World Tree MUSH

A warm evening rain has begun to fall in this world--which is host to a metropolitan and somewhat rough-looking city. It's likely foreign territory for someone like Asato--some weird turn of the branch must have led them here, accidentally. It might likely be a little scary too, what with the dark, old buildings lining the street up to where it becomes a bit more populated.

"Lessee here, where is there a bar, dive or not--cabaret... hell I'll take a strip club at this point..." Leo sighed as he thumbed through a large-ish map. His large furred cloak was wrapped up and slung over one shoulder, leaning against a parking meter as he rested on one leg, letting his long white heeled boot dangle and make little patterns in the air. Most people didn't seem to pay him any attention, despite the fact he was sporting bat ears, yellow cat-like eyes and a... long blue spaded tail?

Yeah, Asato had no idea how he got here. He finds all sorts of things in his search for Sisa. Right now he'd even probably be glad if he saw one of the Four Devils -- they're from Sisa, so they'll know how to get back, right? Right?

Asato's taken to the roofs in the city, seeming heedless of the rain. He's got on a hooded blue cape on, and he's got the hood up, so he's more or less protected. It's WARM rain, so there's that. And it's more comfortable up on the roofs, because there aren't so many people. Most don't even look up, so they just don't notice him. But Asato is looking down, and he notices something. He sees familiar movement -- a swish. That of... a tail?

Suddenly Asato's paying attention. He heads to the edge of the roof he's standing on, and crouches, looking down. That's a tail. A smooth tail. Not like his. Like... like the Four Devils. Could it be? Froud DID die, Rai killed him. And Kaltz...

Asato makes a low 'ghk' when he remembers Kaltz, his eyes burning. Sure, he didn't like the guy... but it was his dad. And in the end he came through to save Konoe. He died too, didn't he? Either way, that meant two of the Four Devils died. Could that have found a replacement?

"AH!"

That's a yelp from someone nearby as a blue-and-black blur jumps down from the roof nearby. "Crazy ass!" the startled pedestrian screeches, and then runs away. Asato looks in the direction of the fleeing pedestrian and tilts his head quizzically. He pauses, to pull his own tail before him so he can look at it. Crazy? His butt is crazy?

When Asato leaps down from the building, Leo is definitely one of the first to notice--yellow cat-like eyes flashing in the evening as they fix on Asato and...

"Oh. My. God, look at those eaaarrrrs!" there is a yelp of some kind of excitement and delight coming out of Leo, he's literally jumping and clasping his hands together in reaction to Asato.

"Wait, are you one of those were-cat types? You can see me, yeah? These normies around here can't..." he says, as if this is unfortunate, and not his fae-defense mechanism functioning properly as it should be.

"Were you at that village near the coast that was attacked? by those crazy guys on the jetskis? Like, omg--did you see that guy in the big red coat? with the guns? I think they call him Dante or something?? His chest, nnff~" Leo paused to bite the tip of one of his claw-like dark nails, making a sort of distressed, cringing face. Clearly the white-haired devil hunter had made an impression.

"Anyway--hi!"

Maui was here in this place.

Why? 

People keep asking Maui that question. Why was he here in this neighborhood? Why are you in this person's house? Why are you in this place with ltos of no trespassing signs plastered everywhere and guarded by electrified razorwire and sharpshooters with shoot to kill orders?

At the question on if Leo was visable Maui chuckled. Somehow not having kept a low profile in spite of his eye bleedingly bright shirt. "Hard to not notice you kid." He then looked to Asato and tilted his head this way then that. "Huh... body mods or natural?" He shrugged and continued without waiting for an answer, "Either way i like the look."

Suddenly the bat-eared, spaded-tailed person is at Asato's side and WHOA he can talk too! He can talk a LOT, actually. Asato blinks at the wall of information, releasing his tail. Blink. Blink blink. Yeah, he has no idea.

"I didn't see," Asato replies. His voice is uncertain and quiet, and more than a little confused. He could be talking about not seeing Leo until just now, or he could be talking about not having seen the jet-ski incident. Confusing catte is confusing, as well as confused!

Maui appears then, and Asato looks in his direction. And then at the shirt. Of COURSE at the shirt. Hilariously he doesn't seem to have any bad reactions to it. But he looks back to Maui as the question is asked. "Body... mod?" he asks, speaking the word slowly. Maybe he doesn't know what the word means?

"Wait what?" Leo is more or less straddling the parking meter by this point in excitement, when Asato begins to speak--he didn't see him? Oh, shit!

"You uh, don't notice anything off about me then, huh?" Of course, given how Leo is dressed and he's standing in a city near a dark alley, this could be a bit ambiguous!

And then Maui arrives.

"With me? I'd say natural, but that might not seem true to some people~ Hello there how're you doing?" he begins again in a more friendly tone towards Maui.

"So uh, how can I help you?" he releases the poor parking meter.

Maui shrugged at both Cat-dude and Faye. "Well I'm i na bit of a swell mood. Got some money for helping locals out of a jam with out of towners," Cue flashback to horse sized ants stepping out of a vine and needing dealing with, "And hey I'm in a pretty amazing mood." He stretched. "Also neither of you look local, and i don't really need help with anything much. Just kinda wandering around and Oh hey this is neat and here i am." He smiled at the pair of travelers. "Ther'es a pretty nice chineese place down the way if either of you're hungry."

Asato tilts his head. Asking Asato if something is 'off' about him is probably the wrong way to go about it. But he notes, "You have a tail." This isn't something that seems 'off' to Asato, of course. "Are you one of them? Do you know..." He looks around, almost as if he expects someone to suddenly appear. He leans a little closer to Leo and asks, "...Do you know Razel or Verg?"

Maui's words get a tilt of his head. He looks confused. Though that may be a perpetual look for him here. Particularly here; he's not really that well-versed in urban... well, ANYTHING, really. "Chai...neez?" Yeah, he doesn't know that word either. He's not stupid, really... he just doesn't know a lot of stuff.

"Might not be local, but I /am/ amazing," Leo bowed his head, brushing a long strand of ash black hair that fell over his face back behind one of those large bat ears.

"Chinese, huh? I dunno, they might wanna try serving our new feline friend here up as a tasty stir fry~" Leo grinned a little--but a quick glance at Asato's confused and likely worried (by this point) expression made him quickly hide it.

"Aheh--that was a joke, I don't think anyone is going to hurt any of us here," Leo then blinks as Asato begins. "Am I one of who? Them? I don't know what you mean," he looks at Asato and then behind himself, as if he senses Asato is expecting someone else to show up.

"It's a type of food, I think our fabulous feline is not from a modern place such as us--I'm Leo, by the way," he looks to Maui, then to Asato. "Among others, I have quite a few stage names--so..." he pauses. "Razel? Varg? Doesn't ring a bell," he widens his eyes a little as Asato begins to creep a bit closer, as cats do. "Err, friends of yours...? ...I hope?"

Maui took a breath, "Sorry sorry..." He looked down then looked to Asato, "There's a place nearby that has food. I have money to pay for the three of us if either of you two are hungry."

He then narrowed his eyes at Leo, "Dude I grew up a couple blocs away from this greeat little chinese place. The whole 'chopping your pets up' ting stopped being funny tur of the last millinia." He still visited the korean lady that owned the place. Nice woman, very outgoing.

He gave Leo a short bow, tiltingat the waist to one person then the other, "And I am Maui." Beat, "Well my full proper name is Maui-a-kalana, buuut that's a bit of a mouthfull. He then looked to Asato, "Those names don't ring any bells here buddy. So whatcha say, c'mon let's get out of the rain."

Yeah, Leo's mention of being cooked didn't sit well with Asato. He frowns -- it's less 'worried', and more 'resolute'. "...They're Devils?" The Four Devils said they wanted to eat Konoe, right? So if these 'Chai-neez' would want to eat Asato, they must also be Devils! "...Can they show me back to Sisa?" The explanation brings a bit of confusion; a whole type of food based on what the Devils eat? There must be quite a lot of Devils, then! As for Razel and Verg being friends? "...No. They're Devils. But they're from Sisa." That could explain the shifty look.

And then it's Maui to the rescue! Kind of. Asato now understands a little more of what Leo was asking. "...So the 'Chai-neez' isn't food for Devils." Hard to tell if he's asking or stating. But he seems to calm down a little, there's that. Maui's offer of name, and request for the same, gets exactly that. "Asato," said feline offers. He nods. "I'd like to try the 'Chai-neez' food," he agrees. He remembers Konoe told him that you had to pay for things, and Maui said he could do that for the three of them, right?

The offer of paying for food has Leo's ears perking up up. "Oh really now, well why didn't you say so~" as if Leo hadn't caught what he was saying before--he totally did. "What say you, Cat Man, do you want some tasty spare ribs? Beef?" he tilted his head to Asato, curiously. "No, they're not devils, they usually just run liquor stores--or restaurants," he paused. "Where I am from, anyway--East coast, here--I think Maui here might be more West, Cali?" he peers at the urbex-explorer.

"Lets walk and talk here--so the devils are what kind of creatures, then? I take it you think I'm one because of my ears and tail, then?" those would be visible to Maui and Asato, likely not to the regular people on the street.

Maui made a bit of a face, "Eeeeehhhh? More... Mars to be honest. Long story short here?" He gestured about, "Wouldn't be too far removed from stuff I'd find in history books." That it existed made him smile. Everywhere wasn't garbage and overcrowded Hell that only fed the selfishness of the immortal rich.

Maui fell in step and looked Leo over, "Gotta say I'm fairly impressed you can pull off heells. Not a lot of guys can make it work." He nodded to reaffirm the statement. "Place here has some nice sweet and sour, Not a lot ofrice, heavy on the noodles." He made a face, "And for some damned reason Pizza. I... just... Why bother advertising as chinese if you're gonna go and do that?"

Asato gives an affirmative sound to Leo's explanation. Good, he doesn't have to worry about getting eaten. He doesn't want to be eaten. The question needs an answer, and Asato offers, "Their ears are like Maui's." He looks at Maui, indicating 'normal' human ears. Looking back to Leo, "But they have tails like that -- no fur on them."

And then he has to note something in response to Maui's words of heels. "Kagari wears heels." Pause. "But Kagari isn't a boy. Konoe is. He wears heels too." As for pizza? "...Can 'peet-sa' not be 'Chai-neez'?" Yeah, this kid's, a little behind. On... a lot of things...

"Tails like these?" Leo reaches back to hold up his blue spaded tail for Asato to see. "Huh? well I suppose it does look a little... devilish, so to speak--I think it was meant to be part of a dragon? I don't know--it just looks slick," he lets it fall, slipping back underneath his coat.

"Why wouldn't I be able to rock these? I move right, look right--gotta show it~" Leo grins and saunters ahead of them with a bit of sway to his gait. "Everyone should wear them, why not," Leo announces with a grin.

"Ooh, pizza--actually might have that, haven't had something like that in a while..."

"Pizza's a flatbread with toppings. Generally considered Italian, but flatbrad based foods kinda can be found... well a little of everywhere." Maui recited almost as if reading from a book. 

Leo's admission to being in a mood for piza caused Maui to quirk an eyebrow. "Eeeeh I'm just gonna say not everyone can pull the lock off bro. I'll stickwith what i've got thanks." He momentarily stopped to show off solid body running shoes that look almost like they were poured around his foot. "Good grip, lots of flex, can take a decent drop without it going straight to my knees."

He gave a laugh before looking to Asato, "So what kinda food do you have back home? I ask since Home seems fairly diffrent than what either me or Leo are used to. I like hearing about new places."

"Smooth, and black," Asato replies. "But Froud had green hair." So colors aren't something that stay standard amongst the Devils apparently. Though he does tilt his head a little at Leo's mention of 'everyone' wearing heels. "It would be hard to climb," he points out. "Konoe needed help a lot." Which is probably why he wears moccasin-style shoes himself! They're the same color as the rest of his outfit, navy blue, and the top of the shoe is decorated with a gray diamond pattern. Gray's incorporated in his outfit elsewhere too -- belts, mainly.

Maui's question of what kinds of food they have? "Mm." He slows down a little here, to get it all, and make sure he's not missing something. "In Kira we have lots of beasts. Um... boar. Pig. Birds don't live in Kira. Kira is in the forest. So we don't get them often. I first ate bird meat when I went to Ransen. Ransen is a big city."

"Yeah, it's very good!" Leo chimed in about the pizza. Normally, the performer ate pretty light, since well--gotta keep the looks, and all--but he hadn't exactly been able to get much since leaving that seaside town that got attacked--poor people. It had been some straight up Waterworld-style raider attack there.

"Hey, it's fine, I don't give fashion tips or makeup lessons for free," Leo asided to Maui, grinning a little. If you were good at something, never do it for free~

"So... where is this place?" he asked, apparently already having his stomach rumbling with all the talk of delicious pizza.

"I've had a lot of experience in them," he nods, looking at Asato, nodding a bit with a grin. After a few moments he pulls something out of his jacket--it's a black hairband. "Here, Asato dear--you should wear this, that way they'll just think you're a weab," Leo pointed to the feline's ears. "Normal people can't see what I really look like, so I'll be fine," he nods with a grin.

Maui gave a small bow and held a glass door open for leo and Asato. "And here is where the magic happens."

It really wasn't much. One of those cheap looking buffet places. Anyone familiar with food would recognize they at least had reasonable quality food, not that most would notice. Maui however grinned ear to ear, seemingly proudo f the fact he's able to spot a couple random off-worlders dinner. 

After money changed hands Maui shrugged, "Hey it might not be five star, but when you grow up on reprocessed post processed flavor infused..." He waved a hand dismissivly. "Besides, the noodles here are really good."

Asato blinks at the offer of hairband. "A... what?" he asks. He really doesn't know how he's going to get the thing on, with his ears in the way. And if he holds his hair back from the sides of his head, it'll be even clearer he's NOT like them -- since there's actually no ears on the side of his head. He turns the thing around a few times, and then eventually just... plops the thing on his head, in front of his ears. Which immediately fold back.

He doesn't like the way that feels, but he also doesn't want to get in trouble for his ears. So he adjusts the thing, until it actually covers his folded ears. His tail he can't do much about, but while he's wearing a cape, he can at least hide it. He actually looks pretty normal now. Though if one's used to seeing his ears, it might seem weird.

Once they enter the place, Asato looks around, almost like he expects to need to defend himself. Little bit of paranoia there, maybe? Or maybe some residual nervousness from Leo's joke? Though once he's certain he's reasonably safe, he tilts his head back, sniffing at the air. "It's. A lot of smells," he notes. "Good smells." He listens to his senses in a way few people these days do.

"Phew, finally--anymore of that and they'll have to use a hairdryer on me," Leo gets inside as Maui holds the door open and wriggles some of the rain water off him, setting the large rolled up fur cloak beside where they are going to sit. He'd keep an eye on it, it was important.

He watches Asato as he tries to adjust the hairband--at first meaning to tell him it was meant to imply that his ears were meant to be /attached/ to the band, but after a few moments of looking at him, he just kind of grins and nods. He's got other things on his mind--like food!

"Yeah, it sounds like they're making egg-fu yung--lets see..." he tilts his head up to look at what was on for buffet--noting the egg-fried chicken on display.

"What do they eat where you're from, Asato hon?"

"These people have apparently hadp roblems with heavy eaters." Maui explained as he motioned for the pair to follow him to the buffet proper. Then, while making sure Asato saw hi pick up a plate so the poor cat would hopfully figure out, "They are putting a four plate maimum on customers. So not quite all you can eat, but keeps someone from coming in and hoovering the place clean." He looked around before heaping noodles and chicken on his plate and not really beign stingy with either. "Can't say I blame them really since some people take all you can eat to mean they can just go in and black hole the place."

"...Everything's muffled," Asato notes. And it's no wonder, given how he's hiding his ears. But when Leo asks the question, he refers back to his answer from before. "'Pig'. They're dangerous to hunt. We have to trap them. But they're really smart. The traps have to be hidden well. But they have birds around Ransen." Kinda sounds like people are hunting pigeons or something around there.

Asato tilts his head at the mention of people 'hoovering' up the place. "Food takes time to cook. And there has to be enough for everybody." So yeah, he understands. And thankfully yes, Asato does figure out the plates. He's learned that he can't do like he normally does everwhere. So he's taken to observing how people do things before he tries to do them.

Though as they're moving through the buffet line, he's sniffing around, trying to figure out what smells the best to his nose. Notably he'll be avoiding most of the sweet stuff. Probably no surprise, since, well... cat. He'll lean towards sour and umami. And yes, there will be some chicken in there. Bird is a rarely-enjoyed thing; if they have it here, he's definitely gonna get some.

"Well, it's a buffet--if fat people didn't exist they would be out of a job, I'd think," Leo tries to say that as under his breath as possible, so as to not let their hosts overhear him. Leo would take a plate too, now glancing at Asato as he toys with the band and his ears again.

"Here, let me help you there, honey..." he says gently, moving over to help readjust the hairband and let Asato's ears flick back up, the band now positioned behind them, which causes Leo to giggle a little.

"We're going to an anime convention, oh yes~" he snickers, before getting a plate full of spare ribs and brown rice--the latter of which he likely drizzles with some sweet and sour sauce before getting some plastic forks and spoons.

"So, you two wound up in this city by mistake? kinda like I did? think it's a version of America, but not sure where, or what kind--I haven't checked to see who's president yet," he asks, chewing on a bit of stringy red beef.

"Naaahhh," Maui gave a laugh as he waited for his two companions before heading back to their table. "I come and go from home as I like." Home sucked, it was overcrowded, overmarketed, and all the other 'fun' overages of wealth inequality. "I just like traveling." He was tempted to explain that he was a God, but he really didn't want to deal wit hthe hassle. "I'm here specifically because it's about five or so hops from a thing i was checking out and decided to go wandering for a bit. No harm right?"

Asato leans to let Leo fix the headband. Poink! The ears pop back up from under the band as Leo fixes it. Asato flicks those ears, shaking his head a little. "Thank you." He reaches up with his free hand to scratch at the side of one ear. His hair was itchy on them when they were folded like that. To anybody looking on, wow, those were some realistic cat ears. Maybe one of those cerebral headband things?

Once they get back to the table, though, he's going to wait to eat. Because he wants to see how Leo and Maui do this. Ordinarily he'd just use his hands, but he's pretty sure that's not OK here. It doesn't seem to be OK in a lot of places to do that. In the meantime? "I was looking for Sisa," Asato answers, to Leo's question. "I can't find it."

"So a traveling explorer type, huh? From your outfit you looked like a skater," Leo grinned a little, and nodded--pretty clear that he's joking. "There we go, snug as a bug," Leo grins as he watches Asato's ears spring back into their proper position. "As for your question, though--no I am not a devil, or some such--I am a half-fae, a Changeling--it's a long story--but I was turned into this," he pauses. "But don't worry about me--one second," he gets Asato a pair of plastic utensils when he realizes the dark-skinned cat man hasn't brought any with him. He was somewhat expecting that, to be fair--Leo was a beast, after all, and he had heard of some Lost who had trouble shaking the more beastly instincts from themselves after returning to The Waking.

"This is how we eat," Leo demonstrates for the lamented feline, showing him how to use the plastic fork and knife to cut a spare rib (with effort, of course--that meat could be pretty tough) and plop it into his mouth.

"It's good!"

One must learn to enjoy the little things in life.