World Tree MUSH

    With Mist in ruins, the nearest town is a little bit of a trek away through the deseert. But Kaipo, although small, is a little gem of an oasis. With stone walls to keep the desert sahagin out, the locals are quick to provide shelter and aid for the refugees of Mist on arrival.
    There were a few survivors left shaken and shell-shocked by the conflagration of their town, followed by the sudden and violent quake that split the earth. And the girl that had caused that destructive quake was still out. The innkeeper was kind enough to provide lodging free of charge, though, and a bed is promised to anyone that walked out of Mist, for anyone that needs.
    The girl, herself, is still out; dropped by the sheer exhausting toll of that wild Summon, though she had begun stirring fitfully in the last hour.

    Sitting at a table nearby, Harley is frantically scribbling in her large book. She's had to add notes in there about Summoners, Mist, the dragon they encountered, the massive stone-man she's pretty sure she's seen on a tablet somewhere before, Vivian - especially Vivian, her being so unusual by the standards of this world - and for good measure, Baron, the king, and Cecil.

    She prefers to keep notes.
    It's rumored you might get something if you fill her compendium up to 100% by the end of the game, but it could just be a sound test menu.

    Wisely she's chosen to keep the vial of mist stuffed in her bag under a lot of other things.

    Shin has kicked EVERYONE out of the inn kitchen on threat of roundhouse kick to the side of the head. 

    He's also been in the kitchen almost since he arrived, which is multiple hours. Every once in a while, a dish leaves the kitchen. It tends to be among the best thing whoever eats that dish has ever tasted in their life, roughly on par with professional food from a Michelin Star Restaurant. 

    The dishes that have come out over the past few hours have ranged from fresh-cut sushi with hand-ground spices and fresh rice to robatayaki skewers of grilled bird with mushrooms and onions. He's not really taking requests. 

    When a dish is finished, he comes out wearing an apron and a bandana to hold his hair back and sets it down on the counter of the inn before walking off silently. 

    Right now, he emerges from the kitchen with what look like two bowls of pork ramen.

    Brood.

    Yeah, Cecil broods. At least he looks way less threatening with his helmet off, since he's more bishonen pretty than growling and threatening, even if he does have dark circles under his eyes. He's been pacing a lot, periodically checking on Rydia with some worry.

    He mutters quietly, "I've been thinking... and I don't think Vivian was behind that. No matter how I look at it, the package was from Baron, and I can't believe the King wouldn't know."

    "We were played," Aloy says bluntly. "Your King might not be the man you knew." She is working on some arrows, making them more carefully than her usual hurried pace, and affixing the shards of strange alloy atop each shaft. "It wouldn't be the first time a good ruler has turned bad. Or maybe someone is fooling him. Either way, this hurt a lot of people. I'd like some answers."

    "She said that the king had decreed the Summoners of Mist a threat," Harley idly mentions, adjusting her glasses as she puts her pen down. "Baron has been undergoing radical changes in the last year. Its military is stronger than ever, the Red Wings patrol the sky with more vigor and zeal than ever before in times of peace. The day before the incident in Mist, I saw them head towards the southern continent. What business has Baron so far out of its borders?"

    Cecil is a lot prettier now, which makes it both easier and harder to glare at him. This cancels out into Harley NOT staring at him, and having remained extremely polite. Dark Knights, you know? Pretty or not there's a reputation that comes with the armor.

    But the question was certainly aimed at him.
    Mister Captain of the Red Wings.

    The scholar's attention is diverted by Shin's entry, staring at his bowls of ramen. "Oh... that looks quite good. Is there more?"

    The smell is nice, and even the brooding Cecil is distracted from his thoughts. "Mn... I could believe them a threat, but to attack like that, burning civilians and without warning? That's..." He shakes his head, then clenches his jaw.

    "Baron has been gathering crystals, and Mysidia had one." He pulls a chair out to sit down, looking at Aloy with some wariness at what she says. "The Red Wings were ordered to take it, by force if necessary. And they did. My objections to these orders were what lead to my demotion and this mission. My friend Kain stood up for me and received the same punishment." He sighs. "And if this is happening here... then we need to get to Baron, and soon. What could be happening there? Even if the King is not behind this, whomever really is would have almost no opposition, if they can do this much."

    "First come, first served. I'm probably going to do beef fried rice or some yakisoba next," Shin says to Harley as he plots the two bowls down on the counter, "Pork Ramen. I used Pork Belly and some garlic oil to go with it. Plus a buncha local vegetables. I kinda winged it, but I've been doing that with most recipes I've been bringing out." 

    Shin's twirling a chef knife in one hand and holding a sharpener that he runs the knife against in the other expertly, "Cooking is like martial arts. It's about balance and harmony. Therefore, because I want to go commit regicide, I'm cooking until that feeling passes and I can restore my fucking chakras to allignment. It's like meditation." He explains, face slipping into a scowl briefly. 

    "If it passes." He adds glumly. What happened at Rydia's village is heavy on his conscience.

    There's a stirring from the room beyond. A soft thump, a little shuffle, and then silence. There's no doubting what it was though when the door creaks ajar. It's not exactly very subtle, and now there's a green eye peeking out into the inn with a childish, but very warranted, glower.

    "The Crystals? What need has the king of such heirlooms?" Harley asks, curious, as she flips through her pages until she finds her notes on the four of them. Predictably there's not much.

    "Well... it is said that the Crystal of Troia can grant eternal life, and there are other legends regarding them, but..."

    She peers down at her scribbles.
    <<NOTE TO SELF: VISIT MYSIDIA, CONSULT ELDER.>>

    "... so very unfortunate."
    The Devil's Road is in Baron. They don't have a ship.

    "Can we even go back? That little girl's Eidolon sundered the earth quite badly, I would not be surprised if the cave had collapsed."

    Shin's words, mostly, seem to upset Harley, but not in an angry offended way. More of a... "It looks and smells quite good, so you must be quite the martial artist, but must you use such crass language?"

    She moves to take a bowl, when she catches sight of the opening door. She extends the bowl towards the door instead. "Young lady, please join us. You must be hungrier than any of us."

    "Regicide is never clean or easy," Aloy notes, putting the arrow down. "... I've never seen anything like that, I should try it." She shakes her head. "I'm just a hunter, but I've seen what happens when you kill a king. It will tear the country apart. Maybe that can be for the better, but we should try to find-"

    The door opens and Aloy looks at Rydia now. "You're awake. Come and sit down, we have a lot to talk about." She's not all that great at comforting.

    She nods at Harley, "And why they want these Crystals. I don't know anything about them, I'm not from here."

    "Regicide is super easy," Shin replies to Aloy, "I'm gonna walk into the castle, beat up anyone in my way, and then POW." Shin punches the air with the hand not holding the knife, "I shatter the King's head like a cinderblock." 

    As he winds down from this thought, Shin absentmindedly drifts off his cooking schedule. Instead, he grabs a nearby fish and starts fileting it idly with the chef's knife, cleaning it with a towel every so often and then setting about to cutting the fish into smaller pieces, "At the end of the day, I don't like people turning me into a villain." 

    Shin hasn't noticed Rydia's awake yet. Or glowering at him. He's too focused on grabbing some rice from a bowl and shaping it before he sets the fish on top and plating it up. There's about a dozen pieces of nigiri in a few minutes as he looks towards Harley, "Language was never my strong suit. I'm about as blunt as a closed fist. Sorry, WPLI. Glad you like the grub, though. Don't ask me to write any recipes down, I can't." He appears to have shortened Woobie Possible Love Interest for brevity by now. 

    "You think she'll ever be okay again?" He asks generally.

    Cecil just eyes Shin. "Please remember that I /am/ a knight of Baron, and even if he needs to be taken care of, I am still his subject. I would prefer to know if revolution is needed before we talk about killing the man who practiclaly raised me."

    Nice going, Shin.

    "But..." he allows, "This is not something I can forgive, and I can't blame you for thinking that." He looks over at Rydia. "OR the girl here for hating me. If we are to find out what is going on, we'll need to go to Baron the long way around. Either through these... bridges... or via way of Damcyan." He sighs, scooting away from Rydia. "Please, sit and eat. You must be starving."

    "Mnh."
    There's a long silence. No answer, just that baleful glower of a girl that's had everything she's ever known burned down and needs someone to blame. And right now it's really easy to find someone to blame.
    It's tough to tell if she's just going to stay hiding in the doorway for as long as she can or will do anything else, before she's won over by the growl of her stomache. Eventually the door opens fully and Rydia steps out warily, and sits herself in silence. That bowl of ramen is eyed like its made of pure poison- and considering Vivian's words that the Summoners of Mist were ordered to be wiped out it shouldn't be surprising she's wary of it before suspicion is overpowered by hunger, and she starts tearing into the soup ravenously.

    Since Aloy isn't good with kids, she is pretty quiet around Rydia, but she also has things to say. Particularly to Shin, since Harley seems more of the kind to tell her what she wants to know and Cecil is brooding. "I don't think it will be that easy," she counters. "I'm sure the king has guards... guards which are likely to be Cecil's friends, and may be innocent of doing anything wrong themselves."

    Aloy tucks the arrows away when Rydia comes to join them, but apparently thinks nothing of talking about dangers with the girl around. "And remember Vivian was working for them. She was a dangerous enemy, and if not for the girl here she might have finished the job, or at least done far worse. We weren't really going easy on her, were we? And what about the chaos after the king is killed? It took Avad years to restore order when his father died, and his father wasn't as popular as Baron's king seems to be. Who even is the heir?"

    "Look, Aloy, right? You just described a whole lotta 'someone else's problem' and not a lot of 'my specific problem'." Shin says pretty bluntly as he cleans the knife with a towel and looks towards Cecil, "You can find out more if you like. But I have all the information I need and I'm pretty focused on handling this my way." 

    Shin clenches a hand into a fist to pop his knuckles to demonstrate, "You guys wanna make a more organized way of fixing this place, maybe you should all team up. Make a big team of people all focused on stopping people like Vivian or whatever." He waves his hand, "Ain't my bag, though. The wandering sage of martial arts is a lone spirit. Consider me a guest party member, here to help you in dramatic moments, but on his own side."

SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama]>>> You guys should form a faction or something.

    "I had... noticed," Harley responds to Shin, trying to make sense of what he just said. Rydia's approach makes her set that matter aside but she'll make a note to come back to it. Shorthand? Code? Oh well.

    "Legends aside, there are no reasons I can think of to seek the Crystals. They are said to be powerful and to represent the four elements of the world, but there are no records of them ever being used for anything. They are heirlooms, treasures kept by the kingdoms for so long nobody quite recalls how that came to be."

    And so it's all the stranger Baron would deploy such resources to acquire one. To declare war on another kingdom outright?

    Rydia takes the bowl and starts eating. Harley watches her curiously, though she spares Aloy a moment. "Where are you from, if not here? Come to think of it... the magic that woman used did not look like anything we have here, either."

    Oh, Cecil said the D word. "I have heard that Damcyan's prince is quite the gentleman. Not to mention, they have a Crystal. Baron may target them next. Or Fabul. Or..." Oh. Oh, no. "Troia..."

    Cecil frowns, "Baron has a fleet of airships, a castle, numerous guards and mages, and is separated from us by treacherous mountains. You have an excellent palate, some skill in fighting, and... a lot of anger? You'll be marching to your death."

    He sets his hands on the table. "You don't need to work with me, but you should approach carefully. You are skilled, but I think my friend Kain could best you, and Baigan is stronger still. You'll help no one if you die. It will just be more of a tragedy."

    He sighs and looks at Rydia. "We've already caused enough of that." Steeling himself, he says, "I am Cecil, and I am the one who caused this. Hate me if you must, but I intend to set things right."

    He can't answer Harley at the moment, but her questions do have him pondering.

    A few bites in and Rydia hasn't died. Which means she starts absolutely wolfing that ramen down. Summoning Titan, before one is ready, exacts a massive toll, and that means there's some angry slurping on noodles and broth.
    But anyone even remotely paying attention to her will notice that... She's listening in. She's paying very rapt attention to the conversation at hand.
    One final slurp of noodles and the bowl is set down.
    "Then you're taking me with you."
    It's the first thing out of her mouth, and her tone suggests that she's damned serious.

    Aloy is listening to Cecil, but Harley hits the real questions. "I'm from the Sacred Lands of the Nora, but I've been staying in Carja most of the time of late." Words that likely mean nothing. "Lately, strangers from much farther away than before have been appearing. There is talk of other worlds, like the... hmm." How can she explain space travel to these people when her own people don't understand what she's talking about?

    Well... "I've never seen that before, either, or what happened with the ground." She shrugs. "Think of me as being from far away. I'm here to hunt the machines that have invaded your lands. They're dangerous and unstable until the Terraforming Engine can be repaired."

    Rydia's declaration has her... saying something. "Of course you are, you have as much reason as anyone." Apparently her age doesn't bother Aloy. "We should find you a mount, to keep up." And then, "Cecil, Harley, how far to Damcyan on foot?"

    Cecil does a good enough job to summarize Baron's defenses that Harley is now less motivated than ever to go back to Baron. She looks at Aloy, instead, nodding at what she explains. "I see. That will be worth studying, I believe!" Other worlds and all that. Definitely sounds safer than going against Baron. Ah, right, Damcyan...

    Harley reaches into her bag and places a map of the world on the table, pointing at Kaipo. "We are here. Damcyan is..." slightly to the north, past some mountains, still in the desert, she indicates. "Here. I am uncertain how long it would take. I believe there is a pass in the mountains that allows for safe passage?" She's never gone that way before, so she wouldn't know. Cecil might?

    Harley is caught by surprise at Rydia's forwardness. "Once we get to Damcyan, we could request a vessel to sail to Troia. You would be safe there, if you wished to stay."

    Cecil rubs his chin. "Yes, there is a passage, but we'll need to prepare for the trip. It looks like you're with us for a while longer, Shin... there's not a whole lot of options anyway." Unless he wants to stay here and cook. Though he could break off and do his own thing.

    The news of other worlds is something he's heard a little of too, considering the hiring done, but he doesn't have anything to share with Harley on that matter. "Troia is a good kingdom. I worry if Baron targets them as well. Hopefully, the Red Wings will be grounded while they find a new Captain, buying us some time."

    Rydia has him looking on with concern. "I... would rather you be somewhere safe, but if you choose to come with us, I will keep you from harm."

    Shin twirls the knife around in his hand and looks towards Cecil, "You guys are together. I'm with me. Guest Party Member and all." Shin waggles the knife a bit and then sets it down on the counter in front of him, "You guys seem like a cool lot. WPLI especially." He gestures towards Harley. 

    "And I feel terrible for the girl," Shin motions towards Rydia now, "But I don't really do 'teams'. I'll hang around on and off, we'll cross paths probably if there's only one way to Baron, but..." Shin shakes his head, "I'm probably gonna go on my own." 

    Shin sighs and unties his apron to take it off, "Sorry, Afro-American Knight. Gonna turn down that party request."

    "I don't want to besomewhere safe, or stay in Troia, I want to go to Baron."
    The child is adamant, apparently, clenching her hands into fists at the hem of her clothes. "There's nothing left for me now and I want to know why." There's a shakey breath, but she composes herself quickly again. "And unless another Summoner is among the survivors, that makes me the last, and still in danger anyway if the king of Baron says so. So I'm going." She says, settling the matter in her eyes.
    "I can call a chocobo." She does comment to Aloy. "M-... Mom taught me how." She pauses there a beat, before shaking her head. "So don't feel bad for me, I can take care of myself."

    "Running to the problem, instead of from it," Aloy comments. "I like this one," she admits. "Even if I'm not sure I believe all this stuff about magic. Everything here is pretty strange though... and you've certainly managed to have better technology than my people have made." Mostly, anyway.

    Aloy stretches and nods, "All right, I want to see this through too. These people used me to do their dirty work, and I don't think I like that either."

    Shin picks up the knife in his hand, "If you're travelling, I'm making you a bento." 

    Shin points the knife at Rydia, "You stay here. I'll be right back." He rolls the blade in his hand a bit and then the sounds of chopping and cooking come from the kitchen. It takes about fifteen minutes total, but he comes out a few moments later with a small box wrapped in paper. 

    "Tonkatsu cutlet with white rice, pickled ginger, and some omlette for you." He holds the box out to Rydia, "Eat it on the road. Don't share with the dark knight."

    Cecil stares after Shin, and then when the martial artist gives the bento to Rydia with explicit instructions like that, there is only one thing he can say.

    "... now that is just cruel."

    Rydia is silent again for a moment before she shakes her head.
    "Running away from the problem never solved anything. And it just means more running when it doesn't go away, and that's not what I want to do." The girl has a will of iron apparently but-
    But then she's staring at Shin. Pointing the knife at her earns a slight flinch, but then he's off to the kitchen. And comes back with a bento and instructions on who NOT to share it with.
    Considering how good the ramen was, she accepts it with a mumbled "Thank you." Before she remembers something important. An introduction.
    "I'm Rydia. And you're stuck with me now."