World Tree MUSH

The Cradle is, well. It's a place of peace and quiet, for the most part. Which makes it *boring*. Which would explain why the young woman walking down one particular street is heading firmly *away* from the most stable parts of the World Tree. She appears to be human, in her late teens, and is wearing a leather jacket, a backpack slung over one shoulder.

Perhaps the region's stability is why this particular Vine chose here to do what it's about to do. The air seems to 'crack' open, and a swirling green portal appears. The sound seems to fade in, a cry of alarm from the other side. And then a human figure seems thrown bodily through, and the portal disappears.

A tree arrests the figure's 'flight' path the hard way, and they grab into a branch before falling out of the tree. This leaves a human male -- given his looks, possibly Chinese? -- hanging from the branch of the tree. "Geez... that's gotta be some kind of accomplishment, having a whole world decide 'screw you'..."

Vines do that. The young woman takes a controlled step backwards, lifts one arm to reach into her backpack...and then relaxes as the guy in martial arts gear lands in the tree, hanging from it. "Are you alright?" she asks instead. British accent.

The fellow looks to where the young woman's standing. "Yeah. Just wasn't planning on kissing a tree today. But here we are," he quips. Fortunately he doesn't appear to he terribly hurt, so there's that. He lets go of the tree, landing on the ground with a grunt, then straightens and brushes off the dust from his unplanned trip. Then he offers, "Sorry to startle you. But I didn't get any warning, either."

She lowers her hand the rest of the way. "You don't seem hostile, so let's not worry about it."

The man nods. "Thanks." A pause, and he looks around. "So... where is this?" he inquires. "It doesn't quite look like Earthrealm, but... close." He looks to the Eden fortress-city. "...And I think I'd remember that if I'd seen it before..."

"You got pulled into the multiverse. Or tossed into it." NO, she doesn't say yeeted, that particular slang is after her time, although she'd love it. "This is...we call it the Cradle, the stable part of the World Tree."

Giving a lost look, the young man notes, "That's... not a place I've heard of. So I guess all the Realms threw me out. Wonderful." He sighs. But then he seems to shift, becoming more polite. "Please excuse my manners, it's a little... disconcerting to suddenly be thrown through a portal." He bows -- that is a Shaolin bow, by the way, if Ace is familiar -- and offers, "My name is Kung Jin. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ace is somewhat familiar, apparently. She bows back, albeit with the awkwardness of one not born to that culture. "Ace," she introduces. just that one syllable, as if it should be enough. "And don't worry about manners, I haven't ever been accused of having any."

Jin stands up, and chuckles at the statement about manners. "Believe if or not, neither have I," he notes. "Though I guess that's to be expected from a common thief like me." He shrugs a bit. "So... does anyone who comes here ever findtheir way back home?" he inquires. "I mean, there are extenuating circumtances -- I think there's a powerful being meddling with time back home. Apparently I wasn't up to snuff."

Ace hrms. "Sometimes. Or sometimes their home finds them." She shifts the backpack's position. Then glances at the tree. "Meddling with time, eh?" That seems to have perked her up.

"I hope my world doesn't find this place," Jin notes. "That would be a little bit of a disaster. No, it's be a lot of a disaster, honestly." A shake of his head. To her inquiry of meddling with time, he nods. "Yeah... one of the Titans, these... really old beings that I'm told are older and more powerful than the Elder Gods. We -- that is, the people in my world -- didn't even really believe in them until one of them started screwing around with the timeline."

Ace winces. "Oh, that's completely not fun. I mean, there's times when it's okay to meddle with time, but I'm betting he isn't doing it for any good reason, right?" She moves to lean against a tree, dropping the backpack to rest next to her feet.

"'She', I think," Jin notes. "And I don't know why. I just know I started to disappear, and then suddenly got thrown into a portal. As I was passing through, I heard somebody talking. I heard a name, 'Kronika, Keeper of Time'. And 'This timeline will end differently', and 'You may be a god, but I am a Titan'. Whatever was going on, I was hearing the backdrop while I went through the portal. And then, well..." He gestures to the tree. "Then I'm 'branching out' into arboriculture."

Ace winces a bit. "Or they just didn't notice you were there," Ace muses. "So-called gods..." She tails off, glances up at the branches. "But no, I don't know how to get back."

"That could have been too," Jin replies. "In fact, it likely was. I think for a little while I didn't exist anymore." And the mention that Ace doesn't know how to get back? Jin tilts his head, first one way and then the other. "Yeah, I kinda figured," he replies, with a sigh. "That said, I guess if I didn't exist there, maybe it's better that I don't know how to get back. I'd probably just fade from existence again."

"Maybe. Depends on how the laws of time in your reality actually work. Where I come from, the timeline tends to do its best *not* to erase people, you pretty much have to work hard to make it happen. On the other hand..." If Kronika is something like the Guardians, then...

Jin shakes his head once more. "I don't really know about the bigger 'rules' like that," he replies. "I'm just another person, I don't get to know hose things." There's a note of bitterness there, but it doesn't seem to actually be aimed at Ace, so there's that.

Ace shrugs, "I do, but only in my reality and they seem to vary, which makes it rather less useful!" She doesn't seem too upset about it.

Jin nods. "So what's this place's story?" he asks. "This 'World Tree'. What's its deal? What can you tell me about it?" If he's gonna be stuck here, he might as well learn about it and figure out what he can do.

"It's part of the underlying network of the multiverse," the young woman says. "I don't fully understand all the details yet, but I'm learning." A pause. "There's a good library. There's the Gardeners, but getting stuff out of them is like...ya know."

Jin gives a smirk, though it lacks any note of amusement. "Seems like a common thing with people who are supposed to be in charge of a world," he points out. "Well... that library's a good place to start, I suppose. Where is it?"

"Let me think. I had a run-in with one of those people who makes you want to walk as fast as possible in any direction not towards them," she quips. She's sure he's met people who gave him that reaction.

"Oh geez," Jin mutters. Yeah, given that reaction, he's definitely met people like that. And probably in the recent past. Well, 'recent past' for him; who knows what the status of that is now? "Is that who's in charge of the library?" he inquires.

Ace shakes her head. "Thankfully, no. Some guy who thinks he's a god's gift to women and just plain isn't."

Jin lifts his upper lip in a sneer. "Gross," he declares. "On the one hand, I wouldn't have to worry about that being aimed at me. On the other, if he's like that to women, he's probably just as big a pain in the ass to others, just in other ways." A shake of his head. "Anyway... do you remember where the library was? If not, I can try to find it. I mean... it's not like I have anything else going on."

"I think it's vaguely in this direction." She detaches herself from the tree and picks up her backpack in one smooth, practiced motion.

Jin nods, and falls into step near Ace. "Thanks," he offers, "I appreciate the help." It's notable that he seems to kind of automatically move to a position where he can defende Ace as she's traveling in case of ambush -- not too close, but close enough that he can easily get to her if something happens.

Ace makes note of that. She doesn't say anything about it right away, though. "This place is a labyrinth, although at least the Cradle's pretty stable. Go further out and the road might vanish behind you to reappear somewhere else."

"So the roads aren't stable, either?" Jin inquires. "Is it like, the further you get away from this stable area, the more likely you are to just appear somewhere else? Seems like it'd make it hard to navigate..."

Ace nods. "It is. You learn to make sure you don't leave anything you would really miss behind, unless you want to stick around here. Like I said, the Cradle's mostly safe."

"Well, that's not hard," Jin notes. "Everything I've got is what's on my person right now." Which is the clothes on his back, a quiver of arrows, and a strangely curved wooden staff with a roaring dragon head on the top. Given its shape, it might work decently for a bow to fire those arrows... if it had a string. He nods. "Right, I'll keep that in mind."

Ace has met people who use unstrung bows as staffs. It's a thing. "It is for some people. And I admit I'm used to traveling with a full wardrobe." Her tone is, mostly, joking.

"Where? Do you just usually strap it to your back like a Sherpa?" Jin inquires. He is also teasing, judging by his jovial tone. "The whole piece of furniture, or do you put everything in a trunk?"

Ace laughs. "I mean before here. I traveled on a ship. But...that's an interesting image." Now, of course, if the trunk was larger on the inside...

"What did you do before you came to this place?" Jin inquires. It's not just idle chatter, either; if her life changed completely, he's probably going to also have to rethink his life. Maybe. Theft is a pretty widespread profession...

"Kind of a...traveling troubleshooter. With the Professor." She says the title with a deep level of respect. Her teacher, then, perhaps. "So, I suppose, I'm still doing some of that."

"Troubleshooter, huh?" Jin inquires. "Lot of that needed around these parts?" He sounds hopeful -- might as well look for something he can do while he's here, right?

"Not so much in the Cradle, but get out on the branches and there's all kinds of messes, many of which just need somebody who's got half a brain." A wry smile. For the rest, there's Nitro-Nine, right?

At this, Jin can't help but smirk. "I'm a bit overqualified for that, but I think I can deal with it," he quips. More seriously, he asks, "How do people get out to these trouble spots?"

"You pretty much find them," Ace muses. "Sometimes you have to walk. Sometimes there's faster ways, though. The usual. Vehicles. Animals, occasionally."