World Tree MUSH

    Cecil can't bring strange Dark Knights back to a camp he doesn't 'own' or anything, so he instead had to arrange a spot ahead of time to meet again and discuss important matters. That gives everyone some time to calm down anyway, so might be for the best. It's much closer to the little caravan though, indicating at least some level of trust... Cecil is kind of a trusting sort, isn't he? It's a good spot, too... an overhanging of rock making for cover in the case of rain, though it's merely a dreary overcast right now, but plenty of space outside to settle in and start a fire when it gets cold.

    Cecil is just a tad late, possibly gettting pulled into a sidequest on the way, but he comes from slightly above so... makes quite the racket landing next to the meeting place in all that heavy armor. Dusting himself off, the knight looks for any of his companions, new or old. "Sir Ritter?" He gave word to Temulin too, curious about someone with 'similar' powers from another world.

    The first one to react to Cecil's appearance is the pale-colored chocobo Duncan had been riding. Nemesis had been laying down near where Duncan had decided to wait, feathers fluffed up warmly, when she heard the thunk and the clatter. The pale bird flaps to her feet and gives a raspy, "WARK!" of warning. Though the sound of Cecil's voice causes Duncan to reach out and pat the bird at the back of her neck.

    "T'is only Ser Harvey, Nemesis," he replies calmly. The sound of his voice soothes the bird, and she stops bristling. It's probably not necessary, but he does offer, "I am here." Clearly, since the bird wouldn't be here if he wasn't. But it's offered for politeness's sake anyway. He's removed his helmet, but is still wearing the rest of his armor. Though his sword is leaned back against the sheltering rock.

 
Temulin's bird of choice is a menacing beast, larger than even the fattest of chocobos and able to fly while loading with wares and carrying a rider, the bird is in the middle of eating a boar when he arrives, along with the dark knight who jumps of her mount's back in mid-flight, albeit while low to the ground, and looks to the others while her mount of choice flies off. "Pray tell me what you want?" She asks.

    Now that he's arrived, Cecil makes his more peaceful intentions clear and removes his own helmet. Hardly necessary after what happened, but also polite. He smiles, "It's good to see you too, Nemesis." Huh, he must be in a decent mood, given he actually did something resembling a joke. All too swiftly his expression turns serious, though, as he finds a seat nearby to settle upon. "My apologies for getting you involved in this as well. I had hoped it was a simple misunderstanding or lies from Vivian that lead to the crisis in Mist, but..." Sigh.

    Well, time to get into greetings. "It has been a while, Sir Ritter." A wan smile... and then Temulin arrives. That should be interesting. He nods to the petite knight. "And hello, again... Temulin, wasn't it? I was told you had abilities much like our own, but are clearly not from our world. On top of that you are a mercenary, and in our situation it cannot hurt to know what our possible assets are." He pauses, "Of course, if we ask you to fight, I understand you would need paid."

    To Duncan, he murmurs, "I have been to some very strange worlds out here. The things that are here are... usually much different."

    Duncan offers a nod to Temulin as her mount flies away. "Greetings," he offers. And fortunately Nemesis is pacified by Duncan being nearby, so the flying away of the mount doesn't startle her too much. She actually seems to dip her head at Cecil too, at his words.

    The mention of the crisis in Mist gets a nod. "I was told that you yourself had been influenced by Outsiders... that you had gone mad and burned it to the ground yourself," he replies. "But it was... more than just words. Something else... I could not but obey the command I had been given...

    He pauses, though, so as not to interrupt Cecil's words to Temulin. He has his own questions too... but they will come later.

    "Some kind of mind control," comes another voice, over the approaching sound of bicycle gears. It's Yumi, finally caught up, and all decked out in warm weather gear. "I'm glad you broke out of it when you did. And thank you for protecting Rydia," she adds, finally slowing the bike to a stop and wheeling it in under the overhang. "She's... she's got a thing about fire. So that was extra rough for her."

 
"I am a dark knight." Temulin responds and adds, "And my world has much in common with yours. There's parts where your horsebirds are the most common beast of birden, the money is gil much like yours, and many other similarities besides. I believe I even caught a glimpse of the foul morbol on my explorations." She explains some of the similarities.

"Beyond a dark knight, though. I am a member of the Dotharl tribe, peerless warriors of the steppe with a love for battle and no fear of death." She explains herself, "And mercenary while somewhat close is not quite accurate. I am an adventurer." She doesn't bother explaining the difference between the two terms, "Pray tell me, what is this world where dark knights are serving the interests of the powerful?" She glances to Yumi. "Hey, good to see you again."

    Cecil shakes his head with a grimace at the news. "A little too close for comfort. Kain and I became separated, but we had help from outsiders going to Mist. The package the King instructed me to give erupted in flames, and one of my companions did attack me over it. One of the other outsiders, a winged woman named Vivian, attempted to finish the job on the village and we were only barely able to drive her off in time to help the village. Since then, Rydia and I have been wandering, after an earthquake sealed us off from Mist." He hesitates. "I have thought about finding an airship from another world, but I would not want to attract the attention of the Red Wings. Better that they think Mist destroyed."

    Frowning, a dark shadow comes over Cecil's expression. "What you've told me is very worrying, though. We will need to get back to Baron soon and get to the bottom of this, but with the air covered it will need to be by sea or some other means." Sigh.

    Yumi joins them then, and Cecil looks away. "Yes, Rydia remembers her village burning all too well. I've tried to look after her, and she's proven... well. Let's just say it's good practice for when Rosa and I have children, I hope." A low, mirthless chuckle that fades. "I'm glad we snapped you out of it, Duncan."

    Temulin joins the conversation by explaining herself. "Huh... fascinating. I've seen many worlds that are similar to one another, I suppose one that is similar to ours more than the others makes sense. As for the Dark Knights, few kingdoms choose to devote training and military accomodations for such a dangerous power, but Baron is... or was... a prosperous nation. Its fleet of airships is unmatched. We have nothing like a Dotharl tribe though... or your people. Not unless they hail from a remote region I have never heard of. I hope not... the King has been acting strangely of late, and might see them as a threat."

    Terra, on foot, takes a little bit longer to catch up to the group. She may or may not have been side tracked or anything. Actually, there's very sound evidence to the contrary; she's carrying what looks like a chicken in her arms. White, feathers, head moving little in relation to its body as she strides with purpose to join the group as they come into view.

    Seems she came in on an important, serious bit of conversation so she keeps her yap shut. Temulin gets a brief suspicious look but if everyone else is okay with treating with her it should be fine. Right? Anyway. She stands just to the margins, eyes scanning everyone in turn. Yumi, Cecil and Duncan.

    The 'chicken' doesn't appear to be nearly as interested.

    Duncan looks up at the sound of Yumi's voice, as does Nemesis. The pale bird peers at Yumi and this weird contraption of hers suspiciously, but when she bristles, Duncan clicks his tongue and she seems to settle again. Then he turns his attention to her statement. "That... seems likely," he admits, to the mention of mind control. Though he seems reluctant to admit it, for some reason. As for Rydia's issue with fire? Duncan winces a bit. "Thank you for letting me know that," he notes. "My parents were Black Mages, you see, and though I did not inherit their talents, I do have SOME affinity for magic -- Fire, as it so happens.

    Temulin's explanation gets a tilt of his head. "That explains the battle prowess you showed," he notes. He wasn't completely mindless through the battle, and noted her skill. He needed to defend himself against her after all, so he needed to pay attention! Though he lets Cecil answer her question of the world and their serving of someone powerful. But he does add, "I have a feeling that I will no longer be serving the King of Baron. The soldiers he sent with me escaped, and I'm certain one of them will bring word back to him..."

    Cecil's explanation of the item gets a frown from Duncan. "I see..." he notes. "It could have been the outsider you spoke of... but then with what happened with me, the picture is damning," he surmises. "I remember his voice. I could not look away from him. All I could hear was his voice. Everything else disappeared." As for Rydia? That gets a chuckle. "I believe it was partly she who broke the control," he notes. "I saw the spell heading for her, and I could not sit by and let her be injured. Abilities be damned, she is a child."

    He pauses as he notes the movement, and turns to look in that direction. Seeing Terra, he offers a polite and friendly dip of his head in greeting. He's not wearing his helmet at the moment, so his face can be seen. He looks human! That might help.

    "Rydia is a handful and a half," the redhead replies to Cecil with a grin. "But she's a good friend, too." Yumi leans her bike up against the stone, and gives Temulin a cheery wave. "Heya." Discussion is well underway, though, so she remains quiet, falling into place beside Cecil. "It sounds like right now, he sees everything as a threat. Something's wrong." She frowns, folding her arms. "...We definitely need to investigate this, but I'm not sure how. Land vehicles? Maybe an offworld ship? Some way to get around more easily would be good..."

    And then there is Terra. The half-esper gets a warm smile in welcome.

Considers the matter of Baron quietly, gkancing towards Terra and offering a friendly wave. "Sounds to me like your king has been listening to the so-called 'wisdom of the Paragons.'" Her tone indicates quite strongly that she doesn't agree with that description of things. "Perhaps not the exact same, but a similar kind of notion." She glances and asks, "Beyond its fleet of airships, how much magitek does Baron have?"

    "Terra, glad you could join us," Cecil says, attempting to be friendly despite the young woman's quiet nature. Getting anything out of her is pretty tough! But the things everyone else present...

    "I remembered you were a good man, so I'm not surprised that could snap you out of it," Cecil admits. "But I remember the King being a good man as well..." He frowns. "Ah... just be careful of fire around Rydia then."

    Yumi and Temulin bring up the real question. "I hope, in fact, that it is some outside influence. I would rather not the King be at full fault. He too is a Dark Knight as well, or was in his younger days..." Sigh. "But then, if something is this powerful and willing to go to such lengths... yes, we need to find a way in. The air is risky with the Red Wings patrolling, but other worlds have other ways..."

    Terra can be a pain like that. She does bob her head in greeting to all present before moving to join in, though she doesn't immediately speak up. The conversation's serious afterall, concerning things she knows nothing about. Best to learn a little before saying her piece, right?

    At least, there's something she can comment on. Someone, rather. "Rydia is very energetic, yes. She helped me once when I was, ah-" Here she hesitates, stealing a look toward Duncan. Something remains unsaid but maybe, just maybe, it'll be conveyed without being spoken aloud. It's a touchy topic, mind control.

    Then Temulin gets a surprised look. "Magitech?" That's something she remembers well enough. It's a bit concerning, too. There's the matter of infiltrating a kingdom and after a moment of thought she can only look down at the chicken she found. This isn't really where she's much use.

    Duncan nods to Yumi's observation. "I do not know what... but yes. There is something wrong. Something is very wrong indeed," he agrees. Though Cecil's words of him get a shake of his head. "Truthfully, I'm more relieved that you hadn't gone rogue. At least not the way I was originally told." As for the fire? He nods. "I will be careful," he promises.

    "We cannot simply walk into the castle," Duncan replies. "There is still a chance that I have not been outed as having broken free, but that is a slim hope, and not one I would stake my life on. So we will have to find a way to sneak in." His statement seems to indicate he has every intention of going in with them.

    Terra's words, and the look get a tilt of Duncan's head. He doesn't immediately pick up on it, but the gears do click over into place at one point. "...Ah." The quiet sound carries understanding. But he doesn't pursue it further. He does offer for Temulin, "Baron has its airships, but..." He looks to Terra again, though, when she echoes the word. "I'm not altogether certain what you mean by 'magitech'."

    Something Duncan says puts a thoughtful look on Yumi's face. "...Depending on how good of a look those mages got at me, I might be able to, actually." She taps her chin, starting to pace absently. "I'm an offworlder, so no one here knows me. I could put on local outfits and probably blend right in. And I wouldn't be unarmed, I can transform at any time. The problem is, if the fire mage has gone back to Baron, that's at least one person that /might/ recognize me in disguise. It's hard to say. And the other mage..." Here she looks at Duncan, silently asking after the white mage's loyalty.

 
"Magitek is a form of engineering that uses aether to power devices like some worlds uses gasoline or electricity." Temulin explains the general idea in summary, "I don't know the details of how it works, but I know Garlemald uses a lot of it. Their armies employ abundant magitek armor, and the Eorzeans got access to airships because a famous Garlean magitek engineer defected to them in the middle of a war. So I'm used to airships being considered magitek."

"There's also some ancient magitek around, I used to go dig around through them sometimes to find a form of data storage known as tomestones because there's this trad... wait sorry I'm getting off track." Temulin stops herself from going, "Anyway. I'd offer to help infiltrate but I'm no hyur. I'd stand out."

    Cecil nods, listening to everyone. "Our airships... might use something a little like that, but I don't think it's quite the same. I used to be the Captain of the Red Wings, but I never had the impression that they were magical. Cid, our chief engineer, would know for certain."

    He rubs his chin and then sighs. "We do need a plan though. Things are more serious than ever... and Rosa is still there, too. Not just that, but being obviously an offworlder would make it harder too... perhaps someone like Terra or Athena, though, could pass more easily. But first we need a reliable way in." He looks up again. "Regardless, I have a feeling it will just get rougher from here on out."

    Terra mostly continues to listen, though as the topic of actually approaching this Baron place continues to develop, she bites her lip. Yumi offering to go initially makes her want to protest! It's easy, considering the girl only recently demonstrated she's not as normal as she once seemed. She holds that down, only to be distracted.

    "Cid?" She recollects a gruff, older face but a kindly manner that almost makes her smile. "I remember that name..." As fuzzy as the details are, they're there. Cid, someone that can be trusted. "Should-" Cecil beats her to the punch, mentioning that she might find luck trying to find this person and the thread of memory she's trying to cling to might make her seem overeager, "I can try."

    She remembers a little about magitech, of course. Enough to know that Temulin's description is more than adequate, so she nods to indicate as much to Duncan. "I believe I operated it once extensively. I think I remember how but only to-" She hesitates and rolls her shoulders, then shakes her head.

    "That would leave you in danger and separated from others who could help," Duncan replies to Yumi's suggestion. "And if the king is able to employ mind control, I would not want you where you might be susceptible to that." He does offer a good-natured smirk here, and points out, "I wouldn't want to be on your opposing side when you have no reason to hold back."

    He shakes his head to Temulin's description. "It does sound fascinating," he offers. "Though I'm afraid I have never heard of anything like that." So, for all their similarities, their worlds definitely also have very large differences.

    The mention that Rosa is still in the castle gets a wince. "We will need to get her out of there," he notes. "If the king is beginning to send people after you, he might try to utilize your connection with her to get to you as well." He doesn't bother to bring up any possibilities what the king could do.

    Terra speaks up regarding the megitech then, and Duncan turns in her direction. "Only to operate it, not to build it?" he offers. Sure. That's totally what she meant, right?

    Duncan raises a good point. "Mn..." Yumi muses. Part of her still wants to go ahead with it, but... "Save that plan for later, maybe. Figure out a way to do it with people close at hand. But at the very least, I should be able to visit towns and such without drawing attention. And if I wear some sort of face protector when I transform, I can preserve anonymity that way." Of course she's not setting that plan aside /entirely/ - just until it's more feasible. "Either way, we do need to figure out some way to gather intel on what the king's up to, or at least what's going on within Baron. Cecil definitely can't go in safely, probably you either, Duncan," she murmurs. "Rydia's a risk of recognition, too..."

    Wow, she really is deep in Planning Mode.

 
"Huh." Temulin tilts her head when Cecil mentions an airship engineer called cid. "That Garlean engineer I mentioned? His name is Cid nan Garlond. Curious coincidence." She moves on from that to consider the other things, "Well I don't know what they taught you two." She's looking at Duncan and Cecil, "But I was taught that the purpose of dark knights is to stand up against the strong and powerful, sacrificing their own good name if they have to so they can protect those who need helping. Harnessing the power of darkness to do good. I'm not afraid of charging in and causing a big distraction so others can rescue his beloved."

    Yumi is already in on planning, which makes Cecil chuckle. But Terra says something interesting, making him look at her curiosly for a moment before dismissing it. If she can't remember, that could come back to bite them... but he's seen enough of Terra to know she's a decent person.

    So that leaves what Duncan and Temulin says to give him a pained look. Cecil nods, "We need to. Rosa is far from helpless, but alone in what could be hostile territory... we will have to find her." He looks to Temulin. "We became Dark Knights to aid in the ideals of the kingdom. We are willing to fight that kingdom for similar reasons to what you said. As I said before, the King of Baron was a good man. Our order is meant to protect our people, even if it has a price."

    It almost feels like she can be useful! Terra almost hugs the bird in her arms, having nearly forgotten the thing due to its relative silence. "I'd like to help." Well. Provided we survive helping Zelda and Link.

    On dark knights she can't really comment. Every one she's met so far is apparently a good person but probably a little on the unfortunate side. Then again, that describes nearly everyone she knows.

    Duncan nods to Yumi's point. "You are probably right," he agrees, to the likelihood of not being able to get into the castle via the front door. "With this collection of worlds, there must be something we can utilize. Perhaps something like the technology used in Devil's Road. Our world cannot be the only one that has such things."

    Now, there's some truth to Temulin's words, Duncan feels. He nods. "And I would be right there alongside you, were we to do such a thing," he notes. "But let us leave that for a last resort. That will be far too much danger to all involved for it to be the first option."

    And he nods once more to Cecil's words. "My loyalty is to no office or one person," he adds calmly. "It is to the kingdom of Baron and her people. That means that, if the king has indeed turned his back on the people, I will fight him as well. One man's actions can doom the kingdom as well as save it, and it is my duty to excise from the kingdom that which will harm it."

    Duncan smiles to Terra's words. "Thank you." Sure, he doesn't know Rosa very well, and it's really Cecil she's helping more, but... "Getting into the castle will likely require us to face some of the most powerful warriors... some that are doubtless under the same sort of control that I was." Pause. "I may... hesitate. Having someone along who won't -- or at least has no history with the people that might be faced -- would be valuable."

    "If you're pulling a distraction, I'm right there with you," Yumi says after Temulin speaks up. "Strength and toughness are my strong suits, I can hold a line for a long time if I have to."

    The girl absently reaches into a pocket, pulling out a candy bar and peeling back the wrapper. "I think... first step is to figure out a way into Baron safely. How we get there, who can go, what Cecil and Duncan will need to coach us on so we don't stick out like sore thumbs as 'tourists'. Maybe see about bringing in offworld technology, though it might not be best to hinge the plan on that. Either way, once we have a way in, we can start gathering intel on where Rosa might be, and once we have /that/, we can start making a plan to get her. Let's try and take it one step at a time." Nomf. "Cecil, we should see if we can get walkie-talkies or other distance comms to work here. They'd be a big help."

    While heartwarming, Cecil does have to smile at the offers. "Let's not count our chocobos before they hatch," he says solemnly. "I appreciate the offers of help, but as Yumi here says... we need a plan. This is a sovereign kingdom and we still have no proof. Those loyal to the crown may have to fight us... and they would be right to. Your idea of finding out more by sneaking in is... not very honorable, but I think the best idea that we have." His code of honor doesn't include an aversion to sneaking around if it saves lives... but it does keep him from striking down those loyal.

    He looks up and nods firmly. "We have several approaches to think about, let's see which ones are viable. Perhaps once our current journey is complete we may even have another ally." It isn't really up to him to reveal Zelda's purpose, but he resolves to bring up the matter with her as soon as he can, to perhaps bring in more allies. "Until then, we can use the mail system already in place. Slow, but it should work. We will try to find some means of speaking afar."

    He seems to sit up straighter now, more confidently. "I am fortunate to have such people here with me as all of you. Thank you, everyone."