World Tree MUSH

It's evening in the Kansai region, and as the sun sets over a forest next to a town, the atmosphere is somewhat tense; and there are reports going out to pokemon trainers that something in the forest has spooked the pokemon living there. It's not entirely clear either what or where it is -- there isn't any clue of whether it's caused by a pokemon, a person, or something else that came through a Vine which opened up nearby a few days ago.

Not very far in, there's a herd of stantler, puffy-cheeked deer-like pokemon, treading their way cautiously across one of the well-traveled paths. One of them appears to have a slight injury on its neck -- just a couple of pinpricks which have already mostly healed; it keeps getting furtive glances from its herdmates.

    Being one of the top trainers of his region, certainly one of the best ones on the nearby town, and of course, familiar with... world tree related things, Luke was called to check on the disturbances, something he was quite happy to do!. As such, the boy, with a small panda bear on his shoulder, and a tall pink and black bipedal bear quickly following behind, make their way to the forest. 

    Luke pets Pangshi, "Ok guys, keep your eyes open, make a signal if you see anything, I brought all the pokeballs if something happens, but I don't want to spook any pokemon by coming with all my team.". The Bewear nods, letting out a squeaky growl and 'pats' Luke's head gently. It's not long before both pokemon detect the herd of nervous looking deer, with Pangshi chirping and tugging on Luke's ear to get him to look towards them. "Huh, they look spooked." he begins, the trip approaching slowly. 
     Pangshi notices the 'bitten' pokemon and jumps of Luke's shoulder, slowly falling lower until it almost hits the ground, and floats towards the furtive one, "What's wrong Pangshi?".

The stantlers watch Luke and his Pangshi cautiously; some of them actually start skittering away. The one that was bitten, however, just stares at Pangshi like a ... well, like a deer caught in the headlights. There doesn't seem to be any particular sign of what happened to it or what caused the bite, but it does generally seem perfectly healthy otherwise.

And then a stantler near the front of the herd lets out a cry of alarm. Immediately, the entire herd turns around, all of them moving almost simultaneously, and begins stampeding back the way they came across the path! There's a few squawks and cries of other pokemon through the woods, startled more by the stampede than anything else.

    The panda vampire just inches closer to the bitten deer, and if allowed, peeks at the neck, it doesn't seem scared by potential stomping, but being a ghost type, maybe that's just normal. Luke and the Bewear approach more slowly, with the big pink and black bear getting a bit freaked out, reaching one 'arm' to try to keep Luke close, seems that particular pokemon is a bit overprotective of the boy!. 
    The stampede takes everyone by surprise, with Pangshi chirping loudly and just phasing through some of ht espooked Stantlers, likely doing little to pacify them, while the Bewear looks around for the source of the disturbance, "What spooked them like that?, do you see anything?" he asks to the pokemon.

The Bewear finds the cause quickly enough: it looks like a woman in her early twenties, sitting against a tree and looking like she dozed off there. She's attractive in an anemic sort of way, with black hair with a single red streak and a couple of tufts resembling cat ears; she's wearing an Anarchy-symbol T-shirt, a rainbow-colored skort, and big combat boots.

Oh, and by all appearances, she's dead. No breathing, no sign of a pulse if checked. No sign of any injuries or illness or poison or anything like that, either.

But Luke's pokemon would sense a slightly spooky atmosphere around her, the kind that might be projected by certain Ghost-types.

    The pink and black 'bear' growls squeakily, glanding at th ewoman curiously, and getting Luke's attention with a 'gentle' nudge, pointing to the woman. It waves in a greeting, even if it's clear it tells something is off. The bear just keeps eyes on the lady and tries ot grab Luke. Of course, the boy can't sense any of that, just sees a curious lady, maybe lost on the forest, so he begins to approach, only noticing the more... unusual situation up close. "Erm... Miss?" he calls, leaning closer. 
tAnd then we have the ghost panda, who simply rushes to inspect the other 'human', the curious, creepy situation only causing curiosity on the ghost pokemon, and reaching to gently try to jostle the lady, letting out a sad noise as it notices the lack of breathing.

The girl doesn't react to the jostling, her head lolling to one side like a doll. Nothing happens for another moment; if it wasn't for her new position, Panshi might as well not have touched her. Yep, there's exactly zero sign of life there!

And then, as the last rays of the setting sun fade away ...

The girl's blood-red eyes flutter open. She immediately does a double take at Pangshi. "Wh--"

And then she's suddenly standing upright a few feet away, hands raised in a slightly defensive position. There's no transition, no blur of motion; she was sitting against the tree one proverbial frame of animation, and upright the next, as if the hypothetical video skipped ahead a few seconds.

"Uh." She grins nervously at Luke, revealing fangs. "Ahaha. Um, hi?"

    Luke blinks and is already getting ready to go get some help, or call the authorities, while Pangshi squeaks and moves back when teh girl seems to collapse like a doll. The fact the lady gets up and somehow moves back causes a startled noise, causing the pokemon to jump back to Luke!. The Bewear is very quick at appearing in front of Luke when the girl makes htat very suspicious motion, but Luke just stares, "Hey... are you ok?" he tries, looking at the pale lady from behind the protective pokemon.

The girl lets out a hollow laugh. "I'm not especially 'okay' for the most part, but at this moment in particular, I guess yes is a good enough answer." She starts to stretch her arms, then glares at them in what appears to be a mixture of upset and annoyance, and just lowers her hand and shakes her head. "Name's Serrah Delany. Uh ... what's ... I mean ..." She looks uncertainly between Bewear and Pangshi. "... who's your, uh, friends?"

    The boy nods a few times and pushes the pink pokemon aside for a moment, offering a proper greeting and smiling, "Sorry if we disturbed you, I'm Luke Gray, these are Bewear and Pangshi." he begins, pointing at the large pink and black thing that seems quite stubborn on staying next to Luke, and then to the odd little panda with red eyes... fangs poking from it's upper lip... and is wearing what some folks might recognize a Jiangshi outfit, even has a spelltag on the front!. The little guy waves happily. 

    "They are my pokemon, they won't hurt you, don't worry." he begins, trying to pacify Bewear with a couple of scritches, "We were here since there was talk of somethign disturbing the local creatures."

Serrah nods, and manages a lopsided smile and waves back to Pangshi. "Heh ... uh, nice to meet you guys, then!"

When Luke brings up the disturbance, she looks awkward and clearly somewhat guilty. "Aha. Um. Yyyyyyeah, that would probably be me," she says. She looks at Luke uncomfortably for a moment, then says, "I guess sometimes, animals get kind of nervous around ... well ... vampires." Yeah, she does not look happy about this at all.

    Luke moves closer to Serrah, "Well, you would come over to the town, I don't see any reason to stay out here." he offers helpfully, before he hears the word vampire, and glances back at Pangshi, "A real vampire?" he asks curiously. The small panda chirps at that and floats closer to Serrah, taking note of the red eyes and the fangs, chirping and trying to point at his own. "W-well... you seem nice... maybe we can get you a spot to rest in town?^" he offers. At least Bewear does not seem to know what a vampire is, otherwise it might be trying to get Luke away quickly or something, it just moves cautiously closer.

Serrah relaxes slightly, in a way that only now reveals how tense she'd been. "Fraid so," she says. "I'm ... kind of on the run from the jerk who turned me. This is the first Blossom I've stayed more than a few minutes, I ..." She glances at the sky. "... guess I slept here all day, whoops."

She considers the offer, then nods. "Sure," she says. "Dunno if I can actually stay anywhere, since I left my money behind without thinking, but ... eh, I'll probably find another Vine and hurry out when I can as well."

    Well, Luke has no reason to not trust Serrah, and he moves closer still, smiling, "Don't worry too much about money, I am sure I can help you for a couple days, if only just to make sure you rest a bit." he offers, "So there is another vampire following you?" he asks, "Maybe we can get some help, I met some very strong people." he says. The Bewear seems to resign to Luke just hanging out with the stranger and gets closer, trying to be polite and friendly, the trainer must have a reason to trust the unnerving girl. "Been without money before, it's not very fun." Luke muses, "Let me know if there is any way we can help."

Serrah shrugs. "I dunno if I can afford to rest for too long, but all right," she says. "And yeah. He's Duke Vincent D'Ambrosio. He turned me, and gave me this." She pushes aside some hair covering her forehead, revealing a black heart-shaped mark, sort of like a tattoo. "He can use it to give me orders I can't disobey, if we're in the same world together. So I'm trying to make sure we aren't in the same world together."

She shoots Luke a fangy grin, seemingly unaware of how unnerving this might look. "But yeah," she says. "Thanks a bunch for helpin' me out!"

    Both the boy and the small weird panda lean to look at the mark on the forehead, "That black mark?" he asks, "How does that work?, does he have to be near you or just make the order anywhere?" he asks curiously. At the reveal of 'orders without resistance' the big pink and black pokemon moves closer and pats Serrah's head, "Have you asked someone about getting rid of it?" the boy asks, perhaps a bit naive.

    As they make their way out Luke relaxes a bit, "At least it was just you and not some weird... thing." he mumbles, chuckling, before glancing at Bewear, "I think you can go rest, Bewear, I promise to call you if something happens.". The young teen/boy reaches for his belt, grabbing a red and white sphere and presses a button on the side, the thing opens, releasing a beam of red that engulfs the large Bewear, which vanishes int he light, and gets 'sucked' into the orb that snaps closed.

Serrah shrugs as she follows Luke. "It can be from anywhere, as long as we're in the same Blossom," she says. "Wha-- hey!" She flinches slightly at Bewear's headpants, but she chuckles a bit. "Uh ... well, the only way I know of would be destroying the Scepter he used to put it on me. Or dying, but that's not an option I'm -- I mean, uh, permanently dying." She shakes her head. "Still getting used to the lingo, I've only been a vampire for a couple weeks."

She chuckles at Luke's comment of relief. "I'm not sure you can really say I'm not a 'weird thing'," she says. "I mean. I know what you mean, it's just ... my life has been supremely weird for the past two weeks, and it looks like it'll get worse before it gets better."

She looks curiously at the pokeball as Bewear disappears. "Well, that's interesting," she says. "How does that ... I mean ... Heh, first question on my mind is, how does it look like from Bewear's perspective?"

    Luke nods a few times, "Maybe we can figure a way to break that scepter!, or take it away from that Vincent." he muses, rubbing his cheek. The terms seem a bit confusing, even if the small vampire panda nods sagely, as if it understood what was being said. It seems content to hover around Serrah, quite the curious little guy.
    Luke laughs a bit, "Well, I meant... dangerous weird?, I guess there is a lot of weird going around." he is not sure what to take of the 'permanent death' bit and pauses, "Permanent death?" he asks, before he gets the question, "Honestly?... I am not sure, been told they just find themselves in a safe, comfortable enviorement, given what bewear likes, maybe a small clearing!. I know he can hear us, and if he really wanted to, he can just come out, or shrug off being recalled."

Serrah shrugs. "It's gonna be a project no matter what we do," she says. "Even apart from the whole 'duke of an empire that rules an entire planet' thing, he's tough. And I won't be able to do anything to him myself. So, uh ..." She grimaces. "If I ever show up with the Blackheart Mark glowing purple and a guy who looks like an absolute rich jerk, it's not my fault." She does sound slightly guilty, though.

She nods. "Yeah, 'permanent death'," she says. "I'm already dead ... or I mean 'undead' ... so I guess we have other words for 'dying and not getting back up'."

She nods, smiling a bit, and looking over at Luke's belt. Then a thought strikes her. "Say, uh ..." She thinks about this for a moment as she tries to work through the thought. "Hmm ..." She looks over at the town. "Does this town have a sporting goods store?" She hesitates. "... More important question, does this world have baseball?"

    Luke blinks a bit at the talk of being dead, "That... hrm..." he mumbles, "I'll try to remember the... purple mark bit." he says softly, "Sounds really... awful." he adds, grimacing as well. AT least the conversation takes a more friendly tone, "Yes and yes." he says with a grin.

Serrah nods. "It really is awful," she says. "But ..." She shrugs, and pats Luke on the head. "I'm just doing what I can, really."

She smiles. "Well, this is probably going to sound kinda ... sideways," she says, "but I've sorta been using baseballs for self-defense. I just started wondering if I could get a belt that could hold baseballs like that."

    Luke seems a bit amused, "Well, if you are good at throwing stuff, I figure that would work fine!" he says softly, "Not sure if there are belts for beisball like this, but, you would get a small bag to hold a bunch of them maybe?"

Serrah nods. "Yeah, that probably makes sense," she says. "I wonder if ..." She looks down at herself; shadows swirl around her skort, and it gains belt-loops, along with a black leather belt. "I keep forgetting I can do that," she murmurs. There's another swirl of shadow which lasts slightly longer, and then four pockets appear on the skirt. "Okay, looks like I can't just make a pouch, this is emphasis on clothing and what you can do with it." She shrugs. "I'll probably just get a bag, yeah."

    Luke can't help just gasp and stare at the very quick and impressive way she changed those clothes, "That's... judts quite impressive." he says, offering a few claps, "I mean, you would get the bag or two on that belt." he says with a grin. The small panda looks at the swirls, and then down at it's costume, seeming to focus and strain for a moment, "Pangshi, you can't do that kind of stuff, you are... wait... are oyu an actual vampire?"

Serrah chuckles, and reaches down to ruffle Pangshi's hat. "I think it's just something specific to the vampires where I'm from," she says. "But I think at this point I might have to get like a small backpack or something." She shrugs. "I'm kinda low-maintenance as far as that goes." She glances uncertainly back towards the forest.

    Luke chuckles as well, and assists on cheering up the panda, "Well, a bag would be easy to find for sure, and some balls to use, do you want to get some food as well?" he asks in a friendly way, "Or just prefer to get to a good bed first?" he asks, "I mean... just to be ready for the morning.". The panda tries to act upset, but quickly drops the act once it gets petted and ruffled at, chuckling.

Serrah shrugs and smiles. "Well, like I said, I already slept the day away, so sleep probably won't be an issue," she says. "I think I'm supposed to be nocturnal anyway. But food definitely sounds good ..." And then her smile fades. "... as long as there's no chance of having any garlic in it."

    Luke grins, "I'm sure we can find something." he says with a chuckle, "We cna just say you are alergic to garlic, sounds good?" he offers, pointing to a small dinner, "They don't really do much fancy stuff, but it's usually a good meal."

Serrah nods, and smiles at the diner. "Sounds good to me," she says, although in the indoor lights, it's likely to be somewhat obvious that her skin looks somewhat unhealthy. She pauses, and looks down at Luke for a moment. "Really, though, just ... thanks a bunch just for helping me out!"

Luke Gray smiles and shakes his head, "Please, don't mention it, I just enjoy helping people." he says warmly, reaching one hadn to gently pat Serrah's shoulder, "I hope you can get a chance to relax here, your situation sounds... bad." eh says, perhaps a bit nervous of being blatant on what was said earlier while they get a seat. "You get what you want on me, I will get a steak and fries."

Serrah nods, and sits down across from Luke. "I think I'm already relaxing at the moment," she says dryly as she looks over the menu. "I'll just have a burger and fries, I guess." She smiles. "So, yeah, guess that's it ..."