World Tree MUSH

    Snowpeak has quickly become the prime gathering place for Zelda's ragtag band of misfits. So if Yumi wants to come sit and talk with a fellow misfit, that's the first place she's going to look!

    (It's kind of a long trip even now, so here's hoping people are actually /there/.)

    It's around dinnertime when the door to the library creaaaaaks open, and the young woman slips inside, doing her best not to let out much of the warm air inside. Zelda has been so diligent about keeping a fire burning. "Hello? Anyone here?" Yumi calls out, already prying off her outermost jacket to set it aside. It's a careful call - not TOO loud, in case anyone's sleeping.

    Terra feels like she fits in with the group of misfits more than she remember fitting in anywhere else! Though what she remembers about everything else is simply vague impressions; not a whole lot else. Not yet.

    Still, Snowpeak has been a fine place to just recover. There's no pursuit that she knows of, no threats to these people she even dares to consider friends. This helps her be more relaxed and willing to head off in the direction of what sounds like a visitor?

    "Yes? Who is it?" Terra steps out from one of the inner chambers, clutching an interior door before she ohs, "Miss Yumi, hello! Ah, you should come in. This area isn't completely safe." One look up at the sagging woodwork supporting what's left of the roof should be all the explanation anyone needs, right?! Anyway, she opens the door fully and stands aside.

    "You should see the master bedroom," Yumi replies, her tone amused. "Great big hole in the roof. Otherwise I think we'd be bunked up there instead." She finishes shedding her outermost jacket - and the pants that match - and then steps further into the library, headed over towards the fireplace. There are comfy chairs to sit in over there. "How are you doing? I know last night was kinda..." Creepy as all get-out. "Rough." Not really the sort of thing most folks can go into without getting at least a /little/ unsettled. So she's been a little worried.

    "Oh? I admit, I haven't explored a lot here. I've mostly kept to the library." And she tagged along because she didn't want to be left alone. She doesn't offer that up, only looking on as Yumi sheds the extra layers that would have been quite nice to have on her first trek up the mountain. Anyway, she shuts the door and follows along. "I feel better. Whatever that was before-" She looks down and shakes her head. "Yes, I suppose rough describes it well enough. Are you alright?"

  "Most of the structure is profoundly unsafe." The voice comes with the sound of a door closing, and around the corner steps the last sovereign of Hyrule... though she hardly looks it, dressed in common riding clothes and her hair somewhat in disarray. She has a few splinters in her clothing. "I've taken the liberty of tidying up the library, too. No more broken furniture."

  Zelda emerges fully from the doorway she'd come from. Bereft of dress or heavy cloak, she moves with a quietness that might be unsettling. "Yes, I must ask. Are you both all right, then? It was a harrowing evening. For everyone, I think."

    Oh! There's Zelda. "I'm..." Yumi considers her answer for a second. "...about as well as can be expected, I guess. Still trying to sort out everything that happened last night. But I kinda wanted to get up here and check in on you all. It's my first chance to really sit down and talk with you, for that matter," the girl adds with a smile towards Terra. "Rydia didn't give me all the details." She settles back into her seat, slinging her bookbag up into her lap; she'd come straight here from school. It looks like she intends to sit and do homework while she talks!

    Knowing little of architecture and the like, Terra can only go on the advice offered by Zelda. Keep out of most of the building until more can be done to shore things up. Easy enough. She's content enough to look and not touch in the library, afterall! Then the princess arrives and she offers a tired smile. Well... That explains the sudden tidiness. 

    "I'm alright, I think. Whatever that place was, whatever... that thing was. It was frightening but it also made me feel..." She looks down, shakes her head. "Unwell?" She almost looked carsick. Anyway, "You wanted to talk to me?" The half-Esper finds a place to sit, tucking her limbs close, "I really don't remember much still. Just..." Dreams, things that have kept her from sleeping particularly quietly. Then, "What is it that you have?" Ah, explaining homework should be fun.

  "You were the one dealing with harrowing experiences, Tachibana Yumi; not the rest of us." There's still an edge of amusement in the Hylian's voice. Zelda leans against the chamber's door frame. "As to that, I'm not certain any of us have all the details. I can only trust in Rydia's judgement."

  "I cannot say it was a pleasant sensation, but it was not like the Twilight beast." Zelda shakes her head, folding her arms, absently rubbing one hand over the opposite forearm. "It is not the same. The Twilight is corrupt. That was... I don't know what that was. Unsettling. I think."

    Yumi shakes her head slightly. "We all were. I could sense how to find it, but all of us were there. Mostly I think I'm bothered by how many more questions I have now than I did yesterday morning." She's got a folder out and spreading open on her lap already when Terra asks. "This? Oh, it's homework. I'm attending school in Natsuto City. It was the main condition of the man that's taken me in for now. I've got to go to school like a proper young woman." The last part comes in a stilted 'parent voice'. "I don't mind so much, I guess. It's nice to have some normalcy in my life." Pause. "...and English class is kind of fun."

    "Right." Terra nods to Zelda, then looks across to Yumi. She's forced to trust Rydia's judgement as well, though she certainly isn't complaining. "I hope we can help. Maybe... It did feel a bit like that creature. It did something to me and it almost felt like that... whatever it was."

    More interesting it this idea of normal. She looks on, quite curious about the folder and its contents. "So you're required to attend school? That sounds nice." The half esper manages a smile, though it may seem just a bit wistful.

  Zelda glances to one side, gazing into the main corridor. The cobwebs have been cleared and the debris swept, but there's only so much she can do, at least without a roof. She's listening, though, to go by the tilt of her head and her oblique regard. "Hm."

  There's nothing she can do about Yumi's questions, though. She lets the matter go with a quiet sound of discontentment. As Hyrule's current incarnation of wisdom, persistent mysteries bother her.

  School. It takes her a few minutes to remember something so mundane, and the Hylian cracks a faint smile. "There is some use for such things, certainly. It helps to centre oneself. To do something that demands the entirety of your attention. I had always enjoyed my lessons, personally." That might be an agreement with Terra.

    A firm nod from Yumi. "It has been. My first week or two was kind of frantic. I was the transfer student, I was 'that girl with amnesia', somehow the rumor got out that I was the crater survivor..." Which, of course, she /is/. "Things have mostly settled down now, though. With all the weirdness in my life, I kind of like having a connection to 'normal people' troubles, I guess." She shifts her folder in her lap, already starting to work - but at the same time, spares a glance up at Terra. "So... if you don't mind my asking, how /did/ you end up here? I only know there was some kind of battle, and you were... rescued I guess?"

    Terra will certainly have to make an effort to be more useful. If for no other reason than to give herself something to do when not entertaining guests! Or being scared out of her wits by terrible and confusing nightmare creatures. "You think so?" The half-Esper gives that some thought and even spares a quick glance to the books of the library. She's been hesitant to touch, for one and for another the few items of script she's glimpsed on the spines have been completely unreadable for her.

    "You have amnesia as well?" Oh that explains so much. Her heart aches in sympathy and she looks down at her hands folded on her lap. "I see... I think I feel the same." Finally, the matter of her arrival comes up and she takes a deep breath. "I don't remember a lot. There was..."

    The girl closes her eyes, struggling to grasp at fleeting glimpses. "I remember the Esper. It spoke to me, I- I don't remember what it was trying to say but it felt like my mind was on fire- Then I was in a bed. Rydia and that woman she warned about were there and we had to run. I'm an Imperial soldier and a witch and they were angry. The people we attacked." She looks down, scuffing a boot along the stone floor. "I've had dreams since then." Unpleasant ones. "Other than that... Rydia is exceptionally brave and strong and she led me here. I owe her everything, I suppose."

  The Hylian is silent about the issue of schooling. Her own experiences aren't really comparable or relateable. She was royalty in another lifetime. Her education was better than most.

  "Yes," Zelda adds to the end of Yumi's question, looking to Terra. "None of us have heard the full story. We simply haven't had the opportunity, and if you choose to stay here, I would like to hear it."

  Silent as the tale is told, Zelda folds her arms and tucks her hands into her sleeves. If she doesn't remember, she doesn't remember. She can always ask Rydia for the Summoner's accounting of events later, which might be a little clearer.

  It's a little exasperating, all these missing memories, but it's hardly the girls' fault. Indeed, she can't help a twinge of sympathy, but ultimately there's nothing she can do for the holes; the gaps. "I wish I could help you both. The most I can offer is to appeal to the Author of Law, the Goddess Nayru, for answers... but I do not know if She can help you," Zelda adds, thoughtfully. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try, at some point."

    Ah, so Terra didn't know. "Yeah, I do." It's just the confirmation for now; she can give her own story after Terra's. And if anything, it's an even tougher story than her own. "That's..." She's not sure what to say. "I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been frightening." It probably still is, but that's not something she's eager to poke at.

    "I agree with you, though. Rydia's so... so brave. She's been through way more than any girl her age should ever have to. Both of you have. And me, I'm just..." Shrug. "I don't even know what happened. I just woke up in a crater a few months ago, no idea who I am. Blank slate, more or less." Nothing from her past to haunt her dreams. Now she kind of feels bad. "If there's anything I can do to help, Terra, just let me know."

    The girl does swing a look over at Zelda, though. Or rather, a Look. It is almost certainly in regards to asking something of Nayru on her behalf.

    :|

    "I'm sorry, I know what it sounds like. I'm- I do know that I'm different. I have magic and I shouldn't. I think that's important?" The collective sympathy in addition to that last confession increases her self conscious feeling considerably and so she's happy to hand the floor over to Yumi.

    The half-Esper hugs herself as she listens, nodding at the praise leveled at Rydia. She really should try to learn more of her story as well. Since we're sharing. A curious glance goes to Zelda, for that matter, but her attention quickly returns to Yumi. "I hope you were okay! Ah, and... Yes, thank you." Zelda's mention of a goddess gets a curious look once again from the green haired young woman. Goddesses? She never imagined anything like that being possible. That she remembers. So frustrating! "If it's not too much trouble. Maybe I only need time, as you said."

  Zelda holds her silence on the issue of the amnesia. She hardly has a point of reference on that. Her memories are clear and bright; the things out of her grasp do not belong to her, nor precisely. Hylia. Her predecessors. She isn't yet sure which; it doesn't really matter..

  Blue eyes flick sidelong toward the orange-haired girl. She studies Yumi almost languidly. "Just because you don't know the nature of your own trauma doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. It takes a fracture of the spirit to simply lose pieces of your experiences like that, yes?"

  Yumi's look is met blandly, and with a subtle arch of an eyebrow. Don't give me that look, it seems to say; if we need answers, than we need answers. Her eyes flick back to Terra.

  Those summer-blue eyes hood, and Zelda regards Terra thoughtfully.

  "I see no reason why not. And that won't happen again," she adds, to Yumi. "I don't know why, but Her Grace wanted to speak to you for some reason. It was not exactly ordinary." Her attention flicks back to Terra, sharp as a hawk. "It can do no harm to ask. Not now. You are both spent; I am not, but it would be better if everyone were well-rested."

    "Well, alright," Yumi says, somewhat dubiously. If Zelda says it'll be fine...

    Meanwhile, Terra is worried about her - or at least the her of a few months back. "Hm?" Yumi blinks. "Oh, no, I was fine. Not a scratch on me, in fact, and even my clothes were pristine." Her mouth pulls into a frown. "They found me at the very bottom of the crater, a few months ago, not long after it was made. I met Zelda a couple days after that," she adds, with a nod to the princess. "The local police did a lot of investigating, but they couldn't find anything out about me. I thought I was an ordinary person until a few weeks ago, but then we found out I can-"

    Her eyes light up. "Oh! Zelda, I completely forgot. I think I figured out what it is I'm sensing. Or at least I have a guess." She sets her pencil down. "I think it's reality-warping magic. It's the only thing I can really think of that both times had in common. I can't be sure until it happens more, of course, but it's something."

    It's time for Terra to sit back and let the other two speak. If the other girl needs this advice or whatever it's going to be more, then by all means she's willing to take the back row and wait it out. She has nothing pressing that she's aware of. Nowhere to be. No doors to open. No chaos to bring forth into the world. No, she's just happy to be out of harm's way for the time being. Also warm. The fire is nice; though she does think of the tiny summoner and her apparent aversion to it again. Yet another reason she's been somewhat reticent about her abilities. Fire probably isn't something she wants to openly display, afterall.

    "Reality warping magic? So that's why the doors kept moving away and... Why that place felt so wrong?" Physical senses are a pain sometimes but this whole magical thing is a real pain to get used to. "Anyway, I'll do whatever I can to help. Even going to another of those places." Even if the thought makes her skin crawl. Even though remembering that creature makes her visibly shudder.

  The Hylian is silent all through Yumi's explanation, eyes flicking between the orange hair and the green hair. Apparently everything checks out; she nods when Yumi indicates they'd met a few days after Yumi's awakening. In fact, Zelda doesn't speak up at all until she's called out directly.

  "Reality-warping." The Hylian narrows her eyes, frowning a little at the implications. That's a dangerous sort of magic to be involved with, but maybe just sensing something isn't so bad. "They were certainly doing something to that realm, bound as it was to the city behind it. I saw the way the doors stretched. Would it benefit those creatures to trap their victims, I wonder? Those who come investigating in those between-realms? Luring them to a door, only to have that door retreat perpetually...?"

  She shakes her head, dropping to her haunches in front of the hearth and stirring the coals with a poker. She does so in a way that she can watch both Terra and Yumi, though, expression grave. "I suppose it's something more than we had. And your assistance would be appreciated, but I do not think we need to expose ourselves to those realms overmuch. It felt like..."

  "Are you familiar with the common trap-door spider?" Zelda holds up her hands, indicating an arachnid of modest size. "They may not seem like much on their own, but they build elabourate traps with which to entomb their victims, to spring their ambush. That's what it felt like. Like we were being herded, towards a purpose; though whether that disgusting creature was the spider, or some greater entity, I couldn't say."

    A trap-door spider. Now that Zelda brings it up, it's a comparison so apt Yumi can't set it aside. "...I think you might be on the nail there. I mean... I don't think we were /intended/ to be in there, it looked like it was feeding off the people outside, but... well, once we /were/ in there, we were definitely in its territory, and it was definitely ready for us." The girl bites her lip, one hand on her pencil. "I think the only reason we aren't worse off is that it was... it wasn't very strong, I guess. If you guys hadn't been there, I'd have been in trouble."

    Her expression grows more troubled over the thought of having to ask Terra, Zelda, Rydia, Yahiko... /anyone/ to help her with another of those things. "I'd /like/ to never have to deal with that again, but... somehow I don't think so. I was putting some thought into it today." Her eyes dart to her bag, resting beside her chair. "Whoever left that note. They knew I'd go. They knew I'd be able to find that thing. For that matter, /they/ were able to find that thing, and then tell me where to go so I'd stumble into it. And they knew I had people I could call who'd be able to deal with it." They know more about her than she does, most likely. "I'm probably going to get more little notes, eventually."

    A trap door spider? Terra shifts in her seat, knowing at least what a spider is but a trap door spider? Her imagination may run a bit far afield with that judging by her frown but she gets the point. An ambush predator, in other words. "So when it-" She stops, nodding at Yumi. That's more orless the gist of what she was going to say. "I'm glad you weren't alone, regardless." Strong or not, that thing was horrific. Worse, she almost couldn't move at all when it reached for her. Hands reaching for her- That makes her twitch a touch.

    "Someone led you there?" There's so many reasons for that, good and bad. "What- What about what was left behind? That shard?" Surely it's important but she can't imagine how. Not yet.

  "We were targets of opportunity once we were within that thing's reach," Zelda finishes for Yumi, shifting her weight and leaning the opposite hip against the doorframe. Her arms fold loosely over her stomach. "I mislike it. How did the author of that note know?"

  She looks aside, considering, thinking back on the details. While hideous, the creature had not seemed particularly intelligent. In fact, it had done nothing more than to reach for them as a spider would reach for prey. Had it intended to consume them, somehow, in body or in soul?

  It wouldn't be an illogical assumption, considering how those bony hands had been snatching some kind of essence from the passers-by... but she doesn't know for sure. Her expertise in the spiritual and the supernatural only extend to her own realm.

  She glances back to Terra. "A note," she confirms, to Terra. "A targeted note. And yes, some manner of gem or jewel. I sensed nothing emanating from it, but that means little," she concedes, frowning. "It makes me uneasy, but I can give no reason as to why."

    "I wish I knew," Yumi says to Zelda. "It was really sparse. Just, 'Tachibana Yumi. Please come to these coordinates. Bring your "friends". You will need them.' And then the coordinates right underneath." She dips her head towards her bookbag. "I have it in there. That gem the creature left behind, too." She returns her attention to her homework; but her focus doesn't seem to want to come with it. Her progress is a lot slower.

    "I still don't know what's with the gem, either. I haven't sensed anything else off it, not since we destroyed the creature. I looked at it pretty closely last night at home, and then again today at lunch. I don't know what it is, but it's inert. For now," Yumi adds hastily. "I'm keeping a close eye on it. If anything else happens with it, I'll go for help immediately."

    "At least they warned you to not go alone," Terra offers meagerly. The motive of the author could be anything. Trusting something like this that lead to very real danger would be crazy. "I suppose we can only continue to offer our support while you wait for..." Well, whatever it is they're going to do next.

    The girl unfolds herself and stretches, shifting her body to take a bit more warmth from the fire as she considers the shard or jewel. Who knows? "You said there was something like this that happened before? Was there another creature? Another shard?" Coming out of her shell just a bit more! Seems puzzling over other people's problems is helping her a little with her own.

  "Have a care with that gem. I still think it may be dangerous, in the same way a sharpened sword is dangerous to careless hands." Zelda's voice is low. She seems to choose her words carefully. "At least until we know more about it; what it is and what its function may be."

  She thins her lips, but concedes the issue of Yumi hanging onto the thing. Who better would be qualified for it? She has the surest claim, it being from either her world, or a world connected to her.

  Still... something about the thing nags at the Hylian's senses.

  Setting the fire poker aside, Zelda settles cross-legged beside the hearth, resting her hands in her lap. Her posture is a pensive one, eyes settled on the flagstones before her. For now, though, she maintains her silence, to hear Yumi's answers to Terra's questions.

    Yumi shifts her attention back to Terra again, glad for a shift of topic - even if the topic in question is another 'rough situation'. "Not quite. It was a completely different incident in another world, one that's... it's really in a bad way. It's a world that does have magic, but it's way out of whack. The world's basically right on the brink, if it hasn't already tipped over."

    Yumi laces her fingers together. "Someone from that world, Kiyohime, asked Rydia and I to go help with a problem there, in a city called Rome. There was some strange magical effect twisting the city somehow, on top of the monsters that were already there. It was the first time I ever /sensed/ something, first time I ever had any definite signs I'm not-" Here she falters. "...that I'm not normal, I guess." It hurts a little to admit that, somehow. But it is what it is. "It turned out to just be some orb near the heart of the city, that was... I guess it was 'eating' space? And producing these weird beetle things. Rydia was able to freeze it, and it was taken care of after we left."

    There's a soft puff of resignation from the girl. "It was nothing like this. That's why I think it's reality-warping I can sense. That's the only connection I could think of. That or insects," she adds with a dull look of amusement.

    There's a nod from Terra. The gem shouldn't be taken lightly. If nothing else it could be a clue, a piece of something larger. She can't offer any better suggestion about what to do with the thing, so she remains still on that point.

    "Oh." That theory is out, then. Still, that may narrow things down for the other girl. Just a bit. Monsters and reality distortion are bothersome but not being normal? Terra can relate. She offers a sympathetic smile, "You seem normal. Special, certainly but is that so bad?" She might do well to take her own advice. "Well whatever that thing was and the effect it was having... It certainly didn't seem like a bug. It was talking!" Eugh, back to that. "Sorry, um. At least there's nothing like that here. Just us...?" Glance. Zelda would know.

  Zelda listens in silence for several long moments. A faint frown twists her mouth and her eyes are just a little out of focus. She hadn't been present on the trip to Rome, but she knows several of her Snowpeak associates had been, and that it had involved some kind of supernatural incident.

  "Lady Kiyohime." The Hylian tilts her head. "While I have not yet had the opportunity to ascertain her goals for myself, she is at least respectful." Aristocracy, she would guess, if not outright royalty. "I know little about her world's crises, though."

  Past a certain point, there are only so many world-spanning crises she can keep up with, including the problems plaguing her beloved Hyrule.

  She pushes herself to her feet, shaking her head. "I can't say that I'm certain about any of the details. The best that I can recommend is to appeal to the Author of Law for answers. Perhaps She will choose to enlighten us. Perhaps not. It is all I know to try, for the moment, in lieu of something more immediate."

  "So, then." Dusting her hands, she glances back to the others. "In the meantime, I would recommend rest, for all of us. Tachibana Yumi," Zelda adds, looking to the orange-haired girl, "it may be better for you to stay the night. A storm is brewing on the mountain, and the roads will be dangerous."

  "Sleep where you will," she offers, settling down over her own bedroll. No sense in wearing a nightdress of any kind. She's just been alternating different sets of warm and insulated travelling clothes. The princess yawns. "Good night, Tachibana Yumi. Terra. May the goddesses watch over you."

  And with that, the Hylian is seemingly out like a light... but not really. She remains awake in her bedroll for quite some time, staring at the fire, expression pensive.