World Tree MUSH

    The vine had settled into a ring of stones that glitter in the eternal midnight of the new world, lit only by an array of young stars. The glimmering motes crawl on the stone witnesses, actually being a strange sort of insect attracted to the otherworldly gateway. Here a crude road has been raised, winding towards city on a hill that towers over the rolling plains, resembling a great citadel in the night lit by countless of its own artificial stars. Strange lanterns made of brass chased with silver provide a warm light for offworld travelers towards the huge gates of the city proper.
    Surrounding the landing point of the vine are brightly colored pavillion tents decorated with animated phantasmal images that cavort and chase one another, telling strange stories to passers by. Here there are tall humanoids with statuesque features and sharply pointed ears, dressed in impossible finery. They hold little courts with more prosaic and humble humans attending these story theaters. The medium varies from teller to teller; riotously colorful puppets at one, visions coaxed from flames at another.
    At the landing itself is a fairly ordinary man, with deeply tanned skin and short black hair. He is carving signs with his bare hands, humming some kind of work song as he does, a half-filled circle glimmering faintly on his forehead.

Daisy arrives, like she did last time she was here, aboard the Vinerider, her modified Pitbull hoverboard. This time however she arrives in a much more controlled manner, giving the man a cheerful wave as she steps off the board and unlatches a duffel bag from the back. "Evening mate! There somewhere around here I can get changed?" She says brightly. "First time here when it's not a fight I wanna make a good impression."
She's currently still in her armour; it's not smart to ride between worlds unprotected. At least, that's what she's been told.

    Sometimes even the perennially gloomy and lonely go out in search of stimuli, seeking, if nothing else, an outlet for whatever it is they're feeling. Or what they're missing. Marceline is one such, having heard from her wide-ranging supernatural acquaintances that something interesting is happening on a 'new' world? Having little else to do, no pressing needs and the entire night to either ruminate and brood or keep busy somehow.

    The Vampire Queen chooses busy!

    So, she finds her way through the Tree, chasing hints and signs and gossip until she emerges from the portal. Wearing sunglases, a battered and oversized sombrero, and a grey and red striped sweater. Jeans and red boots complete her look and a guitar shaped like an axe rides over her shoulder.

    "Huh, rad scene." First to bear her attention is Daisy; hard to miss that color scheme. Secondly, she picks up on the humming. So, she draws nearer, floating perhaps a meter off the ground, legs bent. She plucks at the strings of her guitar as soon as she shifts her grip on the hybrid weapon, accompanying Syd's tune with a chill beat.

    Course, she's funning a little, fully aware that she might be somewhat disruptive to this dude's process. BUT. MUSIC.

    Syd looks up from the sign he was working on towards Daisy and Marceline. The image on the sign is some kind of pictogram that seemed to be saying 'Do not feed the bugs', probably meaning the glowing ones on the rocks. "Oh. Welcome back Daisy! Things are calmer right now."
    He nods to Marceline. "Welcome newcomer! I'm Syd Fortis, pleased to meet you." He shoves the sign under an arm and sticks out a hand towards the sombrero wearing vampire queen.
    A weird man with red skin and white scars (or are they tattoos? They seem to be the same...) and a grotesque oni mask dances over towards Daisy and Marceline, stops. He takes a big sniff of the air and says in a melodious lilting voice. "New dreamers tonight... care to dance the night away?"
    Syd quickly shoos the oni dancer away. "You know the rules, Yanam. No tricking the offworlders."

Daisy grins at Syd "Thanks Syd! You're looking great." She says, looking at the oni and tilting her head. "Trickster? Hee, fair enough. How's the new world working out for you?" she beams. "There somewhere I can get changed? Armour and a huge cannon aren't exactly social wear."

    Letting a note hang as she plucks at one final string, Marceline pushes her sunglasses off and sticks them atop the sombrero. "Huh." She lets her gaze linger on the sign before it's tucked away. Another look flicks to Daisy, then back to Syd. To whom she inclines her head and grins. "Marceline the Vampire Queen." Oh heavens. So many pointy teeth.

    "Heard about an event. A party m-" She cuts off as some red dude makes his way over and she turns her weirdly fierce eyes toward this newcomer. "Not usually the one dancing. Happy to play until you drop dead from exhaustion, though!"

    Syd gets a lifted shoulder in response, "Nah, it's cool. We have those back home too. Weird peeps that lure mortals in and, well. Nature takes it's course. S'what's the biz?" Then to Daisy she calls out, "Just drop trow and start changing there! If anyone cares they'll show you where to go!" She follows that up with a cackle; clearly, she's just teasing.

     Syd hmms at Daisy, then glances at the departing Yanam. "Maybe it's better you keep your armor on as long as you're outside the city. Very dangerous still. Some of those little ishiika are still roaming about."
    Syd looks puzzled at Marceline's self-introduction. "What is a vampire?" Not missing too many beats. "Oh, the fair folk are always throwing a party." He gestures at the encampment around the vine landing area. "They like this spot though. Something about how it tastes like home. I mean, all of this world is a little... *unstable*, so we get problems like the landscape changing further out from the city."
    To answer Daisy's question. "It's... going remarkably well. It's the first time anyone other than a primordial entity has made a world." He glances around. "All things considered I think I did pretty well to weave a new world whole cloth from chaos. Some fjords would've been nice though..."

Daisy earperks instantly at 'drop trou' as a phrase. She's not heard that one outside of England, its colonies... or their variants. "Tempting." She grins, revealing an array of teeth to rival the vampire's; possums have a LOT of teeth. "Hi! I'm Daisy!" she offers her hand to Marceline.
She listens to Syd and nods "Fair enough, once we get into the city a bit more I'll change there then." She nods. "Can you add fjords later? Every world should have fjords and mountains they're great flying territory. Lotta fun you can have when the terrain gets properly crinkly." She giggles. "Is there a sun for a day/night cycle? Or do you guys prefer it like this?"

    "What's a..." She smacks a hand onto her face and belly laughs at Syd. Just for a moment, though, before her mirth relents and she slides that hand up to push a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Oh man. Vampires, creatures of the night. We feast on blood or sometimes...!" She gets really close. Like, really really close, then produces a strawberry from seeming thin air. "Me, I'm okay with anything red." She sticks the strawberry against one of her fangs, drains the color promptly and drops it.

    Right into Daisy's outstretched hand! Or she tries to, anyway. "Marceline," she almost purrs, then she glances around. "Anyway, you said this place was dangerous still? But..." Must not be too bad if folks are out here living it up. "Also, you made this place? Killer, dude. You just... Say some words and do some wiggly hands stuff and... All this?"

    Seems there was another guest, one that got a bit... delayed, grumbling at a small creature perched on his shoulder, "And now you made me late.". He quickly scans the area around the landing, the curious glowing motes, and the tall pointy eared figures.Eventually, he makes his way to catch up with the rest, rubbing the back of his head and smiling as he spots a couple of familiar faces!. The Possum and Marceline!. Of course he also spots Syd, and makes sure to wave to everyone as he approaches the small group. Marceline might recognize the small critter in question as the thing that freaked her out last time. And Daisy might see a cute panda thing just sitting on the boy's shoulder.

    Syd sighs. "No, we don't like the dark. A sun and moon are both something we need to obtain somehow. There's some ideas going around. Capture Prince Balor and turn him into one or the other. *Build* a sun, but as one of the people who'd have to do it, we don't have the materials or manpower. There's this idea that we can just *summon* the archetypical moon spirit, Luna, but... nobody knows where they went. We definitely can't just summon the archetypical sun spirit since that'd be the Tyrant Sun and he wants to destroy us all." A pained look crosses Syd's face at the mention of the Solar Exalted's fallen patron. "Short answer: We're trying to figure it out."
    "Huh. I've heard stories about such creatures appearing in the lowest coils of the Spiral of Galaxies, but... never in person." He reaches over to touch the drained strawberry in Daisy's hands. "But you seem to have more in common with these fair folk than a deathknight."
    He chuckles. "No no, no waving of hands or magic words. More... meditation and becoming one with the Chaos, then willing the strands into a . The waving of hands and magic words, that made the road." He points at the raised earthen road. "And somehow the road is more difficult..." muses Syd.
    He turns to the newest guest. "Welcome visitor. I'm Syd Fortis, pleasure to meet you." He suddenly realizes he hasn't put the sign up, and does so. In pictograms: Do Not Feed The Bugs. He spends a moment admiring Luke's... familiar, as he thinks of it.

Daisy blinks and peers at the colour-drained strawberry "...woah..." she mutters, pulling out her smartphone and taking a few pictures, before sealing it in a little jar and stuffing it into a pouch. "My sister Rose is gonna squeal when she sees this, thank you." she smiles. "She's asked me to collect weird and interesting stuff from out around the tree, 'cause she's stuck wired into an office network as Sysadmin-decker most of the time and... I love Rosie to bits but she's not really built to go out exploring the branches."
She listens to Syd explain, nodding softly. "Oh, easier said than done I get you. Well, if there's anythin' I can do to help let me know yeah?" She beams. She looks to Luke and waves, beaming at the cute panda thing too. "Hi! I'm Daisy!"

    Marcy just kind of stares, brows knitting as Daisy doesn't miss a beat with the strawberry. Dang, that usually throws people off. "Huh, alright. Yeah it's- It's stilla strawberry, though. It ain't gonna keep." She thinks? She's never really kept any produce around long enough to check.

    "Huhhhh, aight. So you meditated a world... Gruh, that's pretty wild. So, we goin to your city? Or uh-"

    She hears Luke's approach and turns, hair lifting and writhing, almost like a frightened animals hackles. "Uh!" She doesn't budge from the spot she's hovering, though her eyes narrow ever so slightly. "The kid with that- Whatever!" Reminded of her somewhat shameful behaviour last time around the strange panda-thing, her face reddens and she busies herself the the knobs and strings on her guitar.

Luke Gray grins to the Possum and just gets closer, while making sure THIS time the small panda doesn't get too far. He has a leash of sort, a tiny harness, even if, given the pokemon is a ghost type is more or less honor system anyway. The little guy floats towards Daisy for now, waving and hovering near the new friend in a cool armour!. Whatever the panda is, it doesn't feel like a vampire, despite the fangs, buuut, it might feel somewhat like a spirit. 
    The boy grins, letting the two get familiar and offers a wave to Marceline, "What's wrong?" he asks, "I promise he is harmless." he replies. "He is not really a ghost or a vampire, even if he looks like one, he is ghost like... I guess." he mumbles, not quite sure himself of the actual 'mechanics' of ghost pokemon. 
     Finally, the boy is delighted to greet Syd and smiles, "Oh, he is my pokemon, Pangshi." he introduces it, pointing to the thing floating around Daisy, and potentially risking tangling the leash around her.

    Syd watches Luke and the Pangshi. "Must be pretty talented to tame a little god like that."
    At Marceline's question about visiting the city, Syd glances at the offworlders, specifically at Luke and Daisy. "Do you two, er, three, want to visit the Patropolis of Ot? It's home and familiar to me, but I imagine offworlders would find it interesting."

Daisy is, apparently, quite unflappable. She just thinks it's neat and beats the hell out of being restricted to blood. "That's cool! Can you do that with near-red colours like pink too?" She smiles to Marceline, curious.
Luke and Pangshi grab her attention next and she listens "He's cute!" Daisy announces happily, attempting to boop Pangshi on the nose with a cybernetic fingertip. She blinks at Syd "The Patropolis of Ot? That sounds neat! I like seeing where people live and hang out... if we ever end up in a version of London that's anything like my London I'll show you around."

    Marceline does well not to snarl at the boy. He's being friendly and it's her own ego kind of getting in the way of that going terribly well. Still, she pauses just a moment before answering. "Nothing. Just-" Listening, she nods along. "I guess I just have a weird thing with ghosts. Gotta get to know em before I trust em." Not that she entirely trusts most of them but that's another matter.

    "Eh? Well, yeah. It's how I feed. Near-reds are good, uh, not /as/ good but they'll do in a pinch. Blood, fire, ketchup, you know? Sometimes, uh, gum." She averts her gaze at that, "So yeah! The city sounds cool, totally. Also, you fly?" Directed at Daisy, specifically.

    Luke grins at the discussion of 'little god', "It's a bit simpler than that, at least in the case of pangshi and my other pokemon... they live in my world and if they think you are worth following you, they just obey. Usuaully it is a trial by combat and then capturing them. But they still decide if they want to obey or not." The small ghostly panda seems delighted at the bump, letting out a happy growl and nuzzling at the armoted hand. Apparently, being called 'god' made the pokemon want to show off, and suddenly turns... translucent, ditching the leash and phasing through Daisy once, before Luke rushes to try to capture the small guy, cue a few moments of him swatting at the ghostly Panda, before it seems to run out of Juice and becomes solid again, and back to the leash. 
     He smiles to Marceline, "Makes sense, I figure I'd be rather scared too, if I wasn't... raised around these, and even then, some are very creepy back home. I promise, he is harmless, and I can make him go away if he makes you nervous.". The offer to see the town gets a happy nod, "Sure!, are there souvenirs?".