World Tree MUSH

    Recovering Vanileth was supposed to make things easier... somehow. A new ally, that's true, but what for? What purpose? What will they do and how can they help?

    The location of a ship was known, but now comes time to plan and find out the approach for the problem. Vanileth has offered to host this, but he still seems very absent-minded, so asking him directly might be the best. At least he has some refreshments available, right? And a roof. That's something. But he's so very... distracted still.

Astra's quite happy to have company at her house for a change. She has plenty of room seeing how she lives on her own. Still they need to come up with a plan before they go after the ship. Plus it might not hurt to tell the others more about herself. "So for starters where exactly is the ship at, Vanileth?" She figures that's the number one question on everyone's mind at the moment.

    Nort and Scar are both here. Scar is pretty huge, but he's taken care to tuck himself away in a corner, where he can speak and participate without basically taking up all the room. It's Nort who is doing the talking mostly today though.

    "That's one question," Nort says. His helmet is off, revealing him to be a surprisingly handsome man of indeterminate age, perhaps in his thirties. It also shows the cybernetic implants crawling over his neck and jaw. But right now, he's more interested in other questions. "Why exactly is this so important? What's different about this ship than, say, restoring an old shuttle from my world?"

Emily has taken her "default" form of an auburn-haired woman in her thirties, except she has glowing purple eyes instead of robotic ones, and she has four arms. Also, for some reason she's wearing a black and gold and red version of Iron Lotus's outfit. "I'd presume it's because Vanileth's ship doesn't need restoring, or at least as much restoring, and it'll be less work to transport it since it's already here," she says. She looks over at Astra, then back at Vanileth. "Also, what kind of passenger capacity are we talking about here? Presumably it's big enough for all of us, but I don't want to just assume."

     Since they were just here to talk and plan, at least that was her impression, Krystal has left her staff back on her ship and shows up wearing a mint green blouse and lavender skirt. She browses the refreshments before sitting down with a glass of punch and some snacks. She is quiet for the moment, listening as the others ask questions, she is curious about this special ship but doesn't have anything more to add that hasn't already been asked, at least for now.

    "Eh? MY ship? Oh this isn't my ship," Vanileth waves the implication away. "It's /a/ ship. A nice ship! A good ship. And if you would like to build a ship instead of finding this one, that's wonderful!" He chuckles.

    "As for where... hmm. I can sense it, I know where it is, but pointing it out on a map? That would be hard right now." He frowns. "Bah. You should build your own ship! Of course... this one won't need to worry about the storms. You can fly right to the source of the problem."

Iron Lotus is here! Iron Lotus has been here for a while!

    Iron Lotus doesn't have anything to say though, nor can she cook snacks, so she's mostly just here for moral support, which means 'do nothing and eat all your food'. So that's what she's here for. Moral support.

Emily perks up. "Oh, really?" she says. "I was kinda wondering about that. Both how well the ship can handle the nanoprobes, and whether there was an actual source. There's no shortage of nanotechnology where I'm from -- case in point --" She jerks a thumb right at her own chest. "-- but fully-distributed nano-colonies are rare."

She pauses to grab some punch and a snack. "As for handling the nanoprobes, I was kind of worried. Anyone can use the reclamation-unit, but I don't have the knowledge or any surviving machines that could replicate it. I was actually considering handing it off to you during the fight, Astra, but I was worried about how well I could defend you, since you aren't as ... maneuverable as me." She hesitates, and then in a joking voice, she adds, "And the consequences if you got murderificated would've totally been a pain for me."

"Exactly and we don't really have the time to fix a new ship from scratch right now. I mean it would be nice to have another ship but that would be more a long-term project." Astra nods in agreement with Vanileth. "Do you know who the ship originally belong to?" She can't help but to wonder where would have an intact ship. She gulps a bit as she hears Emily. "I've built quite a few machines, but nothing that advanced!" She points to the various appliances through out her house.

Krystal washes down the last bite of food she just ate before nodding in agreement as she follows the conversation as best she can even as she's trying to learn as she goes about all these nanomachines. "Building a machine would take too long I agree, even retrofitting my ship to be able to work against the nanoprobes would probably be a lot easier and quicker, but there is no way all of us are fitting in my ship, there's room for one extra person tops. You say you can't point to where this ship we're seeking would be on a map, but could you guide us to it somehow?"

    "That would be a good advantage to have," Nort agrees. "Yeah, it might take some time, but do we even know if this thing is intact? And it is supposed to be dangerous to even retrieve it." He shrugs, "I'm just trying to think of all the angles here."

    Emily asked another question, and Vanileth waves it off. "Room? Yes, plenty of room. It's a bigish ship." Ish? "I can guide you, but you have to restore it. You have to get to it." He claps his hands together and nods. "As for the kind of ship? Whose is it? Why I consider it yours, Astra, but it is not a ship of this world. That's what makes it so exciting!"

     "Exciting indeed, I am curious to see a ship that is not from this or my own 'world' and see what sorts of interesting technology it has equipped, not to mention seeing it used to bring an end to these storms of voracious nanoprobes." Krystal comments before taking a few more bites from the snacks on her little plate. "Does anyone have a plan though?"

"Uh ..." Emily hesitates, looking at Astra, but she keeps her smile up. Krystal might be the only one who could tell that she wants to apologize for whatever bothered her, but isn't entirely sure what she'd be apologizing for.

She shrugs, and settles down somewhat at Krystal's question. "I've never been a planner, so I'll just go along with whatever everyone else is doing," she says cheerfully. "That said, like ..." She shrugs. "Danger is something I can handle. Being alive is dangerous." She says this with the confidence borne of six and a half centuries of experience to reinforce it.

    A plan, oops. Looks like people weren't up for this after all? "If it's just a plan you want, then I can help a little. This isn't my specialty but what resources do we have?"

    Nort, the one who butt in there, leans back and ticks off his fingers. "The weapon Emily is using. The ship if we can get it - we'll have to do that, remember - and ourselves. Arrayed against us are those floating probes and nanostorms. So what do we need to do?"

    He leans in. "We need to coordinate. Never leave Astra unguarded, for one thing. Someone capable of holding off one of those spheres will need to be with her at all times. Everyone else, coordinate to crack the shells on those things so Emily can hit it with the disassembler. This will be easier on the ship I hope, because Astra or Vanileth here can hopefully pilot it. If not we'll need to find a pilot."

    Vanileth leans back in his chair. "Hmm? I could, but I think you would like me to navigate. In the meantime, do you think I could look at some of your world's technology? It would be interesting to see if we could put something on the Kaguya-hime!" He blurts out the name finally, as an afterthought.

    Then he chuckles, "I've not been able to LEARN about flight from other places yet... could I see your ship sometime, Krystal?" He looks... a lot more animated and 'with it' now, even if he is still absentminded.

     Krystal nods as Emily, Nort, and Vanileth all give their input. "This all seems reasonable, and if you need me to pilot the ship I can give it a shot, though I thought Astra was going to have that covered. As for seeing my ship, sure, I don't see any harm in letting you have a look at her and maybe even take you for a ride Vanileth." As for Kaguya-hime, Krystal wonders if she missed something somewhere, and tries to drag out the significance of the name through some telepathic probing without admitting out loud she has no idea who Vanileth is talking about.

Emily murmurs, "I mean, anyone could use it, like I said." She looks around. "Although my own personal flight is pretty damn fast and maneuverable in a fight, if I do say so myself, plus I can teleport to make the maneuvers even easier. The Kaguya-hime, hm?" She taps her chin thoughtfully, with her lower hands on her hips, as she wonders more-or-less the same thing as Krystal.

    "I don't have any functioning ships or planes, just land vehicles right now," Nort repeats from earlier. "You need to come by and see what we can scavenge with Haven." The man nods though. "Huh... that name is familiar but it's been a long time. Sounds asian. Princess something... but this world's history may be different anyway, it might be a coincidence." He is, unfortunately, not a scholar of Japanese myth.

    Vanileth isn't particularly trying to hide his thoughts. The name DOES have significance... but for him, it's quite possible ANY ship name has significance. He's thinking a lot about Astra though. "Yes, that would work fine. Oh, I can fight too, but... ah... I'm not what I used to be I'm afraid. Gods need worship and belief."

     Krystal could almost roll her eyes at herself when it turns out the name is just the name of the ship. She wonders if the ship is named after someone as it sounds like the name of a person and that's what had her a bit confused. But she finds Vanileth's comment about how fit he is for fighting interesting. "So, having people believe and worship you gives you strength? I guess that makes sense but I must admit this is my first time meeting and talking with an actual god."

"The Kaguya? If it's not from here, where did the ship come from? The Roshtonari?" Astra sounds rather uneasy about being on a ship built by them. "I'm sure if I can fly it, the last time I was on a ship..." She can't remember the full details of that incident but it hadn't ended well.

Emily hmms. "Pretty much how the gods of my world worked," she says. "Though they tended to have more responsibilities than rights, I think."

She frowns as Astra mentions the Roshtonari. "Now there's some folks who need some murderification," she mutters under her breath.

    Nort muses, "It does make sense. Being so far from home must be rough. Well, if a university mascot can become an idol of worship in my world, and you're the real deal, I'm sure you can survive." Well, if worship from his world counts.

    Scar rumbles, "The god of flying machines seems to think you can do it, Astra. Are you going to say he's wrong?" Scar doesn't have much belief in gods, but he does believe in boosting confidence.

     Krystal nods along with Nort's encouragement after Astra doubts her ability to fly this ship they're planning to go find. "I don't think I'm speaking out of line to say that we all believe in you, and if you need a co-pilot to help you along, I'm happy to do that for you."

    Vanileth sighs, apparently disappointed at something, but he says, "Oh, I'm sure you can do it, and a co-pilot would help!" He looks more enthused when Nort repeats his offer of earlier. "Right! Maybe I will see what is there before we try this!" He nods quickly and claps his hands. "So it's a plan! I'm not sure what challenges you will face, but if it were easy, it wouldn't still be there, would it? Be careful!"