World Tree MUSH

This is a city in a branch world, one closely integrated to the World Tree. A few vines leading to other worlds are actually visible in the sky; one of them seems to be a world of ruined and abandoned cities -- the world which Emily visited not long ago, and fought a monstrous Machine Lifeform in an opera house.

It's a hot summer day, and Emily is sitting at an open air cafe, making her way through a large ice cream float; a dozen or so empty glasses containing the remains of other floats are sitting around the table. Oddly enough, she's taking the form of an ordinary woman with auburn hair and robotic looking eyes, rather than taking on some bizarre and inhuman appearance with glowing purple eyes, and her usual amused smile is replaced with a somewhat unsettled and dour expression. She's wearing the same red and yellow dress she wore in the carnival; it's still just a little bit dusty from the ruins.

The fight with the Machine Lifeform didn't go badly, but Emily was clearly shaken by what the enemy was.

    It's not a surprise that someone was shaken. Someone like Emily being shaken, that's news! Weiss was queasy the entire fight, probably not helped by the reminder of Penny's fate. Her idea is also to get some ice cream to take her mind off of it... and seeing Emily there wasn't her plan.

    It takes a second look for her to be sure who it is, but the dress is distinctive because of the smudges being the same. Weiss isn't all that friendly to others either, but here... she needs someone to talk to, and Ruby isn't likely to be a good choice. The pale girl pulls up a chair without asking, sitting down across from Emily. "Are you finishing all those yourself?" It's a hint that the aristocratic girl is still rattled that she isn't trying to be polite, only her more blunt manner.

Emily looks up at Weiss and shoots her a lopsided smile. It still doesn't look anything like her typical amusement. "Oh, hey," she says. Yep, her voice is the same as usual, just as her form is the same it was right after the fight. "I just ordered another round, actually, you can have some of 'em if you want."

She looks down at the half-empty glass in front of her. "... Being completely immune to alcohol has its ups and downs," she says. "I used to think that the idea of getting completely plastered was total nonsense. But after ... Simone ..." She spoons herself another bite. "... I at least understand the appeal of drinking to forget." She swallows the bite in an instant. "But indulging in my sweet tooth is as good as it gets."

    Wanders down the road, not for a particular reason really, he is the kind to walk around and visit things, it's almost a duty for a pokemon trainer!. He ends up heading towards the cafe, flanked by a small bipedal panda that seems to be wearing soem kind of costume. "Did you want to have a snack?" he asks to the sidekick, getting an enthusiastic nod from it. OF course, Luke does not ask if pets are allowed as he heads towards a table, it's not something people back at his home tend to ask. He asks for two icecreams, and turns around towards the table with the many, many empty glasses, a bit curious at the sheer number, not recognizing Emily, then again, he wasn't quite expecting her in such a spot.

    "Yeah maybe I will," Weiss says, grasping one of the floats, but then grimacing. "I... don't think I want to do that though. It just makes things worse." A flicker of a haunted look over her eyes, and Weiss pulls a spoon over. She doesn't recognize Luke, but the boy over here isn't really her concern. Just his pet, which is a little curious-looking.

    She'll make room for him to get by, but is still talking to Emily. "It was pretty terrible. I've seen some awful things, but the Grimm aren't really... humans or machines, they're just monsters. You expect that from monsters, they don't really understand what they're doing."

A waitress steps out with four more ice cream floats. She gives Weiss a questioning look, but Emily just waves her over, and she sets two down in front of each of them, then sets to work gathering up the empty glasses.

Emily follows Weiss's gaze to Luke. In a swirl of silvery glitter, she gains glowing purple eyes again, in case her voice isn't recognized by itself. "Hey, Luke," she says. His companion isn't particularly a surprise to her; she's been to the pokemon world before.

She turns back to Weiss. "Well, a part of me wants to say the Machine Lifeforms were created by aliens," she says. "A human mind has more in common with that of a sea cucumber than we'd have with an alien machine which is struggling to make some sort of sense out of humanity for the purpose of imitating them ..." She pauses. "... for some goddamn reason."

She kicks back the remains of the float she was on when the waitress came out. "... but then I remember the rumor in Simone's data packet, and all I can think is, 'well, that sure was a fucked up thing that just happened!'" Her glowing eyes flicker to the twelve-year-old Luke. "... I mean, uh ..." She grimaces. "... ugh, wow, sorry about that."

Luke Gray blinks a bit as he recognizes the voice and waves towards her, "Hey, Emily!" he offers happily, getting up and slowly walking closer, "Is everything ok? that's a lot of floats." he says, even as he gets his own, and carries it wit him. The small 'panda' seems used to the interest, and if anything, likes it, waving happily and somehow 'floating' with the glass firmly hugged between two forelegs, taking a offered seat and making a happy noise towards the other two.

    Luke chuckles a bit at the pause, "It's fine, I heard that before." he says, looking around and stage-whispering, "I heard it on tv." he teases.

    Weiss blushes at the curse being said around Luke, then breathes a sigh of relief as Emily seems to know him. She scoots to make room, stabbing her float with a spoon and staring at it. "We just had a bad encounter with something neither of us ever wants to see again." A quick summary!

    Weiss resumes eating. "Hi. Weiss Schnee," she states, remembering her manners finally.

Emily chortles. "Nope! Not okay in the slightest. That's why I'm trying to drown my sorrows in ice cream and soda," she says. She rolls her eyes. "I mean back before my world ended, it apparently wasn't allowed to drop an F-bomb on broadcast television, but okay."

She nods to Weiss. "That is the best description of that Machine Lifeform I've heard since we went to that carnival," she says. "And given how heavy the sword I used was, we at least won't see that particular iteration of it again. I won't disturb you with the details, Luke, because they would really disturb you. It was just ..." She shudders. "Ugh." She pauses. "It was just very, very 'ugh'."

    Luke sighs as he hears the description of that situation, "That sounds bad... worst I had to deal was with some team rocket people abusing pokemon and forcing them to hurt innocents, I like pokemon battles but... fighting to the death by forcing pokemon to go overboard is not... something I approve." he says.

     There is a nod and a chuckle, "Oh, my parents would eb mad at me and you, if they heard us right now, no worries." he says, before rubbing the back of his head. "I can kinda get the idea... still sounds terrible.". He takes the offered hand, "Luke Gray." he offers, and points to the small panda trying to eat a float, "That little guy is Pangshi."

    Weiss nods slowly at the whole description from Emily, making a face at something. "I really don't want to see anything like that again. I hope it isn't common in 2B's world. It's just-"

    She cuts herself off as she catch sight of the 'panda' there. It makes her stare, because she was GOING to say something about how awful it is to make animals fight. "Oh my gosh that's adorable!" Wait what? The ice queen's morose attitude forgotten, she rushes over and leans in, "You're so cute yesyouare whosacuteone?!"

Emily nods to Luke. "Let's just say that it's even worse than that," she says. "And ... well, all right." She pauses. "I'm typically the least-responsible adult in the room, but, uh, yeah. I prefer at least some level of 'fairness' as far as that kind of thing goes."

She makes a face at Weiss. "I couldn't have put it better myself," she says. "The ... uh ..."

She stops as Weiss goes into Squeeing Over Cute Animal Mode. That actually gets a chuckle out of her. It's not one of her guffaws, but it's getting there. "Okay. At least you can get distracted by something conventionally adorable," she says dryly. "Props to you, Ms. Schnee."

    The small cute, red-eyed panda chirps as Weiss suddenly leans towards it, pausing on it's eagerly devouring of icecream to offer the gushing girl a grin and a happy nose. "Seems you found a fan." Luke says, chuckling a bit, the small pokemon leaning back, giving its new friend a hug. 

    Luke just shudders at the explanation and nods, "I don't think I'd wish that to anyone." he mumbles, "It sounds terrible... wish there was something I would to help take your mind out of things." he muses.

Emily regards Weiss for a moment, then looks back at Luke with a wan smile. "It'll just take time," she says. A pause. "Time, and more ice cream." And with that, she sticks her spoon back into the ice cream in front of her and takes another bite.