World Tree MUSH

    Have you ever been in a position where you were really in trouble and you didn't have any means of calling for help?

    Have you ever encountered one of those sorts of people who were actually, genuinely likely to go 'cry out for help if you think it will do anything!'? If so, you may be able to sympathise with what is currently going on. If you are not one of those people, you may be surprised to know that such a thing is actually happening, to you, right now.

    HERE AND NOW is a radical, spat-up piece of reality that does not entirely belong to any one world but exists as a tiny bardo in the Darkened Branches. Part of a world which has yet to even slightly incorporate with the Tree, it resembles a shoot or a spig or, more accurately, it resembles a warped and ruined castle with melted walls and glass bricks.

    Someone here needs your help. You know because you can hear them calling for you in your mind.

As Gonta arrives, he's peering around frantically. Is there a bug or some other animal in trouble? Why's he hearing this voice that he can't seem to find? He's alternating between rushing about normally, runing around on all fours, and climbing up on to any available perches to try and get SOME sort of visual on where in the world the call is coming from.

Gonta MUST help the voice, but he can't seem to find it. This isn't good! What if he never finds the voice? He can't fail as a gentleman like that! He must help! Maybe it's under that rock over there?

    Standing before the castle is a tall young man with a strangely alien and artificial look to his face. His blood-red, single-colored eyes are focused on the castle. Next to him is an older Asian woman who looks as though she's about to start a tirade. "...Ryuunosuke. You are NOT going to -- "

    "Yes. I am," the young man replies, stepping forward. "Go back to the Shrine. Or wait out here. I do not care which."

    "Ryuunosuke! You get back here RIGHT NOW, or so help me...!"

    He keeps walking, towards the castle. As he does, two long telescoping arms unfold from his back, flat surfaces unfolding at the far ends. These flat metallic 'plates' detach from the arms and start to float up into the air with a strange humming sound, beginning to circle the exterior of the castle.

    These are of course, acting as drones, and are looking for anomalies, traps, enemies, and other such hazards. And allies too, as it appears there are others here. Perhaps for the same purpose. Or possibly enemies? He doesn't know yet...

>> SUMMARY[Ryuunosuke] >> "Oh no you're not." "YES! I! AM!" Sending up drones to see what's going on around the castle.

    "Well, either I'm in Hell or in Winnipeg. Not sure which." Dante muses as he stands outside the immediate area. The voice in his head is getting to him, giving the demon-hunter a headache as he grimace. "Nnnngh, ow..." He pops some tylenol, not sure if it'll do anything as he approaches the 'castle.' "Let's get this over with. C'mon, Tarzan." He claps Gonta's shoulder along the way, before drawing Rebellion in preparation for what lies ahead.

Seems to have taken the wrong turn at Albuquerque!, wherever Luke was hoping to land when he tried to travel through the vines?, a twisted bit of broken reality, and especially, a really spooky, warped castle was not it. He almost turns away, when he hears the summon in his mind, causing him to blink a few times, reaching for one of his pokeballs, and taking some steps towards said 'construction'. A pokemon trainer will not refuse a call for help!. He seems situably unnerved, even as he opens his pokeball and releases a pokemon!. A small black and white panda thing, wearing a Jiangshi costume. "Pangshi, come with me, tell me if you sense something weird." before making his way further in, and spotting a couple people ahead, waving and calling in their direction.

     https://tinyurl.com/y9mgbsf6

    These! Little! Things! Are everywhere! They're doing their best to 'patrol' the area, which is made difficult by two factors- one is that this place lacks an evenness of terrain sufficient to make patrolling it very easy- you're always tripping over rocks or having to climb up a wall or being menaced by a living plant with teeth. Two is, that these little things are specifically Goblins, and if you know anything about goblins you'll know that they're fractious and easily angered little bastiches. If they tripped on a rock they'd pick a fight with the rock, and they can hardly be expected to go on rigorous patrol loops of an area without becoming restless, agitated and prone to attacking the first human thing they see.

    But will that thing be you?! Hard to say! Are you going to go into this spooky castle all guns blazing, or will you try the element of surprise? Or will you walk up politely to them and ask them what's up?

As some stranger suddenly claps his shoulder and calls him Tarzan, Gonta pauses and tilts his head. He then suddenly shoots back up to his feet and offers a bow. "Gonta...thinks you might be confusing him with someone else. Gonta is Gonta Gokuhara," he greets, "Gonta guesses you are /also/ looking for this voice?" He then blinks and looks toward Luke. Ah! Recognized person! "Hello Mister Gray, did you hear that voice too," Gonta greets with an enthusiastic wave. He's either just not yet noticed Ryuunosuke, or isn't sure how to react to him just yet.

On seeing the little creatures he looks....very confused. What are those angry looking things? They don't look like anything he's seen before. Maybe he should draw one? But there's so many. Maybe he should talk to them? His eyes are darting about curiously.

    "Dante." The white-haired hunter introduces himself absently, popping his neck. "Yeah, got lost and found myself here. That voice is killing me, like a hangover." He says, unsure how to approach this just yet. Spying the goblins, Dante sheaths his sword, which amounts to just placing the thing on his back with 'shiiiiinnnnnk' noises. Somehow. It's magic, I don't have to explain a damn thing.

    "HEY!" He calls out to some of the small people. "What's going on here? Why all the security?"

    Ryuunosuke is going to take the stealth route. He might once have been the greatest serpent demon in all of Japan, larger than eight hills and valleys... but he's lost a little weight since then, and he's not quite as suited to crushing things as he used to be. So, as the group starts to appear, he notes, "I have drones in the air. I can find us a path around those creatures, if you like." A pause at Luke's Pokemon, raising any eyebrow. And then as Dante calls out to the creatures, "...Well, a distraction would not be amiss." He's prepared to move if the creatures seem about to attack.

    Luke is quite curious about Ryuu, being the one that pays attention at him first. By the time he gets close enough, Dante was already charging ahead, and Luke was looking at the small angry men with some unease, holding the small 'vampire' panda with one hand, the other slowly reaching for his pokeballs. "Yeah Gonta... I think I got... lost, ended up here and heard that voice calling for help." he explains, smiling and nodding. "I admit I don't quite like the idea of fighting a lot of... them." he says at the mention of 'distraction'. "Still, if Dante ends up fighting, maybe I should help, we might need to stick together if something else... bigger is waiting inside."

It's ok, there's four people here, you can take multiple approaches to the problem.

    The voice in your head, however, seems to be growing fainter, so speed may be of the essence regardless of what course of action you care to take. It's begging to be saved, in a tone that speaks not just to the head but to the heart as well.

    "Intruders!" "Prey!" "Trespassers!"
    "Keep them away from master's prize!"

    The grobi menagerie begins getting the knives out, paying attention to Dante and those nearby him potentially just long enough for other people to hide in the shadows of the warped castle if that's what they wish. 


    A GOBLIN MOB draw near! Command? >_

    "Oh hell. Guess talkin's out after all." Dante says with a sigh, but it's clear he might not be feeling so bad about kicking some ass. The Devil Hunter draws his sword again with a wide grin, and he rushes the mob of goblins with Rebellion thrusted out like a lance. "EAT THIS!" The way he moves is inhumanly fast and graceful, yet that blade hits with the force of a cannon as he lunges forth into combat.

    Help might be appreciated, but it's optional. He's got this.

"Ah, thank you for speaking to Gonta, Mister Dante," Gonta says with another quick bow. He looks like he'd punch someone's head off as soon as look at them, but thaaaaaat's probably not the case. He watches after the situation with Dante and the little angry looking things, seeming as if he's wondering if he should follow or not. With Luke's responce he nods, furrowing his brows. "Gonta would rather not be violent but, gentlemen should help friends, so if Mister Grey and Mister Dante need help...," the big guy trails off as he peers toward Dante and the Goblins again. He'd start to greet Ryuunosuke, only for his attention to be grabbed by the goblins.

Gonta narrows his eyes as the swords are drawn and sinks down into something akin to a fighting stance, making sure he's between Luke and the goblins.

>> SUMMARY[Ryuunosuke] >> Command? > hide and find the stealthy route. Others welcome.

    And Ryuunosuke looks to the 'vampire' panda. It's a flat look, without much emotions. It almost looks like an ironic sort of '...wut' look. But, well. That's just on the outside. He's very good at hiding his feelings.

    Because there is a squee happening on the inside. A squee at the cuteness of the vampire panda. One that would never be allowed to see the light of day if there's a shred of control in his body.

    Of course, then there's a clamor, and goblins start streaming towards them. "...Because of course..." Looking to Gonta, Luke, and Dante, he notes, "I have found a path around and inside. Those who wish to avoid these beasts, follow me."

    Thus said, he starts away from the approaching horde of goblins, into those shadows mentioned. Anybody else who wants to take the stealthy approach is welcome to follow!

    Luke was not sure he expected any other result than this... it was clear those were angry little creatures!. As he sees Dante charge ahead with such ease, and after closing his mouth, he reaches to his pokeballs, and grabs one. There is a click, and a beam of red light coming from the white and red orb, a large reddish, cream and black creature materializing next to Luke, rearing up on it's hindlegs. ( https://goo.gl/nwwkrt image reference) Luke points at the small 'humanoids' "Agni, go and help my friend Dante.", making sure to point out WHO the pokemon was assisting. 
    The pokemon nods, and charges ahead to the group of angry Goblins, "Shadow claw!" calls Luke, the fire pokemon's forelegs are engulfed in a black aura, growing longer, bigger, smashing the creatures away with the power of... how would one define ghost type?... just smacks them away hard.

How dark is it here anyway in the darkened branches? Maybe not overall very dark, considering it's a metaphorical darkness. But it's getting darker. That's ominous.

    Did I mention that most of those goblins' knives are rusty? They're basically the worst at the idea of honorable, gentlemanly combat. They'll gang up on you, they'll climb on you, they'll pull your hair and if you try to hold them down they're gonna spit in your eye and say that you can't stop the beat. No, wait, I got carried away there: just spit in your eye. That's what they try to do as Dante and Luke's pokemon go for them- yes, even the spitting. Gonta would be ashamed of fighting such ruffians.

    If Ryuunosuke investigates the source of darkness by going over the ramparts he will see a huge wad of it seems to be gathering elsewhere in the castle, in a clearing seperated from where the others currently are by a large wooden(?) door.

    Well, that's ominous. Wait, that's already been said. But yes, Ryuunosuke will investigate the shadows. He's not going to put himself at direct risk though. He's doing this for curiosity's sake, and to get that voice to SHUT UP.

    So instead of going directly into the mass of shadows, he sends one of his drones over to where the shadows at gathering in the clearing, using the trees to conceal the presence of the drone as much as possible.

Gonta's torn. These two seem ok, Luke's got his pokemon and Dante seems to be doing well. He should help his friendsm but...he's worried about the voice and it seems to be getting quieter. He should probably follow that other guy that he hasn't met yet... Hesitantly he waves toward Luke. "Call Gonta if you need him," he says before going after Ryuunosuke. He's huge and all, but he's trying his best to be so quiet.

    Luke is not very happy with the way the creatures try to swarm Agni, the bear swishing heavy paws, slashing and tossing the creatures as fast as it can!. When they finally manage to climb on it's back, there is a glance back at Luke, followed by a nod. "Agni, Flame charge." he points at some goblin not already climing on the fire type. There is a momentary pause as the pokemon stops swinging claws around, taking a deep breath. The already warm pokemon spikes in temperature, giving the creatures a moment to let go, before the air around it begins to ripple with heat, and finally, brigt orange flames engulf the creature, roaring at the hapless 'target', and furiously charging at it. It's not quite as fast as Dante moving around, but the goblin-like thing that ends up being tackled by a heavy, burning bear will feel it regardless!. Of course Luke is just focused on what is going on with his pokemon, so he did not see Ryuu get out of the way. At least he does react to Gonta, nodding at him quickly, "I will!"

    Dante has little issue dealing with these things. His blade slashes and cleaves through the goblins, while Agni helps him out. "I can do this all day, and I bet I'm way better than all of you guys!" He taunts the horde, dodging so that Agni gets a chance to pounce on a mob of them. His bladework grows more focused, to try and avoid hurting Luke's pokemon, just out of courtesy. Hard to avoid friendly fire when you're swinging all over the place.

    Sooner or later they'll have to get moving.

Yes, the goblins do try to dogpile on Agni. They're aware that it's much bigger than them, so their favoured course of action is to stab it with as many sharpy things as possible until it stops moving. Agni lighting on fire is entirely unexpected! The entire bunch of them catch alight, many running and screaming.

    'Running and screaming' is also a pretty good approximation of what's happening to the ones fighting Dante as well, who despite being man-sized and thus only capable of taking on one or two of them at a time is basically schooling anyone who gets close to him. Even these stupid grobi can tell when they're outmatched.

    As for the others sneaking across the ramparts?

    From this distance you two can see... a person. Or is it? It's definitely shaped like a person. 

    https://www.drivethrurpg.com/images/1/58880.jpg

    It has hair on its head like a person, albeit much, much longer and redder and more flared out than most people you would ever see. It also has tattoos like some people would, in the design of hundreds of tiny flowers- albeit much, much more intricate and delicate than most people you would ever see. In fact it seems more human than human in a lot of beautiful ways- were it not for the wrists, which seem to have small additional tentacles which themselves have ... thorns ... ?

    And his fingers bend /backwards/...

    He's beginning to notice that there's a fight going on behind the door, so you will definitely need to react before he does. However, he's loath to leave the side of the source of darkness- something that looks like a large, intricately-carved tuning fork with that growing wad of darkness in the middle. Someone seems to be locked in darkness within it...

    Ryuunosuke notices Gonta joining him in the shadows, and before Gonta can speak, raises a finger to his lips. "Shh..." he says quietly. "There is something in the clearing there. I am trying to see what is going on, so that it may guide us." Because he assumes Gonta's joined him for assistance purposes. His drones will probably be able to see all that, no doubt. And he will relay it to Gonta, quietly. "Someone seems trapped. Might you be able to free them, if I give you an opening?"

    As for reacting first? Ryuunosuke tries to do that by swooping one of those drones down, trying to remain behind the strange creature. A wireframe serpent takes shape from the top of the drone, and strikes out to try to bite the creature. It's not damage Ryuunosuke's looking for -- those serpents are poisonous, despite not looking 'real'. That will hopefully give Gonta time to do what he needs to do.

    Dante doesn't seem to be taking this horde seriously, or he'd be fighting a lot harder. He swaps out Rebellion for his pistols, Ebony and Ivory spinning in his hands as they cock and and he opens fire upon the goblins. "Get outta here! C'mon, you uglies, can't you tell we're a lot stronger than any of you put together?" He calls out, grinning wildly.

    Gunfire might draw Mr. Weird Thornguy's attention, if the fighting hasn't already.

>> GAME >> Ryuunosuke spends an Edge for: To poison a Fae, and distract it long enough to allow Gonta an opening to try to free a trapped individual.

    Luke certainly appreciates Dante's 'courtesy' of not slashing onto his pokemon, and Agni is quite happy with that as well!. The fire pokemon tries to stay out of Dante's way, and just bashes away any remaining goblin that was too close, moving closer to Dante, and glancing towards the Castle. Luke cautiously approaches the pair, now that the goblins seem to be in the retreat. "Should we continue ahead?" he asks.

Gonta nods toward Ryuunosuke. "Gonta probably can do it..." he says as quietly as he can manage. He /could/ probably do a good impression of some sort of mascot that makes a habit of bursting through walls to make an entry, so if physical damage will do it, he's the guy. He intakes a breath as Ryuunosuke does the distraction act with one of the drones. Assuming that's his cue, he FLINGS himself forward, throwing himself a good distance before hitting the ground in a roll. He'd come out of the roll running on all fours, sliiiiiding feet first at the giant fork like object at the end of his runn.

This close, and you'll be able to notice that the figure- whatever it (he?) is- is drawing something out of the wad of darkness, or more specifically the person inside it, but what it exactly is can't really be explained. If you could find a way to describe it, it feels like... context? It's eating context?

    "Gah!" shouts the vermicious raksha- for that is what he is- as he's set upon by a serpent, which menaces with a fierce poison.

     "A hoedown of fangs and buckshot? Is this really the first welcome afforded to Blazing Intonation and Tide Voice Singer?!" he asks, drawing a sword made of manta stings, seafoam and spite.

    With his free hand, he creates a magic summoning circle, which doppels into existence a second circle on the ground. 

    https://i.imgur.com/PNRqC0d.png

    That second circle creates a belligerent black pudding, a roundish blob resembling a bubbling, heaping pile of thick black goo. It is strewn with broken pieces of wood, bones and weapons, and it revolves in the direction of the great calcified door between the sections of castle. If Dante and Luke don't open the door, they may be open to a sneaky charge attack!

    Meanwhile, Gonta slide kicks into one of the tuning fork's tines. Knocking it out of position, it causes the wad of darkness to wobble- and then it drops to the floor to shatter like an egg, revealing a small and wan young woman was curled up inside.

Gonta stands up and dusts himself off. He's a little surprized the thing shattered SO easily, but er...well, he IS a big, clumsy, overly strong oaf as far as he's conserned, so...not TOO surprizing. Adjusting his glasses a little, he'd hurriedly move to pick up the strange young woman, appologizing profusely as he does so.

It's probably rude to pick up strange ladies like this before even knowing them, right? He doesn't know but it feels rude. More importantly, he needs to get her away from this 'Blazing Into-Intoc-In---whoever this person with the thorns is! Thus he'd start trying to run off, princess carrying the unknown girl in the process.

    Fortunately Ryuunosuke can't actually 'taste' anything through his autonomous serpent drone thingies. However, his eye twitches a few times as the wireframe serpent registers it as something MISTAKES WERE MADE OH GOD SO WRONG. He shivers, as if shaking off something vile. However, Gonta's provided an opening, and Ryuunosuke takes it, heading to where Gonta's knocked the tuning fork thing over and smashed its contents. He's going to run interference so Gonta can escape. Which might initially seem like a foolhardy thing, as he appears to be little more than a slightly mutated human.

    Probably right up until all seven of those arms unfold from his back, and the two drones that had been flying around reattach to their respective telescoping metal arms. This time each one of the large metallic disks on the ends of each arm sprouts a green, wireframe serpent. "Stand down," Ryuunosuke states flatly. "You face Yamata-no-Orochi, the Eight Forked Serpent of Koshi." Oh hey, he's got one of those big long names too.

    Dante sees a second circle, leading to a calcified door. He glances to Luke and shrugs, before he trades his pistols for sword again. Rebellion comes down hard on the door, just in time for the goo to charge in. "WHat the!?" He dashes to the side, moving to grab Luke and get him out of the way as if teleporting from place to place. "We're not done yet after all, kiddo." He says, placing Luke down as he readies for combat with this gooey thing.

    He takes a stance, winding up with Rebellion as the blade glows with energy, and then suddenly-

    "DRIVE! ONE! TWO!" He slashes some kind of force blast at the gooey monster.

    Luke is picked up and carried away by Dante!. There is not much time to react, beyond Agni doing the best it can with short legs, chasing after his trainer, and snarling at the weird black goey thing. "I guess you are right... wait... what IS that?". Agni in the mean time seems to get a bit of initiative, rushing back to Luke and roaring to the bizarre, pointy black blob full of pointy things, still glowing with heat, taking a deep breath, and unleashing a bright stream of fire towards the creature.

    Wow! She's heavier than she looks!

    "Ugggh... hey... no... stay away from me...." the girl says quietly, but it's unclear who she's saying it /to/ or even if she has a firm grasp of her surroundings right now.

    The utter otherworldliness of BITVS is definitely not something you'd want to eat more than nonece, it's true. And he's got one blade whereas Ryuunosuke has... how many is that? Seven? Wait, does each fang count as a blade? Are we talking about fourteen blades here? If we're generous?

    "...discretion may be the better part of valour..." he says quietly, giving Lotus an aside glance. She seems to have been rescued...

    Wait, no, this has potential. He could definitely make a better story out of this than what he was originally going with. 

    And as the giant mess of black pudding slides backwards towards both of them, Blazing Tide Blahwhatever decides he's got a cunning plan and ducks behind the now-blazing goo pile, seemingly disappearing as the chaos crashes in.

    And this definitely is chaotic, as we now have an oily mass of ON FIRE sludge and junk and possibly a tongue? making a mess all over the castle walls, which will definitely need to be pounded into incoherence before we can call this day a wipe.

As the girl says to let go Gonta stops and appologizes profusely once again. "Gonta doesn't mean to bother you, but...weren't you the one calling," he asks lostly, "Should Gonta go away? Did Gonta make a mistake by breaking the giant fork?"

    "Wh-" Dante doesn't quite notice Blazing Tide hiding behind the goo, but he definitely knows now's the time to finish the thing off. He rushes toward the gooey thing, and his sword rains blows upon Blazing Tide and his hiding spot with a flurry that's impossible for the human eye to track, gracefully slashing and thrusting rapidly before finishing it off with a final baseball swing of a strike with the blade. "AND THAT'S ONE TO GROW ON!"

    Oh, if we're counting fangs as individual blades, that'll be eighteen. Because this humanlike thing did mention EIGHT forks, but it only has SEVEN of those glowing green serpent heads. Then again, when he bares his teeth the eighth fork is revealed -- he has a pair of snakelike fangs in his humanlike mouth, too. So that's two more blades, for a grand total of eighteen! That is, if each individual fang is a blade. But all eight 'forks' are accounted for.

    Ryuunosuke moves forward as the being starts to escape, but also hesitates. He's already gotten a whiff of that thing's scent once, and he's not sure he wants to try to drain its life. It might taste like purple or something weird like that. But he notices far too late that the creature is heading for the black oily thing. Though once the red-haired creature disappears, he pauses again. He's willing to let Dante and Luke handle it.

    For now he heads to the strange girl that Gonta rescued. "...I do not believe she was speaking to you in particular," he assures Gonta. "Whatever that creature was doing to her, it was likely not something she would have allowed had she been under her own power." He pauses, to study the girl. "You are safe," he tries. And then he adds, "...Reasonably so."

Lotus' eyes roll for a moment before she gets a hold of herself, snapping to attention with a mechanical click as she looks at her rescuer.

    "I was calling for help. I was calling for help? I was calling for help..."

    She still looks kind of out of it. "Y-you've done well..."

    Boy, she sure is heavy.

    Rather than the more graceful bowing out he may have been hoping for, Blazing & Tide is swept away in a noxious blast of disintegrating, burning sludge, which knocks down one of the thinner castle walls with the force of its impact due to the sheer food-processor-like alacrity of Dante's sword strikes. It's probably going to have to dig itself out of there.

    With the ooze turned into a frappe, it seems as if things are quiet for now. You've rescued someone! Congratulations!


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gkZ1URUu0A
    Somewhere a Heart - Myles Hunter
    Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers - 1986