World Tree MUSH

    Since Syd and Beatrix' homestead hasn't been... built yet, they took Rebecca towards the city of Ot. Home's landscape is picturesque and almost completely untouched by civilization of any kind. Just a few hundred miles of primeval world. Strangely devoid of animals yet.
    "So what's happened while I was gone?" Syd asks of Beatrix and Rebecca, examining a rock he doesn't remember and mentally musing about how quickly one forgets all the countless details woven into a world.

    So what happened while Syd was gone...
    "Yo that's a good question, Syd, choom. I oughta ask what happened in fairyland while you were there." Rebecca counters. "But like I visited this joint and they were all 'SYD FORTIS HAS GONE MISSING' And I was like 'dang yo' so I grabbed Beatrix and we moseyed to get you."

     Beatrix doesn't mind it, she seems to be prone to preserving things anyways. "Oh. Well I punched a couple of council members, our oldest got into the medical training program?" she offers, "Something is provoking unrest. The usual, it's been a bit quiet a lot of work for everyone to restock Ot himself." she offers, looking at Rebecca for a moment. She grins. "Rebecca did indeed come talk to me. I'm very thankful, Rebecca." she offers, bowing her head politely. She seems a lot more relaxed now that he's back.

    Syd nods, listening. "I mean, I'm sure you got up to interesting things on your own, Rebecca." He sets the rock down. "After all, trouble seems to find you, not the other way around."
    He looks at the sky as a crack of thunder reverberates despite the azure skies ony having faint wisps of clouds. Then he points at a mote of light, perhaps the same one they spied fleeing from Balor's hold, zig-zagging crazily towards the wide gentle hill that Ot sits upon. "Is that something that's been happening?"

    That earns a laugh from Rebecca as she offers Beatrix a fistbump with a huge mechanical metal hand. "Syd's cool by me, so like I had to do something about it. And now here we all are. But me? Find trouble? Neeeeeever." She says with the biggest grin.
    Right up until thunder claps. Rebecca glances up. Then she squints as her cyberoptics zoom in. "Unno?"

    The tall woman seems to be think for a moment "Not that I've seen." she offers, keeping an eye on the mote. "I feel like I've seen that behavior somewhere before." She muses in a thoughtful tone, taking a moment to rub her feet into the soft earth, cheeks getting pink, the blush blooms across her cheeks like watercolor on wet paper, revealing the paler splotchy mottling of her flesh. She reaches up to ruffle Syd's curls "I doubt its anything important." she gestures towards the mote. Rebecca is regarded and Beatrix grins "Gentle girly, your arms make me look small and dainty.".

    Syd shrugs. "Probably not."
    As they walk, Syd describes some of the food that they make on Autochthonia. Outside of the nutrient paste dishes that are far more common. He talks about the food they experimentally cook whenever they make planetfall. The odd animals and plants they sampled and decided to stash away for husbandry and hydroponic farming. He describes at length the exotic spices that are cultivated to make the nutrient paste more palatable.
    Eventually, they get to the gates of Ot and the carnival-like encampment of raksha outside of it. There's a crowd gathered at the gates, where a man in what is only describable as alien clothes is demanding to speak to the Solar Deliberative (his 'equals' as he puts it). There is no soulgem on his forehead, only a glowing mark resembling a lit brazier. The raksha present seem amused and are merely watching; the humans assembled appear to be his followers.
    Syd gives Beatrix a puzzled glance. "Friend of yours?"

    Rebecca daps gently!
    "Gorilla Arms-- these are pretty preem augs, huh? I got 'em so I could deal with the recoil from anything, and nothing's put me on my ass since!"
    Right then, so Rebecca looks pretty lost. Oh she's interested in hearing about the food, because any food is better than the slop they feed people in Night City, but when the party arrives at the gates to Ot and there's a bunch of fair folk, the solo blinks.
    "More fairies? Cool I guess but who's that guy?" She asks abut the lit brazier forehead guy. "Either of you know him?"

     "Oh dear. That's concerning. I don't off hand but might? Let me go see." Her feet speed up, letting go of Syd for a moment. "I have a clue, those clothes though look like what I used to sew for friends when I was too weak to fight." she offers, voice soft. She clicks her tongue, heading right for the throngs of people, "I am not a solar, nor I am I part of their Deliberative, I am however a Lunar. Will I do for now?" she asks, voice silken and soft. Her weight dips politely to the strange exalt. 
    The silvery woman seems to sway waifishly as she looks at the raksha and humans curiously, dark eyes shifting to be a little larger as if she is trying to literally read the room. The stranger is regarded closely and with a delicate smile.

    Syd shakes his head. "New to me. I didn't even see anything like that in the Wyld." He leans a bit to quietly talk to Rebecca. "I get the sense this guy is gonna start a fight. If the people start fighting for him, try to knock them out." He doesn't exactly want the common folk to get killed over a charismatic jerk.
    The wintery soul regards Beatrix. "An emissary is acceptable." Clearly not considering the Lunar to be an 'equal'. "I demand to know where in Creation I am. This is not the Blessed Isle. I do not see Mount Meru. While these people have sworn fealty to me, they are not my Terrestrial retainers. Moreover, why is the sun dark and the moon unchanging?" He speaks in an odd version of the lingua franca of Autochthonia's elite. The words are pronounced a bit angular, sharper and not softened by 4,200 years of use.
    Syd to Rebecca. "Promise you a nice grilled yeddim steak after this."

    A lot of this flies over Rebecca's head. Se's an outsider here so she doesn't know about The Blessed Isle or much about Creation. She just knows she showed up in Ot yelled a lot and then snagged Beatrix to grab Syd and the rest was history.
    "Who are you?" She pointedly asks the guy who looks like an older Syd after Beatrix announces herself before she looks to Actual Syd.
    "Knocking out ain't exactly my thing but I'll try?" She offers before grinning big.
    "You know me, I'm always down for steak."

     The silvery woman just smiles "I haven't heard this accent in 4200 or so years." She muses, reaching up to touch her cheek "Let me answer your questions." she offers, looking at him and flushing lightly "Well stranger, I regret to say I do not know what a Blessed Isle is in honesty. Nor do I know where Mount Meru is. I remember a Mount Stillspire on the edge of the sea of golden barley?" she offers, simply, eyes half closed as if she's remembering "The Midnight Sun is our sun here, as The unconquered sun." She takes a moment, spitting in disgust at the mention of the sun "Decided to become the Tyrant Sun. He gave up on the war and bent the knee. He is not our champion. The Moon is Lethe, not Luna. Luna is long missing to the people here." she offers, mimicking his accent perfectly, as if it is a mother tongue for her. "As impetuous as it may seem, what do you believe you are?" she asks, calmly. Her hand starts to raise but settles back down in front of her. She looks a little tense, keeping an ear on Syd and Rebecca while focusing on keeping track of the normal people and the strange exalt. She head tilts in general at the whole situation.

    The man scowls, the deeply tanned skin wrinkling. "I think this is all some trick by the fair folk." He gestures at the raksha that are just watching the story play out. "After all, why else would they be so passive? And then there's him; a doppelganger of my youth!" Flecks of spittle fly as he jabs a finger at Syd. "I am a Lawgiver! Chosen of the Unconquered Sun! I am Syd Fortis, member of the Solar Deliberative."
    "Yeah, but that's who *I* am." says the other Syd, pointing to his forehead where his half-filled circle glitters in the light of the Midnight Sun. "... So what does that make *you*? You came out of nowhere."
    Here, some of the raksha speak up. "Literally! We saw a star fall and there he was! Popped into existence like a flight of fancy!" There's laughter from the fair folk audience.
    The Exalternate's face turns red with apoplectic rage and an aura giving glimpses into another true reality fades in around him. The humans who gathered around him straighten themselves as they seem to be overlapped by hardier warrior-like folk. They move forward at a silent command to attack Beatrix, Rebecca, and Syd, phantasmal spears and shields at the ready.
    Syd just sighs. "So much for diplomacy."

    SO this is a problem.
    Here's Syd being cool as a cucumber and there's, supposedly, another, older, Syd getting very angry and blaming the fair folk.
    "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Rebecca says sagaciously in the face of all this.
    She looks to Syd. She looks to Beatrix. Then she frowns when the other Syd's entourage move to attack. Rebecca pulls an assault rifle and takes aim and...
    "Ughhhhhhhhhhhh...!" She groans remembering she sort of promised to not wantonly kill people today.
    Fuck it." She says, fed up, "If I deal with the small fries you two can take mister Sunny Disposition, yeah?" She asks Syd and Beatrix as she steps aside for a beat, heads to the gate of Ot and walks right up to one of the Exalt guards.
    "Borrowing this." She announces as she snags the sheath of the guard's sword. Not the sword. Just the sheath.
    Which she turns around, and promptly starts wielding like a club. Anyone who gets in her way?
    They're gonna get sheath slapped.

     "Gaia Curse it all. Settle down." she calls out "I am Beatrix Fortis. I am his Lunar mate." She sighs, pushing her hair off of her face, noticably not having her own surname, it seems, also she doesn't offer her lunar name. "You want a fight." She backs up, breathing out "Syd, I may have to answer questions if this gets too messy." she calls out in actual discomfort, squaring up, eyes going wide. She does not have armor, nor does she have weaponry visible. 
     A simple commanding suggestion is issued to the fair folk and this man's retinue. "Run." Beatrix's face gives away that she is uncomfortable with every bit of this situation. "I do not wish to do this." she mumbles shaking her head, her cheeks are getting wet from tears, as if an old traumatic spot has been jabbed aggressively. She looks like she's trying to figure out what to use now. Remembering Rebecca is here does help motivate the lunar lunatic, her hand extends claws and she swings on the stranger claiming to be Syd.

    The real Syd gets out the big hammer and gets to assisting Rebecca. "It'll go faster like this." And he doesn't aim for the people themselves so much as their shields and spears, to break the spears and shatter the shields. He also deliberately knocks the spearmen into Rebecca's swings like baseballs.
    Exalternate Syd takes a nasty claw swipe to the face from Beatrix, stunned for a moment before furiously headbutting at the silver-haired witch. Meanwhile the raksha are cheering and making bets on what's going to happen in this juicy drama.
    As for the guards at the gate, they shoot the crowd with their weird guns after somebody calls for crowd control. It's all weird sounds and bursts of light as they knock down the not-warriors that attempt to rush the gate.

    Syd and Becca make for a good team. While the Solar breaks weapons and bats guys into Rebecca... She...
    Well this is about as 'gentle' as she gets. In her defense she's not wantonly killing people today. That would be SO MUCH EASIER.
    Instead she's battering and pummeling. She's not the best fist fighter but she's scrappy and has spirit. So she ends up eating a few knocks here and there but on the whole...?
    She has Gorilla Arms.
    Every punch she swings hits like a *truck* and breaks bones and spirit in equal measure as she bodily picks a guy up.
    "HEY FUCKER." She shouts at Exalternate Syd.
    "CATCH."
    It's a diversion tactic so Beatrix can get a better hit on him. She literally chucks a guy at the Exalt.

    The lunar's bones are lies apparently! She bonelessly swoops away like a shell free lobster, shifting her weight and moving to try to get a running start to spear tackle the solar imposter in line with Rebecca's toss. "Don't head butt me, if you are Syd, I am a lunar you should cherish!" she grunts, trying to take the NotSyd to the ground which is a little awkward given her and Syd are the same height and around the same weight most of the time. 
     The movements are not to kill or especially hurt but to subdue. It's just too hard to beat up the face of your beloved for her. She does not seem to be too resistant to bruising the devil out of NotSyd.

    The breaking of bones and knocking of skulls is not that much of a problem, as the humans will probably welcome some relaxation from relentless work rotas. But then that one poor sap gets thrown towards NotSyd and unwillingly bodies the alien Exalt, giving Beatrix an opening. Down he goes from being tackled, clonking his head on a rock. He struggles against Beatrix, shouting creative obscenities. The raksha murmur and look about themselves as their fine clothing and accoutrements are ripped asunder by some trick of the pseudo-Getimian's magic, the illusions dispelled. They panic and flee towards their settlement, unwilling to stick around and find out what other deleterious effects it has.
    With the mooks all down thanks to a team effort, Syd turns to Rebecca and offers a high-five before walking towards where Beatrix and his alternate are fighting. He looks like he's fixing to try and mend fences, perhaps.

    There's no way in hell Becca is going to leave Syd hanging. The high five resounds mightily for all to hear before Rebecca dusts her hands off smugly. She has some bruises and cuts that will need to be tended to but no major injuries to speak of.
    She specced into Body over Brains or Cool, so she has plenty of HP.
    "Where's everybody going? Bingo?" She asks as the Raksha bail and the mooks are taken care of.
    So Beatrix nabs Exalternate Syd and Rebecca hustles to follow Syd over.
    Do not expect her to fence mend though, her idea of diplomacy is down the barrel of a gun.

    "Please, calm." she whispers "Syd do you have something to restrain hands?" she asks, sort of sitting on Not-Syd and using her arms to hug him so he can't move his arms. She has a knee in the poor guy's arm pit and likely is squishing delicate anatomy with her other. Her face is still a little wet from unwanted tears. "I'm still not sure why he got so mad at my words." she confesses, her delicate ensemble just covered in dust from the tackle. 
     The silvery woman pulls a mom face at Rebecca, "Dear one you are injured. I'll tend you while we eat. I can take any sting from those easily." she offers, leaning to give Not Syd a somewhat invasive sniff, trying to figure him out still.

    Syd shakes his head. "I... don't." He glances at Rebecca. "How about you? Anything to tie m- him up with?" He rubs his chin. "Of course, we could just knock him out." 
    Not-Syd's form flickers for a moment, briefly revealing a weaving of glass and rainbow-sheened steel threads. Then the thing collapses entirely into unspooled thread and leaving Beatrix cradling a rather malformed spider made of silverglass and steel. 
    Syd gets startled by the destruction of his doppelganger. "Uh... Maybe his- its essence was unstable?"

    "I think I've got a set of handcuffs a cop tried to use on me." Becca says.
    She does not elaborate as she pulls out a mangled set of handcuffs annnnnnnnnnd he's gone.
    "..."
    Becca just stands there awkwardly holding handcuffs.
    "Well that's effed up."

Breathes out when her knees hit the ground due to the spider's collapse. "A pattern spider from a loom?" she asks, mostly to herself. She slowly scrambles up, pulling the spider to her chest "I need to put this in my study to figure out what it is. I think I know but need to be sure. Can we meet back up at the steak place?" she asks, mostly towards Syd shifting to press her face against Syd for comfort. "I think we did something serious and Balor may have accidentally suceeded at his goal of creating an exalt." she murmurs, touching the spider cautiously and petting it to study its shape. Curiousity on her face now.