World Tree MUSH

    The ruined city, by day, is temperate and warm. A cooling breeze floats through the derelict buildings, long abandoned and forgotten by humanity for over thousands of years of war with between man made androids and the alien Machine Lifeforms.
    Two such androids are waiting at the entrance of a new sector of the city that has recently opened up due to strange phenomenon...
    Someone unlocked a door.
    That is to say, 2B and 9S wait just inside the entrance of a massive and sprawling ruin. The name of this building has long been lost to time. The ancient arcade is overgrown with plants and greenery, grass pushing up through destroyed and rotten floor tiles. The glass has long been deteriorated from every window, and the escalators haven't run in millenia.
    "Soooooooo 2B... I heard this kind of place used to be called a 'shopping center'. I can't believe the size of this place though. The people of the old world must have led pretty good lives. I bet it was fun to shop, back when you had so many choices..." 9S muses.
    "We don't need such things." 2B counters curtly.
    "Don't be so sure about that! Once we eradicate the machine lifeforms, us soldiers won't have anything left to do! We'll enter a new age of peace... And when that happens, we should go shopping together! I could buy you... I donno, a T-shirt or something, maybe?"
    "... A t-shirt?" 2B asks skeptically, brow cocking under her visor.
    "What... Not interested?"
    "Hmmmm... ... When that day comes... I'm all for it."
    "That's a promise, right?"
    "Yep."

    "'I beat an alien invasion, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.' That's the kind of thing they'd sell back in my world," Hyouka greets. Her footfalls carry her into the ruined shopping mall smooth and almost lazy, and she pauses a moment to grimace. "...and they make movies about places like this, too. Lot of speculation about 'what happens to cities if humanity suddenly disappears'. It's kind of unsettling, actually being here."

    DARGN helpfully chimes in, "Hyouka, you realize there will doubtless be bottles of alcohol in this city that have been aging for some time, yes?" Almost immediately, the cyborg adds, "Although I suppose ruined cities /do/ have their upsides."

    Cough. No distractions. Booze hunting for later. "Ah, anyway, 2B, I brought the present you asked for." She holds up her right hand, and a few brief crackles of magical lightning dance along it.

There's a third android gliding over, several centimeters off the ground. Well ... technically she's a Eudaemon. Or at least, if Emily Nyx is *not* "an android", that's probably some sort of semantic hairsplitting going on there. Anyway, she's taken the form of a woman with glowing purple eyes, four arms, and golden hair that seems to float in some gentle breeze that has nothing to do with the actual behavior of the atmosphere, and she's wearing tacky white cocktail dress and a pewter pendant in the shape of a falchion sword.

"I was going to suggest that a T-shirt is aiming kind of low," she says, in the same voice she always has. She shoots 2B and 9S a cheeky grin. "On the other hand, I'd say that's something to worry about when you don't have the purpose you were created for looming over your heads." She waves her left hands vaguely. "Anyway, Hyouka, I can't get drunk, so I'll leave the booze to you."

    "And I thought Black Friday was usually ugly." Dante quips as he explores the shopping mall. He's just glad there's nothing to really poke at his constant, chronic poverty for once, since the mall seems to have long since sold out and rotted away. He's been through a few places like these before, mostly overrun and corrupted by demonic invasion. Normally the walls in such places are streaked in blood and insides, this place however doesn't even have that for all he can tell. Maybe a skeleton or two? But what kind of human remains are gonna last for thousands of years outside of an ice block or a tomb?

    He's clearly amused by 9S's downright mundane idea of celebration. "Shoot for the friggin' stars, bro." He says dryly to Nines, smiling cheekily. "Pretty sure I can't get dru-Naaaaaah what am I saying? 'course I can. So leave me some while you're at it, Hyouka." He teases the cyborg.

    It is undeniable, a call across the dimensions, a lure that no teenager can resist -- that of a MALL. Or something like it, anyway. So perhaps it's not altogether unusual that Josuke would be drawn to it, even in its ruined state.

    He arrives on a motorcycle... one that might or might not look semi-familiar to 2B and 9S, since Josuke thieved it from somewhere broken and then fixed it. He's not in his typical school uniform now, no. He's got on dark sandy brown slacks, loafer-type shoes, leather gloves, and a matching light V-neck sweater. Under that sweater he wears a lime green mock-neck. It's fortunately not too heavy, but it's protective.

    "I dunno," Josuke notes, weighing in on the whole 'hunting' thing. "Wouldn't that be looting? Besides, I'm pretty sure anything useful has probably been taken already..." He trails off, looking around at the area. "Wooooow... this place must have been awesome when it was still functioning." He pauses, to look around for a sign -- maybe something small he can repair that would give them some information.

    "It's kind of sad seeing these ruins... they remind me too much of the old ruins on my world... some kind of calamity cycles ago." remarks Uni, pushing her goggles up onto the top of her head, then resting her rifle across a shoulder. She's wearing her 'Adventurer' outfit, with all the exposed skin that implies. "We're just looking around, right? No expectations of unhinged, insane android killers, yeah?" she asks, remembering the LAST time she was here.

    "STATEMENT:" 2B's pod suddenly pipes up, "Humans have not been present several thousand years. The alcoholic contents of any bottles found will likely have long been reduced to vinegar in that time." POD says, ruining the mood as usual as it displays a hologram screen with a calendar.
    The date is the year 11945.
    2B chooses to ignore POD as the others begin to arrive, clearing her throat as though she had never agreed to any t-shirt related shopping in the least.
    "Wh-what? I thought it was a good idea." 9S counters Emily and Dante, before he rubs at the back of his neck.
    "No. I mean no we shouldn't expect to run into anyone else." He asides to Uni. "2B and I are the only YoRHa units assigned to this area at the moment. If we do run into anyone, it sure won't be expected."
    Speak of the Devil, though, and he shall appear. Because it's as 9S says this, that a ball just... Rolls up to the group.
    Except it has a face. Grinning and skull like, this spheroid THING rolls to a halt and blinks up at Josuke for a moment before it's mouth opens and...
    "HI GUYS!"
    What the HELL?" 2B blurts, drawing her katana. 9S looks just as bewildered.
    "Wh-... What is this thing...? It's so weird. ... Should... Should we kill it?"
    A little hop and the ball-creature-thing bounces once. "What?! Noooooo! I live here! My name is Emil! Hey, hey, maybe you guys could help me out. I have memory problems... But there's this deser flower I speciically remember, that grows around here. I'm trying to remember something reeeeeaaaal important and I know if I see that flower again I just might remember it! I'll make it worth your while!"
    2B and 9S look like they have no idea what the hell is going on.

    Dante just laughs, "Ah well, guess we'll have to ask Jackass next time we see her." He says with a happy-go-lucky shrug of his shoulders. Hands tucked in his pockets, Dante explores about, eyeing Josuke and his goofy haircut (god help us if he hears that) for a second before suddenly he spies a skull rolling up. In a flash, Dante's hand goes for one of his pistols, and he draws Ivory and aims it right at Emil's forehead...thing. Whatever it might be anyways. When Emil introduces himself and explains things, Dante just stows the gun. "PHew, you picked a bad bunch for us to find, buddy."

    He does the math in his head. A desert flower here? He tries to remember just how far from the desert they are right now.

    Oh hey, it's people she knows. "Ah, Emily, Dante." She grins a coy little grin. "I sort of can, and sort of can't. My body's got built-in filters, but I can dial them back, or toggle them off entirely." Almost immediately, DARGN says, "My program requires me to warn you that the manufacturer strongly recommends against high levels of alcohol in your artificial blood." Pout.

    POD tells her the bad news. The pout becomes positively Herculean.

    "...well, at least that means it's not looting," she mumbles dejectedly, putting her hands in her pockets. If everyone who'd lay claim to it has been gone for millenia, it's more like archaeology, right? ...wow this place is depressing. Maybe she'll take a look through the mall and see if there's anything intere-

    "HYAUGH!!"

    Hyouka is on the second floor about half a second after the rolling head speaks up, half-clinging to a pillar. "Wh-what's with that sudden greeting?! Don't just sneak up on people and start babbling about flowers..." Pause. "...did you say you'd pay us?

Emily grins, and shoots Dante a quadruple-thumbs-up, but Josuke's comments catch her attention. "I'm pretty sure that the boat has sailed on the concept of 'looting' by about ten thousand years," she says dryly. "There's nobody left to 'loot' it from, unless you count the humans living on the moon. And I doubt there's anyone, like ..." She gestures with all four arms, her voice taking a dramatic tone. "... passing down the deed to this place from generation to generation! waiting to return to Earth! So that they can resume selling whatever merchandise has withstood the passage of time! Which, yeah, thanks POD, does not include alcohol."

She pointedly ignores Uni, but after she says that last bit, a white blindfold materializes over her eyes.

Until Emil shows up. She pushes the blindfold up, brow furrowed. For a moment, she looks just as confused as 2B and 9S.

And then she switches back to her amused and faintly smug smile. "Hi, Emil!" she says. "I'm Emily! And boy howdy, I haven't seen that much magical energy in one place since the last time I poked at a functioning reactor in my world's halcyon remnant!" ... Is she serious!?

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> ... Emil(y)

    Josuke makes a face at Uni's mention of 'unhinged, insane android killers'. "Eesh, I hope not," he notes. Yeah, that was unpleasant. He shudders, remembering that. Fortunately, no, Josuke doesn't hear Dante's thoughts. He does offer a friendly smile to Dante, though, as he looks in his direction, and waves in greeting. And then he tilts his head at Emily's words. "Yeah, I guess so," he agrees. "Feels weird poking around the remnants of basically my own world, though..."

    He's doing this that distracts him from the initial appearance of the rolling skull-head-ball thing. Though maybe it's the movement, but as the thing grins up at him, his eyes widen. It's a good thing the thing speaks, because from the looks of things, he'd been about to punt it! Worse? Josuke's Stand appears next to him, foot drawn back. That would have been a pretty far punt.

    Fortunately it has a mind and doesn't attack them, and also speaks pretty well -- 'destroy you' isn't even in what's being said! So this is good. "Uh... hi," he greets, a little uncertainly, the Stand dematerializing slowly. And it did offer its name, so he offers in return, "I'm Josuke." Oh hey, it did say something about making things worth their while, didn't they? "What does the flower look like?" he asks.

    Uni looks at Emily... the pointed ignorance and the appearance of that blindfold is all the Goddess needs... she shifts to look at the others, when suddenly Emil makes its presence known. Much like Dante, her weapon comes down and aims immediately... but unlike the Devil Hunter, she doesn't stand down as quickly. "What... /are/ you?" she asks rather bewildered, brow furrowed and red eyes narrowed at the rolling, talking head with the perpetual painted on grin.

    What IS this thing? That is a good question that Uni voices, and Emil wobbles to one side to stare at her for a second.
    "Huh. I actually don't remember." Which is some answer, considering the latent magical energies roiling off the thing. "Hi, Emily!" Oh he's polite at least. But then Emil pauses.
    "Pay you?" There's a beat of silence before he does perk up. "Well I DO run a shop. But more I mean I had this!"
    'This being the key card he's suddenly clenching in his teeth. "It should open up every door in this place!
    2B and 9S exchange a look.
    "That. Could be... Useful." 9S ventures hesitantly after a beat.
    "Great!" Emil says, positively beaming. ... As best he can. "You can't miss it, it's a white flower and it's uh... Really pretty. You'll know it when you see it." He says as he starts to roll right off.
    2B slowly turns her head to look at the rest of the group.
    "I wasn't malfunctioning, right? That did just happen, right?"
    "I guess we're hunting for a white flower." 9S" says scratching his head.
    Where to start though? There are two floors to the mall, though the escalators don't wokt, they prove the adage that escalators never break down, they only temporarily become stairs.

    "If you were malfunctioning, so was I." remarks Uni, dismissing her weapon into Inventory as Emil just, rolls away. "What's next, some weird machine tearing around on a motorbike?" That can't happen, right? Right!?

    The Goddess opens a holographic window using a small device with a stylized N on the back. "I'm glad Nepgear got me this... it's been really useful." she begins to construct an image of flowers... using the vague keywords that Emil provided. "Desert Dwelling. White blossom... pretty."

    Every door... well, okay, if 'taking the ancient loot' is payment, Hyouka supposes she doesn't feel too bad about it. "White flower, really pretty," she muses. Alright. "DARGN, parse my visual feed and highlight anything that looks like a flower I miss." "Understood."

    Thankfully, Hyouka is already hanging off the side of a column. That gives her an advantage in hiking up to the second floor. "I'll take the south wing over here," she calls out to the folks downstairs, before swinging herself around onto the walkway proper. She intends to do just that - head around to the south side of the second floor, and start looking around for the flower. "...so why is a desert flower in a mall, anyway...?"

Emily considers this a moment. "Yes, 2B, that did, in fact, just happen," she says dryly. "Or possibly you two, me, Hyouka, and Uni are mysteriously suffering from the same malfunction despite having come from different worlds and having entirely different architectures, in addition to Josuke and Dante sharing an identical hallucination. This was one of the ... less unpleasant surprises I've run into in this world."

In a swirl of silvery glitter, a pair of binoculars materializes in her hand. "I'm gonna be shooting for a wider-angle view," she announces. "I'll be in touch radio-ways!" With that, she rises up into the sky and begins peering around.

After a moment, there's another swirl of glitter, and the binoculars are replaced by a sort of sleek white helmet with the front covered in camera-eyes, some of which are held off to the side by robotic stalks. ... Or maybe that's just Emily's head now.

    Dante eyes Hyouka as he watches her cling to the upper pole, shooting her an amused grin. Then he eyes the small robo-head and tilts his head curiously. "Pay, huh? Alright, let's go get some flowers, guys!" He says, dashing off toward the nearest escalator, searching the remains of shops for any kind of flora that matches Emil's description.

    Josuke blinks as the skull-faced head starts to roll away. "...That's something you don't see every day..." he comments. But well. Flower-hunting time, isn't it? He nods to 9S's question. "Uh... yeah. Unless we both hallucinated the same thing." He's not speaking for the others. Emily seems to confirm this with her account of it, and nods. "Well... I guess we hunt flowers."

    Though he has an idea. "I wonder if knowing what this place used to look like would help?" So yeah. Signs, signs -- there's one. Hopefully it'll tell about what all's here. Or rather, what used to be here. 'Crazy Diamond' appears, and punches at the sign until it comes back together.

    "Right, so uh..." Josuke reads the sign. "Looks like we had home and decor stuff on the first floor, second floor was hardware stores and mechanical stuff," he offers. "If it's a desert flower, it might have been in the home and decor. But then again the roof might have been knocked off and it's just growing in something mechanical on the second floor too."

    As a note, Josuke is not going to worry about fixing the broken escalators unless they're physically broken, enough to not be functional as stairs, because he needs them to climb up to the second floor. There's still no power to them either way, so trying to fully fix them would be pointless.

    The escalators are rusted and rickety, but serve their purpose as stairs well enough. And once it's settled that Emil did in fact happen 2B returns to her normal dour demeanor, while 9S is left still scratching his head.
    "This isn't exactly a desert region." 9S muses to Hyouka. "Maybe he planted it here on his own?" The android ventures. Before he tries to not gawk at Emily.
    That's never easy.
    So Dante, Hyouka, and Josuke head for the second floor. The androids decide to follow as well, and from the looks of things, the second floor is in just as much a sorry state as the first.
    Wild and overgrown, an uttely massive tree root has managed to push through the wall in one place and snake back down to the first floor. There are ancient shops up here with long faded or fallen apart signs. Every footstep resounds loudly in an echo through the shop as the team searches for the flower.
    That's when there's a CLANK.
    The Machine Lifeforms were never very subtle or stealthy to begin with. But the squad of machines that come screaming out of a nearby shop with weapons raised are about as subtle as a truck and also prove that they really are everywhere in this derelict world.

    Uni clips the N-Gear to her belt, setting the... very unhelpful constructed image to float beside her as she sets off after Josuke, using the rickety estairlators.

    She's looking through the various broken shopfronts, trying to spot if there's any flowers or anything just randomly growing in a sunbeam... that's how this normally goes right?

    And of course there's Machines in here. Hostile ones. "Contact!" She pulls a pair of pistols from her inventory, and does a quick backflip away from the advancing Machine Lifeforms, firing into their formation on the downward swing as her legs come back underneath her.

    "That could be," Josuke replies. "Or maybe there's just not a lot of water and soil here, so the flower thinks it's a desert? I don't think a plant knows the difference between the two, just that there's not a lot of water or nutrients."

    To the second floor they go, and as long as the escalators aren't about to fall, Josuke doesn't concern himself with them. But when they get to the very quiet area, he says again, but more softly, "...Woooow..." It's always amazing seeing nature take over human-built spaces with a vengeance...

    Of course, there's always the possibility of THIS happening -- CLANK. Josuke turns to face the source. "...Ugh. These guys again," he mutters. He calls forth 'Crazy Diamond', and proceeds to beat some sense into these things. As far as he's concerned they're not 'people', so he doesn't have the sort of care he would normally have about not killing them.

    When it becomes necessary, the Machine Lifeforms will get fused with each other, or with the walls or floor, since Josuke's not concerned deeply with keeping them whole. But he also doesn't want them to damage the floor everyone is standing on. Time has done a good enough job of eroding the structural integrity; too much of a fight might make it unwalkable. What better way to patch the broken floor than with the bodies of their enemies?

    Dante hears skittering and loud footsteps, and his hunting instincts kick in as he draws his sword. "Shit, so much for shopping sprees." He dashes toward the machines with Rebellion in his hand, and he thrusts forward with an immense rush of speed to impale one of them, then he swings the sword like a baseball bat at the rest of the horde. Having a big robot stuck on your sword makes a good bludgeon, you see.

    Rustle, rustle rustle. Hyouka is going about her business with... something resembling diligence. She's searching for a flower in a dilapidated building, sure, but she's on a far-future Earth in the ancient ruins of a 'modern' city! It's totally interesting, right? ...right?

    Okay, so it's starting to get a little tedious alread- oh thank god a fight.

    Hyouka comes to the railing in a heartbeat, looking out across the way - and spotting a horde of tin can robots on the attack. She does not fistpump. She absolutely does not. That would be crass.

    "FISTO, ON!"

    But she's sure thinking it.

    The cyborg vaults across a good ten feet of open space, from one corner of the second-floor walkway to another, and pitches herself right into the horde of machines. The massive gauntlets that are her forearms begin to swing and smash in earnest; the glowing lines along them are a glimmering purple, and as she swings, there are cracks and crackles of electricity. Lightning-aspected mana floods each punch, hopefully giving her an edge in breaking the things.

Slightly belatedly, a staticky portal opens up, and Emily pops out. Her head's back to normal, the cocktail dress has switched with a white tunic and leggings, and the sword-pendant has been replaced with a pair of actual swords.

"I took off capacitor seals 3 and 2, guys!" she announces, twirling into a group of Machine Lifeforms with her swords held out. "Once, twice, slice 'n' dice!" True to her word, she slashes through the Machine Lifeforms with ease. "Hah! Nice work with Crazy Diamond there, Josuke!" She snickers when she sees what Dante's doing, and simply nods in approval.

    The hostile machines put up a valiant fight. It's brutal, but quick, and unfortunately for them, very decisive. The fight ends with battered and bludgeond husks shutting down, embedded in the floor, shot and electrified. Thankfully, Josuke's quick thinking restores the structural integrity of the floor and prevents it from collapsing during the quick but hectic fight.
    The androids weren't just sitting back, either. 2B and 9S have their katanas out and join the fray. Though a lucky hit launches 2B clean through not just one, but several walls, opening a new path. She stands up and casually dusts herself off as though the trip left her no worse for wear as she comes stepping back through the wall to rejoin everyone.
    "Well that was messy." She mutters.
    "Really messy. I could use a bath after that, 2B."
    "I told you, just follow standard cleaning procedures."
    "But baths are so relaxing~~~."
    That aside, the hunt resumes, it's a little while, and a few mis-identified wildflowers later before the group comes across a white petaled flower that is very distinct from any of the others.
    "We should let Emil know we f-"
    "SORRY TO KEEP YOU WAITING!"
    9S nearly jumps out of his synthetic skin.
    Emil is there, having rolled up behind the group, the odd spheroid creature is given pause, staring at the flower. "Ah... It's a Lunar Tear."
    "Emil... Are you.. Alright?" 9S ventures.
    "Yes. ... I remember now. Thank you. All of you, you actually helped me remember a very special place. You know... They say a Lunar Tear will grant any wish." He says, setting down not one but two key cards.
    "The second keycard will unlock the elevator. ... I'd like to just stay here for a little while if you all don't mind."

    "He's right, you know," Hyouka says, sauntering up to the duo. Her right arm quickly collapses into a normal-sized arm, and she hooks it around 9S's shoulders. "Baths really are relaxing. And mental state is important to doing your job the best you can." She lifts her arm off the scout unit and gives him a friendly clap on the back. The faux elf doesn't seem to have noticed Josuke's patchwork at all... but DARGN has. "Higashikata, thank you for maintaining situational awareness. Hyouka is bad at that." "W-what? I'm not- I mean, just because I get a little into it when I fight..."

    So they work! And work, and work, and good lord this part is getting tedious. When they finally find the flower, Hyouka is privately thrilled the boring part is over-

    "HOLY CRAP!"

    Aaand she's clinging to the second floor again.

    "Y-you have to stop doing that," she breathes as she lets herself to the ground again. But hearing the tone of Emil's voice tugs at enough of a heartstring that the cyborg finds herself ambling over, expression tinged with concern. "Are you alright?" she asks Emil.

Emily somehow emits a guitar riff from a song she heard in Dante's world called Lock And Load, dramatically flourishing her swords before placing them on her back. "And that's that," she says. "Reapplying Capacitor Seals 3 and 2!" A pearlescent aura surrounds her, and a gold aura and a silver aura reconstruct themselves, before all three fade, and the swords dematerialize in a swirl of glitter.

She doesn't seem the least bit startled by Emil's sudden reappearance. "A Lunar Tear, huh?" she says. "Heh. Bet they can't grant my wish." She just barely manages to keep the bitterness out of her voice when she says that.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Just assuming that all Devil May Cry songs exist in-universe.

    "Lunar Tear... huh..." the name seems familiar to the Goddess, but she doesn't really know why. If she was startled by Emil suddenly reappearing she doesn't show it, stowing her pistols again and plkacing hands on her hips. "Well... that's that then I guess? Should we go take a look?"

    Dante, covered in scrap and oil, seems otherwise unharmed. He swipes mechanical bits and gunk off his sword, before stowing it on his back. "That was...awfully quick." He says with some bit of disappointment. That had to be way too easy.

    Emil's sudden appearance does have him jumping back to his pistols, aiming them gangsta style at the little head. "GAH! You need to stop doing that!" He says, before they return to his holsters. "Wishes, huh?" He doesn't ask further, instead he swipes the keycard. "We're done here, right?"

    Josuke's also going to be using hacked off/torn off/knocked off bits of Machine Lifeforms produced by the others to try to repair the damage that the fight causes, so he'll be taking a backseat in the fight itself, to worry about that. "Oh, thanks," he notes with a smile to Emily's mention of the Stand's work.

    2B's unexpected trip gets Josuke worried, and he heads in that direction. "2B?!" Fortunately she seems fine. "Whew... You okay?" Of course he's going to be worried when someone else gets hurt. That's just how he is. And it's true, she seems fine, so he's not too worried now. And he gives a thumbsup to DARGN. "Don't worry about it. Someone's on the case, that's what's important."

    Once they find the flower, Josuke moves down to look at it. "...Oh, that really is beautiful," he comments. And of course when Emil startles him. "GYAH!!" he yelps, and falls on his ass. "Geez, don't sneak up on people like that. Especially not after a fight!" He stands up, dusts off his pants.

    Though he pauses when he notices Emil getting quiet. "...Are you gonna be okay?" he asks of the rolling head-robot-thing. He's less concerned with the rewards now.

    "I'm fine." 2B replies mildly to Josuke. Before she does something that may be unexpected: "Thanks."
    Emil, however, is silent for a moment longer, staring transfixed at the flower. It takes him a second to shake off whatever holds him. "I'm. Fine. I'll be okay." He answers both Hyouka and Josuke. Though his voice quavers in a way that makes even 2B discretely lean over.
    "It's a good memory..." He says before falling quiet again as 9S plucks up the key cards.
    "I guess we are done here." He says, staring to head back to leave Emil in solitude like he asked.
    It's not long before the group is at the elevator. In spite of the years of being shut down, it still has power. Though it might need some repairs to ensure safety, that's nothing Josuke can't handle. 2B slots the keycard into place and the elevator doors open, and begins the descent to a lower basement chamber. It's more of a cave than a dug out room. Dark, dank, dirt and rock formations everywhere.
    ... And a small sea of Lunar Tears glowing vibrant white in the darkness.
    2B and 9S stand in awed silence for a moment. That there could be a small space of such surreal beauty among the derelict wastes seems to be enough to halt even the most battle hardened of androids.

>> SUMMARY[2B] >> https://i.imgur.com/QCReoC5.jpg

    There's a last look of worry out of Hyouka, almost as if she's having trouble bringing herself to leave Emil be. But if he says he's alright...

    Well, down they go. An elevator ride, down to a cavern underground, and- "...my goodness. This is... this is really something," she murmurs. And for once, DARGN has nothing to offer but agreement. "Indeed. There aren't many sights anywhere quite this... impressive."

    Uni is awestruck as much as the androids. A soft smile spreads across her face as she slowly approaches the grove of Lunar Tears. She starts to hum something, and nearly walks into the flowers, but stops just short. "It's beautiful... almost like it were a starlit sky, not a cave ceiling." she muses, looking at the dancing motes in the air.

    They reach the elevator, and after a short ride, Dante comes out. "What's so special abou-" ANd then he sees the garden. His eyes widen, beholding the beauty ahead of him. "Whoa..." He's briefly overtaken by the beautiful sight, staring at the flowers that seem to go on for a while. He thinks about the surreal flowers, and the ones back in the ancestral estate, his memories chasing Virgil around mom's garden, or asking her what flower is what, usually gifts from the Demon Realm Sparda had given Eva years before.

    Dante sniffs a bit, and you could swear he's tearing up a little as memories come flushing back. But he hides his emotions when he catches himself, shaking his head.

    God, mom would've loved these flowers.

    He thinks for a second, then takes a few of them as souvenirs.

Emily looks around, and puts her lower hands on her hips. For a moment, she's silent, smiling faintly. Wistfully? Nah, couldn't be. She ... really isn't someone whose history has had anything specifically wistful in it. Her wistfulness is considerably more fundamental.

Finally, she nods, and simply says, "Nice." She is not, on the whole, someone equipped with the vocabulary for a situation like this. In a swirl of silvery glitter, her hair turns white, shifting to ... almost match the glow and shape of the flowers surrounding them.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> The beauty is enough to wipe that smug look off Emily's face.

    Josuke seems reluctant to leave Emil's side, but he did ask to be left alone. So he hesitantly turns to follow the others up. Yeah, if the elevator's banged up, Josuke can fix that, it shouldn't be a problem. When the elevator opens and the field of flowers spreads out in Josuke's view, he draws a breath, of surprise and awe. He is speechless here, looking around at the area as if he'd never seen anything like it. He hasn't, of course, so that might help.

    And he remembers something. He keeps it on his person, since he's supposed to be scouting the World Tree for information. He slips a tiny, thin disposable camera out of a pocket -- one of those that are designed to just be dropped in a box at a film development store. It has no flash, so it's not likely to take the best picture ever. But the light of the flowers should be enough to get a good idea of what it looks like here.

    It takes the androids a moment to pull back from their stupor, but even still, they are awestruck.
    "Wow..." Is all the normally verbose and inquisitive 9S can even manage. And 2B doesn't even have any words.
    Not as she kneels down by a flower and gently plucks it.
    POD lingers close by, hovering by the battle unit in silence for a moment before piping up:
    "Shall I send image data for operator unit 6O to catalogue?"
    "... Yeah."