Scene #2752: In Media Res With Emi Hoshino, Entrapta!

Owner	Pose
Emi Hoshino	It's like coming into a movie at the halfway mark. Everything suddenly sharpens into focus out of nowhere and they realize they're already up and running. No warning, no lead-in, just a hand -- Emi's hand -- locked around their wrist, yanking them through a corridor that isn't a corridor so much as a storm of shifting doors and floating staircases. Every step lands on something different: stone, tatami, sand, then nothing at all until Emi's webbing lashes out and gives them another foothold to leap to, and she's taking Entrapta with her. "This is not going how I planned at ALL," she tells Entrapta. There's something after them, something dark and shapeless, a cascade of eyes and maws flowing like water through cracks. "I did promise to show you the dreamscape, though!" She hops to another platform with Entrapta in tow, glancing behind her. "Come on, come on, just a little further, you ugly bastard." As Entrapta's eyes focus, she can see that Emi has also left a trail of slender wines, taut like piano wire, behind her. It is not hard to guess her plan, once one has the wherewithall to understand a plan was needed.
Entrapta	Ah, you haven't spent much time with Entrapta. She hasn't got that. "What are we doing?" she asks, her voice just as nasal and weird as in the other world. Slight disconnect in tone, but as she's dragged from location to location she makes little sounds. It almost sounds like she's enjoying this. "Ooh, that's fascinating," she says as she glances back at whatever's after them. Whatever she was about to say next is cut off as she's yanked past a half-seen barrier, over a barrier and through a room. Oddly, her hair is also trailing behind. It's so very long in this universe. But she was trying to say -something-.
Emi Hoshino	"We're killing a Nightmare," says Emi. It flows into the space between the platforms and then finds itself caught in the trap she had left while it chased her,the many slender webs winding deeper and deeeper into its mostly invisible mass of darkness. She clenches her fist, lines of webbing wrapped around it so hard they're biting into her flesh. She's actually bleeding -- and then with a mighty yank, there's a ... horrible 'pop' as the mass of darkness explodes like an overripe bug, cut to ribbons by her. "... so sorry about this," she tells Entrapta, "but it started in on me as soon as I saw out of your dream with you. I didn't even have the chacne to wake you properly."
Entrapta	The pause causes Entrapta's hair to catch up, and it flows around her like spaghetti in soup. Gravity being somewhat of a suggestion, it tangles and entwines. Then, suddenly, is not. The hair becomes two pigtails, long and defined and beneath her. Then one reaches out and touches Emi on the cheek, as if it were a hand. And Entrapta smiles as she looks at the exploding 'It.'. It's not the right name, but what else do you call something like that? Oh right. A nightmare. She looks back and says, "Why are you apologizing? I love new data, this is an incredible thing to happen to me. Haven't had nearly enough near-death experiences, I need to get out more probably." She rubs her chin with a hair-hand and shrugs. Is it weird? Yes. Yet she makes it seem normal, which is of course why it works here. "You're bleeding. I have so many questions." Not 'do you need help?' but just...the assumption that she doesn't know enough to commit to an action yet. Well, at least she can be taught.
Emi Hoshino	The hair is a curiosity for Emi. Why is it doing that? It's not like she knows anything about Entrapta. Just that she made a promise, and she keeps her promises. "Yeah, that happens sometimes," she says of her bleeding. She wraps more webbing around her hand. "That's gonna hurt pretty good when I wake up." She lets out a breath, then bows towards Entrapta politely. "I imagine you do. KenKen!" A rather large spider suddenly appears beside her, prismatic in coloration and staring at Entrapta with its many eyes. "Gathering up the nightmare energy! Yay! Dinner time!" The spider scurries down the still existing webbing lines and then proceeds to ... ... eat the mess that's left over. Really. That must be what its doing.
Entrapta	Entrapta pulls in her ...well, you could call them hands. She pulls in her actual hands too, making fists at her chest, but her hair tentacles mimic the movement, which makes it so much more visible. "Ooh, I wish I could take a sample of that into the world, so I could run tests!" Yes, she wants to get some of that snot and keep it. Scientists are gross. "Oh hi Kenken! It's nice to see you again! You're so cute, yes you are!" Also not arachnophobic, noted. "How do you ingest that? Tell me everything." Most people would be wondering if there's more threats. Soon this will feel like normal. When that happens, get therapy. "Also where are we anyway? I'm not normally able to move my hair properly. Is this a dreamscape like you talked about?"
Emi Hoshino	Nothing about the hair seems to weird Emi out beyond the fact that it's apparently supposed to be something she can do in the real world. She tilts her head, her own falling in front of her face. Here, she's definitely even -more- goth than she is in the real world -- somehow. "Nightmares are made of energy generated by negative emotions and thought fragments and bad dreams. They're shapeless until they come into contact with something that -gives- them shape, usually a dreamer having a bad time, holding onto a fear or something. That's how they start. KenKen breaks down the nightmare energy and recycles into harmless dream stuff, purified of the negativity. That's her role in this. Mine is, well ... killing the nightmares, and protecting good dreamers." She is nodding, though. "This isn't quite the dreamscape I meant to show you, but yeah, you're dreaming." She opens one of those doors and steps through it, and the next thing that becomes obvious is that they are now on the Radiant Heart campus -- except it's very much -not- the real campus. The moon is far too large overhead, the trees full of too much grandeur. It's bathed in an ambient silver-white light of its own, and the floral smell is near overpowering. Faceless phantom images of students pace through it, an echo of those who trod these halls before and left an impression of themselves on the dreamscape of the place. Class is in session.
Entrapta	In more ways than one. Class in session for the 'students', certainly, but also for Entrapta herself. "Are they moving in patterns taken from your own memory? Or is this an afterimage of what's actually happening? I'd have to mesh with what's going on to tell the exact time frame being referenced, but I could do it." There's no doubt in her tone, she's likely watched people in this area many times. And her memory is flawless. Pulling a notepad out of her hair-things, Entrapta suddenly has a pencil. She got it out of the aether, or from behind her ear. Either way she's getting good at this at an exponential rate. "So, one of us is having a bad dream or a negative emotion. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's me, but I have had a bad burrito at one point." No, that's not the kind of bad emotion ...nevermind. "They had to cut it up for me, but it was tasty enough. I think the food vendors are getting used to my food requirements. Is small bites only that much of an alteration from the norm, really?" More importantly, is that what you're choosing to discuss while in another entire world? "So, I was thinking." Of course you were. "Do non-magical beings, like myself, have abilities here? Could I learn to do things?"
Emi Hoshino	"No, that was energy on the hunt for a bad dream, and it caught a whiff of me," remarks Emi to Entrapta, thoughtfully. "And this isn't my dream or your dream. This is the dreamscape proper. See, this is generated by the thoughts, dreams, and memories of all the students who've gone here and lived here and dreamt here. 'Dream neighborhoods' are a real thing, just like all of Dream-Tokyo." A slight smile. "And I dunno. Maybe? You'll need to practice lucid dreaming and we can find out. Things are different here."
Entrapta	Ah, she thinks. I -was- assuming that this was one of our emitted dreamscapes, not an overarching ...hm. Out loud she says, "Noted!" with clear enthusiasm for the topic. "I have to ask things. There are definite opportunities for experimentation in a realm where equipment can be had for the cost of a thought and a whim." She tilts her head, then adds, "The possibility of the test outcome being affected by the mind of the tester is real though. So maybe not so good after all." Then she adds, "Lucid dreaming. I've done some reading. It seems like I'm already doing so, but I suppose that's something I should look into more directly. There's no end to what can be learned, after all. But things being different isn't exactly news. My world let me directly work with magic using tools, like any other form of energy. This world's rules keep shifting the goal locations." Must be frustrating for her.
Emi Hoshino	"Wait, you're ... from another world? Like Hinoiri? You're not actually a pony too are you?" She eyes her warily all of a sudden. She guides Entrapta over towards a shaded place beneath a tree. There's cherry blossoms floating on the wind -- of COURSE there are. "You're lucid right now, yeah, because I roused you. How much you'll remember is an open question. I suspect rather a lot for you." She just has that feeling for SOME reason.
Entrapta	The raised eyebrow is purple. It's that way here, as it is in the waking world. "Yes. I'm not actually human, though there are significant overlapping points. Etherian, technically and chemically speaking, which makes me just as out of place in the normal school as I am right now." She grins then, eyes crinkling almost shut. "It's fun! I love interacting with environments that test my capacities! I was a pony when I visited that location, though. So technically no with a small amount of percentile overlap of yes, though really no. I am not a pony. It's entertaining having four hooves though. I fell over a lot."
Emi Hoshino	"So did I!" says Emi, revealing that she has also been to Ponyland! "But I got to do magic there so it worked. Even though I'm -from- Japan, I don't actually have any powers outside of dreams. Dreams -are- my magic. This is where I can do things. I mean, yeah, 'sup with that. Theoretically I SHOULD be able to do stuff in the real world MAYBE, but ... not yet." She leans back on her hands, gvetting comfortable.
Entrapta	"I haven't got any magic," Entrapta says as she hovers using her own hair to do so. Which, to her, is just 'normal'? Seems like, but not being human would explain an awful lot. "It makes me wonder about the veil issues. Given that I've no protections under that framework." "Still," she muses. "My world is absolutely soaked in magic. You can find it in every particle of the air, breathe it in. There has to be something there, and everyone who comes here seems to be a standout." Then she claps her hands, her real hands, once. "So! What are we to do next? Hunt another nightmare? Or something else that I've not been made privy to?"
Emi Hoshino	It's not the weirdest thing Emi has ever seen, obviously, but it's still an impressive trick -- to hover with your own hair. She just kinda watches for a while, contemplatively. Her mismatched eyes then narrow. "Etheria?" she asks, curiously. "And, hm, I don't know. I'm a little out of breath after the chase." She takes a deep one, then lets it out, looking comfortable. "And my hand hurts," she remembers, looking down at it.
Entrapta	Headtilt. Entrapta seems to be contemplating how exactly to answer a one-word question. Her eyes look to each side, as if considering things on a heads-up display. Maybe habit. "Etheria. The name of my planet. It has a population slightly over ten thousand, which has shocked many people when that data was relayed, and a magic that is based around crystal formations and a slow penetration from the planet's crust into every being, plant, and structure." She sounds like a tour guide. "You shouldn't hunt then. Being wounded at the beginning is counterproductive to function. Wake up and I'll have a look at it, I'm probably asleep at my desk. I was working on a multi-linear prism that Rashmi and I have had some success with phasing magical energy. Lots of hope there, I expect to see real ability to shift magical power into other forms by the end of the month!" Whut?
Emi Hoshino	"... Ten thousand?" says Emi. "Tokyo must be a trip for you, then," she remarks, trying and failing to grasp what it must feel like to have just ten thousand people, and then -Tokyo suddenly-. She grimaces, then says, "Fine. I'll come wake you up." And then she reaches over with one hand, and pokes Entrapta in the forehead with a finger. And then she's asleep again, dreaming her own dreams. For a moment. The knock at the door might wake her up.
Entrapta	Entrapta grins at the response. She did in fact freak out, quite a lot, when she was told how many people were in Tokyo alone. Then, the world. Culture shock indeed. But now she's adapting. The sudden appearance of a finger touching her is surprising, her mind having been on science and statistics. It doesn't change much in the real world, though the paper stuck to her face is clearly not meant to be there. "Oh. Hi Emi," she says around a graph of planes within ...you know, just get that off of her before she eats it or something. "Come in, I have a theory that you were in a dream I was having. It may not have been."
Emi Hoshino	"Yeah, that's not a theory," says Emi, casually, as she peels the paper off Entrapta's face. She squint at her, just like she did in the dream. Weird girl, even by her standards. She's dressed casually at the moment, not even done up in her usual goth stylings. She looks mussy, like she staggered out of bed and came straight her in her pajamas. ... her right hand has a bloody cloth wrapped around it.
Entrapta	Entrapta pauses, making totally the wrong conclusions. "I know, the term Theory has far too many connotations to allow it to be used in regular parlance like that by someone who calls themself a scientist. You're right, I should have called it an assumption or a realization. Theories need to be peer-reviewed and re-tested to the point of complete reliability, this is at best the completion of a small data set and blah blah blah, blah blah..." She is a talker, but in the time it takes for her to finish that particular thought she's already pulled out some medical supplies and offered Emi someplace to sit, prepared for assistance on a level that only someone with their own level of weird can pull off. "So, that said, how can I help you? I'm ready to take care of your damaged appendage."
Emi Hoshino	"You did say, and I thought seeing me first thing might help you retain stuff anyway," remarks Emi. She does take a seat and put her hand out, where her own webbing wrapped arouind her hand so tightly as it to dig into the flesh. It's the same wound as in the dream, really, meaning of course that these things do cross over. There's a lot of staring at her. Entrapta is weird. Very weird.
Entrapta	Entrapta's room is no better. There are so many things, many of them mechanical but not nearly all; crystal apparatus that appear to be alive, wiring diagrams that are simply paper but look like artwork, what appears to be a slowly collapsing model of a building, a sonic wavelength held in the air, and many other weird events which are likely experiments. Given how she lives, it's likely not all are safe to touch. But she moves past them and just deals with the situation at hand. "It is an excellent data point. The wound is identical to the memory available. I have no issues with memory retention, though one can always improve." She talks as she works, cleaning the wound while glancing at her laptop, which is open to a page teaching how to clean wounds. It was NOT open to that when Emi had arrived, and she didn't call the page up. Entrapta was also asleep at the time.... It called the page up on its own. Without being told to do so. What the ever-loving heck? "I don't have alcohol handy, but I do have Benzalkonium Chloride. It's shown a slightly better reaction to wounds in tests. I could come up with something else but when a product works, that time could be spent more productively in other areas of study." Well, fair.