World Tree MUSH

 
It is morning, Temulin's yurt remains where it was the day before. The dark knight is sitting outside her yurt and has various roasted meats and vegetables for breakfast. While she's not wearing her armor, she does look somewhat wary of her surroundings. There's some bandages around where Yumi hit her, and when she moves she still looks a bit stuff.

    Unlike last time, there's no sound of chocobo claws to herald Yumi's arrival. There is only the sound of well-oiled gears, tires on dirt and stone; a very out-of-place vehicle approaching, one that makes it plain this person is from off-world even without her strange clothes and backpack.

    Yumi is not old enough to drive any sort of actual vehicle. So a bicycle is just about all she can manage. But at least it's a rugged one, an off-road model with durable tires, good shock absorbers and a solid frame. She can take it just about anywhere! Like, say, rolling up to a yurt in the middle of a foreign world. "Hey, uh, I just wanted to say sorry. Like, personally, not just in a note."

 
The dark knight looks over towards Yumi and those red eyes narrow. "Thanks to you, the primal got away." She says in an even tone, voice low. She takes another bite from her food and stares at Yumi. Waiting for an explanation. She clearly doesn't think she was in the wrong there.

    The expression and tone speak volumes, and Yumi frowns softly. There's some sort of fundamental misunderstanding here. "I'm afraid I don't even know what a 'Primal' is," the redhead replies, carefully swinging a leg off her bike, and deploying the kickstand. "But I'm guessing it's something from your world. Could you explain it to me?" Whatever it is, it's clear she thought Whyt was one.

 
"A primal is an abomination that feeds upon the aether of the land, causing much devastation by there mere presence. On top of which, they tend to warp the minds of people around them to turn them into loyal devout worshippers, who from that point forward can do naught but serve their false deity." Temulin explains the concept in brief, "I've never seen a hyur summon a primal before, but that was what it was, I'm sure of it."

    "I see," Yumi muses, thoughtful. Swinging her backpack off her back, she brings it around and sets it down at her feet, starting to unzip it and shuffle through it as she talks. "Well, I can confirm that I don't particularly worship anything right now. I have ideals I'll fight for, and I'll protect my friends, but nothing I'd consider a god. The same goes for Rydia, I'm pretty sure - at the very least, she definitely doesn't worship Whyt."

    One wrapped package on the ground, then another, and a third. "I don't really know the details," Yumi adds, "But Rydia's summoning seems to work by forming contracts. She formed one with a unicorn that attacked my world, in fact. And a bunch of goblins."

 
Temulin raises her eyebrows. "It felt really similar to a primal, at least." She insists but seems mollified by the explanation. She relaxes a bit and says, "I'm an adventurer to pay the bill." She begins to explain herself and pausing to think of how to put it, "But I don't fight primals for money, I fight primals because I'm the one who can do so safely, and someone needs to do it."

    Yumi inclines her head faintly. "I-" Then she stops, and chuckles quietly. "I'm going to spend half this conversation saying 'I see', aren't I?" She decides to park herself on the ground, drawing up her knees and resting her arms on it. "But I get it. Some things are more important than money, and if it /was/ a Primal, you had to act fast. I'd have made the same call in your shoes, probably."

    The girl leans forward a little, so that she can rest her chin on her arms. "Out on the Tree, though, we have to be careful applying our rules to other worlds. There was this guy a while back, Copen. Utterly convinced that anyone using any form of magic is some kind of demon that's taken over a person's body. You couldn't convince him otherwise, no matter how hard you tried, and he was on a crusade to kill every last one. I get the sense some mage from his world hurt him in the past. And hey, maybe in his world, that's true, they really are people possessed by demons, but..." Shrug. "I dunno about you, but I'm pretty sure I'm not a demon." She shakes her head a little. "So I know it's probably gonna bite me on the backside some day, but I take a wait-and-see approach. You never know what the rules are gonna be in a new place."

 "And if this had been a person from just about any other world, I would've done the same. But this is the girl's world, and this world is so much like my own..." The dark knight explains her stance. "I kind of assumed that was the same, too. How many worlds have those horse-birds? How many worlds have gil as their money? Even many of the monsters I've encountered are so similar to those back home."

    Again, Yumi nods. "Yeah, I get you on that. It's... it's really rough. Like I said, I'd have probably made the same call in your shoes, so don't feel too bad about it." Pause. "...Rydia's probably going to be grumpy about it for a while, but I'll try and talk to her." Ahem. "But now we know there can be worlds that are really similar, but with small differences. And honestly, it's probably better we found out this way, than the other way around. If we tried to make nice with your world's Ramuh and he fried us or tried to make us his slaves, that would have been a much nastier surprise." Another brief pause. "...does your world even have a Ramuh? Old man with the power of thunder, as big as one of those really tall buildings from my city?"

 "Ramuh is a primal associated with the Sylphs, description matches what I've heard of him. I haven't spent much time in the black shroud though, so I haven't encounted him or the Sylphs." Temulin answers the last question first, and nods to the other bits. "I guess you're right." She takes another bite from her food and eyes the packages. "What're those?"

    So there /is/ some overlap there. It's definitely starting to make sense why Temulin was so alarmed. Definitely something to talk with Rydia about later.

    "Oh, these?" Yumi lifts her chin up, and turns to glance at the packages. "Well, I did promise you food. I wanted to get you stuff that would keep for a while, since you're on the road so much. The blue snowman wrapping paper, that's got a bunch of instant noodles in it. They're pretty easy to fix, you just boil the noodles for a few minutes, then add the flavor packet. You don't want to eat them all the time, but they're good for mornings when the hunting's not so great, or when you're in a rush."

    From that one, she nods at the next. "The red stocking wrapping paper, that one's sweets. Mostly Pocky, but I threw a couple others in for variety. Lot of cal- ah, lot of energy to it, but not a lot of nutrition, so you'll want to supplement it with other stuff. It's a good tread, though. And the white one with candy canes, that's beef jerky. I got a lot of different flavors, but nothing spicy."

    So there /is/ some overlap there. It's definitely starting to make sense why Temulin was so alarmed. Definitely something to talk with Rydia about later.

    "Oh, these?" Yumi lifts her chin up, and turns to glance at the packages. "Well, I did promise you food. I wanted to get you stuff that would keep for a while, since you're on the road so much. The blue snowman wrapping paper, that's got a bunch of instant noodles in it. They're pretty easy to fix, you just boil the noodles for a few minutes, then add the flavor packet. You don't want to eat them all the time, but they're good for mornings when the hunting's not so great, or when you're in a rush."

    From that one, she nods at the next. "The red stocking wrapping paper, that one's sweets. Mostly Pocky, but I threw a couple others in for variety. Lot of cal- ah, lot of energy to it, but not a lot of nutrition, so you'll want to supplement it with other stuff. It's a good treat, though. And the white one with candy canes, that's beef jerky. I got a lot of different flavors, but nothing spicy."

 "And I promised to protect you and yours. Since I broke that promise I don't see why you'd have to hold up your end of the deal." Temulin counters, but her tone is clearly one where she's objecting as a matter of formality. "There's a lot of primals and I don't know all of them. The biggest and scariest of the bunch is the elder dragon bahamut. You can see the scars he left on Eorzea when you wander across the continent."

    "Then we'll call the food my apology for a bruised jaw," Yumi replies primly, though she can't /quite/ manage to keep the smile off her face. The topic of Primals, though, draws a more sober look. "'Bahamut'... I'll have to ask Rydia about that one. If your version's powerful enough to rewrite maps, that's... that's a name to bear in mind, yeah." For a brief while, she seems to be considering something, or bothered by something, and she decides to speak up on it. "Hey, I've got a question. You've been around to a lot of different worlds by now, right?"

 
"Fair enough." Temulin accepts the food and puts it away not unpacking it yet. She nods to the comment of bringing up Bahamut with Rydia but doesn't add, and instead raises her eyebrow at the last question. "A fair bit, why?"

    Rather than speak, Yumi shifts her weight and stands up; straight and tall, or at least as 'tall' as she's able to. Her eyes close, and then there's a faint wave of heat, as sheets of solid 'light' erupt into existence around her, taking shape and becoming the same armor she wore yesterday. It's certainly much less /bright/ than the previous transformation, but the end result is the same.

    The redhead lifts one hand up, looking at it as if to discern answers from it. "This transformation... yesterday's the first time it happened. I'd never done it before. But somehow, I know how to use it, as if it's been part of me for years. I think it might be connected to my past." Her hand lowers, and the look in her eyes is intense, just a little pleading. Much moreso than Temulin's seen from her until now. "If you can think of anything, any worlds where they had something like this... I'd appreciate whatever info I can find, even if it's just a lead to follow."

 
Temulin looks up at Yumi and considers her. "Not especially. I think you might want to talk to a girl I know, Anna Freeman. I don't think it's like what her companion talked about, but it seems the closest I know of." She recommends without much conviction, "Sorry I don't have anything more concrete."

    "Freeman," Yumi repeats, nodding once. "I'll see if I can get in touch. Don't worry about it," she adds, finally letting the transformation dissipate; it does so with a shimmer and a faint shower of sparkles, as if coming apart. "Having someone to go find and talk to is still better than sitting around spinning my wheels. I've still got so many questions... more than ever, if anything." She lets out a sigh, and bends down to start closing up her backpack. "I should probably get going, I need to head back. Still have to talk to Zelda about all this, maybe a couple other people."