World Tree MUSH

    The hidden path to Camino Al Atardecer is along a hiking trail that leads to a beach, just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun must be setting in order for the portal magic to work, which likely led to the hidden city's name, which is simply Spanish for "Sunset Road". Certainly, the sunset's reflection across the straight leading to the Golden Gate resembles the description.
    The waves of the San Francisco Bay are dotted with boats; sailboats, fishing boats, even massive cargo ships. The fog hasn't slunk in to blanket the bay yet, showing off a galaxy of windows reflecting the sun's fading light and the lights slowly coming on as the mountains cast their shadows across the cityscape.

<Eddie taking a detour like this is unwise.> Venom rumbled as Eddie continued walking <Your interview with this Goblin is in a week but time to scout the location, time to prep...>

"I know vee..." Eddie huffed as he looked out at this version of San Fransisco Bay, frowning. "It'll be close, but how often do people let you just walk in to a place like this?" He adjusted his shoudler bag, and by proxy the camera, papers, and other odds and ends inside. "They said they wanted a reporter so who'm I to say no? It might even be good press to spread to counter the FUD Norman's got the networks blaring about the big bad multiverse."

<If you say so. I still say this is a bad idea and inviting schedualling snafu.>

Benedicta waits for the others to show up she invited to show up. Her custom hoodie conceals her identity to those who aren't in the know. After all a horned rabbit girl is bound to attract some strange looks from those who aren't familar with. Her attention turns towards Eddie as he arrives. "It's pretty rare for outsiders to be let in. I'm not sure how well your camera will work, there are magic wards set up inside." After all she's pretty sure Beacon Society doesn't want too much information getting out.

    Alucard's normal attide would probably be incredibly out of place in a modern city. And when he'd been invited here, he had been specifically told to avoid making a scene. So he'd taken the time to get some clothing more appropriate to the world. In this case? A black, three-piece suit with a white dress shirt. He's still wearing a cravat over a necktie, though; a necktie looks too much like a noose for his tastes.

Of course, he's also keeping an eye out for anything that might cause him harm. Which really is nothing new. And he's also unused to the fit of this suit. So there's a definite frown on his face, though he's trying really hard not to fidget. Whole thing seemed weird, but hey... might as well see what these new worlds are all about, right? It's not like magic is alien to him.

    Luke did his best to follow the instructions, the young trainer flanked by an unusual creature!, nothing that looks dangerous, unless a small panda wearing a costume, or a black cat with a bell attached to it's tailtip are distinctly dangerous! he figures that cat deserves some time around now and then. The boy checks on his small tablet device to try to figure if he is at the right place, and looks around as he gets to the beach, approaching Benedicta and Eddie, waving a hand.

    Aurelia's showing Benedicta a video about mantis shrimp, mostly because the two young ladies were waiting for the 'hikers' to arrive. The blonde is in her usual jean jacket and slacks, looking pretty normal. She waves to Luke and Eddie with a smile, knowing them already. She also greets the dapper-looking Alucard as well. "Um... yes there are passes. You'll need to wear these while visiting or you'll just end up in the bay." Both Benedicta and Aurelia were given passes to hand out. They look like what passes for magical currency in this world; roughly quarter-sized brass discs with arcane runes inscribed on them with a lanyard attached through a hole. "For security reasons, the passes expire when you leave or after twenty-four hours have passed."
    Benedicta and Aurelia's status as members of the Beacon Society grant them access already. When the people put on the passes, they'll see the entryway to Camino Al Atarceder.

Eddie looked over to Benedicta and nodded. "Can't hurt to try, but we'll manage." There was a tendril of black that snaked out of his sleeve to adjust the bag.

<Eddie, you spend roughly five thousand on a camera nad lenses. You need to take better care when packing.>

This caused Eddie's eyes to roll even as eh gave an amused smile. Honestly his life had started looking up ever since Venom decided to treat him like a partner instead of as 'just a ride.'

A look to Alucard and an eyebrow raise at the too-pale man in a very finely made suit he seemedwholly unused to. This caused his smirk to turn into a chuckle, "S'the matter, not used t othe suit buddy?" Something about the man reminded him of something but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

<Too pale. Too used to watching his own back.> Venom put voice to those unarticulated concerns. <Watch how his hands move. He's usedto being armed with more than he has.>

A return wave to Luke even as he looked t othe belled cat andthe oddball panda.

<Those look delicious!>

Another roll of his eyes, "Vee... everything looks delicious to you." His voice low.

<Gwen doesn't.> Eddie said nothing but Venom chuckled at all the things unsaid. <Se assumes too much knowledge. It will cost her if she doesn't reign it in. I would hate to see anything happen. She is... nice.>

"Yea... heckof a lot better than most kids her age Vee." Eddie casually reached for one of the vaguely chineselooking coins with Venom extending a tendril to snag a lanyard and twirl until the coin appeared to dangle from a black bracelette at Eddie's wrist. He gave Aurelia a smile.

Causing the entryway to appear. Eddie whistled and grinned, "Spiffy way to handle security. So what happens. We walk in here and suddenly it's like that pbs show with the phone booth guy from england?"

     Luke smiles brightly to Aurelia, offering the familiar face a shake of hands, or even a hug, if allowed, while his pokemon look curiously to what apparently i snothing!. The black cat sways it's bell, producing a soft chime, as it approaches the entryway, letting out a soft, curious meow, then back at Luke, who just does not seem to see anything!. "Thanks for the invitation, Aurelia." he says, grabbing the pass and blinking a few times as the entryway makes itself apparent, the cat parked next to it, "Wow... I am willing to ask how but... I bet the answer is magic." he mumbles. Meanwhile, the panda seems more curious about Eddie, moving closer to the reporter, waving in a friendly way, before Luke realizes he was rude and greets Eddie as well, "Oh, heya! I'm Luke." he says, smiling, "Nice to meet you...." there is a pause as the tendril appears, "Huh." he seems simply surprised, before nodding at the comment on security, "Yeah, quite a nice way to keep it safe."

"Is that a panda?!" Benedicta sounds rather cheerful as she waves at Luke. Well at least until the wind catches ahold of her hoodie revealling her appearance to them, "Stupid wind," that's San Francisco for you. Hopefully none of them would stare at her too much as she hands out the passes. Well at least Aurelia is here which make things a bit less awkward. At least she isn't the only mascot looking creature here.

    Alucard offers a nod of greeting to Aurelia. "Thank you for the invitation," he notes. His voice is a very deep baritone. Also, it might not have been EXACTLY Aurelia who gave him the invitation, but like... probably her bosses or whatever, so it's aimed in the right general direction. The 'pass' is given, and Alucard scrutinizes the thing carefully. He wants to make sure this isn't going to do something to hurt him before he puts it on. Apparently he doesn't find anything particularly harmful about it, so he dons the lanyard-bound coin.

    The entryway's sudden appearance gets a blink. His father's castle however, is full of 'you can't see and/or access this place until you have this specific item' type places. So all in all he's not too surprised. But it's there nonetheless.

    Soon Eddie's words draw his attention, though, and he looks in the reporter's direction. "...I am accustomed to a... slightly more traditional fit," he notes. That's... putting it mildly. But he's trying not to reveal TOO much here. At least not until he determines what all is going on. Also yes -- Venom's assessment is correct; Alucard fidgets slightly with his hands, as if he's missing a familiar weight in them when entering such an unfamiliar situation.

    He's also peering at Eddie with some suspicion -- tendrils don't emanate from people without good reason. Not the reaon the tendril was manifesting, but the reason he's able to do such a thing in the first place. In Alucard's experience, such reasons are usually not good ones...

    Benedicta does get a bit of staring from Alucard, but it's not the 'oh my god you have ears what are you' kind of staring. It's the 'threat assessment' kind of stare. It is, however, mercifully brief -- even when assessing threat, it's rude to stare at a lady.

    Aurelia gives Luke a friendly hug and passes him a few extra passes for his pokemon. "You're going to need to make sure they keep these on them, Luke. Unless they really like swimming."
    Aurelia nods to Alucard. "The Beacon Society hopes you find your visit.. um. Fascinating? I'm. I'm not really sure how to describe Sunset R- er- Camino Al Atardecer. It's kind of normal for Benedicta and me."
    The gateway is stone, and has an architectural style that can only be described as monolithic. Sun and sea motifs are carved into it of course. Naturally there's arcane runes as well, though these are wrought in a reddish-gold material (that those versed in alchemy would call orichalcum).
    As the group enters the gateway, it appears that the city's moniker is not entirely metaphorical, as the main thoroughfare for the city is a long and meandering road of the sunset-colored metal. The architecture of the place though, is something else. It is an urban canyon with a riot of different building styles that can only clearly be sustained throug the use of magical power. One could easily trace the entire immigration history of the North American West Coast from the styles. Chinese, Japanese, older buildings in a Spanish mission style, mid-1800s American styles, even a number of Native American buildings can be seen. The golden road that the conurbanation is anchored to floats serenely above an ocean of stars, while the sky is perpetually sunset.
    Along with the almost confusing jumble of buildings, there is an equally diverse crowd of people. Most, like Benedicta, have decidedly non-human features. Only a few are wholly human-looking like Aurelia, Luke, Eddie, or Alucard.
    There is an inscription at the foot of the gate's entrance, that translates itself to the reader. 'Sanctuary To All Who Walk The Road.'

The most Benedicta got from Eddie was a tilt of his head. Venom, on the other hand, formed a tendril that sprouted from Eddie's body that extended out, forming a tooth filled face at the end that grinned at the rabbit-person before sinking back into Eddie's body.

Which caused eddie to grumble, "Dude i knwo you're trying to help her feel not-alone but honestly that creeps ME out... and I know you're trying to be nice... she's only got this giant bug-face thing with giant teeth grinning at her... probably thinks we're going to eat her or something."

He then looked towards Benedicta, "Yea sorry about my partner he's... trying to people." A helpless shrug and a sigh as if it were a longstanding petty aggrivation instead of 'i have an alien cohabitating with me that will eat just about anything or anyone because it has only a vague ideaof 'good and bad.' "Long story. He means well." Well, Venom seemed to prefer male pronouns if any were given at least. "You're in good company."

He huffed as his shoulders slumped.

<Eddie...>

"S'alright buddy. I think."

As Eddie walked he took notes on a small pad of paper as a pair of black tendrils manipulated a fairly expensive camera from his bag. <No idea if this is working or not.> Venom whined.

Eddie shrugged. Either it worked or it wouldn't.He frowned at the architectural hodge-podge, "So this where the Anasazi ran to?" It was said as a half joke but who knows? Even if it wasn't quite theright corner of the world, it seemed like this place only had a vague relationship wit hthe geolocations of the local earth. Then the inscription. A smile from Eddie as he took that along with the mosh of 'dimi-'human crowds, "So this is where everyone that can't blend in can be themselves? Or is it more encompassing than just 'let the glamour fall away?"

"Basically if you shoved every culture into an urban area...so basically San Francisco but smaller." That's how Benedicta would describe. "It's home, I guess." She looks a bit uneasy as Venom emerges and fades. Great, just what she needed another creature trying to eat her. Her horn glows yellow and an octopus tentacle pops out of her back. "If he tries to eat me, I'm not easy to digest as I look." If that were the case, the rabbit girl would have been a snack for some creature by now.

Luke Gray turns away from Eddie, since the focus of attention seem sto be poor Benedicta, Luke does not seem very phased honestly, he simply smiles, "Well, Pangshi actually." he says. Said pokemon also turns away from approaching Eddie, drawn by the bunny person, waving again and moving closer, certainly a cute sight, even as it awkwardly floats towards the nervous Benedicta. Luke makes sure to secure the extra passes on the pair, and keeps the black cat close. "I don't think Pangshi might mind swimming, since he doesn't have to." he chuckles, while the dark cat seems to grow tense and stick near Luke, seems 'swim' was a magical word for 'be careful.'. He follows Aurelia as their guide of course, since he tries to not get lost!. Also... Eddie might have been a bit scary.

    The blonde teen grins a bit and laughs at Luke's comments about his pokemon as they all enter the city gates.
    Aurelia puts her hands on her hips as she looks around. "Yeah! For all these politicians saying things about how San Francisco is a 'sanctuary city', Camino Al Atardecer actually means it. All the people who can't blend in or people who need to be kept safe from the other two big groups." Under her breath- "I kind of wish I lived here instead of San Jose..." Aurelia keeps prounouncing the 'Atardecer' portion of the city's name different ways, as if she's still not used to saying it.
    Aurelia gives a quick history of the city. "It was started by the Beacon Society during the... oh, I should know this. Er. When the Spanish started settling California. A lot of the Native American mages in California ended up here to avoid religions persecution."
    Suddenly she glances at Benedicta with a grin. "Got a favorite place to eat?"

"He'll behave." Eddie tried smiling at Benedicta, though his attention did linger at the octopus thing that manifest. "I swear i nspite of being a nine foot tall literal monster from outer space with teet has big as your head he's just a big goofball." Eddie kept his eye on his notes, seemingly not needing to look up to dodge foot traffic or keep pace with the crowd. "He's trying to be friendly He's just... uh... Big."

A tendril appeared from Eddie's back and made a waving motion at a random passer-by as Venom continued trying to manipulate the camera.

"Yea I don't think we're getting a lot of footage. but hey get what we get and work with it." He tried to sound upbeat.

Then Venom's face formed at the end of the tendril and looked to Aurelia, "Why are we here?" Its voice a rolling baratone as it spoke. "The architecture is interesting and we are both flattered you would ask that we come, but to what end is this visit?"

"Yes, there's a plant magic girl who runs a place I like to go, it's called Saladmancer." Benedicta manages to smile a bit at that. "We better go take care of business first though. I don't think Beacon invited them here for lunch, as hungry as his friend might be." She points to Eddie as she says that. She tries not to get too distracted by Luke's panda and cat as cute as they might be.

    The boy lingers with Aurelia, while the panda pokemon remains near Benedicta, apparently interested in the bunny person!. The boy (and black cat) listen closely to Aurelia's explanation, while the boy nods a few times, "So this is a safe haven for people... that's really nice." he says, glancing back to Eddie, "Are you trying to get us to spread the voice of this place to other worlds?" he asks.

    Aurelia looks at Eddie and Luke. "Honestly... You know how wizards are cryptic and mysterious in stories?" Here, she looks a bit sheepish. "... Totally true. I guess we should visit my mentor Orania, but first I'm starving so I want to get some food to go first. I mean, if you guys are hungry I can pay for a small meal."

<It is good we ate before we came Eddie. If they are going to go somewherethat is only ... Salad...> Venom's disgust rolled through Eddie as its tendrils flowed back into Eddie's body, leaving his camera back in the carry bag. 

There was asnort, "Relegious persicution... would bea mild way of putting what the spanish did." Eddie tried to sound diplomatic and failed, "Least with my home it was more 'convert at gunpoint with a side of 'they werne't even asking before bringing the guns out.'" His head turned to a building that could have been from the middle of the goldrush era. For all he knew it may have been made then and kept mantained. Tendrils of black snaked out, taking several of Eddie's spare pencils before drawing on the legal pad. It was rough but it was recognizeably that specific building being drawn. Then in front of that were a pair of pasersby, both very obviously inhuman. Two people going about their day today business. No subtext, no apparent knowledge of eachother. More care was taken when drawing these. Each line carefully lain then shaded in. 

Then the tendrils retreated and Eddie smiled in spite of himself, "...Never figured you for art Vee... I'm impressed." He would tilt the legal pad over so others could see the sketc before the page flipped so he could lay down more notes.

<...I try.> Venom's voice was a soft whisper at the back of Eddie's mind as it took pencils in tendril and again made more drawings as Eddie took notes about the landscape and people as well as Aurelia's attempt at history.

"Seems kinda like this place under San Fransisco back home. Quakes opened a place up. There was gold from the mint left unclaimed and people rebuilt... and somehow kept the place fairly secret for the past century. Local priest on the council makes grumpy noises at us visiting, but overal pretty nice. I'll se if they'd mind your people visiting Aurelia. Maybe take notes from them on keeping it safe." He tried fora diplomatic tone, but even to his ears it came off as a mix between bragging and trying to play the part of travel agent.

Then Aurelia offered food, "I'll have to pay for mine. We... don't do small and you can't be out of highschool, unless you're like... really eight hundred or a thousand or something. I'd feel bad for cleaning yout out and my partner'd still make hungry noises." He gave a soft chuckle as he gestured to the trio of tendrils manipulating pencils with two more holding the legal pad in place. "I think he discovereda hobby..."

"I'll have to see if Lizzie has any extra bamboo shoots." Benedicta stares at the panda intently. "It must be nice to have a mentor who actually sticks around." She sighs a bit at that. Nope, Aurelia's still in high school." She goes ahead and answers that question. "Something tells me your partner isn't big on vegetables, that's fine we can go somewhere else." She already deals with enough angry monsters as it is.

    After getting food for those who came along, Aurelia shows Benedicta and the guests to where her mentor dwells. It is actually not ostentatious, looking more like a humble stone building. It seems to be covered in prayer strips in different languages.
    Inside is essentially a modest magical laboratory, with books written in a dialect of what appears to be Sanskrit lying open. The apparition within, which Aurelia introduces as Orania, is a tall woman with ebony skin, a broad nose, and thick lips. The woman seems perpetually distracted, as if she is seeing things that others can't. 
    "Hello Benedicta... and greetings, guests." A polite bow follows this.

"So, what did you bring everyone here for?" Benedicta knows it's a good idea to get straight to the point especially with outsiders present. She looks at the books but can't understand a word of it. She figures Orania will decipher it for them if it's necessary.

<Hungry....>

Eddie frowned, "Dude chill. Girl probably doesn't have a lot of money we're good so yea don't overly pressure the poor girl." He huffed while looking about, trying to avoid accidentilly bumping into passers-by until they came to what looked to Eddie like a grander version of that one law office's bigger-on-the-inside records room along with varying aparatus strewn about.

He returned the bow and held a pad of paper at the ready. "In specific," Eddie gave Benedicta an approving nod, "What is it we should be doing? We," He gestured to a tendril that popped out of his body before slinking back in, "Are on the idea you don't normally let guests in here. That kind of widening circle says you either need us to do a job, or are simply hoping for a bit of cross-world good will, and it feels more like the former really."

    Alucard might have been slightly difficult to find food for, but hopefully not too badly. He can't eat things with garlic in them, but otherwise he seems fine with regular food. He'll claim food allergy if pressed on why. And no, he doesn't say any rubbish about not drinking... wine. It's obvious enough that there's something vampiric going on with him, he doesn't need to make it THAT obvious!

    In all seriousness, he's not going out of his way to act edgy and dark. He's trying to act normal. Though he's not really completely succeeding there either. Though yet another of his oddities might be apparent upon entering the library -- he winces a bit at the appearance of the prayer strips. He means no harm, though he'll likely find his vampiric abilities suppressed while inside here. Of course, that can be just as much of a good thing as a bad thing.

    He does offer a polite bow to Orania. "Hello. Thank you for inviting us here," he offers, as Aurelia introduces the dark-skinned woman to them. Though he stays quiet, as questions he's wondering on have already been asked, and he sees no need to ask again.

    Orania nods calmly. "It was the Council who invited you. They desire to... better understand the off-worlders that come with the Vines. There were other off-worlders before, and not all of them were benign..." The ghost's gaze drifts as though she was remembering a distant event.
    Aurelia errrs and explains quickly. "Sorry, she's always like this."

"Who's been causing trouble?" Benedicta wonders if there's anyone she might need to deal with. "You didn't really give us much to work with." Orania's going to have to be less vague if she wants them to help.

Eddie tilted his head at Orania, "Huh at least you're inviting instead of kidnapping..."

<Eddie, we don't know if we need their permission to leave.> Venom's voice hissed in the back of his mind. <Try harder not to be a dick.> Each word was punctuated and emphasized as the symbiote's displeasure roiled and rolled in the back of Eddi'es brainspace.

All this causing Eddie to cringe, "Right sorry... Vee's... makin good points here I don't want to be overly hostile sounding but there's rumors going on back home I'm about to hve to walk into." A sigh then a look to Benedicta. "And who are we talking to, you? Someone else this council's sent to act as gofer?" Another look around the room as he tried to make sense of all the arcane odds and ends, "Sorry just...." A long pause, "Nerves. Out of anything resembling a comfort zone."

    Orania looks at Eddie/Venom suddenly, and her form suddenly takes on a more terrifying aspect and her voice resonates as she states. "I am Orania Wintros, a High Magos of Atlantis, Keeper of the Sunset Road, member of the Order of the Dragonwatch, Century of the Beacon Society, and a ghost of 4,200 winters." The ghost looks at Eddie with a smile after she goes back to normal. "And I am not as distracted as my apprentice believes, I simply see things beyond what mortal sight sees."
    Aurelia looks down at her feet unexpectedly, embarassed a bit.
    Orania then addresses Benedicta. "The Hermetics opened doors to other worlds in their bid to find new avenues of power, and let in... others. But that was millennia ago. And so..." She looks at Alucard and Eddie/Venom. "... it is important to understand the new off-worlders. They seem varied in temperment and type..." at this she seems to drift off again.

"Too bad, you can't see where a certain creature has ran off to..." Benedicta's referring to Mephy of course. "Wait, Atlantis was real at one point?" She sounds a bit surprised by that. "And we've had access to other worlds long before the vines showed up?" Maybe she do some more research about this when she has a chance.

    "My world does not seem to have influenced the rest of the World Tree as of yet," Alucard replies to Orania. "Though I should assure you that this is good. My world is filled with dark things that would doubtless do naught but cause trouble were they to escape to anywhere else."

    he notes Eddie's seeming discomfiture, and offers quietly, as an aside, "...If we are being held, they are more likely to let us leave if we are calm and do not make to offend. Calm yourselves. There are routes of escape." Because Alucard did not enter this room without scoping some escape routes out, and having in his head a few methods of getting away from the area. Alucard's the nervous sort too!

    Orania's suddenly more fearsome aspect brings tension to his frame, but he does not attack. When she seems to go back to normal, he relaxes again... a bit. The story about how the search for power let in evil things from other worlds gets a frown here... but it gets no response.

    It's only regarding 'these new offworlders' that he speaks again. "Many of us, whatever else we may be, are... merely people," he notes calmly. "People who have been ejected from their own worlds and find themselves wandering amidst these worlds aimlessly, or who now find their own worlds now joined to this greater whole suddenly and without warning." Kind of ironic coming from him, maybe... but still.

When Orania tried to frighten and or cow Eddie a muscle on hisneck twitched ashe looked on unimpressed at the display before stating, quite calmly. "Not even in the top ten." A soft smile before speaking louder. "I'm sorry, I just kinda figure we show up and have to deal with some flunky because the people in charge are busy, not here, or want to give an impression of either."

That was then followed by a chuckle before the voice coming from Eddiedropped to a mix of his own and Venom's baritone, "We're imressed you decided to meet us at the door."

Then Eddie looked over to Alucard as the vampire spoke. Then he gave a shrug, "What Dracula over there said," words intended as a joke and light needling over Alucard's blatant vampiric nature. "I've got a prolblem in my world being led about by people wanting to exploit the whole 'everyone is afraid of new thing' so... Yea I kinda figured I got brought here because someone got caught stealing your stuff... or because I've got the thign from beyond the stars riding shotgun."

    Aurelia ahs... "Yeah, we get all sorts here in Camino Al Atardecer too. Most of them are victims of magic mishaps or.. well, some mages think people are okay to experiment on." She seems kind of angry at that.
    Orania tilts her head at Benedicta. "If you're interested, please visit more often and I will teach you the occult history of the world."
    Orania smiles at Alucard's explanation. "Just so. And happily so. Sealing doorways into hell-like worlds is... costly." Venom's question gets answered as well. "The Council wanted a cross-section of off-worlders, and Aurelia had mentioned what you had done at Sutter's Mill. And so you were invited."

"I know you're saying that for the others but tell me about it..." Benedicta doesn't sound too pleased as she says that. "Not everyone here is welcoming of people from here our own world. Sorry, I wasn't around for that." Her attention turns Aurelia and Venom. That must have been how the two of them met.

    Alucard bristles noticeably at Eddie's referring to him as 'Dracula'. There's a bit of a reaction along that dark aura from him, too... a tremor, then a swelling. However, though he does take a moment to figuratively stuff all the dark badstuff back in where it was, he remains civil. This time.

    However, as he addresses Eddie, his tone is... well. To call it 'icy' would be underestimating it. It's cold like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic! "...I would ask that you not call me that," Alucard states. Though as he's about to continue... he pauses. The frown here is one of thought, as if he's mulling over something in his head. Finally he continues, "My mother named me Adrian. Please use that, for now." It's a strange way of offering his name, but, well... there it is.

    Aurelia's words of people getting experimented on draws a shake of his head. "Hubris and arrogance are in great supply there as well, I see," he notes. "I suppose 'twas a vain hope that I should leave such things behind with my own world."

"Ah," Eddie somehow looked deflated. "Don't supposethe fact I've been taking pictures is a problem is it?" So much for the idea that they wanted a journalist in the group. He opened his mouth, closed it. Was going to try speaking. Then just looked about, embarassed.

<Look on the bright side,> Venom tried pointing out, <we're not here because Norman or someone else's goons stole something important.>

Alucard's posture does not go unnoticed and Eddie's attention pivots, wholly focusing on the other man. Words cold as the depths of space? His overal posture shift. An overt attempt at avoiding turning this into an all out immediate fight. "Adrian. Got it." Eddie's head tilted at Alucard, "Look I didn't mean to stomp on a nerve just... Well better or worse first name I could think of." 

<He's lying.> Venom was working off guesswork and Eddie's own intuition, but Brock's hunches generally had meat on them. <Can't say about what, but if nothing else he is dangerous. Do not antagonise him further. Had my fill of Vampires as is...>

"Yeeaaa...." Eddie again turned to their host with his hands spread wide, "So how can we help?"

    Orania looks at the assembled outsiders. "Tell me about... your worlds. That is how you can help the Council distinguish between off-worlders and... things that the other mage societies are creating. There is confusion and hestitation because of difficulties distinguishing."
    Aurelia grins. "Yeah, but sometimes it helps! Like- you're able to actually go outside Camino Al Atardecer because of it, right Benedicta?"

Orania's words make her think that Mephy had somehow intended for this all to happen on purpose. All Benedicta knew was that he wasn't with Beacon Society. She would have to ask her more about it when the others weren't around. "True, but some people tend to think that we're being invaded. I guess that's why Orania wants more details about your worlds."

"OK..."

Eddie pulled out his notepad to start writing as everyoen else spoke. At roughly the same time a series of black tendrils sprouted, pulling out a series of pencils and a larger notebook to start making sketches of everything going on. "So thing you have to understand about my home is it seems to have a lot of other worlds clustered around it that have a lot more, what I would call, not normal going on. Except these places are close enough to my home, same names, twists on historic events, and the like... where it's almost like I'm half getting a peek at what could be."

<You're rambling...> Venom chided.

"Right," Eddie frowned as he looked at his notepad, probably to stall for time, before looking back to Orania. "But people like me are kinda rare. I could give a hardcopy of my doctor's notes on what he's figured out about how symbiotes react with human biology, but I'm kinda his only sample size and..." A tendril gave a dismissive wave. "High level though? Anything that doesn't conform to 'normal' is going to either get put in a jar and cut apart, shot, or bribed.... I don't have a lot of good news about the ruling bodies back home, but street level people seem to be on at least negociable terms with anything that comes through if it isn't trying to eat their faces."

    Alucard does calm once Eddie offers apologies. He gives a nod, and then replies, "Thank you." So at least he's not too upset by it, from the looks of it. Though he's still tense for some time -- Eddie definitely hit a nerve! Though he's leaving Eddie to wonder exactly the nature of the nerve, since he's not giving any explanations. Whether it's because he's more concerned about Orania's request or something else is unclear.

    "My world is... thankfully not connected to the greater World Tree, to the best of my knowledge," Alucard offers. "However, I will tell you what I can of it." He regards Benedicta for a moment, and nods. "That is not an unfounded thought. I am fairly certain that none of these people asked for their worlds to be grafted into the World Tree. If looked at a certain way, this alone could be seen as an attack by unknown forces."