World Tree MUSH

Well, Ash had his warframe back in working order. Things with Star Wolf were sorted. He had business with Miwa to discuss, but for thetime being he wanted to enjoy wandering.

How he got to this world? Just random vine walking really. Trouble is as his ship went into orbit the locals were, understandably, mildly annoyed.

"Yes yes I'm sure we're violating several treaties by being in orbit," Ordis was growing tired of these attempts at contact. "We really are just tourists no need to arm whatever installations you have." Then the strange craft would seemingly leave Earth orbit. What the locals didn't realize wasa lander had detached and was headedfor the planet's surface. Ash and ordis had seen the town name come up and, mostly because Ash was bored, went to see if this was the home-verse of a certain magic-girl-in-training he knew.

So this is Ash dressed in an obviously otherworldly outfit that had design cues of perhaps a classier school tunic. He would just wander town, soaking in the atmosphere of the place and how diffrent it was from the Mushroom Kingdom.

He liked Peach's home kingdom well enough, but the techancolor cheerfulness could be a bit... Much.

Brighton is just another city wrapped up in the East Coast megalopolis, adjacent to Boston but with a few subtle differences of its own. In theory, it was named after a town in England, but it's true that a much smaller proportion of Earths have it as the name of an entire city.

It isn't long before a familiar androgynous voice calls out from behind, "Hey, Ash!" Anna is smiling and waving, and wearing a backpack. For once, Spiral isn't around.

Ash turned on his heel and looked. He blinked, then tilted his head this way then that. Theoretically Anna looked the same as she always did but there was something to this place that made her look... Normal.

This compared to Ash's black leggings and silver trimmed tunic decidedly looking like something from a high budget star trek knock-off. "HUH so this is the earth you're from. Wasn't sure if we foundthe right spot." 

Jump-cut to ORdis swearing as he examined the bits of the local internet that dealt with moon-landing-hoaxes. 

Ash would shrug as he looked about. "So my boss showed up because Ordis went and fetched him. Words were said." Ash was leaving out how... Grumpy Wolf was for having to interrupt business to deal with two teenagers having an argument. "Raven I think saaid something about making a set of mirrors to keep touch so we can try working through eachother's stubbornness." A helplessshrug. "Not sure how well that'll work across worlds, but an easy way to tell if I'm in the same 'verse she is would be nice."

The only odd part of Anna's appearance in this world is the fact that she wears cargo shorts under her skirt, a fashion statement which seems to be more-or-less unique.

"Yeah, it can be hard to find the right Earth if all you have is the name, or the name of one landmark," she says, moving up to walk along side him. "Spiral tells me it's, like, one of the most common names for human worlds that look more-or-less like this? So it can be hard to distinguish 'em. But a lot of the vines seem to end up specifically in a park that's a couple of blocks down here. We even have stalls and things like the place where we fought that deer-wolf-girl." She says 'we' even though, as usual, she spent the entire situation running.

She nods as Ash brings her up to speed. "Yeah, the Starbringers haven't been able to get inter-vine communication to work," she says. "'Hoping we end up in the same blossom' seems to be the best way." She smiles. "I wouldn't mind getting one of those mirrors myself, as far as that goes, my cell phone only works if it has the exact same kind of network as we've got here." She gestures expansively to the city itself. "Me ... I've just been dealing with schoolwork, basically. Not much to say on that front."

As Ordis 'helpfully' provided photoes of the Apollo landing sites as they were Right Now to said 'moon hoaxers' alongside photoes of the earth Right Now to the Flat Earthers Ash frowned. "Like I said i'm not sure if it'll work or not, but I am lucky in Ordis being sorta network flexible, at least enough to fake it." He had no idea what sort of havock all that played with local networks after the fact, but it couldn't be that bad. Right?

Another glance over of Anna before something clickedfor Ash, "Wher'es Spiral when you're not doing the whole fools rush in thing?" He was happy for the walk, and didn't really findthe shorts all that strange. "Also you considered biker shorts instead of cargo, or you use those more for pocket space than modesty?" It was definitely a fashion statement. Ash thought it was interesting looking, but who knows what the locals thought.

Anna nods, oblivious to any havoc caused. "Good thing we've got technology that advanced, then!" she says.

She hmms at the other question. "She's got her own home at this hidden place the Starbringers hang out," she says. "Ever since I made my decision, she's been trying to get transferred to this initiative they have where they pair up with someone from Earth who isn't necessarily a Star Paladin, and then go out exploring the World Tree. I think they're waiting until I actually become a Heart Mage before going through with it, though."

She grins, glancing down at herself. "In winter I wear jeans," she says. "It's just ... a mixture of 'technically acceptable' and 'total weirdo', basically. Got the idea from a character in this bartending-simulator video game. Who was also a trans woman named 'Anna', actually. I chose my new name before I'd heard of her, though." She shrugs. "I have been thinking of getting more girly shorts. But yes, pockets are also a factor."

Ash wasn't sure what to make of the whole naming thing or gaming. Actually scratch that, he kenw exactly what it was to find a new name. Still. "I remember Spiral saying he was only supposed to work wit hstar paladins. WHat about Heart Mages... no small and furry advisor telling you how spectacularly bad all of your ideas are?" Ash patted his pants pockets and pulled out a handfull of green bills. "Is.. this money that would be good here? No offense to the princess or her people but even regula r food there tastestoo sweet."

Anna nods. "Spiral's a 'she'," she says. ... Well, she isn't sure if they actually have dimorphism like that, but she's not someone who'd start questioning why someone would use one set of pronouns over the other. "But yeah, the entire reason the Starbringers came here was so they could give people a magic pendant to become Star Paladins," she finishes. "They mostly leave us Heart Mages to our own devices. And I mean I am pretty sure I'll be exactly the kind of Mage that gives us a poor reputation among the Paladins." She shrugs. "Me and Spiral are friends, though. We like wandering through the World Tree."

She hmms, carefully regarding the money. "Maybe," she says. "There's a money-changing place right down the street from where the vines always go. They adapted pretty quickly." She grins. "The whole economic implications of Blossoming is kind of over my head, I'll admit."

Ash listened to this explaination that one group gets advisors and another doesn't with a bit of a frown. "So who takes care of the heart mages?" This as he started back towards the park. OK fine he had originally come through the park's vines before bringing ordis through another vine out in space. So he knew the place existed and rougly how to get there.

Another jump cut to Ordis glitched and angry shouting explicitives through this world's internet before getting banned from the forum who's locals he'd been 'debating' their beliefs on flat earthism and moon landing hoaxes.

"Worst case I've got a few oddball gemstones and other more arcaic and interesting looking bits of currency." Ash hated having to keeptrack of so many differing bits of coin with such a loose exchange rate. Darvo, he decided, probably would have a fieldday.

"Also if you'd like i cold try helping you with hand to hand defense, or would working on your body interfere with your magic? I've read it's diffrent from world to world how magic works. Some require devotion to the point of letting everything go. Others require a strong body to act as conduit." Tenno were probably more the latter than former even if the ultimate source was an entire universe of energy rather than some internal 'faith' or whatever.

Anna shrugs. "We help each other, mostly," she says. "And, like, ourselves. Independence is kind of the whole point of being a Heart Mage. And I mean the Star Paladins and Starbringers help us, obviously we all work together since the Curse Phantoms are a danger to everyone, it's just not part of the job description."

She nods and shrugs. "Yeah, that's the kind of thing where I say you should just go to the money-changers and let them sort it out," she says. "Hmm ..." She smiles. "Yeah, hand-to-hand wouldn't be a problem! It definitely sounds like the kind of thing that it'd be better to have and not need than need and not have."

Elsewhere, Spiral is floating through a narrow passage in her starfish-form. She pauses as she's suddenly struck with a nameless feeling of worry that Anna is about to do something inadvisable.

Ash smiled warmly at Anna's enthusiasm as they neared a series of booths. "I've been reviewing diffrent forms both from my home verse and what look to be 'enear enough cousins' from other places."

THe line allowed Ash to try giving Anna what specifics he could, "Each school of Focusing a Tenno's connection to the Void differs in core philosophy and thus what sort of hand to hand its adhearants follow." He tried sounding like this wasn't a lot of patchwork heldtogether withflex tape and void magic rather than actual knowledge handed down. "Madurai's fairly offensive. Straightforward overwhelming force. Naramon's more about precise strikes and application of force. Unairu is essentially being the wall that others break themselves on as they try getting past you. Zennurik's about turning an enemie's actinons on themselves and otherwise dominating the battle through their actions." He then paused as it came to be his turn in line.

THe Money Changer looked at the mushroom kingdom coins he spread out along with a pair of gemstones each the size of a marble, a couple american styled bills with unfamiliar faces and landmarks printed on them, and... he waited as the changer did his thing. He had no idea if he wasbeing shortedor if this person was being generous.

As he walked away. "Then there's the one I'm likely going to fall into. Vazrin's a school of flowing and redirecting attacks to create opprotunities to counter with your own." He snorted as he looked about. "This's your home. Any recommendations for someone from out of town?"

Anna considers the entire time Ash gives his explanation. She has no clearer idea of the relative monetary values than he does, really. "... Looks like they know the Mushroom Kingdom's currency at least," she murmurs. Literal solid gold coins!

They start walking away. "I think either ... the first one or the second one sound like my thing," she says. "I dunno, what do you recommend for someone like me whose special ability is all based on speed?" She considers the other question. "You mean for practicing martial arts? We probably won't draw any stares if we hang around the park over there." She gestures back the way they came.

Ash smiled at Anna. "Well I had wanted to get food later, but a nice bit of practice would be good." As he looked about the park his mindflashed back to that wolf-deer-girl spirit thing before he shook the memory away. "Given your focus on speed plus, and i mean no offense, your build? Naramon seems very up your ally." As he walked towards what looked like a decent open strech of gras he undid his tunic, revealing a lightweight grey shirt beneneath. "I'm not sure how your magicworks, but I'm fairlycertain the components dealing with void manipulation won't really have a direct application, but physically I'd say it will resemble drunken boxer, or Begger."

Ash's tunic was folded and tucked under an arm as he considered the patch of grass they were standing on. "I'm no master. In fact I'm more or less relearning a lot of this all over again so... best i can offer is to be someone that'll be open to getting punched a lot as we figure these things out. Sound fair?"

Anna grins. "Oh, well for food, there's a great place near the college called Allegro's." She nods to the summation. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she says. "I mean. You do get enhanced strength as part of the whole 'magical warrior' dealie. But 'quick and precise strikes' does feel kind of like we're playing more to my own stuff, yeah."

She grins, and sets down her backpack. "Perfectly fair!" she says. "And, I mean, something seems a little bit odd about getting instructions from a boy who's younger and smaller than me, but, y'know, that's the World Tree for ya."

Ash gave Anna an amused smile before setting his tunic down before stepping away and assuming a stance that if someone with more experiance were watching might quibble over, but while a casual observer might mistake it for careless, this hypothetical master could see energy as Ash bounced on his toes, keeping his arms loose and ready to strike at any moment at any target in range.

Then he would settle into a less bouncy stance, settling on his feet propely, widening himself and holding his hands low. "Now, try that stance earlier. The idea behind it is to keep loose, keep your options open either to engadge or to fall back from the same starting position." He was no master, and would need Raven to help with the void-y aspects, but basics of stance and breath were something he felt confident in. "If you feel any tightness, or uncomfortable then adjust until you feel loose."

Anna nods, watching the stance carefully. At Ash's instruction, she gingerly tries to imitate it. It takes a few shifts of her stance before she's fully comfortable, and even when she's done she's even more sloppy than he was; Anna's stance Ash's what Ash's would have been to the proverbial master. But for someone who's literally doing it for the first time, she could have been worse.

Ash mmed softly, "You're looking... GOod. Maybe shift more to your back foot, but this is good." THe advantage a martial art like Aikido or whatever Vazrin's style was descended from was that it was more about momentum and physics than what a drunken boxer or whichever form Naramon grew out of had to use. BOth styles demanded adhierants learn how to maximize limited strengt in ways other than 'all out assault' however.

"The most important thing you will needto know is that moment of opprotunity. The space between when acting is suicidally too early, and heartbreakingly too late." The way he spoke seemedto fall into the cadene of someone who was a teacher at one time. Someone who had given lectures in the past and expectedto be listened to. "Today's lesson is unspecific Anna, since we are both dealingwith fundimentalsof stance, breath, and conditioning. However your speed gives you acess to targets and moments of opprotunity I or many others would be unable to exploit. Always remember that." He reached over to touch Anna's forehead, and perhaps for a moment there wasa soft glow from hisfingertip of swirling multicolored light, or maybe it was just a trickof sun and sky on her eyes.

Anna shifts her position onto her back foot, as instructed, and she listens intently. "A part of me wants to start taking notes," she says, "but this all seems simple enough so far."

She blinks as he touches her forehead, and she reacts slightly to the glow. "Okay," she says calmly, "what did you do just now?" She trusts him, she doesn't think anything weird is going on, but ...

"Honestly?" Ash smiled in spite of himself, his tone lightening for a moment, "Just a bit of theatre. However your power depends on emotion so I figure what can it hurt to try keeping you in a good mood?"

He streched, extending limbs this way andthat in what looked like intentional ordered motions almost as if he were striking an imaginary opponent then turning aside a counterstrike in extreme slow motion. "Tell me of your magic Anna. Emotion affects it, but how does it feel when you draw on it? Does it come from the Manipura?" Another motion, and breath. "Does it come from breath? I do not nessicarily want you to answer. I simply wish for you to reflect and perhaps find this out if you do not already know."

Anna chuckles. "Well, okay then!" she says. "That works, I guess!"

She closes her eyes, shifting her stance. I't's a few moments before she speaks up again. "'Imagine reacting to something that makes you feel intense emotions, but in reverse'," she says. "Emotional energy is the catalyst. The power gained from positive emotions, like hope and joy and love, is more durable. The power gained from negative emotions, like anger and hate and despair, burns brighter and more quickly."

She relaxes her stance and holds her arm out to her sides, and pale blue light begins flickering around her, seeming to cover and fill her body, though never more than three quarters at a time. "Using my power feels like swinging my arm. It feels like playing a video game and getting a high score on the hardest level on your first try, even though you felt just how hard it was. It feels like not being able to remember the last time someone called me by my birth name or my old pronouns. It feels like running for miles faster than a car without breaking a sweat, but getting runner's high anyway." She blinks. "... because, uh, that's exactly what it is in my case."

She lowers her arms, and the glow fades. "... And, and most importantly, it's all me," she says, smiling. "The Windrunner is like another set of limbs. You can't ... 'distinguish' me from my powers, the same way you can't distinguish me from my hands. It's just another way I interact with the world."

She pokes Ash's forehead. "That is what my magic is all about!"

A grin crept along Ash's face when Anna started explaining. His stance dropped as he listened to her explain how the candle of rage burns bright but not nearly as long as the steady smoulder of joy. That grin widened further wehn Anna poked his forehead in mirror of his own gesture.

"Finally someone gets it..." His voice was a whisper. "What i do? It isn't Magic, at least i don't think of it as magic. The void is, well it's like breathing in. It's just... a Thing that Happens. Fortunately unlike Raven I seem to need calm to shape and direct that energy, much like I'd need calm to grab the random slosh of ideas and put form to them."

He paced then, looking Anna over with a smile. "Even if our ways are diffrent, we can at least help eachother either figure things out, or at least keep eachother from feeling like we're the only weird person around." He stopped in front of Anna then. "So you're a heart mage," A glance at hat Anna wore which seemedto meet with his approval after a fashion. "You also have a fun sense of style. Glad I ran into you. Maybe our respective sorts of Crazywill counterbalance."

Anna grins, nodding. "I don't need calm so much as ... well, a lack of negativity," she says. "I've let my powers grow towards positive emotions to the point that they aren't really compatible with negative ones. But I guess calm is easier for the most part?" She shrugs. "Either way, though, I just have fun running around, without any outside power weighing me down." She giggles. "And, yeah. Glad I met you, too!"

"I suppose that means there are people who grow to depend on anger and hate as what they feed off of." Ash sounded thoughtful for a moment before shrugging. "you like to run huh? How are you at parkour?" There was a glent in his eye as he looked the park over.

Somewhere, wherever Spiral was, she would probably have an immiante and deep sense of impending doom.

Anna nods. "Oh, yes," she says. "Apparently every now and then someone like that tries to become a supervillain and like take over the world or whatever." She looks around. "All of them lost, of course, because that's just how this Blossom blooms."

She grins at the mention of parkour. "Let's just say there's a reason that this world's internet now has a separate category for 'parkour with super speed'," she says. "I mean, I'm not the best by any stretch, but. Let's just say that if you don't have super-speed, you really don't want to compare yourself against me on that front."

Ash bounced on the tips of his feet as Anna explained that yes she does in fact parkour. "I didn't bring my frame since I kinda didn't like the idea of scaring the locals into thinking ET is going to show up and start a murder dance for giggles." A light chuckle as he continued to bounce in place. "I do need to learn better pathing when out of suit. Too much reliance on what it is able to do vs what I'm able to do. Think you could help?"

Anna nods. "Sounds like that'd work reasonably well to me," she says. She jerks her thumb over towards the edge of the park. "Why don't we head to Allegro's? It'll help us work up an appetite. Think you'd be up for pizza or burgers more at the moment?"

She then starts does an about-face and starts walking towards a different edge of the park.

Ash followed behind Anna at what he considered a reasonable pace. "Piza sounds good. THough there has been a bit of a debate I keep stumbling across." Ash kept looking about the park in spite of himself, his mind calculating what objects would be good for bouncing off of, what couldn't hold weight, and so forth. "Pineapple or no? DOn't get me wrong whole rings just slabbed on is gross, but I expect shave it mixed in with everything else and you have nice little pockets of sweet blended in." A shrug and a toss of his head at the notion. "I'm a bit simplethough, three cheese, those little tomatoes, and and herbal mix dusted over it all. Yea that sounds good after we have our run."

Anna nods, and shrugs. "I take no sides in the pineapple debate," she says. "I just know it's not as horrible as the haters say it is when you actually prepare it correctly."

She stops at the edge of the park. "... I just remembered I've actually forgotten how to do, uh, the regular kind of parkour?" she says. "I just usually super-speed my way up things. And try not to piss anyone off by making too much noise or actually breaking any traffic laws."

Ash grinned as he started streaching. "Then I suppose we're on even footing in a way Ash enjoyed what this town had to offer in way of pathing. "This is your back yard so you do have an advantage. However loser's buying. Sound fair?" He re-fastened his tunic and took a lowrunner' stance at the edge of the park's grass. "Give us a count then." Even if he lost this wasgoing to be fun.

Anna grins. "All righty, then!" she says. "On three." She squares her shoulders as she turns to face the scenery in front of them directly. "One ... two ... THREE!"