2462/Five Nightmares: Aftermath

Five Nightmares: Aftermath
Date of Scene:	10 April 2025
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Having been successful in their efforts to free Hinoiri, everyone wakes up the next morning with a lot of aches and pains for their efforts.
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Usagi Tsukino, Ikiko Hisakata, Rashmi Terios, Mamoru Chiba, Hinoiri Kirara, Madoka Kaname, Amanda Faust

---

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Morning.
Early light filters into the room through closed blinds, dappling across the room as birds chirp in the distance. It is peaceful and lovely even if your night was anything but. Slowly, wakefulness is returning to the Mahou who aided Emi in Hinoiri's rescue, and she is rousing each one in turn, checking to see if they need assistance. For the Mahou unused to lucid dreaming, the memories are both intense and slightly fragmented. It *feels* like waking up from a particularly vivid dream and for a moment, there's that sense of disorientation as to whether or not one might in fact still be dreaming -- but the soreness and pain that settles in swiftly as one tries to move in many cases will put any doubt to rest that they have successfully woken. For those experienced dreamers amongst them, the events of the dreamscape will remain vivid and clear in their minds. For those with less practice with such things, it will become a bit more fragmented, as if bits of the memory threaten to flake off like flecks shaved from a stone.

But everyone is present and various states of awake.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
At a certain point in the night - in the dream - Usagi Tsukino had taken it upon herself to act as shield for the rest of her party, particularly because she didn't need to hunt monsters to keep her health and humanity. She didn't regret the pain of injury then, when beams snuck past her makeshift Spiral Heart shield, and she doesn't regret it now.

She is, however, going to whine about it.

Waking, the dream is fragmented, the things experience intense but floating about, akin to her usual vivid nightly imaginings, though with decidedly more Madoka, Homura, Kamiko, and Amy involved. Usagi blinks, as birds chirp, as light filters, as her body registers all the soreness, all the bruising, all the misery of fighting in your sleep. "Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..."

She's still in her sleeping bag. Her henshin had dropped once she was thoroughly asleep, so she's back in her pajamas, blue fleece with sheep leaping over the moon all over. Trying to lift her arms is a mistake. Trying to get out of the sleeping bag is a mistake. Whimpering a little, she crunch, crunch, crunches, until she can sit up in the sleeping bag like snake, or a worm.

"We, ohh, ouch, that's soooooore.... we won, right?"

It's way too early for anyone to tell her this was a failure.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko yawns with a biiig stretch, wincing a bit from the bruising from near the end of the foray. "G'm'r'ning," she mumbles to no-one in particular as she sits up and veeery carefully tries a few stretches to determine the extent of the soreness. While sleep usually helps her recover faster from injuries, both mahou-related and otherwise, it generally requires solid sleep, and the extraction mission meant that her sleep cycle was a bit fragmented at the moment.

Still, she's not too badly injured; nothing that a good meal, a relaxing day, and more sleep can't fix.

"We got Hinoiri out successfully," Ikiko replies to Usagi. "So... I'm pretty sure that counts as a win, right?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The handy thing about your magic being channeled through an alien AI assistant with telepathic interface is... You *never* sleep through an alarm that rings in your brain, rather than your ears.

-- << AWAKEN, MASTER >> --

With a gasp, Rashmi sits bolt upright in her bed, eyes wide and staring at nothing. For a few beats, her toppriority is getting her breathing under control.

*Then* the aches wake up.

"....Ooooooow," she opines, starting to reach for her shoulder, then stopping as a rib on the other side voices *its* dissatisfaction with the maneuver. "...I... think so? ...Why do I remember a *helicopter crashing through a wall?*"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Ngh," complains Mamoru immediately upon waking. He disentangles himself from what of Usagi he was tangled with from up in his chair, and takes off his glasses to rub his eyes, yawning. "That was fun. Anybody bleeding?" Then he starts to sit up and remembers how ridiculously he'd been folded into the chair he picked because every part of him reminds him, and he's got a riotous case of dead foot. In addition to feeling wrung out.

"Oh, yo, WHAT? I missed a Bruce Willis Homura-kun moment?? Ow!" This is the sound of sitting forward very suddenly and then immediately regretting it.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had slept like a log. Which had been impressive, considering she had, technically, been sleeping for a loooooong time during all of this. A lot longer than she had any right to. and now that she was waking up? "Ughhhhhhh..." she groaned, lifting her head, a little drool on her pillow. "That... bucking... sucked... SO MUCH," she said, giving a light groan. "Someone else get kidnapped next time, I swear... hope most of you made out better than me..." she grumbled. She had a few bruises, nothing major.

"... Wait, someone crashed a helicopter through a wall? And I missed it? Now I'm even more annoyed..." she groused.

"... Why do I remember a demon Madoka telling me to exert violence?" Pause. "... Well... This has at least taught me one thing. No matter what happens, I am *never* getting a desk job here. I might just kill someone. Also... yo. Morning everybody."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka slowly drifts back into consciousness in a place that doesn't quite feel familiar. She can hear Homura nearby, which is normal, but they are in sleeping bags, which is not. Her pink eyes flutter awake to notice a pair of Chara eggs resting upon a nearby pillow.

    She suddenly pushes herself up and wipes the sleep from her eyes, then places a hand on Homura's shoulder to shove her awake. Tia floats down in front of her and says, "Good morning sleepyhead."

    Madoka, bleary eyed, reaches out to hold Tia in her arms, then gathers up Kamiko and Sio's eggs, then looks down at Homura who is actually wide awake. "You're already up?"

    Homura smiles, then sits up. "Well. Maybe not 'up'. Awake. Appreciating the moment."

    Madoka takes a moment to remember where she is and what she was doing. She leans against Homura and glances around at all her friends who are also waking up here. With a yawn she says, "What a night."

    She's now starting to realize that she is sore all over. So is Homura, though the Puella is being stoic about it. When Rashmi mentions a helicopter, Homura glances off at a random point on the wall and says, "Who knows? Strange dream." Then Mamoru calls it a Bruce Willis Homura-kun moment and she chuckles.

    Madoka responds to Mamoru, "We're fine over here. We managed to get away without too much injury though... I was having some flashbacks for a moment there."

    Homura frowns at the mention of 'flashbacks', but says, "I didn't lose anything that wasn't disposable. I don't think."

    Madoka blinks at the mention of demon version of herself. "Well, if I was encouraging you to do violence, I probably had a really good reason."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Salarymen are a good reason for violence," says Emi, casually, as she is already standing. Her hair's a mess, and her gothy pajamas with cute bats and spiders and webs dotting in a polka-dot like fashion are, of course, totally her. She seems quite relieved that Hinoiri is awake, at least, alongside everyone else too. She visibly sags for a moment with it -- or maybe she's just really, really tired still?

"I'm sorry I had to involve you all in this," she says, quietly, before turning her eyes towards Hinoiri again, "... and I'm sorry I failed you." She slowly kneels down on the ground and engages in the dogeza, prostrating herself before her in a sign of how seriously she takes this personal failure. It's also a pretty big clue as to just how traditional a home she probably came from.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara almost argued it... almost. She opened her mouth... then paused. Glanced to Madoka... and shrugged. "Yeah.... yeah. You generally have a good reason to inflict violence on people."

And then Emi... she blinked a few times. and then sighed. "Yup. You failed me alright. You edgy pillowcase," Hinoiri said. As if she had much room to speak, wearing 'flaming' pajamas as she was. "How dare you not magically know I got kidnapped, again, by some jokers in the dream world. Or, better yet, single handedly eliminated all of those little walking nightmares before they even knew I existed. Totally your fault. Listen, I'm kind of tired right now, so can you just tell yourself to stop kicking yourself for something that isn't your fault?"

"Cause, I'll be honest. Even if you were responsible for those jerks, which you weren't, I guarantee you, everyone here? Has done worse to me. And I've sure as Tartarus done worse to them. And if you're going to start blaming yourself for every youma that attacks me, I'm going to take a lesson from Demi-Doka and give you something to REALLY be sorry about. Now, do you have any coffee? Cause if all of that apologizing and saying you failed me is because you forgot to get like, drinks? A bit melodramatic, but eh. I've dated a drama major. I've seen bigger hissy fits thrown over smaller problems."

Amanda Faust has posed:
. . . ?

    ...Amy crawls through a portal in front of a... fancy beachhouse? near the confused office lady she shoved through moments earlier. Having sacrificed her costume to escape, she's left in just a white bodysuit. Her dream-body still has the white hair and blue eyes, and she is content to just sprawl on the ground and rest for a bit, listening to the ocean and glancing around at the others and up at the sky. If the victims ask what's going on she says it's a vacation and to sit and take a break for a few minutes until Emi returns to send them off.

    She might loose lucidity before waking up but she's too tired to really do much even if she starts to get concerned about where she is or something.

Club Room

    Am I on the floor? The fan sounds really close. It recalls back the memory of making a little blanket fort to sleep in... Haven't done that since I was a teenager...

    And then she hears familiar voices and snaps to awakeness wondering why she's sleeping someplace unfamiliar and then it starts to come back.

    She has to remember the dream, it's important that she remember the dream -- and it comes back in chunks in mostly reverse order, events and scenes slightly jumbled but she thinks she can build a coherent timeline/order/story, and she reaches for her bag with a groan and pulls a notebook and pen out to jot down an outline and groans again as she sits up ow and writes

dream academy - sky looked weird? weird plants? Guy again
<S>transforming</S> henshin worked
travel to salarymen building? Crazy dream tokyo - breathing building? leaping <S>over</S> from <S>rock to rock?</S> lantern to lantern?
Salaryman building - endless office, not killable
rescued tails guy
stairwell - floor - stairwell - Homura helicopter
(arrow pointing above 'rescued') rescued other guy. mohawk? enemy chairs
rescued disgaea lady
portaled to beach house???

    she does glance over from Ikiko to Hinoiri and smiles at the news they got her out, but focuses on jotting this much down before talking. "Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that too!" Amy nods when Rashmi speaks, and underlines Homura helicopter

    Amy runs through the events in her head, making sure she can picture each and write down more detail, but she really should like check in with folks, they're talking, and hopefully the memory will stay long enough for her to jot down more notes. She supposes that unlike most dreams, this one was shared, which might help with recall as others will remember it too.

    "...Demon Madoka? What happened in the other group?" Amy looks over at Hinoiri and then to Madoka curiously.

    Also she pokes and prods herself a bit. "Not bleeding, but I took some hits... imagined armor doesn't actually protect us, I guess."

    She groans as she turns to Emi, but then shakes her head. "I'm glad I could help. Don't be sorry for letting me help..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's Emi, and her gothic pajamas look extra comfy and soft, for all that they're definitely her usual gothic tastes, and Usagi's smile is there -

And then it drops as Emi goes full dogeza in front of them, clearly blaming it all on herself, and Usagi's brows are furrowed.

"Emi-chan, unless I missed something, this whole thing was the Salaryguys' fault, not yours. What, are we supposed to be mad at your for asking for help to save someone we care about too?"

She's wrapped up in her bright pink, bordering on magenta, sleeping bag, only her head and the collar of her fleece pajamas poking out, one lone sheep leaping for the sky at the flap of the collar, and she yawns halfway through the words.

"Don't be silly. You did a good job, getting everyone.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I'll tell you all about it over ice cream," Rashmi absently notes to Hinoiri... then does a doubletake, and her face splits into a wide -- if a little pained -- grin. "It's really, *really* good to have you back though, Hino-chan."

At which point Emi makes a formal apology worthy of Kureha, and Rashmi just... chuckles. "Emi-chan... you don't *ever* need to apologize to *us* for needing help. Ask Hino-chan, she's been on *both sides* of the Sudden Mahou Gang-Up. Getting backup is just what we do, y'know? And now that I think I get how magic works there... *Any time* you want to go dream-hunting, I'll give you my number and you can text me. And maybe two or three other people. You'll be *amazed* at how much less dangerous a fight is when you have backup."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, I mean, I was going to say what the hell did I do to you, but literally today I had trouble putting a rose in your sleeping hand because of what I did to you," laughs Mamoru to Hinoiri, agreeing. He nods to Homura and Madoka, looking relieved-- then looks mildly concerned at Amy's report. "Did you take any more than I saw you take on the first floor? Better question: you think you're okay for now with your pain turned on?"

Once he's made sure Amy's going to be okay, his hand drapes over the side of the chair again, looking for an Usagi to touch. Hand on her head probably, fingertips in her hair for a moment. Hello you.

"Honestly, Emi-chan," he's so rude, "you know, being too proud to ask for help would have been failing her. You did it right."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka watches Emi prostrate herself before Hinoiri and blinks. Oh geeze. Of all the people to actually wrong... That fiery unicorn was honestly pretty vengeful to Madoka before. At least she's good now, right?

    Well, it looks like Hinoiri isn't really blaming Emi that hard, so all's well that ends well, right?

    Adding onto what Amy said, Madoka shakes her head. "This is what we do. I don't mind going into weird dreamscapes if it means helping people."

    Homura runs a hand through her slightly messy bedhead hair, then flips it to the left. "The helicopter really wasn't that big of a deal. Honestly, not crashing a helicopter is far more impressive if you think about it."

    Homura also glances towards Mamoru. ... Are they friends in this timeline? Crap. She doesn't remember. She really needs to take better notes.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Pack tactics," Ikiko nods in agreement with Rashmi. "Effective for both mahou and wolves." Especially when it comes to those who happen to be in the middle of that Venn diagram, of course!

She's sitting on one of her blankets, the other one wrapped around her. While she isn't the most morning person out there, she's not not a morning person, either -- but bruises call for energy, and until she goes to get breakfast, warmth and resting will have to make do.

In the meantime, she'll listen attentively and comment where appropriate.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Did she take more roses than... what? How would she know how many he saw her take? How would she remember counting anything unless it was plot-important? "Uhhhh..." Amy tries to think of the best way to honestly and correctly answer the question. "I used three. Two to get victims out and one for me. Did I have more? I don't remember..." She shakes her head.

    "...I'm... okay as long as I don't move too much... I think I can manage for the morning if I don't have to move too much, otherwise..." She grimaces. "I'd appreciate healing? But I can turn off pain for a bit if others need it more." Her grief seed has got to be almost used up by now, and she's trying to use her energy responsibly.

    She nods in agreement when Mamoru says that being too proud for help is what would have failed Hinoiri. "I'm glad we could get her back! And... it was cool to see the dreamworld, if painful..." Images flash through her mind, disjointed, of the travel from academy to office, and a sense of workplace anxiety and stress is recalled. "And... ugh... stressful... but like, so's real life, and I don't regret being a magical girl in real life, either."

    Homura points out that not crashing a helicopter is more impressive, and Amy laughs, "Haha--" and then ows.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi, at least, has the decency to blush when Hinoiri and the others call out her apology. They just don't understand! It was all her fault! But there's no point in trying to explain that now, it seems, they've all already made up their minds and are entirely too nice about ... everything. It's so unfair.

She slowly rises back to her feet with a slight scowl at Hinoiri before placing a hand on the back of her head to smooth out where her hair is sticking up. She needs a brush, damn it.

"I'm sorry," she repeats, unnecessarily, "for the inconvenience I have caused, but I'm sure you've all got questions about what you saw and what we had to do and I'll do my best to answer them."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded along and then grinned to Rashmi. "Exactly. Frankly, when I was on the other side I found it pretty offensive when less than four of you people showed up to try and stop me. Nothing serious, just. When a girl puts her heart into being the bad guy can wrecking half the city, she really wants to feel like everyone cares and notices, you know? Otherwise what's the point?" she asked in a playful tone.

"Good to know you worked out that mass transfer into dreams thing, though. Cause that suuuuuucked," she said to Emi.

She then smiled to Mamoru. "Yeah. And I think I've put more than half of the people here in the hospital, technically. Oh, hey, by the way. I think I got one of your roses in there somehow, stabbed my boss in the hand. It was very cathartic." She then grinned to amy. "It is so good to be back."

"But... yeah. I did some really bucked up things to these people. And, despite that, they all came to save me from tartarus-in-a-cubicle. This is a really touching moment, honestly. Please don't make me ruin it by making them have to stop me from like, dangling you out a window until you stop apologizing. Besides, you got everyone there. This is an achievement, time for celebration. And sure, the whole 'Oh, I'm so sowwy miss Hinowiri' thing is cute, but come on. Wait until you actually buck something up. You do magic long enough you're bound to do it. Trust me. You have so many fun failures to make in the future. That's the fun of doing this. You get to come up with all new ways to screw up. If you're really lucky, you can even screw up multiple worlds or across multiple lifes."

Pause. Blink. "Err, sorry," Hinoiri said to... well. They knew who they were.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Kamiko's egg cracks open, and the divine Chara peeks out. "So like... when do we fight the screaming vending machines? I feel like they're the real threat of the dreamworld."

    Tia puts her hands on her hips and says, "Wasn't that your weakest youma? I hardly think you've much to worry about."

    Sio's egg cracks open and she says, "Yeah, the Salarymen were worse. That endless office... That nightmare is going to give me nightmares."

    Kamiko crosses her arms and pouts. "Well sorry I couldn't replicate the true evil of a vending machine!" Then she firmly shuts her eggshell.

    Madoka, meanwhile, still bleary eyed, still holding her Chara, just blinks. Honestly, after a sleep like that, she could use a nap. "I'm sure you'd do the same for us, Hinoiri. That's just part of the mahou lifestyle."

    She doesn't really think Emi's done anything wrong, and isn't really sure what to do with the apology, so she just bleary-eyed stares at her with her arms full of minidokas.

    Homura stares at Hinoiri and doesn't say a single dang word.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Emi-chan... just by standing next to Hinoiri-chan, you evaporate any need to apologize."

Usagi is leaning back into Mamoru's hand, pleased with having it on her head, and equally pleased she doesn't have to move anymore. Hi, you, her energy reads, pleased as all else. In spite of everything, including her soreness, she's pretty pleased.

Aside from the fact that Hinoiri is throwing shots like they're darts, anyway. But then... that is what Hinoiri-chan is like.

"In all seriousness though... thank you for giving us the chance to help save Hinoiri-chan... again... while she was in trouble. We'd all feel much worse if we found out you had to go it alone, when we could have helped!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh yeah, life is so rough, you invited us to an asskicking party and we got to rescue people," Mamoru scoffs and rolls his eyes, then sort of unfolds from his chair partway in a very rickety fashion unsuited to seventeen-year-olds and and leans forward. He offers his non-Usagi hand to Amy, then laughs in Hinoiri's direction again. "Good! I was hoping it would help you somehow... but you need to be aware of something, I've never done anything wrong in either of my lives, I'm a perfect saint."

When Amy takes his hand -- well, she knows the drill. Pain gone, hello world, heals, nerve endings -- but it's in the middle of a haze of sleepy pleasedness that's infectious.

"I honestly can't think of anything to ask," he tells Emi apologetically. "I did my first round of brain-picking already and haven't racked up enough questions for another round yet."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi nods along with the first part of Hinoiri's little rant. "Can confirm, she put me in the hospital."

When the speech becomes a bit less... focused... the redhead sighs, shaking her head. "*Anyway,* moving along... Honestly, my top question's more for you than the dreamworld. Since it turns out our magic can only be one place or another... Does it work that way for you too? And if you don't know, is there someone you can ask? I mean I have a *lot more* questions, but that's the first one I can think of that needs some kind of answer."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy turns the fan down and begins scribbling notes in her book. A shame she doesn't have a keyboard, but at least her penmanship has recovered thanks to being in school.

    She smiles at Hinoiri when told it's good to be back.

    Hinoiri says not to apologize until she's actually messed up. "Yeah, you haven't exploded yourself or accidentally trapped yourself in another world yet." Beat. Amy looks to Hinoiri, "...Are those actually common hazards...?"

    Emi said she's happy to explain anything. "I admit, I'm curious about the interaction between magic and making stuff in our dreams and how effective each was, but maybe that's a bit academic..."

    "Um. So like. Did all this work like a normal dream? Like am I gonna forget it all in the next half-to-forty-eight hours or so if I don't write it down like this? Are there defenses that can protect us from dream monsters' attacks?"

    "...Can we see it again, even if there aren't monsters? I guess I'm kinda fascinated by this. I will work on my lucid dreaming, OK?" And then she looks at her communicator-watch, looks away, and looks back at it, before continuing to jot down notes.

    Sio says she'll have nightmares about the nightmare and Amy freezes and looks alarmed. "...If we have a nightmare about that, will we end up back in the actual Salarymens' office building?"

    Fortunately, it's healing time! Amy smiles and Mamoru gets a sense of thankfulness, and a jumble of scenes from the dream-memory as she tries to keep it from fading until it's all on the page, and in turn his sleepy pleasantness infects her a bit, lightening her mood.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko blows a cheerful raspberry at Mamoru declaring that he's been a perfect saint, but doesn't otherwise comment on it. She leans forward a bit as the others ask questions, curious as to what Emi's answers will be.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino scowls a little *more* at Hinoiri at all that, looking flustered. She actually blushes a bit more. She tucks her hands behind her and has herself another bow, this one of thanks. "I truly appreciate all of you coming and also the helicopter. That was super impressive." A Glance towards Madoka. She pauses.

"Vending mach-- oh, right those. Don't pay them any mind," she suggests, "They're just really bored." She offers a weak smile towards the others, particularly Usagi and Mamoru.

"I don't have any abilities outside of the dreamscape -- well, that's not entirely true, actually. KenKen can still eat nightmare energy, of course, and I can see when people are struggling with nightmares, and I can make you all fall asleep easier like you saw, but I don't have anything else. My powers are in the dream period. Now, you being able to manifest your powers there does seem to suggest it might be possible, but s o far, I haven't been able to manage it, so it may be just that it doesn't work that way. Dunno," she tells Rashmi.

She turns to Amy, next, and addresses her concern.

"I mean, most people do. Forget, I mean. I don't think that's such a risk for all of you, though. Some of the details might fade with time unless you try to hold on to them. The experience of dreaming is inherently ephemeral, like .. like writing in mist. Beautiful in the moment, but then gone like morning mist." She shrugs.

"I don't know," she tells them, "You'll probably remember better with practice, too."

"I'm glad all of you were able to get so many people out. I could never have managed something like that alone. I was barely able to rescue one in Kyoto," wait, they're in Kyoto too? "and that nearly killed me."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded to Madoka's assertions. "Darn right. I owe most of you and like just about all of you. Well. Except that one person... they know what they did." There was no 'one person'. But gotta keep them on their toes.

She gave a sheepish grin to Homura, Usagi and Mamoru. "Eh... heh heh. And yeah, you're definitely a perfect saint," she said in an amused tone. She really did like these people, though. Regretted hurting them, even. She really was lucky they'd come around for her.... and despite her ribbing, the fact they were always there when she needed them? That was something she never forgot...

"Amy-chan, it's magic. Playing reallllll fast and loose with what counts as 'common' when it comes to hazards. And trust me, common hazards there are a lot different from common hazards here. Heck, none of you people have had an accidental embaldening yet."

"... Though, Amy has a point. If any of us have a nightmare about them, will they show up again? Cause like, I do not want to have a repeat of that. I swear I can hear the reports I was filing in my heart, even now. Calling me. 'File us in triplicate, Hinoiri', they say. 'Oh no, the printer is down, and your power went out, oh dear, you lost a days work, better start over from... from scratch...'" She blinked and quickly wiped her eyes, closing them for a moment. She was NOT tearing up.... much.... just a little bit... She hadn't expected it, but that had apparently been a bit more traumatic than she thought it would be. "Buck, sorry," she mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back to sleep... Wait."

"What do you mean almost killed you? Did you take your bat up to Kyoto?!" Pause. "How far away is Kyoto?" Geography in this world was not always her strong suit, okay?!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "It's true," says Madoka to Mamoru. "The dippin dots were evil when you found them."

    Kamiko opens her egg to nod emphatically. "Yeah, and the Emus were already evil weapons of war. Totally not your fault."

    Homura just takes a moment to appreciate her favorite person and her dream mascots being sleepycute before digging through their back to check if they brought any snacks. Tia reminds her, "The snacks are on the table. I promise I left you some."

    Homrua looks over there and says, "... right. Thanks." After she stands up, still in her lavender jammies, she walks towards the table and starts trying to pick out a suitable breakfast snack for the dokas and herself.

    Regarding the rescue, Homura says, "Honestly if the fourth floor was just like the second, I probably could've gone further, but it seemed to get worse over time. If we go there again we're gonna need to figure out extraction tactics. I guess if I have any question, what's there aside from the endless Salaryman crowds and the evil chairs?"

    Madoka blinks, and then realizes out loud. "Oh right. We actually didn't kill any of those Salarymen, did we? Are they actually killable?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko goes over to give Hinoiri a hug, although the fact that her still-tired scrambling doesn't quite get her fully onto her feet means that the overall effect is a Blanket Blob scurrying across the floor to give Hinoiri a warm, fuzzy, comforting (and comfortable) hug. <3

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Mamochan and I have never done anything wrong a day in our lives," Usagi says, with the serene grace of one who is lying out their ass.

"I guess it makes sense that if all your enemies are in the dream world, most of your power is too," she says slowly, a frown crossing her face, that grace leaving as she considers Emi's answer. "But maybe we can... I don't know, try to play around with that. So you can have power in the waking world too, just in case!"

It's pretty useful, you know?

Questions are asked, including the ones she would have had, so for the moment, she busies herself with slowly inching out of her sleeping bag, at least until Hinoiri's voice catches, as she describes the nightmare the Salarymen had inflicted on her, and her eyes widen in concern, before Emi says something even more concerning, and she goes -

"You almost got killed? And - oh no, are they everywhere that real life salarymen are?" That's the only way she can think to explain Kyoto, and Salarymen being there too, when as far as they can tell, almost all the enemies are here, or Paris... "That's a lot of enemies, and victims... and you've been handling it all by yourself?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks horrified at the prospect of an accidental embaldening. Common hazards, "yeah, blowing yourself up and trapping yourself in another dimension aren't common hazards in real life usually! I was trying to think magically..."

    She looks concerned when Hinoiri describes working at the Salarymen's office. She mutters, "God I'm glad I worked for Radiant Heart..."

    You'll remember better with practice. Amy nods, offering advice, "You'll remember better with writing them down. Or typing. Whatever."

    People are concerned about worldwide Salarymen, but when Tia mentions snacks, of all things, Amy sits bolt upright ("Ow--") as she remembers something very important. She looks to Tia and holds out her hand. "Thank you for keeping me safe."

    Behind wide red eyes, imagined scenarios play out of what would've happened if she didn't remember to get her soul gem back...

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"About six hours' drive," Rashmi answers almost immediately when Hinoiri asks the distance between the two cities. "Little under four if you're flying a straight line."

...Apparently Rashmi has taken a day trip to Kyoto, at least once?

"But okay, Emi-chan. That's something we can work on! Because if Nightmares can cross the border, and your KenKen can eat them up... It just follows there's *something* you should be able to do besides wallop them!"

As Homura wanders her sleepy way to the snack table, something awakens within Rashmi. Something dark, terrible... monstrous...

*RRRRRRRRRRRRR*

...Her stomach. Blushing fiercely as her empty belly lodges its formal protest to the world, she scrambles to her feet, then picks through the scattered blankets, sleeping backs, and plushies, to the drinks she'd brought and the offerings from others, picking up a couple bottles a handful of bags, and a couple dango to begin the business of stoking her mana furnace.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Tia looks over to Amy, then summons her egg which opens to reveal her Soul Gem and partially-used Grief Seed. The magical eggshell hovers in front of Amy, allowing her to take her self and her fuel back. "No problem at all, Amy-chan. It was my honor."

    Homura's Soul had actually been placed back upon her person a while ago.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"You can cut it down to like a bit over two if you take one of the faster trains," answers Emi to Rashmi before looking a little flustered by all the questions. She's socially awkward and it shows.

First, she turns to Hinoiri to address her question first.

"You're likely, I guess you'd say 'inoculated' from them for a while. They'll find it a lot harder to infiltrate your dreams again. So, like... they had a connection to Hinoiri I guess from the time she first met them, and that let them forge a connection to her that allowed them to go straight to her dreams. It's the same thing I do. I can't go straight to someone's dream if I give them something physical to keep near them when they're sleeping. So, all of you should be fine. Your nightmares are your own, generally speaking. However, if any of you start having a bunch of night terrors, come find me and I can check 'em out or try to get rid of them."

She looks uncomfortable, though, a sheepish look at Hinoiri as she's called out about her bat. "It's a good bat!" She protests.

"As for killing them, yeah. It's possible. KenKen can eat them, and she's an ex-nightmare herself," she pooints out. Mamoru, perhaps, might contest that 'ex' part. "And you guys told me Usagi was able to blast the Flickerman that was tormenting Reiko into oblivion. It seems like if you bring enough power to bear, you can destroy them, but I can do it more easily than you can. And doing it in their place of power is already difficult."

"So, yeah. Killable. There were the evil printers, evil papers, and of course, the bosses. I haven't managed to see up their 'command chain' very far. But some stronger ones do exist. Supervisors, I guess? That's what nearly killed me. He threw me out an eight story window and I had to spider-man it or splat. Never spider-man it if you can help it. It's a quick trip to a dislocated shoulder." She winces at the memory.

"But they probably exist unless we're like 'get in the car, we're killing capitalism' and actually succeed where generations of teenagers before us have not."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"We call it 'purifying,'" Rashmi pipes up, glad for once to be able to *give* knowledge. "Usa-chan and a few others have this energy that, like... It's closer to the *direct* opposite of Dark Energy, and can burn it away. Monsters get dusted, people infected with it, it hurts like iodine on a bad wound but cleans them out, emotionally. The rest of us just have violence in flavors various, but if you try hard enough it works out pretty okay. And we have vending machine monsters, too. ... ..... ...I actually think they're self-propagating somehow, I *never* see them come out of Obsidian jerks."

Huh. Thought for later.

"...Oh! Is there anything else you know about that cyberbully Nightmare that wasn't in your post?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy retrieves her self and her fuel with the look on her face of someone who just realized they almost forgot to retrieve their soul and has been suddenly filled with the existential desire to have it back in their personal inventory again.

    She puts the grief seed away in her bag for now, and changes her soul gem to ring form on her left hand as usual. After glancing at it, her eyes drift to her APERTURE LABORATORIES shirt and she suddenly gives a little laugh and smiles, pointing at the words. "Haha! I guess we were thinking with portals, huh?"

    And then she's back to her notes. Writing out dream descriptions by hand takes so looong! Emi mentions killing the Flickerman. "It took a minute of constant purification with the rest of us fighting it to keep it on the defensive while it was purified." Amy notes, seriously, lest anyone get the wrong idea that they can just purify-blast it.

    Spider-man? "It's a dream. Couldn't you fly?"

    GET IN THE CAR, WE'RE KILLING CAPITALISM. Amy smiles and looks up from her notes. "I'm down, if anyone figures out a way. I really would like for you all to have a better world after you grow up."

    Beat.

    Amy can almost feel Rashmi probably glaring at her about to say something. "A-and me too. I would really like for us all to have a better world after we grow up." Certainly, if it could be achieved, that would also achieve her dream and let her do... whatever it is that comes next, find her next dream, so she can earnestly say that.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Behind Amy, Rashmi nods, firmly. Smart to remember that words matter, Amy.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I don't know about getting rid of capitalism," Usagi says, wrinkling her nose, "Not because I'm a fan, it's just, that sounds like a lot of work..."

And also like something a queen might do or something and she would like to not volunteer for queenly duties!

"But that - was really, really hard. The Flickerman... he really didn't want to go down, and it took a lot of what I had to make him bite it. I kind of hope all of those Salarymen aren't supposed to be as strong as him..." there were so many of them, after all. A nearly endless horde that had just kept coming and coming and coming, pouring out after them on every floor...

"Will definitely keep that in mind... especially because I'm pretty sure I can't Spiderman it, so I'd just go splat."

Emi is getting such worried looks though.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara sighed and then got to her feet. She then walked over and gave Emi the... biggest hug.

"Emi... I want you to listen... really hard... I'm going to teach you something that these people spent a LOT of time teaching me..."

"... None of us are as strong as all of us... and asking for help is *not* a weakness... and just because it hurts doesn't mean it's better because there is no magic amount of 'pain and suffering' that pays the cost for success. So like... trust me... let them help you..."

"Or I'll make you let them help you. Rashmi and Usagi are the nice ones. I'm the mean one. And now I owe you for saving me. Just ask Madoka-chan over there, that's a dangerous position to be in, because now I have more reason to care and you are really warm and oddly comfortable..."

Okay, so Hinoiri was still *very* tired this morning. She... she wasn't going to go to sleep while hugging Emi, is she?

Her eyes then shot open and she let her go and ran off to the bathroom. Gotta peeeee...

She was NOT a morning pony.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Can't we burn them?" Amy wonders, when the resilience of the Salarymen is noted. "What about thinking with portals? Can we throw them into a dream of the sun?" She smiles at the sight of Hinoiri hugging Emi. "Yeah. You don't gotta do everything yourself..." Amy blinks, looking confused as she tries to figure out... "...why would you think you do...?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Kamiko and Homura both look at Amy's T-shirt. Homura raises an eyebrow and Kamiko giggles. "Yeah, we sure were!" says the divine fairy.

    Madoka thinks about the future, and her hand goes to where Homura's was a minute ago, but now her mighty huntress waifu is scouring the wilds of the other side of the room in order to bring back food to their family.

    On the topic of purification, Madoka adds, "I guess I could've tried helping with that, too. I didn't think it'd work on them. Then again, it was their seat of power, so maybe we should just be grateful that we got as far as we did."

    Regarding Hinori, the pinkette sleepy-laughs. "Ehehehehe... it's true, Hino-chan is a dangerous woman, even when she's being nice."

    She means that as a compliment, really.

    Regarding portals, Kamiko thinks. "Huh. I guess I could try forcing my Labyrinth onto the dreamscape next time, though that seems like either the best idea or the worst."

    Homura returns with stale pastries and a few packaged foods which she sets down among the dokas. "That's probably something you'd want to try before getting into combat, I'll note."

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"In my own dreamscape, maybe, but not in the greater one. I can't change enough rules to defy the 'expectation' of certain physics. But in your own dreams, sure, you can do that. You're unfortunately always bound by some semblancve of rules of the dreamscape or the dream in particular, and you have to learn to play nice with it. Which, speaking of.."

She looks towards Usagi, now, specifically, "I want to thank all of you, especially people who stepped up to fight in my stead while I was hurt. I won't forget it. And I guess there can be more trips to the dreamscape too, if we're careful." A glances towards Usagi, "but... Usagi how do you feel about party planning?"

She has a feeling she knows the answer.

And then, well, Hinoiri is grabbing and hugging her. There, her eyes bug a bit and there is some attempts at flailing and stammering that don't make it anywhere. She is just...hugged, and is apparently 'warm and comfortab'e. Awkwardly, she attempts to slip an arm free and pat her on the back with big eyes, but then, well, she's gone, run off to pee.

She stares after her a moment.

".. Uhm. What was I saying again?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"That you could use more hugs?" the blanket blob known as Ikiko asked with cheerful impishness, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric over her head. She shuffles forward, giving Emi a biiiiig hug!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
What Emi says makes sense. The Dreamscape might be a dream world, but it's everyone's dream world, not just any ol' dream world, so they can't just all take control all at once. Fair! And good to know, before someone tries to test it.

But then, she's being looked at, and she perks up, like a rabbit keeping a watch, waiting for something big to happen.

And then.

The question.

"How do I feel about planning a party?" A huge grin spreads across her face. "Great! I feel great! One 'yay we rescued Hinoiri-chan' party coming up!"

Ah, truly, in some ways she so thoroughly resembles another being, from another world, with her cheerful laughter and party planning desires.

Besides. A party for Hinoiri and Emi gives her more chances to look at the two of them, because Hinoiri is being pretty soft, and Emi is being pretty... well, she doesn't know Emi as well yet, but she's sure there's something there. Probably deep friendship. But still!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles at Kamiko and gives a lighthearted sigh at Homura's look. "It's a reference to an old videogame. Portal."

    Kamiko has an idea about using her Labyrinth in the dream. "Well, I'm okay with trying dreaming in your labyrinth."

    It's good to know that even if she gets better at lucid dreaming, she can't count on most dream-manipulations in the Dreamscape.

    "A dream party?" Amy wonders, with enthusiasm.

    And then Emi is hugged so well that she completely forgets what anyone was talking about.

    Amy smiles, but reiterates, "You don't have to be able to handle everything yourself and protect everyone else. It sounds like toxic masculinity bullshit that will only make you stressed all your life without even realizing how much. ...Although I guess it's got a bit of a different angle for you."

    And then IKIKO, THE HUGWORM ATTACKS!

    "Hugs!" Amy stands up and steps over to wrap arms around both of them in a warm group hug!

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Yeah, a slumber party, I guess. It's easier to do the magic if you're all like in proximity," and thne there is hugging. Emi is frozen like a deer in headlights. What is this magic?! Ahhhhh!