World Tree MUSH

Raven was, once again, in the woods. Her legs crossed, hovering in the air so her cloak drifted just above the ground. "Azarath metrion zinthos..." She chanted repeatedly. Again and again.

She tried to keep her calm, but small beads of sweat formed on het brow, showing her distress. Rocks hovered around her in a slow, spinning circle. 

Sheik. Sheik. Sheik. The woman posed a... Interesting conundrum. She was death to raven. Pure, burning death. But... She could also be a powerful ally. Someone who could help her defeat trigon...

Not alone. But... She could be important in the fight. However, in order to do that, she had to... Trust the woman with who raven was. And she suspected Sheik would have no qualms about obliterating Raven entirely if it came down to it. If... If she was considered a threat to this world... As much, or more so, than this twilight...

The darkness bound rocks began to spin faster, creating and whistling, whirling sound. In the air.

Ash was in the same woodland Raven was. Amusingly he also sat crosslegged floating in the air. However unlike her he was stationary and silent. His concentration was soley on breathing. For him the act of meditative calmness was elusive, his mind always a jumble he had trouble just turning off. Surprisingly this was Ordis's idea, the glitchy murder-happy cephelon suggesting that Ash get out of the ship, and find a quiet spot. The landing craft was close, and the void cloak was good enough to keep any locals from noticing. This left Ordis confident Ash had an avanue of escape should their initial asessment of this world prove incorrect.

Someone like Raven would perhaps feel/hear/taist/pick-a-sense the spin-cycleof Ash's emotions. One moment quiet calm, the next annoyed, then anger, then the slow cooldown back to calm. To Ash's credit his emotions werne't screaming in any metaphysical sense, but tie that to this place bing reasonably empty and perhaps a touch of Ash's own metaphysical nature being weird would prove noteworthy enough to be out of place.

It's a forest... Gonta LOVES forests. It's like being back home, just sometimes without the mountainy part. He tries to do his exploring of other worlds in foresty areas where he can. Well there or beaches, now that he's realised he really likes those two. The large boy adjusts his glasses a short moment, squinting through them. Did he just see-? Yes, that does look like a floting rock. He's actually still a deal away on seeing this, however. He sneaks in closer, but has this sort of radiatingly happy and curious sort of disposition that would possibly leak out to Raven's sense before his general presence or the look of his resting murder face.

Anna is running through the woods with Spiral on her shoulder, one hand holding the golden-furred catlike creature steady. She's moving at high speeds -- not fast enough to collide with trees, but it's clearly at a speed that you wouldn't expect an ordinary human to match in general, let alone without being winded.

"I'm just saying," says Spiral, "from what I've heard about this world, we probably shouldn't be wandering around Hyrule without an armed escort." In spite of her annoyance, she's mostly just worried about Anna throwing herself into danger.

Anna shrugs. "An armed escort wouldn't be able to keep up with me," she says simply. "And neither have the monsters we've run into, too!" She's worried, not for her own sake, but in case they ever run into someone who needs help!

Spiral opens her mouth to respond, but then just softly says, "... yeah." The two have exhausted pretty much everything there is to say about Anna's reluctance to transform. Nevertheless, there is a burst of anxiety and indecision in Anna's emotional state.

And then Spiral frowns, staring through the trees towards Raven. "... I think there might be a monster here," she says slowly, "but it doesn't seem like the monsters that usually show up in Hyrule, so it might not be ... hmm."

Anna immediately changes her course to head *towards* Raven, and Spiral just sighs softly.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> Gotta Go Fast.

Raven was calm. Was serene. Was relaxed. Oh. Off in the distanxe there wss someone with the same idea she had. They felt... Odd. Perhaps a twilight creature? That was fine so long as it didn't come near here.

Weird. Another human, she felt. Curious, but not hostile. That wasn't worth worrying about. It would go away. "Azarath, metrion...." Shw continued her chant, not noticing yet... Looking like a calm, relaxed-- THEN TWO CAME RIGHT AT HER!

 A vision of zelda flashed in her mind and she shrieked. Her arms flailed for a moment... Before she fell from the air, crashing to the ground witg a yelp. "O-ow...." She whispered, rubbing her butt and looking up. At the three who were surrounding her. "Can i--" Boom. A boulder ahe had lifted crashed to the ground, making her jump. A few more, smaller, rocks fell then. Once she was sure they were done, she glanced to them again. "Errr... As... I was saying. Can i help you?" She asked. Wrapping her cloak tightly around herself and hiding her face in its shadow.

The whole zen one with everything state of mind was difficult. Turns out eople screaming along with body on body collision noises make it effectivly impossible for Ash. At the scream he wobled just before unfolding his legs. "Ordis?"

"About a hundred meters to your left. Definitely human, but sensors are having problems. Maybe this 'magic' or... whatever is going on with this place. Suggest caution."

"Thank you Ordis." He hadn't run into any of the Twilight creatures, otherwise he'd have been here with his frame rather than as himself. He would have wanted to go get saidframe, but the juggle between lander, transferrence pod, then dropping frame off woul take more time than he was willing to spend.

So he startedrunning towards the noise.

Ash was dressed in Tenno garb today, brown doublet coat rather than any of the clothes he'd picked up here and about. So it is likely he would look decidedly non-native as he looked the two girls over. One girl with some kind of cat-thing definitely not from here. The other with the pale skin....?

He didn't look tired, and if Raven were paying attention ther'd be the sort o concern/adrenaline/curiosity mix likely felt hundreds of times over whenever people approach an unknown situation with intent on help as opposed to murder. "You two alright?" Ash had little knowledge in patching people up, just breaking them. That wasn't going to stop him from asking though.

While Gonta had been coming in carefully, the sound of the shriek and the sounds of the falling rocks sends him darting forward on all fours, putting aside any forethought of cautious approach. He'd make it to the scene and screeeeeach to a hault before standing back up on his hind legs like normal. Huh? There's not floating rocks anymore more? He DID see floating rocks, right? Was THAT what made the sound? There are several rocks about... He blinks lostly for a short moment before wondering. "Everyone ok?"

"ANNA WE'RE ABOUT TO --" Anna comes to a sudden halt as she enters the clearing, and ... stares at the hovering girl. At the hovering boulders. Wait no, at the falling girl and the falling boulders! "Um ... sorry!" she exclaims, her entire emotional state instantly changing to worry and concern that she might have accidentally been responsible for Raven getting hurt. She has a fairly androgynous voice. "I was, uh, I was just curious, is all."

Spiral stares intently at Raven, and her eyes flicker. "Oh, not a monster, I just got confused by her powers," she says softly, too-pointy ears twitching. This is only a half-truth.

Anna glances at Gonta and Ash, then shakes her head, and walks over to Raven and holds out a hand to help her up. "Sorry, are you okay?"

Raven was okay. She hadn't broken anything aside from her concentration. And now... Four of them. All a mix of concern and worry for her well being.

Well. It beat the avatar of death, Sheik. And they all felt a little... Odd. But then, since she came here, who hadn't? She had no right to judge.

"i am fine. There is no damage done to--" and then spiral said THAT! The vein on her head almost popped as she calmed. Cal. Down. Calm do--

"I am not a monster!" It didn't help that shadow had completely enveloped her form, her eyes had glowed with a red, evil glow... And her voice had echoed. Or that the form made her mouth seem more... Fangy. Or that the boulder behind her had shattered.

She then urked, when she realized... Maybe she was still a little... Tense. From the earlier events. "I'm... Sorry. You interrupted my... Meditation...." She mumbled sheepishly, trying to instinctively make herself as small as possible.

Ash immediately took a defensive posture, his right hand held in a somehwat odd position for martial arts, palm extended and seemingly aimed at the shadow rather than Raven herself. His emotions oddly remained that same mix of concern rather than perhaps the expected shift into fear or rage. "Dep breaths..." His voice was soft. "Just take a deep breath. We're friends here. Noone is going to try urting you." He then looked about at the rest of the quartet. "Right?" That last word perhaps coming moe forcefully than it should have.

Then when the shadow slid away and Raven calmed down his posture relaxed and he gave a small laugh. "Oh hey totally get where you're coming from with the whole 'i'm not a onster' thing," He said almost absently before aiming his palm at a random rock away from everyone. There was the sound of something inhaling for a moment. Raven perhaps would feel the pull of energy from some other place before everyone would see a palm wide laser-like energy pulse shatter the small rock. It had been of all colors and at the same time none, shifting and swirling in the brief span the beam existed. 

Then ash would smile warmly before bowing to Raven, "Hi I'm Ash." He would then look around, "Sorry for the theatrics."

Seeing what looks like a problem brewing betwee Raven and Spiral, Gonta's quick to try and rush between them, though he does find the whole shadow thing a little spooky and new. "Ahh, please don't fight..." he says, "Gonta knows what it can be like to be called a monster but, fighting over it is no good." Though, he's just as quick to relax as Raven appilogizes and acts so sheepish. "You...really are ok, right," he asks in very obvious concern. For being such a bear of a guy in appearance it seems more like he's a teddy bear than a grizzly bear. "Gonta doesn't hurt anything...on purpose...unless he has to protect friends," is said toward Ash.

At the sudden surge of darkness, Anna takes a nervous step back, and Spiral leaps off and floats away from her. Anna's hand goes right up to the sapphire pendant around her neck ... and then seems to collide with an invisible metaphorical wall made out of Anna's anxieties and indecision.

And then as soon as the darkness fades, Anna just walks up to Raven and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey, it's okay," she says, her concern just expanding to a massive size as she puts a comforting hand on Raven's shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, nobody here is gonna ..." She gives Ash the stink-eye. "... hurt you. Or judge you. All right? Spiral just isn't used to recognizing different types of power, your sorcery was just surprising, is all." She steps back. "My name's Anna!"

Spiral just stares at Anna with a mixture of concern and resignation. "... And I'm Spiral," she says dryly.

Raven was calm. Really. And then everyone told her to 'be calm' or 'no one would hurt her' or 'we're all friends and let's not fight'. Nothing could annoy her more and the vein was on the verge of popping in her forehead. 

"I am fine and i can control myself. And i do not need the protections of any of you," she said curtly.

Her eyes did linger on that void blast, though. She had half a mind to ask how he did that spell but... No. Nope nope. Shw wouldn't give that satisfaction. She--

And then anna touched her. Dark energy rose uo between them. Not hurting the girl, but attempting to drive her back. It dissipated quickly.

"First. Do NOT touch me. I am an empath. Touch feels HORRIBLE because it's like having your feelings thrust directly into my head." And her eyes narrowed as her voice, cold and angry spilled forth. "Second, i am a pacifist. I havw no intention of hurting any of you. Even if you do deserve it. So stop acting like I'm a child, about to snap at the snap of a hat." Another boulder crumbled to dust.

"Thirdly. Do. Not. Touch. Me. I do NOT like to be touched. Learn a bit of respect for people. Just because you intend to run blindly forth latching onto everyone like a overly clingy ferret doesn't mean others desire to put up with your behavior. Are. We. Clear?" She snapped.

Yes. Her nerves were a little... Off. The touch and emotions mixing with her own had not helped.

Ash put up his hands palm forward at chest height before taking a step bak, "K... yea hey sorry about that. Magic's not exactly something that I'm good with." Ash took a deep breath, not quite grasping the interplay betwen Anna and Raven's whole light dark thing going on. "I do think the whole shadow thing is kinda neat. I mean i have question s on how much you can lift, what kinda fine control you have..." He was... excited? "All I can co right now is just... blow things up. Or power things."

Beat.

His emotions took a nosedive when he realized he was babbling. "Sorry." HE then looked to Anna and smiled weakly before looking back to everyone else. "Uh... where are we anyway? I just took vine... portal... whatever you anna call them until my ship hit somewhere quiet."

Further proving how far off his apperance could be to how he actually is, Gonta gets a little wibbly faced as Raven gets irritable like that, wincing when rock reacts to her mood. "Sorry, sorry," he says with a repeating, insistent bow, "Gonta didn't mean it to be like that. Gonta was an idiot... Gonta just got worried when he heard the noises and then he saw angry looking people... Umm...are you the one doing all those things to the rocks?"

Anna recoils from Raven. Embarrassment and worry is spinning around in her head, but she's ... halfway reaching to the pendant again, and once again her anxiety and indecision blocks it. "W-well excuse me!" she stammers, her voice sounding a bit *more* androgynous.

"... Anna, could you please stop trying to help people?" says Spiral, who's only slightly surprised to find herself on Raven's side here.

Anna gives Spiral a *look*, and she just ... doesn't say anything in response. "I mean, I'm kind of curious too," she says. She clears her throat, and manages to bring her voice back to normal. "Um, I think this place is called Hyrule? Apparently there's these 'Twilight' monsters attacking it, neither of us knows the details."

Raven was momentarily distracted by the excitement. She narrowed her eyes on ash and then... She smiled, just a little. And there was jusr a hint of flush. "You... Think it's cool?" She asked softly. "And umm... I don't kniw the upper limits of how much i can lift. I can use my telekinesis to fly, by my strength to lift and move things seems to depend on my mood. My control depends on how... Focused i am. If i lose control, i tend to lost precision. Though i often gain power then. The more emotional i am, the stronger i become."

Then her eyes turned to anna. " You are a bundle of nerves. Calm. Down. Ir seek therapy. I do not care which," she said curtly. Then glanced to Gonta. Then at the rocks. Then, in a bland, empty, emotionless voice. 

"No."

Ash nods and lets out a thoughtful hmm as he starts pacing. "That... tracks actually. You seem to pick up on everyone els'es moods so I expect it's something like a dam containing a huge reservour." He had this mental image of all that funneling in to a water jet that could cut through metal with enough fine precision to carve your name in fancy orokin script, or just let the floodgates open and demolish the thing those initials were carved on even if said thing were something building sized and anchored in bedrock.

"Control and learning the how of thigns is why I'm out here as myself rather than using my warframe everywhere." THat and the fact his warframe is decidedly not something condusive to interacing with people when you don't want to inspie terror.

He then looked to Gonta and quirked an eyebrow. "Not often I see people that tend to talk in the third person. Just out for a walk?" He wondered, briefly, what the deal with this big guy was. Two magicians of a sort, a void demon, and... this guy.

The large boy seems confused as Raven says no. He really doesn't get magic at all, or the talking about it, or anything. "When Gonta saw rocks floating, he thought it might be a mage like Himeko, from Gonta's class, but Gonta guesses not..." At Ash's question he waggles a hand a little. "Gonta is supposed to help the school with exploring the other worlds here." He pauses and blushes a little before bowing to everyone. "Sorry, Gonta was rude, Gonta is Gonta Gokuhara, the student Hope's Peak Academy calls as 'ultimate entomologist'. Thank you for speaking with Gonta!"

Anna takes a few deep breaths, and then ... relaxes somewhat, especially when Ash wonders out loud about the effect peoples' moods are having on Raven's empathy. "Sorry." She shakes her head. "It's, it's my issues with my own ... stuff." She tucks the pendant back into her shirt, and her anxiety and indecision pop up again the entire time she's touching it, before disappearing completely as soon as she lets go. "I mean, seriously, though, my own stupidity aside, your powers *are* pretty cool, Ash and ... um ... sorry, what was your name?" she says, turning back to Raven.

She decides not to comment on Gonta's ... confusion. "A mage, huh?" she says. "... Now I'm curious to visit your world, too, heh."

"You're curious to visit *every* world," says Spiral, floating back to her shoulder. "I mean, I shouldn't complain, considering I am too."

Raven eyed ash and... Nodded. "Yes. That is a very apt descripion of it. You... Are trying ti study things?" She asked. He found her powers 'cool'. And he seemed intelligent to get a small grasp on how they worked. "What... Is a war frame?" She asked.

Before her eyes were drawn to gonta. "Huh? Hope..." She was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Sounds like a good school."

Then back to anna. " huh? It's... Raven. I am from Azarath. Any desire yo visit it would be wasted, i cannot return their either, and it was my home." Then her eyes were drawn to back to ash for a moment, then anna. She took a small step back and... The hood was lifted back. Revealing the...bpale girl behind it. "You... Two really think my powers are... Cool? Not freaky, or weird, or scary?" She asked softly. The indecision and... Anxiety evident on her face. Something anna would likely be familiar with.

"Entomologist." Ordis spoke in Ash's ear, "Essentially one who studies insects."

"Hmmm.... Sounds interesting." This wasn't false 'i'm pretending to be interested just to keep you from wanting to rip my arms off' interest. "Found any real commonalities between the places you've been?" Ash gestured to the forest at large. "To me all of these are trees, but I suspect there's all these little diffrences. Same thing probably goes for bugs."

Ordis then spoke again in a rather deadpan sort of voice, "Operator, you do realize you'll never get him to," The voice glitched, "shut up," before resuming its normal entonations with, "move on to other topics don't you?"

Then Ash turned his attention back to Raven and paused. Raven would get a swirl of apprehension, uncertanty, and then a calm. "Short version? It's a proxy I use so that I'm able to fight. As far as I understand my power channels through it for a variety of effects, and in turn there's a wide variety of skillsit posesses I ca call on." He then shrugged helplessly, his emotions giving indication he wasn't qute happy with that explaination, as if he felt it wasn't close enough to the mark. "The problem is i really can't do anythign to improve what's there short of new weapons for it to use. So I'm trying a bit of self improvement." Of course none of this answesthe question of 'why do you need an entire second body for the sake of fighting? 

At Raven's nervous question Ash Smiled, "I come from a world that many consider.... Bad." Raven would feel a swirl of emotions ranging from rage to nostalgic longing at these words as Ash's mind cast between battles with the Corpus and Grineer, to a quiet game of Komi while visiting Cetus. "I've been called worse things just for being able to do the whole hand laser thing. So yea, what you can do is pretty cool." Well not JUST, but he didn't know this girl, or... any of the others really. Why bog them down with his story?

He then looked to Anna, "What about you?"

Gonta blinks a little but nods insistantly even though he hadn't been one of the people to say what Raven was asking about. "You were doing it then," he wonders, getting a slight grasp of sarcasm thanks to SOME of his class mates, "Raven's power is a /little/ scary, but it's /very/ cool." He's also not saying this just to say it. Simpleness aside, he seems quite honest. Ash's question gets a nod as well.

"Well, the...civilization looks different to Gonta, but sort of like it...but the forest reminds him a lot of where he grew up. Oh! Gonta DID see /golden/ bugs that he'd never seen before, but most the bugs seem like the same types so far." The boy grins widely before blinking at Anna. "Yes," he answers, "Himeko is the only mage Gonta knew so far though. Hope's Peak Academy has all kinds of students...there is also an astronaut, a detective, a robot, and all kinds of neat people in Gonta's class."

Anna just smiles at Raven. "Of course I think you're cool!" she says; she's just full of complete sincerity when she says it. "Oh, you're cute, too! I wish *I* had looks that good." There's just a tiny fragment of envy there for a split second ...

Spiral interjects, "Anna just isn't capable of looking down on people." She shrugs. "Neither am I, to be honest."

Anna nods to Ash. "People in my world ... sometimes awaken to magical abilities. I named mine 'Windrunner', I can just run really fast. It also ..." She hesitates, her worries and indecision lurking in the background.

Spiral takes over. "Basically, she has the opportunity to become one of two types of magical warriors who fight the monsters in our world. There's Star Paladins, who get their abilities from my people, the Starbringers --" Anna's anxieties come to the surface again as Spiral says this. "-- and there's also the Heart Mages, whose power comes from within." Anna's anxieties disappear, replaced with a noticeably lesser worry and concern. "And Anna just can't decide which she wants to be."

Anna nods to Gonta. "Sounds interesting!" she says. "A robot, huh ... Hey, Raven, do you know if your empathy works on artificial intelligences? The ones that can feel emotions, I mean."

Raven was a little surprised to discover Ash was interested in insects. But she supposed there was nothing wrong with learning more about different things. Only a fool brushed things off as 'not mattering' just because they didn't interest them.

She nodded. "So... an aparatus to direct your abilities, as well as a proxy to ensure you maintain safety from a distance? That makes sense," she said with a nod. What? She could grasp things, too. She was fairly smart. "I'd enjoy the opportunity to see it one day."

Though, upon the words of being called... Cool... was rather... She did smile a little, and flush. It was obvious she wasn't used to hearing THAT particular brand of words for her abilities.

And then Anna doubled down. And Raven went fully scarlet, she reached up and lifted her hood back over her face. "'m... 'm not cute..." she kind of mumbled. Poking her index fingers together. "That, it's not... s-shut up..." OH MY GOSH THESE PEOPLE WERE NUTS IT WAS THE ONLY EXPLANATION! DON'T SAY STUFF LIKE THAT AND THEN MEAN IT WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!

And then, a distraction. She glanced to Anna and ALMOST said a robot couldn't feel emotion. Then paused. "I have sensed emotions from animals, aliens and even creatures so simple that the very notion of 'fear' would overload their undeveloped minds. If it is capable of feeling an emotion, I do not know why I would not be able to sense it." Yes. Focus on THAT part of what she said.

Wait what. Robots? Ash looked to Gonta, "That.... how does that function without everything falling apart?" He had little experiance in group dynamic, but it sounded like the next best thign to pure madness. 

then a look to Spiral with utter and absolute disbelief, "That... that sounds so..." THere wasa tightness in his voice as his mind flashed through what little he remembered of everything between the Zairman Incident and Now. None of it was pretty and most of it was some shad or other of horrifying. "Nice."

And then Raven had a meltdown because genuine compliments. Causing Ash to twitch, the fingers of his right hand flexed then stilled when he realized she was just embarassed. "Huuuh... maybe we could test this." He smild at Raven, "How close do you have to be? Like... would it work through convrosation or do you have to be 'there'?"

Gonta tilts his head as Anna brings up the bit about if Raven can feel a robot's emotion or not. "Oooh, now Gonta wishes he could bring Keebo to see about this," he replies, "...it would be far too rude though. Keebo is very....sensitive about things he calls 'robophobia'. He'd probably get upset at Gonta for doing such a thing, and Gonta's trying to be a gentleman and not hurt his friend's feelings like that."

Ash's question makes him look more thoughtful. "How does it function? The school? Keebo?" He seems really lost with that question. He pauses and bows to the all the others another though. "It is very nice meeting you all."

Anna giggles, and ... manages to stop herself from teasingly ruffling Raven's hair, and just drops her hand before it gets halfway there. "Well, I mean. *I'm* a total weirdo myself, in my own way ..." *That* is said with complete sincerity, too. "In all seriousness, though, I think you're definitely cool. Your powers are more impressive than what I think I'd be able to do, even if I do become a magical girl."

Spiral looks Ash over. "I know what you're thinking," she says mildly, "but Anna's old enough for military service in her home nation." She doesn't comment on the fact that Ash is ... not. "Anyway, the Curse Phantoms generally only attack peoples' emotions, when you aren't barging straight into their lairs. Even then, Anna's been into three before, and didn't get so much as a scratch." She glances at Anna. "... Except when she tried to dropkick one of the monsters, whereupon she *did* get exactly a scratch."

Anna pointedly ignores Spiral, and blinks at Gonta. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she says, genuinely contrite. "I'll respect that, then. I don't want to ... insult someone who's sensitive about that kind of thing."

Raven nodded. "I have to... be there. I can detect the emotions of most things within... ten feet? Maybe.... fifty? I never measured it. Weaker emotions are harder to detect, more powerful ones are easier. And if I'm touching someone, well... I can feel pretty much everything they feel and... it is useful to help those who require someone to help... sort them out," she mumbled.

Then... "I've... never actually seen a robot before outside of a book, though. So... I couldn't tell you if they do or don't," she mumbled. "Azarath was not the most... technologically advanced place. there was a lot of knowledge, but they prefered to work the body. And the dimension was..." she trailed off. Well. Even if she flew most places, there was a REASON she was in good shape. And it wasn't her diet(though it helped).

She then looked to Anna and... "I would choose the star paladins, or whatever they were called. Your powers.... Your heart is in turmoil, it jumps around in a wild, erratic mess. Depending on your own control to.... neutralize that would be difficult, possibly dangerous."

In response to Spiral's mentioning age, Ash just... lets that one go. Well not exactly. Instead he just shrugged without correction. He just grinned as if he knew some horrible secret or joke that nobody else did, "Well, mind reading isn't in your powers list little avat."

Then Raven clarified how her empathic skills worked, which caused Ash to frown. "So basically you'd have to be on my ship to get a read on Ordis." He felt somewhat disheartened. "I don't doubt for a moment ORdis feels. It'd just be an interesting thign to poke at, assuming he'd be fine with it some other day." 

He had nothing to contribute between Raven and Anna. "Hey," He pulled out what looked like a flip phone. Trueth be told it was more a prop than anything, but it gave a omforting form factor. "If anyone wants to trade numbers here's a way to get in touchwith me..." He sounded somewhat hesitent, "Though I'm not sure how well this works etween worlds." Then a glance to Raven, "And i'm pretty sure you don't have anything like thatso.. I dunno how to get in touch with you."

"Gonta has one of those but he still doesn't understand a lot of the things it does..." the big guy admits as he carefully plucks out the phone he's been putting numbers on to. "Gonta's not very good with technology, but he's trying to learn..." He nods toward Anna though. "You didn't mean anything bad," he states, "There's no problem...and Gonta knows what Raven means about living places that aren't technologically advanced..." He spent two thirds of his life in the wild so, he worries about asking to much into this sort of thing since his questions usually seem to leave people frustraited with trying to get him to understand things that are so outside of his realm of understanding.

Anna shrugs. "To be honest, the biggest anxiety is in the choosing," she says. "Emotions would be a problem no matter which one I'm in, since magic is greatly affected by emotions in my world." She grins weakly. "And I feel even worse about not being able to do anything." Then she suddenly perks up a bit, "Actually! Do you think you could help me with your empathy? Like ... was there a difference in my emotional state between the two possibilities? The Star Paladins, who are ... more structured, and I have the Starbringers as a support network ..." High anxiety. "... versus the Heart Mages, who have more freedom and a wider variety of abilities." Low anxiety, medium worries and concerns. "Because I'm ... not that great at examining my own feelings, especially when I'm being indecisive."

Anna nods to Ash and Gonta, and gets out her phone. "I'm not sure I've seen any communication that worked between worlds, but here's my number, too," she says. "It'll probably work if you find yourself in a vine that takes you to Brighton, Massachusetts."

Spiral settles back on Anna's shoulder. "Yeah, I'm not personally aware of any inter-world communications either."

Raven cocked her head to the side and stared at the phone. "Is.... it some kind of communication device?" she asked. "There's magic for th... err. I suppose... I'm sorry. It's probably best this way, though. Is ordis a friend of yours?" she asked. "If you'd like, I could try but... I would need to be near them to do it. If you decide you want me to.... Well... I don't mind," she mumbled. Not sure what exactly she was agreeing to.

Then Anna asked... She eyed her for a few moments. Before... "That isn't the way to solve this," she said, before moving to where she had been. She reached out and dark magic cleaned the area of rubble.

"Anna, sit across from me... And repeat after me. Azeroth. Metrion. Zinthos. Azeroth. Metrion. Zinthos. Repeat the words, over and over. Slow. Steady. Each word. Is a sentence its own." Once the girl had started, Raven opened her eyes. "Do not stop chanting. Now... Picture the star paladins. Imagine them fighting. Imagine those who you fear, those who you idolize, those of them you admire... Now imagine yourself bearing their seal, and fighting besides them," she said, before getting up. "Form the image in your mind of yourself as a star paladin..."

She began to circle the girl. "Now.... Imagine the same, as a heart mage. Imagine yourself being one with them. Serving as one. Living your life as one..."

She then stopped in front of the girl and motioned her hand down. Gripping her chin in dark magic and making her look up. "The answer is obvious as the sun and moon. Your heart is stearing you towards..." And then she smiled. 

"You are afraid I will say one, are you not? Your heart is filled with hope that I will select one, and dreading that I will say the other. You aren't a fool, you know what you want... you just needed a knife to cut through the fear. Now... which have you chosen?" she asked before pulling back.

Allowing Anna to say the words for herself. To take that bit of control...

Ash stepped back and rather than answer any of Raven's questions he let her focus on Anna both figuratively and very literally in taking two large steps back before taking a seating position meter and change off the ground. His eyes closed and he focused on his breathingto trykeeping his emotions tamped down. no sense cluttering Ravent's attempted empathic therapy wit h everything in his mind bouncing around.

Gonta watches curiously before blinking at Ash's reaction. He hurriedly, awkwardly steps back too, peering down at his feet as if he isn't sure he's supposed to watch or not... His mouth opens, but quickly shuts again as he puts the phone back away.

Spiral floats off Anna's shoulder and, if allowed, goes to sit on Gonta's.

Anna sits across from Raven, repeating the words. She lets her mind relax, because that's obviously the sort of thing you do when a gray-skinned girl says she's going to read your emotions.

And, well ... it's easy to imagine both possibilities. She imagines wearing the costume of the Star Paladins, which is more like a uniform, and being beholden to all their rules and procedures, as loose as they are. Being part of a network of strangers, plus her only friend in the form of Spiral. Having a very ... standardized set of powers, neither aiding her Windrunner nor her Windrunner aiding them.

And then she imagines being a Heart Mage, racing off at her own pace, tearing through level-1 Distortions in record time, her entire body wreathed in the blue light. Traveling through the World Tree, helping those she couldn't help before, without Spiral as her mentor or teacher, since Heart Mages aren't as strongly-connected to their network ... but still by her side as they traveled through the worlds together.

There's still a part of her that wants to say "But ..."

Except that Raven is right. Anna laughs out loud. All the indecision and anxiety ... it's just *gone* now. "Heart Mage," she says simply, and reaches back to undo the clasp of her necklace.

"Yeah, I thought it might work out that way," Spiral says easily. "Keep the Star Gem for now, though. I won't ask for it back until you're actually ready to transform for the first time." Anna hurriedly redoes the clasp.

Raven nodded and relax, sitting back down and closing her eyes. "You'll find that most people know what they want. They'll huff. And puff. And search for some other excuse, some other reason. But at the end of the day? People are people. And they have the same wants and needs as anyone else," she said firmly. "And that desire is usually to have what's best for them. Sometimes, you just need a little nudge to cut through your own worries."

She then opens her eyes and glances to the other two. "Thank you, for your silence. You can act again. That was..." Pause. "Polite, of you. Is there anything else you would like to use my powers for?"

A shrug as Ash considered the request. "Yes, but... well, trying to figure out how to train and find ways to grow takes more than a simple sitdown." He then looked to Anna then to Gonta. "I do hope to see you another time, but perhaps now it is best to not push you overly." A bow and then he started walking off.

Gonta waves after Ash. "Take care," he calls before nodding toward Raven. "Thank you, Gonta tries," he replies to Raven before looking thoughtful and shaking his head, "Gonta shouldn't ask anything of new friends like that. Doesn't this take...I think Himeko says 'mana'?"

Anna is mostly just relieved now. "... heh ... yeah, you've got me *pegged*," she says, grinning ear to ear at Raven. "... Thank you." She gets unsteadily to her feet, and waves goodbye to Ash. "... I'm, I'm fine for now," she says. "Thanks. You've done ... *more* than enough for now."

Spiral floats back over and lands on Anna's shoulder. "Yeah, I think we're gonna need to wander off, too, just so Anna can, y'know, *recover*," she says teasingly. "But thank you, Miss Raven!"

Raven nodded and then... "It was wonderful meeting you. I will return to my meditations. It... was pleasant to meet you all." And then... A giant black raven wrapped around her and then... cawed!

Before disappearing into black magical cloud... and dissipating fully. The girl was gone. But not forgotten. Probably. Unless their memories suck.