World Tree MUSH

It's been weeks since the... Well... The Thing Ash had been through with Temulin, Raven, Miwa, and others. Maybe that's why he as sitting on the roof of a building in some sleepy college town in Massachusits. Maybe he was here because he had agreed to pay up for Temulinn's help with some local paranormal monsters of face eating, or maybe a lot of other reasons. 

He was dressed casually, apearing like most of the people here other than the glasses he wore and the fact he wasseated on top of a buildigng dangling his legs over watching people go about their day as he ate a hamburger.

Funny thing is if anyone asked how he got up there? TH response from eye whitnesses would be a mix between 'he jumped' and 'one minute he's on the floor. Next he's sitting up there kinda like falling in reverse.' Either way while there were a few onlookers there was nothing inherently strange about a guy sitting on a two story building eating a burger.

Right?

Soon, Ash is joined by Anna! Her method of going up buildings is a bit different: she simply runs up the side of it in her magical girl form, her legs glowing with pale blue light, holding Spiral onto her shoulder with one hand.

She quickly runs into the exact same problem she did during the incident with Ghost: it's hard to land. She lets out a squawk and rights herself in midair, before boosting forward onto the building, where she promptly crashes into the roof.

Spiral groans and rights herself. "Anna, could you not do that, please?"

Anna pushes herself back up to a sitting position. "Excellent idea!" she says, getting to her feet. She concentrates, and then reverts to her civilian attire in a burst of blue light. "Hey, Ash," she says. "How's it going?"

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> Anna is still reckless, just scaled up a bit.

Of course Temulin lands on top of buildings by the usage of her bird. She gets off the mount while chewing on some kind of jerky. She tosses a vial containing some kind of blue liquid towards Anna. "Hey." She greets neutrally, walking towards the edge of the roof and sitting down, feet dangling off the side just like Ash, near him in fact. "You doing alright?"

She stretches and looks over the city. "I need to find my way back home. I'm afraid it may be what they call a 'bud.' Do you know any way to fix that?" She asks the boy next to her and then pauses and scratches the back of her head, "And do you know how Raven is doing?"

Ash quirked an eyebrow at Anna's way of 'stopping.' Yet he said nothing as he waited for Spiral to point out the rather obvious 'this is very reckless.' If he said something out would be a pot and kettel situation wouldn't it? 

Instead he offered Anna an unopened can of soda. "Hey you. Figured the outfit would come with an instruction manual." His tone was light in the moment before dropping to a more serious tone. "Anything going on or 'oh hey people are talking about some weirdo scaling a building' and you felt obligated to check things out?"

Then SUDDEN GIANT BIRD. Yet Ash's reaction was just to turn to look at Temulin before shaking his head. "Honestly? Not really. I mean i'm not like... having a 'who am I and what is real' sort of crisis but y'know...." He gestured to sit on the other side of him while holding up another canned drink. "That simulation... dream... Thing was the closest I'd had to what most people would consider normal, and that's bothering me a lot more than I thought it would."

Anna fumbles, but manages not to drop the vial! "Um, what is this?" she says, frowning at Temulin.

Spiral peers at it. "If it's a healing potion kind of thing, like ..." She cat-shrugs. "I mean it's kind of the obvious thing when you do something that reckless," she says flatly, "but honestly an ounce of prevention would be worth sixteen of those." There you go, Ash!

Anna accepts the soda and sips from it. "I heard something that sounded like your thing, and thought I'd head over," she says. She frowns, and looks between Ash and Temulin. "Uh, did I miss something?" She clearly wasn't in the simulation ...

 
"A hi-potion." Temulin answers Anna easily, "Heals wounds, handy to have for an adventurer like me, sounds like you could use those, too." She nods to some of Ash's commentary, "It was nice, in a way, even though in others it really wasn't. Alas, this is reality and we're going to have to deal with it." She glances to Anna, "Something happened, it was weird. I don't think it's right to go into detail without asking Raven."

Ash looked first to Temulin then to Anna. "Long story. VERY long story short? Me, Temulin, Raven, and a bunch of other people were in some kind of shared dream.. simulation that made all of us believe we were part o a world much like this, and made those that weren't human atl east vaguely human." Which was REALLY weird for Miwa. After a moment he added. "How we got out and why it started breaking down is somethin better left to Raven yes."

He then looked Temulin over and huffed quietly. "Speaking of I think she wants to speak to you but given her overal problems with Peopleing she isn't sure how and seems afrade of making things worse." THis is Raven so 'afrade she'll make things worse' may as well be breathing tothe poor girl.

Anna nods to Temulin. "Excellent, thank you," she says. "I will now never use this for fear of passing up the chance to use it later."

Spiral rolls her eyes. "Well, that's one way to handle it." She frowns at Ash. "Yikes, that sounds like it must've been harrowing," she says. "Are you guys all right? I mean, as far as you can tell, at least?"

Anna frowns and nods. "Raven is desperately in need of hugs," she says. "Which is all the more of a problem, since they're straight-up dangerous to her."

"She needs a hug, but ... I of all people am the worst to hug her." Temulin is about to go onto a second sentence when she reaches out for her head and bends forward some, and just stops responding to others, seemingly entirely unaware of her surroundings.

Ash blinked before reaching over to put a hand on Temulin's shoulder. She was breathing, but given the sudden unresponsivness? He wanted to make sureshe wasn't goitn to pitch over... and off of the building they were on. "Anna, Spiral? Either of you know any magic that deals with medicine?"

Anna and Spiral both stare at Temulin, looking worried. "If we knew that, the Starbringers' jobs would be a lot easier," says Spiral.

"And all I have is the Windrunner and derivatives!" says Anna. "You can't do that kind of thing with Heart Power unless it's part of your own magical ability ..." She reaches forward to grab Temulin's shoulder with the same goal of stopping her from falling, but hesitates, not sure if that will make it worse.

The episode ends and Temulin looks at the others with raised eyebrows. "You guys act like you've never seen a girl accidentally touch another's soul before." She says in a tone of clearly forced cheer, before wrapping her arms around Ash for a hug. "You seem like you need those too, and unlike with Raven the only one at risk of a psychic feedback is me."

Ash hugged Temulin gently and smiled at the shorter woman. "Lady Knight. We each have our own burdens but what I've learned and one of the few lessons I've remembered is it gets easier with friends." He smiled in spite of himself before letting the dark knight go, "And in spite of everything you put forward? You are a friend,"

Then as if he were intentionally trying to ruin the moment he cheerfully added. "and I owe you money, so best to be on your good side eh?"

Anna looks relieved. "I, uh, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen someone touch someone else's soul before by accident," she says dryly. "I mean unless we want to split hairs about the incident with Raven or whatever."

Spiral blinks. "Whew," she says. "Good that things are ... better? At least?"

 
"Don't call me a lady. I'm a savage wanderer from an unsettled steppe tribe. I think any society that cares about ladies would have an apoplexy to see me thrown in with the lot. I'm an adventurer, a mercenary, not some frail lady in need of protection by proper men." Temulin snorts and lets go of Ash when she says that, and smiles broadly at Anna. "It's a thing that happens. I don't know why, but that's how someone else explained to me what this is. I've started getting used to them."

Ash chuckled softly at Temulin's rebuking of his chosen term. "Fair enough, but my adopted mom stole the earth's moon from the sky to keep me and the other Tenno safe." Then he gave a rather wide grin, "And Valkyr's got a reputation I can vouch for of.... Brutal... effeciancy on the field. My view of women tend to put them as fairly self reliant." Ash.. .clearly did not understannd the whole 'women are the weak lesser gender' idea many cultures had.

Anna nods slowly. "Well, I'm glad you're doing all right!" she says. "... as far as I can tell." She looks Temulin over. "I mean, not like I have any clear basis for comparison, but ... yeah." She blinks at Ash, but doesn't say anything.

Spiral peers at Temulin. "So, what does 'touching someone's soul' actually entail in this case?"

Temulin shrugs at Spiral's question. "I see bits and pieces of people's pasts. Sometimes it's very important to who they are, other times it's very relevant to what's going on, and other times it's relevant to things that won't happen for a while. I can't control it." She explains and then smirks at Ash, "I'm definitely not some frail damsel, and neither does any woman need to be."

Ash grinned and gave a single nod at Temulin's assertion. "So yea... I've got my portion of your fee ready to go, though if you want it in a diffrent currency I can shop around try finding a world with a decent exchange rate." Since he had no bag or suitcase it would seem that money was 'here' in the general sense rather than specific. 

Then to Anna he continued to smile. "Lessons with Raven have gone well. I can't keep it up long, but I could probably give you a decent run for it out of suit now." A bit of a stretch since making a handfull of hops a couple meters at a time wouldn't cut it against Anna going on a dead run. "So what's on your mind other than an accidental peek into mine?"

Spiral nods to Temulin. "Interesting," she says. "Definitely good to know you have that!"

Anna nods along with Ash's explanation, then blinks. "... Oh, for some reason I thought you meant 'lessons' as in you teaching her," she says. She grins. "Well, I might have to take you up on that, if you wanna put your money where your mouth is!" Her playful tone suggests that she isn't taking the idea of Ash outrunning her seriously either.

"I have some contracts in Limsa Lominsa that I've been unable to complete, and another in a small town in Thanalan. It's been bugging me that I've been forced to leave these hanging." Temulin answers Ash and continues, "But I'll take your money next time we're both in Mushroom Kingdom." She gets back to her bird, "I'm off now. I only stopped by since I saw you two. I have gremlins to hunt."

A pause and then a glance to Anna, "I'll be the adding the price of that potion to your bill." She jumps on Denhes back and takes off.

As Temulin left Ash reached over to fluff Anna's hair. "I actually wanted to talk to you because of all that. ... space ninja guy sudden suburban parkour rat." He stalled for time by finishing his burger and then he blinked out of existance. Spiral or others sensetive to extradimensional whatsits might have felt the moment just before his jump. Then ash appeared a bare moment later, less time than it would have taken him to physically move, a handfull of meters away fro m the ledge in the same position he had been before.

The problem is that meant he was sitting in mid air a couple feet from the roof. Physics took over and he grunted, "OK... that was dumb."

Anna snorts. "Pass it along to your guys, Spiral," she says flatly.

"Yeah okay," says Spiral.

Anna squirms and makes a halfhearted attempt to push Ash's hand away. "I mean, that sounds like the situation where you'd really want to talk to someone, but ... why me in particu ..." She blinks as Ash vanishes. "... lar."

"Um," says Spiral.

When Ash rematerializes, Anna frowns. "Okay, I'll bite," she says. "What's going on there?"

While Ash started to get to his feet he again blinked before appearing beside Anna again mid motion. "The Cool Thing Raven helped me figure out." He sounded excited as he streached. "Well technically I guess remembered would be the right word since it's something i kinda aleady knew how to do but there was a whole lot of Everything in the way and-" 

He coughed, looking about. "THe Basics? Right now it's straight lines only. Material density doesn't matter so long as i can go through it. SO air? Water? Chocolate pudding? Same distance per jum at the same speed." He gave a small laugh. "And as you just saw no momentum is preserved and for me it's an effective pause button on any action I'm taking... so... Potentially useful."

Anna blinks. "Well, that's certainly interesting!" she says. "And yeah, it definitely sounds useful, too. I wish I had something like that!"

Spiral, who was nodding along until that last comment, shakes her head. "Yeah, no, Anna, you should focus more on handling what you've got right now. You're still having trouble handling Heart Power."

Ash nodded at Spiral and started pacing. "I have a lot on my mind but it's all like.. big emotional wacky snarl... stuff." His tone was, in spite of everything rather light as he looked skyward. "Hanging out seemed like a good compromise between 'go find therapist' and 'do nothing.' Besides I trust you'll punch me if i start getting too emotionally bottomed out."

Anna shakes her head. "Oh, nah, you're liable to give me much more appropriate reasons to punch you," she says dryly. "'Emotionally bottomed out' really seems like the worst time for a punch."

Spiral cat-shrugs. "The thing that makes me worried is when you seem to have no emotions," she says. "Like that time in the Distortion. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was great for kicking Curse Phantom ass, but not so much for you personally."

Ash handwaggled at Spiral's concern. "It's a sort of meditative trick. Kindof like when you're focusing on a specific task you don't precicely think on a forebrain level." Beat. Ash realized who he was talking to then added. "I mean you DO think, but ...."

He held up a hand and startedpacing as he thought to try getting somesort of good analogy. "OK Here has arcades right? In simulation I as a junkie at this retro place that had a bunch of old games. It's like when you're in a bullet hell and you aren't thinking about what you need to do because that takes too much time. You just... Do. You're in the moment."

Anna exchanges a look with Spiral. "Did you get that?"

Spiral nods. "Yep."

Anna nods back to Ash. "Okay, I think I get it too." She shrugs.

"It just seems a little extreme to me, is all," says Spiral. "I mean, there's also a part of me that's going 'as long as it works for dealing with Distortions', but I'm not supposed to focus on that kind of thing alone."

Ash tilted his head quzzically at the pair. "You... act like it's a problem?" He sounded unsure. "It's how I manage to deal with the amount of clutter on the field without pannicking." A shrug as he went back to pacing. "I mean... is there something I should know about or is it 'this is outside of what we're used to and it's concerning becausee everything here relies on emotion'?"

Spiral shrugs. "Mostly, it just seems psychologically dangerous from our perspective," she says. "I mean, it's not a good idea to make your entire life about battle, y'know?" She shrugs. "So, I guess the answer is, yes it's mostly about our own world's perspective, but to the extent that humans and human-adjacents seem to have mostly the same kind of psychology throughout the World Tree ..." She tilts her head. "It does kind of worry me, I suppose."

Anna blinks. "Yeah, what she said."

Ash looked to Spiral and nodded at the cat-shaped being. "I... also need that level of focus when using my power since.." FOr a moment confusion flicked across hsi face. "I genuinely don't know why except that's how it is." 

"But," He continued, while tenetivly reaching out to touch Spiral's ears. "There's a reason I've been so... aggressive in making friends, or at least seeking out worlds tahat aren't like my own. I need things to balance out to avoid situations like when I reacted to some kid throwing to kidnap miwa by aiming a shotgun at his legs."

Spiral leans into the touch and purrs lightly. "Yeah, that is basically the kind of balance I'd've recommended," she says. "And, I guess, yeah, it certainly did help. The Curse Imps would've ignored you if you'd activated it before, too." She shrugs.

Anna grins at Ash. "See?" she says. "Much better than punching you."

Ash continued to pet Spiral gently. "That's why I hang out with Miwa so much. She's been helpful in keeping me from just finding a work project and burying in that." Then he looked at Spiral and frowned. "Either of you have any thoughts on that woman we fought? Y'know other than it's pretty clear she wasn't going to start shooting at actual people?"

Anna smiles. "Yeah, no idea who she is," she says. "But if we meet again, one of us may or may not defeat the other using the 'flirt' command."

Spiral eyes Anna. "... I can't even tease you," she says dryly. "You're just doing all the work yourself. Is this, uh, in reference to something from your 'magical girl mercenary work'?"

Ash shook his head, "I've heard the refrence but I was an arcade guy so if it's PC it's lost on me." Didn't help that the arcade Ash remembers only stocked truely retro games. He laughed before picking up the trash from his meal and blinked, appearing for a moment over the sidewalk. Then another blink and he was a couple feet above the sidewalk and dropped the rest of the way before calmly putting trash in trash can.

He then looked up at where Anna stood and motioned forh er t ocome down.

Anna and Spiral exchange a look. Then Spiral starts floating down on her own power. Anna chuckles, and then jumps, activating the Windrunner in the process. She does stumble a bit, and she zips forward on the sidewalk, but this time she manages to stay upright. "Oh yeah, for the record," she says, "there is no 'instruction manual' for Heart Mages, I need to put it all together on my own basically, and figure out how to get properly creative with my powers."

Ash hugged Anna briefly as soon as she explained the lck of instructions. "Maybe you should start writing these thigns down to see if it will help the next guy in line?" 

He watched the crowd that had started gathering around and took a small bow before stepping towards a building to allow for foot traffic. "I gues we're alike. Neither of us has a manual andwe got handed," His voice suddenly grew deeper and somehow resonated, booming without him actually speaking louder, "UNLIMITED. COSMIC. POWER."

Anna shakes her head as Spiral lands on her shoulder. "No, I mean the problem is it's unique for each individual," she says.

Spiral nods. "I can help with the commonalities," she says, "but tips from a speedster aren't going to help someone with fire-powers or whatever ..."

They both do an exaggerated flinching back thing at Ash's sudden booming voice. "Um, okay!" says Anna.

Ash chuckled in spite of himself, "I mean.. well the processof discovery. ther'es got to be commonalities that apply to everyone in that process that could be used to help reduce fumbling around."

He then realized SEVERAL people were staring at him, "...oops...."

Anna puts a hand on Ash's shoulder. "Ash, buddy," she says, "I'm pretty sure at least one of us has to settle the hell down. I mean, I'm open to me being included, but, like, yeah."

Ash nodded slow and strted walking, "Spiral?" His voice was suddenly calm sounding. "I take it anna basically kept looking for excuses when she got new powers to play with? Any advice?"

Spiral shrugs. "Dunno what to tell you," she says. "At the very least, you're just playing around with it rather than trying to be more reckless with it." She pauses. "Or at least, not from what I've seen so far."

Anna shrugs. "And if you knew how to deal with that, your relationship with both me and Ash would be very different," she says.

"Yes exactly, Anna."