World Tree MUSH

This week for Ash has been strange, active, and in short? He needed a break from it all to try finding his center.This is why he was in a forest alone. He was there using his warframe slowly pacing barely trodden paths. The warframe's footfalls were quiet as he hopped from tree to tree, barely touching each before moving to the next. He found the excersize in pathing around this unknown forest relaxing. Soothing even.

Eventually he would land and stood in front of a tree. This was not a tree he knew, but it had a familiar shape to its branches, as if it were a bonzi tree someone had planted and it grew large and wild, yet was still recognizeable.

He would sit, folding his legs beneath him as he sat his sword in front of him. His head bowed as he took in the sounds of this place, the feel of wind against his body, and tried to empty his mind.

    Sniff. Sniff sniff.

    An unfamiliar smell...

    Sniff? Sniiiiiiff?

    It's weird. It smells like... something strange. Like... mushrooms, if mushrooms could be alive. But it was an unnatural smell... something that Should Not Be.

    Needless to say, this is a scent that's going to catch Asato's attention. He'd heard the bounding through the trees while he'd been field-dressing his latest kill. But he didn't want his kill to go bad, so he'd waited to go find out what it was. Once he'd gotten everything put up, though... then he went to go find out what's invaded his little woodsy area.

    For Ash's part, he'd be left alone with his thoughts for some time before the inevitable breaking of his concentration. Rustling in the trees nearby... and the scent of blood.

Breath.

Within Ash's transferrence pod he had let himself fully sink into the warframe's sensorum. He let concern over wheother ORdis needed his attention, or any incomming messages, or any of the mundane concerns about friends and events drop away. That was the purpose of meditation wasn't it? To give your mind a chanceto unburden.

Paradoxically this empty drifting left Ash not dulled to the world but instead heightened to the smallest irregularity. He heard the snapping of twigs, the rustle of brush, and more telling wasthe smell of blood. Yet he did not snap to confront this threat. If he was being stalked he would sit there, unmoving until it acted. Risky perhaps, but any motion on his part may give himself away.

So he waited, and breathed, focusing on emptying his mind of anticipation or anxiety of what may be.

    That leaves the man-cat in the trees, peering down curiously, tail twitching, at the meditating entity. He isn't sure where the face is, and only can tell which way it's facing because of the way the legs are folded. And he supposes it looks male. Not a lot of information he can get beyond that. Not and stay up in that tree.

    So he starts down, slowly, and crouches in the underbrush. He waits a few moments, then tries to circle around to the being's back. He figures it's safer to try to investigate the entity from the back. Once he's behind the creature, he starts to hesitantly creep forward, sniffing at the... person?

    Now, Ash will probably be able to detect him with no problem. The man-cat is a biological entity, with warmth, breathing, and a heartbeat that can be picked up. Plus, depending on how sharp Ash's other senses are, he may hear the man-cat approach -- may even feel him if his sense of touch is good enough. The cat-being's steps are incredibly light. Hell, Ash might even smell him. He smells like a person, but a cat too. And trees.

Ash did not feel the intrutdor, but the blood-smell was stronger, and the lack of obvious noise meant whatever it was was trying t obe quiet. No threatening moves had been made as yet, but Ash considered his options, and from within the transferrence pod he smiled.

"It is rather unwise to try sneaking up on someone within arm's reach of a sword." His voice was calm and he remained where he has been sitting. "Either you have been hunting, or killing. which is it?"

    GYAH!

    While Asato didn't vocalize that, the clear fifteen feet of jumpback he made was enough to be able to communicate how startled he was at the sudden words. He landed on all fours with an ease that a human-shaped being was not supposed to have... tail bristling, ears laid back, back arched. Though when no harm seems forthcoming, he calms, turning his ears towards Ash again. That tail's still fluffed out though.

    He blinks at the question. Asato shifts, to sit down on his behind where he'd jumped back to. And tilts his head, as if considering how to answer it. "...Both," he decides. Because you can't hunt an animal without killing it, right?

Only then did Ash rise to his feet, turning in the process to look at Asato and giving the cat-person a nod. "I have seen game in these woods, plentiful enough, but untrusting." This suggested to him that these woods were hunted regularly enough that the animals knew to fear man. "I came here because it was quiet and out of the way. I hope i"m not intruding."

    Asato scrambles to his feet as well, and leans forward, still with the space between them, to visibly sniff at Ash when he turns. His tail's twitching curiously again, and the bristliness is starting to fade from it. He's gone back to being curious rather than afraid. "...The rabbit's done," he states, to the question of if Ash is intruding.

Ash nodded. "Small game, hard to hit, easy to lose." He noted as if pulling up information before slowly picking up his sword, careful to keep the pommel facing towards Asato, and through a series of slow motions sheaths the blade at his side. "Not a lot of meat, but if you have had little luck elsewhere better than foraging."

He wondered if this cat-man ran the animal down or used traps and shrugged, dismissing the question. "So these your woods, or you just passing through?"

    Asato nods to the information about the rabbit. "I use traps." Then he's reminded of something. "Be careful. They're snare traps." Probably warning Ash against getting his foot caught in them himself. Just a friendly headsup, most likely.

    "I live here now," he answers. "But the woods aren't mine." He speaks a little oddly. Stilted. As if everything's not forming in the same thought but he's still trying to put them together as one.

Ash hmmed thoughtfully, the lights about his head dimming as visual indicator of thought. "Lemme guess, wound up here and can't figure out where home is?" That has been a depressingly common occorance. Not universal, but close enough it tended to feel like a safe assumption.

    Asato tilts his head at the dimming lights. He wants to reach out and poke them, but he doesn't. Not the least of which is because he's not close enough. The tilting of his head looks a little like a dog though. Which is kind of funny given he's visibly a cat.

    But Ash seems to have hit the nail on the head. Asato's ears flatten -- not back, but to the side -- and his shoulders slump a little as he frowns. "...Kira wasn't good to me. Everyone called me a monster. Or taboo child. But it's still home."

Ash looked at Asato. Within the transferrence pod he blinked and his mouth worked as he brushed past the scattershot of memories he had of 'home.' None of these were pleasant and his life had not been kind.

Visibly all Asato would see was a slow nod. "ALso a sadly familiar story." He a 'Devil' from 'that hell' after all. He extended his right hand to Asato. "Name's Ash. welcome to the wider worlds of... well... Everywhere."

    It'd be even sadder if Ash realized that Asato had only just recently figured out that the treatment was unfair. But this goes unsaid, and Asato is left to consider the hand offered to him. Oh that's right... that's a handshake, isn't it? How did those go?

    Asato steps forward and clasps the offered hand hesitantly, as if he's not sure what to do with it now that he's got hold of it. But he does offer, "...Asato."

Ash squeezed Asato's hand gently before letting go. "There are Portals, vines... gateways. to other places." Ash motioned for Asato to follow him and wouldnot move until the boy figured out that's what he wanted. "Each seems to lead to a specific other place, but there are lots of other places out there. Some good, others bad. I haven't found home yet either, but I've found a lot of nice spots with friendly people."

    Asato figures out pretty quickly that Ash is trying to get him to follow, and so he does. Though there's more than a companionable distance between them, to note. Asato's still not sure about Ash, he smells weird.

    But he does nod to what Ash is saying. "I looked through some. I didn't like what was there. So I came back." A pause. "Lots of places with people with no tails. Ears on the sides. People like to point at me. Crowd around me." His ears flatten again, out to the sides. He doesn't like being pointed at, and he doesn't like crowds.

Ash nodded slowly, "That seems to be how the usual way of thigns are around most parts," Ash said as he continued walking. "I am not sure if these people were curious or threatening, but there are worlds where you wouldn't raise eyebrows, or would be a minor celebrity." He then paused at a clearing where a vine opened at. The fact a vine was here said something about how much traffic this place had since vines don't show up in the middle of nowhere. "Just as a piece of advice? Try... i know it's hard. You have reason t obe concerned, but try to give people a chance."

    Maybe Asato wasn't being just completely random when he decided to put his house here. Wherever it was -- it hasn't been immediately seeable. But living near a vine gave him easy access to other places, and a decently good means of escape if it became necessary.

    He frowns a little at the advice. "It's not bad if they don't see me. But when the buildings are really tall I have to climb down a long way."

Ash laughed in spite of himself. "Oh but cities are such FUN to climb around." Inside his transferrence pod Ash grinned at all the times he's climbed, jumpled, or otherwise acrobatic-d his way in and around places. "It's a fun thing sometimes just to make people wonder how in the blazes you got somewhere."

    "They ask that a lot," Asato confirms. "A lot of people say I'm crazy when I climb down. But they stare whether I climb the buildings or not. I tried covering up. But I went into a store and there was a lady that screamed and threw green paper at me from a drawer. I ran back out."

"Because she thought you were robbing the place." Ash shrugged as he paced. "Probably less because 'you' in specific and more the fact you were so far beyond and outside normal she thought Bad Thing." A soft laugh at a memory of his own, "Case in point. I walk into a store wearing this," He tapped his chest, "And i'd... well I've worn it so long i half the time forget it's there. Everyone inside freaks out. More tha na few security people draw guns, a couple even bow down."

Another chuckle and a head shake. "Everyone calmed down when I told them I was just looking for help buying a gift for a friend. Well... Reletively calm anyway." He had guns pointed at him the whole time he was there even after the mixup had been cleared.

    Asato tilts his head. "A man with food said I stole it once. I didn't know he wanted 'money'." He says 'money' as if it's a foreign concept to him. Though he inspects the Warframe again as Ash taps on it. And yes, he sniffs Ash again. "Armor? You wear it all the time? Even sleep in it."

Ash nodded, "It's a bit complicated, but.." Ash paused then turned to look at Asato, "Wait you don't know what Money is?" He could already envision Darvo having both a heart attack, and salavating at a person that has no idea what currency is. "it is a tool to make trading easier so you can get what you want withou txpressly having the exact thing the other person needs."

    "Now I do. Konoe told me," Asato assures. He says the name as though it's someone he knows very well. "When we went to Ransen." He still has not figured out, however, that people wouldn't necessarily know the places in his world. Then again, it is LITERALLY his whole world, even if he's now apart from it.

Ash let the names wash over him and shrugged. "It does get a bit confusing, and more than a touch annoying. However," Ash decided to approach the vine, "It's better than being alone stuck with the thoughts in your head." And all the rage and regrets that went with.

    Asato's a little more hesitant to approach the vine, his ears doing that flattening down thing again. He doesn't know where this one goes to, and most of his experiences in the wider worlds has been less than pleasant. But he considers Ash's words. "...Maybe." And ultimately he'll approach the vine too.