World Tree MUSH

    "To leave something like this behind that is capable of causing such an event... and then getting all of us involved in this as well... You bring great misfortune to your family. This is a light that destroys us, and that guides us all to death. However...

        It is so beautiful."


    https://flashygoodness.bandcamp.com/track/the-lonely-tower
    The Lonely Tower - flashgoodness
    Tower of Heaven - 2009

    Hail, traveller.

    Your portal-jumpings through the multiverse have brought you here, to the world of Van Patissierie; as you are arriving, serendipitously (or so it would seem) multiple nearby portals open up disgorging several different passengers, such that all of you arrive simultaneously. How interesting it is that you have all been brought here at the same time. Perhaps it's fate.

    You stand on the outskirts of a windy town:

    https://i.imgur.com/NyV3DI2.jpg

    The skies above you are grey and overcast, and a strong wind rocks the fabric of nearby stands and stalls. Nobody can be seen thus far, but surely there are people around. 

    Go on, take a look around at the people who have arrived alongside you, take a look around.


    Iron Lotus, for example, is one of the new arrivals and she takes the form of a petite, short young woman in white and black with a significantly-sized gem ensemble on her forehead. The wind ruffles her short hair a moderate amount and she pushes it out of her eyeline as she looks around, surprised at the interesting way the multiverse works.

    "Huh. So the universe just drops a bunch of new aquaintances in my lap. What a nice surprise." She brings a hand up gingerly. "Uh, hello? Hail? I'm not quite sure how to do this. Good day, explorers? Travellers? Random portal sliders?"

    the portal disgorges a possibly strange-looking man with blood-red serpent's eyes, and odd seams fron the corner of his mouth to just under his ear (he looks a little bit like a snake, yes) accompanied by a harried-looking human female. Actually she seems to less be 'accompanying' him and more 'chasing' him. "Ryuunosuke, you can't just walk off like that! You know what the priestess said--!"

    "Look to our surroundings, Keiko," he notes, his soft voice possessing a hiss. She stops and looks around. "This is not the way back to the shrine. We are here now, stay out of my way." Despite he words, he remains calm. And with that he turns his back on her and looks to the others here. Iron Lotus's words get a smirk. "Not the first time, I can assure you," he offers quietly. He bows, offering to the group, "Greetings. I am called Ryuunosuke."

And on the other end of the spectrum you have a portal that spats out a.. big red and brown ball? It tumbles to a stop from the exit.

Then uncurls from itself to stand up as a roughly human-sized armadillo. A stetson hat is produced from inventory and placed upon his head, scarred eyes peering from under the brim as it's tugged into place. Tugged a little more firmly to keep it from being blown off his head as the wind flares through the bandana around his neck.

"Well ain't this just a quaint and pleasant place to mosey into."

The southwestern drawl does little to hide the sarcasm in Dillon's remark.

Broly arrives! 

 This tall, beast of a young man lands on his feet and seems to stand up very slowly. He growls lightly as his eyes shift to look at others who seem to arrive just as he did, and his eyes suddunly narrow. "Where am I." but then, he looks to the Iron Lotus, approaching them, and effectively looking down upon them. To Ryuunosuke, it's much the same effect. "I am Broly." 

 He looks on edge. Heinously so. A strange world, and he appears ready to do some intense fighting. His eyes then shift to Dillon. 

 He's never seen anything like him before.

A staticky portal opens up, and out steps Emily; she's in the form of a tall woman with silver hair and glowing purple eyes, dressed in a green trench coat, a black bandeau bikini top, black jeans, and combat boots; one hand carries an ice cream cone. She has an amused and faintly smug smile as she looks around, regarding the area with interest. Just quietly observing.

Though one face in particular catches her attention. They're kind of opposites in some ways, but he's basically the only person who decided categorically that Emily is a friend. "Hey, Broly!" she calls out.

Iron Lotus's eyes whirr and adjust like camera lenses as she blinks when she notices Ryuunosuke. "I remember you."

    She nods, and then turns to look at the other person. "Your name is Keiko? Yeah, hate to break it to you but you just wandered off into another world. You might as well enjoy it while we're here so hey, let's go and see what this place is like, maybe."

    "Yeah," she says to the also newly appeared Dillon. "Kinda windy, huh? Maybe we got here on a bad day. Wanna explore with us? What's your name?"

    She hardly seems to be bothered by the rolling armadillo's appearance, rather she takes it in her stride.

    "Woah you're tall," she says, quite impressed with her hands on her hips as she walks over to Broly. "I don't know where we are though, do you wanna come with us and explore this town we've landed near? I'm sure someone will be able to tell us what's up."

    "Oh, you two know each other?" she asks when Emily appears over in the corner. "That's really nice. I'm hoping to make friends in the multiverse as well, too. My name is Iron Lotus."


    The town lies before you, and surely there must be people there waiting to greet you? Well, there are people there, at least, but a lot of people seem to be going around with their heads down, and others look like they're just walking around in a haze. It's kind of an unusual effect. People are at the least buying and selling things at market, and transactions seem to be taking place, so that's something at least. There are things like bread, candy, apples and desserts on sale here and there and other people are selling sundries and household items. No weapons, funnily enough.

    "That is what we mean to find out," Ryuunosuke answers to Broly's query of 'where'. He offers a small bow of his head in response to the greeting from Broly. Iron Lotus gets a smile. "Indeed. It is a pleasure to see you again." His companion is given a look, and then he notes to Iron Lotus, "Apologies. My babysitters tend to follow me around."

    Keiko looks a little annoyed at Ryuunosuke. "Yeah, and you're the one wearing the leash, and I'm the one carrying it." Ryuunosuke frowns. Ignoring this, Keiko looks to Iron Lotus. "What actually happened?" she asks. "Where is this place?"

Being one that typically wanders into a place, solves a problem (usually fighting) and then wanders off again; Dillon doesn't appear too jostled by wandering into a seemingly random desolate place or it being amongst stranger company. He's just not the easily phased sort in general. Once he's made sure his hat and neckerchief aren't going to come loose in the wind he nods a big vagely, and trudges after the rest of the group.

"Name's Dillon." Not really much for elaborate introductions, either.

That fella is a tall drink o' water to be sure. It almost hurts hist stiff neck to try and turn his head enough to look up at Broly, so Dillon only does so long enough to give him a once over before following the rest of the gathering. People are already asking the questions about where this is and what happened to it, so he doesn't have to.

Broly keeps his eyes on Iron Lotus, as if he knows he's quite tall...or doesn't really care about his height that much. His eyes also shift to Ryuunosuke, but...he simply nods. Then there's Emily. His eyes shift sharply to the woman he fought a few weeks ago, and he growls like some wild beast. But then he goes back to a deadpan face, that bears just a bit of aggression. "Hello, Emily." is all he says, then back to Iron Lotus. 

 "Yes. I fought her a few weeks ago." no, he does not say who won. 

 Then his eyes fall on Dillion. Broly only gives a grunt in response. But, alas, his eyes shift fully to Iron Lotus. "Why do the villagers all look like that?" haze-walking, heads down...like depressed zombies.

Emily smiles, walking over to Broly and Iron Lotus. "That's right," she says, just smiling cheerfully at in the face of Broly's aggressiveness. She doesn't elaborate on who won, either. "I'm Emily Nyx, this is Broly. And you're adorable." ... She says this so matter-of-factly.

She nods to Ryuunosuke. He clearly has the important questions handled; there really isn't anything she can add onto this. Though she does keep an eye peeled towards the other arrivals, as well as watching the villagers ... very carefully. Broly's question was certainly a good one, too.

"That's kinda a weird arrangement!" Lotus says to Keiko, with her hands in her pockets, walking along. "I'm sure you have your reasons..." with a shrug.

    "Well, last portal I took was in the Darkened Branches," Lotus replies to Ryuunosuke, "So we should still be there or close to it. Usually darker worlds but never always quite the same reason why... if I had to guess, I'd say my world would show up here when it finally decides to..."

    She lets Dillon loiter at the back of the group if he wants to; some people just like to hang out at the back and for the time being in this newly formed group of inquisitive people she's okay with that. What she's more interested in, after all, is-

    "Huh, you two had a fight and now you're friends? That's cool! I'm not too bad of a fighter myself, I might not look it but there's a lot of metal under my hood and in my chassis so maybe you'll get to see it some time! Well, hopefully not..." to Emily, exchanging glances between the two of them. 

    Broly brings up a good point, and Lotus rubs her chin.

    First Objective!

    Why not spread out among the marketplace and try to ask some questions? There's enough people here that you might find out some interesting things or, at the very least, buy some interesting jelly. Get creative and see if you can slake your curiosity! It's a busy marketplace despite the listless attitude of some of the people- although 'busy' might not be the perfect word for it- but surely you can find something out by asking!

    "Hey there, we're new in town," Lotus says to a vendor. "What's the name of this town, please?"

Talking to the locals is a sound approach. Dillon just isn't the talkative type to do so. Very much more the strong silent type. The folks better at having meaningful conversations can handle that.

Instead the armadillo ranger just wanders through the market, paying less attention to the people and more to the stalls. More accurately, what's in them. You can learn a fair bit about a place by seeing what stuff is being bought and sold. Find what people use and what they need, and it might just turn up something related to the dreariness of this place.

Broly growls. Looking at the people. "They rub me the wrong way." Seems Broly's first choice is to just break it rather than solve it, but he's not exactly a talker. He lets his fists do the talking. Nevertheless, he looks to Iron Lotus, and just follows. He's just kinda be the reason for people to...not, in this town. 

 He looks to his side at Emily, but doesn't seem to mind her. his eyes shifting ever ahead. 

 Broly looks like he might rip the vendor in half. Saiyans are just scary people.

    Ryuunosuke's eye twitches. "They think I am too evil to be left to my own devices," he admits, to the mention of the 'strange arrangement'. "So she will be following me like a puppy." Yeah, he doesn't like that. However, that IS a good idea, to spread out and see what's going on. Though Ryuunosuke has a specific way of doing this.

    A single mechanical arm, like a telescoping rod with a small disk on the end, unfolds from his back. And then the small disk unfolds into a larger disk, then disconnects from the end of the telescoping rod. The rod folds back, and the disk flies up into the air. That would be a surveillance drone.

    Though meanwhile, he bows to the group and starts to wander through the market. With Keiko following of course. He's paying attention to the people more than the products. He's looking to see if certain people are more or less zombie-like than others. Meanwhile his drone flies up to get a bird's eye view, to see if there's something odd from above.

"Heh, same shit, different day," Emily murmurs dryly. Her smile falters slightly, but then she just shrugs and follows Broly. He'll need someone to rein him in if that becomes necessary, and something tells her Iron Lotus wouldn't be up to the task.

She peers at the vendor with interest, watching their reaction as much as listening to the answer to Lotus's question. Her glowing eyes probably give her a particularly piercing gaze, anyway; she's probably intimidating in a completely different way from Broly.

She radios Ryuunosuke: << *sound effect of a burst of radio static* Found anything yet? >>

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> https://youtu.be/-wa62chy8dk

    There are no weapons being sold here, and interestingly enough it seems as if there is a preponderance of luxury goods being sold. People seem willing to pay high prices for what's on offer, so either this place hit a gold rush recently or money doesn't seem to be an object for the people living here.

The vendor who has made the mistake of getting Broly's attention just seems to look straight through him, and arranges the stuff on his storefront as if he wasn't even there. The same goes for Emily, who despite being intimidating for different reasons seems to get entirely the same reaction. It may be a weird feeling for someone like him to be considered so... unworthy of attention, almost. It doesn't seem so much arrogance as it is that the huge, muscular man is just not worth paying attention to.

    "You're in Van Patissierie now, dearie," the older woman vendor says to Iron Lotus. "Are you all refugees here from another town? Well, sit down and do your best to make yourselves comfortable, we'll do our best to while away the time together."

    Ryuunosuke feels uneasy as him and his drone do their best to examine the town together. There seem to be a pretty even split between people who are walking around in a haze, people who are just looking straight through one another, and people who don't seem to care what they're looking at, but life is going on just fine despite appearances- it's not so much that people are affected by something as that they just don't care what's straight in front of them.

    The radio will have to come through Ryuunosuke's drone, which doesn't quite sound like him, but it's close enough to know it's him. And he does reply to Emily.

<< Yes... and no. I feel like there is something odd, but also for some reason it... feels as though it is not worth paying special attention to... >>

    Hm. At least everyone seems equally disaffected, so it might not be one particular person in the ton causing it. Though he still can't bring himself to think it's... the odd thing. Nah, that's not worth paying attention to...

Lots of fancy stuff but no weapons to defend themselves? That's a peculiar combination, to say the least. Usually the rich (and crooked) want all the additional safety they can get.

But it sounds like Lotus struck better luck with getting interesting conversation. Dillon ambles back in that direction, but other than a tip of his hat to greet the elder woman he doesn't say much more than a polite "Ma'am." Just finds a spot to remain in the background and listen to what it is she has to say.

Broly does't seem to mind his 'handler' in the form of Emily. She's probably the main choice for stopping him if he gets out of hand. Regardless, he blinks at the villager who just ghosts him. Broly looks like he might grab him in order to 'jog his attention' but...eh, this guy wouldn't provide a challenge. 

 He looks at Emily, and just growls. "The people here are strange." 

 He remains silent...figuring that EMily was probably the better people person.

Emily raises her eyebrows. "Not refugees, no," she says. "We're from other worlds on the World Tree. I'm highly experienced in whiling away the hours ... or decades. What's causing the need for refugees?"

<< *same burst of static SFX* Hmmmmm. >> Emily doesn't show anything in her expression. << Why don't we pay attention to it regardless, and see what happens? >>

The fact that Broly makes Emily look like a people person should probably be cause for alarm. "That's what we're here to investigate," she murmurs. "This has to be because an outside force is making them that way." She smiles. "Hopefully, said force can be punched," she adds cheerfully.

As Dillon continues to observe he will also notice that despite this money flowing virtually nobody around here looks like a thief, or a sneak, or a pickpocket at all. There's literally no criminal element in this busy marketplace as far as he can see at all, oppurtunistic or otherwise, and big gold coins continue to trade hands without a whiff of a knife in the pursepockets.

    Lotus reconvenes the group as best she can, doing her best to touch base with everyone and spread around the word of what people are looking for. It helps that some of you are already talking to one another. 

    "Oh'm?" the woman says, looking up at Emily. "Mmm, well, don't quite know what you're'm talking about there miss, don't quite know much about any tree only I reckon we don't have many trees left, I figure, ourselves. As for why, I mean, well, you know... it's the storms, isn't it? I figure it would mostly be the storms..."

    Broly can glare at the other person all he wants, there's just literally no reaction there. He polishes a plate. This guy is not my problem. He adjusts some fruit in a bowl. He's somebody else's problem.

    And then something different sort of happens.

    https://i.imgur.com/PmYKEZz.png

    Going loping through the crowds, standing about a foot taller than most people, comes this man, a strange mechanical man. His movements are exaggerated and gangly, taking a strange countenance on as if he's wading through water as he walks to... somewhere.

    The people pay him about as much attention as they do Broly which is to say none at all really.

"Storms?" Dillon grunts softly. It's never good news when storms are being blamed for something. It's bad enough back home when the skies turn dark and red and the Grocks come out.

But there's nothing in the way of illicit activity to catch the Ranger's attention, so the oddly wobbling machine man almost immeadiately does. He stands out as much as the rest of this strange group does, not that it draws any reaction from the locals. Somehow these people are even more impassive than he is. "Hmm." An eye is kept on where the gangly guy is going.

    <<I can try.>>

    Well, yeah, so... Ryuunosuke can start trying to pay attention to it via his drone, despite it very much seeming not to want him to do that. however, as he's doing that... weird happens.

    Ryuunosuke very much stares at this trange sight. Yes, very much so. Because that tall skinny metal man is WEIRD, and he's not quite so affected by this 'you do not see me' business as the villagers in this town. So if Mr. Mecha Mechanical Arm-Flailing Metal Man does happen to notice that he's looking right at him (or her, or it, who knows) then it's going to reveal him pretty easily.

What. The hell. Is that. 

 That metal man is approached by Broly, who seems to ignore any kind of words from the lady Iron Lotus speaks to, his eyes locked onto the machine. "Can YOU tell me what happened here?" Because worst case scenario, this thing is weaponized. hilarious-case scenario, it's just as emotionless and bears the same lack of care as the citizens.

Emily hmms. "Storms, huh." She looks meaningfully at Broly and Lotus.

<< *radio static* All right. Lemme know if -- What is that. >> "What is that." She breaks into a wide grin at the sight of the ... machine. "... Interesting!" she says. "Scuse me a moment!" She opens up a staticky portal, and comes out directly in front of its path, getting all up in its face. "Hi there!"

... So, yeah. When your basis for comparison isn't Broly, she is so not a people person.

Speaking of problems, "Leave, you're not wanted here!" A teenage girl is chasing aftter the odd gangly man. Unlikely the other townspeople there's a great deal of passion in her voice. She seems rather concerned about the other townspeople noticing her, but the newcomers stand out to her as well. She can instantly tell they're not from this world.

 She stops upon hearing about subject of the storms being brought up and she carefully adjusts her glasses a bit. They're certainly an odd group but they might be just what's she looking for. "He's nothing but trouble!" Maybe she can convice them to deal with them for her.

    The gangly man- if it is a man- turns to look at the others for just a moment- first to Dillon, then Broly, then Ryuunosuke and Keiko, then Emily and Lotus. It's strange because his head makes a visible little clicking movement with each turn, and it definitely seems to absolutely recognize each one of them for what they are. It slowly starts to raise a hand to just put it up to them-

    And that's when the new arrival races in and shouts at him, and he visibly takes a step away from her and seems to make a fist. It's strange, overall, not the least of which because this is practically the first person here to really acknowledge them and it had to be a wild waving arm tube man? Life is full of surprises.

    "Oh, yes," the woman says, seemingly not paying any attention to what's going on literally right in front of her and off in her own world. "They're really getting bad. Won't be much time left soon."

Seemingly random townsfolk calling for help? Finally, something a little more along Dillon's line of things. Like the drifter he often is the Ranger ambles over to the shouting teen, since she doesn't seem to be too off-put by their appearance (just actually paying attention to the fact they're not from these parts) and gives her a brief nod. "What's the matter, miss?" He's still keeping the corner of his eye on the flailing-arm mecha-man though.

    Ryuunosuke calls his drone back then, with the gangly metal beastie person looking like it was about to do something. The telescoping arm it had detached from unfolds again, so the device can reattach itself, and it folds back behind him. He narrows his eyes at the mechanical thing.

    And yes, he looks to the shouting girl, since she seems unaffected by whatever fugue has fallen over the rest of this place's people. "What exactly is this?" he inquires. He's talking to the girl, but he's not taking his eyes off the the mechanical monstrosity.

Broly looks to the shouting girl, then riiiggghhtt back to the machine. Growling, Broly will attempt to grab the machine by the 'neck' and lift it up "Answer." is all Broly says, eyes narrowed, ready to shatter this thing into a million pieces. 

 But something else catches his interest. "What do you mean, not much time?"

Emily smiles at the newcomer. "Oh, hey there!" she says, turning to face her in midair. "I'm Emily Nyx. What seems to be the trouble? Also, can that trouble be punched?" Emily's got the important questions.

She actually laughs out loud when Broly just grabs the thing. "Oh man," she says. "My creators would be horrified if they could see me in this situation!"

"Everyone's been different since they arrived. They seem to be resigned to their fate of being destroyed by the storms!" Astra tries to explain to the outsiders what's been going on. "I've been trying to talk them out of it but no one's been listening to me, they just go about as things are normal." She hasn't been able to get through to anyone and sounds rather frustrated. "I've tried to get the machines to leave but I'm not really equipped to fight them off." The others on the other hand might be able to take care of them though.

Iron Lotus doesn't quite know what to make of all of this. She didn't even notice the girl up until now, which is a surprise considering how lively she is, but she's definitely got her attention now and moreover so has the robot-like figure, although she's rather shocked when Broly just deadlifts the guy.

     "A-ah, bad first impression, maybe..." she says gently to the two of them as the figure is hoisted, perhaps getting ready to intervene between the two of them.

    Dillon and Ryuunosuke ask Astra questions.

    "Please do not harm me," the gangly faceless figure says quietly, although at the same time he decides to speak up he's drowned out by the older woman who speaks over him, since she continues to quite stringently not notice he's there.

    "Why, until the end of the world, I reckon," is what she says.

    Lotus is shocked, and turns around to look at her reflexively.

    Provided this is enough of a distraction will give the mechanical man an oppurtunity to squirm out of Broly's grip and quickly take several steps away, its red eye now visibly glowing as it glares at Astra in a way quite unlike what has happened before.

    Lotus' head whips around as she turns to look at Astra, the old woman and the robotic man. 

    "What? The end of the world?" she asks. And... listens. People are... what? That sounds totally bizarre. Is this why everyone is acting so strangely?

    The tube man takes several steps back, arms raised.

That Broly may be an odd fellow but Dillon can appreciate his direct approach to the matter, even if he's getting a bit hands-on before they entirely know what's up with all the doomsaying about storms and machines and what not. He cants his head a little to look at Astra without entirely taking his attention off mechanical flailing arms man either. "An' why are you tryin' to chase them off?" Dillon may be a desperado sort but he still prefers to know why he's suppose to be beating someone up.

    "Machines? Plural?" Ryuunosuke asks. Still looking at the mechanical monstrosity. Broly lifts the metallic man, the shouting girl (Astra) mentions that the machines have been affecting people, and... talk of the end of the world is had. Yeah, that's not normal.

    He looks to the metallic man. "...I suggest you explain. Or there will be much more than 'hurting' you happening, I can wager..."

Emily brightens. "Say no more!" she says. "I think just me and Broly alone could cause all kinds of damage here."

She looks up at the creature, grinning. "Oh! Eyes glowing red like a logic virus!" she says with mock horror. She punches into the palm of her hand as she looks up at the tube-man. "That usually means someone's beyond saving ... unless it's just lights glowing in your preferred color," she adds nastily. "Why don't you give us your side of the story, hmm?"

Broly looks as the machine squiggles out of his grasp, eyes flashing green for a moment, and Emily is about the only person there who knows what that means. That machine is dead meat unless they get some answers. "I'll tear it to pieces." he starts an angry walk, approaching the machine yet again, unless it's smart and chooses to scram. 

 "Nothing's gonna end if I have anything to say about it." that's one of the most literate sentences he's ever said!

"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Astra Alexander. Like I said before everyone's been acting different since the machines arrived!" She explains again to Dillon. "The storms have ripped apart town after town and no one else cares!" She glares at the waving machnical man. "I'm assuming if we get them to leave everyone will go back to normal and then we can actually do something about the storms." She does her best not to sound too desperate but she's running out of options here.

    The situation is split. Ryuunosuke and Emily ask the mechanical man to explain his side of the story, but the far more threatening Broly is there too, and so the wavy-arm tube man ducks low to the ground and disappears into the crowd, seeming to slither away quite rapidly at the risk to his own life. 

    He walks off in the direction of... somewhere. Somewhere else. It's probably not important...

    "Oh, well," Lotus says, and shrugs.

    Wait, hang on.

    Isn't that exactly how everyone else in this town seems to feel when they're looking at things right in front of them?

    Lotus raises a hand to her forehead, and rubs the gem that lies there. "Ugh. It feels so weird. Like, now I don't even care about going after him. I think something here is affecting us, too."

    She looks inquisitively at Astra, then exchanges glances with the others. "Do you feel it, too? Something's getting into our heads too. We gotta do something about us before it affects us any further!"

That's not the most direct connection. But at the same time that sort of thing can't be a coincidence either, can it? Thinking through such intricate details isn't really Dillon's thing though.

So it's probably not a surprise that instead he just snorts softly and steps up next to Broly. Instead of adding to the vocal threat of answers or else, he just grabs the cuff of one of his gloves and gives it a tug to be sure it's on properly. Which just happens to also put his large claws more prominantly on display thanks to the fingerless design.

And then the flailing arm robot slithers off and away. "Smart varmint." Would chasing after him for the moment really accomplish anything? "Very strange one, too." Folds his arms with a snort.

... Oh right.

Dillon glances towards Astra again. "Just what do these storms -do-?" All the talk about them being the end of the world but not how the storms are causing said end of the world doesn't seem right.

Emily grins at Broly. "Hey, careful there," she says conversationally. "Remember what I said about going all out in the middle of a population center?"

She pauses as the noodle-man runs off, and starts to head after him, but stops once he ... wanders off. "Huh. I guess we ... uh ... it ..."

She blinks as Lotus expresses a desire to go after him anyway, and her smile vanishes. "Wh-- UGH!" She shakes her head, clutches it (even though her CPU core is in the middle of her torso), and frowns. "Wow, yeah, this is worse than ..." Her voice trails off. "... Pollux Castor ..."

She manages to shoot Lotus a grin. "Not only adorable, but you have a great presence of mind!" she says. "So how do we get ... uh ... get ... there ... shhhhhhhhit, I hate having my mind messed with!" She laughs, turning to listen in on Astra and Dillon's conversation. "I officially have a reason to get involved beyond the consequences of if I was on the bad guy side."

Broly then watches the thing wander off. Though he does shake his head. "I want to break it." then he looks to Emily, narrowing his eyes at her when she tells him about losing it in a populated area." then he looks to Lotus. As if waiting for what's next or new. 

 "We should help."

"The storms basically disintegrate everything they strike! People, objects, buildings there's nothing left behind!" Astra is seemingly uneffected by the machines presence. "Please don't tell me they're getting to you too...why am I the only one immune to them?" She rubs her head a bit in confusion. "There's a huge ship outside of town not far from my house. I believe that's where they hide. I've avoided getting too close, I don't know what kind of weapons they have."

Lotus nods to Broly, "We should."

    Once you begin to realise something is obfuscating your mind, you begin to realise that since you got here there has indeed been something you have been overlooking. A direction you haven't been looking in, something you haven't been looking at.

    It takes some effort to actually /want/ to look in that direction, and you may need Astra's help to tell you what to do again, but when you do you notice it.

    https://i.imgur.com/oHM8Y98.jpg

    Lotus' eyes widen as she sees the frankly massive machine on the outskirts of town: a massive rectangular tower covered in neon lines and picking up stray bolts of lightning, which is now very obvious to all of you. It's where the guy ran off to!

... It DID start to happen when the robot man wibble wobbled its way through, didn't it?

Welp, that's more than enough connection for him. Finally getting a description of how the storms are 'the end of the world' helps, too.

That and having a certain direction pointed out. And then wondering how the blue hells they didn't notice it before.

"Definately," he adds to Broly and Lotus' remarks.

Emily squeezes her eyes shut, and opens them. And she squeezes them shut, and opens them again.

And then she claps her hands and rubs them together. "Well, looks like we have the place to attack!" she says. "Who needs a lift? I can carry ... I wanna say two or three people? I know you can fly, Broly -- Oh, but first, releasing capacitor seals three and two." She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one silver, one gold, and one pearlescent. The first two seem to shatter and the third one fades.

And then in a swirl of what looks like silvery glitter, she transforms into a small hovercraft with running lights and seating for three, one of which is obviously large enough for Dillon. "I can get us there lickety split!" says Emily's voice, and the running lights flicker in time with her speech. "Or is it lickety spit? Uh, whichever!"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> I, TOO, CAN TURN INTO A CAR.

Dillon raises a brow ridge as Emily turns into a vehicle. Okay. While he could easily keep up with his rolling dashes, he's not going to object to being able to conserve is strength and climbs in.

"They called it the Echaton machine when they arrived, I don't have much combat experience myself but I'm the most familar with them." Astra's going to have to rely on the others to protect her but she still plans on going in. She seems rather surprised as Emily turns into a vehicle, she would ask her to go into more detail when they have a chance to talk.