World Tree MUSH

    The fickle nature of some Vines leads one to spit those arriving out at the entrance to a large high-rise skyscraper. The outer rim of an antenna dish visible at the very top, pointed at an angle... then very slowly turning to another position, as if it were alive and shifting to listen to various sounds.

    Waiting for those coming is a 5'2" tall robotic frame with a spindly form factor, white armour plate and a sextet of optics arrayed in a triangular formation on the ovoid head, three along the top, two inset a from the outer two above, and about a width down, and a final one in line with the upper center, another width down from the two above it.

    There is also a spherical construct hovering nearby, humming a slightly discordant tune in a synthetic cadance... those who have been to the pedastal awakenings either here, or on the other planets, would know it as The Monitor. It appears to be waiting as well, its single optic sweeping around curiously, like a young child impatiently bouncing on the balls of its feet with unfocussed energy.

    Some vines are fickle. Some leave you right where you want to be.
    In Morrigan's case, she is purposely coming here, puttering along in her van, a dark grey 2003 Ford Windstar, and rolls her wheels to a halt right the Doll frame and sets her car in park.
    The door opens and Morrigan steps out, Mary Contrary perched on her shoulder.
    "Hey Justina. Hey Monitor-thingy. We're here."
    "We're here to do the thing." Mary confirms.

Holly wasn't expecting to arrive at the front of a skyscraper, she was just trying to get back to college after the holidays. "What? I'm pretty sure that was the same vine I took before! I'm going to be late to class!"

 "Holly, maybe you should finish eating before you do anything else?" Servis notes the half-eaten chocolate chip pop-tart hanging out of her mouth.

 "Oh right..." She chomps down at on her meal as Morrigan pulls up in her van. "Hi Justina and Morrigan are you sure you want me here? I'm not really helpful when it comes to the technical stuff..."

    By now, Weiss is used to bouncing around a little bit. She hasn't seen much action lately, aside from the bit of poking at the Warden recently, but otherwise it's been surprisingly slow while she tries to figure out the Atlas situation back home. At least she's met some of the people involved, right? "Well it's kind of impressive, I'll give it that..."

    Sure this isn't a floating city like Atlas, but skyscrapers are still a pretty impressive sight, and the tech here is more in line with her father's equipment.

    The old Ford pulling up gets the Doll's attention, turning its optics toward Morrigan. There might be the hint of a smile in her voice. "Hello, Ms. Lar'osa. Miss Contrary." she says. Holly gets a nod from the Doll, and Weiss an appraising stare.

    The doors open, and the bulky looking leader of the local Ratling tribe peeks out, beckoning them inside. "Bah Weep Graghna Weep Ni Ni Bong!" he crows merrily. Music wafts out from the open doorway, some kind of modulated voice singing about daring to be stupid, or something along those lines.

    The Monitor, meanwhile actually says something nearing a normal sentence, not some lyric fragments. "Greetings, friends. I am A1S Sheltered Princess, the Monitor for this Installation. My systems are tied to the parts of this construct, and my primary cognition core has now come online. I was formerly running from my onboard cogigator unit which is... frankly... rather limited.

    "Heyyyyyy."
    All things considered. Morrigan's attitude is a little subdued. It has been since she learned her patron is a horrible world-eating-space-flea from nowhere. But she is genuinely happy to see Justina. "I wouldn't worry about it." She asides to Holly; "I'm no luddite, but I'm not the best at 'techy stuff' either, but here I am." She says before peering over.
    "Oh, Weiss, long time no see."
    Moving on though she holds up a hand at the Ratlings, makes the international sign of the doughnut and calmly says: "Klaatu Barada Nikto."
    It's the monitor that earns another curious look though.
    "Oh. Different from the last one."

    Weiss's cheek twitches at the name given. Sheltered Princess just rubs her the wrong way, especially with how she's grown of late. It's just a momentary annoyance though... these people have no real idea about her or her past, so the pale, silver-haired girl doesn't get all huffy like she might if she thought it was actually a jab at her.

    "So what's going on here?" Looking over Morrigan, then Holly getting a different sort of look. Unfortunately for Holly, Weiss is in a mildly bad mood so can't think of anything reassuring or nice to say. On the upside, she's not in a terrible mood, so she doesn't say something nasty either. Especially because Morrigan distracts her.

    "Yeah, it has."

"Well, you have a van though. I don't even have a driver's license...oh it's the rats again!" Holly then notices Weiss and smiles at her. "And the lady in white, too." Well at least she didn't directly call her a ghost again. "I wonder who else will show up!"

    Justina nods to Morrigan again, then turns back to look at Wrek-Jarl. The Ratling leader headtilts at Morrigan. Attempting to mimic the gesture with its little graspy hands, it chitters out. "Kardo Balamah Tiptoe?" Nothing happens, no portal to hell swallows him up, but he looks severely confused.

    The Monitor turns to look at Morrigan. "Oh no, friend. I am the same Monitor. I am able to translate instantly to any active Translocator Dias should I require to." it replies, then flits over to scan Weiss curiously, a thin emerald beam tracing over the Huntress' body as it orbits around her. "Facinating, outward expression of an energy field, Magic Index rating of 12, particulate catalyst." it recites, then pops up in front of Weiss' face, it's optic cycling down to a much smaller aperture, staring for a few moments, then flitting off to give Holly much the same treatment.

    "Close enough." Morrigan says approvingly to Wrek-Jarl as she folds her hands behind her head. But then she's peering at the Monitor.
    "... Huh. Last I remember you were just kind of... Nevermind." Maybe activating more of the thingies restored more functionality, she surmises to herself.

    Weiss takes a step back as the optic suddenly pops in front of her, but she hears a lot of what's said. "What? No, I don't use magic! Magic is-" Yeah she's still on this, though she can't really call magic a myth. "... not what Dust is!" Sure, Weiss. Just because she isn't a Maiden, doesn't mean Aura and the like isn't some kind of magic.

    She can be pretty stubborn.

    At least she doesn't have a rat in her face?

Holly holds still so she can be scanned wondering what number will come up when she's scanned. She figures it'll be lower than 12 since she knows Weiss is pretty good with magic. "Dust? Is that some kind of spell component, or does that enhance your magical potential like pixie dust?" She ignores the part where Weiss says she doesn't use magic.

    Justina moves to stand next to Wrek-Jarl, holding the door open so he doesn't need to wedge himself against it so hard. He pads out a little further, eyes glittering as he watches the Monitor.

    At least up until it jolts sideways while scanning Holly. It releases a high pitched shriek, smacks into the side of the building... tumbles along it then drops to the ground with a dull CLANK.

    It lifts up against a moment or two later. "Oh, hello friends. I am A1S Sheltered Princess." it... seems to have been reset to before meeting these people... whatever Holly's using as Magic, it didn't sit well with the Monitor.

    So here's Morrigan, moving to follow Wrek-Jarl and Justina when--
    The Monitor fukkin' dies.
    "Oh. Geeze." Morrigan muses as it resets.
    "Maybe you shouldn't let it scan YOU, boss." Mary Contrary suggests.

    "Maybe just... don't scan things," Weiss suggests. "Looks like the scanner's still a little buggy." She is more relaxed after the levity though, and once again focused on the task at hand. "So is this something I can help with, you think?"

"Oh no! I'm sorry! It must be one of those issues where magic and technology don't mix! Or it's a side effect from that radio antenna, I crashed into earlier..." Holly nervously rubs the back of her a bit. "Maybe I should leave..." She doesn't want to cause a blackout or anything after all.

    "Monitor I believe you can attend to your intallation now." says Justina, before she steps inside the building. Wrek-Jarl for his part beckons everyone inside. "Come friends, roll up, roll up. Hurry hurry hurry!" He chitters, then scampers in the door.

    The Monitor seems to chew its options for a few moments, then simply blinks out of existence.

    Right then, moving on! With the Monitor winking out of existence, Morrigan follows Wrek-Jarl and Justina inside.
    "You know, Holly, just because I have a driver's license still doesn't mean I'm good with tech-y stuff. I can't FIX my car if it breaks down. Hah hah hah that sure would suck for me if it broke down any time soon, but it IS 20 years old now and-"
    And Mary crosses her arms over her chest in an X and shakes her head at her Master. Right shut up Morrigan, don't invite bad fortune.
    "Anyway, between Justina, me, Holly, and Weiss, one of us should be able to at least figure SOMETHING out here, with our... Broad and diverse skillsets."

    Weiss opens her mouth... then closes it again with a click of her teeth together, deciding to keep it shut for now about any of that. "Or at least stab it until it's done."
    Maybe she can sing it better if something needs fixed. Though in reality she's not awful with technology or anything, she's just not what one would call a tech wiz.

"Well, at least my broom's in good shape." That's something Holly has going for her right? "Justina, could one of your machines figure out why my magic is so unstable sometime or would that cause more problems?" It seems like they can detect it at least but she's not sure if that's a good thing or not.

    Justina turns around, walking backward with unnatural fluidity. "The Monitor is running on a... much older... version of modern systems. They are quite advanced by some standards, however, they are also more prone to being overloaded by unexpected information." she continues, "I will contact Centrian command, we can see if one of the institutes on the homeworld can do anything for you."

    Wrek-Jarl seems confused, scampering ahead of the group and shouldering another door open. The music gets much louder now, the central room housing the main tribal village. There are tents arranged around a large, central machine with an array of screens, showing various television shows from a multitude of worlds. Some screens are nothing but static, and as the group approach, another screen suddenly floods with static, to the dismay of those Ratlings watching it.

    One of the Ratlings runs up to Wrek-Jarl and chitters something too rapid to understand... the chieftain then turns to the group and points upward, to where the dish is on top of the building. His cadence is much more stilted, as if there wasn't anything he could draw on and instead was using the words in their raw form. "Big Dish, big breaking. Many cycles... help, please?"

    "Oh." Morrigan says, dawning understanding. "Oh geeze, they learned everything they know from watching too much TV." She says rubbing her temples. And then more staticy screens happen.
    "Great, team. We're glorified satellite dish repair crewman now. Maybe we should take a look at it?"

Holly nods at that and follows Wrek-Jarl to where the tents and televisions are gathered. "Looks like they're not getting a signal."

 "Maybe the siginal they're trying to pick up is too far away, or the dish isn't powerful enough." Lavaux finally speaks up after being oddly quiet. "Or the stations converted to digital and they're still using an analog signal, I remember when they made a big deal about that. I don't know either, I ain't a techie and it's not like I have hands to fix anything."

 "There's a lot of signals too, it might take a while to fix each one." Servis notes that they might not all have the same problem either.

    Weiss looks around at all this, finally getting it. "Ohhh... sort of like when the tower went down and scrolls stopped working." Not a techie, but she gets the general idea. And this she can do something about!

    "Where's the quickest way up? I can go up the side but if you have a working elevator that would be easier," she reasons. "And maybe the rest of you can... see if they've chewed through the cables or something."

    What? They're rats!

    Justina moves over to the central machine to inspect it for any damage or deterioration.

    Wrek-Jarl squeaks again, pointing to a set of doors on the far side of the room. He makes gestures like someone climbing. They're probably elevator shafts, likely without the cars still in place. Then another gesture, and miming climbing up stairs to another door near to the elevator shafts... looks like it's climb, or climb.

    Fortunately, Weiss has her glyphs to help with. "I'm going to climb the elevator shaft to see what I can find out about the dish," she announces to the others. Heading for the shaft she sighs, looking upward. "It would be a lot easier if they had a WORKING elevator..."

    Still, this is probably faster than criss-crossing like the stairs do. She'll wait to see if anyone is coming with her, then start summoning up glowing white platforms to hop upward with, and provide a bit of a leaping boost.

    Morrigan holds up a finger and announces...
    "I'll take the stairs." She says, heads for the stairway door, and will start to ascend.

"I'll fly up to the roof!" Holly does have her broom with after all, "Wait, could that antenna I hit earlier be the source of the problem?"

 "It sounds like it's been going on longer than that." Servis reminds her.

 "Oh right!" She leaps out a window and goes riding off into the sky, hoping she can get to the top without any problems.

    Three people begein ascending by three different methods.

    Three different destinations are reached.

    WEISS: About half-way up the shaft, the car can be seen, it's off-kilter, wedged into the structure with its brakes welded onto the guide rails. The doors just below are open, and show a floor that's filled with the old detritus of long abandonment. There's some exposed cables in the walls, dug out by nimble little hands, as if they were being traced. They lead to a device that's being fed by many more cables coming from further up. The device has many flickering lights, which are looking rather unstable.

    MORRIGAN: Gets a bit further up, finding a floor filled with spliced together wiring. A few wires are dangling loose, none of them are showing signs of being power-carrying at least.

    Holly's flight upward leads easily to the dish. The assembly looks rusted, much like the rest of the junk on the surface, and as it begins to move, the sound of it comes like a dying whale, a mournful sound as rusty mechanisms strain to move the heavy device.

    "You know, in retrospect, I should have sent you with Holly or Weiss." Morrigan muses to the shinki on her shoulder. "We could have kept in communication that way. Ah well." Too late now as she makes her ways up the stairs and sees...
    A lot of spliced wires. Touching them looks like she won't get shocked, but then she frowns at the dangly wires.
    Taking one end in hand and another in the other hand, she brings them together and... In an instant the wires are mended.
    Morrigan proceeds to start trying to figure out which wires go where and put the broken ones together.

>> SUMMARY[Morrigan] >> DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed electrician. I just have the Mending cantrip.

"Well, that's the problem. The dish can barely rotate! I might be able to lift it, but it's not like I can stand here all day and turn it around." Holly would need to figure out a more permeant solution for the problem. "What rotates around by itself?"

 "A haunted clock tower maybe?" Servis suggests to her.

 "That's a good idea! I don't know if I can summon anything that large though! Maybe, just the clock!" But we would need something to mount it to...and it would vanish if I go too far away..." Not to mention she would have to actually successfully summon it.

    Well, first things first, Weiss can't examine this standing on one of her short-lived Glyphs, so she leaps up and exercises some Aura control to strengthen her grip a little. She's no spider-man, but at least she can hold onto the rough and torn side of the shaft!

    All so she can take a look at the device, to at least try to figure out what it's doing. "... I really need to get a scanner or something like some of these people have. Or at least a Ruby to follow me around." She quickly looks around to make sure that Ruby wasn't somehow around to hear her say she might want her there. Satisfied that isn't the case, she goes back to examining.

    MORRIGAN: Mending the wires starts power flowing through the fixed connections. Some kind of failsafe system cutting power so a fire doesn't break out from severed cables perhaps. As the warlock locks the last cable back into place...

    WEISS: The device gradually stabilizes, and a screen resolves into a query panel: SYSTEM REBOOT? Y/N

    HOLLY: The idea to temporarily fix the dish has noone to offer other alternatives... until the Monitor returns. "Ah, the transmission tower fell into disrepair... it seems to require some lubrication. I could provide it though I am incapable of applying it." The Monitor then summons a blue and yellow canister with a red lid for Holly to take.

    Weiss frowns. "I think I saw how to fix this in that show with the really really fat man and the dippy bird thing," she mutters to herself. Slowly climbing up closer, she hooks an arm around a metal spur, braces herself, and takes a deeeeep breath.

    Then she leans far over, the heiress flicking finger out and tapping the 'Y' button, just like the dippy bird.

"Thanks!" Holly takes the lubricant and starts spraying it on the dish. She's not sure what's going to be about the rust, but she supposes it'll have to do for now. Of course the witch wants to help more but repair isn't really part of her skillset. Unless, there's a giant hammer present and it involves hitting something really hard.

    Man that Mending cantrip sure is handy. With all the cables fixed and patched back together, Morrigan dusts her hands off.
    "I have the feeling that this arbitrarily helped, somehow." She announces to herself and her shinki, and gets a tiny high five from Mary Contrary.
    The thing has been accomplished.

    Justina looks around as all the systems in the main room shut down. There's a great sound of dismay as the machine shuts off, as if for the last time.

    Then, all the screens flare back to life. They are filled with static to begin with, but as Holly finishes spraying the dish mechanism, the rust flakes away as the device starts to move much more smoothly, and no-longer sounds like a dying whale. The screens in the main room come back to life, resolving into the various shows and infomercials and commercials that the Ratlings have been using as the core of their culture.

    As the helpers file back in they're greeted by jubilant Ratlings, that draw them into an impromptu dance party.

>> SUMMARY[Justina Thyme] >> Sound Track: Dare to be Stupid - Weird Al Yankovik

    After a moment with nothing blowing up, the faint cheers finally echo up the elevator enough for Weiss to get the idea. "Ugh, why did it have to be rats?" she complains, trying to pretend she isn't pleased at a job well done. Weiss Schnee, expert button-pusher!

    Well, that and climbing an elevator shaft, which is harder than she made it look. At least going down will be easier~