Scene #2522: Slumber Party: Dream Training

Owner	Pose
Emi Hoshino	It's Slumber Party day! Forrtuntely for this smaller group, Emi's dorm room has no actual registered fellow student. Oh, they've TRIED to find her a roommate, but no one lasts. Weird how that works out, right? And now? Well... Now they've stopped trying. Funny how that works out now that she needs the space for moments like this. Cushions have been splayed out on the ground, a couple of them being Baku plushies. Emi is fond of those to perhaps the surprise of no one, and she's at the door letting everyone in individually when they arrive. She's not exactly super comfortable with having her space invaded, but it is sadly necessary when she wants to pull everyone into the dreamscape with her. She's already dressed in her PJs, of course, in all their gothy glory, and she's managed to get her hands on several cups of boba tea despite her poverty. Sometimes, being a delinquent helps.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko arrives with the same items as last time -- comfy pillow, two blankets, plus her pajamas -- and waves to Emi. "It's nice to meet you while there ''isn't'' a time-sensitive dilemma involved," the younger girl grins to the hostess of the training. "Or at least, none that we've been told about." Ah yes, the mahoujin life: when you never know when a magical incident will occur that requires you and your friends to defeat it! Hence why practice, when possible, is a good idea.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara had, of course, come when she could. Because her friend wanted her help and to be and there was no chance she wasn't going to come help out. So she was here. And she was in pajamas! Red ones, with a sunset across them. She'd even brought a stuffy, a little alicorn stuffy, from home. Runa got it for her. It, notably, was dark blue and had a shadowy mane. Supposedly, it would help give her good dreams. Hinoiri didn't know WHY Runa had looked so smug when she'd given it to her, but whatever.
Amy Faust	Amy brings along the same supplies as last time -- Her own pillows and blankets and plushies and a fan for white noise and she's in PJs. "You know," she observes cheerfully, "Normally slumber parties don't have the slumbering being the actual main event. It's like... aren't they a misnomer? This is a ''real'' slumber party."
Emi Hoshino	Staring at Amy for a moment, Emi turns towards her television and says, "Well, you see. Last time, I noticed I had an easier time pulling people into my dream who I had interacted more with when everyone was together. It wasn't just familiarity overall, but immediate too. Which means it's good to do pre-slumber interaction, like watching a scary movie and drinking boba tea together." Doing each other's hair would help too but there's no way Emi is ever going to acknowledge such a possibility. The point is made, however, that traditional slumber party activities will help. Emi sighs. "Glad you all could make it with everything going on. So! We've got Scary Slasher, Scary Ghost, and Scary Apocalypse. Which one do you guys wanna watch?" She displays three separate movies on the streaming service she's selected to show off. Sure enough, her descriptor about sums them up.
Amy Faust	Amy double-takes at Hinoiri's plushy. "Wait, that looks like..." a KKF pony, not an Earth pony. "Did you have someone make that?" Movies! "Man... On the one hand, I've had enough apocalypses for a month... for a ''lifetime''. But I don't really like slasher movies... Depending on what the ghost one's about, I might rather the apocalypse one..." She rubs her chin, and then looks at the others. "But I'll watch whatever, of course!"
Ikiko Hisakata	"I'm not too picky about the movie," Ikiko shrugs, giving Hinoiri's plushie a small wave -- after all, it's just polite to greet someone's plushies (even if just in the form of a simple acknowledgement), ''especially'' when among fellow mahoujin. "I take it Scary Monster didn't make the list of movies because it was too close to an average night for us?" she adds with a giggle.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara glanced over to Amy before shaking her head. "Nope. It's a gift, from home. I got it from the Sovereigns," she said with a small smile. "Apparently it's supposed to help give me good dreams. Scary slasher!" she said, throwing up her vote. Because of course she did. She then laid down on her side, hugging it to her chest. "It's soft, too. Even kind of smells like home. Probably tastes like it, too, but I'm not going to find out." Pause. "And neither is anyone else." Don't lick her plushie.
Emi Hoshino	"Honestly, creature features are in a bad place at the moment! It's super disappointing. The special effects are always so dodgy anymore and CGI gets used when a good prosthesis would do, driving up budget costs! It's so weird. But we get it because everyone expects it -- that or its a really cheap found footage or ..." Lesson learned. Do not get Emi started on horror movies. She goes on for a while, expanding on the travails of making horror movies and it's entirely too clear she spends too much time on like 2chan and Reddit or what have you locked in fierce battles over this subject like a teenage girl. Because she's a teenage girl. In any event, with only one actually firm vote in Hinoiri's for 'scary slasher', 'scary slasher' it is. The movie is 'Heart Eyes', and yes, the slasher has hearts for eyes on his mask, and that's plenty anime enough to be approprite to watch at a Japanese slumber party. ERmi provides popcorn. And the boba, and then settles on the cushions on the floor. She is definitely not making any comments about Hinoiri's pajamas or plushies. Nope. Nopenopenope.
Amy Faust	Amy oooohs at the origin of the plushie, and giggles at the concern over licking it. And listens with earnest interest to Emi's discussion. Heart Eyes, huh? She'll ask Taro if he's seen it and then they can discuss it later! She enjoys the popcorn, and relaxing in front of the movie.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko noms popcorn and sips boba, watching the movie without much comment. She ''does'' try focusing on how Tsukiko might counter some of Heart Eyes' tricks, but that is mostly a matter of internal note-taking.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Heart eyes, huh? Seems... well, like a choice. So, how is this good for sleeping, anyway?" she asked. "... Oh, come on. There is literally a drawer FILLED with things to hit the guy with RIGHT next to you..." she said at the tv, rolling her eyes. She would so be dead in the first five minutes in one of these movies. But darn if she wouldn't go out swinging. She popped in a piece of popcorn into her mouth, cocking her head to the left. And then... "You can pet the plushie if you want, but only if you make sure you get no popcorn residue on it," she offered to them. "This includes you, Emi."
Emi Hoshino	"It doesn't help you with sleeping?" says Emi to Hinoiri. Apparently, it helps her. She munches on popcorn and rolls her eyes at Hinoiri! No way is she petting a plushy! She is far too cool for that, she emotes, sitting on her own plushy. Definitely WAY too mature and shit, you know? The movie will play out, and Emi does seem to get sleepy -- as does everyone else. Just being around Emi when tired tends to accelerate the falling asleep process. In fact, some of them may not even make it through the movie.
Amy Faust	Amy will absolutely pet a plushie! She also grabbed her Tragar-chan plushie to hold while watching the movie. "So soft..." she says, of the Runa plushie. She does feel like... maybe, as dumb as these characters are sometimes... has she been too hard on them? In the heat of the moment, has she always made the best decisions? She doesn't even notice that she's falling asleep...
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara shook her head. "Not really. Gets me kind of energetic, makes me want to fight or wrestle or whatever. Maybe box a bit. Bet I could take you," she said in a teasing tone to Emi, sticking her tongue out. "... Then again, I've always had a fight or... fight response, in most situations, so I might be a bad judge." She then made eye contact with Emi... and pet her plushie. With a smirk.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko makes sure her hands are clean before petting the plushie, and looking away from the movie ''does'' help her doze off faster. Not so fast that she doesn't properly curl up among her blankets, but fast enough to fall asleep as soon as she's in a comfortable position.
Emi Hoshino	Emi rolls her eyes at Hinoiri! She's just intolerable! Intolerable!! "That depends on if I have my bat or not," she mutters, glancing towards under her bed where her infamous baseball bat rests. So infamous. Speaking of under the bed, KenKen appears to crawl out from under it and ambles over to Hinoiri, aiming to hop up onto her blankets for snuggles. "Hi, Hinoiri," the spider trills.
Amy Faust	"I confess, it always bugged me in these movies... yawn... that they never do the smart thing... but now that I... feel some emotions more, and am actually ''in'' all these dangerous situations... I... yawn... sorry... I kinda understand a little better, it's hard to... judge..." She lays down on the blankets, or the bed, wherever she's sitting.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times and then snickered, reaching out to pet the spider. "Yeah, you should move off though. I don't wanna roll over and squash you, lil buddy. Hey, Emi, give me a lil sleep help, will you?" she asked. And soon, she'd be asleep... and lightly snoring... murmuring... hugging her plushie.
Emi Hoshino	... with a spider crawled back atop of her. Seems KenKen likes her! Emi rolls her eyes, the last to fall asleep, and then does so easily. Really, on command. She can do that. Perhaps the most useful of her powers! It's such a cheat. And then? Well... When the dreamers 'awaken' to the dream, they do so not with gasps or jolts but instead consciousness returns like a tide rolling in. Slow, cool, and inevitable. Each of them wakens stretched out on a beach composed of soft, black sands, with grains that seem to shimmer when the light strikes just right like starlight. The ocean before them is ink-dark, restless waves rolling into the shore before them. Above, the sky is alive with color. A breathtaking array of prismatic color, as if the northern lights had shattered and scrawled their away from one end of the horizon to another. Threads of violent, citrine, turquoise and crimson flicker and in slow ribbons, their colors being reflected into the ocean water. And rising into that sky too are towering and jagged spires of stone, on which patches of crystal sit and serve to show .. images? Too fast to see anything for certain, that flickering, but clearly something. Like a television cycling its channels too fast. And standing there, toes in the water, is Emi. "'Morning', sleepyheads," she calls out behind her, well aware of their presence. "Come on over, the water is fine. Welcome to my boundary."
Ikiko Hisakata	"''Pretty~!''" Ikiko exhales with a bright smile after taking a moment to get her bearings in the dreamscape. She stands up and dusts the sand off of her somewhat reflexively; whether or not the sand is ''actually'' sticking to her is rather secondary to her actions.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara blinked when she looked down at the sand... and well... She was at least barefoot. In her pajamas. She wished she'd thought to wear sandals. She then glanced up. "It's pretty, Emi. Better than when we went into my boundary, at least," she said, walking over wit ha grin on her lips. She glanced towards the spires. Huh. Big things... Lots of... television... It seemed... "You know, you need a harp. You could play it on here, do a whole 'greetings, traveler...' thing when you bring people here."
Amy Faust	Amy looks more immediately recognizable this time. It's like she's palette-swapped to P2 colors, and an alternate outfit -- white hair, blue eyes, green field jacket (recognizable as the same one she has IRL, only here, it's sized for her) over a loose red pocket T and black cargo pants (the latter of the same material she wore to the arctic library), sneakers. She 'wakes up' slowly, just looking around... and then quickly sits up when Emi calls out to them, and then gets to her feet. "It... is really pretty. They should've sent a poet." She smiles. It's not fully a swimsuit, but she can take off her sneakers and socks and unzip the pants into shorts, and does so before approaching the water. "I thought you said boundaries were usually mazes? Although I guess foe you... it's more direct, huh?" She tries to look at the distant horizon for... anything.
Emi Hoshino	"It is. The beach goes on forever, and the ocean does, too," says Emi, "There are all kinds of underwater caves to get lost in and seemingly drown. No matter how close I get to an island, the tide pushes me back, and more." Emi smiles. "A maze can take any form, but the goal of any boundary is to fit into your dream and be a space where you run in place to keep you from getting into the dreamscape. It's really more of a trick your mind is playing on itself combined with the nature of the dreamscape beyond." She gestures across the waves. It's too dark to see any islands at the moment. "Me, I just played too much Death Stranding." She turns and moseys over to the lot of them, then, smug. KenKen appears on her shoulder, chittering once. "Of course, when you're good at it like I am, there's an easy way out. Look," points Emi towards the water, where a door has suddenly appeared in the distance. Just a door sitting on the ocean waves, rising and falling with them. No big deal. She walks out onto the ocean waters, hovering above them similarly. She holds out a hand for each of them. "When you're in a dream with someone, physics works the way the dreamer says it works. Because I can walk on the ocean in my dream, so can you. But dreams can change in a moment. This whole scenario could shift if the dreamer's mind changes focus, or worse, something wakes them up. That's always the worst."
Ikiko Hisakata	"Huh," muses Ikiko as she walks over to the water's edge, then carefully steps 'onto' the water. "Makes sense, although this ''definitely'' makes for some interesting footing!" Although maybe the rolling of the waves could be incorporated into faster movement? Definitely something to think about...
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod, taking in the information as she walked out, standing on the water... "I see... so like... can we just change clothes and outfits by focusing on it..." she asked, by, well, focusing on it then, wanting to shift into her pleather jacket. "And you've been fighting in this stuff all the time? Sounds like every night you've been going through whole new witch's labyrinthes, alone. That sucks. Really wish I'd realized what you were doing sooner..." she muttered, shaking her head... She almost made a comment about 'instead of you getting nearly arrested', but kept tha comment to herself.
Amy Faust	Amy nods. "Ah. I suppose impassable water ''would'' do that." And then Emi walking on water gets a shocked look, and then a smile. "Cool." And she can do that too? She takes a couple of steps onto the water... then decides to run back and stuff the pant legs into her pockets and grab her shoes with socks stuffed into them. Who knows how any of this works! Then she runns oyt on the water, too the door. "Makes sense. Like, sometimes I'm dreaming something, and the same, like, story? Can go from a movie I'm watching, to a game I'm playing, to a game on a screen I'm sitting in front of... I guess that would be... like what happens in that case to anyone else in the dream? And what happens if they wake up?" She is curious about the answer to Hinoiri's question. She can think of some things to try, though. "I guess at least until a nightmare shows up it's more like... a witch's labyrinth with no Witch or Familiars that can hurt you, but still, when they ''do'' show up..." She shakes her head, looking serious. "It's terrible you've had to do this alone, and" she smiles a bit, "I'm glad you trust us enough to bring us along sometimes now."
Emi Hoshino	Emi peers at Hinoiri a moment. She's heard about witches and their labyrinths but she's had very little experience (none) with either, so it's not a comparison she herself can make. "From everything I've heard, they sound a lot more dangerous than most of the boundaries do. A boundary exists to keep you safely in your dream and to help make it harder for something to get in. It's easier to get in than out that way if you know what you're doing. Now, I can punch my way through altogether but it sucks, it's invasive, and I don't like doing it." Emi lets out a breath, "But, rules can change in dreams at a heartbeat, at any time. You have to be ready for it. At any point, I could decide 'hey, no, people can't walk on water' and you'd all fall into the icy depths. At some point, in teaching Dream and Nightmare Survival, I will change the rules and you'll have to adapt. That's the only warning I wanna give. This can happen in the dreamscape too, but there's less of it. Like Usagi said: it's everybody's dreamscape, not a singular person's." She moseys up to the door and knocks on it. "This door here would take us to the dreamscape. "Now, nightmares aren't omniscient. Most of the time, by the time I'm fighting it, they're just making their way through the dream by the same rules I am. We're both invaders, so to speak, fighting in someone else's territory. Only I'm protecting, and they're ... doing what nightmares do. The thing is, nightmares tend to edit and shift the dream by their presence, aligning it with thier interests through a person's response to them." She considers a moment. "Ever had a thought, and then that thought, once planted, starts to spider-web thorugh your dreams and infest them? It's like that, for any nightmare. It's how they take over and become all consuming, and that's when stuff gets really bad."
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara went still and then gave a small shudder, wrapping her arms around herself. "Oh. Yes. I remember exactly what that was like. That nightmare was miserable. Although, it was pretty cool when I was able to make that one girl dance with me and we like... drove that one monster mad with it. Heh. I liked that," she said with a big grin on her lips. "So not all bad. Is this all going to be on the test?" ... Hinoiri was, in fact, taking notes. She was a rebel... but she was also a nerd.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko notices the shudder, and steps over and gives Hinoiri a brief hug. "So, would invoking memes possibly work as a terrain-altering battle tactic?" the younger girl asks Emi. "Like, making something look ''ridiculous'' instead of scary? Or otherwise trying for amused laughter instead of frightened worry?"
Amy Faust	Amy listens intently. "Dream and Nightmare Survival certainly sounds like a... fascinating class." She can't help grinning ''despite'' how awful it will surely be, because ''how cool is that?'' An invasive thought, huh. "I'm not sure. My recurring nightmares were always stuff like 'I took the wrong turn and now I'm stuck on a one-lane bridge across the ocean' or 'I killed someone, not that I remember it actually happening, but even I'm gaslit into believing I must've done it and I'm too scared to turn myself in, or, for some reason my diploma and degree don't count and I have to go back to high school, and that one spread into ''reality'', so..." She shrugs, still grinning, and then raises her hand. "Hoshino-sensei, if you ''did'' plunge us into the water what danger would we be in, exactly?" And she says this curiously, both confident in her words but ''also'' confident there could be something she's not accounting for, "It's not like we can drown with our real bodies breathing, so... Is it that we'll get scared if we forget and ''think'' we'll drown and that will make everything worse, or... is there some other hazard?"
Emi Hoshino	"Depends on the dreamer's dream. If they're dreaming of actually drowning? Yeah, you're in real danger, because those are the rules. Are they dreaming about being underwater and seeing fish? You're probably safe unless they decide they're 'running out of air'. I've had something like that once, where a Nightmare convinced their Dreamer they were drowning, as a means to get to me trying to get to them. That was not a good time." Emi lets out a sigh, then she moves over to Hinoiri, bumping her with a hip. "For the most part, you're 'environmentally' safe, though, and the boundaries are often a bit more stable than the dream itself due to being tethered to the dreamscape." She reaches for her door and then opens it. "Go on, everyone, go on thorugh." Her smile is the kind of smug that suggests she has something planned.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara gave a light shudder. "Drowning on a whim like that... buck. You're a lot tougher than I give you credit for, Emi. I'd be scared to go into water dreams after something like that. You're actually pretty brave for someone who's so... well..." she said, looking her up and down before giving a small shrug. She then kept taing her notes. She did walk through the door, though, a small smile on her lips. She enjoyed teasing Emi as they went, none the less...
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko raises an eyebrow at Emi's smug expression, then peeks through the doorway before stepping through. There's ''probably'' nothing immediately hazardous (to either dreambody or dignity) on the other side... but it's still a good idea to ''look'' where you're going to step '''before''' you try to step there, especially when there are lessons to be learned. (how much that actually ''helps'' on the other side... who knows?)
Amy Faust	Amy blinks. "But... like..." She looks between the others, back to Emi. "What kind of danger, exactly? Is this like... if we die in someone else's dream, we die for real?" She double-takes at Hinoiri taking notes and can't help the smile of someone who's just seen something funny. "Um... You know if you write stuff down in here you won't have it out there. Can you even read what you wrote?" She's ''pretty sure'' this doesn't work, but if it turns out Hinoiri has some trick that will ''also'' be really cool to find out and worth Amy looking a bit foolish over. Once those things are settled, through she goes!
Emi Hoshino	Is, of course, dark. Too dark to see what's on the other side until you're through. Emi nods to Amy, then: "Maybe?" she tells her, "you already know you can die -- but generally, that's only a risk if Nightmare is involved or something gets really screwed up... but I won't say there's no chance. Generally speaking, unless a Nightmare is involved, you're gonna be pretty safe. That's why we're gonna train in my dream, and not in someone else's. I can control things well enough to keep it from getting out of hand." And then they're through. ... and back in the bedroom? On their beds and cushions? Did they wake up? No. Definitely not. And the reason they know they didn't is because the door slams open and the Heart Eyed Killer is STANDING RIGHT THERE and BURSTING INSIDE with a BIG KNIFE and going right for ... ...Hinoiri! Who doesn't even have a drawer full of stuff to use.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times when... they woke up. Why in the world did they wake-- And remember what Hinoiri said about having a fight or fight instinct? Her eyes went wide, her hair stood on end, she threw her pillow and blanket at the guy and then she lunged and she kicked in a place you really shouldn't kick someone... actually, you just shouldn't kick someone with a knife, you should run. But there wasn't really anywhere to run right now, she was in her room, scrounging for a weapon, having used what she could in the moment, as well as some of Fuyuko's self defense lessons. ... Oh, hey, Emi's bat, that'd do nicely, if it was there. Cause if she saw that, and could get it? She was DEFINITELY going to swing that. ... There was no bad. It was a giant unicorn nerf stick. She swung it anyway because if it was possible to concuss a man with a nerf stick she was going to find out.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko blinks for a moment, trying to figure out what's going on, but the sudden arrival of Heart Eyes definitely answers '''that''' question! Okay, so they're in a slasher movie, the villain is going after one friend who is fighting back... ...hell, why not see if her favorite tactics work? She scrambles to the side, tapping the locket around her neck in case her henshin device ''does'' work within the dream, then darts around Heart Eyes and tries to kick him in the back of the knees to reduce his mobility. Whether or not her henshin ''actually worked'' is irrelevant to her effort; gotta try your best even if you're not at your strongest, after all.
Amy Faust	Amy has red hair and eyes again. That's not a foolproof indicator, it turns out. Uhhhhhh are they awake? Before Amy can even think to do a reality check, the heart-eyed killer is THERE. As someone raised on videogames, the instinct to look for a weapon to kill the monster with is strong -- and that would be a good idea if it were her ''own'' dream, but does that work in someone ''else's'' dream? Of course, she can always fall back on her henshin but that feels like a last resort that doesn't really help the lesson. Plus it might mean she gets hurt in real life. If it ''is'' a slasher movie, she's read a manga about getting sucked into one of those and the thing is you have to survive and be the Final Girl(s) at the end when ''maybe'' you can finally kill the monster-- While Amy's considering her course of action, Hinoiri leaps into actual action, and Amy winces. Okay, fighting it is, but what determines if weapons work? She can try Inai-sensei's self-defense lessons, but my movie logic if the slasher grabs her upper arm she will be rendered powerless. Eh, safety in numbers. He doesn't have ''three'' hands, especially while one's holding a knife. That was a lot of thinking but thoughts think through her head faster than you could read those sentences. Amanda grabs her pillow and springs out of bed, trying to use the pillow to catch the knife/arm and yank them aside to get close enough to try and give him a beatdown. He's wearing a mask and unmasking the killar will probably make the monster ''worse'', but she's reasonably sure the three of them can beat one man to death if they can keep him from attacking effectively. In the heat of the moment she's forgotten that there is no reason for him to have mortal limits...
Emi Hoshino	Emi is not here, of course. She's popcorning like a proper dreamer. This is her movie, now. The three girls lunge at the Heart Eyed Killer, who is of course beyond mortal limits. The unicorn nerf bat hits it with a musical 'HONK' deliberately chosen by the director. There may be a little glitter. Hinoiri can murder her for it later. Still, the attacks do what they would do in the movie: stun, slow, push back... ... but they don't defeat. Ikiko gets slammed into a wall. Amy delays with her pillow attack, but then gets grabbed by the throat, and the knife it's holding, well, that's getting slashed at Hinoiri, who finds herself 'movie hurt'. Sure, she's cut, but there's no immediate pain, blood that is far too red, and it doesn't actually slow her down any. Emi, observing, says to herself, "Wow. They have no survival instincts either. No final girls here."
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara yelped as she stumbled back onto the bed, bleeding and... paused. And then... "Okay... what? So. Like. That? That's... actually... I've been stabbed before, you know. Almost died from it. That's kind of weird. This feels really weird, and kind of creepy. Wait. This is still the dream, isn't it?" Oh gosh darn it, this was part of the training, wasn't it?! She looked down at her nerf bat and felt her frustration growing. If her mental growing anger could cause it to burst into fire, it would have. "Ugh. AMY. I don't watch much TV. How do they beat the slashers in the movies?" she asked.
Amy Faust	Amy is ''grabbed by the throat'' and is so shocked she actually forgets she can turn into a living weapon for a moment, and starts paniccing and kicking at him, one leg going for the groin and the other trying to push away, together with her hands on his arm. And then she remembers, and she's about to resort to transforming when Hinoiri speaks up. "You ''just'' realized?! Wait, you thought this--" No time. "They don't! They survive the slasher killing everyone ''else'' and become the Final Girl!" Talking and the realization she's not in pain and ''can'' talk has calmed her a bit, but she's really not sure how to get free without help... But, he's a slow movie monster, not a trained fighter. Maybe she has time for stupid moves to ''break free'' and ''buy time'' -- still holding his arm, she swings her legs back and then goes for a two-footed kick to the stomack to knock the wind out of him. If he ''does'' let her go, her plan now is to escape out that door.
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko rubs her head, not so much in pain from getting flung into the wall (becasue that pain turned out to not be particularly real), but in a dull headache from dealing with an unfamiliar genre. "So, wait... is it 'in order to defeat him, all but one of ''us'' need to be defeated,' or is it 'in order to ''escape'' him, all but one of us need to be defeated'?" she groans. Well, jumping into action didn't seem to be effective, so at this point it makes just as much sense to wait around to figure out what ''is'' effective, then figure something out from that.
Emi Hoshino	Emi is, of course, letting them figure out the rules that they need to abide by to defeat the 'nightmare'. They all have their own special quirks in every dreamer's dream. And who's a bigger horror movie fan than Emi? The 'killer' hesitates a moment, as if he's giving them time to discuss their plans and figure things out. Amy's kicks do the job, causing her to get 'released', and flail back with an 'oof' from behind the mask that sounds suspiciously like KenKen's voice. Emi, elsehwere, "Damn it, KenKen! I told you no sound effects!"
Amy Faust	Amy does clarify for the others because of bad wording: "I think we can all be the Final Girl, but like, he's ''gonna'' get some other folks, it's just that kind of movie! Hopefully he just gets like, bullies and whoever was mean to our characters, or maybe it's a movie where nice people die too. Move it!" And she tries to run past him and slip out the door into the hall. She is small, after all!
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara blined a bit when the killer hesitated and then... "Ahhhh. So dream. So... if you can't beat the killer in a slasher movie?" she asked, before tossing up the nerf bat and patting it in her hand. Making it sparkle and squeak. Squeak. Squeak. "What if we change it into a comedy, Amy?" she yelled after her, before sighing and face palming. Then... "Sorry about this, mister slasher man... She's... new at this," she said. "Okay, girls, huddle up. You, Chuckles, hold this. No listening in, that'll be cheating," she said, tossing him the nerf bat. ... If he took it, though, he'd already be playing into her hands. What killer takes the nerf bat when offered?!
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko watches Amy dash into the hall, then looks over to Hinoiri and Heart Eyes, then back towards the fleeing Amy, then sighs and walks over to Hinoiri with a wry smile. Well, if you can't beat them at their own game... ...change the game? She leans into the huddle with Hinoiri, queitly murmuring indistinctly -- except for the occasional interjection, such as "But where are we going to get half a dozen rubber chickens at ''this'' hour of the night?" and "We might have to use banana yogurt instead of strawberry pudding, if there aren't enough banjos." You know. Standard issue Noodle Implement planning.
Emi Hoshino	Emi nods along from where she's watching. Flight is always a good idea until you can devleop a plan, a way to beat the monster at its own game or -- ... you can change the genre to the witness. Emi bursts out laughing when Hinoiri just gives up the bat to the killer, who briefly confusedly takes it like they're in a Hanna-Barbara cartoon. Emi puts a hand over her face and utters, "KenKen, you ..." The dream seems to 'stop', then, and Emi appears in the empty hallway alongside Amy, taking her by the hand, "You had the right," she informs her, as she guides her back inside, "but also a wrong one, too. Yeah, that's one way to do it. You can defang a nightmare so the dreamer doesn't find it scary anymore. Deny it food, and it can weaken and you can kill it." She kicks the 'Hearteyes' with her foot and it collapses into a little spider which hops back onto Emi. The nerf bat is eyed. "Well done, Hinoiri and I hate having to say that. You all did great, honestly."
Amy Faust	Amy blinks as Emi's suddenly there taking her hand. Beaming when told she had it right, and then looking so disappointed when she hears she had it wrong. "If not playing by its rules was the answer, why didn't the ''first'' plan of fighting it work...? When does and doesn't that work?"
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara glanced towards the killer, cocking an eye when... Kenken. She sighed and shook her head. Dopy flank spider.... She then glanced towards Amy. "Because we were still playing by its rules. Fighting was what it was good at. Fighting it with violence, at least. Fighting it with slapstick comedy, though? Different genre, suddenly it's an entirely different style. It was actually something that helped when we were fighting the weird subway nightmare." "Music, well... music is one of my people's avenues, and it decided to fight me there, so I showed the girl there was nothing to fear in it," she said with a smile. "But no, I don't think you did anything wrong. The apology to the killer was part of the comedy act."
Ikiko Hisakata	When Emi explains about weakening a nightmare by making it less scary, Ikiko nods in acknowledgement. "Makes sense," she admits, then scowls ruefully at a dawning realization. "...dammit, now I'm hungry for yogurt. Or pudding."
Emi Hoshino	"You were on the right track! Fighting back wouldn't have worked, and you were right about the final girl. You can play by the rules to force a nightmare into a position where it has to be defeated by its own logic. That's why it went after Hinoiri first. She would've been the 'first kill' in a horror movie, most of them. A girl who's an outcast, socially awkward, a little weird? You would've been iconic, Amy, but I'm gonna guess you just couldn't quite see yourself as a Final Girl?" asks Emi, curiously. And then, with chagrin, she gestures at Hinoiri. ".... but Hinoiri got another right idea. You can change the genre. Make it so its not scary anymore, or a parody of itself. You can weaken a nightmare that way, when you're in it. So I unforutnately have to give her props." She makes a face. She kicks the prop back over to her. The unicorn bat squeaks.
Hinoiri Kirara	Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Yeeeeeah. If I was going to kill a bunch of people, I'd probably try to kill me first. If it came to fighting in a horror movie... a real one? I'd have no chance. I haven't seen a lot of these slasher movies, but even I know that." "... But yeah, comedy? I can do comedy. Also... eeeeee. You totally just did a puuuuun," she said, sparkling at Emi. Yes, she did, in fact, SPARKLE at her. With the BIGGEST, most CHEESY grin on her face.
Amy Faust	Amy thinks back to the subway. "Hmm." She nods a little in agreement that a girl as cool as Hinoiri probably wouldn't normally be the Final Girl. "I mean, in a movie where you don't know more about her than how she seems on the surface..." but looks shocked, and a bit pleased, at hearing herself praised as potentially iconic. "Uhhh..." Amy rubs the back of her neck, looking away awkwardly. "I never thought about it before. But I once read a story where a guy gets sucked into a horror movie as one of the characters and is determined to make it to the end and manages to escape ''with'' the final girl and I thought, maybe we could pull that off?" She grimaces. "We'd seen going against the premise not work, so I thought maybe we could bend it like that, enough to all make it out rather than just one of us." She looks back to Hinoiri. "Honestly, I haven't seen a lot of them either, but Taro's shown me a couple..."
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko giggles at Emi's pun, then laughs even louder at Hinoiri's teasing grin. "Hey, Kenken," the younger girl stagewhispers to the spider. "Got any spare popcorn? This show's getting pretty amusing!" That last was said with a tilt of the head towards both Emi and Hinoiri as the two razz each other.
Emi Hoshino	"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean," is the answer Hinoiri receives. Emi seems to space out a minute and then adds, "I should send you all back to your own dream. It's later than you'd think, and you should all get some real rest. See you all in the morning, eventually, eh?" And once everyone is in assent, and ready, they find themselves ... fast asleep as they would normally, only to wake up in the morning feel like they've had an exceptional night's sleep.