World Tree MUSH

Neviah called in all her leave after Cambridge took her off the research into Faerun. She hasn't set foot on campus since. But she did take a side trip.

When she did call Juniper, it was from an entire world away, on a Florida waterfront sometime in the 1990s. She's pulled out a table with a view of the ocean and ordered a pair of sodas, one of which she's sipping through a curly straw. Her Victorian outfit is gone; she's picked out the tank top, jeans and shoes she bought while shopping with Juniper, and she's let her hair down in a broad fan of dark curls that cascades around her shoulders and down to the middle of her back.

The way she carries herself is tangibly different. The air of period-appropriate reserve has receded noticeably. Her head's held just a little higher, shoulders just a little stiffer.

It's been a while since Juniper spoke to Neviah, and when she got the message she *expected* to be called somewhere cold, rainy, and gloomy, like Cambridge, or off in the place she was researching. It's a nice change that it isn't!

Juniper strolls toward the meeting point. It's warm enough here, even in December, that she didn't need to change her usual outfit at all: a fitted T-shirt with a sports logo (Toronto Raptors) and jeans. 

"Look at you," she says, with a slight grin. "Finally took my fashion advice, did you? I bet that's a lot more comfortable than the old stuff. Mind if I sit down?" She doesn't actually wait for an answer, sliding in across from Neviah.

"Is this, uh, work stuff?" she asks, a moment later. "Should I be calling you boss?"

Neviah does not hate warm places. Now she gets to go to them more.

When the dark-haired woman looks up, it's with a tight smile. "Yeah... yeah, I did. I wanted to get away from all that stuff from home. Well. 'Home.' This felt nicer." The accent's still the same, anyway. She gestures to the chair across from her, as if Juniper needed prompting.

She doesn't. Neviah shakes her head with a tight smile. "I'm not really the boss of anything anymore, to be honest. The faculty took me off the file. Apparently I'm too emotionally invested in it. As if caring about my home world is some kind of problem." The bitterness in her voice is hard to miss even if the words themselves didn't betray it.

Neviah takes a long sip of her soda. She huffs once she's done and looks across the table. "I'd wondered, by the way... you draw your power from a dragon in some way, don't you? I'm not asking to be judgmental, just curiosity."

"They did?" Juniper really has been out of touch. She makes a face. "I thought you were from Cambridge, though. Or, England I guess."

She eyes the drink, then takes the one Neviah isn't. She isn't terribly concerned about the flavor. It's probably fine (unless it's ginger ale... who drinks ginger ale unless they're sick?) "Well, you look better with the hair down anyway," she decides. "And not tied up in that awful top."

She's halfway through a drink when Neviah asks her a question. She half-sputters, half-coughs around the straw. "What makes you ask?" she says, her voice slightly rough from inhaling carbonated drinks. "Me spitting lightning to save you from a mummy one too many times?"

With a small blush, Neviah takes the hem of her tank top in hand and stretches it a little, looking down at herself. "I'm not used to being /able/ to leave this much uncovered. I don't hate it."

Juniper splutters, and Neviah winces slightly before sighing and leaning in, her cheek coming to rest in one palm. "That was part of it," she concedes with a blush. "Thank you for that, by the way."

The disgraced professor sighs and taps a nail against the edge of her glass. "But it was also... better understanding of the world I'm from. Faerun, or what's left of it. I have a pretty good understanding of the sorts of magic and abilities it contained, and still does. I wasn't from Cambridge originally; I was born at a wayside inn that used to be a shard of Faerun, and my parents are from there."

Neviah gives Juniper a considering look. "I'm sorry if I put you on the spot." She smiles ruefully. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."

Juniper just laughs, mostly to cover for sputtering. "That's pretty mild for FLORIDA. You could be in a bikini top. I definitely packed my swimsuit when I heard you wanted to meet in Florida. I figured even in December it was warm enough to go to the beach before I went anywhere else... it's still gotta be like twenty or twenty-five out there during the day."

Canadians.

"Well, they can't actually stop you from doing what you want, can they? I guess they might not pay. Which means you might not pay." Juniper thinks about that for a moment, then shrugs. They'll get to that later. She has another question to answer.

"No point in hiding it, I guess. Yes, I have the powers of a dragon. Or, I guess, something like them. I'm not big and scaly or a weird reptile person, for which I'm kinda glad, honestly. But yeah." Juniper shrugs. "I thought about hiding it, but really, what's the point? Tons of people do weird stuff in the whole Tree, anyway."

"Give me a little while before I start running around in bikinis." Neviah smiles tightly as a blush reaches her cheeks. "For now I just want to not feel tied to Cambridge. But if you want to go swimming, we can always find a beach - there are a lot."

Neviah has not been to the beach in years. Perhaps it is time.

As the other woman explains herself, Neviah curls her hands around her glass and listens with a slow nod. "No, I understand why you would. Some worlds are weirder about these things than others. If it means anything, I think your powers are really wonderful. And I have enjoyed adventuring with you."

Her teeth momentarily capture her bottom lip, then release it, before she taps her finger against her glass again. "...I don't have access to faculty money anymore," she admits. "But I want to keep exploring. I think there might be ways to find World Seeds and use them to bring back Faerun. Until then, any artifacts we find will catch good prices. They are rare relics of a world so lost in the Tree that only pieces remain. We can start by ransacking some of the places we've found already."

Neviah sets her jaw slightly, then relaxes it. "...I should be able to be more help with any of the fighting, now."

"I didn't expect to be grabbing YOU and bringing you to one, but hey, if you want to swim, who am I to say no," Juniper says. "I figured I'd do it on my own time and expense afterwards. You couldn't need me the whole time, and it's not like I've got schedulign conflicts."

Juni takes a long drink from her soda, through the straw. She's thinking. Neviah doesn't seem to mind her powers, so that's not a problem. And she's talking about treasure hunting.

"I'm ahead of you," Juniper laughs. She hooks one finger down the neck of her shirt and tugs out what looks to be a pendant-like chain of small silver and gold coins, holes drilled through them and tied to a slim ribbon. "I kind of walked off with some of these. I dunno, they're not worth much as coins but they're interesting jewelry with a story behind them, right? I just always hid it around you so you wouldn't give me shit for taking them." That and she likes the feel of them against her skin, but she can leave that part out. It's weird.

She leaves the coin chain draped over her chest. "I don't know anything about bringing it back, but treasure hunting's what I've been doing lately. So, for a proper share, I'm in. Didn't think you'd learned how to fight either, though."

"We'll have to take a side trip first," Neviah admits with a dip of her head. "I need a swimsuit. I'll have to rely on your fashion sense once again."

When Juniper shows off her jewelry, Neviah leans forward to take a look, eyes bright with interest. "Oh wow. That really is interesting." Eyes lifting, she moues her lips before shrugging and offering up a crooked smile. "I might've been more angry about it before they fired me. Now I don't care quite so much. I might even join you - I like the idea of finding jewelry and things from those old ruined sites."

Neviah leans back, then, folding her hands and looking down for a moment. "...I need to get my notes back from the university. I've decided to go in there and get them, and damn anyone who tries to stop me. They want to take all my research and give it to some other professor who doesn't give a damn about Faerun. I won't accept that. So I got help."

She looks up. "I was trained to be a cleric - a divine spellcaster. Until all this started, I'd never found a god from our world.

"Now I have one."

"I don't know a place around here for that, but I can probably find one. This place is a little different than my home, though, and I never went to that Florida, so it'll be an experiment and I don't quite know what we'll find. It'll be an adventure," Juniper says.

Juniper absently rubs her finger and thumb across one of the coins before releasing the chain of coins. She's not going to let Neviah run off with it - she's not even going to take it off so she can get a better look. The thought of letting it out of her grasp is... well, she doesn't want to.

"You're going to go get your notes? Guess you need the maps out of there... you'd think they'd let you have your own stuff even if they took you off the files," Juniper grouses. "No wonder I don't trust schools. You think they'll stop you? Or are expecting you?"

Her eyebrows rise as she leans back in her chair, bringing the soda along with her. "God, huh? Well, just so long as you don't expect me to start praying. What's their name?"

Neviah rolls her eyes. "They consider all of the research property of the university. Nevermind that it's my research and they don't care about it nearly as much as I do."

Shifting back in her chair, she crosses one leg over the other and brushes her palms across her thighs. "The god is named Zehir, and no, you don't need to pray. That's my thing to do, not anyone else's. All I know for certain is that the Christian God didn't give me any particular help, and the one Morrigan attached herself to threw her away when she was no longer useful. This one seemed like the best option."

Neviah furrows her brows a little. She's not the most at ease with her divine patron, but fate's left her little choice. And she's mad.

"I'm sure they will try to stop me. I have heard they've hired a few more security guards. I don't think they know I'm capable of handling them now. Once they figure that out, I am sure they will have more powerful hired guns come running to try and stop me."

Juniper, predictably, has never heard of the deity in question, but as long as Neviah isn't forcing her to be religious she doesn't see any problem in working for her.

As you might guess from her next offer. "Well, in that case, I'll come along with you, if you want. I'll do it on credit," Juniper adds, holding up one hand. "I mean, I'm going to want to get paid *eventually*, but I know you don't have it right now. You can do it out of the treasure later."

It's a fair offer as far as she's concerned. The professionalism of it is ruined slightly by the sound of straw hitting empty in a glass of soda.

Neviah blinks once as Juniper makes an exceptionally generous offer. "Really? I'd appreciate that," she says with a dip of her head, the surprise giving way to a warm, genuine smile. "I will pay you back with interest, I promise you that. Even if not all the treasure we'll eventually find is from Faerun, we'll no doubt find a lot. It will be fun."

And it will make her feel better. The idea of raiding Cambridge alone was intimidating. Having a friend along makes the prospect less anxiety-inducing.

"For now...." She folds her hands and looks out over the water. "...I'll have to prevail upon you again to help me find a place that sells swimsuits."