World Tree MUSH

Anna didn't stop running until she and bird-mode-Diantha had left the lava-stained plains behind, and even then, she didn't relax in the slightest until they took a few vines which led them to the city of Brighton, Massachusets. It's an urban center, part of the eastern seaboard's whole megalopolis. However, the vines have mostly been depositing people right next to a park near the center of the city. There's a few permanent kiosks and stands set up with pamphlets detailing information about what sets this particular Blossom apart from other worlds, with directions to the money-changing centers.

Anna sighs with relief. "Okay, whew," she says. "Home sweet, uh, metropolis, ahaha."

Spiral rests heavily on Anna's shoulder. "In a word, eeuuuughhhh."

     Once Anna finally stops, being home, Diantha finally hops down to the ground and begins to shapeshift back. Once again her body is enveloped in a soft white mist as she rapidly grows back to her normal size, wings becoming arms, beak becoming mouth and nose, all that sort of thing. It all happens pretty quickly and it appears that Diantha is controlling the changes to keep herself from falling over during the process, but after several seconds, she once again stands before Anna in her normal form. 

     She takes a moment to look around, noting that they appeared to be in a city park, and takes a deep breath, trying to stay calm, at least it was not where they just were, next to a dwarven volcano. She smiles at Anna, quite glad the girl had been able to get them out of there so quickly, even if she'd have preferred a less urban destination. "Well, that was a thing, that I'm glad is over with... I know the elves and dwarves where I come from aren't perfect, but I'll take them over the ones we just had dealings with every time... So is this where you live? Never even heard the word metropolis, is that some even bigger advanced city or something?"

Anna grins weakly up at Diantha. "I haven't even met the dwarves and elves from your world and I agree!" she says. "That was ... that was enough."

"You can say that again," says Spiral. "I don't even know how to describe the dwarves' living conditions. That was just phenomenal."

Anna nods to the question about terminology. "Well, like ..." She struggles to put herself back into a halfway-sensible frame of mind. "I guess it depends on the exact terminology or whatever, but, like, I guess 'metropolis' just means 'big city with mondo-huge buildings'." She gestures expansively towards the skyline; even from the park, one can see several buildings dozens of stories tall. "And 'megalopolis' means 'they started citying and didn't know when to stop', the boundaries are basically just ..." She shrugs uncertainly. "... political boundaries, rather than particularly changing geographically or having any kind of gap between them."

     Diantha nods at the explanation of what a metropolis and even a megalopolis is. This is all a bit of a shock to her, and Anna might notice her tail nervously twitching a bit. "Well, it's all new to me. I tend to avoid most of them, but the cities where I come from are varied. The dwarves built their city into a mountain, the humans have a walled city with five districts separated by canals with a castle on the eastern side and a large cathedral in the center. The only one I've actually been in though is... was, Darnassus, the city of the Kaldorei elves, built in the boughs of a massive island size tree. Last I heard before I was dropped into the multiverse it had been attacked and set ablaze. This place though, the tall buildings are a bit intimidating, I imagine they allow quite a lot of people to live here, though I don't understand why anyone would want to live that close to so many other people." 

     Some were beginning to stop and stare at Diantha, and she notices this and looks back at them, then Anna. "I seem to be drawing some attention..."

Anna nods, listening with interest. It's definitely helping to keep her mind off the world they just left. "Humans are social animals," she says. "And most of the entire planet is basically completely covered by living spaces, aside from designated nature reserves and places people can't actually live. There's nowhere to go except up." She pauses. "I think. Don't quote me on that. I mean there's plenty of more rural areas and whole forests and things ..."

She glances around at the watchers, and shrugs, looking Diantha up and down. "We ... don't get very many dryads here, I guess," she says, her cheeks going slightly red.

Spiral shrugs. "Even in the World Tree as a whole, most populations seem to be human, or human-adjacent."

     Diantha continues to listen and looks visibly relieved when Anna mentions that while much of the space on the planet is developed into places for humans to live, there are still plenty of less developed areas and forests and such. "Ah, that's good, and people build these parks so that they can still have a little bit of nature inside the cities." She offers as she walks over to one of the kiosks to grab a pamphlet, nodding when Anna explains that they don't get many dryads here, and Spiral mentioning that most people around the world tree are human or human-like. "I suppose I'm more elf-like, but only the top half..." She comments as she turns back toward Anna, noticing her cheeks were turning a little more pink. "Is everything alright?"

Anna nods. "Got it in one!" she says, grinning faintly. "I mean, I'm a city girl myself, but even I like hanging around here a lot of times, when I'm not out running."

The pamphlet gives a quick overview of the things that separate this world from other Blossoms in general, and in particular the differences between it and other Blossoms resembling twenty-first-century Earth. The chief differences seem to be that 1. individuals here rarely but regularly awaken to magical abilities, and that magic as a whole is poorly understood thus far but they're working on it, and 2. there's a phenomenon which has been dubbed the "Drop Effect", in which everyone in a given area will suddenly start feeling a supernatural sense of malaise, a lack of energy both physical and emotional, and a general unhappiness and impatience -- which vanishes abruptly, just as mysteriously as it appeared; there has been a sharp increase in Drop Effect incidence since the world Blossomed, and it is hypothesized that the Drop Effect is caused by some malign supernatural force unknown to the general public, and that it ends when someone does something about it.

Anna blinks and giggles, looking away. "Uhhhhh ..."

Spiral glances in confusion between Anna and Diantha. "Are you getting distracted by her attractiveness?"

Anna giggles even more nervously. "... yes."

     "Wait, are you attracted to me? I have to admit that's a first. many humans I've met have been rather nice, but none have expressed being attracted to me, I never really thought about why, but I'd assume my lower half would be a turn off to most bipedal races..." She states in a pondering tone, taking a moment to look over the pamphlet, noting that the world did have magic, but seemingly very different from the magic on her world, and finds the description of the drop effect rather curious. Eventually, she looks up from the pamphlet and back at Anna. "So um, now that we're here, what should we do? Do you want to show me around or anything? Go get some food.... take a shower to wash that volcano smell off?"

Anna shrugs, still grinning nervously. "Let's just say I'm the last person to judge someone else for their own differences," she says. "And your upper half is still, uh, elf." She had to stop herself from saying 'human' ...

Spiral floats up to read a bit over Diantha's shoulder. The speculation about the Drop Effect seems to startle her, but she just wordlessly sighs.

Anna shrugs, trying to settle back down. "I dunno, I wasn't really thinking past 'get the hell out of there'," she says. "And ... we don't have any showers here in dryad sizes, they're all 'just big enough for an upright human' and all that stuff." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe we could find another Blossom that's less ... urban? I'd, uh ..." She looks away. "... I'd have to ... bathe separately either way, though."

     Diantha looks around a bit more, seeming to be thinking about the idea. "Hmm, well I'm definitely not so much a 'city girl' as you said, I just feel a little uncomfortable being in such a man-made environment, and feel more vulnerable since my magic is partly drawn from nature. The parks help at least... but if a lot of the other worlds among the tree are like this, maybe I should try my best to get used to it. But I'll happily go wherever you want, I'm still new to the tree in general so hopefully you know your way around better than I do."

Spiral gives a catlike shrug. "There's actually a fairly large variety," she says. "Even within this Blossom, I mean, like Anna said. But there's plenty of worlds with all levels of technology and urban development."

Anna smiles and nods. "Yeah, Spiral and me visited this world once that's way advanced in both magic and technology, but it was also very well-integrated into nature," she says. "We helped fight off this attacking supervillain called Doctor Eggman there." She looks around. "But sure! I can show you around some of the Blossoms near here, no problem. There's a foresty world that'll probably be right up your alley."

     Diantha nods, handing the pamphlet back now that she's finished reading it and didn't want to keep holding onto it with nowhere to keep it for later. "Well, it sounds like I won't be bored at least." She says with a grin. 

    "I guess I'll just have to keep checking out more worlds and see what I find, and maybe one day I'll find the way back to mine and I can show you and everyone else what it's like. Just be warned it's not usually very peaceful, much to my dismay. But for now, sure, a foresty world might be nice, maybe we can find a nice lake to go for a swim rather than a shower unless we also find a nice gentle waterfall." She says with a smile, walking up beside Anna and ready to go.

Anna smiles and nods. "I'd like to see your world!" she says. "And, well, at the very least I'll be able to defend myself if the violence comes after us. And sure, I was thinking of that world in particular because it has a nice swimming hole I found."

And then hesitates. "Actually, can I run off home and grab some swimwear first?" she says awkwardly. "I'd, uh ... it's just ..." She shakes her head and backpedals. "W-well, I mean, my current clothes aren't that great for swimming in, so, uh, yeah."

Spiral frowns, but doesn't comment.