World Tree MUSH

    This world is low-key when it comes to magic and the supernatural, with most of the denizens assuming such things come exclusively from offworld! In the end, this helps the world's more unusual beings keep their cover, but sometimes, something weird happens.

    Hey look, that's today!

    This sure is noisy. A few hours ago, the British Museum had to evacuate thanks to a swarm of what could only be called 'ghosts' erupting from underneath. The news keeps calling them 'images' or 'apparitions' but the public already call them ghosts, and are in confusion as to why they appeared. The only upside is they tend to shy away from direct sunlight, and so far they're stuck to the museum grounds. But with night falling, the various authorities and organizations, not to mention the panicked public, are wondering if that will last.

    For safety, most civilians are not allowed on the grounds, but since the assumption is that this is an offworld situation, those affiliated with other worlds are being asked to step in if they can.

Ghost investigations aren't Temulin's usual fair, but it's a paycheck. After a quick exchange on the details, she's hired. The freelance black knight lands in front of the museum as soon as she could get here, jumping off the back of her bird and tying the bird's reins to a street lamp. Then, it's forwards and inward. Sword remains on her back as she approaches the people guarding the approach. "Temulin of the Dotharl tribe, here about your haunting." She states, then goes through and takes a good look at the outside.

    If there's somethin' strange / in the neighborhood / Who ya gonna call?

    Apparently this time, who's going to be called is one part-time plumber, part-time savious of the Mushroom Kingdom, and full-time ghost hunter named Luigi! So he's there, outside the museum, trying to get the guards' attention. He doesn't look too weird, honestly, and could generally pass for a normal human, though with a rather large nose.

    He too will introduce himself to the guards, though they may be reluctant to let him through, because he does just look like a typical blue-collar worker. Of course the moment he starts talking about the red thing on his back being specially made to catch ghosts, they'll probably let him through. Wouldn't do to get people panicked -- if they're hiring actual ghost-busters, then there has to be a ghost problem!

Luke was a bit of an expert of sorts, on misterious creatures, and he even had some hands on experience with... 'ghosts!'... well, the pokemon kind at least. Thus, the news and rumours of such creatures caught his attention!. To that end, the young teen, flanked by... nothing this time (no point freaking out the population!) approaches the security line, and presents himself as a pokemon trainer, "Hi, Luke Gray, pokemon trainer, here to try and see if I can help with the situation?" he asks, sounding quite confident. 
    He looks even less... impressive than Luigi, who at least is an adult, rather than a boy with a backpack and a weird belt, making claims about superpowered creatures at his command and willing to assist.

Emily was actually out binging on desserts at a nearby restaurant when all hell broke loose, so she's wandered over to check out the shenanigans. She's currently in the form of a tall woman with glowing purple eyes, four arms, and hair so black it looks like a rip in space or some kind of graphical glitch, and she's wearing what looks like a cheap midnight-blue cocktail dress made out of ridiculously-expensive silks, and with extra frills.

She floats out of a staticky portal right behind Temulin. "I'm with her!" she says. She is not, precisely, with her by any sort of prior arrangement. "So, uh, yeah, what's the deets? Oh, hi, Luke, Luigi!" She gives the pokemon trainer and the plumber-hero-ghostbuster a wave with her upper hands.

    "Ah, fret not, fret not." Merlin had actually been in the city specifically to see the museum. He always seemed to show up where trouble was just before it began. He is, in full robes and carrying a staff in one hand, boredly crossing the caution tape and heading towards the museum in a casual sort of stroll. 

    Trailing at his heels is a dog-sized creature that yaps at him while he goes, "Honestly, Cath." Merlin lifts his free hand up, a bundle of newspapers containing some fish and chips in it as he takes a bite and then holds it down so the creature can lean up and take a bite itself, "I had thought that they would come up with some new cuisine since her time. And yet here we are stuck with meat and potatoes, ever again." 

    He shakes his head a bit boredly, "Well then. Let's go see what is going on in this museum, shall we?"

    Raylene is a native of NEW England, not OLD England. Yet, here she is, mostly because the young heiress is visiting a land in her world where magic that doesn't try to consume your soul sometimes exists. Makes it a good place to visit just to pick up new tricks and research.

    Hearing the reports naturally means she wants to take a look. While not an offworlder, she is American, and probably qualifies as weird and alien enough. Also, she's been offworld enough to have papers saying such. "Look, this cannot be much more difficult than the unicorn rampaging through that city in Japan," she argues, finally getting through despite being a native.

    "Good evening," she calls out to the others assembling. "Oh, hello, Luke! This one knows what he is doing, go ahead and let him through!" She curtsies to Emily, whose powers give her away if nothing else. "Welcome to my homeworld, apologies it isn't under better circumstances."

    The guards are a little reluctant with Luke and Raylene, it's true, but Luigi at least has his ghost buster. Either that or he's a crazy guy who thinks he can, but at this point the guards are just trying to keep the peace, and they figure if he isn't cut out for it they will just see him running back. Also, the guards know something that only Temulin, having been explicitly hired, knows. The ghosts have not caused any fatal injuries, and most injuries were from people getting startled and tripping over something.

    More important, the light is fading! And that means it's easier to see things, since the ghosts swirling about give off a faint greenish glow. They definitely congregate in the eastern section of the museum, an obvious clue. Those with mystical senses like Merlin, Raylene, and perhaps others with abilities like Emily's perceptiveness and mathematical ability, can easily tell that every few minutes, another 'ghost' is appearing, all of them odd skeletal beings in flowing tattered robes. (Think Dementors but bright green)

"These beings have apparently not caused any harm, which makes me believe they're likely passive ghosts rather than malevolent bhoots." Temulin answers Emily, "Presuming they are in fact Ashkin as the theory of the locals is. "Could also be elementals or voidsent based upon the initial reports." Yup, there she goes again with the Eorzean terminology.

The adventurer turns towards the others, "I've been hired by the locals. I'm not going turn down your assistance, but I want to make one thing quite clear. If you're causing more harm than good, pray do not be surprised if I do not cut you more than one ilm of slack. This is a delicate investigation in a delicate site and our priority must need be to preserve their artifacts." She puts her hands on her hips as she says this, though it might have been more convincing had she been taller. At least to those who haven't seen her in action.

    Merlin hardly seems bothered by the presence of actual ghosts. He tosses the rest of his fish and chips to Cath Palug and then says, "Alright Cath. I need to work, so you'd better hang back." 

    There's a swirl of magical particles as the creature vanishes off to 'Somewhere', "Hmm. He's relatively calm here. Mankind must not be as big a threat to the planet here as some other worlds." Merlin muses to himself and then continues walking. 

    He stops in place for a moment and seems to stare up at the sky as his eyes shimmer, before shaking his head, "Ah. I can see where this is occuring. The East Wing. But the cause of it... now that is interesting. Something that hides itself from even my Clairvoyance." He smiles a bit, "My, my, my. This will be worth seeing." 

    He brushes some hair behind his ears and begins walking again, "Who, oh who, is behind this. Truly this portends something interesting."

Emily nods. "Oh, hey, Dunwich!" Her voice also gives her away.

And then she pauses, peering at Raylene, as she realizes that this probably isn't a real "low-magic" world. She reaches over, her hand extending unnaturally far, and ruffles Temulin's hair as she starts going all Eorzean.

And then she whirls around, her attention riveted on the ghosts. "... hm!" She smiles, purple eyes gleaming in the increasing dimness. "Well, we can rule out Kore's shades. Not that they have a problem with sunlight ... or not the normal ones, at least ..."

She simply glides forward towards the ghosts. "Excuse me!" she calls out to them. "Are you sapient?"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> LEEROYYYYYY ... (except not)

    "Interesting," Raylene murmurs. She looks at the others present and gives a little curtsy to each. "Raylene Dunwich, local witch and sometime investigator. This is normally outside of my jurisdiction, but I happened to be in the area." Back to the subject at hand, though...

    Raylene is already heading for the museum. "No point in waiting. Though I am really not a powerful combatant, I do know wards and basic spells. I would prefer not to be the target of attacks, but please don't go out of your way to defend me either." She smiles at Temulin, then just... observes the ghosts for now, to try to see if there's a pattern. Maybe she'll even spot Merlin.

    Luke is glad the police finally lets him through, with the promise that he will be careful. He is reaching for one of his pokeballs even as he pushes through, only pausing to greet Emily and Luigi!, "Hi!." he says cheerfully, approaching Emily, "Pleased to see you again, glad you are doing better." he says, of course, any further talk is interrupted by spooky ghooooosts. Once again his hadn reaches for a pokeball, trying to figure which one to use, but for now, he just holds onto it, waiting to see what might happen, even if he is a bit unnerved, certainly they are not like his own ghost!, but he had seen... similar apparitions.

    Luigi waves to Luke and Emily. Not to leave anyone else out, though, he also offers pleasant waves of greeting to the others as well. "Hello!" he all but chirps to the group at large. Friendly guy, perpetually happy. Unless he's scared out of his wits, of course!

    Temulin's explanation gets a nod. "Can't break anything, right... these things are priceless!" he agrees. "I'll do my best not to cause any damage!" He gets that Poltergust ready, though, pulling the hose attachment and holding it at the ready as he enters the museum.

    Bright green ghosts! GAH! Luigi does react with visible fear when he happens to stray too close to one -- a yelp that he stifles. Though if they're not hurting people, they're probably not going to hurt him. But this is basically what was going on with the mansion, so... well, it's time to investigate.

    Though for Luigi, 'investigate' means 'shine his lights on things and see if they react'. Which might seem a little useless until the OTHER light comes into play. That 'dark-light' attachment has some additional utility to it, you see...

    Sentient? Yes, it seems. Sapient? Not so much. When Emily greets, everyone can see what happens... and hear it. The nearest ghost flies right up to her and SHRIEKS loudly, a bone-chilling and window-rattling cry that also has the effect of sending tingles up the spine. Tingles that some might recognize as a very mild attempt and draining vitality, so mild that it would take much more to really have an effect.

    Like... hundreds of them all together...

    Sight like Raylene's or Merlin's can already see this, but Luigi's black light illuminates something. There are MORE here than initially appeared, and not all of them are as visible as others. Squinting can see some of the lighter ones without too much trouble, but it appears that they are fading into invisibility as they get older. Close by, the materialization of another one can be seen more easily, tiny motes of light drawing together from all corners to form them. Those who can see magical effects can tell immediately, but the dark light gives a small edge that lets some of the older artifacts glow, and their glow very subtly dims with every ghost summoned.

    "Hahahaha!" Merlin lets out some uproarious laughter, "Oh my, what a clever Magus you are to be doing this. Clearly you learned from someone skilled." Merlin says as he looks around the room, eyes shimmering as he taps his staff on the ground a few times in thought. After a few moment, he explains more generally for anyone in ear shot: "Each artifact is steeped in history. Men fought with them, fought for them, died near them. Objects like that absorb death, regret, spirits. This magus is using that energy to actualize these familiars, I believe. A catalyst of sort. There's likely not enough there to materialize a full person, but these hollow fragments are still quite effective." 

    He claps his hands together, "I would so like to meet the one who came up with this spellcraft."

Emily closes her eyes and winces at the shriek, but she doesn't recoil. "Okay," she says. "That was some kind of life-force drain." (It might be surprising to some that she actually has life force. One of the downsides of being a Greater Eudaemon.) "And ..." She pauses as she look around at Luigi's light. "... yes, thank you, Luigi, that's a lot of 'em. Releasing capacitor seals three and two."

She's surrounded by three distinct auras: one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent. The first two shatter, and the third one fades, and in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, her outfit changes into an elegant ballgown, and her hair grows out until it reaches her waist.

"Interesting!" she calls back to Merlin. "First, let's try the obvious for dealing with 'em!" She raises her upper right hand, and a golden bolt of light appears; she swings her hand downward as if throwing something, and the bolt lances through the specter in front of her -- set to instantly dissipate before it impacts anything, if it manages to pass all the way through.

The dark knight feels the life drain and sighs. "The only one who is allowed to drain my life for power is me." She answers with mild annoyance, dark energy flaring up around her like a mild red aura, and she approaches the spirits in question, reaching out with armour-clad gauntlets covered in a more concentrated darkness to try to squeeze one to dissipation.

"Hey, mage person." She is looking at Merlin, "Guesses at motive? Any indication of the summoner's location?" She asks, clearly focusing on the /root/ of the problem.

    "Hmm..." Raylene is constructing a theory, but Merlin beats her to it, loudly as well. "A similar thought to my own, especially if they also drain life for fuel. But the question remains, where is the source, and for what purpose?"

    While Emily engages the ghosts in combat, Raylene is going to search about for the source. "I presume those of you suited for battle can thin the numbers a bit, yes?" She smiles, "My... even our combative sorts are very good at going right to the source. What did you say your name was? Temulin? I will need to remember that one." She begins examining the various artifacts. She also examines the artefacts, which are in greater abundance in the British Museum.

    Luke seems remarkable calm about the shriek, even if he does step back, "That feels like something trying to do leech life on me." he mumbles, "But doesn't seem that strong." he remarks, "Unless there were a..." and pauses as Luigi helpfully shows the sheer number of spirits. "Ok, this looks back." he mumbles, panicking now and grabbing for one of his pokeballs. "Beweaaaar." he calls, a flash of red light and a large, pink, black and white bipedal creature, looking more like a theme park mascot than an actual 'animal' appears, letting out a rather high pitched chirp. "Help Emily!, Shadow Claw!". 
    The boy seems to agree with Emily's tactics, the bear jumping forward in a burst of speed, raising one paw that is engulfed in a dark aura with a purple outline around, growing around it's arm and 'forepaw' to a large, phantom set of claws, which it uses to slash at the closest of the apparitions, "Try not to hit the artifacts!" comes from Luke, as an after thought, causing the bear to screech to a halt and move a bit more slowly.

    Slamming the 'ghost' with an attack does work. At least, a strong enough attack causes them to scatter and disappate. The energy is still floating around though, and the next time a ghost is scheduled to appear, that energy just recollects. Even so, Emily's bolt disperses one, and though Temulin and Luke's Bewear have less instant effects because they're partially insubstantial, they are able to 'tear' them appart. It would be simple to destroy the bulk of them much faster than they reform, but Temulin and Raylene and Merlin are right... the source needs to be found.

    Closer in, the source doesn't look like it's any artifacts though! Nor artefacts! Instead, it's something just under the floor, from the look of where they're manifesting.

    About then, the skylight above shatters, glass raining down nearby as an armored figure drops through. Blade in hand, the form slices through a spirit on the way down, before landing with such a hard thud that the tile cracks below. In a low, baritone and echoing voice, the knight mutters, "What a mess. A lot of little trash and nothing big. Why couldn't my first order have been something- oh huh, you don't look like civvies!" Thee sword points toward the red-glowing knight, Temulin. "Are you the one behind this?!"

    "Hm. There is something in the east wing causing this, I believe. Uncertain." He seems rather non-commital, "That's what my instincts tell me. Nearby, maybe. I don't use Clairvoyance all the time or it would ruin the surprise of things for me." He wobbles his hand a bit back and forth to the Dark Knight before leaning on his staff slightly. 

    And then someone comes crashing down through the skylight and points their sword at people and demand to know identities from Temulin. He continues responding to Temulin by waving towards the knight, "See. That would have been much less amusing in its timing had I known it was coming. Now it is just a pleasant, if unforseen, affirmation of my prior point." 

    Merlin tilts his head to size up the armor-clad knight as if making judgments or sussing something out on a personal level.

Emily pauses as she notes Raylene and Merlin doing some actual investigation. "... I observe that I might be a blunt instrument in this situation," she remarks. She gives Luke and Temulin thumbs-ups, then summons four more bolts, launches them into two more of the nearest one ... then pauses as the first one starts to reform. "Okay," she says. "I think ..." She pauses. "Oh! Under the floor! We should check the basem--"

She pauses at the sudden arrival of the knight. "Oh, hey," she says. "No, she's not the one behind this, she literally just helped out murderificating these ghost ... things. Nice identity-mask, by the way, but not quite good enough for ..." Her voice trails off, and then her amused and faintly smug smile returns. "... oh. Never mind, it is good enough, after all! Don't mind me."

    Once the ghosts are made visible, Luigi kind of... well, 'jumps' into action wouldn't be exactly accurate. He steps back, engaging the Poltergust, and tries to pull as many of them into a group as possible. Not so they'll attack, him, mind. He's trying to hold them down, essentially, so that the others can catch them. Or punch them. Or (re)kill them. Whatever they were going to do with them.

    The arrival of the person from above gets a yelp, and he falls back, unintentionally releasing the grip on the ghosts. He'll fumble with the Poltergust a bit, trying to re-establish it, but his attention is on the new arrival.

    Luke totally looks like a Civie tho, the only thing that might make him stand out compared to people is the fact he is shouting orders to a very weird creature that seems to be simply punching and slashing the 'ghosts' away with a very unusual attack of some sort, taking advantage of Luigi's help for sure!. The 'beast' it's certainly not magic, despite whatever weird energy move it uses to actually 'punch' the ghosts into shreds. The pair pause as the armored figure makes an entrance, and the boy actually waves towards Saber, "You came to help as well?" asks the boy, "Be careful, they drain life." One would think the teen might be a bit more impressed by such an entrance.

"I was about to ask you that." The dark knight answers the knight who arrives, though she draws her blade, which covers itself in darkness. "I am Temulin of the Dotharl Tribe. Dark Knight and Hero for Hire, here on retainer by the museum. Pray introduce yourself and state your business." She points her blade at the knight; while ignoring Merlin's commentary.

    Dynamic Entry from above! Raylene sighs as someone else jumps in... and also jumps to conclusions. "No, she isn't the one behind this. It's something else. Your aid is appreciated, mysterious knight from the sky, but your interference will not be tolerated." Big words from a little girl. "If you do, these people will beat you up." ... there it is.

    Raylene points to the floor. "Is there another level here? Probably, or maintenance or storage. Whatever is under there, the source is cominng from there." When Temulin says that, Raylene sighs. "Yes, yes. Raylene Dunwich. If you are going to drop in unannounced flailing a sword, you should introduce yourself," she demands while hiding behind Temulin.

    Belligerent or not, the knight takes the statement in stride. "Huh? Guess it wouldn't be that easy, or Master wouldn't have sent me instead of handling it." The knight lowers sword and the echoing voice grunts to the other two. "You can call me Saber, that's my class... there's a Servant around here, you should know what that me-"

    It's right then that the knight looks at Merlin, stops talking, and bursts into echoing laughter. "BAHAHAHAHA! Okay, this outta be good. Yeah let's murder some ghost makers. My Master said this was a mess someone left behind, and wants it gone. Gotta say ghosts all over Londinium ain't something I'm a fan of either." Despite Luigi doing all the work of clustering them together, Saber doesn't thank the plumber-hunter and just slices through a whole mess of them. "Hey kid, can you tell that bear thing to push that stand over? I'm gonna just bust the floor open."

"You will not cause unnecessary damage to my client's invaluable and irreplacable property.." Temulin answers Saber, taking a step closer. "I am more than willing to work together, but you must needs respect this line, if you can not you leave /now/ or you die." The darkness on her blade strengthens, "Your choice. But make it quick." She's ready to intercept Saber the moment the servant tries anything. Meanwhile, she lets the ghost-busting expert do his thing.

Emily nods. "Pleased to meet you, Saber!" she says. "I'm Emily Nyx, by the way. The kid is Luke Gray, and the guy with the ghost ... dust-buster is Luigi ... uh ... Luigi." She perks up at Saber's reaction to Merlin. "Ah, you two know each other!" she says. "Cool! I don't actually know either of you."

And then Saber offers to smash through the floor, and Emily just bursts out laughing. Nope, she's not getting in the way of that.

     The 'bear' seems to be a bit offended about being talked like it some kind of wild beast, still not used to people not realizing pokemon are not quite 'animals'. It huffs and growls a bit, the shadow claw phasing out as it walks to the stand and casually moves it aside while Luke quickly moves to the bear's side, trying to calm it down a bit and potentially stop it from trying to punch the 'knight'. "This bear thing is called Bewear." he says outloud, he doesn't repeat his name after Emily mentioned it, "I'm Luke, pokemon trainer and... what do you mean, Servant?" he asks.

    "H-hello!" Luigi tries to offer as the introduction comes from Saber. Though the mention of pushing the stand over gets a worried look. He doesn't want to break anything! So hopefully the Bewear is moving that carefully so as not to break whatever's in it.

    It's also worth noting that whatever dregs of spiritual energy are left behind when the ghosts are taken apart (in whatever way), if they get in front of that vacuum cleaner, they might get sucked in. If they have no resistance to it -- the Poltergust pulls and tears at spiritual energy, and without a shape, this energy might not have the will to not be pulled in.

    "Oh come now! Usually only women laugh at me, Mister Knight." Merlin states as he waves his hand back and forth, "Be nice. Be nice." He chides, wagging a finger as he brushes his hair out of his face again after a few moments and then looking back towards Saber. 

    Slowly his gaze shifts to Emily, "Do we know eachother? That's an interesting question. I can say we know what one another is. Servants. Beings of legend made manifest. As for knowing eachother personally?" He considers it, "That is difficult to say for certain. How well can anyone truly know anyone else?" 

    He leans on his staff and watches Saber work, "As for me? I make no secret of who I am. I am Merlin, the Magus of Flowers, among many other titles. A simple court magician of little particular import."

    "A Servant... with a Master..." Raylene muses. She's met Kiyohime, but the dragongirl didn't explain any of this to her, so she's flying blind. "Well, I think that we can just... use the stairs." Walking over to said stairwell and gently pushing the door open instead. "Though clearing out some of these ghosts has been helpful, why don't we just go downstairs and fix things?"

    Oh, Merlin explains what Saber meant. "Aha. Like the Lady Kiyohime. Possibly even the same world. Though this is the first I have heard of Masters." She'll wait for someone to come down with her, but she will point out, "Breaking the floor might just cave everything in. And kill the lights if there are power cables. Also, you never know what primordial horrors could break free."

    Hmm. "Merlin, eh? Never heard of that one, I will have to read up on the name."

    She may /possibly/ be joking.

    "Huh..." Saber halts murdering the ghosts when it looks like Luigi's vacuum is working somewhat. It can't collect all of the energy, but it's making it harder for them to reuse the same energy, which is something to take note of.

    Temulin and Raylene both suggest/threaten another way. Saber glowers through the helmet at Temulin. "Not here to fight... whatever you are, but if you want to throw down sometime I'm game." A gesture at the stairs and that echoing voice seems to whine, "Yeah, if you want to go the BORING way." Technically Saber could dematerialize too but that would be even more boring.

    "Yeah what the mage said," Saber replies to Luke. "I'm a knight. I'm good with a sword. I sword things hard. So, you know, Saber. It's bad form for most Servants to reveal their identity but I guess this isn't a Grail War so whatever. Let's just shut down the ghost factory yeah? At least that guy over there has these ones under control." A gauntleted thumb is jerked toward Luigi. "Come on, four arms, let's move the party downstairs then."

    The stairs are pretty normal though, and this area is not open to visitors. It's just a bunch of storage crates... and no ghosts. Flickering green light is in the ceiling here.

Emily nods along with the forthcoming explanation. At Merlin's ... philosophizing, Emily perks up. And then she snickers at the title he gives himself. "That's great," she says. "I like you!" She doesn't seem surprised or perturbed by the fact that she's dealing with Actual Merlin here.

She grins at Saber. "I like you, too!" she says. "There's someone else I need to throw down with, buuuut ..." In another swirl of silvery glitter, a sword materializes in her lower left hand. "... maybe I can pencil you in at some point, too!" She puts the sword on her back, and it sticks in place ... somehow.

She then opens a staticky portal and floats through after Raylene, looking around in search for anything unusual. She pauses as she looks up at the flickering light. "... you know what, if smashing the floor was the solution, ... that's gonna be hilarious."

    Raylene has a good point about not breaking the floor -- that would do more damage than strictly necessary, yeah. Though he just hopes the common sense and logical argument gets to Saber -- he's not going to pysically assault an ally, much less one that he only just met, to stop them from doing something ridiculous and dangerous when a better and less dangerous alternative has been offered. Fortunately the knight is amenable to it, even if they seem to want to do the 'break all the things' route.

    And if it helps, Luigi doesn't seem to know the name 'Merlin' either, as he gives an inquisitive tilted-head look when it's given. Yeah, it clearly doesn't ring any bells for him.

    Luigi will go with the rest of the group, but will bring up the back. Hopefully, with some of their number cut down, the ghosts won't be so much of a problem. But that's why he's in the back of the group, to make sure that if any of them do come down that he'll be there to disable them. Either with the flashlight or with the Poltergust itself.

"Sure. I charge five thousand gil for a match, or an equivalent sum under standard exchange rates." Temulin answers Saber non-commitedly, clearly not expecting the other knight to take her up on that. With the problem settled, she goes back to following the others who seem way more suited to the task at hand and doing what she can to keep an eye on things and crushing any ghosts that get too close to her.

    When Emily tells Merlin that she likes him, he gives her a gentle smile and a happy wave in response, "Thank you. I appreciate that." He remarks as he lets the more aggressive Saber handle the matter of combat, "Thank goodness you arrived. I am a feeble mage, not suited for battle. I say I would likely have tripped over my robes." He notes. 

    With a sideways leaning, he looks over towards Raylene, "Similar to Kiyohime, yes. She and I are sustained by the power of the Planet. Gaia. The collective will of humanity." Merlin explains the hard nerdery of this to Raylene, "That makes us a Counter Force. Our mana is supplied to us in return for service to the whole of Humanity. In contrast, a Servant can find a particularly powerful Magus or spellcaster and pact to them to reinforce and supply them with power." 

    "Perhaps the Saber chose that route instead. It had it chosen for him. There are rituals which can summon our presence."

>> SUMMARY[Merlin] >> Tutorial Merlin is here for you, Raylene.

    It seems Raylene seriously doesn't know who Merlin is, but she does know just a little about legendary heroes being summoned. "I didn't know who Kiyohime was either, but I would guess Merlin is a mage of some repute in some mythology. And Saber a famous knight. I am but a witch using Hedge Magic, not the true sort of magic that those like Renfield use," she explains as the group goes downward. "My specialty is in brewing potions and dealing with magical maladies..."

    Hmm. "Interesting," Raylene replies. "I would like to hear more of this sometime. I know I am young, but I have an interest in such things. Now, I think this is my area of expertise, as I will see if I can turn off the effect." With that she begins to look up at the ceiling, trying to figure out exactly where the disruption is, and how to cut it off.

    Grumble, "Figures..." Saber stops complaining about things, but the knight laughs again while Merlin talks. Seems like there's not a lot of respect there... but then Saber says, "If it's magic you want to know, there are worse Casters to chat with. I'm not big on it, but we Servants know a lot about various legends. Merlin's one of the bigger ones, surprised you don't know."

    Now Saber is getting bored though, and grumps at Temulin, "What, you want money instead of just fun?" Sigh. "Eh, at least you seem like fun, four arms. Merlin's right though. Master is giving me energy so I guess I shouldn't waste it. We'll have to keep this spar light. Gotta admit, you guys seem a lot better prepared to handle this than I thought. I'll tell Master you've got a grip on it."

    It doesn't take that long for Raylene to figure out the real source of it though. Someone has tampered with a smoke alarm, and it's drawing power from the building to generate the ghosts. A magical device running on electricity. Merlin could probably figure this out too if he weren't distracted by Saber yammering.

"Well if I'm going to have a fight I'm going to block out time for it, buy potions or hire a healer to recover. Being a hero for hire doesn't pay as well as I'd like. I'd be glad if I had the time and money to just go fight for no reason." Temulin answers Saber with a faint shrug, "I like fighting, it's fun. But you can't fight on an empty stomach, and I got a Yol to feed; and none of these places let me hunt so I have to waste good money buying food. Do you know how expensive it is to feed a Yol in this kind of place?" She grumps, complaining more for the sake of complaining than about Saber in general.

Emily is not an expert in magic. Really, she'd probably be a Saber herself. A very weird and unpredictable Saber. So when she follows Raylene's gaze, she isn't quite sure what she's seeing. The talk about Masters and Servants is kind of going over her head, though.

She smiles at Saber. "That's the interesting part of the World Tree," she says. "There's always heroes, or people who have their own reasons for playing the hero -- I just involve myself on the good-guy side because the consequences of being a bad guy are just a pain, for the record." (Though she's still going to the trouble of participating in the first place.) "And they're almost always more than capable of dealing with it."

She pauses. "Temulin, I've been to several worlds where hunting is allowed," she says. "Hell, there's nothing stopping you from hunting in the halcyon remnant where I'm from, it's practically nothing but huntable wilderness."

    When Raylene moves to try to disengage the thing from the smoke detector, Luigi offers, "I could try to draw off some of the energy with the Poltergust." Yes, that VACUUM CLEANER is called the 'PolterGUST'. "Or the dark-light might be able to freeze it temporarily... or weaken it, at least, maybe a little. It can break some curses, so maybe it'll help."

    He's not really sure how to help with Temulin's problem, but he does offer a worried look in her direction. Not that he knows what a 'Yol' is, but like. If it needs food and doesn't have it...

    "It looks like the power lines are feeding it," Raylene says. "Not native to this world unless it's something new I've never seen before. Well, seems simple enough to fix." She starts climbing boxes, and smooths out her dress. "Actually, I do not want to climb in a dress. Someone else get that detector."

    She looks at Emily and points out, "But are there jobs there for her to take?"

     Luke seems interested in the talk of battle, "Been a while since I had a spar... well, since my pokemon did at least." he muses, listening to the discusion, "Wonder if I would set up some kind of combat tournament back at hom eand try against off worlders." he says, smiling to Temulin talking about 'fun'. "I agree, on all of it, unfortunately just battles won't keep you or your friend fed, even back home where you can forage a bit." he muses. 
    The discussion about 'heroes' makes him pause, thinking on his previous talk with Emily, and moving closer to his friend, bear flanking his side. He pauses to glance at the device Luigi is holding, "It looks really cool." he says, and rubs his chin.

    Saber looks at what Luigi is holding. "It looks like someone put it together in a barn and it works anyway. Which is totally awesome!" The knight has a weird sense of aesthetics. But they say it while showing surprising nimbleness, leaping up and bounding atop some boxes to tear the detector off in a casual yank. "Kay, I'll just take this to Master, they can deal with it. I guess they hate people summoning ghosts or something? Not my business."

    Saber then looks at the others, "Yo, just head down the street there's this great gelato place. Just be sure you protect Merlin, some random mugger could totally make him crumple in one blow, he's so helpless without his magic. Bahaha."

Emily nods to Raylene. "Yep!" she says. "There's pretty much always something to do." She smiles at Saber and nods in response to her comment on the Poltergust. "It's cute, isn't it?" ... Seems like her sense of aesthetics is also slightly off.

She peers at the removed detector, but perks up at the talk of gelato. "Ooh, my treat!" she says. "I've developed a sweet tooth since the halcyon remnant blossomed." A pause. "Mostly because I can't get drunk."