World Tree MUSH

    The silvery-gray cat leads the way, smelling his bonded companion's magical aura. The day is ending soon, with the deep indigo of night's beginning creeping in from the east as the gold-red tones of sunset edge out of sight. The city is nestled inside a number of shallow valleys, with a major highway running through it northeast to southwest. To a trained eye, its agricultural past is evident in the number of fruit and nut bearing trees left over along the streets.
    Zero indicats with his head which broken piece of the fence he senses Aurelia through. He's not speaking or in his transformed state since there are still people about the streets at this hour. A nearby park has parents and children nearby, enjoying the late spring evening.

Benedicta's clearly concerned when she heard that Aurelia went on a mission and never came back. She's been busy with the dealing with the Cabal to look into it before now though. Hopefully, she wasn't in any dangerous. The rabbit-girl has her hood on her hoodie as she tries to conceal her appearance but the fact that her horn is glowing yellow only makes it so effective. She lets Zero lead the way doing her best not to attract too much attention.

    Serrah walks along, casually trying to look as though there's nothing whatsoever worrying her and staying behind Benedicta and Zero. She can't stop herself from fiddling with the baseball bag at her hip, though; she hasn't met Aurelia that many times, but the fact that one of Benedicta's friends is missing definitely has her ... well, even more worried than Dr. Worm's revelation from before.

    She peers at the broken piece of fence, wishing for a moment that she had any kind of ability to detect magical effects. "Wanna see if we can get in through my stopped world, sight unseen?" she says in a low voice. She pauses. "... orrrrr will our sudden vanishing act attract more attention?"

    The cat simply sits by the broken bit of fence, looking at Benedicta and Serrah with the typical expectant look a cat gives when waiting for food.
    From beyond the fence, one can hear the distant sound of children laughing.

"I don't think he wants to blow his cover. Go ahead and try stopping time, it would be best if no one noticed us." Benedicta doesn't want to deal with people freaking out after all. Her ears lift as she hears the children playing on the other side, what exactly was going on in there?

    Serrah nods to Benedicta, and crouches down next to Zero. "Yeah, probably," she says, glancing around. Nobody seems to be paying attention at the moment, so she gently pets Zero with one hand, reaches out to take Benedicta's hand, and then ...

    There's a ripple of light, and the world becomes slightly drab, tinted purple, and frozen and silent -- except for Serrah, Benedicta, and Zero. "Wanna ride on my bag?" Serrah asks Zero, nodding towards her sports bag. "It's easier than tryin' to hold onto you on the ground, Stop the World needs physical contact if you want to see it with me."

    With nobody else able to see what they're doing, she peers more openly into the fence gap.

    Zero hops into Serrah's bag obligingly.
    This place is some kind of other world, a faerie place for certain. Benedicta seems to have transformed into her normal human form, while a building familiar to Serrah is nestled in amid trees with purple leaves.
    It feels like a summer evening, with a perpetual sunset and gentle warm breeze. The grass underfoot appears to be trimmed and lush. There are children running around in costumes made of bark, canvas, and twine, painted with strange runes. The costumes seem to resemble various kinds of bugs. There's even a few kids jumping out of trees in working dragonfly costumes, feet peddling at a mechanism to flap the great wings. Popping in and out of the leaves of the shrubs and trees are small motes of light.

Benedicta looks a bit surprised as they make her way into the other world and she's human again. What kind of magic was at play here and is there any way they could use it outside of here. They better find Aurelia first though and the teenager looks at the kids in the costumes, "Hello there. Would any of you happen to be friends with a girl named Aurelia?" It seems peaceful at least.

    Serrah keeps her hand on Zero as she slips through, and resumes time once she and Benedicta are fully through. "Waaaaaaait a ..." Her voice trails off, and she stares at the apartment building. "What ...? Is this ... no, yeah, that's the place I live. Uh, lived." She shakes her head. "Before Vincent."

    She was so distracted, she didn't even notice Benedicta's change. Now, she does a double-take. "... Huh. I ... don't think I've seen you like this before, Bene."

    She glances around uneasily. Her hand moves away from Zero, and lands on one of the baseballs in her bag, but she doesn't withdraw it yet.

    Zero hops out of Serrah's bag, unchanged from his mundane cat form. He wanders into the sparse woods, following Aurelia's trail.
    A kid dressed like a moth stops at Benedicta's question. "Dunno any Aurelia, but there's the big kid in the house down that way." She points in the direction Zero is headed. A water balloon smashes into her mask and then she's off chasing the boy who threw it.

"Well, this is what I really look like. The whole rabbit-girl is just a form shift, Sybil stole my transformation mirror then I got sealed." Benedicta doesn't look all that different except for the fact that's she's not covered in fur and has human facial features. "I hope that doesn't mean we have to go all the way to this world's California to find Aurelia. "A big kid?" She can't help but to be curious about that now, it's not like they had any other leads. She begins to head the direction that the girl pointed in.

    Serrah frowns. "This is like some kind of ... 'children world' crap," she murmurs. "We had to deal with one o' those a while back ... hmm."

    She frowns at Benedicta. "Wait, weren't we already in -- Oh!" She shakes her head. "No, no, my real home is in the middle of a godda ..." She stops herself, glancing at all the children around. "The middle of New York City. This ..." She frowns. "... I don't trust this place. I ... absolutely definitely don't want to see if my parents are in there or if Mina's doing any better than when I saw her last year," she adds rapidly.

    She sighs, and goes to follow after the cat where the girl was pointing. "Well, Zero seems to know where Aurelia is," she says softly.

    The road is a loose path of flagstones, just enough to suggest a path. It meanders around a lot of different houses, but there's one that'll catch Benedicta's eye. It's Aurelia's. Zero has transformed into his metal lion form, the cables making up his mane softly clanking as he pad onward to the house. The kids stop and talk about the metal lion and how nothing like that's shown up here. Dragons, tigers, bears, and normal lions sure. Not a *metal* lion though.

Benedicta follows Zero until they reach Aurelia's house, it seems like they won't have to go far to find her but they still don't how she's doing yet. "I'm guessing you're not on good terms with your parents then?" She can't help but to wonder why Serrah doesn't want to see her parents now. "It seems nice and peaceful here though, I can see why someone wouldn't want to leave."

    Serrah glances between Zero and the kids, frowning. "Uh, what? No, I'm doing great with them," she answers Benedicta. "... I think. I just ... don't trust what I'd find in this world ..."

    Her voice trails off for a moment as she regards the house Zero and Benedicta seem to be looking at. "I've just got a bad feelin' about this," she finishes.

    Near the house's garage is a middle-aged man, with dark brown hair, fixing one of the kid's toys as the beetle-dressed boy looks on. It looks like a wooden peddle car, and the man is putting the wheel back on. The last nail goes in.
    "There you are, buddy." the man says.
    The beetle kid runs off with the peddle car in tow, calling back "Thanks Mr. Argent!" The man gets up an dusts off his hands.

It sounds like things are complicated for Serrah but now's not the time to go into more detail. Hearing the man's last name gets Benedicta's attention she makes her way over to Aurelia's father. "Hello Mr. Argent, my name is Benedicta. I'm one of Aurelia's friends. I haven't seen in her a while though, is everything okay?" She does her best to remain calm despite the unfamilar world they're in.

    'Mr. Argent.'

    Ohhhhh boy. Serrah's no genius, and she's aware of her occasional habit of projecting her own hangups onto other people, but even she can guess what's going on here. Not wanting to put her foot in her mouth, however, she just stands silently behind Benedicta, frowning, one hand still in her baseball bag.

    Mr. Argent glances over at Benedicta. "Oh? Two of Aurelia's friends? Well come on in." Seemingly unaware that Zero is a massive lion instead of a house cat, he walks over and gives the leonine a scratch behind the ears. "Zero you rascal, where've you been all day?"
    Cooper Arget looks back to Benedicta and Serrah. "You're just in time for dinner. Aurelia's mom made haggis and cock-a-leekie soup." The man enthusiastically guides the three to the front door, taking the porch steps two at a time.

Benedicta does her best to try and hide the disgusted look on her face, hopefully she wouldn't throw the food up. Her family seems nice enough she didn't want to insul them by rejecting the food. They needed to find Aurelia before dinner though and she makes her way into the house looking around carefully for her friend.

    Serrah frowns as she follows them in. She puts a warning hand on Benedicta's shoulder and stops time; the world freezes for everyone except the two of them. "Careful," she says. "These don't seem to be Fair Folk exactly, but ..." She shakes her head. "You probably shouldn't break any hospitality-rules anyway. We should probably be ... like, open about things."

    She resumes time, and turns to Aurelia's 'father'. "So, Mr. Argent," she says, "if you don't mind us asking, where's Aurelia?"

    "Setting the table, actually." Cooper strides into the dining room, where Aurelia (somehow looking three years younger) is putting silverware on the table while her dark-haired sister is putting down plates. "My darling daughters, we have guests. Could you set two more places?" 
    Aurelia looks up past her father and looks startled to see Serrah and Benedicta, but sets two more sets of silverware on the table. Then she quietly corners both of them in the entryway. "What are you doing here?" she hisses under her breath.

"Well, I'm a vegetarian so eating meat is kind of awkward for me." Benedicta informs Serrah while time is paused before approaching Aurelia, "I was worried about you, I would have come sooner but Sybil was being a bit...headache as usual." She was doing her best not to swear while here. "Look, I'm not going to force you to come back. I can understand why you wouldn't want to leave. I'm glad to be human again myself, but I know there's people who need back there as well." The teenager knew she couldn't just run away from her problems.

    Okay, vegetarianism is a thing. Serrah makes a note to ask about salads, and then ... does a double-take at Aurelia's appearance. "Wait, being a kid was an option?" she says uncertainly. But ... no, Serrah's too satisfied with her current state, aside from the one detail of not being able to go home.

    Regardless, she doesn't know Aurelia as well as Benedicta does, so she lets Benedicta do the talking for now, even if she's tempted to answer 'saving your ass'. Once again, she's sort of hanging back and listening.

    Aurelia looks at Benedicta, then at her mother setting the food out on the table. The smell of a peppery chicken soup dominates the house. Her eyes are watery and her nose red. "This was before..." She sniffles and rubs her face. "And you're..." She gestures at Benedicta's human self, face screwed up and about to burst into tears.

"Yeah, I know me being human doesn't help my argument. There's times I've wished I've never became a magic girl, but everyone I cared about would be dead right now if I had said no." Her attention then turns towards Aurelia's mother, "I don't mean to be rude, but meat doesn't really agree with me. Is there any chance I could have a salad or something else?" It's more of ethical issue for Benedicta but she doesn't feel like starting a huge argument.

    Serrah actually looks nervous as Aurelia looks like she's about to start crying. She's ... never been able to handle that sort of thing, really. "Uhh ..."

    And then Benedicta raises her vegetarianism with Mrs. Argent, and Serrah relaxes slightly, since this is one thing that seems to be working better. "... N ... need help setting up?" she asks weakly.

    Astrid, whom Aurelia has clearly inherited her platinum blonde hair from, sets down a bowl of mashed potatoes and a bowl of green beans. But since they're side dishes, she nods towards Benedicta. "Aye, but what d'ye want in your salad? I've got lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and onions. 'fraid I've only got Catalina for dressing though."
    Aurelia's older sister Sylvia smiles and asks if Serrah can help her get drinks for everybody. Water, milk, and lemon-lime soda. "I'm Sylvia by the way, nice to meet one of Aurelia's friends."
    Eventually one supposes dinner is eaten and conversations about the non-existent everyday life here in this other world are held. Outside it's twilight and the air seems to be filled with fireflies and children trying to catch them. 
    Aurelia has settled on the porch to watch the strangely dressed kids, waiting for the inevitable moment when Serrah and Benedicta ask her again to leave this place. Zero seems content to curl up near her.

"That's fine, I don't want any more trouble. Thanks for going out of the way for me," Benedicta can be polite when necessary and Aurelia's family seems nice enough. Even if it's not really them. She can see why she's happy here. She can't help but to wonder what life would have been like for her here. Would she have graduated high school and have gone onto become a veterinarian? Once dinner is finished she helps Aurelia's family clean up before joining her on the porch.

 "Look I can't force you to leave and I'm not going to as long as you aren't in any danger. But do know that there's people who care about you and need your help elsewhere." She's not going to bring up Sybil trying to blackmail Aurelia into helping her.

    Serrah ... manages not to blush as Sylvia approaches her. None of that now! This girl isn't even real! (Probably.)

    After dinner, she leans back against the wall with her arms crossed. "Bene's talking sense," she says gently. "I ... don't know about all those other kids here. But." She shakes her head. "People outside are worried about you. It's the whole reason Zero brought us here." She shrugs. "Y'know?"

    After a minute of wiping snot and tears from her face. "I know. It's nice here though. But I know it's not real." She stands up, wiping her hands on her jeans, whatever facade that was being forced on her dropping as she appears as her real age of 19 again. "Thanks guys. I guess the vacation is over." She wipes her reddened face again. "Let's go."

Benedicta wraps an arm around Aurelia as its started to become covered in white rabbit fur again, "Looks like it's wearing off for me too. We should get out of here before anyone notices. You won't believe what happened while you were gone." Hopefully the Argents wouldn't panic when they realize that Aurelia is gone.

    Serrah looks relieved, and runs a hand through her hair. "Jesus," she mutters.

    She walks over and gently pats Aurelia's shoulder. "Yeah," she says. "I could get us ... a couple of blocks away with my time-stop. Though, uh, with two people along for the ride we might not ..." She stops, and looks around. "Where's Zero got to?"

    Zero, being the cat-spirit he is, has curled up in Serrah's bag. "Ready to leave when you three are. This place is boring since all I see is empty white space and adults running around."