World Tree MUSH

    There was a fair bit of promotion for the event, tv, radio, advertisements and billboards, there were even people handing out pamphlets about the event in other worlds!. It was supposed to be basically a large fair, a safe spot for people to meet and interact with pokemon for the first time, even have a chance to command some in practice battles, or for the otherworlders that felt adventurous, a chance to fight against one!. (After filling all the proper paperwork). For trainers, there was a series of exhibition battles, including high level combatants from all regions!. Luke got involved in the organization because it was being hosted in Kansai region, at Beryl city, quite close to his home at Quartz town!. He had been tasked to promote the place, and greet visitors!. 

    Thus, outside a surprisingly large fairgrounds, there was a young Teen handing programs and answering questions, while a couple of pokemon seemed to assist in at least distributing those papers. Namely a large orange, black and cream bear daintily handing the papers, and a large, round tiger carrying a stack that people simply grabbed from, both offering friendly noises. There were other pokemon doing similar tasks, some more humanoid (a machamp might be particularly odd), or a Bewear, the one creature that looks like it belongs in a fair.

    Past the 'gates' the visitors are greeted with a series of booths holding carnival games, all pokemon themed, and snack booths and on one side, a petting zoo full of assorted pokemon, mostly of small size.

It looks like there's a Hex Maniac wandering around here! ... A Hex Maniac with glowing purple eyes and hair so black it looks like some sort of rip in space, or a graphical glitch. She's also wearing a thick, heavy cloak for some reason.

And, of course, Emily is smiling her usual amused and faintly smug smile as she wanders around, taking in the sights like a complete newcomer. And a complete tourist, for that matter; she's just here to take in the sights and sounds of this promotion.

Holly's interacted with Pokemon a bit already but the notices for the fair got the witch's attention. She's accompanied by two ghosts as usual who do the best tokeep her out of trouble though they might get a bit more attention from those who mistake them as Pokemon. Both the tiger and bear get her attention they would both perfect for Halloween! The hex maniac gets her attention as well, "I like your outfit!"

    Certainly most people seem just curious as they spot Holly and her company, due to hearing about pokemon and... well, assuming it was just another trainer!. The closest of the pokemon, which happens to be the Bewear, lets out a surprisingly sharp growl and waves one 'arm', moving closer to hand Emily a program, that describes the schedule for the exhibition fights, the times of the petting zoo, and some coupons for snacks and souvenirs!. It pauses to look curiously at the odd glowign eyes, but finally gives another happy noise and moves to approach Holly afterwards. 
     It's Holly's ghost companions what cause the pink and black bear to pause, tail twitching behind it a few moments, looking at the pair for a moment and 'saying' something in their direction, as if checking if they were pokemon, before carefully giving Holly a program as well. If one didn't hear the noises it made, one would assume that was a person on a costume!. 

    Luke was not too far from that particular encounter, and at the very least recognizes Holly from a situation involving monstrous parade balloons, waving his hand happily and approaching, "Hi!" he offers, before glancing back at Emily, which might take him a moment to recognize once again, he seems to have trouble remembering details sometimes. "Glad you would make it, let's hope you have fun in here, maybe you'd like to meet some of the ghost pokemon they have at the petting zoo?" he offers, noticing the apparitions near the witch.

The Hex Maniac smiles back at Holly. "Thanks, I conjured it up myself!" she says. ... Yep, that's Emily all right, she has the same voice she always does. "Hey there, Holly. How's tricks? Seen Iota lately?"

She accepts the program from the Bewear, and looks it over. "Hmmm ... some of this looks very interesting indeed!" She grins, and waves to the other familiar face. "Hi, Luke!" Somehow, she seems a bit more relaxed than usual, like she's come here to take her mind off things and turn her brain off, so to speak.

"Maybe that's the why I haven't became a great mage yet, I'm not spooky enough!" Holly remember that Salome told her that witches should be the scariest beings in the forest. "No, hopefully the professor hasn't given her any more trouble. Sure, there's plenty of human ghosts in the mausoleum but most of the animals are over in the pet pet cemetery. I take the ghost dogs for walks sometimes." She says that as if it's completely normal. She lets Luke lead the way to the ghost pokemon.

    Luke politely nudges the Bewear to resume handing those papers to other people, it had gotten a bit curious about Holly and the ghosts. Luke recognizes the voice at the very least and grins widely to Emily, before turning back to Holly, "I think you are plenty spooky." he tries, "Who are your friends?" he adds, mentioning the 2 ghosts around the witch. "Well, I can be your guide, is there anything that interests you from the events?". 

    For now, he guides the pair past the entrance towards the 'petting zoo', figuring most people enjoy interacting with pokemon. The petting zoo area is a large circular spot surrounded by a tall gate, either to stop people from sneaking in, or the pokemon from going out?. 

     Inside there are quite a few creatures, some that resemble normal animals, there are sheeps!, there is a donkey!, there is a bull with 3 tails! there is a pink cow that seems to be standing on it's hindlegs!... there are some large chicks!. Well, nto everything looks quite 'normal'. There are also some more unusual creatures, including what looks like a dark purple ball of gas with a face floating around, pausing and suddenly making it's way to Holly, 'Ghastlyyyy." it vocalizes, there is also a small pumpkin creature waddling it's way closer to the new arrivals, perhaps drawn by the ghosts. There is a white horse with flames in place of a tail and mane moving around casually, and several things that look closer to plants than animals also moving around and meeting people. "So, here are some of the pokemon avaiable to meet, there are other spots with more pokemon in then, but those are more meant for battle practice." he explains.

Emily grins at Holly. "I think it'll be better to find a means of advancing yourself which you're comfortable with, and then keep going 'til you plateau!" she says. "Just practice, practice, practice!"

She continues along with the group until they reach the ghost-types, and she peers at the Gastly and the Pumpkaboo, looking them over. "Okay, that's adorable," she says. "All of these little guys are adorable." Apparently without a thought for any potential danger, she holds her hand out to the Gastly, smiling widely.

     Not terribly far away, what seems to be another pokemon similar in appearance to a young lion cub has possibly escaped the petting zoo pen and is bounding over toward one of the nearby food stalls that serves some tasty cake pops in the shape of festive pokemon, like Magikarp, Eevee, and Pikachu, and the small critter tries to get a better look at the cake pops on display. For being a small cat-like pokemon, this one has a hard time seeing much over the counter that is better suited for people -- even younger children would have a better time of it. 

     Still, this height disadvantage does not discourage the investigation of sweet things. The lion cub thing weaves between a few customers' legs and gets a good opportunity to try leaping up onto the counter. The jump is a half-fail and results in a scramble of dangling hindlegs and a bit of clawing to pull up onto the stall countertop and this threatens to knock over one of the cake pop displays.

"This is Servis and Lavaux! Servis was a stage magician when he was alive and Lavaux was a wrestler! They're helping me with my magic and fighting." Of course Holly's unaware of their personal agendas.

 "I keep practicing but my spells rarely come out right!" You're pretty good at polymorphing, Emily." Her attentions turns towards the Gourgiest. "That looks like Iota's hat, yeah they're pretty cute! Especially the raggedy doll one!" Her attention turns towards the Mimikyu, the pair unknowningly have quite a bit in common."

    The Gastly seems to be quite solid as it gets petted, pressing into the attention adn smiling!. These were picked for their friendly attitudes after all, the weird floating ball looking curiously at Holly and the ghosts as the witch mentions past lives as humans, blinking a few times, 'Tly?' it asks, glancing back at Luke for a moment as if wondering 'is that true?'. 
     The Mimikyu seems delighted at someone actually saying it's cute, waddling its way closer, the wooden stick acting as a tail wagging behind it, while Luke smiles and nods, "That's always a good piece of advice, the practice I mean." he says, before pointing at the closest pokemon, "That's a Gastly, it produces a gas it uses to put other pokemon and people to sleep, if it wants to." he says, "But he knows to behave during this event.". There is a small pause as he spots the small 'costume' moving closer, "That's a Mimikyu, it has the nickname of 'Disguise pokemon' becuase it always wears that pikachu disguise, it really does not like people looking under it, so if you pet her, just be careful with it, apparently she made the disguise herself." he explains, sounding as if he was reciting something he was briefed on. 

     Meanwhile, while Rez's initial approach was ignored, beyond a random person saying, "Look, a shiny Litleo!" and pointing at the blur of digimon lion rushing to the stand, when it suddenly pounces and threatens to break something, that causes a bit of attention, with the person in charge going, "Hey!, what are you doing!" and moving to try to pick up the massive lion off the counter, even as some of the confections fall down both next to him, and to the floor, "If you wanted some snacks you should just ask, or go to the petting zoo." he explains, pointing towards Luke and company, thankfully for Rez, most pokemon are able to understand humans, so it is common to speak to them and explain.

Emily shrugs, and just continues stroking the Gastly. "It's not really a polymorphing spell, I'm just made out of the right stuff," she says. Her other hand extends pets the Mimikyu, much more carefully as per Luke's warning. "I have only ever had a few complaints about being a colony of sub-microscopic techno-magical machines that can take whatever form and configuration they like. It's really ..." A third hand reaches out of her robes and gently strokes the Pumpkaboo. "... handy."

     The explaining while trying to remove the Suddenly Cat is all well and good, but the 'shiny Litleo' is a bit heavier that it seems. A glance over the shoulder at the ground results in a brief bit of flailing panic. This shakes the stall, which doesn't help with knocking things over, as the tenacious struggle to conquer Mount Cake Pop Kiosk finally -- with no help from the poor worker trying to remove him -- manages to pull up onto the counter. 

     All of the shaking causes one of the display signs colorfully showing Cake PokePops Here! comes undone, falls forward, and hits the end of a cake pop display pan now jutting over the front edge. This is, in fact, the same pan that the Litleo winds up half atop. With a ba-wang~! the cake pops, Litleo, and pan are catapulted high into the air. The lion creature cartwheels helplessly through the air in the direction of Luke...which was so ironically and helpfully pointed out just so the universe could take over for the lulz.

"That does sound pretty neat! The best I can do is change my clothes." Holly sounds a bit envious as she careful pets the Pokemon. Rez gets her attention as well, "Is he part of the show too?"

    Luke seems surprised as Emily grows a third arm, "That's an understatement." he muses, blinking a few times even if the pokemon seem quite curious about the changes!. There is what seems to be a sand castle and one of the mentioned sheep moving closer, since others were drawn to check on whatever was going on with the cake stand!. The conmotion is enough to get the attention of Luke, who turns around, "What in Giratina's name..." he begins, before taking a lion to the face!. Thankfully the sheep pokemon was around to help cushion the fall, and hopefully lion claws don't pierce all over him. "I... don't..." he mumbles, slowly trying to get up, while the sheep curiously nudges at the projectile digimon. 

     Of course the petting gets happy noises, especially from the Mimikyu, a shadow claw seeming to emerge from under it, slowly moving towards Emily's extra hand, 'poking' it curiously. The hand, despite looking as if made of some kind of black energy, feels solid enough, it reaches around to help Luke dislodge the lion cub as well.

Emily smiles and nods to Holly. "It really is," she says cheerfully. "It lets me make my own clothes, too, so you can probably -- hello!" Sudden kitty! Emily just watches the sudden shenanigans, grinning at Rez and Luke as she just continues petting the spooky pokemon surrounding her using her three arms. "Ahahahaha, this is great."

     The only thing that makes it better, after getting assaulted by an airborne lion thing, is the fact that the 'shiny Litleo' has a cake pop stuck to its forehead like a silly candy unicorn. Dizzy and swirly-eyed, somebody amongst the group seems to mutter, "Watashi no hobakurafuto wa unagi de ippaidesu," which is simply absurd. Finally getting off of the boy so landed upon with a rolling over onto his back onto the ground, the lion-like creature peers up at the petting zoo features and nearby festival guests upside-down. 

     It's kind of adorable in all the silliness. Welcome to the wonderful, colorful, and fantastic world of Pokemon!

And...well, after the three other worlds Ace has seen, a silly world of silly cutesy creatures? She'll take it. She's wandering into the area, not *quite* wide-eyed, but watching with amusement. On the face of it, she isn't sure right away exactly what is going on or, for that matter, whether this is all as innocent as it seems. It seems like a huge party, but...well. Happiness Patrol, anyone?

"Mwahahaha, this is pretty fun!" Holly's clearly enjoying this but she wonders a bit what Emily was going to say before she stopped. "What type of Pokemon is the Lion Unicorn candy creature?" Of course she doesn't know the difference between Pokemon and Digimon.

     Luke makes sure to check on the feline, even going as far as reaching to ungle the piece of food, "I think you lost this." he says, offering it the cake pop, "I take you were trying to get food?" he asks. He does not quite process the japanese at first, needing a moment or two to really realize what happened, "Wait... you can talk?" he asks curiously, before turning back to Holly, "Not sure." he finally admits. The sheep seems full of static, thus made Luke's hair stand on end, and likely does the same to the dazed Rez as it nudges teh dizzy lion, letting out weird 'baa' noises.

    As far as Ace can tell, it is a perfectly normal fairground, except the cute (or not so cute) creatures around with the people, there are signs pointing to food stands, game stands, talk of some exhibition spots for rarer pokemon, and of course, the mess at the petting Zoo.

Emily just continues grinning, and stares at Rez as he speaks up. "I see," she says cryptically, but she keeps whatever she's concluded to herself.

She glances around, and then a fourth arm extends to wave at. She's probably not looking all that familiar, but Ace might recognize the glowing eyes, the Black 3.0 hair, and the smile, even if the rest of Emily currently looks like a heavily-cloaked Hex Maniac at the moment.

Ace does indeed spot Emily, and gives a flickering finger-wave to her. She, of course, looks exactly the same as the last time Emily saw her. Down to the jacket. Although one might suspect that the jacket is, well. A signature.

     Cake Pop is procured from thin air (forehead) like magic by Gray. The response? Open mouth, insert cake. "Ahhhhh," goes the lion cub with a wide open mouth just to serve the point. If it's being offered... Cakenoms aside, the cat wiggles over onto his feet and peers around at the sheep and the others a bit more directly after taking a moment to shake his head back and forth rapidly to clear the cobwebs before pressing a forepaw to his face. Funnily enough, the leonine animal actually looks between people's faces before looking around and behind himself. Somebody is a bit self-conscious. Sure, it was one heck of an entry, but...was it all fully intentional? 

     "...?"

    Fortunately, most of the curious people decide the 'situation' is handled and return to their bussiness, which is eating and inspecting other booths, or heading to the exhibition battles. Luke kneels besides the dazed lion and pets his head, hoping it won't bite, after feeding it hte cake of course!. 
     There is a small pause as he checks if the big cat was hurt, "If you are still hungry I can get you more food." always a friendly kid!. He decides he might have been confused on teh source of the voice, since it didn't reply!. The other pokemon seems to also assume things are fine, except the electric sheep, who glances curiously at the nomming lion, narrowing it's eyes before moving back to eat some grain, suspicious of the lion.

Holly hasn't met Ace before so she just gets a nod from the witch. It seems like no one knew what type of Pokemon Rez was and she was unaware that he was speaking. She had just saw the cone stuck to him.

    Of course, Emily and Ace and Holly are not ignored, the pokemon around them still intrigued on the more unusual visitors, the 'ghost' Emily was petting suddenly phasing through her hand to greet Ace, still smiling in a very slightly unnerving way. The small Mimikyu seems to want to be the focus of attention, making more noise and trying to sneakily push the pumpkin pokemon with that same shadow hand, while said Pumpkin protest to the situation. (sorry to break the order, forgot to put this bit)

Ace smiles at the ghost. "Hey there. Do you talk?" She's not sure where the ghost falls on the scale of sapience between mealworm and things way beyond human, after all.

Emily chuckles. "Pokemon only seem to be able to say their own names," she says, withdrawing the hand that had been petting the Gastly and using it to give the Mimikyu double-pettings! "Not entirely sure on the level of sapience, but they do seem to be reasonably intelligent as far as animals go."

     There's little doubt that the Cake Pop stall vendor might come to investigate what happened. Despite the attention being shed upon the strange 'pokemon' at the festival, the appearance of this human's face near the edge of the petting zoo is a cause for sudden alarm. One might almost be able to see the punctuation over the lion's head. 

     "!" 

     Wide-eyed at first, the not-quite-a-pokemon bobs his head to Luke a few times. "Gomen'nasai. Yurushitekudasai. I must go now, but I will return another time to take you up on your offer once again as before." There's a strange sense of familiarity there in what is said -- oh, the lion thing definitely talked that time, but pokemon don't normally speak human talk, do they?! 

     Just like that, the Cake Pop Stunt Artist turns to bolt away, to slalom around the other petting zoo animals, and find an escape route before more questions can be asked of him. It's always over food! Darn you, food. Stop being so tasty.

Holly looks a bit surprised as the lion runs away, "So if that wasn't a Pokemon what was it?" Seeing how the Mimikyu is getting plenty of attention her attention turns towards the pumpkaboo. "It would be nice to have a pumpkin that never rots. "Kind of small to float on though."

    The round ghost wobbles in midair, "Gastly." it vocalizes even as it shakes it's head no. Luke interjects, "Most pokemon can't really speak, but they usually understand humans quite well." he adds, since he likes solving confusion on the matter. "Just be careful if it licks you, it can numb the spots it licks.". Even as he says that, the ghost sphere opens it's maw and makes a show of attempting to lick Ace, just... quite slowly, clearly just taunting Luke and Ace. 
     The costume ghost seems delighted at the attention, bouncing a few times and making happy noises, the 'head' wobbling dangerously as it soaks all the affection, it even stops trying to push the pumpkin away, even if by this point it turns towards Holly. Rez's shenanigans cause some visitors to glance again in it's direction, a large, clydesdale sized horse shaking it's head as it watches it run again, those small pokemon are always troublemakers!. Luke faces Holly at the question, "I think it might be... what was it, digi something?" he says, "I saw a couple before.". 
    While he thinks, a new pokemon approaches Luke, it's a large, very round looking tiger, carrying some kind of note in it's maw, it's the same schedule they were handing away earlier, just to check how its trainer was doing, and to greedily rub against Luke's side, purring like a big engine, the sheep from earlier is drawn towards the feline, and brushes against it, static power seeming to build between the two.

Ace laughs and dodges back a little bit. She sets her assessment of ghastly intelligence as "smart dog." "You silly thing," she says to it. "Although that's a useful ability."

Emily grins as she watches Rez bound off again. "Digimon, I believe," she says. She nods along with Luke's explanation. "They all seem to have something resembling combat-useful capabilities," she muses in response to Ace's comment. She smiles down at the Mimikyu and the Pumpkiboo, both of which she's still giving pettings. Double-pettings, in the Mimikyu's case! "Regardless, these ones are adorable."

"Digimon? Yes, you can't go wrong with a Halloween theme!" Holly nods in agreement with Emily. "I don't really like to fight ghosts, they're pretty friendly for the most oart. People just misunderstand them." She can sympthize with the creatures.

    The Gastly avoids licking Ace regardless, was just trying to get a raise out of either, laughing as Acase calls it silly, doing a quick loop in teh air and moving to playfully 'bump' into the jacket wearing 'human' only to phase through her, vanishing from view and try to go 'boo' if she turns around to look at where it went, it pops back somewhere on her side and try to pull off a scare. 
     Luke smiles and waves and faces Holly and Emily, "Maybe you can get one of these pumpkin pokemon." he says, "In any case, pokemon actually enjoys fighting, for the most part, even if they are staying with people that aren't with trainers and living at houses, or in the wild." he reassures Holly, most people won't force a pokemon to fight.

Ace doesn't scare easily, but when a pokemon ghosts says boo, you jump. It's kind of like when a toddler gives you a toy phone, you answer it.

Emily chuckles at Ace's antics with the Gastly. "I'm considering getting one of these," she says dryly. "I need some more stable living before I can keep a pet, though ..." She taps her chin thoughtfully with her spare fourth hand. "Maybe I'll see if Ash has room on his space station or something, I 'unno."

     After Rez leaves, things return to mostly normal, with Luke offering some bits of info to the otehrs, especially when oen mentions wanting to adopt a pokemon!. "Well, I need to get going to prepare for the exhibition fights now, i am one of the contenders, but I hope you enjoy this." he offers, smiling and bowing playfully to his friends, before rushing away into the fair proper.