World Tree MUSH

    The man is middle-anged, long unkempt hair and beard graying at the roots. The clothes seem to have been taken from a random clothesline, ill-fitting him. The smell causes the strangers he walks up to to recoil in disgust. It's a simple question he's asking, though distraught and weeping.
    "Have you seen my mom and dad?"

    This takes place near a fence of wooden slats, overgrown with dried autumn weeds and dandilions whose seeds have long flown away. An apple tree rustles in the breeze, giving shade to the spot where the sidewalk ends and a gap in the fence can be found. The scents of childhood summers can be smelled, though nobody will smell the same fragrance.
    Aurelia glances back at the man, face frowning with concern. "That's been happening a lot lately..."

    Talia had come when Aurelia sent a message regarding a need for help. It just wouldn't do for a Jedi to ignore friends in need. She had been chased down by a poor woman begging her for an answer regarding her lost dog. Unable to provide an answer, Talia said nothing. She sighed as she follows Aurelia, shaking her head sadly, at a loss for words.

     Time: About 1700. Date: Uhhh... Summer. The king sent me out on another expedition into this... "World Tree" thing, and I stumbled into this place not too different from my own world. There are a lot of these... hairless apes around though, strangely common outside my home. Hyu-mans, they call themselves. They look like my childhood archnemesis, that /doll/ who terrorized me at my birthday party.

Some of them are behaving strangely, however, unkempt and asking for their parents. They seem elderly, yet act like children.

This warrants further investigation. I, a hero, cannot ignore anyone in need, even if they are weird disgusting old crazies. Maybe I just need to escort them to hey go away I'm monologuinnnnnnnnn-

----------

Mao Mao is pulled out of his thoughts by a dog yanking on his cape, but with a kick he sends it running off with its tail between its legs. "Yeah, that's right! Run! Just like Bao Bao did! I never needed him anyway, and I don't need you either! I'm very secure in my solitude!" he shouts after it, waving a fist, but quickly returns to standing neutrally next to Aurelia with his cape drawn around his body.

"Anyway, what were we doing?"

    Serrah walks up to Aurelia and Talia, carrying a black umbrella which seems to cast her into an unnatural level of darkness, and looking fairly exhausted. "Yeahhhhhh," she says, "I'm really ..." She yawns. "... basically, I have a bad feeling about this. Looks like ..." She shakes her head. "... well, it looks like something might've happened to, to Never-Neverland."

    She furrows her brow at Mao Mao's sudden display, blearily opens and closes her mouth a few times, then ... just yawns again.

    ... In the Force, there might seem to be something faintly dark about her.

"Well, this must be awkward for the police. Did Never Never Land implode?" Benedicta couldn't figure out why all these people were showing up all of a sudden. "I doubt they all came to terms at the same time." She looks over at the talking bipedal cat being harrassed by the dog. Hopefully it wouldn't come over and bother her, she's in her human form right now, but likely smells like rabbit. It seems like that cat's already taken care of that though.

 "Did some magical girl lose her guardian or something? If an old crazy lady with magical powers and an army of cats shows up, I'm out of here."

It's definitely a weird thing to be going on. Wasn't that the thing that supposedly happens at the dragon palace -- a year under the waves is five centuries on land? Or something like that in fae worlds?

To be fair, Jun doesn't have a lot of idea what could be causing it; he hasn't spent the intervening time studying magical phenomena. But at the very least, there's still a reason to come and help -- the people that are being spit out with no memories of growing up need help.

So there he is, in mahou mode (is there any reason not to be these days?), flying down from above and alighting near the group. "Hello," he greets, with a polite bow. "I'm not sure I'll be much help with what's going on, but I can try to help the victims."

Misaki has no clue what's going on. She just finds herself in an unfamiliar environment and notices familiar faces, so she walks over. "Hello Miss Delany, miss Kyras, miss... Aurelia?" Her eyes fall to Benedicta, "Sorry I think we've met but I can't recall your name." She spots Jun fly over then and waves, "Hello mister ... Jun?" She sounds terribly uncomfortable addressing people by their first names.

    A largish steel gray cat is minding his own business by Aurelia's feet, glancing once in awhile towards Mao Mao. When the dog runs off, the cat look around for any random bystanders, then says "Probably shouldn't kick strange animals. Never know if they'll complain about it." Zero manages a smug grin with his cat face at the humanoid black cat person.
    Aurelia greets people in turn. "Hi Misaki and Talia. Nice to see you again. Glad you came, Bene. Glad you came, Jun." When she gets to Mao Mao. "Uh, I don't think we've met, I'm Aurelia Argent." She sees Serrah in her shadowy pool of nonlight. "You're becoming a regular here, Serrah."
    To Benedicta, Aurelia says "I don't know, that's why we're here..."
    As seemingly on cue, a *terrified* looking teenage girl comes out from the gap in the fence, eyes darting back and forth. With a paranoid few steps, she tries to hide behind Jun, who seems to be the most phyiscally able of the people present. Jun hears the girl speak, clearly greatly shaken by whatever was happening in the ageless summer realm. "I thought Coraline was a story. B-but the beldam is real."

     "Hrmph. Shouldn't have bitten my cape then. It's a very important, precious part of a hero's arsenal. Maybe even more important than the weapons they wield." Mao Mao responds to Zero with the huffy air of someone who's about to go into a long diatribe, but Aurelia's greeting cuts him off and he instead pulls an elegant bow. "Sheriff Mao Mao, Pure Heart Valley sheriff's department. I am here at the behest of King Snugglemagne."

Suddenly a teenage girl appears!? Or at least Mao Mao thinks she's a teen. All these hairless monkeys look the same, it's weird. "The heck's a Coraline?" he wonders aloud, but more importantly she is quite obviously terrified of whatever this 'beldam' is. So, drawing his golden katana, he steps forward with bright green eyes fixated on that fence, and what lies beyond. "Worry not, young man. We will keep you safe from the... beldam."

    Talia nodded to Aurelia, and softened a little seeing Misaki and Jun, both familiar faces. "Hello there, it's nice to see you all again." She said, lowering her hood as she saw Mao Mao punt a dog away. THe cat just got a look from Talia that read 'What the fuck is your deal?' before the Mirialan regarded Serrah and Benedicta as well. "Talia Kyras, Jedi Knight."

    Upon the arrival of the scared girl, Talia was quick to try and comfort the child. "It's alright, we won't hurt you." She promised, smiling softly as she reached out to take the girl's hand. "What exactly is this Bedlam? Who is Coraline?"

Jun nods to Misaki. "That's right," he offers with a reassuring smile. Whatever's making her uncomfortable -- Jun's got no way of knowing what it is -- he means to reassure her, at least. And he snickers a little as Zero speaks to Mao Mao. It might be surprising, and it's definitely true. But he doesn't add anything there.

He does however, greet Aurelia as well when she greets him. "Hi there. I hope you've been doing... reasonably well--"

And suddenly there's a girl hiding behind him. Jun gives a startled squeak -- appearances can be deceiving, it seems! Though to his credit he does straighten it up quickly.

"U-uh... what's wrong?" he inquires, turning to look at the girl. He doesn't want to scare her more, after all. "Is something chasing you?" He doesn't seem to know what a 'beldam' is either.

"Don't worry about it kid, I was in my almir'aj form both times. Yeah, it's complicated." Benedicta's not surprised that Misaki doesn't recognize her.

She's not transformed right now figuring people seeing a horned rabbit girl would only make things more complicated, "Benedicta. Or Bene, like Aurelia said. Yeah, it's not nice to kick animals, unless if you see a talking tamarin monkey. He's an asshole, you can kick him all you want. Also tell him no if he tries to make any deals." She's still looking at Misaki as she says that. She figures the rookie magic girl might be a tempting target for who she's referring to. Her attention turns towards the teenage girl,

 "Bedlam? Like the mental hospital?" She doesn't know who the girl is referring to do with the name Coraline. "Pure Heart Valley? That name just screams trouble." Benedicta figures it's one of those ironic names.

"So what's going on that we're all gathered here?" Benedicta gets a look, "I've already made a deal with an asshole fox, so I'll at least hear him out and then probably say no." Misaki transforms when the scared girl arrives, and slowly approaches, "Please, allow me to help you steady yourself so you can explain what's going on." She reaches out magically, the girl should get a feeling kind of like a mental shoulder for her to lean on, if she so chooses.

    Serrah sighs. "Dunno, that's what's bugging me," she answers Benedicta, her voice a bit more scratchy and androgynous than (the new) usual. She nods in greeting to Misaki and Jun, and reflexively leans slightly away from the latter until she notices what she's doing and moves herself back into the previous position. She chuckles at Aurelia's comment. "Well, y'know ... I was here last time this thing became relevant, and, uh ..."

    She narrows her eyes at Mao Mao, then turns to Talia and says, "And I'm Serrah Delany. Half-creature of darkness due to a now-permanently-dead rich asshole --"

    But then she frowns as the little girl suddenly appears. "Well that's not ominous," she says, reaching into her sports bag to grab a baseball. "Uh ... I think she said 'beldam', not 'bedlam', Bene ..."

    She glances between Aurelia, Jun, and Benedicta, since this is their world. "We jumping right in?" She hesitates as everyone focuses on the girl instead of the possibility of just running in, and stops, lowering her hand and looking awkward.

    Somehow all the attention causes the teen to cling closer to Jun, but Misaki's magic takes hold and she relaxes visibly before taking a step out from behinhd Jun. "Coraline's a story about a girl who finds another world with a beldam. It's fairies. You know: the dangerous kind. They want to keep you. Forever. Like a pet." She covers her mouth suddenly, looking like she wants to cry. "I. I'm just gonna go home and hug my mom." 
    And she bolts off down the street, where the sidewalk starts. She didn't seem bothered by the strange collection of people loitering around the entrance to an otherworldly realm, but she did just emerge from that same realm. The powerful magic of the place radiates from the gap in the fence to those who can sense it, such as Talia. Something dark lies within, threatening to engulf the beacon-like power.
    Aurelia frowns and glances at the people here, then at Zero. Unlike Misaki, she and her familiar can't exactly transform in broad daylight. A determined look on her face, she squeezes through the fence gap, Zero following.

     Mao Mao notices Talia's glare and Jun's snickering, but it's Benedicta's words that prompt a response. "I had a dog as my partner once. He betrayed me and left me HORRIBLY MANGLED FOR LIFE. There, backstory over." he explains, shouting a little melodramatically in the middle. Seems like something he's still pretty sore over.

However, as the teen girl runs away and Aurelia starts to crawl into the gap in the fence, he quickly picks up on what's going on. "A portal. Another one of those Vine things? And... a monster on the other side." he mutters, a broad grin spreading across his face. "That, I can handle."

Perhaps a little too eagerly, he dives in after Aurelia and Zero, his small frame making it easy to squeeze through the gap. At least, after he unsnags his cape from a splinter.

Jun doesn't seem to notice Serrah leaning away from him. Or if he does, he doesn't comment. Though as Serrah looks at him in question, he gives a clear 'bunny with a pancake on its head' look, since he has no idea what the girl is talking about, or what's going on. Getting no info from him, it seems like.

He also gives a thankful look at Misaki; he wasn't looking forward to trying to pry the terrified teen off of himself. The explanation gets a tilt of his head. "That's... actually pretty terrifying, yeah," he agrees. Though suddenly she's bolting away, and he tries, "Oh wait--"

Nope, she's gone. He sighs a bit. "I hope she can find her parents..." He trails off here... yeah, that one hits JUST a little too close to home, and he starts to look sulky here.

 Fortunately Aurelia starting through that gap in the fence distracts him. "Oh wait, don't let us get separated," he cautions, and squeezes through the gap himself.

This takes some freaking DOING on his part, since he's quite a bit taller than the average Japanese teenage male. But he's lanky besides, so it's not too terribly difficult.

"My bad. You okay Serrah? You look like you woke up on the wrong side of the coffin. Don't want you crashing on us out of nowhere." Benedicta sounds a bit worried about the half-vampire.

 "Fairies that keep you like a pet? Crap, I'm sure they would try to turn me into a rabbit or something. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea kid. I hope she gets home, okay." She's somewhat tempted to go running after the girl, but she doesn't want to ditch her friends either.

"Okay, I can see why you're upset..." She frowns a bit cringing a bit at the yelling. "Guess we're going in then." She carefully shoves herself through the hike just hoping she doesn't end up stuck as an almir'aj again.

Misaki doesn't try to stop the girl. "Just remember my offer, miss Delaney." She repeats when she notices just how unlike herself Serrah sounds today. Then she steps through the hole right after the others, and prepares a light just in case it's dark on the other side.

    Talia had many questions, questions she doubted she'd get answers to. For now, she focused on approaching the fence. It was a shame she couldn't help the girl. Feeling dark auras was hardly new today for her, between the fence and Serrah. She'd have to ignore it for now, as she began to approach the gap in the fence. "Something dark's in there." She said softly, following Aurelia in.

    Serrah gives Benedicta a look. "Can we not make 'coffin' jokes, please?" she says flatly, more-or-less confirming her suspicions. "... I'm fine, I'm fine, I ... was just ... uptoolatelastnightbecause I ... just felt ... uncomfortable about the sun, heh." She glances at Misaki. "Uh, can your ... ability ... help with being tired and cranky?"

    She bristles as the girl describes being kept as a pet. "And they'd turn me into a cat," she mutters to Benedicta. That hits her a little too close to home, on top of missing her parents. "Right," she says to Jun. "I hope so too ..."

    She sighs softly, closes her umbrella with a grimace at the sunlight and stows it in her sports bag, then squeezes through the gap in the fence after everyone else ... and immediately stops time to take a quick stock of what's going on. To an onlooker, it would look like she ... twitched into a slightly different posture, like a video skipping ahead.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Serrah is not fine anymore.

     The realm was no longer an eternal summer's evening with cool breezes and warm sunshine. The trees were no longer lush with the green foliage. There were no longer children playing.
    Instead, the world, for lack of a better word, has curdled. The sky is filled with dusky purples and threatening clouds, while the trees are laid bare as though touched by winter. The grass is dry and crackles underfoot and massive spider webs linger ominously here and there. Previously obscured by the trees, a mighty mountain dominates the horizon, its peak split and a beacon of light lances straight into the sky from it. The smell of wet rotting leaves is pervasive. Screams punctuate the air of the dark landscape.
    Aurelia looks taken aback by this sight. "Who would dream of this and what happened to them?" Both she and Zero have transformed. Aurelia becoming encased in sunset gold armor that is one of the few sources of warm light, scattering and amplifying Misaki's light into ripples of sun-like tones. While Zero has transformed into a hulking steel lion with thick metal cables for a mane, eyes becoming a luminous green that flick back and forth as he smells the air.
    "The realm is rotting." Zero says.

     Mao Mao emerges soon after Aurelia and Zero, pulling a grimace of disgust at the surroundings. "This place is pretty awful. No wonder those kids grew so old, being kept here. The stress would turn me gray too." he remarks, his katana glowing in the dim light.

Yes, actually /glowing/, not just reflecting light. In fact, it actually seems to be absorbing some of the light shining on it from Misaki and Aurelia's armor, fueling its own. "There's no life here. Geraldine isn't usually this... active." the cat sheriff growls, taking a few steps forward and swiping at some of the webs as if to check if they're real.

"What now?"

"Sorry..." Benedicta notices the massive spider webs, "I have a guess but I'm hoping, I'm not right. "What would she be doing here though? Besides I don't think she has access to fae magic. Unless they turned her fully into a spider..." She watches as Mao Mao swipes at the webs, "Careful, you don't want to get stuck in the webs if she's around. I'm sure she would have a cat snack if given the chance." This is just leading to more questions.

 "Hey Jun, you have your sword with you right? Are you thinking what I'm thinking...?"

    Talia was just glad she could fit through the gap. Crawling out after Aurelia and Zero, she raises an eyebrow at the sight of disgusting, discolored warping of reality. She couldn't be surprised, something was off about this place just from the dark aura it gave off alone.

    Something in the Force called to Talia, and she took off toward the mountain suddenly to investigate.

Jun is very much discomforted by this. Notably he's not staying on the ground here, but rather floating over it. No telling what this place is infected with.

Zero's words get a blink. "What was it first?" he inquires, since this is actually his first time here (that he's aware).

He looks up at Benedicta addresses him, blinking a bit. "Um..." He looks around. "Cutting some of the webs down? That might attract whatever made them. Which might be a good idea, admittedly, since we'd be able to fight it..."

And then suddenly Talia's taking off. "Wha... hey, wait! We don't know what's..." Pause; she's already too far away to hear him. "Oh man..."

"Dunno if it'll help with tired, but it'll help with grumpy. But I meant just talk." Misaki's light does something weird when she notices Mao Mao's sword is absorbing her light, and suddenly her light shines in all directions except towards Mao Mao. "Ok I have no clue exactly what's going on." Misaki admits, "But something is weird. It's like..." She points at the light, "That's twisting the world out of shape, but then there's like something stronger that's twisting things in a different way, might be the spider webs? And it overrides." Talia rushes off, and she darts after, "Miss Kyras, we shouldn't split up."

    In her stopped world, Serrah stares at the scenery for several seconds, frowning as she looks this way and that.

    When she resumes time, she looks slightly startled. "Okay, this actually looks worse than it did while time was stopped," she says. "Jesus. Uh, Zero, what does a 'rotting realm' actually ... entail?" As that sentence progresses, she audibly becomes increasingly worried that she won't actually understand the explanation.

    She smirks faintly at Benedicta. "Yeah, it didn't occur to me at first, but now that you mention it, those spiderwebs do give me Baroness Spider vibes."

    At Misaki, she blinks. "Oh, right," she says. "Well, uh ..." She spends several seconds trying to articulate why she's hesitant about that whole idea, when Talia takes off. "... good grief," she mutters in Japanese, and takes off and starts flying after her.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> "Yare yare da wa."

    Zero turns to face Serrah, then Jun. "It means something has cut off the realm heart's source of ignis deorum." At this second statement, he looks directly at the shining mountain. With that, the magical beast starts padding towards the mountain and its mysterious light.
    When Mao Mao cuts the web, a rumble begins underfoot. A rumble underfoot presages the earth erupting beneath the cat man, a massive mutated earthworm attempting to swallow him whole!
    Without realizing it, Talia steps on a more slack line of web. Another worm emerges from the rotting earth, mouth ringed with grinding teeth visible to Misaki as it attempts to eat Talia.

     "Wha-" is all Mao Mao can get out as the worm swallows him. He doesn't even have time to register Misaki's petty response, or even answer Benedicta's warning. It seems like the hero has fallen...

Oh, wait, that's his sword slicing through the worm's midsection from the inside, cutting horizontally in a circle until the creature's top half simply falls over, leaving the cat to climb out covered in guts. "Eeeuuugh... Surprisingly, that's not the first time I've been eaten. It's gross every time though." he complains, brushing himself off.

After a few moments though, he notices everyone heading toward the mountain and its strange light. "Hey, wait up! I've got short legs!" he calls after them, but catches up pretty easily regardless. Quite the quick little meower.

A spider web and now an earthworm. Benedicta has a bad feeling about this. "Crap, is Mendel here too? Or is this all his work?" She runs towards the mountain so the worms don't go after her as well. Then again if he was present, she would likely be the target.

    Webbing got Talia's attention, as she sensed something coming. Drawing her weapon, the lightsaber flashes to life with that trademark green glow. Leaping to the side of the worm, Talia began to climb atop of the worm, burying her lightsaber into the creature. "I was expecting spiders!"

Misaki summons Joyous and leaps towards the earthworm, "What is it with giant earthworms?!" She asks, clearly frustrated by the entire deal. She then does her little trick of twisting and turning the light from her gun into a short stationary beam to take a few stabs at the worm herself.

Jun doesn't look any more enlightened after the explanation than before. He blinks at Zero again. "Its uh. What?" Though Zero seems to be heading towards the mountain, so he'll start that way too.

It's that worm-thing bursting through the ground at Mao Mao that draws Jun's attention first -- only because he's closer to this than to the similar problem with Misaki and Talia.

Despite his kind of timid appearance, he's instantly onto the thing. Fortunately Mao Mao has it dealt with mostly, though Jun will fire pin-sized blasts of steam at the thing until it's well and properly disintegrated.

He shudders. "Ew... are you okay?" Jun asks as he goes back to following the otehrs towards the mountain. He'll see that issue with Misaki, Talia, and the worm they're fighting, but it'll take him a bit to get there, even when he starts zipping over the ground.

    Serrah sort of not-really-skids to a stop in midair; thankfully, Talia reacts faster than Serrah's somewhat dampened reflexes. "Whoa, what!? Is Dr. Worm here, too!?" she exclaims.

    She glances between Talia and Mao Mao, who are both unfamiliar to her, so she's less inclined to play her hand. She glides backwards, making a sweeping gesture. If you're paying attention, she seems to twitch in midair, and at the same instant, as abruptly as a video skidding ahead, half a dozen baseballs are flying towards the worm that tried to get Talia ...

    ... and then she remembers that she flat out said she could stop time just a moment ago.

    She pauses, regarding Talia's lightsaber. "Oh, I was wondering if you had a sword," she says, "you did say you were a knight ..." (It's quite possible that she's misunderstood what the "Jedi" part meant.)

    The worms are not very dangerous and end up being easily dispatched. The one that ate Mao Mao lies twitching and writhing on the dead grass as it gives off steam, while the other has been dealt with messily. Its pieces are scattered through a combination of light swords and sonic baseballs.
    Aurelia snaps out of whatever trance she was in and winces at the aftermath. She shakes her head and pats her cheeks before trotting over to join Serrah, Talia, and the others. "Everybody alright?" She checks on everybody before saying that the mountain is probably the goal.

     Mao Mao nods to Jun as he asks about his wellbeing, and then Aurelia too. "I'm fine. That kind of thing happens a lot where I'm from. Better me than any of the Sweetypies. Poor little things are too soft and weak to defend themselves." he says, shivering slightly as he feels another bit of goop slide down his neck, quickly flicking it off. "Ugh..."

    Talia jumped off the worm once it died. "Easier than I thought it'd be." She said, turning her lightsaber off. "SOrry about running off, I had...this feeling." She motioned to the mountains up ahead. "Something about that place was calling to me. I don't know why I just up and ran at it."

    Serrah gets a shrug. "It's not quite a sword, swords tend to be solid weapons. My lightsaber doesn't really carry mass the same way."

"Dammit, what's going on here?! It's like some kind of science project gone wrong..." This has all the signs of Mendel's work. "I'm fine, this is common where you come from?" Benedicta looks down at Mao Mao as she says that. "I hope nothing bad is happening your world now right now if that's the case. Getting eaten by giant worms would be a pretty awful way to go."

    Serrah lands, looking very tired. "I was out of range, but yeah," she answers Aurelia, walking over to the dead worm to grab her thrown baseballs. She looks at Talia curiously. "Huh ... neat," she says. "I mean, I just meant the, the general form factor, but yeah."

     "Oh yeah, super common. Like, once a week or so. Sometimes there's dry spells, but we have a special alarm for when they show up." Mao Mao explains to Benedicta, then dismissively waves a hand at her concern. "Pshaw, nothing to worry about. My two deputies are professionals. Very competent, I'm sure they can handle themselves without me for a day or two."

MEANWHILE IN PURE HEART VALLEY

"Everything is on fire! What the heck do we do!?" shouts a panicking badger, blasting some strange living fireballs with his cybernetic arm cannon.

"PANIC!!" screams a small blue bat with a gold pegleg, though it seems unneeded as the residents of the town are already running every which way, some tripping over each other and others fainting on the spot. One little pink rhino with a heart on his chest is taking advantage of the chaos to loot whatever he can, even robbing some of the other citizens as they run by him, laughing maniacally all the while.

BACK TO THE SCENE

"Yep." Mao Mao says, beaming proudly. "Absolute professionals."

Jun nods to Aurelia's statement. "I'm fine," he assures her. Not to worry, Mao Mao; Jun offers, "Do you want me to help you rinse that garbage off?" He pauses though, and looks up. "...Though I admit I'm not sure I could whip up rain here..." he mutters.

Notably it doesn't seem to occur to him that a cat might not want to get doused with water...

He looks at that mountain. "So... whatever's going on... it's in there." It's hard to tell if it's a question or not... but he definitely has his eyes narrowed as he looks in the mountain's direction.