World Tree MUSH

    It's not a HUGE ranch. It's about the size one would expect of a C-rank breeder in Togle -- a few acres of land with a handful of training gadgets, a barn, and a small house. There's usually supposed to be an assistant, but Lyona prefers to do the work herself, since she can't watch an assistant all the time, and there's no way to tell whether an assistant is doing things right.

    Oh right, this ranch belongs to Lyona Airaldi, a C-ranked breeder in FIMBA, the Fraternal International Monster Breeders' Association. Not that someone would know that if they were to, oh... appear from out of nowhere and bypass the tall wooden gate.

    This little plot of land is a few acres that overlooks the sea atop a cliff. The barn looks cozy, and the house is 'cozy' -- note the airquotes; the house is quite small. However, both the house, and barn are well taken care of. So are the training gadgets, which look a little shabby, but they're still quite strong.

    At the moment, there are a few strange beings milling about the area. Near the barn there is a black, tattered shroud -- that looks bloodstained at the bottom -- with a floating mask and gauntlets, hovering near the barn, a massive scythe spinning above its head. There's a large, silvery metal beetle punching a large punching bag that looks to have been patched more than a few times. And there's some kind of weird... bunny... demon... beaver... thing, trying to jump as high as it can, over and over.

    There are no humans to be seen at the moment... but the area is rich with earth energy. It's almost as though this place resides over a leyline. And most of the magical earth energy seems to point to a large oak tree on the back of the property, where there is a large cliff face with a cave opening in it.

A raven appeared near the tree, massive, composed of darkness. It spread its wings and DIDN'T caw... Instead, when it disappeared, a small cloaked figure appeared in its wake. The girl... Was facing the tree and didn't seem to notice the things... Yet. Instead... her eyes were locked on the tree. She reached out and put a hand on the bark.

"Is... this what I felt?" she asked herself softly. It was... Powerful. This... tree? Her eyes wandered to the cave and HEY she should probably go in that... Ah ha ha ha. No.

It was then that she turned around, expecting to see people....

She did not see people.

She saw demons. Her eyes widened and she turned fully to face them, dark energy forming in her right hands. What kind were they? Were they aggressive? Was she in danger? This place appeared to be a farm of some sort. Haunted? No. Likely it killed the inhabitants and were now using this place as a lure to draw in more unsuspecting prey... Humans. Should she try an exorcism?

    As it turns out, it's the little purple thing that sees the disturbance first. Mid-jump, it pauses in the air, emitting a squeaking growl of alarm. And in response the metal beetle turns its blade-horned head in Raven's direction, staring at her with its empty visor. It really looks like there's nothing inside the beetle-shaped armor.

    At the same time as the metal beetle notices, the shroud-creature suddenly snatches the scythe out of the air above it, and emits a threatening, reverberating "Urrrr!" And the dark power of that shroud-beast is definitely felt.

    There seems to be a strange exchange of communication between the metal beetle and the purple bunny. And then the purple creature emits a loud, "DYAAAAAAAAAAN!" and flits away. In the meantime, the metal beetle steps front, raising its arms before it, and the shroud monster forms up behind and slightly to the metal beetle's left side.

Raven narrowed her eyes. Went to get help? Maybe alert something? Possibly frightened? She didn't know. She moved back, away from the tree, her eyes never leaving the two. Would they attack? Two demons versus a half demon... On the other hand, her connection to Trigun... maybe they were confused and wouldn't attack her at all?

Even worse, she hadn't begun her training yet. If she had to fight them, could she without losing control? She was different from her father, so she couldn't just... let herself go. She had to maintain control. Maintain everything. No matter what.

Darkness enveloped both her hands now. She suspected the one with the scythe was the leader. Probably the more destructive. The armored one she suspected was more a foot soldier, durable but dumb. She'd need to focus her assault on the leader if it came to that....

    It looks like they're going to attack, after all! The scythe-bearing creature emits a low, threatening groan, and its free hand glows sharply red. And then it seems to fire off from its place (maybe not hard since there's no visible arm). It's aimed at her neck, and it's trying to grab her. Raven might want to dodge that, because it's a life-draining attack. It's not incredibly strong, particularly not since the monster's at full strength. But maybe it's not for that.

    In fact it's not, because if that hand can grab her, it might hold her in place. And it might be just long enough for the metal beetle to hover off the ground (apparently it can still fly despite being made of metal) and zip through the air, its massive forearms together in front of it and try to slam into her, forearms first!

Raven wasn't used to flying ,so she focused on the hand as it came at her.... Darkness enveloped her body, and then she appeared as a raven, the massive bird phasing THROUGH the hand when it came. Her body reformed as she narrowed her focus on the scythe wielding creature...

BAM! The metal creature SLAMMED into her and sent her flying BACK, into the wall of the cave. She crumbled to the ground with a whimper, shaking. She had never actually been in a real fight. Except MAYBE that one on hyrule. She wasn't used to dividing her attention like that. She clutched her stomach and whimpered, shakily getting to her feet.

"Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!" she called. Dark energy enveloped the air,. picking up sticks, rocks and even yanking some things out of the ground, before sending them hurtling at the armored creature, attempting to knock it away from her. They were enshrouded in her dark magic, making them even stronger as she shakily got to her feet, her stomach feeling like it was flattened to a third of its normal size.

    As Raven falls, the metal beetle sets its forearms down on the ground, much like a giant bug-gorilla crossbreed, and lowers its head as if keeping an eye on her. And the scythe-bearing creature starts to float forward, scythe raise. Oh no, is it going to -- ?

    Fortunately Raven gets her second wind then, and begins firing a storm of dark-enveloped projectiles! The metal beetle is unprepared for this assault, and emits a reverberating SQUEAK! as the projectiles start hitting it in the front. It raises its forearms to protect itself, and begins to back away from Raven.

    Though in the meantime, the scythe creature, seeing its compatriot -- or possibly its minion? -- getting assaulted with a blitzkrieg of debris, raises its scythe and then throws it at Raven. The scythe spins like a sawblade, spinning around and around, before returning to the scythe creature, whether it hits Raven or not.

Raven managed to turn her attention to the scythe creature in time to see the whirling blade come at her. Darkness enveloped her and... She phased through the stone of the cave, disappearing and avoiding the blade. For a long moment, there was silence. Had.... she gone?

Then from above, they'd hear a rumbling... As Raven phased up to rise through the top of the caverns and grab the largest boulder she could get her hands on. "Azarath, metrion, ZINTHOS!" she called, before slamming it DOWN on the scythe wielding creature, intending to smash it down to size. She then took a moment to rest, standing on the cliff top and glaring down. She would not go down so easily.

    THUD!

    And if it were a flesh creature, there would no doubt be a SPLAT! As it is, though, there is a thump of the scythe hitting the ground as the creature is caught under the boulder. The gauntlets and mask fall to the ground, too, as if they had been removed and discarded carelessly on the ground.

    Raven might or might not have expected it, but the metal beetle emits a droning screech of alarm and immediately breaks off of whatever attack it had been planning. Instantly it moves to the boulder and starts to push it aside, off of the scythe creature. It abandons all attempts to attack -- or defend itself -- in favor of the process of freeing the scythe creature from underneath the boulder.

Raven smiled and for a second, her eyes glowed red. She'd crushed them. Beaten them. "Azarath..." More rocks began to move and raise. "Metrion..." She was going to bring the whole mountain down on them. "ZIN--" And then she cut herself off. The rocks fell back into place.

It was trying to free its comrade. Sure, it could have been just trying to help its commander but...

Why didn't it run off? It had no boss now. It had no one to force it. Doubt began to cloud her mind and her magic wavered. What if she'd been... No.

It had attacked her. She wasn't on Azarath any more. Peace WASN'T an option. If it freed it... there would be no more chances. They'd come at her again. "ZINTHOS!" she cried. And then rocks would begin to rain down on them, attempting to bury them in an avalance of stone.

Her eyes glowed red and a small, cruel smile formed on her lips...

    In the middle of trying to free the shroud creature, the metal beetle pauses, hearing the rockslide. And what does it do? It's a life-threatening situation. It should run. But it doesn't.

    It instead stands before the rockslide, crossing its forearms. It's willing to suffer whatever fate is about to befall it, to try to save the scythe creature. That fate is probably going to be 'being crushed between a rockslide and a hard place'.

    Suddenly another voice, intervenes. It's a human voice. It sounds female.

    "Knight! BeaRocket it!"

    Without questioning, the metal beetle surges forward, using the vibrations of its wings like miniature jet engines, plowing a path through the rockslide with its bladed horn, cracking and crumbling a swath of the rocks into smaller, less dangerous rocks. As it so happens this parts the rockslide around the boulder where the shroud creature remains trapped.

    Which is a good thing because, standing before the rock is a blonde human girl dressed in dark blue and purple, with the purple bunny thing from before floating next to her. There's no magic coming from her, so why this metal bug beast should listen to her is anybody's guess. In fact, she's missing an eye, a scar sealing it shut as if something had attacked her a long time ago and ruined it.

    Once the danger is past, the metal beetle sets down next to the girl, and she pats the back of its shell. "Go help Mayhem. Use your horn to move the rock," she instructs. Then she and the purple thing take point to face Raven.

    "HEY!" the blonde calls up. "What the heck is your problem, walking into people's ranches and attacking their monsters?! Are you with that moron from Torble?! I told him Mayhem wasn't for sale!"

Raven was confused, to say the least. The girl just... stared. How did she... The creature... She opened her mouth to object, but really wasn't sure what to say. Finally, she spoke up. "Did... you say... Ranch?" she asked, before flying down.

Her hood and cloak wrapped around herself, keeping her entire body hidden as she approached the rancher, only her lower mouth showing as she hovered in the air. "Is... this a ranch for creatures?" she asked. "I am sorry. I am... not from these lands and when I arrived here, those demo-- your... monsters attacked me. I merely defended myself, as they seemed fully intent to kill me. I do not know of Tour-Bell, nor do I desire any Mayhem, I have quite a bit that follows me around as it is, I do not desire more. I am sorry for any damage I did to your... monsters. But had they not attacked me, this would not have been necessary." Gee, she sounded SO apologetic. She then held out her hand and darkness enveloped the stone on mayhem, before flying off the creature. "My apologies. My name is Raven."

    If the girl is afraid of Raven, she makes no indication of it. Then again, it's likely that if she's actually raising these scary, dangerous creatures, she's probably had a fair bit of practice in not showing her fear.

    Because in truth? Lyona IS afraid. Hence why her arms are crossed over her chest, hands hidden. So her hands can't be seen shaking. The severe expression on her face hides the fear that would otherwise betray how truly unprepared for all this that Lyona actually is.

    This person can FLY. Unaided! This person actually knocked out her strongest monster, and looks relatively fine. This isn't something that she's accustomed to. It's not that her monsters have never lost a battle -- a breeder's monsters lose plenty as they're clawing their way up the ranks. But she's just not used to human-looking people being able to do that. Could this person be... what the Princess of Tochika was, but to the Dark Ones?

    When the flying woman seems less like she's going to attack further, Lyona's severe expression eases slightly. Raven's words seem to calm her more, and also to indicate something. "Oh... off-worlder, right?" She nods. "I guess that might be confusing. Yeah, this is my ranch. These three are my monsters."

    As she turns to check the progress of freeing the shroud creature, the metal beetle finally shoves the boulder off of the shroud creature. Lyona moves to the mess of shroud, gauntlets, mask, and scythe and crouches down. She reaches into a pouch on her belt and pulls a small bottle out, and pours the contents near the neckline of the shroud.

    After a few moments, the mess of discarded accessories starts to tremble, and then to collect themselves. The blonde girl assists, and soon the creature is back together. Though it rests its scythe on the ground, gauntlets on the handle, and rests its mask on the folded gauntlets. It looks like an invisible person, leaning on their scythe. "There you go. You'll be all right..." she says quietly.

Raven couldn't help but feel but feel a little guilty. This woman was afraid of her. Her empathic abilities allowed her to see that with ease. And she couldn't blame the girl.

She'd attacked her creatures(in self defense!) and nearly killed them. I mean, sure, it was more she just used the terrain and a sneak attack to win. But it still sorta counted(she'd so be disqualified from a tournament.) "I am sorry. I did not mean to trespass on your lands. My magic is... when I arrive at places I do not know, it tends to be fairly... difficult to control." She then glanced to the tree. "It's... that tree that drew me, I believe. Once I arrived, I was attacked. And I felt I had no choice but to defend myself, as I suspected they would kill me, otherwise."

She decided to leave out the fact her stomach felt like half her organs had been smashed. She was keeping herself hidden beneath the cloak so she could hide just how much she was holding her stomach and how much pain she was in. "As... this is your ranch, I feel it... err.... only.... polite that I leave if you desire me to. But I would advise you to train your pets not to attack random... strangers. At least unless they make hostile movements. Not all of them are as able to defend themselves as I am... and if they kill someone who accidentally stumbled on your ranch, you could draw a large number of... issues." She sounded almost mildly... lectury. How rude.

    Lyona's remaining eye flashes, and she looks in Raven's direction. "They did EXACTLY what I trained them to do -- defend the ranch against strays that just randomly appear. Besides, if some strange person shows up in YOUR house, I'm sure you'd probably attack them too," she replies, with a frown.

    She points at a tall gate on the other side of the property. "See that? I'm not sure of the customs where you're from, but that is a front door. In this world, we use them to enter private properties. Use that when you wanna enter a ranch and that won't happen again. Pretty sure you'd have gotten the same reception if you'd randomly popped into a ranch with a Mochi or a Pixie, too."

    Also the purple thing stretches its face, sticking its tongue out at Raven from its place next to Lyona. "Dyaaaaaaaaan!"

Raven glared at the purple thing, her eyes glowing red and for a moment she looked as if she might try and murder it. But then she turned back towards the woman and nodded. "Of course. My apologes. I should have been more... polite. And noticed the door. I will show my way out," she said curtly, before turning towards the door.

Totally not fuming. How had she missed the bloody door? What was-- Wait, no, she thought the ranch was possessed. Even if she HAD noticed the door, it was unlikely she would have tried to use it. Gosh...

    "Hey, wait a minute!" the blonde girl calls out. Yeah, she's going to walk after Raven, too. "You're just gonna injure Mayhem and then -leave-?! This is gonna literally shave years off his life. I can't fix that."

    The metal beetle looks torn between following Lyona and staying with the shroud creature. Ultimately it decides to stick with the shroud creature. Lyona has more to say too. "Besides, if you don't find out what it was that attracted you here, you're likely to pop into another ranch and have it happen again." Well, she's offering knowledge, so there's that...

Raven blinked a few times, and t hen looked shaken. "Shake... years off his life? That is... an exageration, correct?" The guilt was evident in her voice. "I was merely trying to defend myself. I didn't want to kill anything..." Well, okay, in the moment she had but... That didn't count!

Her ears perked then. "You... know what drew me here, then? what it is about that tree that attracted me to this place?" and now her interest was peaked. "And I thought you'd appreciate me being gone... After what I did...."

"No," Lyona replies. She's a little calmer now that Raven seems to understand the gravity of the situation. "These monsters have a certain amount of energy. Once that runs out, that's it. Getting injured uses up that energy faster. It's not gonna be immediate. But he's not going to live as long."

As for what attracted Raven to this place? "You said the tree, right? That's because it's a spirit tree. It might wake up if you want to talk to it." Then she gives Raven a look. "Want you gone? Honestly, you probably just kneejerked and attacked what you thought were 'evil creatures'. Even in my -own- world I get that. Jokers have a bad reputation more or less all around. Age Island ones like Mayhem get it worse."

Raven was being told many things right now. She then glanced to the creature. She did cause the damage(rightly so), but... IT was still her fault. Finally, she held out her hand. "Would... you like me to see if I can undo the damage? I have healing magic. It may be able to help," she mumbled. "I can't guarantee but... If.... it undoes the lost years..." she mumbled.

"A... spirit tree? It... talks? I would like to talk with it. And I would NOT have knee jerked to it if it hadn't attacked me. But... Perhaps if I had just fled, rather than fighting back, it would be fine now... What is age island?"

The shroud creature seems to have collected itself, more or less, though its wings are drooping more than they were. Lyona blinks at the offer to try to heal the creature. "Can you do that?" she asks. "Even if all you can do is stave off his exhaustion, that should help. That way he won't have to use up as much of his energy reserves."

The question about the tree gets a nod. "We can try. He might not feel like waking up. He spends a lot of his time sleeping. Once whatever happens with Mayhem happens, we can see if he'll wake up and talk for a while."

Lyona seems to remember something then. "Oh right." She points at the shroud creature. "This is Mayhem, he's an Age Island Joker." Pointing to the metal beetle. "This is Knight, he's a Centurion. That's a Beaclon with a Durahan subtype." Pointing to the purple thing, which is now not making faces at Raven. "This is Demon, he's a Gitan."

The purple creature makes a "Dyaaaa!" noise, and Lyona sighs, rolling her eyes. "Right, yeah... 'LORD Demon, Death of All That Is Pure'..." The Gitan nods once, looking satisfied now. Scary title or not, Lyona's tone of voice is nonchalant and... honestly kind of put-upon. Clearly she doesn't feel like the purple thing is a threat.

Raven turned her eyes to Demon and they narrowed. "You should be careful about so happily taking a title like that. I've seen the lord of all demons. All that is pure would be lucky to merely die in his presence," she said, her voice cold and heartless. Her eyes glowing white beneath that hood. Maybe she was a little touchy on that subject. She'd then walk to the creature and...

"Do not touch me during this process," she said firmly. "None of you."

Then she touched the creature. She let out a soft sigh. IT was simple. Smart, but not too smart. Loyal. And a desire to fight. And then she found the pain. She absorbed it into herself... Lyona could see the small girl trembling, and the bruises on her arms where she'd been hit. At least the large ones on her stomach were hidden by her clothing.

Before long, she'd be finished... And then just kind of crumble to the side, panting and... Well. You'd think SHE was hit by a boulder, judging by how her body was shaking and the way she grit her teeth.

Lyona reaches up a little and pokes at the smug-looking Gitan. "See? You wanna get people from other worlds challenging you for that title?" Gitan hops around in the air a few times, making an odd sound that seems halfway between a 'boing' and a 'plop' as its ears flop in the air. It's impossible to describe. "Yeah, no, I don't wanna fight that."

The Gitan hops in the air a few more times, then emits a "Dyuuuuu!" sound, and then seems to fall over backwards in the air, waving back and forth. Lyona can't help but grin at the creature's antics.

She pulls Demon back, though, when Raven specifies to back up. And she also notes, "Knight, give them some space." The metal beetle steps back, but notably it's keeping its eyes on Raven.

Though when Raven falls over, the metal beetle moves to try and help her up. And even the newly-revitalized scythe creature seems to hover about her side in concern. Lyona steps forward too. "Yikes, are you okay?" she asks. "I didn't know it'd hurt you to do that."

Raven took a long, slow breath, bringing all of her barriers up. "Of course you didn't. I didn't tell you." Once her barriers were up... She... Let the bug help her up. "I am an empath. I can feel every emotion you feel. Had you known I heal by drawing it onto myself, you would have likely been panicking and worrying during the process. I did not need that. Nor did I want that. So I decided not to tell you."

Of note, she was no longer flying... And she was now limping. "I will heal. Quickly. My magic makes sure of that. And I will not lose years of my life in the process. Now. I wish to meet this tree. Shall we?" she asked, turning back to the girl. She didn't get touched, so at the very least she didn't have to freak out and RAGE!

Lyona winces a bit. "Ouch. Now I wish there was something I could do to help." So maybe she's not completely a selfish little brat, so there's that. They're all learning things about each other! The monsters also calm down once they sense that the tension has mostly passed. Though like... the metal bug does seem to want to try to hug Raven or something, but Lyona pulls the Centurion back before it can complete this action. "Quit that, she doesn't know you."

But yes. The tree! Lyona starts to walk over to the large tree, beckoning Raven over with a gesture of her hand. The blonde walks around the tree, to the back of it, the side facing away from the front gate. It doesn't look like much aside from maybe a bit of a misshapen trunk. Well, there are a couple of knot-holes that look like they could be eyes... and there's a thin, chopped-off branch below these two knot-holes that could be a nose... and a weirdly bulbous area beneath the thin branch that could be a mouth...

"Hey, Mockruji?" Lyona calls up. "You feel like talking to an off-worlder? I think she can sense your energy, so she showed up here." The tree doesn't seem to react, at all. There's no movement. But then... those knot-holes open, and the bulbous, misshapen area that gave the indication of a mouth moves. A weird, strangely echoing "HYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN sound emits from the mouth. But though words don't come out, words can be understood.

<An offworlder? One who can sense my presence? That is odd...>

Raven blinked and then pulled back when the creature tried. "Please DO NOT touch me. It is... it amplifies the connection," she muttered. And shook her head. "I do not require help. I am surviving just fine on my own." Yep. She takes care of herself all the time. Definitely ISN'T unknowingly mooching off a mushroom princess and all that. Nope. COMPLETELY independent.

She followed her to the tree and then knelt down before it. "Yes. My name is... Raven. I felt magic here. She informed me of the tree housing a spirit of kinds. I felt it would be interesting to learn more about you. I have never met a tree spirit before..." She'd certainly met plenty of demons before, though. "Would... you be able to tell me how many of your kind there are? How old are you?"

Lyona stands back here and lets Raven speak to the tree, since that's what brought her here anyway. <It is a pleasure to meet you, Raven. You are the first off-worlder I have met. But I knew immediately when our world of Pangaea was rooted to a larger tree.>

He pauses a moment, as if taking a breath. <Many questions.> The tree doesn't seem upset by them, not in the slightest. <There are fewer of us, and yet more, than there once was.>

Raven blinked a few times. And then sighed. "This is going to be one of those 'Not a single straight answer' things, isn't it?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "I seek knowledge, however. Powerful knowledge. I've... read books about tree spirits. All manner of nature spirits. That they were... dangerous. But powerful. I would like to know more about this world and its capabilities. More importantly, your capabilities."

Then she glanced to Mayhem. "Lyona. That creature. Are... all the people of this world able to tame such creatures?" she asked suddenly.

Lyona snickers a bit. "He might not remember," she points out. "I know when I sleep too long I forget what day it is."

The tree 'speaks' up again, <This is quite right. I am young, born after the vanquishing of the Dark Ones.>

Helpfully Lyona notes, "The vanquishing of the Dark Ones was like... hundreds of years ago, by the way. Possibly longer. Nobody remembers them. It's basically just a fairy tale."

Speaking of the scary critter, Lyona's been petting it. Like how people do when they have a dog or cat in their laps, idly petting its head. Though in her case, Lyona's been idly petting one of its gauntlets. Or reaching over to pet one of the beetle knight's oversized forearms. The purple thing has fallen asleep on Knight's back.

Lyona blinks a bit when Raven asks her about the monsters. "Well... yeah, as long as you can get a breeder's license. Not everybody is a GOOD breeder, of course. And some are downright abusive. That moron from Torble that I mentioned, he basically runs a 'champion factory'. He raises monsters, but if he doesn't think they're strong enough he'll just throw them away."

Raven nodded. "Ah... Well... in that case, thank you for your assistance and speaking with me. Please sleep wlell and thank you." She'd been get to her feet and glanced to her. "Champion... factory? I think I may be missing important information. Champion of what?" 

Then glanced to the monster. "And how many people have monsters like your. No. Far stronger ones? Or is it amongst the strongest there is?" she asked, staring at it. Trigun... She did not want to imagine what would happen if Trigun was let loose in this world... "Could you show me more of your home and tell me about it?"

<It has been a pleasure to speak with you,> Mockruji 'hyuuun's. <I hope you find your time in Pangaea agreeable.>

Lyona smiles, and offers a wave to the spirit tree. "Thanks, Mockruji." Though as the tree closes its eyes and grows still again, Lyona notes, "You probably sensed the heavy concentration of Geonyte. Spirit trees make them, and a ranch built with one on it has access to a lot of Geonyte."

As for the monsters? Lyona looks at Mayhem. "Well, Mayhem here has been with me since I was little... at least in some form. ...Which might be a little hard to explain. But yes, as long as it's in the Breeder's book, or they find a Disc Stone with a Joker sealed in it, nobody really tells them 'no'. I'm just a C-ranked breeder, so there are quite a few monsters stronger than him."

Lyona tilts her head. "Sure, I could do that. What do you wanna know?" she asks.

Raven nodded. "Breeder... book?" she asked. "And... yes. I'd like to know how powerful these creatures g--" And then she tripped over one of the roots, flailing her arms for a moment before face planting on the ground. "O-ow... PRe.... tend you didn't see that..." she mumbled, her cheeks burning before she made herself float. Less dangerous.

"As... I was saying. I want to know how breeding works, as well as this book. And your world's magic. And what are 'disc stones'?

Both the Joker and the Centurion make noises that sound like snickering. And Lyona presses her lips together to preclude the sound. The Gitan, however, is full-on laughing. Until Lyona pokes him in the belly, which makes him flail and make angry 'dyuuuu!' noises. Though Lyona does note, "Didn't see a thing."

Then questions! "Well, let's see... breeding monsters and Disc Stones are interconnected. See, any shrine you go to will have some basic types of monsters available to regenerate for you. If you want different types, you can start by combining them. Or, if you go exploring around ruins, you can sometimes find Disc Stones.

"They're... well, stone disks with the FIMBA logo on them -- they came before FIMBA, by the way; FIMBA just uses the symbol as their logo. If you take them to the Shrine, the Shrine can see what kind of monster's been sealed in it," she explains. "Some of the monster breeder associations have rank limitations on certain types of monsters, because they're either very powerful, very dangerous, or... well, there's probably some other reason, but those are the only ones I can think of. Then again, there's no rank limitations on Jokers."

Raven glared at the gitan. Dark energy enveloped her hand, she'd show the... Huh? Err. Right. Behave. She waved her hand so the magic disipated. "Breeding animals... stones," she mumbled. "Exploring ruins.... I'd love to study one of these stones. They sound like powerful magic. Some kind of sealing magic, perhaps?"

She glanced to the joker and... "Funny," she said, flatly. Then back to her. "Fimba. I see. Well... you have an interesting world. Where would I find one of these... ruins? I wish to procure one of these disks to study." Then paused. "You may have it back when I finish."

Lyona indicates the cave with a tilt of her head. "There's some ruins in there, I've been exploring them on and off. The caverns in there go down for miles, and there are altars scattered around the area. You can sometimes find fragments of Disc Stones in there, too, and the Shrine can put them back together if they're the same kind."

She tilts her head a bit. "See... maybe this'll explain it a little better. When those Dark Ones were roaming around, they were putting monsters under their boss's control. They got rid of him, but someone else decided to try the same thing, and the second time it ended up with all the monsters getting sealed in Disc Stones," she explains. "Enough time passed that we all forgot about them, but then someone discovered a Disc Stone and brought it to the Shrine to release the monster inside it. Even that was a pretty long time ago, though."

Raven nodded. "I... see. So these.... monsters are stored inside disc stones. Some kind of containment..." she mumbled, rubbing her chin. "If I could discover the source, it may be possible to duplicate the effects, but I'd need a disc stone and a shrine to examine. Perhaps if I moved my base of operations here and gathered a few of these stones..."

She seemed completely lost in thought as she walked up to the cave entrance, running her hands along it. "If it can work on monsters, powerful ones, then it's possible it can serve as a catalyst for a more permanent method of containment. Perhaps if I tied it in with the energy of limbo somehow I could extend the containment duration. But it might not be a containment device at all, what if it's some kind of resurection device?" Oh my gosh she was lost...

Lyona tilts her head. "Well, uh. I don't exactly know how it works, to be honest," she admits. "All this sealing happened so long ago nobody really knows how it worked. Cesare might be able to tell you more about how it's undone, though. He's the guy that runs the Shrine here in Togle. And you could catch a monster battle while you're in town, too."