World Tree MUSH

    The vines writhe and lurch into new configurations as a storm ripples across a stretch of unfettered chaos. The sight greeting those unfortunates who arrive is strange. The sky ripples and there's a clacking of a loom's shuttles as the sky is filled with rainbows of delicate glass-like strands amid stormclouds on a night so dark as to be both moonless and starless. The land they stand on is the beginnings of a vast plains with a strange city-cathedral that is the sole source of illumination. As they watch, they see those vast cosmic strands being pulled down from the sky and formed into trees, rolling hills, lakes, and mountains.
    The click-clack of whatever cosmic loom is forming this new world is interrupted periodically by the thunderous sound of lightning amid the clouds. Amid the forests are lights as though a great and terrible carnival were approaching, with drums and horns sounding in a dark parody of a joyful calliope. The flicker of luminous phantasmal banners can be glimpsed as the natives of the formless chaos march to lodge their objections to this irritating pearl of static reality with violence and gaudy pagentry.
    From the city, there's a great alarm sounded.

"What on Earth?" Professor Neviah Younger exclaims as the vines deposit her somewhere entirely unplanned.

She'd been on her way to a sunnier and sandier location, pursuing rumours of fragments of her own world where elements of originality still survive. what she finds instead is a dazzling sky and a city on a plain - and a world unspooling itself from the ether.

Instantly, Neviah tugs her notebook out of her long coat and begins to take things down. Experiencing the birth of a new world wasn't something she expected to see today. She will not pass up the opportunity to observe. She's quick to replace the notebook with one of her lenses, watching with the glass to her eye as strands of light unfold themselves into hills. "Remarkable," she breathes, her eyes wide behind her glasses.

Her academic reverie lasts until the sound of the alarm cracks through the air. Neviah jumps a good six feet before coming down, whirling towards the noise. "What th--"

Daisy  glides down a Vine on her custom 'VineRider Mk 1' vine-surfing board, a modified 'PitBull' type hoverboard. It's a tool that doesn't work between every world - it doesn't even always work between the same two worlds twice, but it's her favourite way to move between worlds. From her perspective it's like grinding down a living rail as glimpses into different worlds flash past her on either side, connected to the main vine by thin shoots... is it real? Probably not, but it's how she perceives it. When the Vine branches, she leans left and right at a whim to pick which fork to go down, letting instinct guide her and just enjoying the sensation of speed.
     She's completely unprepared for the shoot which grows out ahead of her in the middle of a curve, practically underneath her board and leaving her no chance to react - she's forced down the lengthening shoot as it 'grows' towards the a new world. It's all she can do to stay on the board and Vine until she gets to wherever it's going.
"...oh this probably ain't gonna end well..."
    The RocketPossum's entry into this world is abrupt, unceremonious, and completely lacking in special effects. One moment there's nothing, then there's a possum clad in yellow and pink, moving quite fast and spinning violently on all three axes. She manages to get the board under herself before she lands but she's carrying far too much momentum to stick the landing and it skitters away, causing her to hit the ground with almost her entire front at once and bounce back into the air. She spreads her wings and tries to use them to get herself back under control, flailing her limbs to try and help slow the turn. She almost makes a successful landing but she doesn't quite slow down enough, pitching over forward and sliding across the ground on her front, ploughing up mud next to the road a short distance from the professor.

    She's still and silent for several seconds, wings askew before she groans, and starts to move. A hand rises almost vertically from the little heap of cyborg opossum, pointing triumphantly at the sky. "I'm OK!" She announces to the world in general, picking herself up and furling her wings behind herself. She looks around, the distant wail of alarms catching her attention. She looks that way, blinking a few times as her attention is drawn to the lights in the forest. "...well that's not good." She mutters 

    Daisy whistles for her board, checks that her cannon, folded for storage, is still secure on the back of the board.

    The Digital creature was not quite as used to vine travel as he should, given his position back home, mostly just coming back and forth from a couple places... so it was quite a shock that his travels end in such a... unique location.         For now, the fur wearing reptile simply stands in place, gawking around in confusion, and raising his D-Ark to check for any information on it, but it can only tell him if other creatures like him are around, or if there is internet perhaps. So after some futile poking at the handheld, he decides to do some eploration, slowly walking around, 'ears' perked up. 
    The Alarm gets the small creature to jump quite high, a loud 'yip' coming from him, before looking around for any observers and try to pretend that didn't happen... his attention drawn towards the newest arrival, likely the one more 'flashy', to check on the curious figure of Daisy. "Hi." he tries, glancing to the marching parade, "It is certainly unnerving."

    Ranging far ahead of the parade, galloping and howling along the horns of the main force, bestial forms glimmer in the twilight sun of the cathedral-city. The entities cast Long shadows along the grassy plains as they approached. What manner of beasts they were changed when one looked. One may be a great wolf with shadowy mists for fur one moment and a strange half-horned goat-tiger the next. Their predatory mien is unmistakable, though. The plains around the city are thick with the phantom beasts, the vanguard hell-bent on being the first to test the defenses of the intruders to their realms.
    The city's defenders open up with point defenses; streams of bright white fire intended for fighting off large fighter craft, not roughly human-sized beasts. While the defensive weapons do manage to scythe down swathes of the bestial hobgoblins, the weapons are not fast enough and no small number evade the weapons. They approach the newcomers with a terrible supernatural speed, hungry eyes eager for battle.

Bad news for Neviah: She has no idea who Daisy or Bewul are. The two are noticed with a startled blink as she tucks her lens back into her coat, then drops the large leather case she brought with her. Fumbling a little, she unlatches it and comes out with a long rifle that looks like it's straight out of the eighteenth century. She feeds a bullet into it, hands visibly shaky.

She's barely able to get a bullet into the old Snider-Enfield rifle before the shadow-casting beasts come loping in ahead of what she's pretty sure by now is an onrushing army. "If there is a god out there, please present a way out right about now," Neviah mutters tensely as she scampers awkwardly backwards, nearly tripping over her own case before grabbing ahold of it and tugging it with her behind the nearest chunk of cover she can find: A big rock. The professor practically dives into its shadow, such as it is.

Neviah takes a few steadying breaths. Her heart races, beating out a fearful rhythm against the backs of her ribs. She can /hear/ each thump.

The roar of weapons can't hide the sound of the encroaching beasts. They're entirely too close and entirely too likely to spot her. Swallowing her gorge, a pale-faced Neviah peeks out around the big rock - and indeed, there they are, approaching with a battle-hungry savagery.

Neviah responds with a helpless squeak before unloading a bullet at the face of the one that looks most like it's rushing her. "Go away!!"

More bad news for Neviah: She's basically an untrained civilian with an old rifle and some weak healing magic. She's facing an army.

    The tiny blonde girl known as Cagliostro has seen a lot in her hundreds of years being awake. So much that while this is startling and new to her, she is quickly able to grasp the situation, at least peripherally. As the petite girl lands from her diverted Vine trip, her cape flutters behind her and she adjusts her outfit, looking about to see that she isn't the only one here that is out of place.

    "Creation from raw chaos, and a natural backlash against it. Hmn." Very curious... and while she may be mostly right about that part, any further details are far beyond even her ageless expertise. What she does know is that there are creatures scrambling toward her and the city. She frowns, and the rippling length of the floating snakelike creature that arrived with her circles around her, only to calm with a little stroke under its chin from the blonde alchemist.

    She's not so sure how stable the reality is quite yet, but boulders she can work with. A few motions calling upon her alchemy causes two nearby to flatten and lengthen, forming small sections of wall, with spiky protrusions erupting outward from the wall to 'break' the incoming charge. It's more for her own protection than the city's, but she doesn't mind them mooching off her protection. She even calls out to those nearby, like Neviah, "You may want to get behind more reliable cover."

    For better or worse, digimon are usually very familiar with combat situations, and Bewul in particular can tell an invading army when he sees one, he is not even phased at the curious beasts, or their changes, perhaps they are just... unstable?. In either case, he sees people already shooting at the creatures, and quickly moves to assist as well!, clearly he is currently outgunned, so he has to take things seriously. The small guy rushes closer to Cagliostro and perhaps oddly, decides to stand in front of the cover, as if ready to defend the shooter. 
    A bright flash of light, and the small, fox pelt wearing reptile is replaced by a much larger... very lanky looking fox creature with a... certainly unnervingly long snout, standing tall and snarling loudly at the approaching 'army', he doesn't even try to speak to the creatures, he just begins to attack, energy gathering on its long snout before shooting a large blast of energy at the closest of the 'monsters' "Blast coffin!".

Daisy casually brushes grit and dirt from her armour, nodding to Bewul. "Yeah." She agrees, peering at one of the glowing banners a moment. "Name's Daisy... and I don't think we want to be here. I see lots of spiky weapons on those guys, we should make for the city, it looks like they're at least a little bit prepared... dunno about you but I'd like some fortifications between me and those wankers once we've cleared some space, what say you?" 

    She pulls the cannon from its mounting, the barrel swinging into place and locking with a loud ca-click. Then the mechanism whines as it feeds cartridges down the armoured belt, a rising triple-bleep declaring that it's ready to fire. "Going loud!"

    'Going loud' is definitely the right turn of phrase as she fires into the approaching creatures. It should do quite a bit of damage; the armour-piercing high-explosive rounds are designed to take down aircraft so, assuming they actually detonate, they should make a mess of the approaching chaotic creatures.

She only manages to get off four shots before she's got to stop and re-adjust her footing, however.

    The wills animating the not-quite-real wyld things do not hold up too well to the efforts of the erstwhile defenders. As Daisy's rockets light up the ground they fly over, their explosive impact evaporate the beasts into black mist. A number of them end up impaled on the impromptu spiked fortifications of Cagliostro. Bewul's frightening predatory form toasts more in a blaze of energy breath. The bullets of Neviah's rifle find hearts as well. Trinkets spill to the ground where the beasts fell; fine weapons are common, but there's rings, small wands, and bowls as well.
    As the handful surviving beasts lope forward, they rise to two-legs with wicked talons and claws swiping at the band of defenders. Snapping jaws filled with too many knife-like teeth gnash for throats. They reek of death, carrion meat, and wet fur. Hate burns in their yellow-green eyes as they attempt to ravage their quarry.

Neviah blinks back towards whoever's calling to her - Cagliostro of all people. Blonde, tiny, somehow more confident about this than she is. "What's more reliable, then?!" she exclaims. Her idea of tactics is mostly just to hide and not die.

Her idea is /not/ turning into a horrible fang monster. She gawks at Bewul for a few seconds, momentarily not sure if he's a friend or a foe.

She has no more time to think: Daisy just went loud. Neviah tumbles backwards at the sound and lands on her side, only holding on to her rifle through sheer fortune. Rolling with a wince, she staggers to one knee and begins to reload, practiced enough to do it but amateurish enough that her hand still trembles. She manages to squeeze a couple more shots off before recoiling away from one of the onrushing beasts as it takes a swing at her.

She ends up scrambling behind one of the wall sections Cagliostro's been conjuring up. Clutching her gun to her chest, she takes a minute to breathe heavily, her eyes wide and wild.

It takes her a little time to collect herself. Only then does she turn and hold up one hand, focusing with some difficulty.

With no god to help her out, Neviah has no choice but to rely entirely on her own will for this. It's hard - she has to strain. But soon enough, a shimmering globe of light appears around Cagliostro, flickering softly. Any creature that dares charge her through the light will find itself forced to exert all its will merely to complete the strike or spell. A simple Sanctuary spell - but even simple spells are hard for her.

    Any creatures trying to get closer to him, Cali or Neviah will get their own share of very, very sharp and long claws and fangs, snarling loudly, rearing up adn swiping those talons at blindling fast speed, pretty much makes it as hard as possible to get close, it would take quite a bit of strength to even handle those claws. Oddly, despite his massive snout he seems reluctanct to bite, instead, prefers to shoot blasts of energy, and now and then, swipes some trinkets away from the monsters, more of a reflex than anything... It is not a particularly pretty spectacle from either end, but he is not going to let those things get any closer.

    Seeing how the creatures are dying and dropping items makes Cagliostro squint. "Are these things dropping loot?" She sounds a little puzzled, but only a little. She's too distracted by Daisy getting very LOUD indeed, making her wince at the noise, as that could get the possom into some trouble. She doesn't empathize so much as get annoyed, but she's not without some care.

    A faint glow lighting her up distracts her to glance toward Neviah, and she flashes a grin, "Thanks, but you needn't worry about me. I'm a lot tougher than I look." In a way, anyway. She doesn't seem to have a lot of strength in that tiny body of hers, but perhaps it can take more punishment than it looks. And she adds, "But it would be nice to not bloody the clothes," with a thoughtful murmur.

    She returns the favor in her own way. Now that the wall has been established, she knows it's going to be rather temporary... making permanent structures with her alchemy is possible, but can't be done mid-combat like this. But she can press her hand to the ground, sending a surge of strength and reinforcement into her allies.

Daisy yelps as, during one of the moments she needs to re-adjust her interrupting the barrage of cannon fire, one of the monsters makes a lunge for her. She dives back, hooking her tail around a tree to bring herself around, letting to to air-kick the thing that took a swipe at her, before diving back to join Cagliostro under cover of the shield. "Bit handsy aren't they?"

    The darkling beasts evaporate entirely, leaving behind four objects each, becoming a pattern. A weapon, a circular or ring-shaped object, some manner of stave or wand, and bowls or cups. Any close examination of these trinkets reveals an image similar to the beast it came from.
    Presently, the war carnival of chaos beings has stopped at the edge of the battlefield, and a runner waving a white flag is approaching the 'front gate' where the four defenders who were stuck outside the wall are. Closer to the twilight glow blazing forth from the city and the background clack-click of the world's loom, one can see a tall and statuesque being with exaggeratedly long pointed ears in flowing shimmering colored clothes, the color of its skin an unearthly blue-white and its hair a glowing coral pink mane that floats into the air of its own accord. Its voice seems to be three voices speaking very closely together. "Our queen seeks parley with the masters of the city."

Neviah flashes Cagliostro a weak smile, face still pale. "There's not much else I can help with," she admits, voice quiet enough to be nearly lost in the noise of battle.

The admission is frank, but hurts more than she'd like. For all that she's present there really isn't much she can contribute beyond the odd gunshot or weak spell. Once again she's turned out to be a weak link in these situations.

    /Of course. Of COURSE./ The thoughts are unvoiced but bitter. /I'm a cleric without a god from a world with no gods anyone even remembers. Because of this... bloody World Tree!/

As the thick of the fighting moves away from her, Neviah begins to take note of what's left behind. She kneels near what's left of one of the darkling beasts, inspecting weapons, staves, rings and cups as they appear. The images of beasts are noted as she squints at the left items through one of her lenses, trying to focus on the academic challenge in lieu of the combative one.

Someone strides forward; Neviah looks up with lips pressed delicately together, but lets someone more brave than she handle the diplomacy. She has research to do.

Daisy blinks as the battle fades, looking back over her shoulder at the city a moment, then at her companions. She shrugs at the messenger. "Can't really help you there mate." She admits, with a shrug. "Just got here myself, I've got no idea who's in charge or even what this is all about." she motions to the city and battlefield. "Sorry mate. I can help you look for 'em if you like."

    Let's out a loud sigh as the battle end, looking around for further attackers, before the same flash of light from earlier happens again, and the big 'fox' like beast is replaced by a far smaller and thankfully much more friendly looking creature. He stretches and approaches the others, poking at some small doodads he picked up from the battle... he did earn some of them!. As the messenger arrives he joins Daisy, "Same here... I am not even sure where this is... I just... saw this and tried to help, but I know nothing of the city, we can perhaps search for them?" he realizes a moment later he basically repeated what Daisy just said, but it's honestly his own reply as well.

    "It's fine," Cagliostro says to Neviah, dismissively. It's probably meant to reassure, but tact is not one of the blonde's strong points, so it is unlikely to really make the cleric feel better.

    The others are already replying with, essentially, the truth. Cagliostro frowns at the figure, then back at the city. "If you would like that, then announce it to them. We just happened to be between the attack and the city." Which likely hasn't given her a good opinion has it?

    The diplomat's ears fall a bit in dismay as the answer is not one they had hoped for. It glances at the four others, then shouts loudly at the city. "Our queen wishes to parley with the masters of the city. Please come forth with a diplomat and several martial champions."