World Tree MUSH

One Edward Brock, Reporter, and host to a Klyntar that has decided to stay on earth.... is in a fairly terrible mood. It wasn't his finances, or his fridge. Surprisingly both of these were in reasonably good condition.

As he rode his motorcycle along he tried to tune the world out. This is why he didn't notice the sudden transition, or the one after that, or the one after that. Road just blured into more road.

<Eddie...I said I was sorry.> Venom's voice whispered. <What do you want?>

Eddie grunted as he stopped the bike and looked about. "Right now?" He took his helmet off and looked about in confusion, "I'd like to know where we are." A quick check of his phone confirmed they were most decidedly out of its coverage area. Which had him huff before re-mounting the motorcycle to try finding a gas station.

Well, the rainbow lights and golden sparkles in the sky might be one clue. The occasional tree-like buildings, and the general not-entirely-human population, might be two more. That's right: he's in New York City.

In fact, there's a familiar face right over there! Serrah is standing on a nearby street corner, facing away from Eddie with her hands on her hips, peering directly at a nearby Vine. She doesn't notice the motorcycle or Eddie just yet. There is a pair of earbuds sitting on the ground next to her, looking like it was thrown there.

"Yea yea welcome to New Freaking York," Eddie grumbled as he parked his bike. It was only when he got off of his bike that he saw Serrah and shook his head, "Look. I'm not mad-"

MYes you are.>

"OK Fine," Eddie grumped, "I'm ANNOYED, but only because it's been about two months since and you'd think by now either he'd be dead, or have killed everyone and everything for the fun of it." He stepped just behind Serrah and tap her on the shoulder, "Small multiverse. Any idea where that one goes?" He gestured to the vine opening.

Serrah jumps slightly at the tap, but immediately looks relieved when she sees that it's Eddie. "Hey, Brock," she says. "Couldn't tell ya, His Worshipfulness is watching me like a hawk to stop me from going through."

She steps forward, as if fully intending to walk through the Vine. Immediately, the heart-shaped mark on her forehead starts glowing purple, and she takes a step back, a grimace on her face. "On the bright side," she says as the glow fades, "I've taught him what an earworm is when he tried to talk to telepathy at me." She gestures to the discarded earbuds.

She then turns to face Eddie directly. "Also, just so you know how little it means for a Duke of the Empire to be in legal trouble," she says, with the calm conversational tone of someone who is absolutely furious about all this, "he still has the clout to make me officially legally a Countess who has to get his authorization to actually use any power or money, and also to get me arbitrarily kicked out of my job."

Venom hmmed thoughtfully. "So the leash keeps getting yanked and layabout is ordering you to stya put?" He looked at the portal. All as he listened to Serrah grump at the fact she's been effectivly fired, technically promoted to nobility except only able to act in 'HIS' name, making the title pretty well meaningless...

<I know what you're thinking eddie.> Tendrils snaked out to latch onto Eddie's bike. <I like what you're thinking.> Venom giggled as Eddie's bike was gently shoved through the portal.

"Yea this is probably not gonna feel good." As Eddie reached to pick Serrah up it could bedebated on if it was going to hurt Serrah, or if Serrah was going to hurt him in trying to comply with the compulsion to stay put as he would try carrying her through the vine into wherever it lead.

Serrah nods. "Basically, yeah!" she says. "Except that he has to manually turn the Heart Control on and off in order to command me. Y'know, I'm ..." She breaks into a grin as the tendrils grab the bike. "... pretty sure you've got the same idea as me. WHOA!"

In the split second before she's pulled through the Vine, the heart-mark begins glowing purple again and she starts twitching as if to begin struggling. Once they're on the other side, however, it sputters out and fades.

Serrah looks around. It looks like they're in another New York City, just without any obvious signs of magic. The sight of a motorcycle getting shoved through the Vine by Venom's tendrils, however, seems to draw a crowd.

"Nice," says Serrah. "Thanks a million, Brock!" She stretches. "Oh, hey, I can't sense where he is anymore! Just a sort of vague ..." She gestures at the Vine they just exited. "... 'thataway' sort of feeling." She stares off into space, then grins again. "... Yep, can't telepathy at 'im either."

Oh cool she didn't in fact have to attempt to twist his neck off. Eddie smiled and raised a fist to Serrah before waving with his other hand. "Hey look at the offworlders!" He smiled ashis tendrils retracted into his body leaving him looking more or less baseline normal. "Now could someone point me at a gas station? Bike's low on go-juice and I'm gonna hate having to carry it.

One of the onlookers started feeding a series of street directions, causing Eddie to nod as a pair of tendrils snaked out of his back and lifted the front of the bike, with two mor extending further back to help keep it balanced as he walked. "So just so we're clear, he can't have like some sort of 'if you can't be contacted this horrible thing happens' time bomb, right?" Eddie got a series of weird looks, after all guys with anime limbs extending out letting them drag a motorcycle around was somewhat weird in a lot of realities. "Also, how much trouble are you gonnabe when you end up going back?"

Serrah fistbumps Eddie, grinning. She moves to the motorbike's other side, and helps to steady it; seems she's superhumanly strong herself.

She shakes her head. "None whatsoever," she says. "He needs to be in control of me, right that minute, in order to get me to do anything." She shrugs. "As for 'trouble' ... I'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm slightly less worried about turning into a Wilhelmina, by the way, she was turned and probably made 'like that' by Vinny's grandsire Hugo D'Ambrosio." That was one of the names in the tomb.

She looks around. "Also, once you've gotten gas, could you take me another couple Vines away?" she says. "My friends and family knew I was gonna be trying to give 'im the slip, and I'd like to keep his scent off me for as long as I can manage." She grimaces. "... and I never thought I'd actually say this, but: hopefully someplace that's vampire-friendly."

"That last one's kinda tricky for... understandable reasons." Eddie continued walking until the next bout of traffic let the pair stay at a crosswalk. "I totally get what you're doing though. Stay here and miss 'been a familial loyal servant for generations' comes knocking and starts hurting people til they find you." He made a face, "I'd offer you a spot in my home world since you did say you could do animal blood right?" 

A shrug at the onlookers and picture takers as he continued now that traffic let up. "Thing is yea I could put you in touch with some friendly slaughter houses, but at the same time Vampire back home is either count Dcracula, or sparkle sparkle tween angst girl lego brick romance." Eyeroll. "And somehow you don't strike me as someone who'd be happy getting groupies. Like..."

His mind flashed to when the sparkle-vamire movies came out and the sort of fans those attracted. <...No... In her position if that were to happen I would leave a trail of dead bodies. We are not doing that to her Eddie.>

Serrah grins. "Oh, yeah, animal blood is fine," she says. "Oh, now I wanna try a black pudding on for size."

She considers the question. "I bet you could take Wilhelmina in a fight, especially if it was during the day," she says. "But I don't think that'll be the exact problem. Even His Worshipfulness could figure out that he can just take control the minute he's in the same Blossom as me. And even if he didn't take control ..." She shrugs again uncomfortably. "I'm pretty sure this Mark will stop me from hurting him, even if he doesn't expend the effort of controlling me."

She furrows her brow. "... yeah, no thanks to the groupies," she says. "I had enough trouble with the paparazzi right after a bank robbery, where me and a bunch of offworlders stopped a bank robber ... who was also an offworlder." A pause. "... Vlad Tepes is still a Count in other worlds, huh? Oh, I guess it makes sense if there isn't a vampire-run Empire ..." It's quite possible she's misunderstood there.

"I'm... pretty sure he wasn't actually a vampire in my home." Eddie frowned as Venom set the bike down and he started to roll his bike to a gas pump. "Don't quote me on it, because i'm getting the idea that there's a lot of weirdness just beneath the surface we're only sorta scratching at." He then frowned as he heard his phone beep, "...you're kidding." He looked at his phone and took a picture that then got sent to Anne. "We're actually /IN/ my home verse. I dunno how long that vine will last though but hey it lets me pay for gas."

He motioned Serrah to follow him, "Want anything before we get moving?"

Serrah looks surprised. "Really?" she says. "Huh."

And then she laughs at the revelation that they're in Eddie's home. "Nice," she says. She whistles, looking around. "Are the Vines always this ... I 'unno ... convenient?" She hmms at the offer. "I can go for a candy bar, I guess." She grimaces slightly. "... Candy never has garlic in it."

"Why would-" Eddie frowned, "Oooh right yea." When he stepped inside the store. he started texting, let his boss know that yes ye was workng on an interview for the 'week in the multiverse' article.Then he walked out with a papr bag and started pumping gas. "So.... lets say you get rid of Duke whatshisface. What happens, like... legally? I'd like to think you'd inheret titles and lands, but he's got to have other... uh.. Heirs that have more senority, or some ther way the system's rigged to avoid promotion by process of elemination. You'd end up with a blood bath."

Serrah grins humorlessly. "The other night, my mom made ... I'm not even sure what it was now, but I couldn't even go near the kitchen. I had to stay out of the apartment."

She considers the question, leaning against the motorcycle as Eddie fills it up. "Dunno," she says. "For vampires, nobility is more like a business than a lineage, since 'lineage' is kinda half-metaphorical anyway. Vampires usually make themselves exactly one heir, and Vincent didn't have any yet. I think he was trying to rig ..." She shrugs. "... some other system by just making me a countess and not letting me have any power. But yeah, I'm sure there's something legal in place that'll keep me from inheriting everything."

This caused Eddie to grow thoughtful, "I'm assuming as a person with a pulse, regardless of anything else, I have precicely as much standing and worth as whoever has the most power in a given situation decides is either amusing or useful." He took a deep breath as he tried piecing together what could be done about all this. "How do you feel about riding double, or would you rather like... fly?" He gestured to the bike, "Only have one helmet anyway." No saddlebags or panniers. It wasn't a big motorcycle anyway.

<Eddie what are you thinking?> Venom grumbled. <Killing her sire here might be taken as an act of war.>

Eddie gave a soft laugh, "Maybe Vee," He re-mounted the bike and reved the motor, "Or they might thank us for getting rid of a public embarassment in a way none of them would be responsible for, or obligated to follow up on." Then he looked over to Serrah, "You have a title now, and even if Vinny'stryign to rig everything legally to route through him you'd still have to KNOW the law so you can follow protocol. Think you could get a copy of like... whatever passes for law for nobility?"

Serrah shrugs. "It's possible for non-vampires to get noble titles, but in practice ... let's just say 'yeah.'" She considers this a moment. "I mean, I do know that he's totally an embarrassment, and this stupid legal battle he's trying to fight to get out of the fine for putting this Mark on me is just another example."

She hms. "I can probably ..." She smiles. "Actually, I'll fly, this is one of two upsides I'm getting here." She rises off the ground. "Don't think I can outrun a motorcycle for very long, though ... Wait, I know!"

There's a swirl of shadow, and then in Serrah's place is a black cat leaps, which leaps down and lands on Eddie's shoulder. There's a streak of red fur on its forehead, just like Serrah had in her hair. "... I guess you can at least hold onto me," it says in Serrah's voice.

<Fine.> Venom extended a sheet of black to cradle Serrah in place, almost like a blanket of oddly warm feeling material as Eddie rode his bike along.

"OK so we're not getting back to where i'm staying on bike, and you said you wanted a few more hops betwen you and home right?" Eddie's voice was whipped by the wind, but given Serrah's position it was probably easy for her to here. "Anyway I'm on decent termswith my ex, and she's a lawyer. So even though I wouldn't ask her to represent you directly, might make a fun research project for the firm she's with to look at a place that's got law wildly diffrent from here."

At least that is how he wa going to pitch this entire mess when he got back.

"The problem as I see it is even if this doens't have like 'all offworlders with a pulse must die' it's still going to play into someone's game, because the only way I can see you getting out of this mess is getting help, which means finding the least scumbag of the lot to try working in your favor." Eddie sounded outright disgusted at the notion, "I hate even suggesting making nice with anny of them, so yea. Step one is get a look at the legal see what we've got to work with." He frowned as he continued driving. "Which means eventually you're gonna have t ogo back, which might have Vinny yanking your chain harder just to remind you he's in charge."

Serrah nestles in Venom's cradling, nodding along as Eddie talks. "Pretty much what I was thinking," she says right back into his ear. "I'll ... probably need help just to do the research, I'm not even sure where to begin on that." She pauses. "As for yanking my chain, I've already thought of some more earworms to drop on him and other ways to drop 'em on him, it'll just involve memorizing 'em on my own time. Basically what I'm saying is, I already know how to yank my chain back."

"Biggest problem is as of right now the easy way would be to make friends, and from where i'm sitting I already hate everyone and everything to do wit hanythingi ncharge of your home." Eddie had to dodge a car that suddenly pumped its breaks.

Causing tendrils to shoot outof his body to keep the pair latched onto his motorcycle. "Thanks!"

<You're welcome!> Venom's voice was cheerful as Eddie sped along.

All while Eddie tried getting his breathing under control, "No offence but your world is run by litera blood sucking monsters. Least the politicians here aren't so... uh.... immortally monstery about it all."

Serrah reflexively lets out a feline yowl of alarm at the narrowly-avoided traffic-accident. There's a moment's pause before she speaks up again. "Preachin' to the choir, dude," she says. "... I'm not sure if I can actually listen to a choir sing anymore ... But if you aren't a rich and powerful vampire, life is only comfy if you stay in your lane, you fit some bullshit definition of 'normal', and you don't give a shit about anyone else, and I'm pretty sure I'm not even in column A anymore." She looks around for any Vines that might be in the vicinity. "Also, their approach to public approval in the face of actual problems is something I like to call 'putting a bandaid on a broken bone.'"

More driving until Eddie pulled off t othe side of the road. "I wish there was like a way to figure out if you were near one of these damned things." He grumbled as he fiddled with his phone. "So best absolute awomest case, We get you free of the system but you're basically gonna be stuck as a sort of public embarassment for whoever Vinny answers to." He frowned. "Your world, you know it better so what do you think's likely if we somehow don't end up getting our heads put on pikes asexamples?"

It takes Serrah several moments of thought before she replies. "Y'know what," she says, "Vinny is already enough of an embarrassment that I'm not even sure what situation I'll be in if we off him." She says 'if', not 'when'. "I mean, all things being equal, we'd all probably end up in jail at best, but like. All things aren't equal because he's kind of ... Oh!"

There's a vine just around another corner. "Okay, uh ... ball one!" she says, in a sort of fake umpire voice.

Cue Eddie sending a text out and slowly approaching the vine as Venom unwinds from Serrah so she can hop off. "Near as I can tell these always open somewhere safe. Like... not underwater, or in lava, or in space..." He took a deep breath before stepping through, because he wasn't going t odump a friend off in the middle of into an unknown, especially if he could just EAT the problem.

In a swirl of shadow, Serrah's standing back next to him in her humanoid form. "Right," she says, following along with Eddie.

This world seems to be in the middle of ancient ruins which look more-or-less like a former metropolis, with no sign of life. However, there's an eerie melody drifting through the ruins from the east. There's also a few more Vines in the area.

Serrah turns back to the Vine they just left. "Okay," she says. "The feeling of 'that way' is even more vague, and I almost kinda lost it from the other one by the time we got here. Probably won't keep him from finding me if he's determined enough, but ..." She shrugs, looking out towards the nearby Vines. "... we can probably make it annoying, and that's a win in my book, as far as things we can shoot for right this minute."

Eddie's eyes went wide as he looked upon the ruins. Then the music started. "Uh-uh." Either Venom yanked Eddie's body around to face Serrah. "We're not staying here any longer than we have to."

<We are being watched.>

A frown from eddie, "So kinda hurry up about picking another hole to jump through?"

Serrah grins, and takes Eddie's arm. "Let's see how far we can go like ... this." There's a ripple of light, and the world turns gray and purple and silent, although it's kind of hard to see that it's frozen given the relative stillness that was here already.

She starts walking forward towards the second-nearest Vine. "Okay, we're all expending the, uh ... the 'internal' time," she says. "But ... you seems to be expending it ... both more and less, somehow?" She keeps her eyes forward. "I think it's a function of, like ... you two are joined at the hip, so you're lessening the load from if you were separate, but ... also getting all worked up and excitable also seems to, to drain it more." She shrugs. "We probably wouldn't be able to have a whole tactical discussion in the middle of a fight."

At this stage Eddie just kinda went with the proverbial flow when Serrah started toflex her vampiric magic. This world just flet... WRONG. Wait, that was just stopped time. HUH So this is that flash step thing she pulled. Her explaination just sorta floated over his head so he just frowned, "We kinda get the feeling that there's a lot that both of us have to learn we just don't know howto do yet, but yea I don't think we'd be able to loop you in on confrence calls. Neat trick, but you'd be better using it in bursts instead of long drawn out right until the point of exhaustion."

Serrah nods thoughtfully. "That's ... whoops!" Time resumes when they're still only three quarters of the way to the Vine. "That's fair," she says. "And yeah, I think I can get a handle on it. I'm strong and fast enough that I ... well, if Vincent himself doesn't show up, I can probably handle myself well enough. Just gonna take things one step at a time for now."

Another moment later, and they're through the Vine. It's a hilltop at the edge of a forest, with a small town just downhill. "Well," she says, "I'm pretty sure I can take myself from here." She smiles at Eddie. "Thanks again for helping me take the first step! Think you can find your way back?"

Eddie smiled at Serrah, "Yea so long as like I don't step through and it's a sudden rock concert or literal 'the floor is lava' we should be fine." He smiled at the countess before turning around. Yet as he walked back t othe portal one of Venom's tendrils extended and made a sort of waving motion before retracting back into Eddie's body.

Serrah smiles, and waves back to Venom. She turns back towards the small town. Looks like at least one thing is working right.

Meanwhile, back in Hartford ...

A helicopter flies over the Vine leading to Eddie's world. The passenger door opens up, and a shadow slips out, descends to the sidewalk near the Vine, and then coalesces to form Vincent.

He stares at the Vine for a moment, and then lets out a loud groan of frustration. "This is gonna be a huge pain!"