World Tree MUSH

    Getting everything set up is not supposed to be the job of a soldier, but it just so happens that many people have asked Jessica to help out in finishing up getting an offworld office set up for BlackSteel Worldwide. That is... where she is now! A new PMC isn't huge news over the World Tree, but it's kind of a big deal for this little town that's the nearest location of the Blossom in question.

    And of course, the hapless cat is there, the flustered catgirl waving arms. "Ahh! No no I think that's a bad idea! You can't put a refreshment stand near the Oridum Prime storage!"

    Uni is here. Mostly so she can keep abreast of the various and sundry sources of work that she's come to rely on for cash and in some cases, new followers for Share Energy. She watches, bemused as Jessica flails at some workers setting up a stall. "She's right, y'know. Wouldn't want to get radiation poisoning or contaminate the products, right?" she adds helpfully... she doesn't really know the full story on this stuff, but she's more than willing to help out the flustered catgirl.

    Bravette, meanwhile, perches on a nearby upright f some kind, flicking through holographic screens and typing on a small hologram keyboard, legs kicking idly as she works.

    Luke is around as well, sightseeing as usual, looking for part time jobs, or interesting stuff, and of course, the opening of a large office for an offworld company, is usually a nice event to check out, maybe even figure if they have potential requests he and his pokemon might be able to fulfil. The kid is once again acompanied, this time for a rather... round looking feline, a tiger of some sort?, it has a lighting bolt marking on it's chest!. The duo arrive in time to see the flailing, "What's wrong?" asks Luke.

    Phew! A little support from Uni has Jessica nodding rapidly, her tail flicking. That also seems to help, because they start rearranging things, and she feels she can leave the workers alone for a little bit. "Oh... hello again, Luke! And thank you... Uni was it?" Of course she says all this while staring at the Tiger and Bravette rather than the people she's talking to, pretty confused and curious about these.

    Uni chuckles at Jessica. "Yeah. Name's Uni... you're more interested in my partner though, I can tell." she reaches over, and lightly taps Bravette on the head, causing the blonde doll-like robot to klook up. "Introduce yourself."

    The Zelnogrard blinks owlishly up at Uni, then looks over at Jessica before dismissing her screens, scooting to stand on the thing she's sat on, and salutes. "MMS Type Firearm's, Zelnogrard. My name is Bravette." she says in a monotone, stoic voice. She might remind Jessica of some of her more 'professional' peers and juniors.

    Luke and the big round zapcat both trundle over, especially the 'tiger', even if the electric type did get distracted by Uni's companion, moving closer to check on the robot, aware of the electric fields around it, if it was powered by electricity at least, or maybe just looked unusual!. Luke meanwhile smiles to Jessica, "He is Dynamo, don't worry, he wouldn't harm a fly... I mean, he is very capable of, but wouldn't unless provoked." he says. He turns to wave to Uni as well, "Hello!, I'm Luke!" he might be a bit distracted and having issues remembering names.

    Fingers wiggle in a wave, and Jessica smiles at Luke, "I remember you from the other night! That's a cute cat though." Cheerful isn't she? Also more together this time. The catgirl's ears fold back as Uni comments on her interest though. That seems to have embarrassed her.

    "Eheh... sorry, I just haven't really seen anything like that. It's nice to meet you!" She bows lightly, even though she seems British, and then perks ears up again. "I'm Jessica, if we didn't really catch it before. Thank you for your help the other night, too, Uni. I don't normally do solo missions."

    Uni rolls a shoulder, arms folded over her chest. She nods back to Luke politely, then glances back at Jessica, fixing the catgirl with her red eyes. She might come off as a bit intimidating to some!

    "Don't mention it. You handled yourself pretty well, don't put yourself down. You made the best of a bad situation and we managed to pull off the operation without any casualties." The CPU Candidate offers a smile. "That was a nice piece you had though. Didn't get a good look at it, but I'd say it was a modified Barreta M9... am I right?"

    Bravette, meanwhile, eyes the electric tiger warily. she's been targetted by cats before. They seem to enjoy trying to chew on her.

    Luke simply lets Jessica and Uni speak, moving a bit closer, listening curiously to the conversation, while the pokemon offers a loud chirp and a nod at the greeting, seems smarter than it looks!. The big cat's attention is otherwise on Bravette, sitting down adn meowling to it in greeting. "Did something happen?" Luke asks, hearing about casualty and the... gun information.

    Luke gets answered first. "Ah... some smugglers tried to bring out some ore. The um... kind of ore that causes explosions and spreads sickness. It's really dangerous! So we were all hired to stop it, and now it's okay." A brief explanation!

    Uni's question gets a puzzled look. "Modified what?" She tugs her weapon from the holster, showing the sleek pistol... and looking more closely, something seems really off about the trigger mechanism. "Um... I think this is just normal. Firearms are pretty rare in my world, it's strange seeing them here. How can so many people afford the training and precision to use them?"

    Uni takes a bit closer look as the pistol is displayed. "Well then, it looks like a gun from other worlds of a similar tech level.. but I can see the trigger mechanism's different." She nods. "So, a local thing, not many firearms, that makes the prevalence of crossbows and other lower-tech ranged weapons make more sense." she remarks, cupping her chin thoughtfully. "I'm not as well versed with those types of weapons, but the bolts didn't look normal to me."

    Bravette continues to peer at the electrotiger, getting into a kind of mexican standoff with the pokemon. She's not approaching, nor fleeing and it seems the pokemon isn't either.

    The boy nods, "That sounds... why would they try to smuggle radioactive stuff?", while he is just a kid, it is kind of obvious this sounds like nuclear radiation stuff. "Wait... is it safe to be this close to the stuff?" he mumbles, glancing around again, before moving close, curious about the guns. "I haven't seen one in real person before coming to the tree, but they also exist in my world... Ithink most are made in factories nowadays, big automated process to make lots of them to sell." he mumbles. 
    The zap tiger seems too curious to be still, but also not trying to upset the robot, just circling around slowly.

    Jessica, for all that she seems a little bumbling, doesn't let go of the weapon nor express any unsafe practices. She evidently knows how to respect firearms! "Mmm? I guess so, they use originium, the same stuff that was being smuggled. Most of our technology is based on it, but it's dangerous to use without precautions. I hear a lot of worlds are curious about it so..." She shrugs.

    All of this is said with some distraction while watching Bravette and Dynamo. She shakes out of it to clarify, "Some bolts use explosives and things, too. Firearms are a lot harder to use, just a lot stronger."

    Uni frowns at that. "Firearms are easier to use than a crossbow... I mean, yeah there's recoil from a gun, not so much a crossbow, but still." she seems very heated by this for some reason. "Teaching someone how to load, recock and fire a crossbow takes more time than teaching a gun!" She does look a bit appreciative of Jessica's professionalism with her firearms control. She sighs after her outburst "Sorry, sorry... different world, different rules, this, Originium stuff changes a lot of fundamental things I don't understand."

    Bravette finds being circled by a predator unnerving, and so summons her flight pack from her slipway, lifts into the air and takes refuge on Uni's shoulder.

    Luke just listens curiously, tilting his head a bit, "That makes sense I guess, still very dangerous." he muses, turning back to Uni at the discusion on weapon mechanics, "I mean, I heard old guns were really hard to use, you had to reload them very slowly." he muses."Maybe most of the guns there are... like that?". 
    Meanwhile, Dynamo loses a friend!, he just watches Bravette run away and he slowly trundles back to Luke's side.

    "Huh?" Jessica stares at Uni, and then squeaks as the two smaller ones break up, her ears folding in disappointment. But she is doing her best to explain. "Guns aren't easier to use. With a crossbow you just have to know how to maintain and cock it, but with a firearm you have to focus your attention just right to detonate the originium in the chamber and fire the bullet. Too little and it jams, too much and um... you cook off the rest of your ammunition. Some people just can't do it because they can't focus their arts. I'm kind of lucky that I can use them even without being Infected, the Infected have a lot easier time channeling arts."

    "Different fundamental principles. The firearms I'm used to you just pull the trigger, the hammer smacks the ignition pin on the bullet, and then the gunpowder does the rest of the work, just gotta aim and control the recoil." replies Uni after the explanation. "My guns don't even do that. It's all powered by my Share Energy. I do use some special custom tooled cartridges for special effects, like paralysis or poisoning. Otherwise they're energy bolts."

    Luke is quite curious now, he doesn't get to hear much about guns and mechanics!. In the meantime, his pokemon returns to his side, and he begins to rub the ears of hte round tiger critter. "That does sound complicated." he says, "I mean, nifty too, but complicated!." he says, tryin to talk over the purr of the electric pokemon.

    Jessica can't help it, she giggles at the loud purr, then leans down to offer her hand, tail swishing behind her like... well, a cat, though she evidently doesn't have quite the same natural caution. "He's pretty cute."

    Uni's explanation isn't... fully comprehended because of different conceptual bases, but Jessica knows enough about her own firearm maintenance to get the idea. "Oh, so the reaction is triggered by the impact? That sounds dangerous to me, but I guess it works for other places. Your Share Energy thing sounds more like the Casters from my world. I'd introduce you but the only person here I really know is Shaw the firefighter, and um... I'm not sure you're ready to meet her yet."

    Uni blinks. "I'll pass... if she's anyhting like Neptune, she'll be tolerable in small doses." she remarks, reaching up to fingerpat her shinki, who's gone back to typing up some kind of report, or doing tax returns or whatever it is she's doing while otherwise idle.

    Luke only knows of guns what he saw on tv mostly so he tries not to give much disinformation, just petting the round cat, that heard Jessica call it cute and tries to sneak closer, perhaps hoping to be petted further!. It eagerly pushes into the offered hand. Luke ponders a bit, "Share energy, I only heard of that n my world when... doing some stuff with Pokemon, I haven't tried that myself yet."

    "Share Energy is... well. I'll come straight out with it. I'm a goddess in my world. Share Energy is the measurable 'faith' my worshippers have in me. The more I have, the stronger I get. It's kinda complicated to explain how it all works, but back home, there's four nations. Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee and Leanbox. I'm the CPU Candidate for Lastation, my big sister, Noire is the current CPU." she thenr ealizes she's speaking in contractions. "Uh, CPU stands for Console Patron Unit."

    Bravette helpfully opens a holoscreen, showing two figures that look superficially similar. One is Uni! The other looks kinda like her, but with white hair in twindrills, green eyes with powersymbols for pupils, and a tight bodysuit, with some kind of attachments that look like armour and wings. "I can transform using Share Energy into my Goddess form, Black Sister." she explains further. Bravette's screen changes to a simplified animatic. It shows three 'stick people' bowing down and cycling between upright and prostated before a chibi version of Uni. Little sparkles emit from the trio and float into Uni, makeing her glow and Mario Grow into Black Sister as a demonstration of sorts.