2776/Dreamscape Training: Yugen

Dreamscape Training: Yugen
Date of Scene:	02 October 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Emi introduces some Mahou to another dreamscape phenomenon.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Hinoiri Kirara, Ikiko Hisakata, Amanda Faust, Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, 222

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Emi Hoshino has posed:
Tonight, in the dreamscape of Tokyo, there is a bridge that doesn't exist in the waking world. It arches over the Sumida river in a single curve of pale, moon-touched stone, edged blurred by the mist that rises up to kiss it. There are no laterns, yet the bridge almost seems to glow faintly, as if lit by the moon itself. Cherry blossoms fall across it without end, but never gather along the bridge itself, and never touch silvered water below. They simply dissipate between blinks.

To see it it to feel a painful, quiet ache deep inside. The kind of yearning one feels when exposed to something so beautiful the likes of which you'll never see again, and somewhere inside you, you know it. Even here, amongst dreams, this sight feels like a beauty you can't hold onto. Unlike most places in the dreamscape, this one seems dotted with... people -- and not dream representatives of people, either. People like themselves, though unlikely to be 'sparkles' of any kind given the variety of ages amongst them. They all seem lost in their own thoughts.

When Emi picked them up tonight from their dreams, she said she had something to show them, and she wasn't kidding. She led them along the banks of the Sumida under a moonless sky until they were here, where the moon resolves in all its glory and the river takes on that sivlery sheen as the reached one side of the bridge.

Emi had picked up each of them from a dream and said she had something to show them. If this is it, she surely wasn't kidding. She's been quiet, otherwise -- just getting right to leading the way. She stands there, not stepping foot on the bridge, parasol in one hand, the other on her hip.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had almost ended up outting herself a few times due to these pickups and whatnot, so when there was mysterious 'Hey, come on, magical stuff is afoot', she'd ended up agreeing to come and, one henshin later, joining in...

And now? She was.... Staring at a bridge.

"... This feels... like something... dusk zone related," Cure La Licorne said after a bit. "Something I would have created or used back in those days..." she mumbled, eying the people.

That broguht back some bad... bad memories. Oh, the excuses she'd made when she'd drained people... but now? These people seemed... Definitely out of it... "Are they... trapped... in their dreams? Some kind of dark energy plot or... something else?" she asked, crossing her arms.

It made her feel antsy just being here. Too many bad memories. As if just being near it would make her suddenly go bad again.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Pretty~," Cute Wolf Tsukiko breathed, enjoying the sight. This close to a full moon, the wolfgirl was already in a good mood, and seeing something so moonlit as to almost be made of moonbeams was an added bonus.

    (although, given the nature of dreams, was this bridge actually made of refined and/or solidified moonlight?)

The wolfgirl glances over at Emi. "This is... surprisingly peaceful for something you wanted us to see," Tsukiko remarks with an acknowledging nod to La Licorne. "What is this bridge about, anyway?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Emi found Amy getting ready for the day in a dorm room, having just had the 'oh, right' realization and gotten awkward while her laid-back dream-figment roommate (boy) really just didn't think anything of his roommate being a girl now. It seems Emi's spared her an imagined awkward day of school, at least. And really, who wants to waste time dreaming a school day when they spend enough time at school while awake?

    So she walks with the others to the river in a normal-enough T-shirt and shorts and sneakers rather than any ridiculous dream scenario costume. "Hey, where'd the moon go?" she thinks to ask just before they see it.

    Taking a moment to take in the bridge, and the whole... vista, she starts to walk towards the bridge to get a look from atop it, but stops just as she starts to pass Emi, lowering her raised foot back to the ground and not stepping on the bridge.

    "So um... this is...?" she wonders, and Licorne weighs in. "I do feel like I saw something like this in an anime once... what was it...?"

    Gah, it's hard to think in dreams, sometimes. "Wait, are those... dreamers, and not figments? What's happened to them? No, there can't be so many dreamers out here in the dreamscape, right?" She looks to Emi, questioningly.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Emi finds Usagi in a dream about being late to school and having to stand in the hall, and honestly, it's so much less stressful than what she usually deals with, that when she's no longer dreaming-dreaming she laughs about it.

She's not laughing as Sailor Moon, when she's lead to the bridge with the others. Her eyes are wide when she takes in the bridge, and the aching sight of its beauty, which promises that she will never see the sight again. There are so many things it could mean, but well... Usagi is Usagi, and a bridge that appears from nowhere, connecting across a river, beneath the moon...

Well, it's only natural that she's thinking of Tanabata, never mind that July is long behind them.

"Dreams don't have to make sense," she murmurs to herself, before saying, louder, "I don't know about the Dusk Zone... there's lots of reasons for people to dream about a moonlit bridge, you know?"

Even as she says that, she's turning her head to look for Mamoru.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's there with them as they approach the bridge; his hair's a little longer, and curly, and he's wearing an ultramarine blue long sleeveless jacket with a mandarin collar and gold embroidery, over what looks like a linen-silk blend caftan and loose trousers, in darker and lighter shades of the same blue. He's barefoot, and he pads over to Sailor Moon and puts his hand on her upper arm, already there when she looks for him.

Despite showing up right when she's looking, he's really here; his hand is warm and steady and full of a sleepy love and a quiet aching desire to go home. But then he peers closer at the figures on the bridge. "There's not any dark energy I can feel, though-- are they memories? Kami-sama are they ghosts? Of people who died in dreams??? Or in their sleep??" he's digging his toes in the dirt and exhales suddenly. "No they're real people. Sorry for the worry!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi has rolled to a halt at the end of the bridge, yes, and rather than starting over it, she turns and looks back over her shoulder at them. First, she moseys closer to Hinoiri, giving her a nod.

"You're not wrong," she tells her before studying the others for a moment before she continues.

"It really is," she says to the Cute Wolf, nodding along to Usagi. "... it may have something to do with that, but it's not one for one. It's ... more about the moment. A moment where everything is just so -- and then it's gone. Fading like a dream." She glances up towards the sky and closes her eyes for a moment. The moon shines bright enough to hurt.

""That's why I call it a 'yugen'. They're a generally a piece of sentient land in the Dreamscape that spring into being, capturing a ... moment, like I said. It's going to try to drain us as we pass over it. The best thing we can do is gently usher the dreamers off it to the other end. They won't want to go but they're also not lucid for the most part." And then she's striding on the bridge, moving to the first individual she sees -- a young lady leaning over the side and staring down at the deep recesses of the water, "heeeey, it's SO good I found you I was looking EVERYWHERE," she says brightly, ignoring the allure of its beauty, even if it makes something deep inside her ache. The others will feel something similar as they step on the bridge after Emi, presuming they do.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The bridge is beautiful. Amy knows she won't be able to remember it in such detail in the waking world. This is just the first time she's known she won't be able to, while dreaming.

    Lots of reasons. "There are? Oh, I guess it could be a romantic vista..."

    Amy looks over the bridge and its haunting beauty, but thinking about dreams of bridges makes her frown. "Usually, bridges in my dreams are long, narrow things that go across a whole bay, or out over the ocean, and only have one lane so you can't turn around even once you realize you've gotten on them by mistake. Stupid dream border. You'd think I'd remember I don't drive, but no... ugh."

    She listens to Emi's explanation. "So it's a genius loci... native to the dreamscape? How does that work, was it just... here, or... I guess you said, maybe it's formed from the memory of a feeling that so many people have had, the like... psychic experience... Oh hey Mamoru!"

    Amy smiles and waves at the arrival of the Earth Prince.

    And then Emi's on the bridge, helping dreamers. Amy fidgets with her ring for a second, and then steps on, approaching another nearby dreamer, patting them on the shoulder. "Hey, there you are, buddy! We gotta get going or you'll miss the thing, remember?" she offers a fake smile.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Drained while in a 'just so' moment? That's definitely not good," Tsukiko frowns, eyeing the bridge and looking at those on it. So, a method to encourage people to move, huh...

The wolfgirl spots a young-looking dreamer, and an idea comes to mind. Mentally bracing herself before stepping onto the bridge, she darts forward, tapping the dreamer on the shoulder. "Tag, you're it!" Tsukiko grins playfully, already heading for the other side of the bridge.

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
Ace's dreams have not been troubled, as of late. Although his life has seen a number of changes in a very short order (resurrection and purification being the most notable ones), he's never been one to be plagued by nightmares. If anything, his dreams have been wistful things, of bygone times and lost beauty.

Perhaps it's some of that melancholy that touches on him tonight, lending an ache to his smile. Despite that, he's dressed for an evening out, with simple black dress pants and a matching sports jacket slung casually over one shoulder, a blue silk shirt opened casually at the throat. And though not gazing directly down into the waters, he gazes out over across them, taking in the ethereal scatter of the cherry blossoms and the glow of the moon as well.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne took a slow, deep breath as she walked onto the bridge... and oh, she DID NOT LIKE THAT! She walked onto it, though, powering through. This was what sparkles did. Heck, it was no worse than what she'd done to herself in the past, after all. She kept walking, walking, and... Oh, that felt *so wrong*.

Desperately resisting the urge to just grab people and yeet them off the bridge and into the water below.

"... It's the cops, scatter!" she yelled at a group of them.

Well, they weren't all there, right? Hopefully someone yelling them at them would make them do jus that... As she kept going, and... "Hey, kiddo... your parents have been looking for you..." she said, adopting a much softer, quieter approach when, well.. there was a child involved. She wasn't going to spook a little kid!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mamoru is there, comfortable and soft-looking, and Usagi is Sailor Moon, skirt and leotard and chest armor and all, and when he puts his hand on her upper arm, he feels her own soft ache at the sight of that bridge, the knowledge of loss, of sights that can never be seen again - and of course, they both know that feeling all too well.

There are so many things they will never again experience. The restoration of the Moon's Capital City cannot change that the people who made it home are gone.

Even this bridge can only touch on that kind of aching nostalgia, not replicate it. So even though she hates that this place is an enemy...

She pats Mamoru's hand with her opposite one, smiling at him, knowing that he's going to want to commune with the ground, and that she can trust him to not let himself be drained dry. Her intent is transmitted to him instantly - she'll help move the victims along, so he can do his thing.

And she walks away from him, separating with delicate care. Once she steps onto the bridge, she feels the drain - but it's not so immediate and terrible as one of Hinoiri's Eclipse Zones, so really, she can manage it. She loops her arm through that of a stranger, kindly chattering away -

"Hey! If you keep waiting, you'll be late!"

It's as she's doing that, that she takes note of - oh.

"Ace-san, you can't stay here, either. Come on."

She doesn't loop her arm with his - she just grabs him by the hand and starts pulling him along. Now there's two people she's tugging along.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A little faux-salute gets tossed jauntily Amy's way, and then Mamoru's listening to Emi and frowning. "Sentient real estate? Or unreal estate I guess." Hashtag unrealty. When the liminal spaces can chase you.

"Okay, be-- with that in a second," he says, his hand falling away from Sailor Moon's arm as he's already distracted, and he leaves one bare foot on the dream-ground outside the yugen, and he puts the other on the bridge.

Then he puts a hand on the railing and oh he feels the ache, oh he feels the pull, but it's logjam with delusions of grandeur, collected pieces of dreams and energy in eddies of the dreamstuff of this layer of reality.

He says severely, pouring in his intent and his sense of self and his sense of the crown of Elysion, the dreaming heart of the world, and the aching overflowing love he has for that secret land, and the love it has for every one of the dreamers-- severely-- "You need to stop trapping people. I know you need to eat, but this is poor resource management. Let them go. Let them all go."

Intent, and images, and rudimentary concepts, he pushes. Let them go.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Yeeting people off the bridge might be -fun-, but is probably not the best idea. Still, Emi soon enough has a person on each arm as she makes her way along, parasol being used to nudge, poke, and prod members of the couple dozen or so dreamers that are here.

Some look more tired than others, fainter, a little less filled with the vibrancy of life, and of course, they've probably been here the longest. Most of them are a little ... older, but hardly all of them.

"On any given night," says Emi, a note of fatigue in her own voice, "Dreamers so slip into the dreamscape. There are thirty seven million people in the greater Tokyo area. If we just run with that number and not try to slice and dice for how many people are asleep at a given moment, if we assume point zero zero one of them make it to the Dreamscape, that's like thirty hundred dreamers in the Tokyo dreamscape a night and chances are we'll never see any of them... unless they're drawn to a place like this."

All of them can feel it, that sense of aching beauty nestling deep in their hearts, but it seems to lighten somewhat as Mamoru engages with it. Likely because whatever it is, or however it thinks, it's being directly engaged by the Prince of the Earth in the moment. It doesn't let go, but it does make it a little easier to nudge people out of the daze they're in. Mamoru will find it a bit like trying to command a Venus Flytrap to open its maw when it has a tasty fly. Not impossible for someone with his capabilities, but ... not .... easy.

"huh," says Emi, glancing over her shoulder after Mamoru, "...figures," she mutters under her breath.

"As Dreamscape phenomenon go, the yugen aren't anywhere as bad as some, but they're sneakier. Most people won't even realize they're in one before the drain has snuck up on them."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Fortunately the drain is... weak. Maybe more noticeable than Obsidian's haunted house awhile back, but not like a fully operational Eclipse Zone, and Amy has a decent supply of grief seeds right now, so...

    Although, she realizes, unlike when they went to rescue Hinoiri from the Salarymen, she doesn't have someone watching her soul gem with the grief seeds for her. Can she... use them in here? That is something to look into another time, she's not henshined right now anyway.

    Emi has statistics. "So... there's that many people in the dreamscape, and only a tiny fraction of them are unlucky enough to run into Nightmares, huh..."

    She nudges some more dreamers along. "C'mon kid, oneechan is here to help you find your way back to your parents... Hey man, your wife or kids or cat or girlfriend are looking fo you... or maybe your catgirlfriend, this is a dream..."

Hersce-san, you can't stay here, either. Come on.

    Amy looks over. "U--Moon-san, you know that one? Oh hey that's uh, umm, that's... Tamagotchi guy! Yeah, come on, your Tamagotchi needs feeding..."

    Now that there's someone one of them knows, she looks over to Emi with a bit more concern. "These yugen... Do they drain people for awhile and then release them, or... do they, uh... have some of these people been here for days...?" Amy asks, a worried look crawling onto her face.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
The mention of feeding gives Tsukiko another idea of how to get some people off of the yugen. "Hey, auntie, there's a flash sale at the supermarket!" the wolfgirl says to a housewife-looking woman. "Big discounts on meat! If you hurry, you should be able to get there on time!"

There's plenty of dreamers to rescue, and many variants of giving them a reason to exit the 'just so' and return to the normal flow of life--

    (well, at least what passes for it in the Dreamscape)

--but with Tuxedo Mask working at persuading the yugen, at least the overall task is easier than it would've been otherwise.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne gave a small nod. "Huh... so it's temptation... grabs people, traps them, tries to eat them... definitely something nasty..." she muttered. This was entirely the kind of thing that Sunbreaker would have found *some* way to use to her benefit, breaking off and bending to her will, and even now a small part of her wanted to stop and research this. To find a way to get access to this, to use her magic and tie it with this magic and she was sure she could, somehow, find a way to use this to *everyone's* benefit and she'd do it right and and and...

And she squashed those feelings, instead focusing on moving people away, directing them out... Often... more forcefully than others... And one person was possibly running. And there might have been a yell of 'FIRE!' from somewhere on the bridge at one point.

But she was making progress...

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
" ...?" Ace stirs as he feels his hand taken, and he looks over. Seeing long blonde hair and blue eyes, and a gentle touch -- immediately he brightens, beginning to voice a greeting --

Ah. No.

Ace changes that greeting as he gets a better look as who's taken his hand (not the one who *usually* haunts his dreams). "Ah! It's -- Tsukino-san, yes? It's good to see you again." Offering her a friendly smile as he lets himself get pulled along -- although she *does* have to pull just a bit. For some reason, Ace finds he doesn't feel the urge to move particularly quickly.

Although he does feel a bit of a lessening to that laconic mood (even if he doesn't immediately spy the one responsible), and blinks as he hears another familiar voice through it. Tamagotchi? "Ah -- Amy-san's here as well... "

Looking bemused now, but letting himself be walked along. Especially as he spotting a pair of unfamiliar, though rather colorful costumes, one of them shifting from a game of tag to talk of food, another seeming to want to rather forcefully direct traffic. "Is there a festival?" he wonders aloud. It *does* seem like some kind of event, doesn't it?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It takes energy, but less, once Mamoru starts to speak with the ground, and Usagi hurries and chides along victims, encouraging them - friendly chatter, chiding big-sister energy, helpful student - whatever it takes to get them to follow along without taking too much strength, since there could be much more for them to deal with down the line.

Still, she can only frown at Emi's exhausted calculations, knowing they apply to more than just dreamers - any of those people within Tokyo could be Kissed by a Witch, or attacked by a youma, or targeted by someone from Obsidian, and even with as many of them as there are, they can't be everywhere, at every time. There are people they miss.

There are people they don't save.

It's enough to make her lips wobble and her eyes smart, so she tightens her grip on the people she can save and does what she can.

Which is mostly tugging people off the bridge, though she blinks at Amy seeming to recognize Ace, and wondering when that happened... "Moon-san, for now," she says cheerfully enough, "Even if everyone's sleeping, who knows what they might remember? You slipped out of your good dreams and right into a monster's lair, but lucky for you, the guardian of dreams came to help."

She's not giving out Emi's name, not even to an ally. Especially when she noticed his face falling ever so slightly once he recognized her.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Good," Mamoru says, straightening up and stepping off the ground onto the bridge fully-- and he expects it to start redoubling its efforts when he stops paying attention to it, so he keeps paying attention to it, fingers trailing over the top of the railing as he walks, still barefoot, over the moonlit bridge.

The moonlight bridge, like the stairs to a palace in the heavens-- like the stairs to a palace with the Earth in its heavens. Dreams and memories and ghosts-- and it's almost like, almost like the one time he brought Serenity to--

He laughs a little. "Ah, you almost got me, but my wife is over there," he murmurs, making his way across, one cool footstep at a time. And then-- Ace? Moon-chan has Ace? Prince Endymion, in henshin but without the armor, just the prince, he walks slowly so the others have a chance to get everyone off the bridge before he steps off it.

And in TWIRL-stepping off the bridge, he gathers his cape -- where did his jacket go? Nevermind, he has a cape, and when he drops it he's in his white tie and tails, the mask, the gloves, the whole nine yards -- and the cape flares out before settling down as he comes out of the twirl.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
That someone recognizable was on the bridge did not escape Emi's notice completely. While she might be distracted ushering all the people she can manage off the bridge, she's making sure to keep an eye on the others. Even with Mamoru's efforts, it's not out of the question that one of them would find themselves wrapped into the thing's haunting and ephemeral beauty -- though perhaps call it ephemeral is a little redundant when they're in the bloody dreamscape.

As they finish crossing the bridge, something that took far longer than it should, some of the dreamers are spurred to waken. They wink or fade out of existence like they were never there. Perhaps unnerving, given the drain, but it's not like they haven't seen it berfore when others around them waken from the Dreamscape with Emi's presence. Others start to try to wander off, ambling down the streets of dream Tokyo leaving one with the feeling of trying to get kittens back in a cage they're determined not to be in.

As the last of them step off the bridge, it seems to ... vanish entirely from view and the area is plunged into the plain old darkness of a city street in Tokyo along the waterfront -- though the moment they turn around to verify that fact, its back. Like blinking between one's left eye and right and things changing focus ever so slightly. Or quite a bit, in this case.

As Mamoru speaks to Ace, Emi makes her way over there to join them. "Someone you know?" she queries, her voice bearing a little rasp.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks as Usagi says to call her Moon... "Wait, does he know...? Oh. Dream. Yes, it's a festival..." She's suddenly in her festival yukata, blue and white with stars and moons. She's even wearing geta, and can walk in them fine as long as she doesn't think about it.

    They get themselves and their temporary charges off the bridge, and some wake up, but some...

    "Oh... oh shit. They're still asleep. And they're out here in the dreamscape... what do we do, E--- uh... What do we do? Hey, um, come back here, you're dreaming, wake up!" She starts to run after them!

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne stepped off the bridge and, once they had them all off... Oh... as the bridge seemed be fading in and out? She *really* didn't like that...

"Well, that is just unpleasant," she said, shaking her head and blinking a few times.

"Yeah, this one might even be new for me, and I do not say that lightly, so bravo," she said flatly.

"So... I'm guessing lighting the bridge up isn't the correct solution here?" Licorne asked. "And you know, things like this? Right here? This flashing neon sign of a pain in the flank? This is why I give you so much grief for trying to go after some youma with a *baseball bat*," she said to Emi. "Because without you? We can't do *anything about this stuff yet!*"

... Yet. They were working on it. She was, she imagined others were. Dream magic was hard!

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko walks over and patpats Amy on the back. "Sometimes the best you can do is protect them from the immediate threat," the wolfgirl reassures the Puella. "Heck, I'm not sure I could gather them up when they scatter like that -- but then, huskies are sled dogs, not sheep dogs!"

"I think the bridge does a good enough job of lighting itself up," Tsukiko replies to La Licorne with an impish attempt at a deadpan expression. "But yeah, kicking architecture doesn't seem like it'd do much, even here in the Dreamscape."

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
Ace cocks his head as more of Sailor Moon's words filter through his dreaming haze. A monster? A guardian? "I'm... dreaming?" But then Amy is suddenly decked out in actual festival wear -- and now Endymion is here as well?

Even as he tries to process it all, he lets himself be led by the hand, and finally steps off the bridge. Unlike some the other dreamers though, he doesn't disappear, not does he shuffle off into the dreaming -- his mind clears a bit as he takes a look around. "Then -- this is a lucid dream? I've heard about this... I think this is the first time I've actually had one!" How fun!

But then he takes a closer look at Sailor Moon, and then at Endymion as he shifts into Tuxedo Kamen. " ...only... it's not *just* a dream, is it?" The silver light had brought him back, after all, and he and Mamoru share a checkered past. Ace may not be as in-tune with these two as others may be, but what connection he does have, along with his own intuition, lets him know they're not just another dreamscape setpiece. And if *they're* not --

His gaze drifts to the others before the flicker at the edge of his vision catches his eye, and he turns to look at the bridge that he seems to have trouble focusing properly on now, for some reason. " ...should... that be doing that.... ?"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"It's a good bat!" Emi protests to Hinoiri, as if that was the point being made. She puffs her cheeks out afterwards, though, with a big exhale. It's got the effect of emphasizing her baby faced cheeks and how young she is -- much like everyone else here confronting monsters.

"No, I know. That's why I'm teaching everyone. The answer here is that there's not actually a lot we -can- do beyond what we've already done. The Dreamscape is big. On a given night? There's a lot happening!" She gives her whole body a little shake. "I just want you all to be able to recognize the threats when I'm not able to tell you, because sooner or later, something is going to happen, like with Alala and stuff." A squint at Ace. She's givign them a once over, raising one hand to her face and covering one of her mismatched eyes before seeming relieved at whatever she sees with it.

"Me, I just try to usher the dreamers off, and keep them out of trouble until they wake up."

... which is going to be hard. There's a bunch, and even now they're starting to wander off, as noted, some of them trying to go into storefronts or towards where the subway lines might be because they're in a dream of Tokyo.

"You take a run at a monster with a bat -one time-..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Sure, I mean, you can light up the bridge, it's like... a jellyfish. Pretty, deadly, alive, not very smart. But our Oneiropope says they're naturally-forming. I don't suppose there's a potential of catch and release?"

But Tuxedo Kamen steps around Ace, his cape swishing at the backs of his ankles, drifting behind him as he walks. Then he cups his hands around and yells to Amy, "DUCK!" Then, "Tuxedo Glittering Rose Bomber!" he yells, loosing forth a hail of punchy explodes-into-glitter roses petals-first in the direction of the people trying to wander off. He doesn't hurl them with tremendous force, just enough to be Highly Annoying. Glitter also. Glitter is really annoying. And these are Mamoru's damn roses the glitter will persist into the waking world.

"Hey!" he yells at all the people he just punched and glitterbombed, waving his arms. "Free Labubus limited edition BTS-signed--"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"A bat is better than nothing," Usagi agrees with Hinoiri, even if it's not that much better. "Besides, Naru-chan never really stayed out of it, what makes you think she would?"

Better to be a girl with a bat than a girl with nothing, after all.

Turning to Ace, she says, "You're right, it's more. That girl there is the guardian of the Dreamscape and people in it, and that bridge was trying to drain you and everyone else, 'cause slipped out of your dreams somehow. She's a good helper."

To Amy, she says with a shrug and simple honesty: "He's a part of me and Mamochan's circus."

She doesn't add that he's the only number they seem to have joint custody/responsibility for, but it's certainly true, between Adonis and Kaitou Ace.

"Now that you're awake-ish, you can help us find everyone else who... ran away."

Of course, as soon as she says that, Mamoru demonstrates his idea for way to resolve that problem, and she sweat drops.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko looks at Tuxedo Kamen, then at the scattered (and now regrouping) dreamers, then back at Tuxedo Kamen...

    ...And then takes a few large steps sideways, to get out of the way of the oncoming dreamers.

Amanda Faust has posed:
DUCK!
    Amy drops to hands and knees and hears Tuxedo Mask call out an attack, looking around for the dang--oh. She lets out a sigh of relief and stands up.

Free Labubus limited edition--
    Amy's outfit transforms in pink sparkles to what can only be an anime cosplay uniform, because sailor fukus don't usually bare midriff and also aren't usually paired with a sleeveless duster and long gloves. Amy holds up a bat and shouts, "Yeah! We're having some kind of event here, look, a cosplayer! Anyone want, uh, pictures or something? Come on!"

    She backs towards her friends and half-turns to look back at them. "Yeah," She looks to Ace, "It's a lucid dream, is there anything you've always wanted to do? I always wanted to-- nevermind."

    Then she doubletakes. "Wait, another?" She turns and blinks at Ace. "...So what planet are you the Senshi of...?"

    "Also, what was that about bats? Are they useful in dreams?" She waves the one she's holding.

    

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "...And what's a Labubu?" she gives Tuxedo Mask a confused look.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
"I literally could not care less about your bat," Licorne said in a flat tone. "You're the one I'm worried about. And no, something is not going to happen, sooner or later," Licorne said. "Because something happened to me, and they came for my flank. If anything comes for you? There's no way we're letting you go either. So don't go making it more difficult than it has to be."

She then dashed after the fleeing people, sighing. "Right, let's... not..." she mumbled, punching her fists together and erupting them into fire before tossing the flames! "Come on people, hup! Other direction!" she yelled. Trying to close off the route they were going. On the upside... purifying flames, so if they DID try to go into them... no actual damage.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
On the downside... if they realized that... it might not be a good deterent.

Ace Saijou (222) has posed:
Ace immediately tenses when he hears Tuxedo Mask call out his attack -- habits from a lifetime ago -- and quickly looking around. Though blinking as he sees what the overall effect is -- not a standard 'crowd control' to be sure (and even a bit odd to mention the stuff of nightmares in a pleasant dream, but the dreamers seem oddly eager for it, at least).

But he gives a nod to Sailor Moon. "Certainly, I'll help." It's the very least he owes these two. Taking a few steps forward, and reaching his hand out to the side. Towards where the phantasmal moon is still shimmering, letting its light stream between his fingers.

"Not a 'Senshi,'" he murmurs aside to Amy -- enough of the dream surrealness still with him that it doesn't occur to him to ask just yet how she knows about those. "Only a lowly 'heishi.' But here at least -- "

His fingers suddenly snap closed, as if to trap the silvery light, whipping his hand to his face before whisking it away -- and leaving an elegant ballroom mask in its place. And with a ripple of dream logic, he throws his held sports jacket aside to reveal the white leathers and gloves of his television alter ago instead.

" -- I can be someone who makes dreams come true~," Kaitou Ace finishes.

And darting forward to catch one of the dreamers, gloved fingers taking hold of them by hand and shoulder to steer them along. "Ah, miss~? It's a lovely evening for a walk, but dangerous to be out alone. Perhaps we may enjoy the evening together? Wonderful! Right this way~"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's kind of complicated," Usagi concurs and hopes Amy will leave it there for tonight. Figuring out how to explain Ace just doesn't sound fun when they've got all this. She's going to ignore Hinoiri and Emi's argument, and just focus on -

"Right this way for the merch! You don't want to miss it! There's a super sale!"

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"... usually I just trap them in a giant web and wait for their minds to get bored enough to wake them up," remarks Emi as the others navigate trying to corrale the dreamers. It seems to bve working. Promises of labubus, merch, and more is enough to draw the sleeping mind with a plethora of distractionws awaiting. She's about to respond to Hinoiri, a finger raised in protest, mouth open, before there are flames and she starts off to help with the dreamers as well. She huffs once, looking a little put out!

She turns to Ace and Amy, then, twirling her parasol in place after Usagi's introduction of her. "I'm -a- guardian of the Dreamscape, anyway. The only one we know about, which has been repeatedly batted into my skull by a certain unicorn," she says, staring after a frustrating unicorn.

As the work goes on, more of the dreamers start to wink out. Sooner or later, time sees to their wakefulness and she smiles. "Good work, everybody."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm so sorry I got distracted by the bridge," Tuxedo Mask tells Kaitou Ace, wry smile and shrug at the ready as the last of the dreamers wakes up. "Feral architecture is just really cool," he says, and that's to everyone.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Just a lowly heishi.
    Amy assumes he's just humble, since he's presumably still magic, but yes, interviewing the new guy can wait for another time.

    Huh. Male sailor senshi/heishi share the having a formal mask but the outfit otherwise doesn't seem to have anything in common. Amy notes this, but can puzzle over it later.

    As he distracts one of the dreamers, Amy considers that running into someone like this fits the sort of plot her dream was going for; fortunate he's not focused on her, though.

Usually I trap them in a web.
    "...Boring them sounds almost cruel, but better than the danger they face out here, I guess."

    She continues her routine of getting dreamers' attention until they're all awoken, and then relaxes.

    "...Feral architecture?" Amy looks up to Tuxedo Mask with an eyebrow raised in curiousity. "Do you encounter a lot of Genius Loci? Ah, I guess maybe your earth powers can kinda sense them? Wait no hang on, do you encounter a lot of genius loci??" Technically a guardian spirit, but she can't look it up and make sure she's using the right term from in here.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I'm not," Usagi tells Mamoru cheerfully. "It helped!"

Many of the dreamers can be caught and woken now, or just outright wake up, and it's helpful. Emi clarifying that she's a guardian just makes her life.

"Yeah, you're a guardian but if you're the only one anyone knows about, you're The Guardian too. Doesn't mean you're not a Mahoujin though, and unless you've got good sense and healthy cowardice like me, just about every mahoujin runs to the fight, magic or no magic." She yawns. "Is everything with this lesson done now?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne leaped back, landing besides Emi a moment later and.. "Only one *for now*," La Licorne said. "But that's a problem we'll fix eventually, too. Trust me. If going into dreams was enough to escape the sparkles *I* would have done it *years* ago," she said flatly.

And mark her words, the moment she tried? BAM! There would be Dreambeam Moon, come to open a can of MOON POWER on her flank.

She glanced towards Amy and... smiled at her excitement.

"Besides, it's fun in here, you get all kinds of neat things. We can't let you hoard it all to yourself. What kind of friends would we be then?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"...great, now I'm picturing 'domesticated architecture' as something like a great big suspension bridge that acts like one of those overly enthusiastic quote-unquote 'lap'dogs," Tsukiko giggles to Tuxedo Kamen. "As in, one that when it sits in your lap, it has all four feet on the ground."

How it applies super friendly doglike kisses to the people it's glad to see, is a mental exercise best left for another time.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"For now," agrees Emi, rubbing the back of her head. She doesn't seem convinced that there will be others anytime soon.

As Hinoiri glances towards Amy in all her excitement, Emi's eyes turn that way too and she fancies a smile herself, however ghostly it might be. She raises her parasol, twirls its once and then says, "All right, folks. You've met a yugen. They're very neat, and while not harmless as you can see, one of those experiences we get to have on this side of sleep. Just be careful out there, huh?"

Then, to Amy, she adds, "... and stop doing that to yourself," she reminds her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stares at Tsukiko in thought. "...Why is that so easy to picture? Especially in a dream? ...I can almost hear it barking..." She looks around as if half-expecting some domesticate architecture to show up.

    They had a unique dream experience and met a yugen! "Yeah, we helped people!" Amy cheers.

Stop doing that to yourself.
    Amy blinks at Emi. "Doing what."

    She tries to go over in her mind all the things she's done to herself since the dream started. Contextualizing her life with such stories? Wherever her dream was going was unconscious, but the costume, while selected to be a character wielding a bat, was her choice, and she went right back to stories when noticing how Ace would fit into one.

    ...Yeah she's completely missing whatever Emi was insinuating and just stands there staring into space thinking for a moment.