World Tree MUSH

    There is only a brief sojorun in the strangeness of the Wyld this time, the mercurial version of reality giving way to ash trees and blackened caked mud. Eventually the path leads to a grove, ringed by the leafless ash trees. In the middle of the grove, lit by the pearl-like moon shining above, is a small lake of what appears to be blood. At the center of the pool is a glass arm the size of a person, gripping a mirror-polished blade with no way to safely hold it. Where the blade should be cutting the hand that grips it so tightly, blood trickles.
    Stranger still is the fact that the others are no longer present. It seems this is a challenge that must be faced alone. There are voices whispering amidst the trees, sounding eerily like one's own but with variances. They're hard to understand but they seem to be talking about choices made.
    Ghostly burning words appear on the blade, understandable as it is somehow in one's own language. A demanding question burns upon the blade:
        WHAT DO YOU FIGHT FOR?

Holly looks at the bloody sword curiously, it seems like she's been seperated from the others. Even Servis and Lavaux aren't present. "Um, I don't really like fighting much...I wonder how it knows Dutch...is it magical?" Well, maybe it could boost her magic somehow, besides she doesn't see anyway out of here besides grabbing the weapon.

Daisy blinks as she looks around for the others, tracking around with her cannon, a little on edge at the sudden abscence of her friends. "Don't like this..." she mutters, stepping up to blade and reading it. 
"What do I fight for? I fight for the little guy." she answers, without needing to think. "I fight for those who can't, I fight for those tryina improve the world, in big and small ways. I fight so that people like me can just find their passions, chase their buzz, and enjoy their lives. And if I'm honest, 'coz heavy weapons are fun and it's nice to use them productively?"
She looks around for some kind of spirit or something. The voices don't exactly scare the little possum, nothing really short of nuclear weapons does, but she's definitely on edge right now, lips pulling back a little from her teeth in the classic threat-display of her species, a quiet growl escaping her, before she reaches out with her left hand to try and grip the sword.

    The blade cuts the hands that would attempt to seize it, not being safe. The cuts to Daisy and Holly's hands don't even hurt at first, but become a growing itchy ache as blood wells into the wound. The blade's name strikes both as an epiphany as the blood slides down it to join the rest.
    The Weapon You Become.

    For Holly, the blade's question burns brighter, as though demanding an answer. The cacophony of other-Holly voices is louder, each talking of the choices they made that forged them into the person they are. Again: WHAT DO YOU FIGHT FOR?
    The burning words shift as Daisy gives an answer that satisfies the strange fae. They shuffle and reform, making another demanding question of the oppossum: DO ALLIES JOIN IN YOUR STRUGGLE?

Holly looks around a bit confused as she hears the other voices that sound like hers, "I fight for my friends and to be a great witch.." She cringes as her hands hurt and start bleeding. She just wants the pain to go away as she hopes the voice is happy with her answer.

Daisy blinks and pulls her hand back, watching the blood drip from it. The pain is expected, but blood? She hasn't bled blood from her hand since she was 13, Half the age she is now, and this isn't the lurid green o hydraulic fluid.
 "...huh." she says softly, watching it drip for a while. When the words shift and reform, it gets her attention and she peers at the blade. "If I can help it, yeah but it's not always possible." She answers, having to think about it. "Though I'm usually the ally - my world's ticking over nicely, so I'm out here in the tree helping folks who need it. Like this... wyld place; I'm only here to help Syd build a home for himself and his people."

    The pain Holly feels seems to be related to the cut from the precise edge of the fae blade. The voices subside a bit, talking about all the friends the other-Hollys made along the way as the next question manifests for her. DO YOUR FRIENDS FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU?
    The Weapon hesitates a little as it seems to think about Daisy's answer, the burning words fading like embers. Then the next question roars to life upon the mirror surface. WHAT WOULD YOU SACRIFICE FOR THEM?

"Of course, why would else I fight? Are you asking all those other Hollys the same questions?" The witch wonders why she's hearing their voices. "I would like to be friends with them too!" Of course she doesn't realize that might not have been the best response.

Daisy blinks, opening he mouth to answer when the question changes. "Ask a difficult one." She tells the sword, laughing. "I'd sacrifice my life just to catch a buzz, let alone for my friends. Hell I nearly have a couple of times now. I'd lay down everything for my friends, or for a cause that was worth it. Like, really worth it."
She settles her cannon down and sits next to the sword, cracking open a can of Hamster 'Rocketpossum' brand energy drink and taking a swig. "What's this all about anyway?"

    A seemingly final question emerges for all three, the others fading into view before the throne of The Weapon. Syd is trying to smash the weapon with his hammer, demanding the being return Daisy, Holly, Servis, and Laveau. That they were only here because of him and shouldn't be harmed for it. The sound of the hammer is explosive, arcs of glimmering motes trailing behind as it strikes. The hammer, for all its mass and magical empowerment, is unable to break the strange blade. The last burning question, which actually doesn't appear for Daisy...
    DO YOU FEAR DEATH?

"Why would I fear death, death is part of the natural cycles of things? I mean becoming a ghost would be a bit of a setback, but that's not going to stop me from becoming a great witch or helping my friends." Holly considers the undead her friends after all. "Is this like the other test? Do you fear Death, Mr. Magical Sword?" Maybe she should ask him how he feels like Daisy did with the glass of water.

Daisy blinks at the lack of a next question. "Did I stump you?" she asks it, sipping her drink. "Sorry. Kinda do that to some people. Folk don't know how to deal with the cute cyborg-possum running around all happy and bouncy carrying a gun that weighs more than five times what she does, innit fam?" She chuckles. 
Unaware that it's asking others 'DO YOU FEAR DEATH', she tries making light conversation with it. Though it might have been interesting if it had asked her; she would have ruminated on the fact that she doesn't really fear much at all, that something in her head burned out once and since then she's not really felt fear of anything.

    Syd realizes they're all back and calms down, though breathing heavily. "I don't fear death. I'm afraid for what happens to the people I leave behind. Things left... unfinished.
    The Weapon settles, the alternate possible voices of the past, present, and futures fall silent. The words vanish during this lull.
    With retina searing brightness, new words form, circling the immense glass arm.
    WE ADMIRE YOUR CONVICTION. SEIZE YOUR PURPOSE.
    The hand drops the blade, which splashes into the blood. Reaching in where it fell reveals a simple oak staff, unadorned but heavy with the weight of its bearer's convictions.

Holly blinks as they're reunited and Servis and Lavaux rejoin her. "So were you asked questions too? How did you wield the sword? Or did you watch what I did?" She can't help but to wonder about that. "I mean I'm still going to help you guys find new bodies."

 "We just kind of floated awkwardly in an empty grove, waiting for you to finish." Servis reveals.

 "Basically imagine the world's most boring waiting room." Lavaux adds.

Daisy pauses mid-sip as she notices Syd, Holly, and the others. "Huh, it didn't ask me if I feared death. I guess I musta made it kinda obvious I don't, huh?" She giggles. "Hi!"
She giggles at Holly "I tried to, but it cut me and my hand bled red. That's how I knew something was weird I haven't bled red from my hands since I was 13." She giggles. "I think it was tryina test... our beliefs? What we believe in and how strongly we believe in them."

    Syd reaches in and pulls the staff from the bloody pool, finding it hard to believe that such a simple thing would be worthy of a new sun god. But, he supposes, he'll have to see. He turns to Daisy and Holly. "Words can't express my gratitude for your help with this. I'm sure you'll be guests of honor whenever you visit our new home.
    Seeming to appear from nowhere, the high contrast apparition in white claps slowly. "But what of when your new home falls dissolute back into the chaos you wove it from?"
    Syd looks alarmed and stares at the vision in white. "What?"
    "Without witnesses everywhere to remember its shape, it is fraying at the edges. But, I have a proposal..."

Daisy stands and puts her hand on Syd's shoulder. "Fam, your people needed help and they haven't hurt the innocent." She explains. "You needed help and -" She looks up at the vision. "...hi."

"Oh, what do you bleed? Oil? Electricity? I don't think I could keep holding for very long." Holly would likely have dropped it eventually. "It was no problem! I'm curious about the magic here anyway! It must be nice to have to have a home to go to..." Things were complicated for the witch. "What kind of proposal?" She can't help but to wonder what the voice is going to ask.

Daisy chuckles "Well, my hands are cybernetic replacements." She explains. "They bleed hydraulic fluid. My organic arms end about a quarter of the way from forearm to elbow... nasty crash when I was road-surfing, my 'poon came loose from the car I was getting a tow from and I sorta picked a fight with a Mercedes Benz coming up behind me at 520kph... that's about 300 miles per hour if you use the old numbers."

    The vision bows politely to Daisy and Holly. "Madams. The Dearth of Riches was quite happy to meet you, by the way. Yhesha still seethes that she was unable to tempt any of you with wish fulfillment. The Shadow and the Flame is... well, it bears no grudges for it is not a complex creature." The robed figure glances at the empty glass hand. "The Weapon You Become has recessed for now, but was quite pleased with the strength of your beliefs. Quite amused that you all hold the lives of others in such esteem, actually."
    Syd guesses something. "You've never actually introduced yourself. Do you even have a name?"
    The vision states simply. "I do not, but I am the heart of... well, they do not possess a name either, but..." it points upward at the looming pearlescent moon. "... they are the being we're components of."
    With a shake of its shrouded hooded head. "No no, I am being distracted. My proposal is that our larger self become your world's moon. To watch over it and keep dreaming of the shape of it. For a price, naturally."

Daisy blinks up at the vision. "I like the Dearth. He's nice." she beams at the vision, a smile so bright and cheerful it's almost a sun in its own right. "Kindness is its own power. It can light up an entire life, change a world even, miss. And if you're not ready to die for what's right, are you even alive? What's the point in living for the rush if there's no meaning behind you?" She shrugs a bit, sipping from her can. "What's the price?"

Holly gasps at that, "Become the moon? How can you become the moon? So you just fall asleep and your the moon?" She makes a moon shape with her hands. "So when do you when the moon isn't visible?" She has so many questions.

    The vision hmms. "I think it will be a small thing. There are unfleshed pattern born..."
    Syd blinks... "You mean ghosts?"
    "... if that is what you call them, yes. There are a few in your city. We would like to. Hm. Eat their memories."
    Syd blinks, scratches his stubble. "That's what is *supposed* to happen with souls, but I guess we're disconnected from Lethe and the Loom here. We'd need a cleaning and recycling mechanism anyway, so it sounds like a deal to me."
    To Holly, the vision says. "There is a great metaphysical gateway between our Wyld realm and the Patterned realms. All raksha and lords of chaos must wear a shape to pass into the worlds of Pattern. We would choose to become a moon and all the ties that come with it."

Daisy blinks up at the moon-lady. "Does this, like, allow them to, I'unno, come around for another try or something? Reincarnate? Or dissipate into the... lifestream, primal chaos, whatever, to be, like Syd says, recycled? Or is it just, like, done and wiped out?"

Servis and Lavaux back away with that, far away. "No eating the memories of ghosts! That's all they have left, they don't have tangible form!" Holly actually sounds upest for once upon hearing that and glares at the moon-lady.

Daisy nods "I'm not in favour of any 'annihilation' or second-death solution either." Daisy admits. "If you doing your thing helps them reincarnate or continue the natural cycle? Shiny, I'm all for it. But if it's just so you can get a snack I can't honestly say I'm comfortable with it. But... it's also not my decision to make. Not my world, see."

    Syd sighst at Servis and Lavaux. "Ghosts are an abnormality in my world. The result of souls cannot let go of the things they had in life, often becoming problems for the things they cling to. It is better to free them from all those chains they forged in life so they can reincarnate." At this last word, he nods to Daisy.
    The vision hmmms... "It suits us to return them cleaned of their attachements, because we will need their hopes and dreams to fuel our watchfulness. It sounds as if your people have a limited pool of... souls?. So with respect, Madam Daisy, it seems like an adequate solution for now."

Daisy nods "They continue the cycle t' reincarnate right?" She beams, her face going from concern to bright and cheerful again in an instant. "No objections here then but like I said - ain't my call Syd, it's yours. I could hate the idea till the cows come home, but ultimately? Ain't any of my biz, it's yours 'coz this place is your world. You and your people forged it, you're the only ones with the right to make that kinda decision, innit fam?"

"Servis and Lavaux aren't a problem for me! That's what I want to do! Help them finish their business so they can move on! But if you eat their memories, they can't remember what they were doing and become vengeful!"" Holly admits vengeful ghosts can be a problem which why she's trying to prevent.

 "We also don't want those vengeful ghosts to try and take advantage of you, Holly. Sorry, she kind of attracts the undead, and they're not all the friendly kind." Lavaux explains to the others.

    Syd huhs at Holly's explanation. "I guess our worlds have different rules then. Thing is, ghosts were vanishingly rare back in Autochthonia. We all have soulgems imbedded after our first breath to keep things nice and tidy and to facilitate reincarnation. So... if this vision in white here is saying that we have ghosts already, we're going to need a way to reincarnate those souls into newborns. It's going to forestall a bunch of problems involving a soul shortage." At this he turns to the vision in white. "You have a deal."

"I guess, if we're helping ghosts move on...and not erasing their existance it's fine." Holly's not going to argue with that. "I mean if new people can't be born that's going to be a problem too." She's fine as long as they don't hurt the ghosts directly.