World Tree MUSH

    The town of Harmony Crossing has seen better days. This world is just past the era of the gold rush, and American expansion into the west. Which leaves towns like this slowly dying as the gold dwindles and resources and trade dwindle with it.
    There's dust everywhere as far as the eye can see beyond the town limits, with a lonely plateau off in the distance one way and a series of ravines and gulches in the other, no one really... Comes to Harmony Crossing anymore.
    But that doesn't mean that Harmony Crossing doesn't have its share of folk who've stayed behind when everyone else left; mostly people who had no choice to stay for one reason or another. And that means Harmony Crossing still has its problems.
    Of late, bandits have been raiding the town. But instead of taking money and valuables, they've been taking people.
    Word of mouth managed to reach offworld about this when a courier just barely escaped the local banditos with his life, and it seems like the small town's orphanage is the next big target on their list from what was overheard.
    The sun is setting on Harmony Crossing. And a wolf's cry can be heard over the plains as the moon starts to rise in the distance.

    Earlier:
    "Hmm, this isn't good, hey Himeko, look at this from the IPC." That's March, holding up her phone, showing the news story, that's barely visible under dozens of adverts for various products and services offered by the Interstellar Peace Corporation. The red haired navigator looks, then opens the story on her own phone and then looks over to Welt.

    The trio discuss amongst themselves, while a certain golden eyed, grey-haired new member sneaks over to the Space Anchor station, and punches in the coordinates of the nearest Vine.

    Now. A traveller walks along this lonely road, one that she's never known, she does know where it goes and it's only her, as she walks alone.

    She's unarmed, seemingly, and her attire is very clearly not local garb. She holds her phone up as she gets close to where the story said the bandits were operating and... starts playing a game?

    "God, this place is DEPRESSING. Can't even find the beer I like around here!" Dante complains as he's unceremoniously removed from the bar. "No babes either, it's like all the working women here barely have enough teeth to chew with."

    With all that giving a terrible impression to all the locals, Dante scoffs and walks down the street until he sees a reward sign. People being taken instead of valuables doesn't exactly sound good. It's monsters doin' all this, it looks like.

    Tearing the poster off the wall, Dante reads and checks the reward money. Maybe it'll do him some good in the eyes of the people to help get rid of this problem, at least as an apology. Actions do better than words, in his experience anyway.

    Yup. Bandits are kind of a universal problem, huh. Some are easier than others to just kind of shrug off. The ones that steal money? That just take from people who have plenty to take in the first place? Whatever. Those people can deal.

    When it comes to people, though, it's even enough to make someone as aloof as Marceline take interest. She's here, somewhere. Lurking in a shadow, waiting. Perhaps even on one of the boardwalks of an abandoned bank, taking it easy under the awning. Waiting as the shadows lengthen.

    Just ignore the raggedy Stetson resting atop the poncho conealing all but the tips of someone's shiny red boots.

    Dante's the first person she acknowledges, hat lifting. "Dude. For real? I should take you back to my world sometime. Also, there's a babe that way." Point.

    There's Stelle somewhere that way, looking totally distracted on her phone. "Anyway, you here bout the bandit thing too huh?"

Benedicta's been busy with her existing duties to Beacon Society, and hasn't had much time to venture off-world. It was always important to build new contacts though especially with everything that's been going on lately and she could use a break. Plus kidnapping was always serious concern, her sharp hearing picks up the wolf's cry makes the Almir'aj freeze in her tracks for a moment.

 She does her best to ignore Dante's comment, she's here on business after all. It didn't hurt help to have assistance seeing how she wasn't quite sure what they're up against. She nods to Marceline and the unfamilar woman.

     With the smell of brimstone and a poof of embers and smoke, Damian appears next to Benedicta, his eyes immediately casting about the place in what seems to be confusion. "Wait, did I go to the Wrath ring by mistake? Benny, I didn't know you died! Or that you were that big a sinner." he remarks, nudging the magical girl with his elbow.

It doesn't take him long to sus out what's actually going on though, and with a flick of his wrist he produces a sombrero from thin air and dons it, along with a pair of cowboy boots and a belt with an empty holster. "Guess we're doing the spaghetti western tango today, huh? Dad still won't let me have a gun, but I'll make do."

Noticing Marceline and Dante, he also waves to them with a big, toothy grin. "Heeeyyy! Guys! We got the whole unholy trinity here today, huh? Awesome, let's burn it all down and roast marshmallows on the hellfire!"

    Sun's setting... Sun's going down. And the moon's shining higher and higher in the sky with each passing minute. It's as the strangers all arrive in town that doors shut and windows shutter, slamming shut and locked as they pass.
    It's not difficult to find the orphanage; it's the biggest building in the little down. Three floors tall at best. The windows are all boarded up, but there's a light visible in the cracked open doorway.
    By the time Dante, Damian, Benedicta, Stelle and Marcy reach it though there's a crash of glass from a nearby alley, and a figure emerges from the shadows.
    And another. And another. And one more. And another.
    Men in dark leathers and ponchos, wielding six-shooters and with handkerchiefs worn on their faces as masks.
    "Come on out now. Come on out and there won't be no trouble. We're just here for the children." One calls out in a phlegmy voice, the others chuckling lowly, guns drawn as they focus on the door, waiting.
    There's about twelve of them, maybe more hidden in the shadows, and their eyes do turn on the arrivals, leering at Stelle; sneering and snarling at Benedicta, Marcy, and Damian.
    "Feller's got a nice jacket... I want it..." One comments in particular about Dante.
    But that's when the building door opens. And a single figure emerges.
    A tall-ish woman with an ushanka fur hat and dark brown coat emerges, her blond shoulder-length hair flowing in the gusting prairie wind.
    "You'd all best leave. This won't end well for you." She warns the bandits, clearly ready to take them all on herself if she has to, while myriad frightened eyes watch from the boarded windows.

    Stelle looks up from her game, as it gives a victory jingle. "Noice!" Fistpumping, before putting the phone away as Marceline talks to her. "Oh, hey... uh, you." She did totally forget Marcy's name. Don't rag on her too hard she was only born yesterday.

    The others are unfamiliar, and Stelle lifts herself up a bit, about to introduce herself when a whole mess of Banditos emerge from the darkness. "... Seriously? This is cliche as heck guys... don't you read TV Tropes?"

    What?

    Stelle shrugs, pulling her spaceball bat from some kind of pocketspace and twirling it.

    The orphanage matron is apparently a badass, and Stelle gives a polite nod of the head. "Lets strike these guys out! Aim for a homerun!"

    Benedicta gets a nod back, Marceline shifting a bit in place to get comfortable while she waits for the sun to be a bit more fully out of line of sight. "Yo, B."

    Then Damian does that clearly infernal display and she's having none of it. "Nnnh. Didn't know you had an imp. Or whatever." Once she's satisfied she's not going to have to suffer through any sort of severe sunburning she'll fall in with the group, though she makes no effort to hide her supernatural quality by hovering along instead of walking.

    "Yeesh." All she has to say about a closer look of the building. Then, just like that, it's starting to go down. One second she's there, the next she's very much invisible.

    Then she's on the guy commenting about Dante's jacket. "Nah dude, I called it when he kicks the bucket. Step off." She grips the poor fella's neck with both hands and wrenches violently, shearing the vertebrae apart and letting what's left fall into the dirt. "Yo."

    Directed at the blonde in the doorway. A fight was on no matter what here. Everyone knows it.

    Dante grins and brofists with Damian and Marceline. "Hey you two, what's up? Benny, feels like it's been ages! What's up?" Stelle and he friends are awfully unfamiliar to Dante, maybe they're from a new branch or bud of the Tree. Regardless, the small talk is interrupted as he hears banditos show up.

    Instead of quipping, Dante makes for his guns, hovering his hands over Ebony & Ivory as he narrows his eyes with a steely gaze.

    He's only been in a standoff with cowboy bandit types twice so far, not much but it's odd it's happening again. Not that he's complaining, Dante loves a good ol' showdown.

"I don't think I would end up in the Wrath circle in Hell." Benedicta's not really the vengeful type after all. Of course she's hoping not to end up there to begin with, but being a relationship with the devil's son likely has complicated things for her. She tries not to think about it. "How pathetic do you have to be to kidnap children?!"

 Okay, maybe she is a little angry at the moment as her horn glows yellow and tentacles sprout of her back. She resists the urge to strangle the bandits and settles for trying to disarm them. "I've been busy with work, the magical world never sleeps after all." She answers Dante before turning her heard towards Stelle. "TV what?"

     Damian ACTUALLY TOTALLY DIDN'T recognize Marceline, strike that from the record. However, he can still smell the Hell on her so the unholy trinity comment remains.

That being said, the comment about being an imp gets an irritable huff from the jackal, as he folds his arms over his chest and says, "Prince of Hell, ahem. If you want imps, they're probably hiding around a corner somewhere. There's these triplet stalkers I can never seem to get rid of..."

But it looks like they'll have to set that aside for now as the banditos have shown up, and are looking to kidnap orphans! As he doesn't have any guns of his own, Damian mimics a pair with his fingers, the tips igniting like matches. They may not fire bullets, but they can fire... fire. He asides at Benedicta, "Yeah, I dunno where you'd end up. Probably Pride, they like throwing people there because it saves paperwork."

He's about to comment on Stelle's cool glowy bat too, but then a new challenger approaches! "Wow, talk about standing out. A Russian in the old west, wasn't there a movie about that? Had like mice or something..."

    She may stand out, but the blonde isn't standing down. Not in the face of the withering leers of the bandits and gunmen that have come for the wards in her care.
    "What's a trope?" One bandit mutters.
    "The hell's a TeeVee?" Another asks, before they shrug. "Pathetic though... That's a word I do recognize." The second bandit says turning to leer at Benedicta, drawing his gun on her to fire.
    And the one of the bandits just fuckin' DIES.
    Marceline's fingers make easy work of the man's neck, the audible wrenching of a snapped spine sounds off in the night and that's what sets the men off.
    One aims for the blonde and pulls the trigger of his six-shooter, the Colt peacemaker sounding off with a report of thunder.
    The whimper of several children can be heard from within the building but... The blonde is unharmed.
    In the instant the gun went off... SOMETHING about her changed- something lashing out from under her hat to brazenly smack the bullet aside to leave a small crater in the dusty road at her feet.
    "Well. Don't say I didn't warn you..." She comments, running fingers through her hair briefly... Before it suddenly falls and flares out to her ankles, coiling briefly before lashing out faster than a rattlesnake to impale another bandit fatally through the heart.
    He goes down with a gurgle as he turns to soot and ash.
    Two turn to face Dante, hands going to the guns at their hips, ready to draw... They draw!
    But theyre's no way those two be able to beat Ebony and Ivory in time, while other bandits start wildly shooting for Stelle and Damian.

    "Shit son, I'm a fan of all Nine levels myself." Dante says with a little grin at Damian.

    The blondie with the hat gets a cocked eyebrow from Dante, before he stares at the banditos again. Once they draw, he does too, Ebony & Ivory leave their holsters fast as lightning, the .45 automatics letting off a barrage of bullets that hammer into each of the bandits with hell-powered lead. Nell Goldstein's masterpieces echo through the alleyway like thunder, lightning up the darkness and belching smoke like dragons' breath. By the time they stop firing, Dante lets the guns hang in the air for a moment, arms crossed, before stowing both pistols again with a twirl of each.

    "Amateurs."

    Stelle doesn't elaborate on what she said, to anyone. Instead, she starts walking forward. Yes. Walking.

    Bullets fly wildly around her, some strike home but apart from leaving holes in her outfit, they don't seem to do all that much.

    Each impact causes a pulse of light to flow across the 'circuits' embedded in her bat, the black metallic club starting to earn its glow.

    Once she's close enough, she darts forward and back-hand roundhouse slams her bat into the head of one of the bandits, likely knocking him clean out if not killing him from the force. She uses the recoil from the strike to chain into another, adjusting the momentum around to front-roundhouse into another Bandit.

    All the while, she's softly singing.

    "The day, to celebrate... I'll be waiting, 'til we make it~."

    Yup, one dead. There's Marceline, not looking particularly happy about things but not particularly troubled either. She whirls into the next, going for the gun hand and yanking. If the arm breaks, cool. If it comes off, whatever. She kicks another in the hip, hopefully sending him into reach of someone. Into Dante's gunfire? Into reach of Stelle's bat? Whatever.

    A bullet finds her, possibly several find her but she doesn't react until one of them knocks off her hat

    She turns and roars, "I just FOUND THAT!" Her jaw elongates and exposes sooooo maaaaany horrifying and dagger-like teeth that hey, maybe the bandits will even break and run!

    Probably won't stop them from dying but oh well. Oh and she's still holding that one guy's arm. Whether it came off or not.

"Pride? Is it an ironic hell?" I figured they would make you fill out your own paperwork? It's Hell after all." Benedicta figured that was part of the suffering. She does her best to dodge the gunfire, not wanting to get shot. She wraps one of the tentacles around a gunman in attempt to throw them. She's doing her best not to kill them, as tempting as it might be. "I figured you would be persona non grata in Hell, then again I doubt that would stop you." She knows Dante isn't the type to take no for an answer. She watches as Milia stabs one of the criminals, "Okay, I'm pretty sure that these guys aren't human or she puts industrial acid in her hair.

     "Oh, we're starting just like that, okay." Damian says, taken aback at how suddenly two of the banditos are already dead, and in pretty brutal fashion to boot. With a small wince, he starts "shooting" fireballs at the group, though he doubts it'll make much difference at this point.

So instead he looks over at Dante and adds, "We don't really have 'levels' in my Hell. Just the rings, which are like... territories, ruled by the seven Princes. That kinda stuff, you know." He does finally get a moment to call out to Stelle though, "Nice bat!"

"Pssh, nah, they got /standards/. If sinners just filled out their own paperwork, nothing would ever get done." he responds to Benedicta, while ducking behind a summoned barrel to avoid a bullet or two.

    Oh, no, that's not acid. For every bandit the group puts down, they turn to soot and ash, hissing as they breathe their last and expire to join the dusty earth. Compared to Dante? These guys are pushovers. But they have quantity over quality as more men emerge from the shadows of the alleys, rough men, hard men, all of them.
    Stelle steps up to bat, and might notice that she's knocked out a slew of teeth with her spaceball bat; sharp and pointed teeth. Bloodstained teeth.
    But yes, things are starting, just like that as gunfire resounds through the small town, pelting Damian's summoned cover as bullets fly everywhere.
    The mere sight of Marcy though. That gives the men some pause, before they all turn their attention on her to fire. On her and the blonde--
    The blonde who is deftly ducking and weaving bullets, weaponized hair trailing behind her in the form of a razor sharp blade, lashing out occasionally to swat a bullet aside as she tumbles into a roll...
    And then her hair tumbles. Into the rolling form of multiple saw blades that start to tear multiple bandits up in a whirl of gold and blood.
    "Why the hell are we... Talking about going to hell?" She does ask towards Benedicta, Damian, and Dante, as Benedicta's more 'gentle' approach to handling the banditos leaves several of them knocked out from getting tossed around.

    Gunfire, smoke, soot and ash... wait, ash? Those are some really pointy teeth for humans.

    "Wait, wait wait, hold up a second... Are these guys VAMPIRES!?"

    She looks back at the others incredulously, only to get pistol whipped by one of the bandits.

    She doesn't move, the gun's grip shatters from the impact, and with an eye-concealing pose as her hair covers her eyes, Stelle whips around and cold-clocks the bandit with the full force of her glowing spaceball bat. "You've outstayed your WELCOME!" she snarls coldly, glaring down her nose as the fallen bandit.

    Benny gets a huge grin from Dante. "They'd have to TRY to keep me out." He says with a laugh. "Besides, I'm half-demon. I'm practically set for Hell from birth." More goons come to greet the bunch, and Dante switches from guns to sword, Rebellion glinting in the moonlight as he rushes after the throng of henchmen.

    Dante ducks and weaves while his sword slashes and hacks through them, taking apart man after man ruthlessly.

    He spins Rebellion like a prop shredder, cleaving through one of the vampiric banditos before he thrusts through another, impaling through the bandit before ripping it free to split him in half. All the while, Dante whoops and laughs happily as if he was on a rollercoaster.

    It's honestly terrifying to see him work.

    It's without mercy that Marceline suddenly falls into a murder frenzy. These dudes look already dead! They dust like vampires and everything! The gunfire momentarily pocks her skin and knocks some of the day's worth of dust from her clothes. Doesn't seem to do much else! She rakes and claws her way through until she can find one- Any of them that might be left that looks interesting or different from the others.

    That one, she'll pounce down to the ground, pinning in place with one beastly and overlarge hand as she assumes her more humanoid features once again. "Imma try a little science on summa you. Haha!" She then sharply inhales, voice rasping as she tries to tear the soul or whatever's left of it from the walking corpse she's hanging on to before simply swallowing it. "Guh. Save another one, kids! I wanna know where the rest of these babies are at. There may be a nest!" She peels the head off of whatever 'mortal' remains are left beneath her and she goes stalking, trying to possibly grab one more before. Y'know. These pro murderhobos do their thang.

>> SUMMARY[Marceline] >> Probably, nobody liked that.

     Damian does start to get a little more into it as the fight rages on, flying out from behind that barrel and grabbing it in his long, fluffy tail to smash into a couple of the banditos. A few more fireballs here, setting some of the shadowy men ablaze, and conjuring more stereotypical western objects there, dropping iron horseshoes and wagon yokes onto unsuspecting heads.

Wait, they're vampires? "Ooohhh, that explains some things. Alright, we're in /that/ kind of western." he says with a wry grin, his sombrero morphing into a pointy wide-brimmed hat and a long, black cape swirling around his body. Flying into the middle of a pack of the thugs, he begins spinning like a black and red top, streaks of light flying out from under the cape at the surrounding kidnappers. As the projectiles thud into bodies, it becomes apparent that they're burning wooden stakes.

As he slows to a stop though, the princeling wobbles in the air for a moment before conjuring a bucket and... well, there goes lunch.

"Okay, what the hell are these guys? Did you dip your hair in holy water or something?" Some of them are bleeding when killed but others turned to dust. She's tempted to think vampires. "I guess they don't have many duels at dawn then. Well, I'm trying to keep them alive or unalive. AFter all it might not hurt to ask some questions." Even though Benedicta's not sure if they'll answer once they come to. Or if the others don't get kill them first.

    Things quiet down real fast as the bandits numbers dwindle. For obvious reasons.
    Though there's another whimper from the windows of the orphanage when Marcy swallows a man's soul and his body rapidly withers and turns to dust as well.
    [Telltale Game Prompt: Nobody Liked That]
    Once things are quiet and most of the attackers are turned to dust, the blonde picks herself up from the ground and cleans some ash off her coat.
    Her hair is holding the last surviving mook. The last one that Benedicta didn't knock out anyway; coiling his arms and legs tightly and hoisting him off the ground where he can't struggle with ease as he flashes his fangs and hisses.
    Icy blue eyes regard the group as she trails the bandito behind her.
    "Well." She begins. "I should start by saying 'thank you'." She says as the vampire struggles in his bindings. "But there's more where those came from and-"
    "You'll never stop all of us!" The vampire snarls. "We'll blot out the sun! We'll come in the night for you and all you love! We'll descend from Dead Man's Bluff and- HURK!"
    She cuts him off as soon as he says 'Dead Man's Bluff' with a well-placed spike of her hair ramming into his heart.
    Millia casually tumbles the dust from her hair is it shortens to a much more manageable length to her soulders.
    "And thank you for that. Now I know where they're coming from. So I can go kill them all."
    Pause.
    "No I do not wash my hair with holy water." ... "It's complicated."

    Dante swipes blood off his sword once the party's over, stowing it on his coat. He gawks briefly at Marcy sucking a man's soul out. He was under the impression vampires didn't have souls. THis is weird.

    "See, I thought it was Umbra Witch magic. My mom was one. And man, when she wore her hair long she could do some ~things~ with it."

    Holy water for shampoo would be an INVENTIVE if insane choice of hair care product, for what it's worth.

    "They really do love the sound of their own voice, don't they?" Dante muses. "Guess we're goin' on a hunt." Where is this 'we' coming from?

     Once he's done with the bucket, Damian banishes it again, surely to comical effect somewhere in Hell. That's a scene we'll never get elaboration on though, as the prince takes a deep breath to steady himself and shudders. "Blegh. Shouldn't have done that. Anyway, yeah, what was going on with the hair...?"

Though more importantly, it seems they got some answers out of the vampire, which means a hunt is probably going to be in order soon. Floating over to Benedicta, he pats her back and places his hat on her head. "Hey, no worries. They're just vampires, it's not like they're people." He glances at Marceline. "Not so sure about that one though. She has the look, but she smells different. Kinda smells like home."

    Suddenly feeling like she has some serious skin in the game, Marceline lifts off the ground, likewise dusting herself off. She'll let the interrogation go and of course, the vampire dingus spills the beans without even meaning to. Tch. "Idiot."

    With that done, she shakes her poncho and .45 colt bullets thump softly into the dirt one after another. Then a stake. She picks it up and eyes Damian. "Dude." She points at herself. "Careful with these things. Vampire?"

    Yeah, right there in front of a building full of scared kids and their guardian.

    "Maybe chill here. There may be other gaggles of these twerps and. I'mma go do things y'all prob don't wanna watch." After a beat. "So Dead Man's Bluff that big stack of rock out there in the desert a aways? Ugh. I've raided a hive of these nasties a couple times but I always kinda knew the terrain, hmh."

    She folds her legs as she thinks. "There's prob some big bad mama or pop-pop vamps in there running biz." She twirls the stake in her hand idly, thinking. "But if they're shooting guns n stuff probz means they're mostly pushovers. Iuno. Guess we'll see!"

    "Vampires are whatever they want to be. Where I'm from, they all wanted to be top dogs of the food chain. So I ate them all." The bite marks she wears suggest it wasn't a totally clean sweep, though.

"You ate all the vampires? Wouldn't that make you into a vampire if not kill you?" Benedicta raises an eyebrow as Damian places the hat on her head. It's good thing her ears flop downwards or it would be an awkward fit. "Umbra Witch? Sounds like Kira, I wonder if she can use her hair as a weapon?" She can't help but to wonder that now.5r
 "If you blot out the sun, all the humans will starve to death and then you won't have anyone to feed on. Idiot." She can't help but to agree with Marceline.

    "Yeah, you're right. Def a vampire. The uh. The last one..." Marceline's eyes lower and her gaze gets a bit distant. "Last one got me. Anyway, that was like a thousand years ago or something. Super over it." Riiiiiight.

    "I mean, I'm half-demon and I kill demons all the time. Dear old dad did too. Didn't stop us." Dante shrugs a shoulder. Benedicta's logic is pretty sound. Without man to serve as a food source these idiots would probably be feeding on one another in the end. And that's always an ugly sight.

    Stelle tosses her bat aside, the weapon vanishing in a flash of light and some lingering motes... she then goes to inspect her outfit, poking at all the bullet holes and frowning. "I just had these fixed too." she grouses.

    She's clearly not bleeding, and as she shakes her outfit a bit, some flattened lumps of lead clatter to the floor. "Those are gonna bruise later... Himeko's gonna be so disappointed."

    She sighs, then turns to the others, finally giving an introduction. "Stelle, a Trailblazer from the Astral Express, nice t'meetchya."

    "Dante. Son of Sparda, demon slayer. You got a neat l'il slugger there, kinda reminds me of this movie...god, tip of my tongue...Space...war? Somethin' with the farm kid in space."

    All this talk of eating vampires...
    "Ahem." The blonde clears her throat into her fist. "Likely best not discussed in front of the children, all things considered." She points out before shaking her head.
    "I have no idea what an Umbra Witch is."
    So she's not one of those.
    Dante gets a Look though. Somwhere between cold and quizzical.
    "I'll be heading to Dead Man's Bluff to exterminate them, soon." As for introductions, though.
    "Millia Rage. Post War Administration Bureau chairwoman. ... Not that that matters much out here." She does admit as the orphanage doors burst open, several squalling children immediately rush to her side.
    "Ah... I suppose I should tend to the children first. They're probably frightened out of their wits."

    Dante mentally crosses 'Umbra witch' off the list of potential reasons why Millia's hair is weird. In any case, he slips Millia a card. "Gimme a ring when you're ready to go rustle up these varmits, lady. I'll be keepin' an ear to the ground. Long as there's a bounty for these guys, I'm definitely invested."

"Benedicta, magic girl. It's complicated." She figures there's better times to explain. Plus she figures it's best not to go into it with kids around.

     Damian just shrugs at Marceline when she produces the stake, then as folks seem to be doing introductions, he gives a little wave and says, "Damian Beelzly, son of Lucifer, prince of Hell, student at Zoo Phoenix Academy. Y'know, boring stuff." He doesn't seem too bothered just saying all that out loud.

    "Marceline the Vampire Queen. Not these crud suckers. I'm my own court and kingdom of jack squat. Kinda like it that way though." 

    Right, kids. Shouldn't say things about the horrible things she plans to do but. "Ah, right, squirts. Lotsa... Ah, yeah."

    A glance skyward. "Yeah, got all night to have at it for a bit. See what I can find. You guys um. Yeah, sorry about scaring the kids." She pointedly does NOT smile and instead offers a salute before heading off. "Oh. I'm just gonna... look around!" Look around and be the thing that makes vampires leave a light on at night. ... Just try not to fret over the distant gunshots.