World Tree MUSH

It's later in the evening in the New York City of the world of Hartford. Today, Serrah happened to be on the closing shift of the Early Latte; there's a much narrower range of people who want caffeine later at night, and so the evening shift is relatively easy.

And so the staff heads out and drives off, Gem takes off and flies westward over the sidewalk, and Serrah stretches and yawns as she steps out onto the sidewalk. At the moment, she's wearing a black T-shirt with some album cover or other on the front and a relatively subdued red plaid skirt. She gets out her phone and texts her parents to let her know her shift is over, and then starts sauntering down the street at a leisurely pace, more-or-less in the same direction Gem went.

     Diantha happens to be walking down the street as well, coming from the direction of the library Serrah had shown her the other day. Perhaps she never even left the area fully. Of course this time the reason she had gone to the library was for a particular purpose. She was happy to see Serrah up ahead as she wanted to talk to her anyway. 

     Of course, it is pretty much impossible to sneak up on someone when you have hooves, even more so on sidewalk and asphalt, so Serrah will likely hear her coming a mile away so to speak. Once she gets closer she offers a wave. "Hi! We meet again it seems. How are you doing since the other day in the coffee shop or whatever."

When Serrah hears the sound of hoofbeats, she tenses up grabs a baseball out of her purse as she turns -- her purse is surprisingly large -- but she relaxes when she sees the source. "Oh, hey, Diantha!" she says, putting the baseball back. "Been doing just fine, I guess. Business is a little slow the past couple days, so there's fewer dishes and mugs to clean." She's visibly fairly tired, but she doesn't seem particularly unhappy about the situation she's in. "How's stuff with you?"

     Diantha eyes the baseball curiously but once she gets close Serrah puts it away, and asks her how stuff is with her, only fair. Diantha looks fine, doesn't even really look tired, but her tail does still twitch a little here and there at any sudden louder noises from the city or people walking a bit too close to her. 

     "I'm doing fine, just came from that library you showed me, and I met a guy from my world the other day, a Pandaren. I wanted to ask you something though... I was looking for a place to settle into at least until we find a way back to our world, and I wondered if I could stay here, perhaps my new friend if he wants to also. It probably wouldn't be right in the city, but it looks like there are plenty of foresty areas on the other side of the river. I wanted to see how you felt about the idea though and if it would be safe and all that. So I'm really glad I bumped into you again."

Serrah's response is instant: "Hey, you don't need to ask me for permission!" But then she actually considers a moment. "Hm. Y'know what, that ... I ... actually have no idea if there's any process for immigrants from other worlds. Blossoms. Whatever." She shakes her head. "The big issue is, you can't just find some empty spot and say 'this is mine', there's a whole process you gotta go through, a whole bunch of paperwork and stuff, and you need to be able to pay for it and probably you'll need a Hartford dollar bank account."

While she's saying this, she gets out her phone and taps a search into it; a moment later, it lights up with a headline: Emperor Hartford Approves Bill To Allow Immigration From Others Worlds In 'World Tree'.

"Heh, they're still putting World Tree in quotes," Serrah says dryly. "Looks like that's a yes, though." She makes a face and shrugs, looking up at Diantha. "Honestly? I dunno if I can really recommend coming here. The lawmakers and law enforcement here are ... mm ... well, I don't wanna use words like 'strict' or 'draconian', but, like, let's just say things only go really smoothly if you stay in your lane, you fit easily in one of their neat little categories that they've decided are 'normal', and you don't really care about anyone else."

     Diantha blinks a bit, looking rather surprised that there were so many regulations to what she was proposing. "I have to own a bit of forest to live there? I mean, I wasn't planning on building a house there, though on second thought if my friend comes too I'm not sure he'd be into just sleeping under the stars every night, and also having a place to keep my stuff that I'm not carrying around would be nice... So do you think I'm doomed from the start since I probably don't fit the definition of 'normal' here? I mean, I also do care about others but I try not to make waves."

Serrah shrugs. "Paperwork is the big way of making sure that people don't step on each other's toes," she says. "At least on Hartford. And that by itself is the big reason why gettin' the right paperwork is so obnoxious. And why real estate ownership -- land and home ownership -- is so expensive."

She shakes her head. "Basically, I'd say if 'open forest' is an absolute must, and you can't live in, I 'unno, a tree-domicile like the library, then yeah, 'doomed from the start' sounds about right." She grimaces and shrugs. "Sorry, didn't mean to rain on your parade and all that."

     Diantha frowns, looking a little defeated. "Well, if it was just me, then yes, I'd just want to live out in the forest, but I know Pandaren live in houses. The problems are that I wouldn't want to live in the city for one. Even just being here on the streets makes me more than a little jumpy. I'm also even a bit more uncomfortable inside usually. It's better if the rooms are larger and there are large windows, but yeah, I guess if we were to share a place it would be outside the city, and I didn't really think about the expense of it all. I have some money but I doubt it would be enough, and I'm not sure if Rou-ri is more wealthy, but I wouldn't want to make him pay for most of it either." She sighs and shakes her head. "I guess we'll just be wanderers."

Serrah hesitantly puts a comforting hand on Diantha's shoulder. "Yeah, sorry about that," she says. "And that didn't even go into the other considerations." She doesn't have to mention that Diantha doesn't look like the dryads of this world. "This is just, y'know, a world that's way too complicated."

They stop at a crosswalk, and Serrah reaches over to push the button. "But seriously though, I do hope you manage to find a place you can stay, in the time it takes you to find a way home. If I was uprooted like this ..." She shakes her head and shrugs. "Yeah, I don't even know how I'd handle it."

     Diantha nods, starting to feel better as she just lets go of the idea, obviously it wasn't likely to happen so it wasn't worth letting herself get worked up about it. "I hope so too, seeing new places is fun, but it would be nice to have a place to keep my stuff, and to fall back to when I just want to relax and that sort of thing. Also after talking it over with Rou-ri a bit also, my world is pretty violent, wars happening all the time it seems. So maybe it might even be better to find someplace more peaceful, and just never go home..." She explains as they get to the intersection. She watches as Serrah pushes the button and looks back at her. "What does that do?"

Serrah nods in agreement, and shoots Diantha a lopsided smile. "Yeah, getting away from the world you're from and finding a better spot sounds like it'd be cool, if it was by choice." She shrugs and shakes her head. "Man, I sure wish I had your optimism."

She blinks, and looks over at the button. "Oh, this?" she says. She gestures to the traffic lights. "The traffic lights change signals and stuff to let the drivers know it's safe to go." She points to the 'DON'T WALK' lights. "The button signals the pedestrian lights to ... set all the traffic lights red and then signal us to let us know it's okay to cross the street."

She pauses. "Y'know what, it just hit me how really complicated it all is in a world like this, if you didn't grow up here and spend the whole time learning about everything."

     Diantha just blinks after Serrah explains the traffic signals, letting it all sink in for a moment as she tries to rack her brain around the concept. Finally, she just laughs. "Oh, so that's what those lights are for. I'm glad I didn't get in trouble or hit by anyone for just running when I didn't see any cars coming. Good thing I'm pretty fast I guess..." She says with a grin. 

     "Also, I was wondering if you'd mind if we spend some time together, maybe do something fun? I don't know what that would be here, but I have nothing important to do, and you're done with work right?"

Serra nods, grinning. "Yeah, it's just one of the many reasons forests would be better than a city," she says dryly. She considers the question, and shrugs. "I 'unno, I'm kinda tired," she says.

At that moment, all the traffic lights turn red, and the 'Don't Walk' sign changes to a white 'Walk' and emits a buzz and a tweeting sound which sounds almost, but not quite, exactly unlike anything a living creature might make.

Serrah starts crossing. "Maybe we could grab a quick bite to eat and talk some more, I guess," she says. "Or, wait, I guess it's kind of late to buy food." She grins weakly. "Sorry, can I take a rain check on that?" And then she realizes that slang might not translate. "I mean, uh ... can we set that aside for another time? Not saying you aren't interesting company, it's just ..." She yawns. "... yeah."

     Diantha nods and follows in step with Serrah as she begins crossing the street after the signal changes, and she was paying close attention so now she knows how not to get hit by cars in this and hopefully other cities that are similar. She does look confused at what 'rain check' means, but when Serra corrects to something more generic she nods in understanding. "Oh, sure. If you're really tired that's probably best. I don't want to keep you from needed sleep. Is there a day coming up that you don't work? Maybe we could meet somewhere and then decide what to do."

Serrah promptly nods. "Sure," she says. "I checked, I have a day off three days from now? We can meet around noon-ish in front of the library." She shrugs. "We'll be able to figure out ..." She yawns again. "... something. Ahaha, yeah, wow." She grins at Diantha. "You gonna be okay finding your way to the ... Vine ... leading back out of here?"

     Diantha nods appreciating that Serrah showed concern for her getting lost trying to find her way to the vine, how nice. "Sounds good, I'll see you then, and I think I'll be fine finding my way back out. It's not the first time, and if I get lost, I can fly to get a better view of where I'm going. Rest well, it seems like you really need a good night's sleep."

Serrah smiles and nods, giving Diantha a thumbs-up. "All righty then!" she says, getting out her phone. "Sexy Robo-Voice, add calendar: Diantha, noon, three days from now." Her phone lights up with the confirmation. "I'll see you then!"

It will not occur to her until her lunch break two days from now that Diantha might not have a wristwatch, and that it'll be a good idea to check what time is high noon.