World Tree MUSH

    https://i.imgur.com/hGVahDP.png

    Serrah informed people in advance that it would take a few days for her to get out of the clinic, not to mention dealing with the money, so they arranged a meeting spot in Earth(?) for a few days later.

    It's now the appointed evening in Earth(?), and the last rays of the sun are starting to disappear. It's a sleepy little suburban neighborhood, with a couple of park benches around the street corners. A notice has been set up near the Vine to Gaia where Serrah and Holly had sat before, with the text "ABSOLUTELY NO MILITARY TRAVERSAL WITHIN NEW YORKSHIRE CITY LIMITS - By Order of the President King" in large unfriendly letters. The atmosphere is relatively peaceful.

    There's pizza. Dante brings pizza, and has half a six-pack of beer in his hands as he drops by. He shares the former gladly. "Yo." But the latter, is solely his. He's pretty sure the others aren't of age. Or even able to drink beer. Robots definitely can't.

    So he waits, munching pizza and sipping beer boredly at a curbside.

Holly is of legal age, even the she doesn't dress or act that way sometimes. She generally doesn't drink though. She happily takes a slice of pizza though. The witch has Servis and Lavaux with her this time, because she doesn't planning on summoning anyone. "Yeah, did everything go okay?" She's never met anyone who's had the process of unvamping done before.

    Robots may not be able to drink beer, but shinkis? Shinkis have a slight alternative. It's called Nitro Jelly, and it has the same effect as beer on robotic systems. Alty happens to have herself a can of the stuff to celebrate.
    The sun is going down, and it seems peaceful enough as she's settled on the very edge of the bench, quietly sipping her Nitro quietly.

    And then Serrah jumps out of the Gaia Vine, hand-in-hand with a figure in a black hooded cloak, holding a suitcase in her other hand. She lets go of the hooded figure's hand and stands at the ready, facing the Vine and watching it for several seconds.

    ... It's ridiculously obvious that Serrah is different now. Her skin looks healthy and alive; any attractiveness she might have had is no longer 'in an anemic sort of way.' And she's panting from the exertion.

    The figure pushes back her hood, revealing Wilhelmina, still as vampiric as ever. "We appear not to have been followed into Gaia, Mistress," she says needlessly.

    Serrah sighs, and laughs. "I'm not your 'mistress', but yeah," she says, turning around. She's smiling wider than anyone here has seen her before, and she looks relaxed in a way which only Holly has probably seen. "Hey, guys!" She gasps briefly. "Holy crap I'm ... forgetting to breathe, wow this is a big difference."

    ... She still has red eyes, though. And fangs, although they're noticeably smaller and less sharp.

    "Yo!" Dante greets chipperly, waving a hand over. "How'd it go?" He asks, as if Serrah had a dentist appointment.

"Hi Serrah and Wilhelmina! You look more lively, how come your eyes are still red? Having trouble sleeping?" Holly can't help but to wonder about that.

 "Holly! You shouldn't ask personal questions like that," Servis scolds her a bit.

 "What? She's alive again, she might not be used to be sleeping after being a vampire. The summoning didn't have side effects did it?" The witch was full of questions this evening as usual.

    "You shouldn't forget to breathe." Alty says. "It's important."
    Kind of funny coming from a robot with no lungs of her own, but it's sage advice all the same as she sings her legs where she sits. There is a slight blink at Wilhemina, but the shinki doesn't comment for a moment.
    "Mn. Looks like everything went well."

    Serrah's expression falters at Dante and Holly's questioning. "Uh ... I was resurrected successfully, but for some reason, they didn't get all the darkness outta me," she says. "My species is now 'dhampir'. Basically, I'm only mostly human."

    She ... immediately looks away as Holly asks about the summoning. "Uhhh ..."

    "Yes," Wilhelmina answers. She tries to put on her Stepford smile, but immediately falters. "The magic which sustains a vampire's unlife ... is ... affected by ... various forms of summoning." She tries another smile, which just looks glassy and uncomfortable. "The Hartford Imperial Army has quite a few questions for you, Miss Winn."

    ... Yeah, Mina is just completely failing to look spooky or creepy by any stretch of the imagination.

    Dante raises an eyebrow, "Huh. So you're kinda like me now. Half and half." He offers a box of pizza to both Serrah and Mina casually. "Uh huh. Questions, or 'questions'?" He asks Mina, eyes watching her carefully.

"Wait, it is? That's useful to know for the paper I'm writing. So, I could end a vampire's unlife if a summoning went wrong?" Holly looks quite concerned right now.

 Lavaux on the other hand is quite quick to defend the witch, "If they're kind of questions that involve pointing guns at her, that's not happening."

 "It might be best for to keep a low profile for now, Serrah might not be their only target if that's the case." Servis proves to be the voice of reason between the three as usual.

    "Dhampir?" Alty has never heard the term before.
    One quick internet search later however tells her all she needs to know.
    "Oh. So they couldn't... Fully make you back the way you were." She murmurs. But things don't seem that bad now.
    "A low profile always sounds good to me."

    Wilhelmina inclines her head towards Dante and Holly in turn. "Not end it," she says, recoiling slightly from the (garlic-smelling) pizza, and waves it away. "Merely complicate the resurrection. For the duration of the summoning, Serrah was 'a vampire', no more, no less. This had effects which the Empire wishes to learn more about." She pauses. "So I suppose the short answer, Mr. Dante, is 'yes'."

    Serrah says, "Okay, hold on a minute." She sets down the suitcase and walks over to Dante. "It's ..." She takes a step back, takes a deep breath through her nose, and then walks over to take a slice of pizza with a shaking hand. "Okay wow, this is ... not as bad as I was expecting. Or as bad as it is for Mina ..." She winces, and takes a few careful bites, chews, and swallows. "Whew!"

    She sits down heavily next to Alty and runs her free hand through her hair. "Uhh. I'm half-vampire, sort of," she says. I can still fly, and I probably won't age, but ... pretty much all my abilities are between 'human' and 'vampire'. Like ..."

    She fades into a black silhouette. Even the pizza turns dark. "... but I'm still solid," she says, reverting back to normal.

    She does, however, nod to the general sentiment about laying low. "Definitely," she says. "I'm ..." She grimaces. "Well, I can enter Hartford without having to worry about getting Heart Control-ganked anymore," she says. She takes another careful bite out of the pizza. "But it's like Major Jensen said, we ... should all stay out of the Blossom for a while. Wait 'til things blow over. They just straight up forgot about Mina, but ... Major Jensen's head start ran out as soon as I paid my taxes on the money." She gestures towards the suitcase.

"So she couldn't become fully human again because I summoned her?" Holly's smile turns to a frown and she looks away from Serrah. "I mean I'm friends with the undead of course, but I don't want make someone into one unwillingly...I'm sorry." She can't help but to feel a bit bad about that now. "I just wanted to help...maybe I should just give up trying to be a great witch." Servis and Lavaux look shocked as they hear her say that. Well, as shocked as they can with limited facial features.

    "I think it might have been more than that." Alty points out to Holly, glancing up as Serrah settles next to her and displays her shadowy form. "Still, it's good you don;t have to worry about that... Weird body control hijackery." She muses, nodding her head in agreement.
    "Oh I won't be going there any time soon don't worry about that."

    Dante watches Serrah, prepared to apologize as she takes a bite and...nothing happens! "Oh hey, that worked. I was hoping you wouldn't be sick from the garlic." He says with a grin. "Plus, no more remote controlling now that Vincent's outta the picture. So what else is there to do here/"

    He agrees, they ought to be maintaining a low profile for the time being.

    "Wha -- hey!" Serrah sets her pizza back in the box goes over to put her hand on Holly's shoulder. "Look, I mean, I'm not gonna lie. It's a disappointment. But ... wait, not being human is this whole 'thing' where you're from, isn't it." She has the same vaguely confused and slightly incredulous tone she always does when referring to a world which 'doesn't have magic.' She shakes her head. "The, the bottom line is ... this kinda kicks ass. And I'll take this over losing my humanity or falling permanently under a vampire asshole's command."

    She blinks, then smirks faintly. "Okay, awesome, my essence of humanity is high enough that I do care about keeping it for its own sake," she says. "Good to know!"

    She takes a deep breath; seems she briefly forgot to breathe again. "Garlic isn't actually harmful or whatever, it just repels us," she says. "I mean ... them. Or, uh, I guess 'us' still works in practical terms." She shakes her head. "No reason to stick here specifically, I just wanted to be close in case getting out of Hartford was, uh, a lot harder than it was." She does sound noticeably bothered by the need to stay away, however. "Guess Major Jensen's promise that things would be mysteriously convenient is still holdin'. We could head back to Devil May Cry, I guess."

    Wilhelmina blinks when Serrah mentions Major Jensen again, and opens her mouth to say something, then closes it.

    Dante shrugs, "Gotta take the good with the bad." He concedes, and he ruffles Serrah's hair playfully. "Let's be honest, this worked out pretty well for us even if Chrollo kinda tried to screw us over. Eh, we'll deal with him later I guess." He adds, before saying, "If you need to, I can spare the guest room at my place. I know it ain't the Hilton, but it's better than nothing. I'll -try- and keep it presentable for you." Dante winks playfully. "Same goes for you too, Holly. Any time you need to crash. I got the space, just...expect to deal with Lady, or Enzo. Or God forbid, some demons kick the door down wanting a tussle."

"Well, where I originally was from there's a lot more than just humans and ghosts. Where I'm staying now is mostly elves. I thought you were upset about not being the way you were before but it sounds like you're okay with it." Holly's a bit confused about it. "Not aging would be nice though, it would give me a lot longer to become a great witch. I mean I might stick around as a ghost after I die, but then I won't be able to become one without moving on." She can't help but to admit she's interested in extending her life. "Thanks Dante, I should be safe at Columbia though. I don't think any of the vampires want to mess with Rue or any of the other powerful mages there." She's in a better mood now.

    "I'm glad." Alty says at length. "That you ah... Care about your humanity again." The little shinki murmurs, sipping from her Nitro slowly. But she purses her lips.
    Mysteriously convenient is never always as it seems.
    But that's probably a problem for future them as she looks to Wilhemina curiously. But then she frowns. Actually the little robot flat out scowls at the mention of Crow-Chrollo-whatever his name is.
    "Mmmm. I'll probably go back to Hyouka's world for a while. I uh. Kind of moved in to her place."

    Serrah snorts at Dante's comments and tries to push his hand away when he ruffles her hair. ... Her strength is certainly less than it was. "Yeah, I mean, the bright side of his shit is that we only need to split the money five ways instead of six," she says dryly, picking her half-eaten slice of pizza back up. She looks curiously at Holly. "There's no general-purpose way to learn enough magic to cast aside your humanity?" she says, as if that was just a thing you did.

    She follows Alty's gaze to Wilhelmina. "What's up, Mina?"

    Wilhelmina clears her throat. "'Major Harold Jensen' is an alias which has been used by Emperor Jeremy Hartford," she says.

"Well, my magic is kind of unpredictable...I'm not quite sure why. I was born on Halloween which is the most powerful day for magic where I'm from." Holly points out to Serrah. "That's why I was surprised that the summoning worked. I mean I've done it a few times before, but I've failed a lot more at it. "If I tried to make myself immortal who knows what might happen...I think it might better for Rue or someone else to do it...Wait, what?" Holly's even more confused now.

    Dante...blinks. "Well, _Shit._ No wonder he was so cocksure of himself." He says. "Son of a bitch, we're lucky that Vincent was such a black sheep."

    Alty opens her mouth and holds up a finger.
    Slowly she lowers her finger and closes her mouth.
    "... That was the emperor?" She balks.
    Oh god the Emperor knew her, too.
    Fun fact. Shinki can go pale as a sheet with terror.

    And Serrah just ... facepalms. "Yeah, you can say that again, Dante," she says weakly. "Oh god." She takes a deep breath. "I thought I'd recognized that 'excellence is a choice' horseshit-tool one-liner. Uhh ..." She shakes her head, and smiles weakly. "Well. Why don't we at least head to Devil May Cry? I'm ... gonna ... want to figure out how sleep works again at least."

    "Wait," says Wilhelmina. There's something plaintive and lost about her tone. "I ..."

    Serrah frowns, and gets up. She briefly stops time so she can finish off her pizza, and walks over to her. "Look, Mina," she says gently, "I still say you should stay with my family. My mom said she'd be happy to have you while you're finding your feet. And ..." She shrugs uncertainly. "... maybe getting some therapy. You really genuinely didn't need to follow me out here."

    "Is ... that an order?" says Wilhelmina uncertainly.

    Dante nods, "Sure. Let's get goin'." He says, taking Serrah's hand. He does give pause, as Mina speaks up.

    He thinks about it, then nods. "Yeah. Serrah's right, you probably should. Wouldn't call it an order, but..." He shrugs. "It's a suggestion, maybe."

"That sounds like a good idea, if I become a ghost someday I hope I have arms at least..." Holly looks at Servis and Lavaux as she says that. "Is your family somewhere other than Hartford, Serrah?" She can't help but to wonder about that as she finishes her pizza as well. "Rue's likely going to tell me I need to learn magic to defend myself from the undead now, but I'm kind of afraid of accidently hurting them." She sounds concerned as she says that.

    Serrah shakes her head at Holly. "They don't give a shit about my family, basically," she says. "It's just me they're after. When you become a vampire, the nobility just sort of forgets about prior connections, I guess. From an official standpoint, at least."

    She nods to Mina. "What Dante said," she says. "It'll be fine, okay?" She pauses, and then smiles faintly. "If you need an order ... then I order you to find a way to get by in life without orders."

    Wilhelmina furrows her brow. "... a rather strange set of orders," she says. "But ... bereft of the Blackheart Mark ... I suppose that's as good a place to start as any."

    She turns away. "I shall see you again," she says, "as soon as I have an answer to that order. Goodbye, ladies and ... gentleman. Goodbye, Mistress." With that, she strides into the Vine, back to Gaia, and thence to Hartford.

    Serrah rubs her eyes. "Well, that was a thing," she says. "Back to Devil May Cry it is, then!" She smiles as they start to set out. "I feel great."