World Tree MUSH

After the fair, well technically the week long fall festivities were still ongoing, but with Raven getting approached by some creepy black suit GOvernment Spook, and now other people going missing the rest of the week's activitieswere mostly people going through the motions. Today was a basically nice day weather-wise at Pleasant Hill, and for Ash? That normally ment courier deliveries.

Today however he waited by the end point of one of the local paved nature trails around town in hopes a friend of his would respond to a text he'dsent. Then again could be she had other plans, or just her parents didn't want her leaving home given what was going on.

With what was going on, you'd have thought Miwa's 'parents' would have forbade her from even leaving the house except to go to school. But her parents were among the long time residents of Pleasant Hill, so they didn't seem to have a clue anything was happening that was worth worrying about. This actually just creeped Miwa out even more though so she was happy to get out of the house and go meet Ash. It wasn't long before she came walking up the path into view, and when she saw Ash, she ran over to greet him with a firm hug. "I'm so glad to see you Ash, this place is worrying me more and more by the day..."

While the weather was more seasonlly appropriate, it still wasn't what one would consider jacket weather much less appropriate for the floor length bron duster Ash wore. He smiled from where he sat in a lowhanging tree branch before hopping down to hug Miwa. THen, "Yea... it's like most of the town doens't even realize something's going on, and that's creeping me out even WORSE."

He gestured for Miwa to walk with him. "Mom's still mad I invited everyone over without checking with her," He snorted in amusement. "Just... trying to figure out what can be done when anyone we'd go to is going to act like we're making things up." That and as he leaned on the rather tall girl he seemed to need his friend as much as advice.

Miwa nods, walking along with Ash and putting an arm around him as he leans into her a bit. "I know! It's totally creeping me out too. I tried telling my 'parents' still feels strange accepting that I'm human here and have human parents too. But anyway, they act like I just have an over active imagination or dreamed it up in some nightmare after going through the haunted house. I've wondered at times if this was just one big dream, or nightmare for that matter. But it feels way too real, also this town is like nothing I've seen in my own world, so I'm not sure how I could dream this up..."

For Ash Miwa talking as if she hadn't always been human felt weird. He had dreams and what felt like memories that just plain didn't feel right, but...

His head shook andlet the thought go, squeezing Miwa again lightly. She was here, she was both confirming this was indeed creepy and at hte same time not blind pannicking. "OK..." He took a deep breath as he started leading Miwa down the paved hiking trail. "Reasonable explainations? Barring things like alien abductions, Rasputin, pissed off native american curse, guy with a blue police box that's bigger on the inside...." He looked around, waiting for a jogger to pass them before completing the thought. "What makes sense here?"

Miwa shakes her head, watching as the jogger passes by. "I have no idea what makes sense anymore. This is all very confusing and scary. I mean, sure there are a lot of ways you could explain what happened to the people who disappeared, like you mentioned, but why do most of the people in town seem to have some sort of mental block from even realizing that people are missing, let alone being at all worried about it?"

Ash gave a helpless shrug. "Out of everyone who's actually talked to me? I'd kinda tried making a bit of a notebook on any oddball dreams, oddball imaginations, and the like?" Wait, like actual handwriting in the age of cellphones and tablets? Ash would then feer off of the pave trail into the surroundng trees, headed towards a decoratively 'aged' well not that far from the trail proper. "So far you're the only one I've talked to who conssitently has this mental map of not just not being human... but not being human... shaped..."

A frown then as he considered things. Then a headshake before he slid the wooden cover off the well to show not a hole thta extended deep underground but that the stone faca poking out of ground literally ended at ground level. Also there was a notebook wrapped in a plastic bag at the bottom. "And the only thing I can think is 'why do the weird oddball strange and crazy things feel more normal than... well... the normal things?"

Miwa follows Ash and peers down the well, blinking a bit. "Aren't wells supposed to have water?" She poses curiously before shrugging her shoulders at Ash's question. "I have no idea, but it's really starting to make it hard to tell what to believe."

As Ash leaned over to grab the notebook he pulled the plastic off and handed it to Miwa. "I'd stowed that there in case, well, any more Suits showed up while waiting on you." It honestly felt dumb. He was just some kid. Sure he wasa bit into eastern philosophy, and knew a little akido, but the past week felt surreal. "Whatever happens? I just want you to know you mean a lot to me." THen a soft chuckle, "Even if it really does turn out you're some kindo f sea lion."

Miwa nods, it did seem like a decent hiding place. Who would think to look for a notebook in a well. She chuckles and blushes a bit at what he says about her though, pulling him close in a hug. "And that would make you what, some kind of bounty hunter from space? What a crazy pair we'd make." She says with a giggle.

That had Ash roll his eyes, "Freaking edgelord clutter.." He muttered, and yet he still smiled. "The thing I don't get is if that were real, what makes this? Some kind of Zoo?"

A headshake before looking up at the clouds. "Problem is all of this assumes we're actually important enough to put in some sort of bottle, and even in the wildest of these fantasies I'm just... A Guy. so I dun get it. You? Least you get to be an island singer in yours."

"A zoo, where we're all just average human high school kids? At least, I assume this is what passes for average, what do I really know? This is all just giving me a headache. Either way, who or what brought us here, and why?" Miwa wonders as she takes a seat on the edge of the fake well.

"Least Eggman seems intent on digging." Their Science Teacher was an oddball, but he was the fun kind of oddball that made it easy to learn. "Torn between digging for answers and 'the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer.'" His head shook as he sat beside Miwa. "I'd say I'm crazy, but you? Temulin? Raven? A lot of others all having this same setup at the same time...."

Miwa nods, gazing up at the sky, starting to wonder if anything in this world was actually what it seemed. "It's way too much to be a coincidence, unless this is just the craziest dream of my entire life. I wonder what would happen if we tried to leave and go to the next town?"

"Dunno," Ash's thoughts started to spin through the idea of just picking a direction and Going. "Maybe wait til we can ge in touchwith Temulin, see if we can all pile in her car?" He didn't like the idea of everyone being crammed in like that, but when things don't make sense, try the simple solution first right?

Miwa nods again, looking back to Ash. "Anything to help get to the bottom of this. Just be careful Ash, I don't know what I'd do if one of us went missing. Let me know if you find anything out, or Eggman does. Ok?"

"Frankly I'd fel safer with you there to act as sanity check." Ash admitted after a moment before standing bck up. "We both know howfast i go chasing after crazy given the chance." Not as fast as he started punching that one kid that'd tried hassling Miwa between classes, but not by much.

"I'll give you a lift in town. You said you wanted to go to the mall right?"

"Sure, let's go. At the very least it may serve as a moment of distraction from all of this, hopefully..." Miwa says with a somewhat forced smile as she stands up and reaches to take Ash's hand, ready to go find his bike together.