World Tree MUSH

$R    The University of California, Berkeley Campus has a reputation as being almost its own sovereign state. Stemming from the lax enforcement of drug laws around the 1960s and 1970s... and it has managed to retain that reputation for new age practices and being the forefront of new waves of thinking to this very day. So it is no particular shock that there's a rumor of a private (secret?) social club centered on the campus entertaining the use of some new designer drug.
    The campus itself seems like some avant-garde architect of the 1950s created the core of it with adobe and ceramic tile, with newer additions over the decades reflecting what was in vogue for architects looking to make a name for themselves. The greenery is pretty consistent for the San Francisco Bay region; plentiful and well kept, with lush thick green grass and trimmed hedges lining the walkways.
    Aurelia runs a hand through her pale blonde hair, musing to herself. "If I were a secret club with drugs everybody wants to try, where would I be?"

    It's been a little while since Castiel has gotten out. Having mostly been spending her time lately with her sister and Itana living rather peacefully.
    But sometimes the call of mystery reaches out.
    So, Castiel has arrived in her human disguise, a young blonde completely ordinary young human girl by the name of Cassandra Netherland, wearing a simple white dress and a pair of sandals.
    She has no idea about designer drugs. She just knows people are doing the weird astral projection thing when they should not be doing so.
    So she finds herself on Berkeley Campus looking... Completely lost. Oh dear.
    At least until she sort of stumbles into Aurelia's path.
    "Ah, excuse me, I'm looking for people performing astral projection?"
    Yeah that... That sounds weird no matter how one puts it.

     Drugs? Well, she might not be on them but she sure looks like it. Her shock white hair is pinned up in what would be called space buns and left in pigtails adorned with small flowers. She looks like some sort of weird cosplayer with her out of place clothing, body art and lack of shoes... or like a nerdy grad student. "Where did that child say I should go again?" she mumbles, taking a moment to dig in her weird messenger bag. She produces a riceball looking item and unwraps the leaves to begin snacking as she thinks blinking at the other strange folks and deciding they might know where to get whatever weird item she is foraging. "Astral Projection? Don't you do that with comrades?" she asks towards the stranger curiously. Her accent is weird too.

Benedicta's been taking online college courses elsewhere, her role as a maho makes taking normal classes a bit difficult. After all, you never know when a monster might show up. At least Sybil had been oddly quiet since she merged with Scura. Maybe the fact she threatened to rip her limb from limb she caused her any more problems? It could always be something else. Her attention turns towards Castiel, "Maybe you should try being a little less direct?" She nudges the young girl gently.

Yes, it's Calfornia but even there there's limits to weirdness. Then again this is coming from someone who's turned into a winged bipedal rabbit on more than one occassion. She's in her human guise at the moment. Her attention then turns towards Beatrix, "Someone's into the bohemian lifestyle."

    Aurelia looks at the two new faces, which belong to Castiel and Beatrix. The young woman glances upward at Beatrix, a bit surprised at how much taller the woman is. Then a little downward at Castiel, slightly surprised at somebody being shorter than her own five foot height. She greets Benedicta with a warm smile. 
    "Nice to see you again, Bene." Then to the new faces. "I'm Aurelia, nice to meet you both. Are you all here about the weird rumors? Stuff like astral projection and out of body experiences? Because I have a sociology professor who'd give her eye teeth for first-hand accounts!"
    The campus is experiencing a golden sunset, with clumps of students wandering down the pathways to vehicles or dorms. Nobody seems obviously out of place, not with outworlders (the local phrase for those not native to this world) attending th universities as well.

The lunar blinks with wild eyes, "What's a bo-hee-mee-ah?" She takes out a small pad, writing in what looks like Mayan glyphs tidily. She tucks the leaves neatly into themselves before shoving it back into her bag, looking at her notes again, the silver on her arms gleams like its moving as she thinks. "The moon isn't behaving themself." she mumbles before noticing Aurelia "I was looking for a large orange thing I was told about. It has somewhat hard lumpy flesh and if thrown explodes. I've never seen one in person but I head if you carve the face it'll scare away wicked spirits. Large cats like them stuffed with meat I'm told" she explains calmly. She just looks around "I've been out of my body before, but, its not comfortable." She Ohs. "I'm Beatrix, its very nice to meet you." Castiel is given a long examination, as if she's trying to read the very small woman.

    "I'm precisely here about the rumors." Castiel says brightly, offering a slight smile as she rubs the back of her neck a little. "Mysteries and the like- well. I know some people who enjoy solving them and sometimes I help from time to time." She explains. "Please, call me Cassandra." That's her introduction, while she's currently undercover, as she is right now.
    "It is very nice to meet you, too."
    Before she blinks.
    "A... Pumpkin?" She ventures in regards to Beatrix's hunt.

"Yeah, it's been a while, Aurelia. We have to catch up later." Bendicta's glad to see Aurelia again, it certainly has been a while. She then tries to explan it to Beatrix. "Off the grid...Okay, I'm pretty sure you're not from around here. Most places have pumpkins. They don't normally explode unless you stuff fireworks in them. Or you're a witch or something." Benedicta's trying to stay low-key here. Somewhere a redhead riding a broom sneezes. It's not anywhere near here though.

 "I asked Alice about it, but she hadn't heard anything either. Nice to meet you both, I'm Benedicta. I don't think I've seen here of you around here before. If this was anywhere else I would think it's just a bad drug trip, but there's likely more going on." Nothing is ever that simple.

     "Cassandra. After an oracle?" she asks, curiously. "If you need help I can spare time. I'm usually keen at that sort of thing. I just.. wait what is a pum pukin? The orange round fruit thing is called that?" She writes that down too. "Thank you." she offers, politely bowing to Castiel. "I am considered a witch." she sort of thoughtfully mentions shrugging. "A friend showed a video of a large, striped grass cat attacking the pumpukin on his strange little viewing rectangle." she shrugs "I'm not sure how far away I'm from. It is a different arm of a different spiral of a different existence but its familiar enough." she admits towards Benedicta, calmly.

    Aurelia nods and bounces lightly holding her hands behind her. "Wellll... Pumpkins aren't *quite* in season here yet."
    She shakes her head suddenly, realizing she's been distracted from why she's here. "So we're all here about people experiencing weirdness, yeah?" Just like old times, she thinks. "And I think something weird is behind it, and... who else thinks that? Because if one of us can sense magic that'd be a really nice start!"

    "I suppose Cassandra was the name of an oracle from the old times." Castiel muses, tapping a finger to her chin. Before she returns Beatrix's bow.
    "If it was simply a bad drug trip, I don't think any of us would be here to investigate." She notes in a mild tone to Benedicta. But everyone is distracted right now!
    "Ah, yes... We should start looking." A pause.
    Sense magic?
    Castiel just starts looking around.
    If there's anything BLATANTLY magical she shouldn't have a problem picking up on it. Probably.

     "Perhaps I ended up here because you needed my help. I can sense such. If things get bad I can also use sorcerous talents." She offers, calmly, collectedly, absentmindedly she takes out a thermos looking device to open and take a sip of still steaming fragrant tea sweetened with red berries. She tucks her note pad away but keeps the thermos out to hold, enjoying the scents of her tea from Home. "I will try to help you the best I can."

    Aurelia's pockets are reading as blatant magical, though it isn't apparently *why* that is... There's a few very blatantly magical buildings visible distantly across the Bay region.
    Locally though, there's a pinpoint of magic in a dormatory that seems very out of place. Castiel is likely picking up the ephemeral passage of ghosts and spirits as well, but they don't seem too important.

"Well, I can. But I have to change for that." Benedicta rather not do that in front of everyone if she can avoid that. "Oh, come on it's a college campus. That've seen weirder..." A different voice escapes from her mouth. "Ugh, did you really have to wake up right now." Yes, she's having an argument with herself.

 "If you wait a few weeks, you can see plenty of pumpkins. Picking something, up Cassie?" Benedicta quickly changes the topic as her nose twitches a bit she picks up the smell of the thermos. "Yeah, I think you two can handle for it now." The young woman faintly shows up as magic but it's not a strong presence.

    Okay so...
    Castiel pauses distracted. She probably can't sense magic out as far as across the bay but close by... Well she does her best to not lock in on Aurelia's pockets or probably Beatrix.
    "I think... That way." She says starting to head in the direction of the dorms. Though she halts briefly.
    "Who are you talking to?" She does as Benedicta.

     The witch's eyes flash, face changing shape very briefly as she focuses. "I feel a thread and am.. ignoring your pockets miss." she mumbles, curiously but trying to mind her business. She closes her thermos stuffing it away. "I concur with Cassandra. That way is good." she shrugs at Benedicta's talking to herself and moves. "If it is dangerous you are all welcome to stand behind me." she offers, politely.

    Aurelia turns out her empty pockets, looking pretty confused before realizing what Beatrix is talking about and why Castiel is studiously avoiding looking at them. "OOOOh. That's because I got an extra-dimensional pocket." She demonstrates this by pulling out a small folding case containing a few lockpicking tools and a flashlight.
    Castiel leads them to the front door of the dormitory, which is actually unlocked and well-lit. The mote of magic is somewhere near the fifth floor, the top floor. "So I think we should just go catch whoever it is red-handed." Aurelia states with a smug grin.

"My other self, Scura. It's complicated." "Oh come Benedicta, let the rabbit out and play." The other voice goads her a bit. "Everyone has an inner shoadow, mine takes a bit of a little more active role." She explains a bit. She follows behind Castiel as they head towards the dorms. "If I let you take over do you promise not to transform?" "Maybe...depends on we find." Benedicta's about to kick down the door before it opens without any effort. "Well, whoever it is, I'm guessing Kira's on the way too." She looks up at the sky and then down at the ground. The oncoming night would certainly make it easy for her to hide.

     Elects to let Castiel lead, once nearer to the dorms and expecting less strangers, her body glows then shrinks down into a cat that is perfectly chubby and spotted. It has a bob tail and is shades of twilight over a pretty white pelt. She did not promise to not change shape, instead bounding around Castiel's feet making little drunk sounding meows.

    Towards the dorm!
    "Red handed? But what if it's um. Dangerous?" Castiel ventures. It really does depend on what the group finds!
    Up until Beatrix turns into a cat that really wants to get underfoot.
    "U-um!"
    Castiel doesn't want to step on a new friend.
    But that new friend is makingit VERY HARD as the group heads towards the top floor.

    There's giggling and laughter behind the door of the dorm that has the *THING* in it. Some lookiloo tries to peer over Beatrix' shoulder. "Excuse me, do you all have passes to be here?" A likely distraction.
    Aurelia squints as she turns an ear towards the door, tip-toeing to avoid treading on feline-form Beatrix. She stuffs the lockpick kit in her pant pocket and gently grabe the knob itself, using a bit of her own magic to unlock the thing with a few very subtle clicks. Castiel would definitely sense the little magnetic fingers made wholly of magical impulses there. She puts a finger to her lips and looks at the other three (FOUR!) people, stopping when she notices the hall monitor (or security person?!), eyes going really wide at the thought that they've been caught.

Benedicta's distracted for a moment as sbe watcbes Beatrix transform into a cat. "You're a kitty!" Both voices manage to say unison before quickly being distracted. "Whose a good girl?" She leans over to pet Beatrix before she becomes a distraction, it's probably for the best. She comes to her senses look a bit embarrassed as her cheeks turn towards red. She makes her way for the top floor using her agility to quickly climb the stairs.

     Large black eyes focus up at Castiel "Miu." she responds, simply and definitively. Benedicta is rewarded with the kind of purr that normally comes out of diesel engines in the arctic circle. She looks at the hall monitor when it is noticed. She looks at Aurelia and decides to full speed sprint at the probably RA to bounce off the walls. She is a distraction, soon darting between the stranger's legs, tail flick flicking for a second before she defiantly MAAAOOOWs, as if trying to lure the person into a good chase..

    That is a hall monitor.
    And Aurelia is picking a lock.
    Castiel goes stone still.
    Lying is not her forte.
    "Um!"
    Pause.
    Wait a minute.
    "... Since when do college students need hall passes?"
    "What is this? Grade school?

    The monitor glances at Castiel. "Miss, you're in student quarters after curfew, so you should- Whose cat is that?" And they're off chasing Beatrix.
    Breathing a sigh of relieve, Aurelia opens the door to reveal five twenty-something laughing and giggling in a circle while sitting on the floor. In between them is a small blue object, the apparent mystical item, resembling a marble or an eye. Light subtly moves within it.

    Oh thank goodness, Beatrix is playing diversion. So when the hall monitor goes after her and the group gets inside the room this leaves the issue of the five giggling students and their marble.
    Castiel produces a handkerchief.
    "I think that's enough of that..." She says as she plucks up the marble with the handkerchief so she doesn't directly touch it. Because everyone knows all you need to do to protect yourself from cursed items is wrap them in a handkerchief when picking them up.

"Are you going to be okay with that Cassie?" Then again letting Benedicta handling the cursed object was just asking for trouble. She stands between the girl and the roommates in case they try to stop her. "Yeah, I don't know where you got that. But it's best if you forgot about it." Yeah, they likely rather hear it from her then the lecture they would get from Kira. She's pretty sure that the Order would want to get their hands on the marble if they got a chance.

     Gives that hall monitor the slip after a few minutes. She comes back around to join the others, turning back to herself and popping up behind Benedicta "All good?" she asks, adjusting her clothes, her hair though - well its a mess. "What is that?" She analyzes the marble curiously wondering if she's ever seen anything like it.

    Castiel can sense that the marble thing, now that it is in her hand through the medium of a hankerchief, is a magically induced fold in space and time.
    The platinum blonde looks cautiously at Castiel. "Are... you alright, Cassandra? I sense the thing is. Hm. A bit weird." Aurelia is sensing the metal bits caught up in the weird magical object. "But if you've got it safely, we can take it somewhere away from normies to put it away." She says this more quietly to Castiel, concerned about the possible dangers of the unknown thing.

"I still wonder where they found it?" Benedicta can't help but to wonder. "Hopefully, one of Mephy's relatives hasn't decided to start handling out magical artifacts." Someone had to take over for the monkey after all, she's just hoping they were better at their job. She figures it's best that they leave before they attract any more attention.

    Whatever it is, the simple act of wrapping it in a handkerchief works. Like most cursed items, a handkerchief will always win the day!
    "I have no idea what this is." Castiel says matter of factly, "But yes we should take it somewhere away for safe keeping." She does agree.
    "Who is Mephy?"

     "That looks, really strange." She offers, hmming. "I could take it but I'm not sure what it is." she offers in thought, pausing as she shrugs "I have to look for a Pumpukin to protect my house during the upcoming holidays on my Home."