there, gloved fingers touched at a blue stone set in her ear and the Mercury Visor slid across her eyes. Ready to take and record readings, but also to provide any information that it could.

If it could. Ami really had no idea how this would interact with the dreamscape.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
As people vanish, Emi raises her hand and slowly presses her palm to her face. Something happening? Well, it's okay. She just isn't thrilled to have her gameplan being interrupted so. As Catra confirms the fact that they can henshin, Emi nods again, distracted from her annoyance by helping along with that. "She's right. You can call on your magic here, and your magic will bein the dreamscape with you. Doesn't work the other way for me -- at least I haven't been able to figure that out, but it's a thing."

The mention of 'horde jumpsuit' just gets weird look from Emi. She has no idea what that means. She isn't sure she wants to ask. As Catra keeps checking reflections, she'll find that reflections of the people are appropriately faceless, and the fact that they're faceless seems to ... confuse them? The place rumbles, as if something has unsettled its moorings.

"...huh," says Emi as that happens. "I think you might've given them a waking flag. Not the people -- the dreamer."

As Roman sings, the faceless crowd are distracted by that, however, and join in. There's a subtle chord of disharmony amongst them -- and one voice seems to stick out. It's coming from... everywhere? Were they right about it being the resturaunt itself?

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Amy, having looekd outside, finds out that they're ... on a city street in dream tokyo, but it's strange. They're -overlaid- on another building, transposed almost. There's a sense of 'doubling', like two things occupying the same space at the same time.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy opens the door. "We're in the same place as another building out here. A store? ...And it's Where's Waldo, or Where's Wally in a lot of languages." She announces, then lets it close as she presses her face against the glass and focuses, trying to see into the other building...

Zoisite has posed:
A tiny gasp from Izou then as the singing from Roman seems to echo back. He stands up then, looking about. Being a musician in training, the disharmony is both painful and distracting. Was there a tone? A sign of more? But if Amy's original idea was correct, and it is the restaurant...

Green eyes look up to the lights on the ceiling and with another snap of his finger, a lone cherry blossom flutters for a moment before zooming to one of the bulbs and exploding it violently.

"If it's the restaurant, surely it will feel something."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami touched at her ear again and the Visor disappeared. From there, a little blank featured, made her way quietly back over to Roman and Izou. There, she settled into place between them, whether there'd been a chair there before or not.

"Well, I didn't find the dreamer." Sailor Mercury cleared her throat as she spoke quietly. "But, I think there's something watching us. Somewhere."

She was very definitely more than a little bit unnerved.

Catra has posed:
Catra gives up on her idea for now, and returns the katana to its scabard. (This sort of thing really isn't what Powersend is meant for wanyway, though she suspects Riventon would have been impressed regardless.) She brushes her fingers through her hair, and lets out a breath.

"Well, I'll admit to not having figure it out," she admits. "Just need another clue that I'm not seeing. ...I'm really just used to solving my problems by beating them up though."

Roman Talleday has posed:
Roman flinched vaguely as the lightbulb exploded, and glanced to Ami, "Right, so the kitchen's haunted," He said, non-seriously, "And we're tryin' vandalism. And the Restaurant isn't supposed to be here. Okay."

He frowned a bit, and pointed at Catra, "You're right, punchin' things is easier by halves." A brief look around, "That singin' was proper creepy, though. Nah, this whole thing... is somethin' holding the dreamer hostage, forcin' 'em to be a restaurant?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Oh god, no. They're just dreaming about a resturaunt," says Emi, shaking her head vigorously. Ami's words, however, concern her.

"Observer," she tells her. "Something from the deeper dreamscape. They're not hostile, but I don't want to stick around to find out. We're calling this quits before it gets interested." She claps her hadns together. "I've seen them before. We don't really want them to get curious."

"Right. You guys were right -- somewhat. It's the resturaunt, and everything in it. The dreamer was 'performing' it. You guys did great." She seems earnest about this, "and you would've figured out the rest. I'm gonna take you back to your dreams." She brings her hands together, quickly forming strand of webbing to feed the others. Amy's curiosity about the superimposition does cause her to address it.

"Yeah, that's how things in the dreamscape change. They get built on top of each other sometimes. Combine into new, interesting shapes, get overlaid, with the older dream getting 'buried' beneath the new one before they inevitably flake off and drift into the deeper dreamscape -- that's where the 'machine elves' usually lurk. Dry not to look at them, Ami," she tells her.

Zoisite has posed:
"I wouldn't be surprised by this point, especially with that horrible singing. They were off note to the nines." Izou was still vaguely bothered by this, but that was him being snobbish with musical notes.

He looks over to Ami then, frowning deeply, fingers snapping once more as little cherry blossoms spawned into the air, threatening to cause more damage. "Pst..."

Before he is able to get her attention, he suddenly shrieks and disappears from the dream...

Into the waking world, where his subconscious swore it felt a bug on him, but it could've been anything but. Either way, Izzy is very much awake, startled and running around with Minako, Usagi and Artemis in the waking world.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Emi says there's some kind of dreamscape creature watching them. Amy hurries back inside. "They're everything...? What's that like for them, is that like when I dream like I'm watching a movie just sort of... observing events?"

    Emi warns not to look for the machine elves. Amy runs up to Emi and holds onto the webbing tight and closes her own eyes. "Got it. Stay in the back, eyes closed, burn all the books. What are 'observers' and 'machine elves'? And in a case like this where the dreamer is just watching, or... is 'performing' an area... how do we get them out, normally?"

Roman Talleday has posed:
"Oh, yeah, good, that's..." His relief peters into new concern, "What the hell is a Machine Elf?" He exclaims it more than actually asks, and shakes his head. "Observers... Girl sleepovers is weird, man. This is a trip. Good beef though, ignorin' the eerie undercurrents of... eldritch what-and-like."

Still, he reaches for a fistful of cake, stuffing some into his face before taking the web.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"It was like starying into the face of a kami and having it grin back." Ami stated fairly plainly. "And now that I know they're there, I can't un-know it."

Much like Amy, Ami was coming away from this with more questions than anything else. None of them that she would give voice to right now, but there was a distinct chance that she'd find Emi at a later date to prod at her about it.

Not to mention to data she'd recorded. Things for Mercury to work her way through later.

"This has been a very interesting experience." Ami smiled pleasantly, but still clearly a little shaken, at Emi as she made to take the offered web. "Thank you."

Amanda Faust has posed:
Now that I know it's there, I can't un-know it.
    "Sounds like another SCP..." Amy quips.

    She laughs lightly when Roman quips that 'girl sleepovers are weird.' "They're not usually like this, but at the last one I was at we did all get isekaied for a week. What happens at guy sleepovers then, do you have to fight monsters?" She grins.

    "Although, we did that at the mixed sleepover where we fought the Salarymen to save Hinoiri."

    "Thanks for being a good sport. Although... I did think the dream training was supposed to be mixed? Who declared it a girls-only sleepover, anyway? ...Or was it just to see what Roman and Saitou-san would do?" Her free hand fidgets with the ID. This dress has no pocket to hide it in.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"They entities native to the deeper dreamscape, like I said. If I had to guess, I'd say they're composed of fragments of dreams that collate together forming some kind of consciousness but I can't really say for sure. Like, dreams and nightmares are the same way but its on a whole other level."

And Emi is just grabbing people and GOING.