World Tree MUSH

     It's a beautiful evening in the Alola region, with warm yet comfortable temperatures for both the air and sea. Being the last day of the weekend, Ula'Ula Island's main beach was packed with both people and pokemon all day, but now as the sun is starting to set, painting a dazzling sunset across the horizon, some people are starting to leave. Many though, are crowded near the edge of the water, looking out to sea as a certain primarina is putting on a bit of a show. She is balanced atop a large water bubble just above the waves, with several more orbs of water in a rainbow of colors float around above her, controlled by her voice as she sings a delicate aria. She is practicing for the fact that she is considering doing another concert soon, but certainly doesn't mind if people enjoy the show. 

     Eventually, after several more minutes of singing, she decides to bring things to a close, not wishing to keep her audience, much of which were children, into the dark. For the climax, she directs the orbs of water into a cluster above her, and charges a moonblast, firing a bright beam of pink light into the orbs, causing them to explode into a rainbow colored mist that slowly drifts back down into the ocean around her. She takes a bow as the crowd erupts into applause, and dives into the water as the bubble she was resting upon bursts and falls into the sea along with her.

Vines work in mysterious ways. Sometimes they'll send a person to a place they had no actual intent of going. That's the beauty of travelling through the worlds by vines, though -- they can be extremely unpredictable at times, choosing to dump people at interest events rather than where the people had intended to go.

Such is the case today, with Ecco, a young dolphin from a time-split Earth.

All through the concert, there are admirers and audience members, listening with rapt attention and shining eyes. Most of them are recognizable as children of this world, in fact, if not familiar by association to Miwa!

One of these things, on the other hand, is very definitely not related to Pokemon in any way.

Floating nearby, there is a common bottlenose dolphin treading water near the surface and listening, well behind where the children were clustered. The water isn't quiet near him, either -- he's clicking, in fact in time to the music, albeit at an absurdly higher tempo, into the millisecond, but the timed pulsing of the clicks would still be audible to a humanoid. He's even swaying back and forth in the water in tempo, flukes swishing hard enough to churn currents in its wake.

He's also not very common at all, in some regards. Aside from his obvious appreciation of music -- in this case, his fixed smile might not be so far off the mark -- he's wearing some kind of strange harness secured around his torso. It looks like some kind of metal, woven from fine cables, its finish almost shimmery and opalescent. There are tiny lights mounted down its length, and they cycle softly through different soft, pastel colours. Every so often green lights flash in sequence; measuring his vitals, maybe.

Secondly, there is a smattering of pale marks on his head, and they loosely resemble the constellation Delphinus out of some Earth worlds. Certainly odd for a bottlenose dolphin.

He's also more blue-tinted than the usual bottlenose, but his markings aren't particularly unnatural.

In any case, he drifts a little closer once she's finished singing, issuing a friendly click-click-crackle-squeeeeeeeeeee greeting; communication, even though their worlds are different. The message is clear, even if the syntax and the acoustic aesthetic are alien to many humanoid cultures.

"Bravo! Bravo, that was beautifully sung, if I may say so!"

The dolphin follows up with a series of clicks that might serve for applause in races with proper hands.

"I was just passing through, and I happened to hear you. I'm glad that I came this way!"

     As Miwa swims below the surface, heading toward the small island that hosts her grotto, she hears the visiting dolphin before she sees him. Others on her world might assume Ecco was an undiscovered species of Pokemon. Miwa however knew better. Having done some off world studying, with more than a passing interest in the aquatic life on other worlds, being a creature of the sea herself, she had read a little about dolphins, and the fact that they communicate through clicks and whistles, it was certainly another matter to hear them first hand. She turns toward the source of the greeting and her large blue jewel-like eyes examine the dolphin. She smiles as he compliments her singing, and expresses being glad to have come this way, but being doubtful that underwater pokespeak would be something he would understand, she doesn't try speaking back to him. 

 She honestly wonders if the dolphin could even understand English, but she'd try that later, for now, she just gestures ahead with her front flippers, as if asking for him to follow her. She then kicks hard with her tail and swims away from the shore, out past the barrier islands where her island grotto is, and toward an offshore reef bursting with life. Up on the surface a group of Lapras can be seen, with a few Popplio and Brionne playing among them, looking like sea lions. Below there's everything from Sharpedo, which looked like bullet shaped sharks, to jellyfish like Frillish, Corsola that appeard to be made of coral, starfish like Staryu, a few different Pokemon that look like giant clams, and several more fish-like Pokemon in various different shapes and colors.

The sounds Ecco makes are enough to suggest how alien and strange the oceans can be, and how alien and strange the life forms the oceans have produced. Whalesong is even more strange, though beautiful and haunting to some. Dolphins are naturally more upbeat. Their language, then, is much more staccato; their registers more high-frequency. Enough that humans can hear about a third of it, anyway.

The clicks are so fast it's hard to tell them apart even to a keen ear though. Dolphin applause indeed!

He tilts his head a little bit when she doesn't respond, though, a distinctly human affectation. "What's the matter? Can't speak?" Could it be this creature isn't sentient, despite producing that beautiful music? It does look like some kind of vertebrate that an Earth-like world could produce, but its resemblances to anything he knows are passing, at best.

Ecco can't show it too good but he'd have a pretty blank look on his face right now if his expression could change.

He's quick to catch on to non-verbal cues, though! A lazy flick of his tail sends him pacing after her, fast enough to follow, even when she lays on the speed. He streaks for the surface, propelling himself out of the water with a mighty lashing of his flukes. He blows, explosive, and stays near the surface to get the most speed -- flying, it almost seems, through air and water.

Up he goes as they pass through the reef in a spectacular leap, spinning on his axis and coming back down with a mighty crash, into a veil of bubbles. In fact, all of the life in this place looks a little bit reminiscent of what he knows from his own marine biology and paleontology, but... just a little bit off.

Almost compulsively, he's clicking all the way -- it's a different pattern than before, this time active sonar. Those whistles are still sounding behind it, though; an enthusiastic greeting, to those creatures that can perceive it, as he follows Miwa.

     Miwa's hearing range isn't quite as impressive as Ecco's, but still easily puts humans to shame, particularly underwater. She thus picks up on most of his vocalizations and clicks, and finds herself wondering what it's like to see the world through the acoustic picture of echolocation. She wished to get to know her new guest however in a much greater capacity than she could manage through what limited communication she could manage underwater. So after swimming through the reef, she turns skyward and swims toward the surface. Deciding to go for a leap as she had just watched Ecco do so, she adjusts her flippers for minimum drag, and kicks her tail with everything she's got. That flowing aqua hair of hers does still slow her down though, and although she does pierce the surface and leap above the surface, her leap falls short of the height Ecco achieved earlier, and before she can have much of a sense of flying, she's already falling back toward the water. 

 Now she simply treads water at the surface and breaths normally, waiting for Ecco to join her, at which point she finally offers a greeting of her own. "Hello, and welcome to Alola, my name is Miwa. I'm glad you enjoyed my little practice concert. Certainly drew a nice crowd tonight." The Lapras greet Miwa and Ecco with a songlike cry, and a few Popplio and a Brionne begin to swim closer, eying Ecco curiously. The visiting dolphin might notice a resemblance between them and Miwa, especially the round pink noses, and the light blue frilly fins.

Another spectacular leap, and the dolphin arcs up through the air, jaw falling open and chattering in simple glee -- although the sound is a little thinner and reedier, out of the water. He hits the surface again with another tremendous crash, flipping to right himself, floating so he faces his entire length towards Miwa, bottlenose-first.

Wait. She's talking above the water. He pokes his head above the surface, swiveling one dark eye toward the Primarina.

He turns on the spot, almost double on himself, and clicks sonar at the Lapras; follows up with a series of whistles and a greeting squee-ee-ee before turning his attention back to the star of hte show.

"I thought-t you could talk." His language is reedy and a little stilted, stuttering over some consonants, but he manages to speak English. That's probably enough to suggest he's not as common as his species name suggests! He turns the other way, fixing his other eye on Miwa. "You sssing well. A professional musician? I'll have to come to the concert-t. Oh! Sssorry. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Ecco." The name carries behind it one of those whistling squeeeees. "Like I said earlier, I'm just passing through."

     Miwa can't help but grin as she watches Ecco leap into the air again, drenching her with an impressive splash as he comes back down to the water's surface. She finds his jovial demeanor rather charming, and giggles as she watches him call back to the school of Lapras. As he mentions her ability to speak, she nods and smiles. 

 "Most Pokemon, including other Primarina like myself, can't talk, but still can understand at least a little English or the relevant language of the region. I was trained as a performer my whole life though, and decided to put the effort to learn so that when people hear me sing, they will understand the meaning within my song. I actually can speak both English and native Alolan, and more recently have learned to read too. I used to be part of a musical theater troupe, but now I've gone solo. But I guess I'm rambling now. I'm very glad to meet you Ecco. I've had a lot of visitors from other worlds, and met many others while traveling the vines, but you're the first I've run into of the more aquatic persuasion. If your hungry we can get some food. I'm friends with a man who runs a taco stand by the beach, so I'm sure I could arrange to have him whip up some after hours fish tacos or something." She offers as she looks back towards Ula'Ula Island, the full moon glittering against the water, and dimly illuminating the beach.

"I speak English," Ecco affirms, "and I also speak Delphine. But that-t's complicated. And it's harder above the ssssurface. The ssssound carries different-tly."

He flips his tail, pushing himself further above the water, looking around with those dark eyes and finally circling around to regard Miwa again. He slips back below the surface, moving in languid circles around the Primarina, clicking more noticeably once he's back below the surface again. That sonar is fixed on Miwa, too, and she might be able to feel it.

"I hear you." I see, that seems to be the equivalent to, but sound is more real to something like him than sight. "You sssing beautifully. I'm not-t hungry, just now; I caught-t some fish in the last vine I passed."

He raises himself up on his tail again, tail pumping to 'stand' over the water, 'walking' on his tail in place. He must be looking toward the shore, too. "It seems to be a peaceful place." Ecco turns his head slightly, fixing one of his eyes on Miwa again. "When is your concert-t?"

     Miwa nods and smiles warmly. "Yes, you speak English very well I must say considering you don't have the luxury of speaking through your mouth, not that it would probably help much in your case anyway with the fixed jawline." She compliments, then stays still as he dips below the surface and she quickly figures out he's looking at her, the sonar almost tickling in a way. When he mentions her singing again, she nods and decides to elaborate a bit. 

"Well, I've honed it into a profession, but Primarina are natural singers. To us, the world is a stage, and we use our voice for everything from normal expression, to even fighting. I'm sure you saw earlier when I had all those colored spheres of water in the air? I was controlling their shape, color, and position with my voice. It's highly stylized for show, but it's sort of the signature attack of my species. If I wanted to, I could send the spheres of water flying swiftly toward a target and have them explode violently on impact. But yes, besides conflict over territory in the wild, and competitive sparring among Pokemon trained by people, things are fairly peaceful here most of the time. We haven't had a proper war quite a long time." She explains before pausing and changing the subject to that of her concert. 

"As for my concert, there isn't a set date yet, but perhaps soon? I know I've made some friends off world that were sad to have missed my last one, and the people here seem to be craving another one as well."

"Thank you." Ecco raises his head a little higher out of the water, nodding sharply, flicking water with his snout at the motion. He fixes one of those grey and dark eyes on Miwa. Something in the way a dolphin's head is put together makes his regard seem almost bland, but he's paying attention. "We can't-t make sounds like humansss do, but we hear and understand. Some human languages are easier for some dolphins than othersss."

He cocks his head a little as he listens to Miwa's explanation. Signature attack? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to him, but he accepts it all the same, clicking along with her explanation. Sonar might tickle a little. Like that tingly feeling at the nape of the neck when one's being watched. Context is key, though. He can put at least some of the pieces of this world together based on the narrative given to him.

"I hear you." Rising up and clapping his jaws in assent, the sound loud and percussive, Ecco slides back into the water. "We play human sport-ts, sometimes, though it's harder for us, depending on what it is. There's something like soccer lots of dolphins like to play underwater." He chatters; it sounds like a laugh, or the closest thing he could manage. "Hard to get human teammates, though. We play better in the water than they do." A bit of harmless fun. That's just how dolphins are; by looking at them, one gets the imperssion they spent a lot of human history quietly laughing at humans, as though humans were some kind of private joke.

He swims lazy circles around the Primarina, flicking his tail. "Let me know when you do set-t a date. I'd be interested."

     "Makes sense, even though many Pokemon understand human languages, some understand more than others, and some probably couldn't speak back no matter how hard they tried. I found learning to speak was easier when I listened to music and tried to sing along with the words. From there I learned to speak normally as well." Miwa explains as she begins swimming slowly around Ecco to look at him more closely while he told her of games. 

 "Soccer? I'm not familiar with this game, but I'd be willing to learn and play with you. Maybe I'll be better at it than the humans, underwater I couldn't possibly be worse right?" She says with a laugh of her own. 

 "I will definitely let you know when my next concert is. I'd be great to have you there, and I'm sure many of my friends that missed my last concert would love to come too." She says as she lingers near Ecco's side, her gaze upon his harness. "What is this thing you're wearing? It looks strangely pretty, but I'm guessing you're not wearing it to make a fashion statement."

"Not-t every dolphin learns English. We speak among each other. But we work with different human-pods." Ecco punctuates his explanation with a whistle; his words are already starting to slide into the higher frequencies. "You ssspeak well."

He turns, turning lazy circles in the clear water as Miwa studies him. A flick of his tail sends him back to the surface for a breath, sinking back down amid a veil of bubbles. "Soccer. Humans play it with a ball they kick with their feet. I can do that too," he adds, turning and brandishing his flukes, clapping his jaw to underscore his point, squee-eeing. "But the humans' version isn't played on a three-dimensional pitch. It's easier to show than tell. I'll have to show you some time!"

"Good!" The dolphin rolls, turning to fix Miwa with one of his eyes. "I'll be sssure to make time. And bring some friendsss, too!"

What is that thing he's wearing? He seems nonplussed at first, before remembering the harness.

"Oh. That-t. It's a harness." Duh. "It-t lets me be outside the water. Watch."

Backing away from Miwa with a flourish of his tail, Ecco charges for the surface, leaps -- and hangs above the water's surface by a few feet, as though he were still immersed. The dolphin chatters. "See? It's how I can be in human areasss. It was made for me by someone named Athena. She helped me when I was almost stranded. I took a vine out-t of my world, but it-t didn't go someplace safe for me."

He twists in the air as though to eye it, briefly contorting the line of his body, but there's no way he can achieve line-of-sight.

"I'm still unsure what-t all the lights are for. I think they're monitoring my vitals. I guess I should ask her again what they mean..."

     "Sounds great, learning new games is fun, most people here are into surfing and Pokemon battling, but this soccer sounds interesting." Miwa says with a nod and a big smile. "As for the concert, sure, bring all the friends you want, the more the merrier I say!" She offers before watching as Ecco displays what his harness lets him do, and she's a bit in awe of it now. 

 "That's great! I think I've met Athena before, she seemed nice. I'm glad she could help you. You're certainly not the only one to have such a thing happen while traveling the vines. I ended up in a desert once, and while I'm a bit more suited to being on land than you, I still wouldn't have lasted long there if one of the locals didn't find me and help me out. I can also move through the air, but I think your harness is probably a bit more reliable... Watch!" She exclaims before going on to show off a bit herself. 

While swimming at the surface, she forms a large bubble around herself, and then begins to sing a wordless melody, and as if by magic, the tones of her singing actually begin to lift the bubble up into the air, before long she is floating up near Ecco. She then works the words of her speech into the song of her aquakinesis. "You see, I can float along through the air, and even go pretty high, but if my bubble pops, well, that would end badly if I can't use another of my abilities to slow my fall before I go splat..." 

 She demonstrates that as well, aiming downward at the water, a blue glow appears in front of her mouth briefly, and then suddenly a powerful blast of water streams from her mouth like a water cannon. It pops the bubble but the propulsion from the jet of water keeps her in the air a bit, before she gracefully dives back into the ocean with a small splash and finally comes back up to the surface.

"Good. I'll find more to bring, then." Ecco stands up straighter to clap his jaws together again.

The dolphin looks closer, though, as Miwa demonstrates her own acrobatics, chattering and whistling encouragingly. The sound is reedier than if he were immersed, but it carries enough to be heard.

"I haven't-t seen Athena since she gave this to me. I should check in on her." With a kick of his flukes, Ecco circles around Miwa, observing closely. "The harness can come off, but--" Splash. There goes Miwa. Ecco looks down, tilting his head one way and then the other, as though determining whether she's okay. So far, not-splatted, so it's all good.

He straightens, tilting lazily on his axis. "Quite a show! Bravo. I, however, should be going soon. You know how it is. I should check in on Athena some time, and I have a few other things to do, too. It-t was nice talking to you, Miwa!" Ecco claps his jaw again in loud assent. "I hope we'll meet-t again!"

With that, provided Miwa doesn't move to stop him, he'll take another high leap and then head off, towards the nearest big city.