World Tree MUSH

It's the middle of the night outside the remains of the Forest Hills mall. The demolition crew has gone home for the day and the exterior seems to have been abandoned. A glowing blue portal has appeared right where the front doors once stood.

Upon stepping through the blue portal, things become a quite bit more lively. There are all kinds of ghosts roaming the mail from banshee to jiangshi. The mall appears to be ripped straight out of the 1990's and the storefronts are covered in Halloween decorations. There are employees handing candy to children as well. This quickly changes upon noticing the ghosts noticing the new arrivals. It seems like the ghosts have received word of the mayor's offer and are skeptical of any strangers that enter. Especially those who aren't undead in nature. After all they've had to scare off more than one intruder.

    Tirsiak is a spirit, but she is very much not dead. She is vibrantly alive, moreso than any mortal being, a shining beacon of the natural world. She does represent parts of nature dealing with death, but also with survival.

    She is also likely the most powerful spirit in the entire building, so the smarter ghosts are liable to leave her well enough alone.

    To anyone who's not a spirit, she just looks like a little girl in some sort of wolf-deer costume. She's even munching on candy as she walks through the halls, clawed feet slapping and clacking against the hard floor as she goes.

    Aurelia heard about a haunted mall and thought it'd be a good change of pace from dealing with misbehaving magi. She's decked out in her full orichalcum heavy plate armor, since her transformed state would resemble a costume! She is also very alive when she wanders through the blue portal. The ghosts would know she's alive, but probably also sense the magic she's able to wield. "Um, hello?" She says quietly, attempting to greet any ghosts that are at the portal.

Ysuran isn't actually indead, no... he's an elf! But he's got one with him. There's a semi-fresh skeleton hanging out next to him, kind of idly. It doesn't have any cognizance, though -- he raised specifically for this mission, last night. Though that said? He kind of 'smells' like undeath, being a necromancer and all.

Truth be told, yes, he was here to maybe try to get rid of these ghosts. Ostensibly, that is. He's a little more understanding of death and the intricacies thereof, so he's not just here to go 'okay get out'. He's here to explore the situation, see if there isn't some kind of compromise that can be come to.

Thusly, Ysuran is armed, yes, just in case things go pear-shaped. However, he does not have any weapons in-hand -- his staff is slung on his back, his tome is closed and tucked under an arm.

Serrah is already here, sauntering through the mall with a half-smirk on her face and munching on some candy. This is one of the rare spaces which 1. is comfortable for her as an undead being, and 2. doesn't require her to do anything particularly vampiric. She's fitting in on the Halloween business by wearing a full Dracula costume -- tuxedo, cape, even a widow's peak hairstyle (which covers her Blackheart Mark). She's kept the red streak going through her hair, though.

(It feels somewhat strange, though, dressing up as someone who she primarily knows as "the Senator Prince of Romania.")

She glances around. "Where'd Holly get to?" she mutters to herself. She can't sense Vincent anywhere near this world, which is good, but she doesn't feel like taking chances. She frowns as she happens to pass by Tirsiak, watching the girl-spirit go by, but ... well, she's not the only living thing here, so she doesn't pay her much mind.

A vampire likely wouldn't get a negative reaction from the ghosts as long as doesn't provoke them. After all, a few them are dressed as vampires it being Halloween after all. Tirsiak on the other hand would get some confused looks from the ghosts, she's both living yet a spirit. They might figure she's possessed or something but they're doubtful that the mayor would hire a child to do deal with them so she gets as well.

 Aurelia on the other hand almost instantly gets swarmed by ghosts, "Leave now, you're not welcome here!" She's warned with a horrible screech in chorus. That would the only warning the girl would be getting.

 Ysuran almost gets the same reaction until they see the skeleton, "Is he one of us? It's hard to tell. Let's follow and see." He would be allowed in but the ghosts remain close-by.

 Speaking of Holly, the sudden noise draws the witch's attention as she steps out of the store she was in. She seems to be by herself for once and her attentions turns towards the newcomers. "Hi! Are you here to help protect the mall?" Aurelia instantly gets her attention though it's not her she should be worried about. Then again she was never the most perceptive person. "The ghosts don't seem to like you very much. It's fine, she's with me." Getting the okay from Holly, the ghosts float off elsewhere.

    Tirsiak glances over towards the commotion near the entrance. She's a curious sort, so she's naturally drawn towards Aurelia and Holly. She makes no effort to be subtle, just walking towards them with the slap-clack of her bare clawed feet against tile, and noisily munching on candy.

    Then, she spots a skeleton. She freezes in place, ears perked up, fur and hair frizzing up slightly and a growl emenating from her throat. She stares at Ysuran.

    Aurelia responds to the ghosts with "But I heard you were in trouble? I'm here to help!". At least before Holly comes over to clear things up.
    She notices Ysuran and his skeletal pal first. "Wow, did you do that yourself?" She has seen a lot of weird things since becoming a maho. She's a little more confused about the deer-wolf girl, giving Tirsiak a puzzled look.

Ysuran isn't being overtly confrontational, so that should help. He's able to see the spirits, so it's not as if he doesn't have a target or anything. The spirits close by him receive a polite bow. "Greetings," he offers. He has a slightly high, raspy voice, as one might expect of a person who doesn't speak often.

Though he does give a frown at the spirits trying to swarm Aurelia. He's about to step in -- peacefully, of course -- when Holly diffuses the situation, and he gives a sigh of relief.

Holly's appearance gets a bow of greeting as well. And the question? That gets a tilt of his head. "I came here to see the other side of the situation," he replies. "I do not believe that this must be such an all-or-nothing situation as the mayor indicated." Well, at least he wants to try to make peace, so there's that!

And then he pauses, at the sudden growl. He looks around, surprised, and sees Tirsiak staring at him. He blinks. "Er.. m-may I help you?" he inquires, confused.

Aurelia's question draws his attention next, and he greets her as well. "Yes, I did. I am a necromancer," he replies, neither remorse nor pride. "I am called Ysuran. A pleasure to make your acquaintence."

Serrah's attention is also drawn towards the entrance by the commotion, and she peers over suspiciously at Aurelia ... oh wait, she's the one from the, the, that facility raid she was in. "... Huh." She grimaces slightly as Holly just jumps to the most optimistic conclusion possible -- Serrah is fairly inclined to go for the opposite, herself -- but okay, good, Aurelia herself is confirming they're on the same side --

She jumps slightly at the sudden growl from Tirsiak, and furrows her brow. "Uh ... you doin' okay there, kiddo?"

She shrugs and steps forward. "I'm with Holly, too," she says. "Serrah Delany." She decides to leave out the 'Countess' part because she doesn't care and it would bog things down.

"Yes, the mayor's been trying to clear the ghosts out or find someone to close the portal. He even tried bribing me to leave. I can't do that, but then again I can't just stay here forever either. Spring break's over in a few days!"

 Hearing Ysuran's comment makes her mood suddenly sour though and Tirisak's reaction doesn't help either. "But this is the last place in the city for the ghosts to go! They've already torn down all the other old buildings."

    Tirsiak's voice is soft, and matches her form quite well... but it has a reverberating quality to it, and her tone is one of open hostility towards Ysuran. It's a rather unpleasant combination. "What is that abomination you have brought into this sacred place of rest?"

    'Sacred place of rest'? That's an odd way to refer to a haunted mall...

    The wolf-deer girl seems to be completely fixated on Ysuran and his skeleton to the point where everyone else is being openly ignored.

    Aurelia looks at Tirsiak and Ysuran, frowning. She leans towards Holly and Serrah, armor clattering lightly, and asks "Are... we going to have to stop a fight?"

"As I said, I am not here to remove them," Ysuran replies, raising an empty hand to Holly in a placating gesture, indicating he means no harm. "I am here to see if there is some way to compromise. Perhaps the mayor should merely deal with it. Are the ghosts causing actual harm? Or merely frightening the living? Perhaps there is a mutually-beneficial arrangement that can be come to, where the spirits can stay here, and the living can still be at ease."

Ysuran blinks, though, at Tirsiak's question -- no, demand! He does, to his credit, shrink back some at the open hostility in the wolf-deer girl's countenance. "It is a skeleton. I brought it here for protection," he offers evenly. And he offers earnestly, "I apologize if it offends you. My works are sometimes ill-thought-of." He does seem to be honestly apologizing here.

If a fight's about to happen, it's not going to be Ysuran who's going to start it, from the looks of things!

Serrah hmms as Holly outlines the predicament. "Yeah, I kinda feel like there ought to be some solution there," she says. "Maybe, like. I 'unno. Find a different place they can stay? But that sounds suspiciously like gentrification, and -- awk!"

She glides backwards away from Tirsiak, and basically hides behind Holly. Someone who's concerned with 'sacredness' ... well, it's pinging her healthy fear of the Light. "I ... hope not?" she answers Aurelia nervously.

"That's not nice! Animated skeletons are people too! He said that no one wants to live next to a rundown haunted mall! I don't see what the problem is, the portal only appears at night and the ghosts don't leave!" Holly sounds a bit upset about all of this. "There's already plenty of places for the living to go!" She would rather avoid a fight if possible but it might be unavoidable.

    "The reanimated corpse of a person is not a person," Tirsiak says bluntly. She then suddenly points to Serrah. "That is a person. Though it is dead, it retains its mind, its soul."

    She continues to stare at Ysuran for a few moments. "...Return it to the ground whence it came when you are done with it. Burn an offering to the spirit that once inhabited the flesh you now animate. Then I will not be offended."

    And with that she just bluntly turns away and begins to munch on candy again. Seems she's not really in the mood for a fight either.

    Aurelia breathes a sigh of relief. "Well, I can break their construction machines with my magic, but that's kind of temporary. What if the mall was a tourist destination like the uhhhh... Winchester Mystery House?" She hands out candy from some unseen magic trick to the ghosts, since they seem to be trick-or-treating.

Ysuran nods in Serrah's direction. "I am willing to try and get the mayor to compromise," he agrees. "Perhaps the living might even leave tributes for the spirits here. I do not know if these spirits would like such things, but... Perhaps I can convince the living that this is a unique opportunity for study. In this way, the living would be encouraged to make certain the spirits remain nearby."

Holly's continued state of excitement seems to confuse Ysuran. "Wait, wait... I've said that I am /not/ here to evict them," he tries again, waving that hand in a placating gesture once again. "I am looking for a way to /avoid/ doing /specifically that thing/."

Aha! So THAT'S what has the wolf-deer girl so upset! Ysuran nods to Tirsiak. "I will do this," he promises. "What should I offer? Should it be food, or something of value?" he asks. She seems to know about this sort of thing. Ironic that he himself wouldn't know!

He notes Aurelia's suggestion with a bit of confusion. He's not familiar with the modern world, after all. "Do you mean, have the spirits themselves be that which humans come to see?" he asks. "If the mayor is only concerned with money, that does seem something that would make him happy. If the spirits would do this, of course."

Serrah flinches back when Tirsiak points directly at her, and she sighs visibly in relief when she wanders off. "Yeah, uh ... I've ..." She shakes her head. "Sorry, that sort of really threw me off due to my own ... uh ... vampire stuff." She laughs weakly, and gestures with her half-eaten candy bar. "Gimme a sec!"

"Well, you would still need some way to keep the ghosts and tourists from hurting each other. Some of the ghosts feel threatened by outsiders and people have tried to steal things from the mall before. Not to mention exorcists." Holly's not quite sure how that would work.

    "The intentions behind the offering matter more than the contents of the offering. If you really can't think of anything, a goat is traditional," Tirsiak's voice comes, carrying on the air much easier than her quiet tone should really allow.

    Tirsiak reaches into her bag of candy for another handful... and comes up empty. She pouts. It's adorable.

Ysuran looks to Serrah to ensure that she's all right -- well, less that she's all right and more that she's not too terribly freaked out. Once he's assured of this, he nods to Holly. "Protecting the living from the spirits can be done with talismans," he suggests. "And for the protection of the spirits, perhaps these talismans can be made to nullify the spiritual powers of those who would carry them, as well as revoke their protection from the spirits if the living carries something from this area away, or if said living attempts to rebuke the spirits. So a living who seeks to interact with these spirits would need to enter a non-aggression pact."

Tirsiak's answer draws a nod from Ysuran. "Thank you. Once again, I apologize for the offense." A deep, respectful bow to the wolf-deer girl here. "It was only for protection, and not for frivolous needs."

Holly suddenly gets an idea upon hearing that Tirsiak is out of candy and they need a goat. Maybe she could solve both problems at once. She waves her lollipop shaped staff around and begins to chant, "Bippity boppity boo, I summon you Capricandycornicus!" Suddenly it starts raining candy corn in the shape of a pentgram and the in the center of it is a stuff goated plushie that's colored black and orange. That's not quite the desired effect but it'll have to do.

    Aurelia errs... "I dunno. I guess if there's mages who can handle security for the ghosts and keep things impartial, a tourist trap thing would work. Maybe the ghosts could tell stories of their lives to people?"

Aurelia Argent says, "Wait... what if we recorded them telling about their lives and put it on the internet?""

Serrah opens her mouth and raises a finger as Holly summons that candy storm.

Then she just closes her mouth and turns back to Aurelia and the others. "I ... y'know what ... hmm." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "I don't have much experience with the customer service side of things, but this doesn't sound like a bad idea. Especially if you have guards you can trust to be impartial." Though from her side of things, that's a pretty big "if."

"If I was better with magic I might be able to set something up but my spells are kind of unpredictable. I'm not exactly unbiased though, I live with ghosts." Holly might not be the best person to run such a place though. "The internet? You mean those boxes that communicate together with magical tubes?" Despite being from a futuristic world originally, the witch isn't exactly the most tech savvy person.

    Aurelia nods to Holly and Serrah. "Yeah. Basically get the living to see the ghosts as people like them. Maybe people would be more opposed to tearing down the mall." She scoops some candy into her extradimensional pocket after Holly makes a magical explosion of it. "I could probably convince some members of the Beacon Society to help out with this. I mean... my mentor is a ghost."
    Then after a moment's thought. "If worst comes to worst, I'm sure the ghosts here could find homes in one of the sanctum cities on my world."

Serrah nods, and ... stops time for a brief moment to catch some candy corn, then tosses some into her mouth. "We don't really have that kind of thing where I'm from," she says. "The dead ... are either like me, or they're a lot less coherent than this." She grins suddenly as a thought strikes her, and takes two pieces of candy corn and sticks them onto her fangs.

Ysuran has been thinking about all this while discussion was made. And also listening to said discussion. "This sounds like it may take a bit of time and effort to make happen. But I believe that it is possible. I will assist in any way I can," he offers to the group at large.

Holly nods at Aurelia, "They are people like them, they just weren't able to finish what they wanted to do when alive. I feel bad for those who aren't able to do the same things. I wonder why they like to hang around me, I'm certainly not the best medium." She knows there are those who are more talented then her out there.

    Aurelia nods, smiling. "But they're not people to the living until the living figure out the ghosts are just... living impaired?" She offers.

Ysuran snickers a bit at the mention of 'living impaired'. He is trying to muffle it, though. "Even if they are what remains of life, the soul remains, and that is something that should be understood and accepted," he agrees. "Perhaps the living could help them out, even? Instead of merely throwing the ghost from their home, perhaps the living would be persuaded to assist with some of the unfinished business?"

Serrah chortles. "'Living impaired', wow," she says. "That's the kind of thing that might get you bitten if you said that in the world I came from." Though she doesn't sound offended herself; she hasn't really had the chance to internalize being a vampire, and on the timeframe she's been operating on, she doesn't intend to get used to it.

She smiles faintly. "But, yeah," she says. "Sounds like we basically have a solid idea, right? Just need to turn it into a full plan."

    Tirsiak has taken to just sitting on the floor, cross-legged, one elbow resting on her leg and her head resting on her hand. Just... watching Holly and the rest. It's a little disconcerting honestly.

"Oh, I never did introduce myself I'm Holly Winn! I got so distracted. Then again Serrah and Aurelia already know who I am!" The witch's attention turns towards Tirsiak, "Is everything okay? I've been sleeping in the furniture store myself, though I end up on the floor when I wake up."

Ysuran bows his head to Holly as she introduces herself. "A pleasure to meet you," he offers evenly. He had also introduced himself earlier, so he doesn't do that here and now.

Serrah nods. "Right. Yeah. Nice to meet you too." Her gaze shifts towards Tirsiak; she's still slightly nervous, but she seems to have gotten over her earlier near-panic.

    Tirsiak gives a sigh. "This is boring," she declares, standing up and heading for the entrance. "Do what you need to do. Integrate the lands of the dead and the living, keep them separate, I don't care." She feet aren't even touching the ground as she leaves, the spirit apparently too apathetic to even pretend to walk.

    Well she's sure a ball of sunshine!