World Tree MUSH

    California has many names, but the name it earned as a result of the 1848 discovery of gold deposits is the Golden State. While the original site of the gold discovery and the California Gold Rush it precipitated is long gone, Sutter's Fort still exists as a recreation and State historical park in the foothills of the massive Sierra Nevada mountains that dominates the skyline of the vast Central Valley of the state.
    The road to the park has a beautiful view of azure sky dotted with wispy clouds, golden hills, the sprawl of farmland in the valley below, the shimmering lines of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, and the growing skyline of the Sacramento arcology in the distance. The hill-dominated county is aptly named El Dorado, after the legendary city of gold.
    The busses carrying classes of high school students from the San Francisco Bay region arrive after a long trip to the modest looking confines of Sutter's Fort. Like most constructions of the region in the era, the fort looks to be made of timber reinforced with adobe. There's other tourists here of course.

    One such tourist happens to be a black-haired young woman! She's wearing a modified serafuku, black and silver pleated skirt, a white blouse and black blazer with silver trim, her hair up in her usual side up-do, tied with silver ribbons. Mary janes and knee-high socks for some zettai ryouiki action. Uni doesn't have a backpack or any kind of book bag with her, though she could probably merge into one of the school groups if she so desired. She's just taking in the local sights, marvelling at the hilly terrain and the skypiercing arcology. "This is so different, but so similar to Lastation, it's eerie..." she muses softly to herself.

"OK..." Eddie looked ahead at the historic site. It was and was not like the one he remembered going to on a state history field trip. Little things weren't like he remembered, which wouldn't have been allowed since historic preservation. Yet at the same time the overal feel was there.

<Gold is not that rare Eddie. It is all over the Universe.>

Eddie raised his camera, snapping several establishing pictures, "Vee. Think of it less like something rare and more what us finding it just laying around here just a pan or a shovel's throw away? Thousands of people immigrating from back east to make their ofrtune. Then thousands more coming because family." Eddie let his camera dangle by its strap around his neck as he took notes, "Then you had tens of thousands showing up because those people existed." He gave a small wave to a seemingly random person, "Then there's the overal inpact all those people migrating from one side of the county to the other did on a national level. I've heard pretty convincing arguments had it not been for the gold rush the civil war would've been delayed twenty years and-"

<Enough Eddie!> venom wailed, <I get it, important to teach children their history.>

Yet Eddie coudln't resist, "On top of all that you've got the enviromental impact hydraulic mining had, world impact from the chinese flight from the Opium wars which-"

<AAAUUUUGH ENOUGH!>

Eddie tapped the earpiece in his ear, a thing he had picked up before leaving home so he wouldn't look quite so crazy when talking to someone not there. "But the point we're here, buddy, is so the home audiance can see not every world is this crazy petting zoo, or full of giant metal pepper pots that want to wipe out all life." Beat. He looked at Uni and quirked an eyebrow. Something about her caught his attention, something that didn't line up with hte other people here.

So he fell in step, following. Attempting to blend in looking like just another tourist wanting to take in a little history.

     Riding in the very back of the bus, doing as little to call attention to himself as possible, is a pale-skinned teen with dark red hair and black eyes... though given his manner of dress, those are probably just contacts. He's obviously a goth or emo sort, given his black and red-striped attire, one of those weird kids people just sort of ignore to begin with. Then again, was he even on the bus at the start of the trip...?

He is, however, grinning ear to ear as he watches out the window, face pressed up against the glass. Who knows what's so exciting about all this drab wood and sand to him, but if he had a tail he'd probably be wagging it right now. What a weirdo.

Anna is college-age, so she's here as a tourist. And not just any kind of tourist: an interdimensional tourist! She's here in a black T-shirt, dark purple skirt, and black shorts visible under the skirt, smiling cheerfully as she takes a few snapshots with her phone.

The golden-furred catlike and somewhat squirrel-like Spiral is sitting on her shoulder. "I'm pretty sure you have this exact historic site back on our world," she says dryly.

"I just want to see if there are any differences!" Anna says cheerfully, in her somewhat androgynous voice. Her eyebrows raise as she sees Uni, and she waves.

Spiral's gaze bores into Anna. "Do you really?"

"No, it's just an excuse, I just wanna world-hop for the sake of it." Anna follows Uni's gaze and points at the arcology in the distance. "See? We don't have any structures like that in our version of California!"

Spiral just laughs in response.

Jenny Sparks may or may not be a tourist. Depends. She looks about the same age as the various college kids, but she isn't with them. Also, she's presumably eighteen, as a cigarette dangles from her lips. She's politely not standing directly upwind of anyone, but she does take a puff of the smoke and watches the various people move. No, not here for the sites. Here for the people. Or...something.

    The teachers organize a headcount by class when the students get off the busses, so it would be simplicity itself for Damian to simply slip away and see the sights if he wanted. There's plenty of informational material scattered around the recreated site, even a hands-on demonstration of how one would pan for gold. Guided tours take small groups of tourists around and explain what life was like as well as how the various mid-ninteenth century amenities were used.
    One of the staff approaches Jenny. "Ma'am, please make sure you put that out in an ashtray." She gestures to the dry as hell grass around the area. "Too much of a wildfire danger today I'm afraid." She offers as an explanation.

    Uni waves back to Anna, just being friendly, and then spots Eddie approaching. She offers a smile. "Hey... you're that guy those men in suits were after... Eddie, was it?" she asks, offering a pleasant smile. "Nice to see you again." She's making her way through the unguided area, just idling about for the most part.

Jenny Sparks glances around at that point, nodding to the staff member. She moves pointedly away from the grass, and then stubs out the cigarette and drops the butt into the nearest ashtray. See. She can be good. At least when given a good reason, like "Don't set fire to the countryside." A bad reason would have got some sparks.

     Damian does indeed slip away in all the confusion of students getting off the bus, zipping around the tour site like some kind of demented roadrunner as he tries to see everything he can all at once. However, he soon enough comes across the gathering of other extra-worldly folks, and sidles over to them with a shit-eating grin. "Heeey, you guys aren't locals, are ya? Your scents are completely off~"

Spiral glances over at the schoolkids and the worker approaching Jenny, and her eyes flicker with a pearlescent light as she scans them with her ability to detect peoples' magical potential.

Anna ruffles her fur. "You prolly shouldn't be doing that here," she says in a low voice. "The magical warriors probably have their own system going, they might not like us butting in."

"Oh right," says Spiral bashfully. She therefore completely fails to notice anything unusual about Jenny.

Damian, on the other hand, does catch her attention. "Smell?" says Anna, furrowing her brow in confusion.

Spiral's eyes flicker as she scans Damian, and then her eyes go wide. "... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ..."

"Well hey howdie," Eddie turned his camera to the ARchologies in the distance and frowned, "So what happened," He didn't even realize he was talking out loud. "Big one hit, leveled everything and they decide to dome it all over?" He grumbled sourly, "Wonder how they keep the domes from shaking over when the next ones hit." Archologies to him suggested bad news. They suggested Corporations buying up whole cities and penning the populations up. Then again Eddie is a 90's brat from the era of 'japan taking over the world, aggressivly, and via business.' So, biased worldviews.

<What is that thing?> Venom asked, causing Eddie's head to turn to look at Spiral. <It looks delicious!>

That earned a snort from Eddie, "Everything looks delicious to you." He walked over to Anna and squinted at Spiral before looking at Anna herself, "So... out of town?"%RFor anyone able to do magic or empathic or otherwise see beyond the mundane? Looking at Eddie would almost appear like seeing two people in the same spot, or rather one person that was distinctly Eddie Brock. Then another... Entity... coiled around inside of him that read as not just 'not human' but would best be described as 'alien.' Emotional, but not malevolent. Just, a thing there occupying some of the same space this guy with the black zipup jacket occupied.

    Spiral senses a pair of magical presences in the school kids. One's a platinum blonde in an oversized jean jacket, the other is a dimmer presence in the form of a mousy brunette in baggy clothes that seems to be largely trying to avoid her peers.
    Time passes as the students and tourists take in what the fort has to offer. Clouds roll in from the northwest, darkening the area and granting some relief from the harsh light of the day star. Shouts emerge from the inside of the fort, and people are starting to flee out of it. Those sensitive to magic sense a surge of it right before the panic sets in. And those who can sense the spirits of the dead... sense ghosts from the direction the people are fleeing.

Eddie stiffened at the sounds of pannick. His first instinct to look around, see if there was an immediate source. Seeing whatever caused the panic probably coming from inside the fort he started attempting to move through the stream of fleeing people.

"Excuse me." Eddie tried, "Pardon." He got body checked, and would have gotten knockedo ver had Venom not extended tendrils first to pull Eddie aside then pulling him back to his feet. "Not til we're inside. Can't make everyone stampeede back into danger," Eddie mumbled as he grew more aggressive, shoving peopleaside, allowing Venom to puppet his limbs, extending tendrils to try forcing a path. They had no idea what they would find, but Venom exuded confidence in its ability to handle the problem .Eddie? Weariness, apprehension, and a determination to make sure whatever was causing these people to run screaming wasn't going to survive.

Jenny Sparks doesn't sense anything. Well, not magic or ghosts. She does detect the commotion. With two strides, she's next to an ash tray and disposing of her cigarette, with two more, she's moving to face the situation. A tiny bit of energy crackles in her eyes, but she knows she has to be careful. Again, not setting fire to the countryside is good. Still, she's moving against the flow of people, and that little bit of a glow should encourage people to get out of her way.

    Uni is about to say something to Eddie, when a ringtone starts playing. She doesn't have pockets, but brings her hand up to her ear, a phone materializing in it on the way up. "Hello? Right... I'm on the way. This will cost extra, I was on vacation." she says, then clicks off, dropping the phone which vanishes into a pocket dimension. "Right... sorry, gotta get going." she says to those who started collecting nearby then turns to head off back to the nearest Vine.

     "Yeah, you guys reek of offworld. I won't tell if you don't though~" Damian teases Anna, then catches a glimpse of those stormclouds rolling in and frowns a little. "Aww, really? I don't wanna go inside yet..."

But then people start running and screaming out of the fort, and his head snaps around to face the direction of the commotion... independent of the rest of his body. "Ooh, maybe it won't be so bad after all. I call dibs on any cool eldritch artifacts we find inside!" The rest of him spins around to face the fort as well, and he takes off /over/ the crowd, not even bothering to hide the fact that he's flying as he goes to see what's up.

Because of Anna's gentle upbraiding, Spiral doesn't actually do anything with this information. Besides, she's a bit too distracted by Damian, at least until Eddie walks right up to them. "Oh! Um. Yep! We're travelers, sort of!"

"Tourists," Anna cheerfully corrects. "I'm Anna, and this is Spiral!" She's a bit concerned about Spiral's reaction to Damian ...

... but then they suddenly have something else to worry about. Spiral's eyes flicker. "... Yeah, I can't get a fix on anything," she says; her power is geared towards people, after all. "You going in?"

Anna hesitates. The last time she visited this world ... it did not go well. But then she nods. "Yeah," she says. "If there's a threat, I've got to help people!"

Spiral nods. "Okay," she says. "Just ... be careful, all right?"

Anna shoots her a lopsided grin. "Hey," she says, "it's me!" She gives Uni one last wave, and then starts moving against the crowd with Eddie and Jenny. "Oof ... excuse me ... pardon me ... hero coming through ..." She does shoot Damian a grin, and murmurs, "Lucky!"

Spiral takes note of Eddie's strange movements, and her eyes flicker one last time. "... Wait what the heck!? ... uh-oh ..."

    The teachers manage to do a quick headcount and find two students are missing. One 'Aurelia Argent' and one 'Dorothy Andrews'. That's when an otherworldly whinny of horses fills the air and ghostly cavalry thunder up over the fort into the air, driving the people before them with phantom firearms and going on about claim jumpers.
    The dimmer source of magic that Spiral sensed is like a bright beacon, in the gift shop. Eddie, Damian, Anna, and Jenny are joined in shoving through the crowd by a blonde teenager in a jean jacket. Aurelia is wondering why weirdness always seems to follow her. The crowd clears suddenly, leaving the offworlders and Aurelia to stare down a herd of phantom cows stampeding directly toward them!

Jenny lifts a hand. "Is there anyone *local* here?" To this reality, she means. She's jumped realities before, but some of these, some of the ones the tree leads to, have different laws of both physics and magic. These look like ghosts, but she's not sure. The glow in her eyes spreads to a controlled crackling around her body. She's pulling in energy from the technology in the area. Please tell her these ghosts are disrupted by electromagnetic discharges...

     Damian stops short as the cavalry fly over it, his eyes following them. "Cool, I wasn't expecting ghosts! Heheh, I wonder if they left any gold inside..." he muses aloud, grinning mischievously. However, the approaching herd of ghost cattle catches his attention next as he flies out of harm's way. "I feel like I should have a red cape... hmm!"

The next moment, he's dangling a red cape he conjured out of thin air in front of the herd, wearing a full matador costume even.

Eddie's eyes went wide as his body seemingly moved as if pulled on invisible strings. Venom caused him to plant in front of Anna as tendrils of black shot out to the cieling while his arms tried to wrap around the woman before, assuming it worked, Eddie being yanked by black tendrils above the herd clinging to the ceiling. Only then did he spot Jenny, and attempted to reach for her with a pair of black tendrils to pull her above the onrushing spectral stampeede.

Then as he was on the ceiling black would envelop Eddie brock, at first appearing like ink-black veins spiderwebbing up his neckand limbs, before black tar-like material coated his clothes, adding bulk and size as a mouth grew around his neck only for those jaws to slam shut around his head. "Alright." Venom's voice resonate, bass filled, and rumbling as it looked about. "Who let the cows out?"

Anna takes in the sight of the the ghost cows. "... Right, then!" she says. Without even trying to dodge or escape, she clasps her hands together, a pale blue glow forming as she gathers her power into herself --

-- and then blinks in surprise as she's lifted up! "Oh! Well, thanks!" she says. "Dunno if that was necessary, I could've OHGODWHAT!" She stares at Venom.

"... that ..." Her mind whirls as she starts reprocessing this into her own frame of reference. "... is almost the exact opposite of my transformation!"

    Aurelia shouts "I am!" at Jenny as she tries to remember how to banish ghosts. In a panic, the teenager gestures towards a defunct cannon and the heavy weapon swings towards the ghost cattle. It goes right through them without causing harm, of course, causing the girl to dive for cover. The electric atmosphere around Jenny proves useful as the phantom heifers that strike it disappate into oddly colored wisps of smoke.
    Venom, Anna, and... hangers-on are able to get out of the stampede's way by going up. It attracts the attention of the ghost riders though, who wheel around in the sky to start taking potshots at the heroes.
    Damian would get a moment to get out of the way of the herd, though the matador outfit earns a shout from Aurelia. "What are you doing?!"

Venom's head turned to Anna, eyes widening, "What do you mean /your/ transformation?" Curiosity was at the forefront of its mind. Eddie existed somewhere in the background but seemed mostly relieved they wouldn't have to find out if ghost cows could run over living people.

Zaaapzapzapzapzap.

Venom grunted at Jenny, "Please stop that. We are only trying to help." 

<I don't get it Vee, it's like that time with the swat team. How are you not like, just... on the ground twitchng?>

Venom grunted at the question. "Not yoru enemy," It grunted as it looked about before finding a clearing whre cattle had been banished and diving.

Anna and Jenny were let go as Venom rolled, tendrils splaying out to find something to grab hold of as another lashed out towards the phantom riders, "We knew Westerns were dead but this is getting out of hand."

"Wasn't on purpose," Jenny snaps back at Venom, twisting in the air to land neatly. "Okay, they *are* vulnerable. If anyone has a way to make sure we don't set fire to the grass, use it." Build power. Several cars in the area are going to need to be jump started after this. "Because I'm about to start taking care of this." Zaaaaap. And that's rather more than poor Venom got friendly-fired with.

     "I'm having fun, what's it look like I'm doing? Sheesh." Damian remarks flippantly at Aurelia's question, though he does stow the costume and the cape as the herd goes by. The phantom bullets whizzing through the air do catch his attention however, and he takes cover behind whatever's readily available. "Whoa! Okay, okay, I get it, you guys aren't happy about me being here, but maybe we can come to an understanding?"

Okay, that worked! She raises her eyebrows at Jenny's shocking display, but she's got more important things to worry about. "Okay, I know what to do now!" says Anna. She clasps her hands together again, once again drawing her power into herself. "Drop me, I'll figure things out on the way down --"

Oh, okay, that's a much better spot to be let down. By the time she lands, she's enveloped in a column of light. It shatters, revealing Anna in a frilly blue dress with pink and white trim, and pink hair! (Slightly different from the way others might recognize her, which had green and white trim, and cobalt blue hair.)

Much more fast and agile than she was a moment ago, she does what she can do dodge the shots, but one of them hits her arm square-on, producing a faint flicker of a force field, brightest around her costume. "Oof!" It barely even leaves a bruise, and she grins at the gunmen. "Heart Power ..." She gathers Heart Power into her hands, and fires them off at the ghosts! "... SHOOT!"

>> SUMMARY[Heart Mage Anna] >> Anna Annas. And also transforms and zaps at the ghosts.

    Venom's physical attacks aren't affecting the riders, but Anna's magic-based efforts are disrupting them. There is probably a source for the ghosts, as more riders appear as they're cut down.
    For Jenny's purposes, high dry grass was at least 50 feet from the fort itself; every bit between was cut to the ground. Sometimes state fire regulations work in a superhuman's favor.
    Aurelia dashes over to Damian. "Something's summoning them. We need to find it." She ducks as the thunder of a ghost cow's hooves roars over the two.

Jenny Sparks hears that. She nods. "I think I can contain the problem for now." At the price of the local power grid, but it beats having people trampled by ghost cows, right? Mostly. Magic seems to do it too. Or maybe Jenny counts. It's always been an arguable point. Her eyes are pure white at this point, crackling with energy.

     "Okay, that sounds like a plan. Any idea what it might be, or where to look?" Damian shouts over the noise of those thundering hooves, hands clasped over his ears. His... very inhuman, jackal-like ears. In fact, he actually /does/ have a tail now, curled around his legs. Huh.

Venom's tendrils pulled back and it grumbled at the situation. Physical was doing little to nothing. Instead it looked to Aurelia, "GIve us a direction then!"

<Think Vee, think. Whatever's doing this is in here.> Eddi'es voice either so pannicked he has reached a state of zen calm through fear, or he had simply deligated enough to Venom so he couldfocus past his fear. 

Venom's tendrilsagain lashed out, pulling the bulky symbiote to the ceiling, allowing it to climb forward while whistling something that totally wasn't the ghost buster's theme. It's tounge flicked, lashing like a whip before its entire body reoriented and it took off scrambling towards the gift shop. "Little pig Little pig LET US IN!" It shouted as it hurled itself from its perch towards where it thought who ro whatever was summoning the ghost herd was hiding.

This woud result in the gift shop door slamming hte rest of the way open with venom standing there blocking the only apparent exit, mouth open showing teeth as large as a man's forearm and alien tounge lashing the air, taisting all around it.

Anna nods to Aurelia. "Righto!" she says, and she charges forward towards the gift shop! Along the way, she punches and kicks at the ghosts, her fists and feet wreathed in Heart Power as she makes her way forward. She briefly tries to boost forward, but this seems less effective; the power that protects her while she's using Windrunner isn't an offensive ability, and it merely counts as a physical attack. "Okay, never mind," she mutters as she finally comes to a stop right behind Venom.

    The giftshop looks like a whirlwind hit it, with the women's bathroom door blown off its hinges. The same ghostly light that makes up the phantoms outside emanates from inside. Somebody can be heard crying inside the tiled room. There's a teenager sitting on the floor crying, with a small open notebook open in front of her. The notebook's pages flip back and forth, strange arcane script flowing like a living thing across it.
    Aurelia shrugs and then notices Venom and Anna take off towards the gift shop. She fails to comment on Damian's sudden change of appearance for want of more pressing matters. The teen grabs Damian's hand and helps him towards the gift shop. "Let's go!"
    Jenny's able to deal with the onslaught of ghosts, much to the relief of the terrified people outside the fort. Gonna need a lot of jumpstarting for all the cars at this rate. The stormy clouds overhead are dark and threatening, but the rain doesn't seem to want to materialize.

Jenny Sparks is focused at this point entirely on containing the ghosts. Given they keep right on coming, she's going to be tired after this. She's used to trusting other people to hold up her end. Even when she doesn't know them. Her hair stands out as a golden aura around her head.

"Oh...." Venom's I AM NIGHTMARE AND FEAR immediately shrink away, cauysing it to literally shrink about a foot as it took a breath. "What.... do..?" COnfusion. It was expecting something intentionally doing the summoning. Not-

<Grab the notebook man!> Eddie screamed.

Causing Venom to shoot a thin tendril at the notebook to try ripping it away from the girl's hands and, if successful, would immediately shove it either at Anna or Aurelia, whichever was closer.

     As it turns out, Damian is actually very light, and as he's pulled along by Aurelia, she might notice his hand feels a little... furrier than before. When the two of them reach the gift shop and he gets a good look at what's going on, the demonic prince takes one look at the notebook and nods sagely. "Yep. Classic Necronomicon situation here. Probably some wannabe trying to make her own. We'll have to offer up a prayer to the Elder Gods and sacrifice some goats..."

And then Venom grabs the book, causing Damian to snap, "Hey! I called dibs, jerk!"

Anna charges forward next to Venom, dukes raised. "Now the --"

She stops. Whatever Justice Speech she was about to belt out dies on her lips as she sees what's going on. "... huh."

And now Venom's throwing the book at her! Anna knows how to deal with that. Ignoring Damian, she gathers slightly more Heart Power into her fists. "WINDYYYYYY ..." She swings her arm in a circle a couple of times, then launches it forward at the notebook! "... PUNCH!"

>> SUMMARY[Heart Mage Anna] >> Windy Punch vs. book.

    The brunette girl is sobbing. "I couldn't stop it... I just wanted to talk to a ghost for my school report and the book started..." Venom's fearsome mien is probably the last thing on her mind at the moment.
    The book is obliterated, burning up in ghostly flames. The little bookmark that was in it hits the ground, dyed leather strap tied through an engraved obsidian disc about the size of a half-dollar. It clatters across the floor and stops in front of Aurelia, who squints suspiciously at it as she picks it up.
    Outside, Jenny's granted relief as the ghosts vanish just as suddenly as they appeared. Moments after this, people start filtering back into the fort to make sure their erstwhile defenders were alright. The same staffer who warned Jenny about the fire danger pulls out a bottle of water from her satchel and offers it to the younger woman. "You look like you need it."

     Damian, now in full jackal form, screeches out a "Nooooooo!" as Anna punches the book into oblivion, his claws digging into the fur on the sides of his head. This is followed by wild gesticulating and exasperated noises as he frustratedly tries to express his disappointment, until he finally just mutters a weak little "But... but I called dibs..." with ears and tail drooping.

The material that makes up Venom retreates, leaving only Eddie brock as he walks towards then kneels beside the girl. "Hey?" His voice was soft. "Nobody's saying this was yoru fault." He would glance around, half daring anyone to try saying otherwise. "Are you hurt? Can you stand?" He would motion Anna to come in closer. "I'd like to ask some questions," His mind flashing back to him in school, mind scouring back to a lecture he'd attended on interviewing people in destress; disaster survivors, victims of crime.... Trauma.

He would reach out to touch the girl's shoulder. "Do you feel up to talking?"

Anna whistles. "Well, that worked!" she says. She smirks at Damian. "Oh quiet, you," she says, before she gingerly steps over to the girl and kneels next to Eddie and the girl. She lets Eddie do the talking for the moment; he seems to have a better idea to help people in a way that isn't punching.

Spiral floats over, and if allowed, she lands on Aurelia's shoulder. "Well, that's interesting," she murmurs, looking over at the disc. "Not quite sure what to make of it. Of course, I'm not even from this world. My name's Spiral, by the way."

Her eyes flicker as she scans the disc, but there's too much person directly in front of her to get a good fix on it, and again, it's not part of her skill set.

And then she pauses.

Without moving her head, barely moving her mouth, and in the tiniest voice she can manage while still being audible, she whispers in Aurelia's ear, "Metallia?"

Jenny Sparks drops to one knee, the energy that was crackling around her fading out. She looks ordinary and human again...although she clearly, clearly isn't. "Whewf," is all she says before glancing around.

    The teen looks up quietly at Eddie. "I'm... okay." She shakily tries to stand, using Eddie and/or Anna to steady herself since they seem to be a friendly faces offering help. "... just scared." There's a definite wobble in her voice.
    Aurelia looks at Damian and notices, now that there aren't angry ghosts trying to ruin everybody's day, the jackal features. "And what were you going to do with-" She turns her head sharply to look at Spiral at the whisper.
    Jenny gets some attention from grateful people, including one enthusiastic grade-schooler who apparently got a glimpse of the light show. "That was totally wicked!" The outworld trade and traffic has made the public in this world a lot more open to weird stuff and people exhibiting paranormal powers.

Eddie reached into a pocket to hand the girl a foil wrapped chocolate. "C'mon kid. My name is Eddie. Want to come outside? Talk on the way?" He would motion for people to follow. "What can you tell me of how you got the bookmark? " His voice was calm as he walked, "You're as much a victim here as anyone else. Something took advantage of the fact you wanted something. Then they handed you a thing to try using you as a battery to cause chaos."

<You're good at lying to people Eddie, but I know better.> Venom burbled in the back of Eddie's mind.

"Just tell me what you feel comfortable telling no matter how cray it sounds. It'll do you a lot of good to get it off your chest and confront it instead of hiding from whatever you saw."

     "Take it home and use it as a diary. What else?" Damian answers Aurelia, folding his arms over his chest and turning his nose up at her. A moment later though, he "lays" down on thin air, levitating several feet above the ground with his tail flicking lazily beneath him. "Anyway, the jig is up I guess. I'm Damian, son of Satan, the Anti-Christ, Heir to the Throne of Evil, et cetera et cetera. Hi."

Jenny Sparks stands up. She gives the kid a thumbs up. She's not normally the out in the public hero type, but she knows that you don't blow off the "fans." That's how you build resentment and potentially make a supervillain, after all.

Anna smiles gently, helping the girl to her feet. "Yeah," she says, nodding along with Eddie. "Don't worry, you're safe now!"

Spiral's ears briefly flatten against her head. "Sorry," she mutters, trying to keep as low a voice as she can so she doesn't announce Aurelia's secret identity to everyone in the room. "My scanning power is meant for people. Recognized you from Thanksgiving."

Anna looks curiously at Spiral, but doesn't comment. She peers at Damian. "Oooookay," she says with a shrug. "I'm Heart Mage Anna Freeman. The golden kitty on that other girl's shoulder is my mascot Spiral."

Spiral chortles. "I mean, that's not wrong," she says.

    "In the school library in a weird book?" She glances over at Aurelia. "... am I in trouble, Aurelia?" Classmates. Er... " She's still kind of processing everything. "Thanks Eddie and, um... it's Anna?" She says to the pair helping her. "-yeah, a walk would be nice." A beat later. "Did that guy just say he's the Anti-Christ?"
    Aurelia facepalms. "Any second now, people are going to be coming in asking a lot of questions, and this is going to sound like the start of a bad joke. Three girls, a buff guy, a gold cat, and Satan's Spawn were in a gift shop..."

Jenny Sparks looks around. Seems the situation is over and given she doesn't want any more hero worship, she's going to slip out as soon as fewer people are looking at her. Now she's not all glowy, she's probably nondescript enough to JUST get away with it.

     "Eeeeeyup. I'm the Anti-Christ." Damian confirms, considering for a moment whether he wants to pull a scary face or something like he did with Cameron way back when. Buuuut, considering what this girl's been through already, and all these people around with crazy superpowers and stuff, maybe that'd be a bad idea. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna slip out. I don't really feel like talking to the paparazzi right now, especially if my nanny decides to check up on me in the middle of it. She'll either hit on everyone or it'll turn into a bloodbath, and either way my image will be totally ruined. Laterz~"

And with a puff of red smoke, he's gone, just like that.

"Weird book, school library." Eddie made a note of that. Rather Venom did so Eddie wouldn't forget. "If you can give me any details...?" He then looked from the girl to Aurelia and quirked an eyebrow, "Look if she wants to give you guff over it I'll give her guff right back. You're fine." He continued making pleasant reassuring sounding small talk as he filed away everything he couldthink of.

<Wait, did that furball jsut say he was the antichrist?>

Eddie coughed and tapped his earpiece, "Later buddy. Trying to calm kid here down." He shrugged at the girl, "Sorry... friend of mine. THey.... worry about me." He would continue until the girl was in sight of a group of students before he raisedan arm to try flagging an adult over.

Anna nods to Aurelia. "One of the three girls is also a pink-haired magical girl," she adds cheerfully. Yeah, she knows exactly how ridiculous she looks compared to more conventional heroes. "Although, I mean ..." She steps away from Dorothy, focuses, and in another surge of blue light, she reverts to her civilian form. "... yeah."

Spiral floats back to Anna's shoulder as they head back out, and Anna nods, smiling towards whatever adults approach in response to Eddie's waving.