World Tree MUSH

    Qingque leads the group across the plaza, up a few flights of stairs and past an open veranda with a gazebo-like offshoot. In the far distance, a vast tree can be seen sprouting from the Delve further away. The distances are vast, so the tree is truly enormous. It looks dead, bare branches, gnarled looking, like a withered hand clawing at the sky.

    Tingyun pauses, looking almost wistfully at it. "The Ambrosial Arbor... or whats left of it. Once the Luofu's most prized treasure." she sounds almost sad... almost.

    "Huh, I didn't know the Sky-Faring Commission were history buffs! Not bad~." remarks Qingque. "From a distance it looks like half a tree stump, but according to Records of the Early Nation, in its prime," she clears her throat. 'It wound into the heavens and from it, celestial bodies hung.' she completes, quoting a passage.

    "Meaning...?" asks March.

    Welt speaks up, as if he already knew this story inside and out. "It means the tree was as tall as the sky, and stars hung from its branches." he says, adjusting his glasses.

    "It sounds unimaginably impressive." remarks Stelle, looking at the tree curiously, but then shrugs.

    "I see this view every day on my way to work... I'm kinda bored of it in all honesty." says Qingque. "C'mon, lets go." she adds, turning with a scooping motion of her hand, gesturing everyone to follow.

    Tingyun lingers for a moment longer, then follows after the rest.

    "What's left of it?" Clara is obviously here, Mr. Svarog looming close by.
    "So... What happened to it?" The girl asks as she looks at the dead-looking tree on hearing how big it HAD (supposedly) been at one point, while following after Qingque.

    "I wonder how much of that is embellishment?" Jessica ponders. "It's still really big. What kind of cataclysm destroyed it?" Her second question echoing Clara's thoughts, though she doesn't linger too long.

    More importantly, is it going to be relevant to what happens here? Is it a Chekhov's Tree?

    "How old is this tree?" Talia asked curiously as she follows along, the view is breathtaking to be sure. Let it not be said Talia can't have her breath stolen sometimes.

    Bi De doesn't comment on the tree's size, but does spend a long moment soaking in the view. His feathers lift, then he lets out a sigh. "So many things lost. It would be better if we all focused on making something even more grand, yet..."

    The chicken seems thoughtful, tonight.

    Qingque shrugs. "It was a 'gift' from the Plagues Author(Yaoshi, The Abundance) to the earliest Xianzhou civilisation we have records of, meant to grant us the 'immortality' we sought so it's very, very old. However, once we figured out its poisonous nature, we attempted to destroy it..." she gestures. "We only partially suceeded." a sigh. "Once we're inside, please don't go running off. You may be the Master Diviner's guests, but she hates people that don't abide by the rules and regulations... just, try not to push her buttons."

    Welt replies. "We're just here for the questioning, we'll leave once it's over."

    A little travel later. "What... noone told me to take a key, and they never lock this gate... Ooooooi! I know the food here sucks but that's no reason to shut the gate on our guests!" she shouts, to no response.

    "Oh, so it's a bad thing?" Jessica frowns, "Didn't people figure that out pretty quick? I mean if it's supposed to make you immortal and people start dying, that would be a pretty big tip. And wasn't it a bad idea to take a gift of immortality from someone called Plagues Author?"

    She stops rambling as the gate turns out to be locked. "Do you think maybe there's a problem that needs shooting? We're pretty good problem-shooters."

    "I have a feeling we won't be able to shoot our way out of this problem." Talia asides softly to Jessica. "Unless you have some means of fixing this immortality glitch thing."

    Bi De clucks lightly, "The pursuit of immortality brings with it plenty of sadness, yet it remains a high calling." He tilts his head. "Yet it should be earned, not given."

    Though he has to note, "Ah, I would guess that the moniker was earned AFTER the gift."

    Poisonous.
    Tried to destroy it.
    "Oh."
    That explains a lot.
    Buuuut the gate is locked.
    "Oh um."
    "..." She looks at the door. She looks at Svarog.
    Svarog looks at Clara.
    "I am not throwing Bi De over the door." He says.
    "Wh-what?"

    "We didn't know the Plague's Authors nature at the start. We thought it was a gift, but it was infact a curse... and we didn't understand the nature of this cursed immortality until the Mara began to claim us... that's when it dawned that this wasn't a beneficient thing." replies Qingque.

    "Anyway, not to worry. I know another way into the Divination commission. Follow me~." Qingque croons, scampering off to a side gate. "Divination staff call this the 'loafing gate'. When there's nothing to do, we come out this gate and spend some downtime."

    March rolls her eyes. "Got any vacancies?" she asks, half-serious.

    The gate lock doesn't respond to Qingque's interactions... she waves her phone at it several times, it gives the start of a confirmation bleep... then switches to a harsh error honk. "Stellaron corrosion? Urgh... this gate won't open either." she moans. "We're late, and I'll be Lady Fu Xuan'll blame old 'Unreliable Qingque' for this again."

    The mechanism needs to be bypassed, but the architecture is different to the more industrial tech of Belobog.

    "Here let me see." Clara says when Svarog refuses to throw Bi De and the group has to go to a side-gate that... Is also not working.
    The small girl proceeds to start futzing with the mechanism, a look of concentration on her face as she works to get the door working with all her techno-know-how. She's put ancient machines back together, she can probably do this too. Probably.

    "It sounds like a huge mess," Jessica agrees, casually inspecting her firearm when the second gate won't open. That spells trouble, to her. "I guess Bi De is kind of right... don't accept something you don't understand." Her ears flatten. "N-not that I blame you all for that! It was really tempting, I bet."

    "Hmm."

    Talia curiously evaluates Clara's technique as the orphan goes about futzing with the mechanism. It seems like she was able to make a living with this knowhow. It's oddly familiar in a way.

    Feathers fluff a bit. "Perhaps. But then, exploration and taking chances are also part of the experience of life, are they not? Do not be overly harsh on those of old. The next generation must learn, yes?"

    He hops up to watch Clara, and points out, "Also, I myself am only three years old, do not regard me as an endless font of wisdom."

    "Wow, you're amazing miss! You handled that well for an outsider. I officially hand over the title of 'keeper of the loafing gate' to you." the door swings open, and the path forward is now clear... until a few Marastruck emerge from the shadows and blow the way. A pair look like they're using some kind of power to levitate.. and then there's a few of the corrupted Cloud Knights... not a massive force, but annoying.

    Talia nods in approval as she ruffles Clara's head. "Good job, I was taking things apart and fixing them at that age too." She smiles sweetly as she heads through the gate...right into an ambush! She flashes her lightsaber to life, and rushes the beasts!

    Her lightsaber flashes and hums as she strikes down Cloud Knight after Cloud Knight, moving to swiftly defend Clara before she draws her blaster pistol and opens fire on the Marastruck floating in the air.

    A pleased looking Clara beams brightly when the door opens.
    "Got it!" She says amidst being ruffled and now being granted a title.
    And then the Marastruck appear.
    Clara is immediately behidn Svarog.
    So anyway he started blasting... With his laser palms.

    Fortunately, Jessica kind of expected trouble! That's why her pistol was already out! "Ohhh... be careful, Talia! I have a bad feeling about this!"

    After all, nobody seemed to expect this sort of thing, even if she knew SOMETHING was wrong!

    Well, at least she has a gun out, taking a few shots and diving behind the gate for cover.

    "Thank you, Clara," Bi De says humbly, ducking his head at first. He turns about, and as the gate opens to reveal... a threat, he lets out a heavy sigh. "I suppose this was to be expected," he murmurs, sad that Jessica was right.

    To arms it is, then!

    The chicken bolts forward, ready to slam into the first that nears, qi-laced talons at the ready.

    Talia's lightsaber flashes, and one of the floating Mara Struck is bifurcated. He lifts his one remaining arm, making a talisman symbol in front of his helmet... and explodes into golden wisps that do nothing more than waft a few hairs... What was that actually meant to do remains a mystery.

    Svarog's laser hands take out the other floating Mara Struck, it performs the same maneuver... some kind of mutual destruction that they didn't get a chance to plant, perhaps.

    Jessica and Bi De make short work of the corrupted Cloud Knights, their vine-ridden bodies punctured and torn by bullets and talons, though they do have the annoying habit of getting back up the first time.

    Okay, trouble keeping them down? Jessica tugs out a secondary pistol, one that doesn't use originium slugs. Moving up, she continues to target any incoming dangerous ones, but when one is taken down she puts the second, weaker pistol to use.

    It's nice for a finishing move of double tapping anything that looks ready to crawl upright again.

    "So what is the backup plan?" she calls back, worriedly.

    Clara remains in the back row for all this, with Svarog very pointedly in front of her.
    When the Mara Struck explode into wispy gold stuff, Svarog lowers his head thoughtfully.
    Ominous. A little bit anyway, but he focuses on lasering anything that keeps getting back up.
    "Do not advance too hastily." He says. We do not know the effects of their residual matter after they explode.

    Talia nimbly moves from enemy to enemy, cutting through another Mara Struck as she soars through the air. Her lightsaber is an emerald flash that blurs through the thing, and Talia moves on to a corrupted Cloud Knight as she hurls her saber to impale it through the torso.

    Taking Svarog's advice, Bi De adopts a cautious stance. He has few ranged attacks, so he adopts a different tactic. The rooster nods, acknowledging the warning, and adjusts to quick leaping kicks, using the impact to both damage his target with talons, and the rebound to backflip back and land some distance away, if they explode into sparkles.

    "I do hope the entire settlement is not like this," he worries.

    Luckily, it seems like that was just a small splinter group that slipped through the net... sounds of battle can be heard from elsewhere. Local garrison forces engaged with the various fragmentum spawns and the Mara Struck that cropped up in the Commission Delve. Once Jessica double-taps the last one to fall, making sure he stays down as his body also evaporates into golden dust that blows away on an unfelt wind, the area becomes almost serene, apart from the aforementioned distant clashes of steel.

    Qingque leads onwards, to a large open area, a viewing platform with a long staircase leading down to a bridge that connects to a large circular platform. It's surrounded by various pieces of equipment, and a floating contraption hovers above the platform, shining a dull, pale green light from a conical aperture onto the platform below.

    "This is the Matrix of Prescience -- a large-scale Jade Abacus calculation terminal. It's the pride and joy of the DIvination Commission." explains the diminuative Native.

From here, it doesn't look all that impressive. There's no swishing lights or zooming motes, or anything... it looks... broken perhaps.

    With the Mara Struck handled, Svarog slowwwwwly lowers his hands. But he does not lower his guard.
    So moving on.
    The Matrix of Prescience... It certainly sounds big and important but...
    "Is... Is it on?" Clara asks hesitantly.

    Jessica relaxes when she hears sounds of battle. Battle normally isn't a good noise to hear, but in this case it is! "Sounds like the place is still resisting, so we won't have to fight everywhere. We should find whomever is coordinating the defense and see what we can do."

    But first, of course, there's the matter of the calculator. "If it's broken, that would explain how these prognosticators never warned of the attack, right?" She pauses... "But wouldn't they have seen the breaking of the thing coming? Hmm..."

    Talia stows her lightsaber and blaster with the deftness of a gunslinger, twirling both as they return to their places on her belt. "So uncivilized..." She murmurs softly with a resigned air, then she flashes Qingque a polite smile. "Terribly sorry about the mess, Qingque. Where were we?"

    "Most impressive." Talia says as she watches the device. "Can't even begin to imagine what kind of calculation goes into this thing."

    "Prophecy rarely tells everything. Most importantly, if it has no direction it can be vague. And if it has direction... well, if they do not ask, they will not predict, yes?" Bi De points out, shaking himself off. He chooses to walk now, rather than perch on someone's shoulder.

    Welt looks pensive. "Miss Qingque... you've mentioned, and we're heard a few times, the term 'Jade Abacus'... could you explain what this means?" he asks, looking at the view, then focussing in on the Native.

    "Uh... A jade abacus is just... a jade abacus!" she huffs a chuckle... "That's actually a good question, Mister Yang, it may take me a moment to give you an answer... let me think." She gets a distant look in her eyes, reviewing some internal memory storage. "The book 'Glimpses into the Beyond', describes it as 'living jade engraved with symbols for divination into the unknown.' Just like engraving a seal, the craftsmen of the Xianzhou Artisanship Commission carve faint symbols into pieces of jade, then insert them into machines to get them to operate according to a certain intention." she continues, looking around at the others. "Some are small enough to fit into bracelets or jewelery. Larger ones act as instruments of calculation, that can simulate the future, and learn from the past." She turns to gesture to the large construction. "Take the Matrix of Prescience as an example. As long as sufficient information is provided it can answer questions on anything -- from evoltion of natural phenomena, to the metabolism of living beings and more." Her voice grows husky, and low. "They say the theory behind the symbols was handed down by Nous(The Erudition), the Wisdomwalker. The principles are so profound that in the Divination Commission, only the Master Diviner truly understands them."

    "Intriguing. What's the accuracy ratio on this device?" Talia asks, eager to learn more. "I've heard of some an order of monks who spent their entire lifetimes calculating the probabilities of the universe. They got quite good at it actually. They knew precisely when I would visit once I hailed them once."

    Svarog stares at Qingque when she has to take SOME TIME to explain the Jade Abacus.
    "So... Wait do you actually even know what it is?" Clara asks peeking out from behind her keeper.
    Ah there's the explanation though.
    "Oh. So only one person knows anything real about this." Clara considers.
    "Which means they could make up anything they want." She says.
    "And others would believe them without a shadow of a doubt." Svarog says ominously.

    "It really sounds like they have a little too much influence," Jessica agrees. "But it's not really my world to say! Maybe that's just how it works!" She flattens her ears in doubt though. "And the problem is... if they're right 99 times out of 100, then when they're wrong that one time it can be really, really bad."

    Bi De clucks, nodding with the others. "As Jessica said. One must be careful with such things. Perhaps that is why there are problems here. Have they never proven wrong, ever?" He pauses. "Or failed to predict something? It would seem if they were perfect, much of your worries would be resolved easily..."

    "I think they sound like microchips, or computers." remarks Stelle from somewhere behind the others.

    "They sound like similar technology." agrees Welt, then looks around at the others. "What does it matter... 'jade abacus' or 'computer', long as it works... like, would it have made any difference if Baique came to fetch you instead of Qingque?" asks the little Native. "Anyway, the Master Diviner's waiting... I can see her from here."

    There is indeed a tiny pink dot on the platform, seemingly in discussion with a glowing blue-white seethrough figure.

    Clara looks off towards the platform.
    "... Small..."
    Coming from the smol bean, that's saying something.

    "Very small." Talia muses, observing the small figure on the platform.

    Hmm. Rather than just observe how small the comparatively large girl is, Bi De decides to... do something. "I shall determine what is happening." He takes a running leap, hopping up as best his qi-enhanced leaps can carry him, to head up toward the platform instead of just staring.

    Well that is... something to do. "Oh um... hmm." Jessica peers as Bi De just bolts up to see what's happening. She reluctantly holsters her guns, because it doesn't look like they're in any immediate danger.

    "Will he be okay up there by himself?" Her ears perk up, straining to hear what's happening, before she looks around to find a way there herself.

    As Bi De approaches he'd hear the middle of a conversation between the tiny Diviner and the hologram of the General. "And for those who don't speak Fu Xuan?" asks the General, after clearly having heard one of the Diviners esoteric proclamations.

    "Ahem... it's an utter disaster (Great Woe). How's that for a Divination Commission fortune?" she asks bitterly. "The Matrix has ceased operations, the symbols have dimmed. Stellaron spirits are wreaking havoc inside the commission, and the local Cloud Knight garrison is stretched thin protecting civilians. I want to restore the Matrix, but I have no forces available."

    Qingque, leading the others along the bridge that connects their platform with the Matrix platform, shows up not long after Bi De arrives.

    "On top of all that, we still have the STellaron Hunter to deal with. If that's not an utter disaster. I don't know what is."

    The General chuckles, glancing at the new arrivals. "But you're Lady Fu Xuan, the seer -- bringer of good fortune and exiler of misfortune. the boundless omniscient! This is your strong suit, is it not?"

    "Flattery will get you nothing, General. Fortune fluctuates, there's no escaping this fact. We simply do our best to uncover the good and the bad, and make the right decisions based on that knowledge. Ther eis no magic bullet to turn the tides."

    "And this is precisely why we need you in charge. When it comes to handling Stellaron Hunters who show surprising clairvoyance, who better than Fu Xuan the seer? As for reinforcements, you didn't think I'd come empty-handed, did you?" The hologram turns toward the approaching group, promping Fu Xuan to do the same.

    Clara and Svarog follow along as well.
    Catching that conversation though...
    Wow things kind of sound really dire.
    "I am beginning to wonder if one could say your luck has... Run out." Svarog muses.
    Clara lightly elbows her robotic father-figure for being not-nice.
    But it's not Svarog's JOB to be nice is it?
    "Oh I think he means us." She says on the topic of reinforcements.

    Talia follows Bi De and nimbly, steathily approaches the platform. She is careful not to let anybody know she's there, as she glances at the chicken as if to ask 'you're hearing this too, right?'

    Talia remains absolutely silent as the grave, turning her head to listen closer.

    Of course, there's time for a dramatic entrance. Talia drops out from above frame. "Hello there." She greets.

    Bi De bows, "Well met once more." He straightens and lets out a dramatic sigh, then scratches at the ground. "Could the Stellaron Hunter be involved in this failure? Regardless, it would seem our skills are needed."

    He doesn't say it, but something is in the rooster's tone. Those who have travelled with him can probably sense the 'I told you so' energy.

    Jessica flattens ears and her tail stands up. "Well, I did come here hoping for some kind of idea of where we can go to help. It sounds like there are problems all through the city, but if we can fix the whole problem that would be better."

    Qingque, after the others announce themselves, rubs the back of her neck. "Master Diviner, I've brough you the guests... though it wasn't your order I received."

    Fu Xuan side-eyes the hologram, and heaves a sigh. "So, general... even guests are on the payroll these days?" she asks ironically.

    "Well, since they're here already, we may as well make use of them." he responds.

    Fu Xuan frowns, turning back to the others. "Entering the Matrix of Prescience without my permission is a breach of protocol..." she seems to reign herself back in, taking a breath and huffing a sigh with it. "... would be an ungracious thing to say in the present circumstances. I admit, I am pleasantly surprised to see you here." she glances over at the retreating back of the other Divination Commission member. "Qingque is often unreliable, but she comes through for us when the need arises."

    She draws herself up, though it doesn't help to make her look taller. "As you're guests, I won't be bossing you around... but since the general had you brought here, and if you're willing, I'd like to ask for your help in restarting the Matrix, and destroying any errant Stellaron spirits and monsters along the way."

    "Sorry for the surprise appearance. But it would appear our help is indeed quite needed." Talia says. "Our numbers are useful in this sort of thing, we've found." Considering they already did one such act before, who is to say they cannot repeat history?

    "It would be very ungracious." Svarog notes flatly.
    But then Clara looks at Qingque.
    "Unreliable? How so? She got us here, didn't she?" The girl points out.
    "But how do we restart the Matrix?"
    Straight to business.

    Scratching her head, Jessica points out, "It wasn't really her fault this time. We couldn't really come in through the main gate for obvious reasons." She smiles, "But once we saw the trouble in here, we did go looking for a good way to help, so I guess it worked out, right?"

    Bi De ducks his head in a short bow, "We do apologize for barging in. However, as you can see, we desire to help. After all, if this place is in chaos, then how can we hope to clear our names and leave guilt-free?"