yumemigaoka | October Catch-All

October Catch-All

⭐ Who: Nadeshiko/Nagihiko and you!
⭐ When: All throughout October
⭐ Where: Mostly throughout the city, miiiight do a Dreamsphere thing if I get an idea
⭐ What: Spooky shenanigans!! But also like...one serious thing. maybe 2

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[She's pretty focused on what she's doing, meaning she doesn't see Amane at all at first. Nadeshiko's starting from the beginning, the first Disturbance that seems to have popped up here, and seems pretty invested in the reading.

Though, it's times like this she wishes Temari could be here in the real world, too. Sure, she feels her presence in her mind all the time, but she can't hear her, and her little companion is good at catching things she doesn't. It feels like the more she reads, the more questions she has.

It's as she decides to take a break and look at one of the Dreamer files instead that Amane speaks up, and she jolts a little where she sits. She recovers quickly, though, and looks back at the other.]

Ah, well...I wanted to know more about what happened last month. What that...structure was. So I figured it best to look at the ones that happened before, though I haven't gotten very far yet.

[Meaning your incident hasn't been reached by her yet, Amane!]

And while I was here, there was something I wished to look into for more...personal reasons. [Hence the Dreamer files.]

[He gives her an apologetic smile when she starts, although... was he really sorry?? Probably not. It seems like even outside of the Dream Sphere, he was still something of a lil stinker, unfortunately. Still, a flash of recognition sparks in his eyes when she fully turns to face him, and-- oh. This was probably the sister of that boy he ran into at the museum, wasn't it? He had said they were twins, but... this might have been the first time Amane's run into another set of identical ones himself. Was this how everyone else felt when they saw him and Tsukasa together...?

He can't help but blink for a moment at her response, but then it clicks-- right, she was still pretty new here, wasn't she? Her brother did say she recently Awakened and all...]

Oh... was that your first Disturbance, then? It is pretty jarring, especially if you've never been in one before. [A beat, and then, as he amends:] I mean, not that it's easier for the more experienced folks, either, but...

[He moves to sit in a nearby chair, eyes darting to the files in front of her. Drat... if she was still on Mio's, he was going to have to wait for a bit to look through it himself. Granted, he was relieved she hadn't gone through his yet-- she'd have to still plow through Ango's file if she was going in order-- but the idea of someone else inevitably thumbing through his trauma put him on edge a bit. With all the other folders there, maybe she wouldn't notice if one conveniently went missing though...]

They're a pretty new thing, so even the DU's still got questions about what's going on with them. [Although, now that he's spotted the folders on other Dreamers there...] What other thing are you trying to look into, though? Did you see something weird in there?

[After all, Hibiki hadn't mentioned anything about Crimson while they were fighting her Night Terror... but maybe this girl had spotted something involving her instead?]

Yes, it was. [To call it 'jarring' feels like an understatement, but it sums it up fairly well.] When I learned it was not a one-off occurrence, I decided to look into it more, so that I could be better prepared if another shows up.

[Though that 'if' feels more like a 'when' now, with how many others seem to have happened. They had a decent amount of time in between them, yes, but it feels inevitable, now, that she's going to witness another.

And she wants to be prepared. She wants to be able to do better, especially after what happened in there...]

Oh, no, nothing like that. [At his other question, Nadeshiko quickly shakes her head.] Truth be told, this is research I've wanted to do for some time, but never got the chance before...since I was already going to be here, I figured it'd be good to take care of both objectives at once.

[Hmm, maybe...]

This might be a strange question, but...are you aware of any Dreamers, current or from the past, who have or had some sort of...'familiar', I suppose, with them? Another being, related to their powers in some way, that appears alongside them within the Dreamsphere.

[Oh, he knows better than anyone else that "jarring" was underselling the experience by a long shot, especially for a newbie, but he couldn't really find a better way to describe it. The odd, hyper-lucidity that came with entering a Disturbance, the echoes of the trapped person's emotions resonating through every detail of the place... it was too much to try to condense down into a single phrase. It was good to see someone looking to be proactive about this sort of thing, but...]

Mm... Disturbances tend to be pretty different depending on who's at the heart of it, so it's kinda hard to be truly prepared for them, I think. I mean... at least from what I've seen of 'em, anyway.

[He nonchalantly pulls at a folder from the Disturbance pile, seemingly at random, casually flipping it open to study what was inside. Of course, it's all for show-- he knows exactly what's in this file, perhaps with more detail than what was within... but he wasn't about to let her catch onto that. Thankfully, her question was a decent enough distraction, and he shuts the folder closed for now, making sure to keep the name on the tab concealed against the table. At about two and a half years of Dreamer-ing, he wasn't AS knowledgeable of the Dream Sphere and it's residents compared to the older, more seasoned members. but...]

Familiars...? Hm... I think so? One of my trainees has these kinda... rabbit-like things called Mokke that like to pop up and follow her around while she's in there. They're not all that bright, though...

[Somewhere at this very moment, the Mokke's desire to rip Hanako limb from limb grows ever stronger--]

I did see another girl go and summon this sort of garden gnome creature just recently too, but I wouldn't say it's like a companion or anything.

[A beat, and then he adds:]

Oh! There's this one guy who constantly has rats around him, though! Does that count?

[That makes sense. Even with the little she's read, the first one definitely seems like it was quite different from what she'd experienced last month. Still...any knowledge could still help, in her eyes.

Especially if one if the friends she'd made here ever got caught up in it. Even if the thought terrified her.

Nadeshiko does notice Amane grab the file out of the corner of her vision, but doesn't pay it much mind, instead choosing to focus on the other half of their conversation. That's definitely more examples than she was expecting, but just from the sounds of things...none of them seem much like Temari, at least from the basic descriptions.] Hmm...I suppose that would depend on how...sentient they are, I guess? Perhaps "independent" would be the better word.

[She taps her finger on the table for a moment, debating to herself, before deciding that she probably should elaborate. It probably won't make much sense as to why she's looking into this, otherwise.]

I'm...mainly looking for a point of comparison, since I have one myself. [Who, once again, she is kinda wishing could somehow appear in the real world, since it would likely make this easier to explain.] She's always with me while I'm in the Dreamsphere, and our current guess is that she is some sort of manifestation of my powers, but...she's capable of acting on her own accord, so she's definitely an independent being.

[Even if they are fairly similar, personality-wise. Though Temari does seem more...volatile than Nadeshiko is, sometimes. She has to wonder where that could possibly come from.]

[He tilts his head for a moment at that, before propping his chin up on the heel of his hand. Well, that explains some things, then. As far as he knew, there weren't really any Experienced Dreamers around with those sort of powers-- at least not in Yumemigaoka, anyway-- so it made sense that she had to resort to digging through the records to get some sort of perspective. Shame that the only person he knew with similar powers had zero idea of how they worked...]

Ah... well, in that case, I think the Mokke definitely fit into that mold. They're usually off doing their own thing whenever I see them, and they don't really listen to their owner, so... you can't get any more independent than that, right?

[Though now that he was saying it out loud... yeesh, were they really all that suited to be called Nene's familiars after all? It's not like they really helped her when it mattered, and they were usually off making a nuisance of themselves instead of doing anything useful. Why were they even around in the first place...? ~~Because they were cute and marketable, that's why!!~~

He hums for a moment in contemplation, as he considers the rest of what she said, and then:]

By "acting of her own accord", though... do you mean she's possibly doing her own thing in the Dream Sphere while you're away...?

[Not that he's ever heard of a Dreamer's abilities remaining active even after they've woken up, but if that was what she was dealing with, he wouldn't blame her for wanting to look into it. After all, what if something attacked her familiar while she was away? That couldn't bode well for her powers...]

[So there is someone with something similar, after all...! Even if the temperaments sound very different, that something like her own companion exists at all definitely seems to make Nadeshiko's expression brighten. She might be one step closer to figuring out Temari's whole deal, which could mean being a step closer to finding Rhythm!

Plus, well...being able to understand exactly what her deal is with her own powers will be a bonus. It'd probably bring some sort of peace of mind to Temari, too, since she knows she's also been wondering more about herself.]

I suppose you can't... [She lightly chuckles at the mental image - even if she's not sure what they look like, it does still sound a bit silly, though it'd likely only be such in a non-combat scenario...] Ah, though...no, as far as I'm aware, she can't act while I'm not there.

[How did she describe it, again...?]

Temari told me before...apparently, she goes into some sort of slumber whenever I'm not in the Dreamsphere, but doesn't actually remember falling asleep, nor waking up when I enter. She described it as being more like simply blinking, only to find everything different when she opens her eyes again.

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October Catch-All

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