World Tree MUSH

    After finding an inn and putting herself up-- and probably Magilou as well- for a few days, Morrigan is ready to resume investigation.
    "Geeze, the inns here are super cheap." She muses. "And I had a freaking luxury suite all to me and Mary."
    Mary Contrary looks particularly dreamy about this: "I got an oil bath in a mini jaccuzi."
    Luxuriousness aside, with the group gathered, she stands at the entrance to one of many of these 'churches' that seem to act as a source of magical power for the whole city of Enrisi.
    "The Church of the Fallen Star huh... Sounds pretty bogus to me." Morrigan muses, rubbing her chin.

    "They'll likely say the same of us," Matsu replies to Morrigan. "Or at least of me. A priestess of a foreign religion." She's not going to mention the whole 'possessed by a firebird goddess of rebirth' thing, no sir. Neither, it seems, are Mei or Sakura; the two attendants are with her again, both walking directly behind her in obvious support positions.

    Sigh. "Best to get it over with, though. It's our best lead for information."

    Dante stands in front of the church doors. "If I set ablaze walking in here, it's your fault!" He calls out to whoever might be in the church right now, before he takes the plunge. Stepping inside, Dante holds his breath before-

    Absolutely nothing of consequence happens. "Huh."

Neviah would love to say she's been here all along. She hasn't been. She swung by another world and then went back to Cambridge for a couple days to start writing a paper on Buffers.

She came back mainly because of Morrigan, one of the few people from the same paradigm as her. Enrisi is one of those places that could hold some additional clues for her. Standing a little off to one side, the professor has her notebook in hand and her bag of analysis gear slung over one shoulder, looking up at the big church with a pensive frown.

"I wonder," she murmurs. "We'll see if the alleged fallen star shares characteristics with this part of the Tree, or if it crossed over by Vine."

    Magilou would take any sort of mooching she's allowed to do, especially in a relatively luxury inn, though the hours she keeps and where exactly she goes is a bit of a mystery in general. She's still wearing the incredibly bright hoodie outfit, unless Morrigan has somehow offered something even tackier and managed to get her to take her up on that.

    "It's fine. All churches promise somewhere between full lies and half truths in exchange for empty comfort and temporary power." Magilou somehow sounds extra cynical today, though she doesn't seem at all worried that she's going to get burned at the stake or anything as a self-proclaimed evil witch.

    Justina teleported back to her ship after the group split up to return later. She returns now to join te others, teleporting back down. This time it isn't a light, highly mobile frame with more sensors and less weapons. This is a Battle Frame. 7'4" tall, built about three times the bulk of Dante. It's 'head' is recessed inside the torso slightly, its eight orange optics flicking through varous colours before settling on a burnt off-orange hue.

    "This entire debacle feels wrong. I only hope they haven't enslaved some kind of extradimensional being or something. That never ends well. For anyone involved."

    Well, with the group assembled, Morrigan crosses her arms over her chest.
    She does not have tacky clothes for Magilou, all of her clothes are 'black' and or 'robes', so. Moving on.
    "Well let's see what this is all about then."
    The church, a gothic designed building with spires and pointes and stained glass windows stands tall and almost foreboding against the other structures around it. But Morrigan pushes the doors open and strides on in.
    It seems to be a quiet, off-hour, for the cathedral, there are people about in the pews, but it's not a time of service or prayer. A stained glass window depicts a golden star falling from the sky onto the earth below and at the center of the church, settled on an altar is a huge chunk of green-gold stone.
    Anyone with magic senses will be able to tell that thing is what's powering the city around it.
    "Welcome, welcome... You are all from... Out of town, I take it?" The priest says as he sees the group entering. He's an older man with a greying beard, dressed in ornate purple and gold robes. He's smiling warmly.

    The church is pretty fairly spooky, appropriately gothic for Dante to be stumbling around in fighting demons and whatever other hellspawn draw his attention. "AIn't that the truth?" He says with Magilou, as she drops some serious truthbombs.

    He waves at the priest with a casual nod, "'sup. We're just pokin' 'round. Don't mind us."

    As they step in the door, Matsu flips open her fan, once again using it to hide her lower face in a manner that is... not polite, perhaps, but at least socially expected in her homeland. She gives Justina a curious look, appraising the new frame, but other than that keeps her eyes forward. Her two attendants step to the fore, giving the priest a polite bow, and the elder of the two greets with a pleasant, "Indeed. This is Lady Shuzenji-no-Matsu, head of the Shuzenji Clan of Arashi-no-Moto. Rumors of this city have spread far and wide, and we have come on behalf of the Emperor to see its wonders for ourselves."

Neviah's taking quiet assessments of the place as she moves into the church. The huge chunk of stone is, of course, the first thing she notes.

"Ah, yes, we're visitors here," she explains with a polite smile and a dip of her head, folding both hands before her with her notebook delicately clasped in them. "We had heard about the Fallen Star, and we thought it would be best to come and pay our respects. You don't mind, I hope?"

    Vree-chak. Vree-chak.

    Justina's heavy frame lumbers inside the church. Probably causing a stir as a Golem enters an enclosed space. The orange optics cycle to green-blue, and lock directly on the rock. "I take it that is a fragment of the 'Star'." she states bluntly, moving carefully down the widest part between pews and approaching the altar.

    She doesn't walk straight up to it, instead stopping a respectful distance away but running a scan with her sensors. She even 'presses closes' to the construct, anyone who can feel spirit forces would see a white-haired half-elf 'standing' within the bounds of the Doll body, mirroring its stance perfectly.

    The good news for everyone else is that Magilou is keeping a tight rein on Bienfu at the moment, who is stuck up in her head instead of out and about and being obnoxious. The bad news is Magilou's still here herself.

    "Oh, yes! Quite a long ways, we've made a harrowing journey, a pilgramage even, just to visit this place at this time!"

    Magilou, who is quite firmly attuned to magic, will give a glance at the stone. That thing looks like something that will cause her problems later, if they don't deal with it soon. "..So hopefully you can help my dear friend. She's suffering from a lethal lession looming over a newly fatal future!" And Magilou will put a hand at the back of Neviah, waving the other hand her way.

>> SUMMARY[Justina Thyme] >> My CHA score is -12.

    "A-ah I'm going to have to request that you keep your golem outside the ... Chu...rch..." It dawns on the priest part way through that Justina might not be a golem as he's used to them, and he sort of trails off, before returning his attention to the group at large.
    "Just... Poking around. I see. Well paying your respects is more than fine and welcome!" He says amid bowing back to Matsu and her attendants.
    While he's distracted, Morrigan seems to wander off. Huh where could she be going?
    As she does though, he seems distracted by the party well enough. Especially as he blinks at Magilou.
    "Ah... I... See? -- But yes, that is correct, that is a fragment of the very star that fell from the skies and blessed our lands."

Neviah is, for a moment, genuinely surprised that Magilou's backing her up here. She covers it off with a glance back and a faint smile, a hint of colour at her cheeks.

She bows her head politely for the priest before her gaze moves to the star. "It must be a thing of incredible power," she remarks, eyebrows coming up. "Would you mind if I looked at the fragment more closely?"

The professor offers up a warm, winning smile, doing her best not to look /too/ acquisitive. "I have heard that it has brought great prosperity to this place. I would very much like to understand it better!"

    Backing her up, fraudulantly presenting her as a cancer patient, it's really all the same from Magilou. She'll smile at the priest further. "So. You can heal her, right? It's not any good if she just collapses and dies right here, you know." She's waiting to see miracles at work!

    It might not take miracles, since Neviah's presumably not actually dying, but. "Or you can let her just look at the fragment and see if it blesses her directly, I guess. If you're too, um, busy to show her how to do it."
    It's amazing, how Magilou can say 'busy' in a way that will make everyone HEAR 'lazy'.

    Justina doesn't seem to take notice of the head priest... at least the Doll doesn't turn to look at him. Her voice comes out and those who can 'see' her astral form would notice while the head of the Doll hasn't moved, 'her' head has turned to stare directly at the Priest. "Ur-Doll model 21-X19-J. Codename 'Bulwark'. My name is Justina Appleblossom Leaves of Thyme. I am astral projecting into this frame and using it as a proxy body." her Astral form then returns her full attention to the scan in progress.

>> SUMMARY[Justina Thyme] >> I correct peoples misconceptions about my Dolls. Also yes I said the - as 'dash' don't @ me.

    Much as others are doing, Matsu takes the chance to extend her supernatural senses, trying to sense what she can about the stone. In her case, it's something that takes some focus if she wants to appraise it more deeply, but her two attendants are doing a very good job of covering for her in that respect. "Indeed, Lady Younger speaks true," the younger replies, bowing her head warmly. "I should very much like to know more as well. Ah!" She presses her hands together, as if having an idea. "Might you tell us the tale of its fall? And the time just after?"

    Though somewhat distracted, Matsu finds herself very, very glad for the duo with much more experience at court than her.

    "Right We're just pokin' around before we hit the road again." Dante says. He catches that slip-up, how suspicious. "Any theories about what it was attached to?" He asks the priest, when the topic shifts toward the star.

    Right... Just pokin' around. Well the priest doesn't seem to mind the visitors, though Magilou gets something of a wary look look as the man clears his throat.
    "If she suffers... Then by all means," Murmured to Magilou after a moment before he turns to Neviah: "You may." He replies to her request to look closer. "You may even touch it, if you wish. If you are even chosen, it may impart some of its power upon you." He says, before smiling to Matsu and her attendants.
    "Well... It is a fairly simple story... At one point Veldora was a small nation with almost no wealth, struggling with invaders from without and chaos and strife from within. Until the star fell from the sky. And when those that touched it were granted miraculous power, the queen quickly capitalized upon it to spread power, wealth, and prosperity throughout the nation. It is not much of a story, but it is still a miracle nonetheless.
    For Justina and anyone else like Matsu attempting to get a feel for the stone it's radiating magic like crazy, but it seems the much of it is being siphoned by the altar itself through some mechanism inside it, to spread it through the city like a power source, which means there's also some tech at play here.
    "I- I see so you're not a golem. My apologies." That is to Justina.

Neviah smiles politely at the permission. "That is very kind of you. I shall show what respect is due, of course."

The others are left to garner the story by word of mouth. Neviah focuses on the material investigation. Approaching the stone on the altar, she gives it a curious once-over visually, taking stock of it as if to assess what traits she can see with the naked eye - what kind of rock it is, its size and shape, its consistency with natural meteors, that sort of thing.

When she leans closer is when she adds something else. Sliding a magnifying lens from her pouch, she dips in to take a closer look. Neviah squints through the glass as if to see things that her eyes alone couldn't show her.

There are peculiarities she's trained to spot - telltale signs that something is from a plane or not, or the intensity of the magic within it. That's what she's looking for.

>> GAME >> Neviah Younger spends an Edge for: Tree Researcher's Tools are put to use to inspect the rock chunk!

    "If I may be so bold," Matsu says, finally speaking up, "How is it that you draw power from this fallen star?" The younger attendant seems very, very briefly and very, very faintly surprised to have Matsu talking, but she masks it quickly. "We have magic in Arashi-no-Moto. I myself am a skilled practitioner in some forms. But we have no such artifacts that can draw forth magic and scatter it about the city to be used. It... would be quite useful for us."

    Though it's just a pretext to press for more information, well... she's not lying. Something like that would probably be very useful back home.

    Dante doesn't quite have the sensing abilities that others have, but he's content to distract the priest for Morrigan's sake. "That's quite the miracle, huh? Sounds like it was an overnight fix." He says with a chuckle. "How much does bein' a priest pay anyways? You guys get a salary and union benefits?"

    Magilou will allow Matsu to take over with the priest, brushing past him and heading over to the star fragment as well. She'll lean in, while Neviah is examining the artifact carefully and with respect, and just prod at it with her finger.

    "..Bienfu, any time you want to actually tell me useful information about what this is would be good." She mutters, though she doesn't actually have any reason to expect her familiar to have more information than she does about it. Magilou's magical senses are every bit as good as the normin's, after all.

    She probably is not going to be chosen, but she might at least be able to pick up information about just what is going on with the thing.

    Justina scans the rock, then starts investigating the altar beneath it. "You use some kind of machinery to siphon off the power of this stone. How did that come about?" she asks, adjusting the stance of her Doll slightly. A very organic mannerism that a robot wouldn't be able to emulate properly.

    Whatever Morrigan is doing, the priest is clueless while he has to tend to a flock of curious offworlders.
    "Well." To answer both Matsu and Justina the priest is smiling again. "Well, you see... With word spreading of our new prosperity, the queen offered to share it with great minds and scientists from offworld. Power in exchange for knowledge... They came to us and created the technology to siphon power from the fragments of the star in each of our churches, and did much more, like create many of the golems you see performing menial tasks or security in the cities." He says. "With our power over magic growing, the queen wanted our technology to flourish as well, and as such welcomed many great minds with open arms."
    It's Magilou who might sense the sudden SPIKE of energy from the shard.
    And Definitely Neviah who will feel' it. A sense of something brushing against her mind. Something vast, something alien, something curious about HER.
    A cacophony of blasphemous voices suddenly probing her like fingertips on the surface of her mind.
    "TIER ARETAK PARGON NAROKATH REDGORMOR?" It asks with enough force to make her nose bleed and give her a crushing headache before going silent.
    It's right about now that Morrigan returns.
    "Wowwww cool story bro! Anyway I think it's time we all took our leave, right guys? Hahaaaah it's been great, though, right?"

Neviah Younger was expecting a fairly simple scientific explanation. Tangible signs of whether or not this rock is actually from this world or not.

Instead something unspeakably obscene introduces itself like a tentacle spiking straight through her brain.

Neviah's breath catches in her throat and her knees immediately give out. She drops to her bottom as if struck in the head, dropping her lens and only not breaking it by virtue of her outfit stretching across her lap and capturing the delicate instrument. Her hands shoot to her head as she curls in on herself with a pained whine, recoiling instinctively. It's all she can do. The intensity of that blasphemous probing is more than she can understand.

She ends up tilting over and landing curled up on her side on the floor, momentarily catatonic and with a slow trickle of blood running from her nose.

    Dante's almost offended at his being snubbed when he suddenly sees Neviah seize up. He rushes ot her side, catching her. "Woah, you okay?" He asks with concern, just as Morrigan rushes out hastily.

    He's almost tempted to protest. But then again, this is _Morrigan_ we're talking about here, in a panic no less. "Uhhh, yeah would you look at the time? I better go get Neviah checked out?" If she needs it, the half-demon will drape an arm over his back and help Neviah out.

    Magilou is actually going to immediately be preparing to use countermagic, but that only really works if it's targeted on her and elemental and this isn't really either, so she's not going to be able to do anything to help Neviah out. Well, other than reach a hand out, and..

    "The one who prepares is free from all regrets." Magilou will mutter, a light shining from her hands and on the ground under Neviah. Magilou is not, by any means, a healing specialist, but hopefully her healing Artes will be enough to help Neviah's bleeding stop and the pain to fade. The sheer shock of her casting a healing spell on someone else might be enough to make Neviah feel better later!

    "I see," Matsu replies, idly waving her fan as she considers this...

    Though her considerations are very abruptly cut short when something in the stone surges. She tenses immediately, and both attendants catch her sudden shift in posture with concern - the younger more visibly than the elder, but even the elder of the two is more tense. It's at about that same time that Neviah keels over with a pained noise, and Matsu finally snaps her fan shut.

    Her jaw is set in a mix of sternness and concern, a glance between Magilou and Dante briefly. "Mei. Sakura. Help Dante. We need to get her somewhere comfortable. If that healing spell wasn't enough, I can tend to her." The two attendants bustle over to help the Son of Sparda immediately, per their mistress's orders.

    Internally an alert fills Justina's vision. "ALERT ALERT ALERT, Energy spike reaching 2197milihume/s. Engaging reality anchor."

    Justina's Doll frame recoils a little from the rock, and Neviah's collapse, one foot stepping backwards and a light blue-white aura forming just over the hull of the construct. The magical signature of the construct itself seems to mute after the aura forms. "Override. Override. Authorization Thyme Omicron One Seven Eight. imperits the half-elf. The Construct resumes normal stance and the barrier falls away a moment later. "Resuming standard protocols."

    The priest looks QUITE bewildered at this turn of events, but Morrigan quickly motions for the group to bail.
    "Ime-tay O-tay O-gay, guys!" The warlock says brightly, fending of questions from the man by outright ignoring them as she hoists Neviah's other arm over her shoulder to help Dante get the scholar out of the church ASAP, while Mary Contrary picks up Neviah's lens helpfully as the party exits stage bail. Morrigan will have to reveal what she found later to them.

Neviah will be right back, consciousness. Right now she looks like someone just blasted her in both eyes with a floodlight at point-blank range. She's consciousness, but as Dante helps her sit up, it's clear nobody's home.

It helps that Magilou is there. While she's not physically hurt, the positive energies help. They cut the intensity of the blasphemous contact like someone pouring a bit of cream into a particularly strong coffee. Blinking rapidly behind her glasses, she wipes awkwardly at her nose, still stunned-looking but beginning to centre herself again.

"Tha... thanks," she manages, her voice weak, but present enough. She looks down at a shaking hand, the sight of her own blood registering only in the most elemental sense. Her head is still pounding but at least the shock of obscenity is over.

Morrigan, at least, is there to help her out. So's Mary, for that matter. Neviah allows herself to be dragged along.

Only once out of earshot of the priest does she manage: "I-it's the same, Morrigan... the same as... as that time in Minnesota...."

    Justina usually doesn't have to be told twice. She turns without a further word and makes to follow the others out, using her bulky frame to block anyone trying to follow them group. Vreee-chak, Vreee-chak. Once outside, she turns optics to Morrigan. "Explanations. Once we're away from here."

    "That didn't seem like a particularly nice artifact, did it?" Is Magilou's only comment once they make their way out. "We could try and steal it later, if you want? It seemed to be attracted to someone in the group, and I can assure you it's a good idea to take any source of magic that wants to be friends along with you. Just ask Bienfu about how much he's gotten out of our lifelong friendship, aside from those times he betrayed me."

    Dante and Morrigan will start carrying Neviah. "What time?" He asks Neviah, trying to keep her talking and awake. "Or that thing with the dead fish god." He points out to the warlock. Fighting that thing was a frickin' nightmare, to say the least.