World Tree MUSH

    The little desert town of Kaipo has... Something of a problem.
    It started out small. A single strange little being made of metal appearing in down, ambling about. It seemed harmeless enough at first. Until almost overnight there appeared more... and more... And more... The strange toy-like creatures of rust and steel amble about the town as though they own the place, their spherical heads swivelling, eerie glowing eyes, and ambling waddle make them seem more like man-sized toys than anything else, but there are enough of them to be a real nuisance!
    "Oh what the HELL?!"
    Rydia of Mist snaps sharply as she steps out of the inn almost to be bowled clean over by one of them, wearing tattered rags and a mask. They all seem to be wearing tattered desert rags and masks...
    These are the Machine Lifeforms. And they are dumb as bricks. It's evident from how they waddle around with no purpose, some of them buried in the sand, others putting pots on their heads, some trying to pet the chocobos--. ... The chocobos that the Machines have freed. The big yellow riding birds amble about the town as well, displaced from their pens and stables.
    Rydia looks utterly baffled as she stares out at the chaos of people trying to shoo off the Machines and get their birds back in order. "What. Is. Going. On...?" The child just look so utterly flummoxed for the first time in forever.
    At least the Machines don't seem hostile, but who knows when that could change; especially with the looming threat of an inbound sandstorm on the horizon.

    When Yumi arrives in town, she very nearly trips over one of the half-buried Machines. "Whoa-! ...what...?" It takes only a quick glance around to determine something weird is going on, and then in the next heartbeat she's transformed and bounding across the desert town's rooftops. Her boots touch down beside Rydia only a short while later, and then it's a quick, "Rydia, I was coming out to visit, but... what's going on?"

    At first, this is curious. Weird humanoid figures approaching. Then it's alarming. There's lots, they're machines. Terra experiences each a moment of interest, of terror and then urgency. They're not an invading army or worse, a -familiar- invading army.

    Still, leading a chocobo along that she managed to snag by the bridle, she trots over to where Rydia and Yumi have gathered. Does she really need to say anything? Well, maybe.

    "What should we do? They seem..." Well, it's hard for her to judge. They're only acting a littlet dumber than she normally feels!

The pokemon trainer was visiting!, he liked roaming around different lands, usually keeping his pokemon out of sight, well, besides the small 'panda' currently sitting on his shoulder. He doesn't even figure those metallic critters were trouble until he sees people starting to attempt shooing them away... and how there were loose birds being pestered by said machines. He approaches slowly, cautiously, looking around, "What's going on?" he asks outloud, then moves to the closest of the creatures, "Hey, stop bugging that bird, it looks like it might kick you out of town.".

    Awhile back, a strange girl was informed on how to depart this particular world, if she so chose. For a time Nythius //did// leave... but of course, it hadn't taken long for her to return to the blossom. Even with the threat of powerhungry Baron providing a distinct overlay to the world, Nythius just... made it work. In and out of woodlands and remote areas like a shadow; setting up tiny camps and gone by morning's light. It's forever about just... finding somewhere to hide.

    Of course, in deciding to approach a town for supplies, Nythius just had to pick Kaipo... on Machine Lifeform day. Of //course//! She's there in the confusion, in her humanoid form with big black wings clamped close to her body, fairness reddening a touch due to desert heat and fluster. As folks respond, she keeps close to the edge of one of the town buildings, eyes wide in her face and pupils slightly enlarged. She flinches as a loose chocobo trundles past, raucously voicing it's unrest with a screech.

    Nythius keeps back for a moment longer, trying to make sense of it all.

The sandstorm is enough reason to clear these ... Lifeforms out, if only because of the fact that with the place as clustered as it is, actually getting into shelter would probably become difficult, something evidenced by the fact the chocobo are displaced from their stables. 

One of which Sonia is cooing gently at in order to keep it following her since it wandered a little further from its designated stable, though her attention soon falls on the... prodigious amounts of Machines here. Sure, they're not /hostile/ but she knows at least enough to remain somewhat on guard. Stepping around a half-buried one, she ... well. She helps shoo a few of the Machines out of the stable, and in some cases simply grabs a few and sets them aside. She might be giving the ones that try to lemming back a notable glare--whether that transcends understanding, well. 

She catches Terra's question in passing, looking up. "Anything can happen with these, so it would do well good to try and get them at least out of places they should not be, as we may need to deal with them more aggressively." Sonia calls over to Terra and the others as she surveys the remaining numbers. 

    Weiss doesn't like deserts, but with Atlas still keeping its borders closed, she's getting a little worried and trying to find any way she and the others can maybe do a roundabout. While the rest of her team is investigating the chances of a train and sneaking in via native means, she's trying the more dangerous, but possibly faster trick of hopping Vines. If she can just find one that leads to Atlas territory and lasts long enough to plan around it...

    Staying at the inn, then, is a white-haired, teenage girl. Old enough that travel alone isn't that strange in this world! It takes her a minute to step out and see all this, but she's baffled by it. "What are these things?" They're obviously not townspeople, but this doesn't have the panic of a Grimm invasion. The only person she readily recognizes is Luke right now, though.

A staticky portal opens near Rydia, Terra, and Yumi, and out floats Emily Nyx. She's taken the form of a woman with silvery hair in a black dress more-or-less in the fashion of Kaipo, and with a glowing white flower called a Lunar Tear in her hair. ... And, of course, glowing purple eyes and four arms.

"They're called Machine Lifeforms," she says, and there's an uncharacteristic note of dread in her voice (the same voice she always has, of course). "They were created by beings from the stars, in a particular Blossom, to conquer that Blossom's world of humans." She takes a deep breath, even though she's a machine herself and this wouldn't actually do anything. "Sorry. Let's just say my primary association with them running around the World Tree is ... unpleasant." She nods to Sonia. "These ones seem to be the ..." She furrows her brow. "... docile variety, however."

She looks around. "I'm Emily Nyx, by the way, for those who haven't met me before. And for those who have, but don't recognize me. I'm an artificial being myself, for the record."

    "I have no clue. These... Things just showed up and now they've overrun the town." Rydia replies to Yumi, looking more and more agitated as the seconds tick by. "Whatever they are, we have to get rid of them." She says once Terra is in range. And there's Sonia and Luke.
    Rydia is quietly thanking whatever gods, eidolons, and spirits are listening right now as she's surrounded by capable people.
    "They don't seem to be hurting anything, they're just... Really stupid. It'll probably be easier to lead them away from town than to start killing them. But honestly if you wanna start killing them, I really don't care." She answers Sonia's notion of dealing with them more aggressively.
    "We have no clue what's even going on." She answers Weiss honestly when the girl steps out of the inn. "But if people are going to do something, it better be fast, because that sandstorm looks like it's going to be a nasty one."
    All the meanwhile, the chocobos and machines are trundling about aimlessly, people are in a rush to tru and get their birds in order and are failing miserable in the chaos and--... Emily arrives with the answers to everyone's questions.
    "Okay. Okay we definitely need to get rid of them. I'll see what I can do about some kind of... I don't know, boat or something to float them across the other side of the oasis or whatever. You all can figure it out." The last Summoner says as she scampers away only to almost bowl into Nythius on her path. "Be careful, a startled chocobo can kick real hard."

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> THIS WAY MACHINE LIFEFORM TOURISTS~! KOCHI DESU YO~!

    Yumi gives Terra a brief nod as the half-esper arrives; of the people she notices immediately Sonia gets a curious glance, as does Weiss, but Emily gets a more familiar nod. "If they're docile, I'd like to keep them that way if we can. I don't want to go killing them if they haven't hurt anyone yet." She frowns, taking a step or two towards a small nearby group. "But how are we going to..."

    But wait. If they're really stupid, maybe they're easily led...?"

    Abruptly, Yumi claps her hands together hard, three times. CLAP, CLAP, CLAP. "OKAY, my new machine friends! I'd like you all to listen up really well! There's a big, nasty dust storm coming! When it gets here, it'll get dust all over the place, including all your joints and seams! And we don't want that, right? I can show you somewhere safe from the big, mean old dust storm, but you gotta follow me!"

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> THIS WAY MACHINE LIFEFORM TOURISTS~! KOCHI DESU YO~!

    Deal with them aggressively? Terra scans her view of town. Noting individuals, activities, statures. Whether she realized she's doing it or not, it's almost a threat assessment. Though often reticent toward violence, she's endured years of training and conditioning to the contrary.

    The sandstorm problem adds a note of urgency to this whole debacle. So, the half-esper looks from person to person. "I'll keep helping with the chocobos. I'm not certain how to handle machines. Please be careful, everyone." She dips her head in a curt little motion, caresses the neck of the chocobo she's leading and tries to search out one of the larger, feistier birds. Perhaps they'll flock to something they see as a leader.

    Without further words, just nods to Yumi, Rydia and the gathering she's about to depart, then she breaks into a trot as she eyeballs one of the larger birds.

    She may get a funny-weird feeling should she pass near enough to Nythius. Maybe. She's expecting nothing of rthe sort, of course.

Emily just bursts out laughing at Rydia's suggestion that they just put them on a boat. It sounds kind of like relieved laughter. "Yes!" she says. "Let's just. Pile 'em onto a boat. Ship 'em off, let them be someone else's problem." She shakes her head. "For the next goddamn month, or whatever. Okay, so. Hm."

She perks up as Yumi springs into action. "Yes!" she says. "That should do it! Uh ... hm. Releasing capacitor seals 3 and 2!" She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the first two shatter, and the third fades. In a swirl of silvery glitter, her outfit becomes a black airline stewardess uniform with a glowing Lunar Tear emblem sewn onto the breast pocket.

She rises off the ground and floats over to Yumi. "This way, please," she says, in a goofy fake-"prim and proper" tone of voice as she gestures in the indicated direction.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Emily is *good* at looking official to Machine Lifeforms. Or whatever.

    Keen senses pick up on rumblings of a sandstorm on the approach, and eventually Nythius begins to pull herself out of her boggled funk so she can REALLY take the whole harried scene in. Dumb-as-rocks they may be, and seen as fairly innocuous, the Machines give Nythius the heebie-jeebies. She does not recognize anyone here, but that is the least of her fears. She's just about to slither her way forth, past the desert structure and a bit further into the din when---oh! She nimbly manages to sidestep the arrival of a girl who just about collides with her! Dark wings twitch, arch... relax. In her anxiety and responses, Nythius puts out a sort of 'heartbeat' of magical energy, to anyone who may be privy.

    Dark; not nefarious but rather... restful (in an ideal situation), timeless... not rising up to be a threat, but //there//. She cranes her neck forth a bit to give Rydia an apologetic glance, "They need to be gathered.. I can help, yes..?" There is an accent to her words that cannot easily be pegged. She gives the child another long, ponderous look... but there is //something//. A ringing in Nythius' mind... she may not know who is who, but some archaic part of her DNA just might recognize another who is present here...! It's hard, for now anyway, for Nythius to focus... she melts into the fracas, trying to help with the terrified birds.

     Luke has no clue what the machines are, but after trying to shoo one away from a startled chocobo, he approaches the others, "Any ideas on how we should do this?" he asks. He does not seem particularly impressed about Yumi's appearance,or anyone's, if Emily is fine with them, he is fine with them. He just rubs his chin, "So... we should... just move them away?, where?" he asks. His panda/vampire pokemon floated to poke at one of the machines nearby, "You mean herding them?" he says outloud. Seeing Terra and Yumi both take different, but equally valid courses of action, he decides to try to help with the birds. 
    He reaches for his belt, and presses a button on one of the orbs there, a 7 foot tall black and pink 'bear' materializes next to him, "Hey Bewear, remember that time we helped with those dodrios?, I think this is kinda similar, let's try to gather them up before they hurt someone.". Having said that, the pair move to the nearer birds and try to lead them around away from the scared people, and perhaps to a better location, taking advantage of the more intimidating frame of his pokemon, and the fact it's likely to not be phased much, even if kicked.

>> SUMMARY[Luke Gray] >> Luke uses his most durable pokemon to help herd the uneasy birds.

    As just a passing civilian, Weiss mumbles, "Shouldn't the town police be handling this?" On the other hand, she is nothing if not a meddler of her own, and with no polite in sight, plus a bunch of unknowns helping out... well, she knows Emily at least. "Right..." She can't actually sense magic, so Terra and Nythius are just people to her.

    "Oh, it's the trainer..." Weiss is barely awake and not feeling like friendly greetings to Luke and Emily, but she can make herself useful! Myrtenaster, her sword, comes out of the sheath... not to battle the machines, but to spin the cylinder about to select a slot of Dust. Whipping the sword toward the machines mulling about, glyphs spring into existence, shimmering barriers with a strong gravitic pull, trying to 'tug' the machines into one area so that Yumi and Luke can herd them.

So there's a couple... different options here, when it comes to dealing with things; they can't really leave the machines in the dirt, but on the other hand... yeah, killing them might be more trouble than it's worth because hey, what's left behind when they explode? Parts. Which means ... yeah, alright. 

Sonia heaves a sigh, dusting herself off and decides to go to work first on the birds--which, remind her a lot of horses in their own way, but she can, with that unique spiritual sense of hers sense more to them than the average horse. Which she decides to turn on that part of her that's warm, gentle, kind and receptive to animals as opposed to that usual predatory aspect reserved for vampiric sorts. 

A quick nod does get given to Terra and Emily in passing, as does Weiss and even Luke, a wry smile given her familiarity with some of those 'mon before turning her attention to wrangling chocobo, and in some cases people--shouting a few orders to get some stuff like the pots secured and other things because, hey, sandstorm! 

    The clap clap clap of Yumi's hands draws the attention of several of the Machines. They buzz quietly as they glance between her and then one another, before a small cluster of them start ambling in her direction. The number of following Machines grows by a fraction as airline stewardess Nyx joins in the act of... Herding the stupid machines, further aided along as Weiss' glyphs manifest and start pulling more along into the massing cluster of milling machines.
    The birds are another matter altogether, and Rydia damn near freezes for a moment when she feels the magical aura around Nythius, but shakes it off. "Y-yeah. Some of them should still have their tack, just grab them by the reins. They're normally pretty docile." That's about all the help the Summoner can give, though; she has a boat to catch.
    And she really meant it. Even when agitated, chocobos are pretty docile by nature. Though Bewear gives one fright enough to try for a kick, it's probably not enough to bother the beefy bear tank of a pokemon, while Terr decides to try for one of the more dominant birds and... Finds Rydia's chocobo.
    "Kweh?" It twitters and easily allows the half-esper to take him by the reins, chirruping and twittering at a few of the other birds for attention, while a few actually begin to migrate curiously towards Sonia, while Nythius works on wrangling some of the fussy birds as well.

    Emily is helping. Some other girl she hasn't met seems to be using magic to help too - that's even better. Other people are working on the chocobos. Maybe they'll actually pull this off before the sandstorm gets here...

    But there's still all those machines stuck in the ground, though. Yumi's frown returns. There's a moment's pause. These things... they should be durable, right? It shouldn't be too hard for her to just wrench them out of the ground with her superhuman strength. So, while still calling and yelling for the Machine Lifeforms to follow her, she puts more focus on the ones that are still half buried - specifically, she's trying to bodily haul them out as she goes by.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> I call it the Princess Peach Technique.

    Herding the machines this way is working, but it's not that efficient, Weiss decides. Seeing how easy they are to bully into place, the heiress lets her glyphs fade, swapping out for a different tactic instead. "Right, I think I have this."

    Weiss moves over to the side, planting the tip of her rapier into the ground... and a glyph appears there. Another one, this one white, swirls into existence not far away. It isn't one of the larger Summons she can do... just a large, seven foot or so armored knight. But it is a more intimidating, commanding presence to work on shoving the machines into a line to follow where Yumi is pointing.

    Riding may be the wise course and Terra even gets the idea to swing up onto the back of the first chocobo she snagged hold of. She's distracted by the recognition of Rydia's chocobo and the weird familiar-but-not sensation of magic briefly washing through the area. She stops dead and looks around, struck by a sudden case of goosebumps.

    Her distraction lasts until one of the errant birds offers a kick in response to Luke's Bewear companion's attempt at herding. In thoughtless response, she lets fly with a small pulse of her own magic. Though the sparkling motes of healing light are fairly obvious but hopefully not distracting to any of the lagging machines.

    That done, she attempts to haul herself onto Rydia's chocobo. "Sorry, you'll keep helping right?" Of the birds that draw near, she'll attempt to grab ahold of as many reins as possible before leading them to the relative safety of the enclosures. With the subtle, magical warmth of healing still almost radiating from her, perhaps she'll have better luck with the birds!

"Come one, come all -- oh, nice work, Schnee! -- come forth!" says Emily. She raises her eyebrows as Yumi physically tugs the Machines up, and nods in approval, giving Yumi a thumbs-up as her other three arms continue waving to the Machines.

Then a sudden thought strikes her. She floats up higher, all four hands held out to her sides, and she conjures up holographic signs and arrows, waving illusory flags. A much larger hologram of a Lunar Tear emblem fades into view behind her, and she projects another identical hologram behind Weiss's knight.

And just for good measure, she materializes another airline uniform onto the knight, which looks really awkward over its armor.

"This way, please!" she calls out, boosting the volume of her voice as if she was using a megaphone or PA system of some sort. "Leave no Machine behind!"

    Luke is just happy that he can help with something he is familiar with!... at least somewhat. He stays with Bewear, who is busy dragging some chocobos back, and moves to try his luck with another couple of birds, now that he learned they are more peaceful, moving slowly and slowly reaching to bring them closer, he even tries using berries and fruit from his backpack to lure some of the birds closer.

    What of Nythius? Oh, she's out there.. trying to help get the birds under control, trying not to get kicked or pecked in the face. Y'know how it is. She has found one such unhappy creature, and the moment she grabs the reins, that aforementioned 'thrum' of magic immediately reaches forth and attempts to affect the creature. No pain, no damage.. nothing of the sort. It's a whisper of her brand of Darkness: almost like a sleep spell, but not strong enough to knock the bird out. It's hard for Nythius to concentrate but to do so upon one target at a time? Doable.

    She //feels// Terra's spellweaving, and it is a sort of force that... okay Nythius, the bird; the //bird//. Focus on the damned crazed bird and get to luring the thing back to it's proper handler. If her mild spell finds purchase, the magic will merely seek to 'calm' the chocobo and make it compliant, hopefully easy to lead. Nythius makes a marked attempt to ignore the machines and focus solely upon the creatures.

    Her wings are tight against her body like a cloak as she moves with purpose.

"There there, it'll be okay, you're handsome and beautiful, all of you. Those strange and simply rude little machines will be out of the way, so we can get you in here nice and safe. You don't want to be out here by your lonesomes when the sandstorm gets here, do you?" Sonia speaks in a gentle, yet firm voice, entirely unafraid but projecting warmth and assurance through her body language as best as she can. 

After all, she remembers well the lessons Father taught her when it came to riding. You might not ride all the time, but being able to convince animals that you weren't a threat; that you were there to take care of them was a nuanced little skill to command.

She focuses this way because otherwise she'd be giving off a very plain and obvious tell for what she's sensing from Nythius; it's only the fact she's focusing on the birds that that predatory aspect of hers doesn't resurface again. After all, that person is helping--were they not, well. It'd be a different story, wouldn't it?

As the birds begin to file in, she is, quite frankly going to turn her attention towards digging up the machines because leaving them there, well... it's not like she has sympathy for them but a gnawing sense of 'there's going to be problems if we don't' means that she'll turn her strength towards that task of hucking robots out of the sand. 

>> SUMMARY[Sonia Belmont] >> Using kindness (totally not ironic) to help finish off herding chocobos (stop looking at me funny) before using that Belmont physique to fish out Machines. Yes, this is what that strength was destined for.

    It's not long before the group has themselves something of a rhythm... Yumi and Sonia use their tremendous strenth to prize Machines from the sands, the newly freed lifeforms toddle about for a moment before joining the others being corralled by Weiss' massive knight bullying them into line while they waddle after Emily.
    It's not much longer before the chocobos are handled. Rydia's chocobo is an intensely loyal bird, and he knows Terra well enough to allow her onto his back. He's actually not the largest of the birds, when with a master as metaphorically large as Rydia, the bird seems to have picked up a few lessons in the realms of 'being completely belligerent' and 'sass' as he hisses and WARKS at the other birds, helping browbeat them into line for Terra to grab onto several more sets of reins.
    Between that and the soothing lull effect of Nythius' magic, and several of the birds curiously following after Luke's berries, it's a simple matter of putting them back safe in their stables and THAT issue is resolved. Which just leaves the Machines doesn't it.
    "Guys! Leads them to the north end of town, there's a barge set up there." Rydia calls as she returns from arranging that. "We're just gonna ship them across the oasis."
    To become someone else's problem, as Emily put it.

    The chocobos seem to have been wrangled. That's good. And that- what did Emily call her? Schnee? That Schnee girl is getting a little more rough with the machines, which is helping them along as well. She's briefly worried the things might get hostile, but they seem to just be... tolerating it. Good. That's good. That helps. And the others should be helping with the machines too, now that the chocobos are safe.

    "North end of town, got it," Yumi yells. The armored girl shifts her course to the north, still playing pied piper as she can, but mostly focusing on hauling more machines out of the dirt along the way.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Continuing to Do The Thing.

    "What, just... put them on a boat?" Weiss shouts, incredulously. But then... she's distracted right now, because her brilliant knight has a weird uniform on. That's odd, but she's worked with Emily enough to shrug it off for now. Funny how she keeps running into that one!

    Yes, Weiss is getting rougher, but not actually striking them. Rather, the knight is giving nudges and standing in the way when they wander off the path. It's aggressive, but not really fightinng them. It's sort of on automatic now, though, and she needs a way to zip them along the-

    Zip. That's it. Another glyph is summoned, this one designed to accelerate anythinng that steps on it. She places it right in the path of the Le- Machines.

... Shipping them? Sonia grunts once before using a bit of magic to blast away some sand in order to bodily grab one up that was a bit bigger than she was so it could creak away and get sand everywhere. Sand. So irritating, right? 

"Why do I have a feeling I'm going to run into these again," Sonia murmurs without heat to herself. I mean, sure, they're not... dangerous right now, and hopefully wouldn't be but... 

She moves a bit more in concert with Yumi, falling into that rhythm quite well of hucking the robots out of the sand. In some cases, she actually more or less scruff-grabs the ones with treads, blasts them with a bit of wind so they don't lock up midway before sending them on their way. 

    Luke seems fairly pleased when the birds get corraled, and brings his Bewear closer as well, "So, what else is there?" he muses, looking to see where everyone else went and figuring how he can help. He has no clue there are buried ones, so he just approaches the others, and noticing some left over machines, he moved with his friend to try to herd the machines away, he doesn't try to provoke them, just gently nudge them in the same direction everyone else is leading them!, and his Bewear is quite good at nudging things.

    Sadly, Nythius may not be much more of a help when it comes to the Machines. As noted prior: technology unnerves her. As she sees different worlds, it will be one thing to understand the basics... but the likes of these Machines?! Yeah no. But...

    She hears Rydia's voice in the fracas: lead them away. Lead them from point A to point B. Everyone is working so hard... why should she allow herself to skulk? Nythius eyes some of the machines as they trundle along, almost in a derpy way... she draws a deep, deep breath... she will not bloody //touch// them but if she can help by just being there, luring them... but see, just because she does not want to touch them.. doesn't mean SHE won't be touched!

    One of the machines likely bumps into her, causing Nythius to just about jump out of her skin.... but she does not flee. She nudges the occasional machine with a toe, and summons her courage to just stay the course. Go, just goooo! Go to your cruise!

Emily conjures up a hologram of herself, which starts saying the 'this way, please! Leave no machine behind!' voice clip on loop. She takes the opportunity to look around; good, the chocobos and the buried machines are both handled. Welp, more for her!

"Hmm." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "I ... guess I can justify ..." she mumbles to herself. "Or ... well ... okay, it's not like it's a fight or anything ... enh. Okay, fine!" She clears her throat, and calls out, "Releasing final capacitor seal!"

The pearlescent aura appears, and then shatters. Massive ghostly (... holographic) wings appear, looking for all the world like the petals of a Lunar Tear, and she extends her arms outward. Staticky portals appear, a couple at a time, which appear directly in front of the marching Machines, outputting them closer to the barge and pointed directly towards it!

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Releasing the capacitor seal just to open more portals.

    Terra never really shakes that funny feeling, though whether she can tell what's going on is another matter. She's very much got her hands full until she can secure the chocobos in their enclosure. She hops down from Rydia's bird, passes along a grateful pat to the neck, then turns to bow gratefully to Luke, his colorful companion and the strange woman with the feathery cloak- wings? Oh.

    Her gaze probably lingers just a little past the point where it might be considered staring but she's distracted by Luke's return to the task at hand.

    "The storm is close but I think..." What does she think? She's not really sure where she might fit in with the procession of bots being herded along by all these elaborate, very hard to ignore means. So she'll follow along on foot. Juuuuust in case one of the strange robot-people wander off. Also, the other woman seems to be handling the machines a lot worse than even she is. Moral support!

    "Yep." Rydia answers Weiss. Just gonna put 'em on a boat. "Sending them anywhere is better than here." She points out as she heads back to the dock by the north end of town. The water is clean, clear, cool... Perfect for a desert oasis. It's not much more work before Sonia and Yumi have the rest of the buried Machines dug up along the way; and so long as they're not being directly attacked, the mentally deficient little buggers don't turn hostile, even if people get a little more aggressive with them- or zoom them along with glyphs. It sure is something watching them go, now. With Luke and even Nythius helping nudge things along it's not long before Emily's portals and some sheer bullying get the toddling machines marching down the lone pier, onto the boat, only for Rydia to untie the moorings and...
    Oh look, some of the machines start to wave as the barge starts slowly cutting across the water. The desert oasis' lake is pretty huge, so it'll be some time before they reach the other side, and they'll be well out of sight when they do.
    "That..." Rydia says, rubbing the back of her neck.
    "So that happened."

A slight noise from Sonia as she watches the remainder once they're uprooted get underway, the mess that remains and the sandstorm on the way. "So it did. Let us help people get what remains cleaned up, a far easier task now with them out of the way. The sandstorm won't be much longer, I suspect, and making sure everyone's ready is all that remains, aside the rest of us perhaps leaving as swiftly as can be." 

The Belmont shakes some errant sand from her cloak as she says this, turning towards the town from the oasis, though almost absentmindedly keeping her senses 'open' and aware, given the magic that she'd felt earlier. Probably won't be an issue anymore with what she felt, right? Right. Time for some quick cleanup of those pots and other signs of chaos with the townsfolk before either getting out of here or hunkering down.

    Off goes the barge, and the machines with it. The birds are all locked down, and they still have a handful of minutes yet before the dust storm arrives. As the barge sails off over the water, that frown returns to Yumi's face one last time. "...I hope they'll be alright," she muses aloud, letting her transformation dissipate and returning to her normal outfit. "Gonna be really exposed out there on the water, when the dust storm hits." She's worried, but there's not a lot they can do. The machines will survive it, at least - the people of this town might find it more lethal. She can always go have a look around after the storm passes.

    With the luck Nythius has been having, the machines may use Cat Logic. Y'know how cats gravitate toward people in a room who DO NOT LIKE them? Yeah. Wouldn't that just be great? She's taking it like a champ though, the fabric of her skirts (her clothing looks mildly ill-fitting and dated, by Kaipo standards c.c ) rustling as her footsteps are exaggerated and she is using her very self to help lure them along. But if any one of 'em touches those inky-dark wings....

    The efforts of the many involved bear fruit, and Nythius finally feels that breath leave her lungs. Her skin is still flushed and red but once the machines are loaded and set to sail... Nythius stares absently as the barge is set loose and they... they WAVE?!

    The slender woman's expression perhaps mirrors the very words that Rydia speaks.... "W-what... how..." Nythius exhales. She just wanted to buy supplies! SUPPLIES! She sobers.

    "The air grows tumultuous. People should get indoors." Spoken in her fluted, accented way as her wings lower.

Emily waves back to the Machines. "Reapplying all capacitor seals," she says as she floats back to the ground. The gold, silver, and pearlescent auras seem to rebuild themselves, before all three fade again. The wings vanish, and in a swirl of silvery glitter, she's back in her Kaipo outfit.

She regards the others for a moment. "Where those things are from, it's always a tossup whether things are gonna get really weird or really horrifying," she says conversationally. "I have a feeling I'm gonna want to ... keep track of where those things are going. I'm friends with a couple of that world's defenders, and they'll definitely want to hear about this."

    The shining knight fades, and the knight with it. Weiss wanders up with the others, seeing... well, a lot of new faces, while she rubs her forehead in annoyance. "Yeah... we should definitely be talking more inside though. That storm looks like it's approaching pretty fast." She's tired enough to not even feel snippy about it.

    Emily joining the group has her nodding slowly, then she looks at the others, who all seem pretty normal to her! Hands on her hips, she mumbles, "Good work though, everyone." Like she had anything to do with how well everyone else did. Then, a moment of concern she picked up from Ruby, "Nobody's hurt, right? Most of you seem like big magic types so probably not."

    Luke and Bewear approach Emily and the others, "Wait... so what... happens now?" he asks, the pink and black bear waving back to the metal guys as they slowly head down the water body. Luke pause slowly, "Horryfying?" he asks slowly, before smiling back to Weiss, "I'm fine, Bewear got kicked by one of those birds, but the only thing that happened was the poor thing getting its foot stuck in the thick fur on his side." he says casually.

    Just like that, crisis averted? Mostly. There's still the sandstorm and though she's not really worked up the nerve to call out to everyone concerning that matter but it seems to resolve itself when Nythius speaks up instead. She turns again to regard the woman, uncertain what to say. Well, maybe a nice job? No? Okay, we're gonna stare again. Why...?

    Head shaking, she turns and goes to Rydia. "The chocobos are all secure." Apparently there's no straggler machines left in Kaipo or surely someone would be raising a fuss about it. Who knows how one of those poor machine-people-things would weather a sandstorm. "We shouldn't linger."

    She will drag Rydia back to shelter if she has to! Though the weirdness of all this, the machines, the strange sensations and everything have kind of dulled her initiative somewhat. Somewhat.

    "Are they going to be okay, though? They seemed... nice." That's a stretch even for her but there it is.

    Well, it doesn't look like anyone was hurt. Things were handles pretty swiftly and decisively.
    Rydia's answer to both Yumi and Terra is very simple.
    "Don't know. Don't care. Not our problem anymore."
    She doesn't need to be dragged though! That's enough coddling, Terra! "There's plenty of room at the inn if people need a place to stay out the duration of the storm. We should really be getting back, though."
    Those machines sailing off into the distance...? They're a problem for another day.

    It's easy to feel when one's eyes linger for 'too long', even if that 'too long' extends into mere seconds. It also boils down to Terra -- and the 'beacon' that her very being resembles to Nythius' instincts -- being closeby and looking at her. The dark-haired girl turns to look right back in the direction of the green-haired lass..... pale blue eyes blinking once. Her head tilts and this could be discerned as a questioning gesture... oh, there are questions. Nythius' proper bearing prevents her from outright asking //why// she is sensing something as familiar as a handshake from the young Esperkin.

    By then though, Terra is making the move to get people to safety... Nythius approves. She will turn on a heel, tumultuous senses overlooked for now, and make to help others in getting into shelter before the dust storm lands.

Emily grins at Weiss, and strolls towards the inn. "Well," she says, "this wasn't a fight, so ... yeah." It doesn't seem to occur to her that they could have gotten hurt any other way. She look at Luke. "Oh, that's the same world with the incident where you found me 'n' Weiss binging on ice cream," she says. "I still won't disturb you with the details."

She gives Terra a look. Her eyes turn into completely black voids -- so black, they look like a graphical glitch, or a rip in space; other than that, her face is ... blank, leaning nervous and incredulous.

Luke Gray seems a bit curious on the answer from Emily, but he does not really push for it, he just nods slowly, "Fair enough." he says softly, before starting to move a bit faster, "Maybe we should just find shelter, yeah." he muses, returning his Bewear into its pokeball, and following Nythius and Terra to safety.