World Tree MUSH

Brighton, Massachusetts is a city which is fairly characteristic of late 2010s or early 2020s. It's nestled against Boston, and it's just one of many cities in the northeastern megalopolis. The Vines tend to deposit visitors around one park area, and there are a number of kiosks dotted around with pamphlets describing the differences between this Earth and other iterations thereof.

Chief among these differences is the fact that a mysterious and poorly-understood phenomenon called the "Drop Effect", in which people in a particular region suddenly start to feel a general sense of malaise, and then this feeling suddenly vanishes. There's also the rare but not-unheard-of occasion when individuals to this world awaken to personal magical abilities.

For example: as the sun begins to sets, there's a young woman running along the side of the buildings at approximately the speed of a car, heading towards the kiosks. She's using one hand to hold a golden-furred catlike creature onto her shoulder -- its tail is the wrong kind of fluffy, and its ears are a little too pointy.

This reminds her of her Earth, albeit not of Perivale. Studying one of the signs, Ace elevates a single eyebrow. Okay. Drop Effect, sounds like something which needs to be fixed...if not by her, than by somebody. Magic? Magic is not something she has really encountered yet. Maybe the Pokemon, but...

Anna lands near Ace without really paying much attention to her, and casually picks up a pamphlet. She looks over the section on the Drop Effect. "Soooo, that's what they're calling it, huh," she says; her voice is slightly androgynous. "I've, uh, I've been wondering about all that!" She's trying to sound casual, but she's clearly very nervous. "What do you think, Spiral?"

"Yeah, sounds about right," says the not-a-cat. "Sounds like ... if the cause is supposed to be a secret in this Blossom, it's not gonna be one much longer."

Anna lowers her voice. "So, like, officially, instead of unofficially like it has been before."

Spiral rolls her eyes. "Yeah."

Ace turns a little bit. "Oh, so you know what's causing it?" She keeps her tone conversational. Backpack over one shoulder with, perhaps worryingly, the handle of a baseball bat sticking out of it. She looks quite young, but definitely not uncertain.

It is then that Anna and Spiral realize that they really should have paid more attention to the girl right next to her. Both of them jump slightly in surprise! "Uh ... well, I mean, uh ..."

Spiral facepaws. "I think the boat's sailed on keeping it hidden from her," she says. "Hello, I'm Spiral, and this is Anna Freeman." Her eyes flicker with a pearlescent light as she measures Ace's general level of capability. "I take it you're from offworld?"

    ONE HOUR AGO:

  Cursing soundly to herself with venom that would do a sailor proud, the crown princess of Hyrule sprints down the steep woodland trail, trying to manage a bow, an arrow, a quiver, and a thick black robe that whips in the wind of her passage and threatens to tangle her among the grasping roots.

  Behind her, a sleek, dark shape lunges between the trees, galloping on all fours. Its head is a flat disk, and tentacles wave behind it in imitation of hair. It shrieks, a chilling and grating sound that chafes against the soul like nails on a blackboard.

  A Vine lies ahead of her. The princess snarls a last curse, clutches her bow, and hurtles through the portal with a prayer.

    PRESENTLY:

  A black-hooded figure with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other steps onto the sidewalk from somewhere between realities, from beyond the metaphysical boughs of the World Tree.

  The figure freezes for a full five seconds, before slowly slipping the arrow back into the quiver, and putting the bow up over a shoulder. Turning, slowly, the figure stares at the street.

  This sure isn't Peak Province.

  Zelda glances to one side. Pamphlet kiosks. Girl with a backpack and a baseball bat to one side. Miss Freeman to the other--

  Oh.

  "Miss Freeman," 'Sheik' comments, nonplussed. It's a young woman's voice, light and somehow aristocratic. "The Vines seem fond of playing practical jokes. Incidentally," she adds, hood turning to the direction she came from, "if anything terrible follows me through them, I will... deal with it."

"Yeah. I...well..." Ace shrugs. "I suppose I'm from a lot of places at this point, but originally from London. Just not this London."

Ace also turns to see whoever is talking about practical jokes. "As for the multiverse playing practical jokes, yeah. I think so."

"Oh, hey, Sheik!" says Anna, who has never been deferential to royalty or aristocracy in her life and doesn't intend to start now. She frowns. "Not alone, you won't, if it's nasty enough! This is literally my hometown, I'm not gonna just step aside if it's threatened!"

Spiral looks like she's about to respond to that, and then nods to Ace. "Thought so," she says. She looks between Sheik and Ace, and says, "And yeah, that definitely sounds accurate from what I've seen. Um, sorry, what was your name?" This last directed at Ace.

  Frowning, Sheik looks over her shoulder again, the downward slash of her frown the only part of her face visible. She stays that way for a long moment, frozen as though listening.

  Eventually she deems it safe and turns to face the other two again, offering the shallowest of bows to Anna. Which is, in retrospect considering she is royalty, probably a pretty impressive show of respect. "As you wish, so long as they're put down quickly... but it doesn't appear they've yet followed."

  "Mm." Zelda turns, cocking her hooded head slightly at Anna and Ace; it seems to be an agreement to the latter's statement. Back to Anna. And then the hood turns back to Ace, as Spiral points out that nobody knows Ace's name.

"Ace," the young woman supplies, easily. She seems relaxed, at least. But she's so not bowing to anyone. Head held high, braid slightly fallen across one shoulder. There is something in her eyes that suggests that she's keeping an eye on everyone. She knows nobody here, after all.

Anna gives Sheik a nod and a thumbs-up. "'Quickly' is kinda my whole deal," she says cheerfully. "But seriously, I doubt it'll be a problem."

She smiles at the other newcomer. "Pleased to meet you, Ace!" she says. "This is Sheik, by the way." As if she hadn't mentioned her name outright a moment ago. She pauses a moment, and then shrugs and says, "Anyway, I'm a magical girl, and Spiral here is my mascot, basically. And the Drop Effect ..." She blinks. "Or, hang on, do magical girls exist in pop culture in your version of London?"

  "It will not." Zelda shakes her hooded head, after a moment. "They have not followed me. I would have known. They cannot stifle their hunt-screams once they are on the trail."

  She shakes her head. "But I do not have time for this right now. This is not where I was going. I am sorry; I cannot stay to help you. I must find those creatures, and dispatch them. I cannot risk them returning to threaten Hyrule."

  With that, she's off at a brisk clip down the street, in search of another Vine to take her back out of here.

Ace turns to watch Zelda leave. "Huh." Then she turns back to Anna. "Kinda sorta, I think I know what you mean?"

Anna shrugs and waves goodbye to Sheik, before turning back to Ace. "Superheroes in frilly dresses basically," she says, oblivious to the timeframe of Ace's knowledge. "Except I'm old enough to vote in America, instead of being in like, middle school or whatever."

"The Drop Effect is a long story," says Spiral. "The short version is that on every planet in this Blossom where people are capable of experiencing emotion, there's monsters that appear made of negative emotion, invisible to and secret from most people, and people like Anna can perceive and fight them."

Ace ahs. "I knew it was something somebody needed to be doing something about." She taps her backpack. "If I'm around and you need some help...I might not be able to see them, but you can point."

Spiral's ears perk up. "Actually, you can see them," she says. "My job is to help people like Anna become magical warriors, and I detected that you have some paranormal ability or other."

Anna smiles. "Oh, cool," she says. "And yeah, some people can see 'em even if they don't have any kind of power, if they have some other combat capability and all that. Something's being 'translated', we guess."

For a moment, the hazel eyes narrow. Then Ace relaxes. "I have a high ESP rating," she says. "That's all."

Spiral's ears twitch, and she slumps slightly. "... Sorry, reflex," she says. "So many of the procedures we Starbringers have were made under the assumption that we're going to meet people who don't know they have potential, and the World Tree is ... really shaking things up."

Anna shrugs. "So, anyway, Ace," she says, "wanna grab a bite to eat? We can chat some more about --"

Spiral peers at her pointedly. "Don't you have a test you were studying for when we found that people were publicizing the Drop Effect?"

Anna looks away, embarrassed. "Oh right! Uh ..." She shakes her head. "Sorry, have to jet," she says. "I go to the community college here. Um. See you later!"

"Okay. Good luck with the test." Shudder. Tests. Academia. There's a *reason* Ace was hiding from the Doctor...

Anna nods and waves. A moment later, her legs are glowing once again as she charges away, more-or-less back the way she came, still traveling via magically-empowered parkour ...