World Tree MUSH

    They had been faint at first, but for the curious or the nosy, the radio signals that had escaped from this recently blossomed world seemed... Interesting to say the least. Most of them were garbled by distance and interference, something about a Council of Humanity, machines, and re-taking the earth.
    Then came the sounds of battle. Men and women fighting some unknown enemy, fighting and dying.
    Most of that has died down, but the vine that forms a new connection to this Earth opens up at the entrance to a massive factory; the smell of machine oil, smog, and rust heavy on the air as the massive derelict building churns out chemical fumes and pumps them into the air. But the smell of salt hints that the sea is somewhere nearby as well.
    There is no sign of any people people, just strange barrel-like figures with spherical 'heads', wind up keys in their backs, and almost toy-like legs are all that seem to be present. None of them seem to be active. In fact judging from the damage to their bodies it looks like they were cut down by some bladed instrument of some kind.

    While Rou-ri had no real way to /listen/ to the radio signals, they were interfering in a rather strange way with his Engineering Goggles. Enough that the interference had him wandering towards what seemed to be the source and happening across the vine. He was still new enough to the Tree at large that the entire process was still new - so when he emerged into the factory, that acrid odor hit him strong. A combination of Gnomeregan and any number of Goblin locales, to the nose. That metallic odor, the visuals, it was... enough to leave the Pandaren fellow on edge. He'd already come into the place holding the handle of one of his unignited mageblades, as well as a long length of dark iron chain wrapped over one shoulder, connected to the base of the hilt. The other of the two mageblade handles were held loosely around his neck as he used his free hand to adjust the pink-tinged goggles atop his face to try and determine if the signals were from here or not, if he even had a way of figuring that out.

    But as soon as he started to see the barrel-like figures, Rou-ri walked over to the closest and began to inspect it. Certainly strange, but was there any way to figure out what they were, or if they were still a threat.

A staticky portal opens, and Emily floats out. She's taken the form of a four-armed woman with robotic cat-ears, glowing purple eyes, and hair so black it looks like a rip in space or some sort of graphical glitch; she's dressed in a sort of red and lavender sci-fi uniform.

She takes in the sight of the destroyed robots, and smiles. "Well, that's interesting!" she says. "Hey there, Ruri!" She puts all four hands on her hips as she looks around, then checks the radio band for any active transmissions. She doubts she'll find anything that isn't encrypted, but it might give her some clue as to what direction to look for the source of the blades.

She doesn't know that seeking them out is a good idea, but still.

    "You're sure this is the place, DARGN?" "If this is not the source of the signal, then someone was standing just outside the Vine and transmitting. I am fairly certain both of us would have noticed that."

    Through the vine comes an elven-looking woman, stepping out in a stumbling sort of walk that careens to a halt around the time she regains her balance. And what she sees is... a great big panda guy poking at some weird wind-up cylinder robot things. And a multi-armed robo-catgirl. And an utterly trashed factory that looks of battle and smells of industrial decay. "Ah, is... did I walk in on a salvage operation? If I'm interrupting, I can go..." If they missed the fighting, she's gonna be sad, dangit.

    When Athena arrives, it is without as much fanfare as the others. She's doing this very carefully, but she's elected to wear unpowered, riot-style armor. Advanced plating make it still very resistant to bullets and lasers, but it's really nothing special, just a little lighter than what she normally wears. Her helmet does have a protective visor though.

    Tapping the side of her helmet, she arrives just behind some of the others, carrying her usual energy rifle. "Looks like the battle is done..." The goddess of war can tell that the people here are just as curious as she is. "Guessing the rest of you just got here?" She's taking a quick look to see if she can guess the numbers of the attacking force with her tactical knowledge, before resting a hand on one of the machines to get a feel for the tech level here. If it's alien, though, she might not get much.

    Whatever happened here is definitely over. The machines however... Are far more complex than they look; while on the outside they appear to be wind up toys, Athena is going to find their makeup to be almost utterly alien in nature, and the construction utterly nonsensical and baffling when compared to man-made machines. But the machines of the factory itself are no different than something of 20th or 21st century Earth, just left to rot unattended for way too long.
    However the click-click-click of heels on the metal flooring soon enough makes it obvious the new arrivals aren't alone as a lone figure emerges from a nearby junction, followed by a floating, boxy, apparatus.
    It's a woman, silver hair, pale skin; her eyes are wrapped under what appears to be a black blindfold, matching the black dress and boots. The woman and her companion device pause, exchanging a glance before her expression hardens.
    "Unidentified units, state your business here immediately. Are you with the resistance? This is a YoRHa operation." She says sternly, before the machine at her side speaks up. The voice is mechanical and masculine.
    "Warning: The units present display readings comparable to archived data. Cross referencing. . . Analysis: All signs point to extinct energy source formerly known as 'magic'. Note: Current YoRHa specifications are not capable of withstanding magical damage. Proposal in the event of hostilities: Dodge."
    This analysis makes the woman pause entirely before she looks at the pod.
    "... You're kidding, right?"

    "Whoa-!"

    Hyouka is startled by 2B's sudden arrival; she honestly wasn't paying attention at all. It results in a startled yelp, before the apparent-elf hastily turns to face the new arrival. "Erm... I'm afraid I don't know what any of those are. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was just looking into some radio signals that sounded like a fight."

    There's a pause, and a few owlish blinks of surprise. "...'extinct'? Magic is exctint on this world? I didn't know something like that was possible."

    Rou-ri was used to steampunk-style things, these 'modern' things are all alien to him. And wonderous. He stared, examining them only for the clicking and voice to cause the Panda to rise up and look over. But before he could speak, Hyouka spoke, leaving the nearly 8' tall fellow to glance her way. "We are who's, not whats, thank you. And no, I am not with a resistance. Something frmo here was intefering with my Engineering goggles so I tried to follow the source and came upon this place." As far as 'hostilities went, though...

    Well, he did let go of the handle he had in his hand as if trying to say he meant no harm. Even if it was still easily within reach if necessary. Ruri had no way to speak to magic, though, he could hardly see or use it, even if there was some 'magical' items about his possession. "Hello to you as well... Emily, was it?" A nod was given in the direction of the woman, a bit surprised to come across anyone he knew but saying nothing further while letting the YoRHa operative make their case. His attention, however, was on the pod. He stared at it curiously. A bit too curiously. Like a nerd who was staring at a figurine they wanted to examine up close.

Emily smiles and nods to the others present. "Well, the fighting here is over, but I think there's something else ..."

And then they have a new arrival. She chuckles as 2B calls them 'unidentified units.' "Well, now, this is familiar!" she says. "This must be how Dante felt when I jumped the gun on him." ... It's quite possible that Emily hasn't chosen the best role model to follow in the World Tree.

She flashes 2B a smile. "Hello! I'm Nyx-model Eudaemon MLE0. But you can call me Emily Nyx," she says. "We're all visitors from other worlds." She glances at the others. "I'd give it even odds that we're all from different worlds, in point of fact. Yourself?"

    "Magic can go extinct," Athena replies. "Emily is correct, we're all from somewhere else. In my own homeworld, magic died out long ago and only recently revived." Not fully true, some survived through the ages, but getting technical right now isn't the best idea.

    Athena shoulders her riflee though, looking around the place. "This tech... the automatons. It's not Earth-native as far as I can tell. Judging from the factory that looks more like a human design, I'm guessing this isn't a war between two factions of humans. Or if it is, one of them has alien technology available."

    She hesitates just a second before she introduces herself, partly for the benefit of the others here! "Athena."

    That smile is not returned. No, if anything, this meeting halts the woman in the black dress entirely as she looks from elf, to armored human, to four armed catgirl to... Giant panda. Two of these things are not like the other, and one would make for a really strange android design. So she turns back to her pod.
    "What's the protocol for first contact with non-Alien lifeforms from other worlds?" She asks before Pod replies.
    "Proposal: Introduce yourself."
    "... Right. Of course."
    It's hideously awkward as she clears her throat.
    "Yorha Model number 2, Type B--"
    She is spared from the rest moment as the nearby wall suddenly explodes, a massive crane-like arm smashes its way from another part of the facilty, the bucket excavator claw on the end of the arm spinning at top speed like a buzzsaw.
    Pod chirps as: "Assessment: Goliath class enemy Machine Lifeform. Proposal: Pause introductions and focus on continued survival. Activating short-range attack systems."
    He says all this... As 2B draws an ornate white katana.

    For a few seconds, Hyouka doesn't even realize the big talking panda is talking to her - then there's a moment of blinking realization, and she turns to stare at him with vague bafflement. "...But I wasn't talking about you? I was talking about all the words that girl over there was throwing around." Oh right, introductions, those are a thing. "I'm Hyouka, Kiyama Hyouka. Magic's alive and well back where I come from, I'm running on it. Well, magic and technology." She tilts her head curiously, listening to the introduction of others - especially the blindfolded girl, who sounds like she might be some sort of android? That name sounds like it, at least-

    "-WAAH!"

    The wall just got ripped apart by some massive robot crane... thing? It seems extremely angry, at least. And Hyouka has unceremoniously hurled herself into a pile of dead Machines out of sheer reflex. She pops out of the pile with an alarmed, "W-what in the world was-" then cuts herself off, tosses away the trashed robot head resting atop her own, and grunts. "W-well, I guess I've never fought a giant enemy before.

    The cyborg thrusts both arms forward and declares, "FISTO, ON!" Her forearms split apart into numerous small sections, many of which slide, shift or lift out of the way, allowing a flurry of components to assemble themselves from some space within her arms. The assembly is fast and furious, in seconds wrapping her arms in a thoroughly massive pair of high-tech gauntlets, each fist almost as big as her torso in and of itself. A ripple of dark-gold energy flickers along glowing lines in the gauntlets, and then Hyouka smashes her fists together. "Right, let's-"

    Pause.

    "...erm... how would we fight this thing, anyway?"

Emily leans back from the explosion of mortar. "Well, hello!" she says. "Releasing capacitor seals three and two." All at once, she's surrounded by three distinct auras, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent. The first two shatter, and the pearlescent one fades.

The Pod can probably detect that Emily's magical output just went way up.

In a swirl of silvery glitter ... she's suddenly wearing a white version of 2B's dress and blindfold, and the cat-ears have been replaced by a white bow which is merely approximately cat-ears-shaped. A pair of swords appear in her upper two arms, each a simple black rectangle with a glowing silver circuit-board pattern ... and a heart-shape, for some reason.

She grins at Hyouka. "Head-on, of course!" she says, and slashes at the buzzsaw without showing the slightest bit of concern or hesitation.

    Alas, the engineering-loving Pandaren got no chance to actually inspect the pod, or for that matter even ask to. A giant thing broke through the wall, leaving him with no real knowledge of what it is until the pod reads out a generic status. "Machine, huh? Well... I do have a good pair of weapons for that, but indoors and surrounded by other machines like we are, it might not be a good idea to electrify everything in sight." There was a slight grumbling tone as he pulled open one of his satchels and dropped the mass of chain and weapon handles into it before pulling out two gigantic-looking maces that were easily a good slid two thirds of how much the Pandaren himself weighed, and practically just as long.

    "Well, this will have to do, I hope." He took a moment to look over the machine - never having really seen a proper crane before, but understanding the basic concept of mechanical leverage. So if he disabled the joints, in theory it shouldn't be able to function - right? But if he just went for the highest point it could still swing back and forth - so he'd have to go for the lowest point closest to the base of where it's moving.

    Which left the Pandaren to take a few steps forward and leap towards the wall in an attempt to get past the swinging arm while the others were distracting it to find out just where the arm was attached for proper dismantling.

    Dismantling with style. Smash style.

    "Hm..." Yes, sounds like an android or robot to Athena as well, but she hasn't had a chance to analyze 2B. A very advanced tech if that's the case though. The reborn goddess doesn't have much time to think about it before there's an... interruption. She calls out to Hyouka, "I presume we just punch or shoot it! Look for any power feeds or joints, I'm going to try to flank!" Split up, make a break for one of the crumbling pieces of machinery nearby.

    Leaping atop that, Athena's rifle snaps into position, drawing a bead on the Goliath and looking for a spot she can try to blast that might slow it down. Hopefully it won't be able to adapt fast enough to the splitting targets. "What are these things?"

    Hyouka has a good question. How does someone fight someting as big as a crane.
    Thankfully Emily has the right idea.
    "Proposal:" Pod begins to speak. "Seek out and damage structural weakpoints." ... It's kind of a statement of the obvious as it pops out what appears to be a miniature gatling gun and starts spinning it up, unleashing a hailstorm of bright yellow bolts and bullets of light. But then he responds to Athena's earlier assessment and new question.
    "Synopsis: Your assessment of the 14th Machine War is correct. Humans are not fighting humans. Humanity has been forced to retreat from the Earth to the moon from the invasion force of aliens: The machine lifeforms."
    The little machine seems to have a poor sense of timing for explanations, but 2B is all business as she slides under the excavator arm as it starts swinging around in mechanical flailing, slashing in a flurry of blows that starts carving buckets right off the spinning wheel.
    And then Emily is suddenly in a very familiar style.
    "... Pod did she just..."
    "Affirmative."
    It is a mild distraction though as Emily and Rou-ri leap into the fray, 2B and Emily holding the rotating saw at bay while the Pandaren moves to find the anchor point... Oh he'll find it alright.
    And Athena will find a good spot to shoot in just the next moment when a giant mechanical HEAD rises into view through the big hole in the wall.

    "Well, at least this stuff isn't completely foreign to me."

    Just mostly foreign.

    But upon finding the 'joint' and the leverage that allowed that giant crane arm to move about like that, the Pandaren leapt right towards it and began to slam on it hard with the pair of couple of hundred pound maces he had in his hands, trying his best to crack the structure of it enough that it wound up collapsing. If it can't support its' own weight, something is bound to happen, right?

Emily materializes two more swords for her lower two hands, and starts slashing at the buzzsaw in a chaotic flurry of rectangular blades. "Interesting!" she calls out in response to the Pod's synopsis.

She crosses the swords in a double-X pattern and slashes them as if trying to parry the wild buzzsaw ... though it serves more to knock herself backwards than to push the buzzsaw itself back. "... And wow," she adds. "If I'm scanning this stuff right, this is even more ancient and ruined than the halcyon remnant where I'm from!"

... She actually giggles as she overhears 2B's exchange with the Pod.

And then the head appears. "... Cute!" she remarks, gesturing with her upper left sword. Wait, what's up with her sense of aesthetics!? She floats sideways out of Rou-ri's way. "But I take it that carving that face open is how we're going to resolve this particular fight?"

    "Hmph." This comes, not from Hyouka herself, but to the other voice with which she was conversing on arrival; it sort-of issues from Hyouka, but more along the lines of 'a speaker somewhere on her person' than from her mouth. "'Seek out and damage structural weakpoints.' Perhaps we will be warned the sky is blue, next." Hyouka herself grunts. "DARGN, I'm proud of you, honestly I am, but this really doesn't seem the time to- WHOA!" A rolling dodge at the last moment. When Hyouka comes up, her bulky gauntlets are clenched into fists, huddled in a preparatory crouch. "Okay, power feeds or joints, fight it head on, I can... wait, hang on, those seem contradictory, don't they?" "Hyouka, it has a head. I suggest you punch it."

    The snap-look Hyouka goes through right then practically screams, 'What? OH!' And then she's up in a dead run. "What was it you were saying about obvious advice?" she asks as she runs. DARGN replies, "I must adapt to my user's needs." That's about the moment that Hyouka hurls herself out the gaping hole at the wall, fist first, straight at the crane's newly-displayed head. Her right fist begins to glow brighter, as Earth-elemental energy suffuses the massive punching weapon.

    Lots of stating the obvious, maybe, but there's not a lot of time to assess in the heat of battle. When in doubt, do what comes obviously until a better strategy presents itself. The hail of fire forces Athena to dive off the machinery as some of it explodes beneath her, but her armor soaks the stray bolts that hit her, mostly. She staggers, but doesn't appear to be fatally injured.

    Good thing too, as it lets her snap off some more shots, trying to find where the 'head' connects to the rest of the machine instead. Quick blasts with excellent marksmanship, but she frowns under the helmet. "Will this attract any more of them?"

    "Confirmation: The sky is blue." Pod replies to DARGN.
    But it is a minor note in the heat of battle as everyone finds their targets and begin to cause as much damage as they can.
    It takes some work, with the giant machine lifeform flailing around, but Rou-ri will manage to batter down the joint where the giant crane arm connects to the massive body outside the wall, that the arm goes dead limp.
    This does not seem to please the machine.
    "Kill... Kill... Kill... Kill!" It chants in a distorted voice while Emily and Hyouka go right for the head, the collective force of Hyouka's earth-mana charged blow and the shapeshifter's blades are enough to stagger it, head jolting back, baring the giant machine's neck for Athena's fire.
    "Negative." Pod replies. "In the search for unit 9S, unit 2B has eliminated the majority of machine lifeforms in the area. However prolonged combat may result in enemy reinforcements arriving. Suggestion: Finish this fast."
    Regardless, 2B is now free to disengage from the excavator arm once it goe dead and runs along the fallen crane and onto the machine herself, brandishing her blade and focused on the task of bringing the giant consruct down.

    Once Rou-ri took out the cranes joint, that sudden feeling something else was there, followed by the chanted distorted voice caused him to stumble aside and hop backwards, clearly having not realized that was going to be there. "Well, that's a big bastard now isn't it." But it seems the others were moving to take care of it, so took the opportunity to stuff those giant nearly seven foot tall maces into his satchel(which wasn't nearly that big) and dig around deep inside for something. Just what was hard to say, but he was digging around. But the others seemed to have things taken care of for the moment, so that was nice.

    Maybe he was getting prepared just in case reinforcements /did/ get called?

Emily laughs. "Are they always this talkative?" She then flies forward towards the head.

Staying to the opposite side from where Hyouka is coming from, she slashes at the face in another wild flurry of blows. She then zips back and raises her hands as half a dozen golden bolts of light appear, then shoot forward right into the creature's face.

"Another question!" she calls back. "Is your Pod always this talkative?"

    Finish this fast, huh? That makes sense to her. Athena blasts at the connection again, taking advantage of the exposed neck before dashing over, sliding across the floor to whip the laser rifle up for a quick beam attack at the other side, trying to complete the circuit of deadly fire.

    From nearby, her own drone, Little Owl, darts in and peppers the head with more blasts. These are much weaker though, and would at best be a distraction. "Mine barely speaks, I might be glad for that."

    "Ha! Take that, you- oh no."

    Hyouka did not think as far ahead as 'after successfully punching the robot'.

    She is now directly over a very long drop.

    Gravity takes hold rather immediately. Emily probably gets a very brief sight of the punchborg plummeting almost straight down.

    But fortunately, the elven woman reacts quickly enough; she snaps a massive hand out and grabs part of the colossal machine's superstructure, stalling her fall and holding herself in place. And then, almost monkey-like, she begins flinging herself upward, completely and totally winging it on her ascent path, and just barely managing to get herself to a foothold on the edge of the precipice just as Athena goes sliding along the ground. The cyborg turns and clenches her fingers together, and her right fist begins glowing; a truly prodigious amount of earth mana begins flooding the weapon, such that not just the lines, but the entire outer plating of the limb begins to glow. "Hyouka," DARGN says, her tone suddenly more businesslike, "I cannot recommend repeating your previous-"

    Hyouka leaps, fist-first.

    "...attack."

    While Rou-ri settles back to dig in his bags, the giant machine is beset from four directions.
    "No." 2B answers Emily curtly. "Yes." Comes her followup as the android climbs her way to the top of the machine.
    Because as Emily swaps from slashing to shooting and Athena unloads from within the factory, the machine raises its OTHER arm. Ready to bring down a second crane and just smash the entire place outright.
    That doesn't quite happen. Because the machine goes stock still-- a perfect opening for Hyouka to repeat her prior attack and slam the head with jarring force... While 2B drops from above, katana in hand.
    With a heaving slash down the neck, the giant machine gives a final jerk, and then slumps where it stands as its head comes off and begins to fall to the water below as 2B snatches the former desk jockey out of the air and kicks off the machine, back to solid ground.
    So where is that screeching jet noise coming from?
    A black figure descends from the sky, something like a very small mech-suit for one person.
    "Sorry I was late." Says a youthful boy's voice. "But I did manage to hack it just in time for you all to get in the killing blow!"

    One can practically hear a noise play somewhere nearby, as if someone finally found hwat they were looking for.

    Dun DUn DUN DUNNNN!

    Rou-ri pulls out... an electrified, rather impressive weapon only to realize the machines head has left its' shoulders.

    "Well then." And right back into his satchel it goes, likely not even noticed except those who could sense magical energy or whatnot, or the strong windy/electrical nature that started to arise. "Good job everyone, you're pretty damn strong!" Rou-ri calls out as he begins to trot towards the others, feeling decent enough now that the threat is gone.

Emily takes stock of the remains of the monster. Pretty neat work, all around. She eyes Hyouka, grinning, and gets ready to rescue her ... but no, looks like 2B's handling rescue.

So she turns and smiles up at the newcomer. "9S, I presume?" she says cheerfully; that is the name the Pod dropped earlier, and he does seem to be an ally. "If so, whatever reason Number 2 was looking for you, I guess that's mission accomplished!"

    There's a surprised yelp from Hyouka, not expecting to be snatched out of the air like that. "O-oh. Thank you." Her feet back on solid ground, the cyborg reaches down to brush herself off- and then immediately turns, bringing her fists up into a brawler stance at the sound of incoming jets. Only the newcomer's voice sets her at ease; but even then, she keeps her fists active for now. "Ah, I see," DARGN remarks simply upon 9S's arrival. "You keep your actual assistant AI in a separate body. I apologize for belieiving your support drone was the height of assistant technology here." Hyouka quietly enacts a very large facepalm, before muttering a long-suffering, "Be nice, DARGN."

    Shaking her head, the black-haired woman lowers her beefy gauntlet, then adds, "So, what now? That had to have made a lot of noise, someone will come investigate, won't they?"

    Athena moves to her feet, shouldering her rifle with a sigh as the crane shudders and falls like that. Little Owl returns to his perch as the goddess straightens up and tries to get a bead on what happens here. "I guess that was a bit more extreme of an introduction than anyone intended. Is everyone all right?"

    Athena herself inspects her armor, then winces as she prods one part. "The woman with the gauntlets is right, though. We should move somewhere safer and finish our introductions. There's a lot of ground to cover, and I'm wondering what happened to this place."

    Touching down and stepping out of the flight unit is... What looks like a young boy. With a black blindfold and outfit of his own.
    "Huh? Did I miss something?" 9S asks at DARGN's comment, but then he immediately lights up. "And yes, I'm 9S-- Wait, you're offworlders- I didn't expect to see offworlders so soon- especially on a routine operation. This is kind of exciting!" He blurts, already looking from person to person as though not sure who to start inspecting first.
    2B, who has just finished dusting off her dress frowns at his enthusiasm.
    "9S. Emotions are prohibited."
    The Scanner android almost immediately chokes then and there, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Sorry ma'am."
    "And don't call me ma'am."
    2B simply shakes her head at the other android before returning her attention to Athena and Hyouka. "You're right. Even if I handled most of the machines inside already, there's no telling when more will come. 9S and I can escort you to the entrance of the factory or back to wherever you came from. And I need to make my report now that the mission is concluded."

    Emotions are prohibited? Hyouka frowns. "That sounds awfully boring. There's not some weird reason for that, is there? Like, some kind of magic spell on this world that infects emotional people, or you're from some sort of mystical warrior-monk order that relies on a power easily corrupted by emotions, or... something like that?" She's actually starting to sound rather interested. "Ah, I don't have anywhere in particular to be, at least not for a day or two yet. I don't mind sticking around-" DARGN chimes in, "Your tax information from your former employer will be arriving tomorrow."

    The elven-looking woman's expression immediately sours. "Tch." Killjoy. "Sigh. I suppose I ought to head home."

Emily looks over at Athena. "Isn't it obvious what happened here?" she says. "The place got abandoned due to the war." She hmms. "It's not as overgrown as the halcyon remnant, and way more intact, which suggests that one or more of the factions here has been keeping it moderately clean. I wanna guess it was the Machine Lifeforms, unless they overran the place."

She smirks faintly at 2B and 9S's interactions, and dematerializes her blindfold so that the latter can see her glowing purple eyes. "Well, we can probably exit this world on our own," she says. "The portal we took here did kind of drop us right in the middle of the things, and it won't be too hard to get back."

    "Wait, you want us to leave pretty much just as soon as we got here? I mean, isn't there a lot of things around here to do? Not that I want to cause problems, but I tend to stick around for a while and try to help out how I can whenever I get to new places. Get to know the locals better, explore a bit - that kind of thing." Rou-ri pipes up from the side as he gets close, the tall Pandaren seeing the other being only to wave, "Hello there. I didn't get a chance to say earlier, but I'm Rou-ri. If you need help with anything around here, happy to help. I might not know a lot about these fancy machines you got here, but I would love to get the chance to learn."

    He's eying up 2B's pod again like it was an easter egg.

    "I meant more in a general sense," Athena says to Emily. "The Vine should still be around here though, you're right. And if it isn't... well, I've been stuck in worse places. I think." She frowns, maybe not sure about that! "You've been connected to a wider world now."

    "Emotions get in the way and lower mission efficiency." 2B explains curtly, making 9S rub at the back of his neck again.
    "Magic?" He asks, "Where are you getting ideas like that. Magic hasn't been used for thousands of years. No, it's nothing like that. We're with YoRHa. We're the new line of androids to fight in the war. ... Halcyon Remnant?" It seems that any change of topic immediately gets his attention and draws out an insatiable curiosity about these offworlders. Though 2B and 9S exchange a look when confronted with glowing eyes.
    "As far as we know," 9S replies, "No one's been maintaining anything on Earth for as long as we can remember. Everything that goes on down here is mostly combat and scavenging."
     And then. Panda.
    "2B, what is THAT? -- I mean! Sorry! Not to be rude or anything! My line was kind of built to be inquisitive." But 2B merely frowns, arms folding under her chest. The vine is, indeed, still where everyone left it, as Athena brings up.
    "I said to where you came from or the exit to the factory. It's none of our business what you choose to do out there. If you really want to help I can see about putting you in contact with the resistance."
    For now, though. It looks like taxes win out.
    Taxes always win out.