World Tree MUSH

    Even for a coastal city, summer nights are warm nights. The air lets go of the day's heat only reluctantly, and though there might be less of it to begin with, the humidity guarantees it's not much better. A muggy breeze blows through Natsuto, carrying the far-off sounds of downtown as no more than a faint, distant din, and much of the city has settled in somewhere with air conditioning, or at least somewhere they won't have to move around much. The neighborhood is quiet, the sun is down, and the world seems silently and oppressively indifferent to the plight of one girl with a heavy weight on her shoulders.

    There's nothing to disturb the stillness; virtually no cars on the road, no gatherings going on at any of the nearby houses, not even people doing late laundry or putting out trash. A perfect environment, in short, for those with too much on their mind to either stew in it, or find something else to distract them.

    There's nothing to disturb the stillness... until there is.

    Misaki's phone chimes in with a new text notification. The text comes from an unknown number, and consists simply of the words, 'sakai-san, i have something id like to talk to you about.'

In lieu of a proper drawing surface, Misaki has placed a book on a stack of empty moving boxes. Paper on the book, and pencil to draw. She doesn't respond right away to her phone's chime, finishing up the outline of one of the nearby buildings. When she does look at her phone, at the unknown number, at that text, she frowns. She stares at it while thinking, until she reaches for the block option.

    Just before Misaki's thumb reaches the appropriate dropdown option, a second text arrives, as if prepped and ready.

    'look at the street light three houses down. i think youll want to hear this~'

    Looking at the sidewalk under the street light will probably be disappointing. However, if Misaki's eyes should drift upward, on top of the street light, she'll spot a girl, silhouetted against the moon, blonde hair pulled up in pigtails. Her fancy outfit billows gently in the warm breeze, and upon being spotted, the girl lifts an arm and gives a cheerful wave, exaggerated enough to be visible even at this distance.

As the second message comes in, Misaki blinks. When she looks over, she misses the girl. It's when she gets to looking for the block option again that her eyes catch the wave. Misaki returns the wave, but she doesn't get up or respond to the text. She keeps the number unblocked for the time being.

    The girl on the street light makes an exaggerated movement with her hands, bringing one up to the other and tap-tap-tapping at what must be a phone in her hands. She's a pretty quick phone typist, as it turns out; the next message comes through a fairly short time later. 'come for a walk? theres a kiddie park down the street. ill be waiting there.'

    One last wave, and then with a theatrical sweep of her hand, the girl suddenly sprouts a pair of large, batlike wings. One flap lifts her up into the air, and then she turns and glides, almost lazily, towards the park she spoke of.

Deep sigh. Misaki puts her drawing things away. She's not responding to that text. She's thinking about it. "This is a bad idea, but I must be dreaming, so what can it hurt?" She convinces herself to give in to her curiosity. A few minutes later, she's coming out, holding a very bright flashlight, and heads over to the kiddie park.

    The blonde is waiting there, of course, leaning against the slide. Her wings are gone, and her demeanor is quite casual, even offering another cheerful wave. "Hallo~."

    But she's not the only person there. One other girl sits nearby, parked on one of the swings; the flashlight reveals her hair to be cream-orange, long enough to fall down past the small of her back, and her clothing is a much more casual jeans-and-T-shirt ensemble. She's watching with quiet interest, and gives a polite nod when she's looked at.

    It's the blonde who takes the lead, though. "I'm glad you came, Sakai-san. My name is Elizabeth Asatsuki. 'Liz' is fine, if you prefer! We've got something of a job offer for you."

"Hi." Misaki is a bit wary and keeps a modest distance. "How do you know who I am, Asatsuki-san?" The girl looks incredibly confused by what's going on. "If this is some kind of prank, please just leave me alone."

    Something in Misaki's reaction seems to amuse Elizabeth. "Well, that's certainly unique. Most people are a little more surprised to see someone fly. But no, I promise it's no prank. Tachibana and I are magical girls."

    She takes a step or two forwards, mostly to get away from the slide... but also to give herself some room. The outfit she's wearing suddenly shimmers, and comes apart into the vague silhouettes of countless bats, all of which fly off of her body and disappear perhaps a foot or so away. She's left in a much more normal outfit, a breezy-looking red blouse and skirt much better-suited to a warm night like this.

    "And I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but you've got the gift, so to speak."

"It's late, it's dark out. Could've been some kind of trick." Misaki sits down on a bench. "People pull all kinds of crazy stunts in the big cities. I see it online all the time." Misaki puts her phone away. "So you want me to become a magical girl?"

    "She's got you there," the girl on the swing - Tachibana, presumably - says. "True enough, I suppose," Elizabeth replies, waving breezily with one hand. "But yes, we'd like you to become a magical girl. Naturally, there's risks," she adds, with a glance over her shoulder at the orange-haired girl. "You'd be fighting some rather frightening monsters. But you'd definitely be saving people, and there's a payoff at the end of the road, if you want it."

Misaki closes her eyes. She's thinking. "That's all very vague." She points out, "Do you have anything more you can say?" She sounds curious but wary. "Like what kind of monsters, how I'd be saving people. What kind of payoff."

    Once again, the girl on the swing speaks up. "Elizabeth, you're making this whole thing really sketchy," she says, before the blonde can continue. Standing up, Tachibana explains, "They're called youma. I'm not going to mislead you or soften the blow, they used to be human. But their internal magic goes out of control, and they turn into something like a big fat magical spider, hiding in the middle of a demented pocket reality called a 'Web'. They're like creatures out of a nightmare, and they're all dangerous. They feed off peoples' life force. Sometimes they pull people into the Web entirely."

    With her hands in her pockets, Tachibana wanders a little closer, though she stops at a respectful distance. "As for the reward..." She glances at Elizabeth, who says simply, "He wanted me to make it vague, but I suppose I can't stop you."

    Tachibana nods, then continues, "As a senshi, you can earn a wish, by picking up twelve Oblivion Crystals from slain youma. They know about your, uh. Your family situation. Elizabeth and her bosses, I mean. They were gonna dangle that in front of you."

"Still sounds pretty sketchy when put your way, Tachibana-san." Misaki studies both the girls, light swinging back and forth with her gaze. "But I do like the idea of helping people, and..." Misaki's words die on her lips. "Let me guess, I need to answer right now or I lose my chance?"

    "You can call me Yumi," the orange-haired girl replies. "And to be honest, that's the idea. I hate to pull the good-cop-bad-cop business, but I don't want them luring you in on half-truths and omitted info. I want to make sure you know what you're getting into. I haven't even mentioned that the powers can mess with your mental state yet."

    Elizabeth waves her hand breezily again. "We're not going to put you on the spot just yet. Your answer will definitely be final, but we'll give you a few days to mull it over. Putting your life on the line is a pretty heavy choice to make, even for someone with a clear wish to work towards. In the meantime, you'll have both our numbers."

"They can? Anything else I should know?" Misaki has stopped looking at Elizabeth. "I won't pretend I'm not interested, but I will have to mull it over." She gets out her phone again, "You were the one who first texted me, right, Asatsuki-san?"

    "Haihai~!" Elizabeth replies cheerily.

    Yumi thinks for a moment, tapping her chin. "That's the biggest one I can think of. If you use your powers a lot or push them really hard, they can leave behind kind of a residue on your... soul, I guess. It's called 'Overcharge'. It can build up, and throw you into mood swings without warning." Elizabeth lets out a theatrical sigh, shaking her head. "What's a saleswoman to do with a downer like this around?"

    Yumi shrugs. "Iron out the kinks in your product, maybe?" There's a snort from the blonde, while Yumi steps forward, tapping on her phone; she approaches close enough for a bluetooth connection, then passes over her contact info as well. "Elizabeth is out of town more often than she's in, she does a lot of traveling. I'd be the one you work with most often."

"Did she recruit you?" Misaki files both the numbers under 'anime club' in her address book. "Sounds like you had some bad experiences. What do you think I should do?"

    "That's a... complicated subject," Yumi replies. "I don't actually know who recruited me. I can tell you about it some time, if you decide to join up." With her number given, Yumi stows her phones, then puts her hands in her pocket. "You see anything weird, let us know. Even if it's not a youma. Stuff from the World Tree wanders in from time to time, and I seem to be the only girl who really deals with stuff from other worlds right now."

"Got it. Well, I saw two girls who claimed to be magical girls. One of them could fly." Misaki stows her phone, "I'll text you if I think of any more questions."

    That gets a soft laugh out of Yumi. "Touché." Elizabeth straightens her clothes a little - and then transforms, something like a wave of darkness in the vague shape of countless bat wings passing over her clothes and re-forming her outfit from earlier. "Well, if there's nothing else you need from me in person, I'll be heading back to my apartment." Yumi gives her a light wave, adding, "I'll probably be heading to the convenience store down the street before I go home."

"I'll go back home. My parents told me not to stay out too long." Misaki waves to Elizabeth and Yumi. "It was... interesting to meet you."