World Tree MUSH

    "Given you aren't part of the Divination Commission, nor even Xianzhou Natives... Qingque will accompany you. She will be in charge of restarting the disabled terminals... as for eliminating the hostile entities..." Fu Xuan explains, beckoning the short girl in green and black back over, as she seemed about to turn away and leave.

    March asides to Stelle and the others. "I hath divined our future -- we're destined to be errand runners... forever." she chirps with feigned melancholy.

    Stelle looks down at the diminuative Diviner. "Just say the magic word!" she says, folding her arms over her chest.

    This seems to stump Fu Xuan, and she sputters. "Wh--what? Which magic word?" she asks, blinking owlishly.

    Talia leans over to whisper softly, "'Please.'" Her smile grows crooked for a moment. Oh dear, she seems dialed in with Stelle's idiosynchrosies now.

    "... Soooooo we're just the muscle?" Clara says.
    "It would seem that way, Clara." Svarog says tonelessly.
    Clara sighs. "I mean, maybe I can help with the terminals." She muses.
    "Perhaps." Svarog says, equally tonelessly.
    But then she looks over.
    "Oh, yes. Please is a wonderful word that more people should use."

    Jessica blinks several times, her ears twitching. She's nice and all, but after a little lip nibbling, she can't help it. Sometimes, just sometimes, the catgirl has a thought outside her normal spectrum of 'snack cakes' and 'military strategy' and 'guns' and hits something else.

    "Wait, if you can tell the future and things, shouldn't you know the magic word?"

    Bi De clucks behind a wing, and then clears his throat. Not really, but that's how the translation crystal takes it. "While a clever statement, Jessica, I think we have established that their fortune-telling is neither fully accurate, nor capable of such specific divinations. There is no need to tease them." He clucks, "Now, where shall we be heading?"

    Fu Xuan blinks at Talia's whisper... then at everyone else... her cheeks actually flush red, and for a moment it looks like she's going to go into a full-on tsundere pouting tantrum, cheeks puffing out and everything... but then, she reigns herself in. The Master Diviner needs to show decorum, after all. "... ggnn... Please!" she finally says.

    Qingque shows up, and after getting a very rapid, and surprisingly quiet briefing from Fu Xuan, she starts leading the group away. "Wow... you guys got the Master Diviner all worked into a tizzy huh? Anyway, follow me. We'll take care of the Temporal Terminal first. It governs the time aspect of divination. Past, and Future, all that good stuff." She moves to stand on a square platform, set into one edge of a hexagonal platform on the larger dias. This activates a mechanism, several glowing green crystals appear, linked by lines of energy. On a screen set above a large energy wall, a pattern on a matching hexagonal grid appears, showing a triangle... the current pattern is a straight line.

    "Right, this Jade Abacus array is completely out of alignment... the expected pattern is on the screen, we just need to adjust the nodes on the grid to match." explains Qingque.

    Jessica nods, and keeps nodding as things are said, even if some of it is just going in one ear and out the other. It's not that she's dumb, it just isn't important to her, so she sort of just ignores everything aside from the basic gist of it.

    Right until Qingque explains the whole pattern thing. "Oh... I'm not good at this sort of thing, that's more a thing for the Doctor," she says, wisely with a nod. She doesn't know WHAT this whole node-grid thing is, but it's clearly some kind of minigame.

    Too bad the Doctor isn't here.

    Talia's pretty good with machines, but she's nowhere suited for reversing the polarities. SHe does however have something that eccentric doesn't have; The Force. Gazing up at the nodes, Talia closes her eyes to focus. THe Jedi will begin to adjust the nodes through the Force, her first few tries being more out of experimentation than anything else. She has a feeling she'll figure it out.

    Right okay, patterns and minigames.
    Clara is good at the repair minigame though, so it should hopefully be okay as she looks from the crystals to the screen tp Qingque.
    Clara is doing all sorts of calibrations and adjustments in her head, it's like that meme of the lady thinking really hard with a whole lot of calculations.
    "Okay do we just move the crystals to make it look like it's on the screen?" Unless she's stopped, Clara is going ot try and touch a crystal to move it to match what's on the screen in the expected pattern.

>> SUMMARY[Clara] >> I'm about to become Garrus Vakarian.

    "Hmm..." Bi De narrows eyes, then looks about. He leaps up to a higher perch to provide a birds-eye(hah) view of the situation, and lifts one talon to indicate if something should be nudged a bit any which way. "This is much like a Formation for Qi users in my home land. The pattern reinforces the energy flow so it behaves in a certain manner, yes?"

    "That's correct mister chicken person." remarks Qingque... "Sorry I don't think I got your name, if you did tell me, I forgot." she adds, rubbing the back of her neck and chuckling nervously.

    Since Jessica isn't helping with the puzzle, she can stand watch. There's a few of those strange floating sphere things from Herta Space Station approaching, floating almost lazily through the air toward the activated Terminal... she can get in some target practice while she waits.

    Talia and Clara start moving the crystals. They're not /actual/ crystals, just representations of the underlying mechanics. Force Grasp is smart enough to touch the actual mechanical part to move it, instead of trying to grab the empty holographic air.

    Between the Jedi and Clara, the pattern is established, after a few trials and errors.

    Once the pattern is fixed, the holograms flash, and the hexagram lights up, showing an hour-glass shaped mark. Over on the main platform, where Fu Xuan is waiting, a green light can now be seen emanating from one of the side panels around the central device.

    Clara works with Talia. The two get along so why wouldn't she work well with the jedi in the act of common puzzle solving?
    "Okay now that one goes here-- I think this one should go here--" It takes a couple of minutes but there's nothing stopping the two when they put their minds together.
    Svarog silently looks on like a proud dad.

    Voila. Talia's eyes open and she nods firmly as she sees Clara successfully figure out most of the puzzle. She gives Clara a gentle smile. "Well done."

    Jessica IS at least watching, but this isn't really her field. So a few shots taken at any spheres that get too close is definitely what she does. The sharp report of a pistol plinking down anything that might actually be a danger accents the work the others are doing.

    "Oh, did you get it?"

    As the formation is complete, Bi De nods his head. The chicken leaps off, landing next to the others as the group reconvenes, ruffling his feathers as if shaking off dust. Then he bows to Qingque.

    "Fa Ram Bi De," he intones, seriously. "Or just Bi De. If that is too difficult for you, some call me 'Big D'."

    He intones this in a serious, firm voice, though struggles with the words themselves.

    "Bi De, right. Sorry again!" remarks Qingque. "Anyway, that should do it!" she adds. She has been working alongside Talia and Clara, making sure the power flow doesn't surge through at the wrong moment.

    March seems insensed though. "That's it? You just matched up those symbols?"

    Qingque chuckles. "The more complex something is, the more important it is to keep it simple, don't you think?"

    March rolls her eyes. "If it's so simple, why didn't the great Master Diviner come and do it herself?"

    Qingque looks almost gremlin-esque as she giggles. "Maybe deep down she wants to be lazy once in a while, like me~." She shrugs. "Anyway, follow me." she adds, and turns to head off.

    As she approaches the staircase to the next Terminal, a large construct blocks the path. Its structure looks like someone bolted legs and arms onto a Torii Gate. "Don't worry, this is just an Aurumaton. They're stationed around the Matrix to provide security. We're here on official business from the Master Diviner." she turns to the machine. "Friends, not foes."

    March blinks. "I have a bad feeling about this." she comments, just before the thing takes a wild swing at Qingque.

    <<PASSAGE... PROHIBITED...>> it announces, its movements becoming jerky, unstable.

    "Some things just don't make sense." Talia concurs with March. "You'd think it'd be that important." Oh well.
    With the upcoming terminal, Talia feels something off just as the massive machine strikes at the party. Talia grabs her lightsasber and it flashes to life, the green blade lighting up the room as she adopts a defensive stance. "Sorry, we can't let this wait." She rushes the mech, deftly leaping into the air to lunge towards the Arumaton, her lightrsaber lashes out and Talia buries the blade into the Arumaton's shoulder.

    "Nnh... why doesn't anything work right around us?" Jessica whines as the jerking about machine starts to prepare for battle or something. She hops behind some cover, if she can find any, snapping off a shot or two. She's still a bit out of line to actually hit, so it's mostly cover fire for Talia. More a 'fence' of bullets if it dodges. She'll line up a better shot in a moment.

    "Sooooooooo..." Clara says. "This could have been fixed a while back but no one did it because they wanted to be lazy?"
    Clara eyes Qingque.
    "She's about to say something before Svarog covers her mouth with a gigantic hand gently.
    "Mmmfmfmlmfmf."
    They come to a big construct.
    "Ohhhhhhh..."
    It attacks.
    Clara is IMMEDIATELY behind Svarog, who is already assessing the situation.
    "Threat index raised. Initializing annihilation mode."
    He's just going to...
    Walk right up to it and start punching. Really really hard.

    Bi De sighs, "It is just like the temple dogs. Too long without proper attention, and the automatons become erratic. Perhaps we can purify this one, or something has corrupted its programming."

    Did he say 'programming?' That's a weird term for a hick rooster from a kung-fu world to know.

    He's already streaking forward, an aegis of shimmering silver forming around the chicken's body as he moves in to slide under the other attacks, his talons aiming at the underside.

    Talia assaults the Aurumaton, the emerald blade sinking through its armour plating and disabling its arm. Bullets bounce off its plating elsewhere, and Svarog comes in to start beating the other large construct, while Bi De goes low, raking talons across the underside armour, catching one of the leg motivators and knocking the thing to one knee.

    It then counters, sending out a pulse of kinetic force to knock away its attackers... then a second, and a third, shifting a few plates around and standing back up. <SANCTION MODE. ACTIVATED.> it announces, and a group of fish-like floating ingenium swoop in, they look like giant floating fuel canisters, their rotund bodies glowing with some kind of liquid within.

    They show their purpose, as they advance, and spray a burning cone out of their mouths, the flames scorching, and the liquid making armour brittle.

    "Keep fighting! I'll handle the fishtanks!" Jessica calls out... then pauses. "Fishtanks? That's a terrible name for them."

    Then she shakes that off, the catgirl turning from her cover and leveling the pistol, one arm bracing and the other aiming. Quick shots aim at the new arrivals, looking to sever hoses, or just break the tanks. She figures spraying fuel from one to the other is probably a good way of getting rid of these, right?

    It says something when the construct is able to unleash a wave of kinetic force that can knock Svarog's bulk back.
    The massive mechanical man skids backwards before he comes to a stop.
    If Jess is volunteering to take out the fishtanks- which is now their official name, thanks Jess- then he'll start firing his palm-lasers at the main body of the giant enemy machine.
    Clara is checking on Qingque meanwhile to make sure she's alright after the thing took a swipe at her.

    The shimmering shield that Bi De uses is not as fancy against FIREBALLS as other things, but it DOES help a little. He spreads wings, taking a defensive stance as one of the additional fish... things spews fire near him, and the bird comes out singed, but all right.

    He darts in, trusting Jessica to handle them, and leaps up to do an 'axe kick' of sorts toward the upper part of the automaton.

    Talia is blown backwards, hitting the ground. She reaches out to grab her lightsaber when she notices it was knocked from her grasp, and the hilt flies to her hand. Catching it, she then rushes the machine again, this time sliding underneath its legs and slashing at them with her lightsaber to take it out at the knees. Once she's behind it, Talia lunges upwards, her lightsaber surging up to split the thing's back open!

    Stelle follows Talia in for that second dash. She goes high while Talia goes low, bringing her bat down on the 'head' of the Aurumaton, aiming to follow up after Bi De's kick.

    The strike sends the thing staggering, topplking over as Talia's blade finds its leg motivators and cleaves them, sending it toppling backward. Hopefully Talia can leap away before being crushed.

    Svarog's hand beams help send the thing over, burning holes in its outer casing, and showing the various Jade Abacus modules beneath.

    Jessica's bullets strike true enough, rupturing the tanks that make up most of the fish-robots bodies, spraying that molten liquid out under pressure. The leaking one shudders, as if cold... then explodes violently, sending shards, shrapnel and a fine spray of that liquid in all directions. Its detonation precipitates the other to do the same.

    Qingque seems to be fine. She rubs her head a little, and winces as she gingerly touches her ribs. "Bruised... nothing broken." she assures, smiling up at Clara.

    Luckily Talia's reflexes are positively feline. She nails the QTE to avoid getting hit and rolls to the side gracefully, rising from a crouching position as the machine topples over. She offers a thumbs up to notify she is in fact A-OK. "That was awfully rude. Why didn't the droid let us through anyways? We should've been cleared to be here, right?"

    The aura fades from around Bi De, and the rooster takes a deep breath. Then he flaps a wing, which seems to be smoking. This is a mess, but while injured it mostly looks like he was a little cooked.

    "I battled a Temple Dog once. Isolation had made it confused, and regarded me as an enemy despite my right to be there," he states. "It must have been damaged, and could not recognize the code. A shame, as it was attempting to perform its duty."

    Reloading her pistol, Jessica peeks out. "Uwah..." But it seems to be over, and she takes in a deep sigh of relief. Scooting out, she flattens ears. "Everyone okay? We should make sure there aren't any other um... possible problems before we get surprised again. Are there more guardians? I hope not."

    Qingque stands, touching various places, making double-sure nothing was broken after she got swiped at... she then shakes her head at Jessica. "This was the only Aurumaton assigned to this area... it might have been hit by some Stellaron corruption... a pity, they're not exactly easy to manufacture or repair." she says, looking at the smouldering wreck. It twitches a couple of times, jolts of green energy sparking out of the broken armour plates as the modules short out, then it releases a final groaning sigh and falls still.

    "Just up here is the Spatial Terminal. As the name implies it retrieves information about space." She heads over to the activation panel, and blue holograms appear, four of them in a kind of arrow-formation. Three across the connected corners on the left side near the panel, and one directly across from the center of the trio on the right side.

    "Eheh... sorry about that, then," Jessica replies, learning how expensive it was. "But we didn't really have much choice, I guess!" She wanders up to the holograms, scratching behind an ear. "Is this some kind of code? Is there some symbol of space we're supposed to know?"

    Her ears splay, "I'm not the best at space."

    For the record, Clara is ALL over Qingque like a henpecking mother (NO OFFENSE OH GREAT AND HONORABLE BI DE) with the first aid kit.
    As for the destroyed automaton Svarog is mostly silent.
    With Talia distracted this means Clara has to solve the puzzle doesn't she?
    "Oh. Um. Let me see..."
    Clara will play the Pick Up and Put Down minigame.

    Weirdly?

    Bi De knows this sort of thing.

    He eyes the symbol displayed, then hops up to take a look at the hologram positions. "Ah, I see. Another Formation." Feathers fluff up a bit, and he gestures with his wing to Clara and Jessica.

    "Move that one up above, next to the other one there. Take the middle of the three and move it down..." Basically trying to make the formation match.

    "It's pretty simple really. Just match the hexagram plate up with the trigram seal on the screen." indicates Qingque, pointing at the screen above her head on the main assembly. "While you're handling the Holograph Formation, I'll be ensuring the Jade Abacus arrangement matches up."

    With Bi De providing guidance, Clara and March make quick work of moving the holographic crystals into place, making a sharp-edged infinity symbol at a jaunty angle.

    "Right, that should just about... do it." comes Qingque, as the assembly pulses, and a blue light lims on another segment of the main platform.

    "The last one is the Karma Terminal. It establishes causal relationships... so they say." She leads the way. Talia thankfully scouting ahead and dealing with any errant hostiles with her force powers and lightsaber. Arriving at a purple hued hexagram Qingque activates it, and six purple crysaline holograms appear, forming over half the panel and leaving only two spaces on the edge, and the central spot open. The pattern that appears on the screen looks simple enough, but figuring out how to move the nodes properly will be difficult.

    With Bi De's help Clara does the thing!
    So moving on to the last terminal.
    "This one is just two moves." The girl says after a moment of realization.

    Jessica tries to help this time, but she's not at a good angle to see things. "Okay, now it makes sense. We just.... move these around until we make the pattern on the screen? That doesn't seem so bad." She approaches one of the holograms. "So where do I move this one?"

    It looks like Bi De needs to 'direct' again then. He finds a spot to climb up, tilts his head, and considers the options. "Yes. The one farthest that way, move it two slots down, so it is next to the other one. Then take the one you placed it next to, and move it to the other side of the one you just moved."

    That might sound vague, so he gestures with his wings, pleased that he's found something he's actually skilled at here aside from kicking stuff.

    With Jessica and Clara doing the thing, the Express crew keep watch. With the simple expedient of this one only being slightly misaligned, the terminal activates once things are properly placed and a purple light lims on the central dias... and a deep thrum starts to rattle through everyone's feet as the machinery comes to life once more... and it feels 'right', like they were standing upon a great beast whose heart has just now begun to beat once more.

    The trip back is met with minimal resistance, and Fu Xuan actually looks to be smiling... though it could just be a play of shadows across her face as she turns. "Well done, all of you. I can sense the Matrix of Prescience symbols re-illuminating." she takes a breath, and keys a symbol on her wrist, a little screen limming to life as she sends for Kafka. "Now, to interrogate Kafka. Those of you in the core may feel a few... impacts." she says, looking over as a group of Cloud Knights escort Kafka onto the platform. "Are you ready?" asks Fu Xuan.

    Kafka says in her usual mockingly jovial tone. "Is this really nescessary? I said I'd cooperate with you." She looks different, her eyes don't seem as flat, perhaps she had contact lenses in... and she's without makeup, her jacket and her sunglasses. her hands are bound in front of her at the wrists.

    So the Matrix has been repaired. But Optimus Prime is still dead.
    "Oh are we going to help with the interrogation now? Here here, I'll be good cop and Mr. Svarog can be bad cop."
    Svarog looks at Clara, perplexed.
    "I am certain you do not want me to be the bad one, Clara." He points out factually.
    "Okay! I'll be the bad cop then!"
    "Clara. I do not think you possess the capability to *be* bad." Svarog says.
    "Awwww."

    "If she's cooperating, is that really necessary?" Jessica points out. "And I'm not really sure I get the reference, either. Are there good cops in your world?" She looks puzzled, tail lifting in a curious wave.

    Then she frowns, "Still, something doesn't quite seem right about this. You should be careful," she says to Fu Xuan. And despite all odds, resists the urge to headpat.

    Bi De also feels cautious, and hops over toward Fu Xuan. He lowers his voice to murmur to her, "Do be careful, Miss Diviner. The trouble we are having has very interesting timing, and this woman is known to be a manipulator. There is a good chance you are doing exactly what she wants. Perhaps you should not try your usual approach."

    Fu Xuan nods to Bi De, and gently waves Jessica down. "I have no interest in the words of wanted criminals -- especially those skilled in the art of manipulation." she replies to Kafka... seems she's well aware of the dangers. "Say what you will, I am here to witness the divination of the Matrix of Prescience. Let it be the arbitor of truth in this matter."

    Kafka chuckles dryly, more like a single huffed exhalation. "Then please, Master Diviner, witness my destiny." she says in a sarcastic drawl.

    Kafka is led to the center of the platform, and with a few hand gestures, Fu Xuan activates the Matrix, the trio of panels the group lit bursting to life, and an intricate Formation etches itself into reality around Kafka, an overlaid triple hexagram with an eye-like structure in the center that matches the jewel set into Fu Xuan's forehead. Structures in the platform lift up and surround the Stellaron Hunter, as she's lifted into the air, various patterns forming around her, before they break and reform.

    Fu Xuan's eyes glow blue, as do Kafka's, though the latter is getting a very dangerous smirk on her face as she stares down the Diviner... a few seconds of this pass, and then the formation Fu Xuan is maintaining breaks, and she gasps, as if surprised by what she saw. The Matrix begins to slowly wind down, dropping Kafka lightly back onto the central platform, where she remains standing. Passive.

    Bi De watches this with some tense trepidation, but he doesn't seem surprised at Kafka's smug look. Still wary, the chicken roosts up close to the gasping Fu Xuan, keeping his voice low as he regards her. "Are you all right? Did you see something distressing?"

    He lowers his voice further, conspiratorially. "You should be wary. I have encountered enough humans to hear things, and many say that manipulative females are very good at faking it."

    He clearly has no idea what context that is for.

    Stuff happens. Things are afoot.
    Clara has *no idea what is going on*.
    She just kind of stares at Bi De for a moment.
    "Good at fa-"
    "Do not." Svarog interrupts her to halt her sentence and thought processes.
    "???" Clara's puzzled expression is supreme.

    Jessica fingers the grip of her pistol warily, watching the entire thing... and she doesn't release even when the glowing 'interrogation' ends, still very uncertain that this is a good idea. Even if she seems kind of oblivious in many ways, she does have basic pattern recognition when it comes to Kafka.

    Then she turns and stares at Bi De.

    Svarog's interruption is met with a rapid head nodding, her cheeks turning a brilliant red hue.

    "That, is why you're here? All for that?" asks Fu Xuan, staring agape at Kafka.

    Kafka chuckles softly to herself, the playful menace returning to her voice now. "Oh? Not what you were expecting?"

    Fu Xuan's lips twitch, various little muscles in her face flickering as if they're all trying to comprehend what just happened. "I can't believe it... but the Matrix cannot be wrong."