World Tree MUSH

Mirage Mouse is currently spending some of her R&R time on the beach in Alola, right outside Miwa's lair, of course. Yes, this is where she comes when she's not up to no good or running around and causing... well, mischief, or the like. She's currently parked on the lawnchair on the beach, relaxing. Well, to be a bit more accurate she looks kinda passed out. She's out of her boots and suit, and is just sorta lying there in shorts and a t-shirt, plus the cheap sunglasses she had held onto. Her long tail idly lilted here and there alongside the ends of the lawn chair, around her bare white furred feet. Yes, she did have toenails--and they were not wholly claw-like--think more nails with slightly pointed tips.

This was actually a nice change of pace for Ash. he had hoped to make it to Miwa's beach concert, as he had promised the Primarina lady he would help, but Things got in the way.

Hey it wasn't his fault that scanner exploded right after he went through a checkpoint. Wait no that actually was his fault.

In the hear and now he walked the beach in kakie shorts and a t-shirt on when he saw Mirage sunning herself. With a bit of a laugh he shook his head before jogging over to where the mousie mercenary lounged before very deliberately standing so his shadow would fall over her. Then in as grave an somber a voice as he could manage he spoke. "You are under arrest." He had a.... special... sense of humor.

As Ash trudged over and his shadow fell over the meece, she immediately rolled over from under her arm she produced... a tommy gun? Yes, an actual Thompson Machine Gun chambered in .45 ACP--or what looked quite like one--from seemingly nowhere.

"Huh? Oh, it's you," Mouse sprang up from her spot on the chair and threw the gun away--which dispersed into random light molecules.

"What is it, what's on your so-called 'mind' this evening, eh?" she swings her feet over the side of the lawnchair and is suddenly standing--though shorter than Ash still, even if he's out of his warframe.

Ash stepped back when he saw the machiengun, and before he could try figuring out if it was more like a grakata or soma it dissolved and he smiled, "Interesting, sense manipulation or an actual construct?" He sounded both surprised and curious as he looked mirage over.

Ash wasn't very tall so even with Mirage being a petite sort of lady he could easily look her in the eye, "Well funny you should mention that. I have lots of things on my mind, and the fact my line of work will put me at odds with people and or things that could go raffling through like you could my pockets is a touch concerning."

He seemed to tense then refrain from actually checking whether Mirage was going through his pockets or not, since really he had nothing of value other than a few pokedolalrs he made doing random errends, "I was kinda wondering if you'd help me out, but t the same time you're actually somewhere with sun so I'm assuming you don't want to talk shop."

"Oh yeah? Too many things on it, I take it? could always do with a good flushing," Mirage grinned and her index finger pointed up--as the holograms of what looked like the scrubbing bubbles appeared in mid-air, hovering around her fingertips--each about the size of a peach. Yes, those googly-eyed floating scrub brush things--Ash may or may not recognize them. Either way they wink out after a moment of existenc. Googly eyes made everything better, but this seemed serious. Well, MORE serious than usual.

"Ah, you want some protection--dad always did say to always wear your raincoat, d'ohoho~' she's snap her fingers and yellow rubber rainslicker would pop into vision over Ash's shoulders. Mirage could be such a prankster.

     Miwa had been out for a little swimming around and diving for pearls, pretty shells, and sea glass, putting the pieces she likes into a small pouch hanging from a rope cord around her waist. When she eventually starts to head back to her home, she spots a couple familiar figures on the beach and grins as she swims over to join them, sliding up onto dry land and walking the rest of the way toward Ash and Mirage, she greets them with a warm smile. "Hello there! You two just visiting to enjoy the scenery? Or were you looking for me?" She asks as she looks between Ash and Mirage.

Ash did not, in fact, recognize the cleaning product mascots. However he was trying to reach out to touch one before it winked out. He looked to Mirage as more of her illusionaryness happened and he smiled. "You really are something," Granted he quite liked the lady but he did have to admit she was rather... unique. "But yea, maybe it's a bad idea, but I trust you enough to at least not try either turning me into a vegetable, or some obediant worshipping slave."

Well he MOSTLY trusted her to not do the latter anway.

"And you've already sorta seen what the inside of my head looks like." Beat, "Well... enough to know trying to go digging is not adviseable." Ash was not fond of what he saw 

Then when Miwa made landfall Ash jogged over and hugged the primarina, "Sorry I missed your concert!"

 Literally right when he was almsot done with a job and Almost home free and clear a scanner he was supposed to slip past blew up... as in it literally exploded.

"Things happened and work got weird. Please tell me you have recordings."

"Was relaxing here, babe, as usual," as Mirage looked between Miwa and Ash though as the former slid to a stop, though--she grinned a little bit. "Well well well, isn't this cute," Mirage grinned and put her hands on her hip as Ash was hugging Miwa right in front of her. She smirked.

"As for turning you into a drooling obedient slave? Nah, I wouldn't do that--it wouldn't be ironic or funny at all, for one," she shrugged a little with a laugh. 

"Though you /are/ technically edging in on my girl, apparently," she looked over at Miwa with a grin, then to Ash. She however breaks the silence by waving it off.

"Mouse will let this slide--for now. So tell me what sort of defense you want--conditioning, some kind of device to dampen a telepathic signal?"

     Miwa blushes as Ash hugs her, but nods as he apologizes for missing her concert. "I think I could get you a copy of it on blu-ray or something, but I might also be convinced to give you a little private show if you want, granted it might not be exactly the same, as I had some help from my wild Pokemon friends, would have to round them up again." She ponders the idea a moment before looking over at Mirage. "So, you're going to help Ash with his mind or something?"

Ash looked from Miwa to mirage, then back and merely raised an eyebrow at the 'my girl' comment. He had much he could say, except he wasn't really sure how and was afraid of using the wrong words or either of his friendstaking the wrong meaning. So instead he turned to Mirage with a smile, "I doubt Ordis would be able to fabricate something that would dampen psionics." Theoretically he was sure he could have gotten a blueprint for an ascarias off Darvo, but he's seen what those can do to someone and it looked painful, so he was gong to pass wholesale on the notion. "So I'd rather focus on defense... or at least recognizing when I'm not alone in my own proverbial house." He's seen movies and read things, and wasn't sure if any had the right of it.

Then he gestured to Mirage with an arm, "Would be rude to leave miwa out. I mean so long as you don'tgo poking around too hard I'm pretty sure all the scary stuff will stay out of sight," A soft laugh in spite of how much the idea was tempting fate, "Besides you two might learn a thing or three about me. I mean... we're friends right? I've got nothing to hide."

"It's not exactly to give someone conditioning or therapy to avoid such attacks--someone can be trained to resist them, resisting other things like physical torture, however--it a completely separate kind of training," Mirage says with a shrug, looking over at Ash. "If you want to insulate yourself from both it will take time, time and money--though I suppose I do owe you for trying to help me out with that shipment heist, hmm..." Mirage nodded, thinking it over.

"I'm generally not too interested in poking around someone's head, actually--unless they have information I want," she paused for a moment. "Or need," she peered over at Miwa.

"And you want her to come along too, huh? I can do that," Mirage stepped back and prepared to take a seat on the lawnchair, having been stepping through the sand in her bare feet.

     Miwa blinks a bit as the pair are talking about delving back into Ash's mind, and bringing her along, having flashbacks to the last time they did this. "Alright then, I hope this goes better than the last time. I guess this time Ash is consenting to it, so that helps, right Mirage?" She asks hopefully.

Ash looked from Miwa to Mirage and then back to the mousie mercenary calmly before sitting crosslegged. He started to float about a half meteroff the sand as he lay his hands, palm up, on his knees. "Given I do nto know everything within my mind I will consider myself at your disposal for any reasonable requests so long s I have discretion on when or if lethal force is required"

Then he took a deep breath, his eyes closed as he focused on that lungfull of air. "Before we begin I suppose i should have this one out for the both of you as it is liable to dangle around in my subconcious and i'd rather tell you than everythign come to a halt so you both can have giggle fits." His voice was level as he spoke, calm. "i care a great deal for the both of you. I would not say love, but only because I do not know what that is. I do know it is more than infatuation I feel for the pair of you, each for differing reasons." Another deep breath as he hovered there with his eyes closed. "I ask for your help now because in this way I am quite vulnerable, and I wish to at least know the shape my weakness takes even if outright addressing it will take a long time."

"Shall we begin?"

"Shh, stop talking dear~" Mirage would be attempting to form a link between herself and Ash--and then finally Miwa's in turn. A sort of psychic conference call, if you will.

<Like I said, I'm not poking around in there for anything I don't have to--do /you/ like to log on people's computers and try to find what kind of stuff they keep on it?--don't answer that,> Mirage would already be speaking mentally to Ash and Miwa, though mostly to Ash there.

Eventually, Miwa and Mouse would be floating in pure light--able to see eachother--at least until whatever was inside Ash's head began to manifest--the last time she was in there she had crafted a nightclub around them, as they sort of held Ash prisoner for a bit. But this time she was more meeting him on his home turf, to to speak.

     Miwa's face turns red as she blushes deeply when Ash makes the confession that he has feelings for both her and Mirage, that were beyond infatuation. "Ash, I don't know what to say... No one has ever said anything like that to me before... But I um... like you too!" She spits out in a very embarrassed tone. When Mirage was talking about not digging around in Ash's mind for things she doesn't have to, she knows Mirage isn't really talking so much to her, as Mirage has already been in her head, and compared to Ash and Mirage, she feels her past is pretty boring, or at least uneventful.

This time? THe shape of Ash's mindscape took on a sort of mishmash quality to it. On the one hand there were high walls, arching ceilings so high that there seemed to be a mist obscuring what was above. Everything was gold and white with blacks hither and yon. Spacious, clean... Empty.

On the other? There were sounds of children playing, laughter mixed in with market noises. What sounded like a bustlign cityscape was beyond a pair of tall ivory doors.

<I'm... not sure i'm activly making this place or fi it's just sortof ... Here. I can say it feels like someone dumped Cetuss' market in the middle of an orokin tower. Kinda nice actually. So what do i need to do?>

Ash lounged in his usual green jacketed unic, black clawed boots, and oddly having a sword at his hip in spite of being outside of his warframe. <Anyway. Welcome friends.>

Doors would open and bothMirage and Miwa would see those pristine white and gold halls filled with what could best be described as a trader's baazar complete with ramshackle stalls, folk garbed in strange clothes, customers, goods of all sort ranging from refined to rubish and through it all the smells of food, freshly worked materials, and on top of all that? The feeling that there was life here. Ash somehow blinked from where he originally stood to somewhere in the mass of people. He laughed as he ran further into the crowd, not having a care in the world.

<Does he gush and flirt like this when I'm not around too? Wait I think I already know the answer to that~> Mirage muttered to Miwa mentally, before she set her and the Primarina down--since the inside of Ash's head was a bit... scatterbrained at the moment--Mouse instinctually moved to give it shape--a red carpet flowed out beneath the Mouse's boots and the Primarina's tail, large aisles of slot machines sprang up like trees--craps and poker tables, pink and blue neon lights hung suspended from the ceiling. It was a casino--noirish and neon. Though... there wasn't apparently any people. But there /was/ movement and noise--but it came from the displays of the casino screens themselves.

"Sorry, just giving us something tangible so we don't get nausea from browsing around someone's disorganized thoughts--" Mirage walked up to one of the machines and cranked the one-arm bandit handle on it--causing the dials on it to flicker as they spun and finally came to a stop... the icons were things Ash had seen before: Grakata, Hek, Ordis--the screen above it flickered--displaying images from his memories and past.

"Interesting," Mirage was now audibly speaking in her own voice, looking over to see how Miwa was getting along--the Primarina would appear on a pedestal as a giant clamshell opened--trays with drinks popping up around her.

"The Birth of Venus? More like the birth of Diva," Mirage smirked and sassed.

     Miwa watches as Mouse does her work. She feels like she's kinda just here along for the ride. Blinking as the red carpet appears under her and Mouse, and the casino springs up inside Ash's mind. She blinks as suddenly everything goes dark, only to be inside an opening clam a moment later. Noting the trays of drinks around her, she does take advantage of the opportunity and gets herself something to drink, though she wonders what is in these drinks as she takes a sip to see what they taste like.

Ash looked at one of the slot machines and shook his head at the grinning face of Vor on the reels of one. Bombastic laughter filled the room for a moment as another rolled Hek's rather unappealing face. Then he saw the clamshell containing miwa open up, which caused him to quirk an eyebrow before looking to Mirage. "Surprisingly this is /less/ garash than the Orokin." He laughed in spite of himself as he looked at hte order Mirage created in the chaoticness of his mind. 

"Look at Them!" A too familair voice started to boom from somewhere in the crowd before a team of several rather large muscular figures instantly bowled through, knocking people, slot machines, and anything else in there way over before grabbing the speaker bodily and then continuing on into the ether.

Ash rolled his eyes before turning to Mirage and frowning. "So what's the deal here? You're in my head, should I try removing you?" An elderly chap in a wide brimmed ornate hat that both obscured his eyes and seemedto attach to the rest of his attire at the neck turned and listenedi ntently while taking a sip from a teacup. "What is the lesson here?"

"Guh..." As Vor's hideous voice and laughter began to fill the room--Mouse stalked over to the slot machine and promptly put her fist through the display--smashing it and breaking it in a small flurry of glass particles--which disappeared. The troglodyitic face of the Grineer seemed to inspire that kind of response from her. She pulled her fingerless-gloved hand out of the machine--it was uncut and unmarked, because this was a dream. If she wanted to be hurt, she'd be hurt by it.

It was then the large figures ran through--grabbing the one speaking and taking off with them.

"What was that about? Didn't pay his TV license?" Mirage snorted a little, reaching up to brush her hair back.

"Are you okay, Miwa?" she asked, stepping around the clamshell the Primarina was stationed on, by her own design, of course--Mirage just couldn't resist the joke there.

"There isn't a lesson--yet, do you want to begin with the session? I want to see how well you deal with stress--constant attacks from all sides, ready?" Mouse began to run around--cranking each arm of the slot machines one by one--suddenly the place would be filled with noise and voices.

     Miwa is just as confused about the goings on with the men rushing in and grabbing the speaker, and seeing the aliens of Ash's world. She nods to Mirage's question though, grinning a bit. "I'm fine, feel like I'm back in my musical theater days and I should start singing and dancing in this clamshell." She laughs.

Ash bowed to Miwa. The old man with the strange hat nodded and seemed to mouth something lost in the noise. Miwa might see another noteable figure amongst the crowd of obscured and forgotten faces. A woman clad all in purple wearign a styalized helm that trialed cabling and wire like braidsof hair. She stood tall and her face unreadable as she watched Mirage make with the noise.

Ash's eyes closed. as the fingers of his right hand flexed. 'Here is shadow and dust.' He tried to whisper to himself. 'Here is not real.'

Yet everything sounded real. the feel of the ground beneath his boots felt real. His eyes opened and he saw miwa sitting there. that/ that was definitely real.

Laughter filled the room.

"You must be feeling guilty-    "DEAL TIME!"

 "Giiiive Unto the Vooooiiiid!"     "...Dream."

Voices and echoes crowded around him.

"You cannot run from your past."
 "DID YOU REALLY BELIEVE. IT WOULD BE. THIS-"

"clem!"

Ash slowly circled, a pulse of energy firing from his right palm, smashing into a slot machine. then another. Then another. "What is this supposed to prove?" He asked, irritation creeping into his voice as he looked about for Mirage.

"Okay Miwa honey--try singing a bit to him, I want him to get some resistance training going--try to draw him into your voice," Mirage stated, after she finally stopped running about and cranking all the slot machine cranks.

"Now you gotta resist all these outside influences and distractions--I've started small, but it's gonna get stronger and stronger--and then we'll see if you can develop a tolerance rather than cracking under pressure, see," panels in the floor would begin to lower the destroyed slot machines down into darkness--before bringing them back fully intact again.

"This is what getting psychically attacked is like--it's a never-ending braying on the doors of your mind~" she grinned.

Ash saw the damaged and destoryed slots gettign replaced. The noises were gettign louder now. More laughter.

"P O W D E R S A N D D Y E S!"

A muscle on his neck twitched and he instantly blew a hole in whatever made that noise. All trace of amusement was gone as he tried t ofocus on Mirage. His hand raised, fingers spread-

"TICK! TOCK! TICK! TOCK! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!"

Again hsi hand moved and that noise maker exploded... only to be replaced by something even more annoying.

"And if I manage to hit you?" Seething anger threaded through the question.

     Miwa smiles as Ash bows to her. She does spot the woman in purple, but doesn't recognize her as anyone important. She nods to Mirage though, and begins to sing a song with is soothing and truly captivating. She hoped Mirage would be able to resist it, but Mirage had asked her to do this, so she was doing as requested.

"Don't you wanna go to the voice, Ash--don't you want to dance with her?~" Mirage taunted Ash from the sidelines. Currently Mirage had a cane in both hands in front of her and was doing a soft shoe in front of the slot machines--kicking her booted feet out then swinging the cane--using it to break a slot machine panel here and there.

"Oh it's going to be a hot night in the old town toniiight~" she reared back and spread her arms wide, the noise maker exploding all around her.

"How're we doing there Ash--are you still okay?! Try a bunch!" More displays lowered from the ceiling around Ash as the stood there, all beginning to display more images and voices--personalities from his past.

Rage would get Ash nowhere. Dimly he was aware of this. Just as he was aware this was explcitly constructed to annoy, disorient, and distract him.

Yet through the cacoughany he heard Miwa's voice pulling at him. Begging for him to join in. He slowly walked along the slots, not even bothering to acknowledge them ash e made his way towards Miwa. "Question is whether she is goal, or another layer of distraction." Ash couldn't hear himself think much les speak in the noise. How he was able to hear miwa's song above it all? Probably wouldn't have if it wans't for the fact Mirage was in charge of this perticular fun house.

"I think you'll find this pretty real," Mirage would reach out--as if her arm was extending--getting longer and longer until she lightly slaps him across the cheek--not hard enough to hurt, course--just for him to feel it--and in that instant the 3 would find themselves back on the beach. No time had at all had seemingly passed.

"Did you hear her voice, Ash? Did you dance with her?! Course ya did, we all did," Mirage grinned as she rocked back on her lawnchair--her bare white furred feet going up a bit as she cackled.

"Right, that seems to be a good first lesson--you were able to balk distractions and some moderate seduction attempts... I think we'll try again later," Mirage gets up and promptly walks off--likely to get to the cooler to ger herself another drink.