World Tree MUSH

    Even though Saber rarely visits their world of origin, it does happen sometimes for various reasons. Many bizarre threats have been brought to this world, and humanity itself is battling the results. It's a tremendous mess, and every time they start to get it under control, it seems like some hidden element pops up and causes problems in a way never expected. Sometimes this was a huge new problem. Other times it was solved pretty quickly.

    In this case, Vines have started dropping into the whole mess! It's a town in Mexico, and the problem this time? GIANT SCORPIONS! Which is both cliche and bothersome, because not enough military was close enough to really make a dent in them. Fortunately Saber ended up here about an hour ago, and whomever Saber's Master is, they seem to provide plenty of energy for the knight to go to town. So there's a lull in the action as the skittering arachnids are now cleared out of main street, though many are crawling at the outskirts of town still. Surely things are looking up, right?

    As for Saber? The armored knight with that obscured, hollow voice is shouting at someone, waving a giant stinger in one hand, with sword in the other. "Yeah, but even giant scorpions are stupid! They don't give a shit about your square-cube-octagon laws and stuff!"

    Saber wouldn't be the only one here, either. Funny how that works. Amongst the people here, there's a young fellow in a blue school uniform, yellow shirt, and dress shoes. He looks pretty ordinary, save being a little taller than typical Japanese teen.

    The thing that's NOT ordinary is the blue-armored pink figure nearby him. The one who's grabbing at the poisonous tail of one of the scorpions, with intent to use the scorpion as a club against the other scorpions.

Emily floats out of a staticky portal in the form of an auburn-haired woman with and glowing purple eyes, looking ... not especially glum, but she's still kind of in a funk. She blinks, looking around at the chaos going around. "What in the goddamn," she says. "Okay, right, releasing capacitor seals three and two!" She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the first two shatter, and the third one simply fades. Then, in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter ...

... she transforms into a lavender-skinned demoness with four arms, six eyes in two vertical rows, and hair so black it looks like a rip in space or a graphical glitched. She's dressed in a neon-pink crop top that says "I'll Stop Wearing Pink When They Invent A Darker Color", red booty shorts bearing some sort of AI's lengthy rant about hating humanity on the backside, and pale blue sneakers.

In smaller swirls of silvery glitter, she conjures up four large falchion swords, each with one of the four card-suits near the base of the blade, and she floats over towards the teen with the punch-ghost. "Hi, Josuke!" she calls out, in the same voice she usually has, telekinetically sending the swords after the nearest scorpion. "What the hell is going on here, besides the obvious?" An amused and faintly smug smile forms. "And also, where are we?"

Trouble attracts career troubleshooters, well, Temulin is more of a troubleslasher but that's nitpicking. It does not take long for the giant bird the blue-skinned knight rides to arrive. The pair flies over the scenario, and she uses the little device she'd been given by a friend to broadcast her voice. "Need help? Reasonable rates."

She doesn't act quite straight away, waiting for an answer to that offer of hers.

    What can be worse than giant scorpions attacking somewhere in Mexico? How about a giant wasp-scorpion monster flying out of a vine portal? The monster lands and looks confused. Looking a bit more like a biological monster, it suddenly grows some sort of exoskeleton that covers a lot of it's body. Wasp wings buzz as the monster hovers there, looing around. At least until it sees people swinging other monsters around! The good news is it seems part of it's armaments have already taken a beating. The tail is smoking, and it just has giant claws. That are loaded with what look to be projectiles aimed at the trio.

    Fortunately for the heroes, that is about as far as it gets as Kamen Rider Steed comes charging through the portal, on his motorcycle no less. The Rider in gold and black pops a wheelie on the way, and literally swats the wasp-scorpion out of the air causing it's shots to litter the street and air away from the heroes.

    Stopping his motorcycle afterwards, the armored hero turns his head to look around as he dismounts from it. Standing tall, Kamen Rider Steed starts to walk towards the monster with a clink of his spurs as he walks. Stopping after a few steps is a sure sign that the hero is at least waiting for the monster to get up as he looks around. "Great... where in the world am I? This can't be the Underworld, and I doubt it's Theta-Wave's... ATP?"

    Temulin is offering her services again, huh? "Depends, you take American Express?!" Saber yells upward. That's just ribbing though, and when the portal opens up to reveal a DIFFERENT insectlike being, Saber sighs and grumbles, "You know what? Maybe, stick around."

    Fortunately Josuke is already helping out, and with the arrival of Emily, Saber isn't TOO worried about the scorpions! It's the new monster that is getting a lookout, and with a toss of the severed tail and a flash of light from the feet, the armored knight lands with a ground-cracking THUD near the Kamen Rider. From there, Emily and the Rider's question is answered. "MEXICO! Land of churros, chalupas, and chupacabra, only one of which is edible! Giant bugs are not supposed to be here so keep smashing anything with more than four legs that is larger than your... uh... leg. A few of the native bugs are pretty big, but at least it's not Australia."

    "Hi Emily!" Yeah, Josuke recognizes the voice. Also he's been in Emily's company long enough to know she can transform into a lot of weird stuff. It's funny how he can chirp a bright greeting while his Stand is playing Bam-Bam Rubble with giant arachnids. Though it's worth noting that he's keeping his eyes on the things, aside from a quick look in the direction that the greeting came from.

    The questions are answered! Sort of. "Looks like about the obvious -- giant scorpions," he comments. "Mean bastards, too. No idea where we are, though -- vine did that weird thing where it spit me out somewhere I didn't expect. Probably because of these things. They do that sometimes."

    Saber's got the explanations down for those who don't know -- including the newly-arrived person on the motorcycle! "Thanks!" Josuke calls over -- he hasn't noticed the rider yet. But he DOES notice ANOTHER problem -- a giant wasp?! "Oh geez! I hate wasps!" But hey, his Stand can throw a giant scorpion at it, right? Here, wasp, have a friend. A very big, angry friend with a stinger!

Emily suppresses a snicker at Temulin's full-on mercenarying. "I can pitch some money in, Temulin!" she says --

And then, suddenly a monster and a rider! She looks sidelong at them. "... Also a 'what in the goddamn'," she says. "Oh, wait, now I get it!" She smirks faintly. Whatever conclusion she's just formed, she's keeping it to herself.

She looks over at Saber. "So, this is your world, I take it? Nice!" She conjures up five bolts of golden light, and sends them directly through a scorpion that was coming up beind her. "Yeah, Josuke, same here! I was supposed to be on my way to the halcyon remnant, but the vine I was using decided 'nope!'"

"Sure do." Temulin answers Saber, and then she jumps down from the back of her giant bird and down to the ground without a parachute, the black knight shrouds herself in darkness as she falls, her oversized blade is swung forwards at the last moment to maximize its kinetic energy into one of the giant scorpioons. "My money sensors were tingling." She explains as to why she's here, overhearing the later part of the conversation between Emily and Josuke. She glances to the other newcomer, but doesn't hurry to comment on it, there's giant scorpions to kill. "These don't look like diremites, what kind of vilekin are these?"

    Said wasp-scorpion thing was about to get up, but gets waylaid by a thrown giant scorpion. The two hiss at each other, and even though the giant scorpion stings it, the wasp-scorpion literally explodes it. Literally. Missile claws are dangerous! Then it starts to get up.

    The Kamen Rider reaches to his belt in the front, popping out what looks like some sort of gun barrel before grabbing another and replacing it to spin it. A deep, harmonic sound comes out before he pulls it again and shoots off a shot at the wasp-scorpion causing it to crash into a wall. Then he shoots another one a bit further away that was trying to get closer to the group.

    "What do you mean a vine? What are vilekin?" The Kamen Rider looks to Saber since she started the explaination. And a whistle is given as it finally hits where he is. "Mexico? Dang, I was just in New York City, too!" He pauses to shoot the wasp-scorpion again. "Ah..." He looks over at Josuke and the weird guy behind him that just threw a giant scorpion. Then he looks to Saber. "I've never seen Riders like you bunch. Where you from?"

    "Huh they're fighting each other? Easier on us I guess," Saber muses. "HEY! FOUR ARMS! HERD SOME OF THOSE THIS WAY!" A sword waves toward Emily and Josuke, apparently the latter giving Saber enough of an impression that a more complimentary nickname than 'hairdo' is needed but hasn't been made yet. Then the armored knight looks up to where Temulin is. "You hear that? Think you can drop these things on one another?" Apparently Saber likes this idea of making giant bugs fight one another!

    A flash of light and another swift move dashes forward, slicing a scorpion tail off. These things can be dangerous if ignored, but one on one they aren't much of a danger to any of the people here. "Riders? Do I LOOK like a Rider to you? Can't you see the sword? I'm obviously a Saber! Or an Archer I guess but I'll own up and say I'm a Saber. Nice bike though, see why you're a Rider."

    Josuke actually snickers at Temulin's 'money sensors' comment. "Hey, I have those too," he notes. Of course, he's avoiding getting pinched by a scorpion, managing to come out with just a pinch on his leg. It hurts, but it wasn't a full grab. He might have lost his leg if it had managed to close around his leg proper. In response, the scorpion gets a furious "DORARARARARARA!" aimed at the top of its head, the blue-armored pink figure with the heart motifs punching at the top of the scorpion's head so fast its fists are a blurr.

    As for what these things are? "Bad news!" Josuke notes. And the question gets a confused look. "Rider? I'm not a rider," he notes. Not that... he actually knows what a 'Rider' is, at least in this context. But there's a lot he doesn't know about what's going on here!

Emily pauses and smirks as Temulin immediately starts using terminology from her own world, but doesn't bother to comment. She then snickers at Saber's self-description. "I'm better at stabbing them than herding them, but, sure!" she calls back. She floats over to a scorpion, dodging through the air. "Let's see ... too big to get 'em through a dimensional field ... Wait, I know!" She dives to the ground and materializes a giant hand, which simply shoves the scorpion in the general direction of the wasp! She does grin at Josuke, though. "'Bad news' is right!"

Having done that, she floats over to the Kamen Rider. "Okay, so," says the four-armed lavender-skinned demoness with Vantablack hair and six glowing eyes, "you've actually been sent over to another dimension, which is just one of many worlds incorporated into a collection of universes called the World Tree, which is only slightly metaphorical!"

    Saber calls out while eying the wasp up for possible weak points, "Yeah, in the unlikely event you know anything about Norse mythology, think of it as like that Yggdrasil thing."

"Rider? Do you mean Knight?" Temulin asks Steed, seeming confused. "I'm a Dark Knight, Temulin of the Dotharl, from the Azim Steppes." The less than five feet tall dark knight then whips her blade upwards to try to fling one of the scorpions towards another, before another scorpion's stinger gets through a chink in her armour and she laughs. "Ooh, not rolling over? Good."

Next, she answers Steed's question. "A vine is like a two-way aethernet connection that you don't need to attune to and works across worlds." She begins to explain casually. "Vilekin are a class of creatures, part of the Bloodborn kingdom. It includes such genera as Diremites, Yarzon and Chigoe." She throws a wave of darkness at some of the nearby scorpions, "These things look like Diremites with fewer eyes, and I don't see any webs around so I guess they don't make web either. Which is why I figure they're vilekin."

    "What's a Saber?" At least the Rider picked up on that! The gold and black armored figure shakes his head, the red mane moving with it as he looks at the wasp-scorpion thing as it seems to be trying to get back up. Which earns another shot from the Rider. And apparently the idea is to put giant bug on wasp-scorpion monster. Which seems to work!

    The wasp-scorpion ends up stung again, and actually has to fight off the latest since it got it's back to blow it up this time. And by this time it actually stands up and gives off some sort of screech at them before charging forward at the last one to have shoved another giant monster at it! It looks pretty armored, but more like the scorpions than anything. With wasp wings, and what was probably a stinger tail. Probably the usual weak points for it.

    The Rider looks over to Emily and the rest at the further explainations. He just misses the wasp-scorpion taking off, so is a bit slow to even try to stop it at the moment. Especially as it appears Temulin's explanation confuses the Rider more! He calls over to her, "Speak plainly, woman! What's an internet connection got to do with it!?" Then he looks to Emily, only to see the wasp-scorpion thing going after her, "Don't let it grab you!"

    "Ugh you don't feel like a Servant, you must mean some other kind of Rider," Saber grumbles, stepping to the side and eying the opponent. "Anyway, you're in my world, someone else asked that. Invasions like this have been happening a lot. I mostly work offworld though, my Master just didn't have anything for me to do so I came here. Really would prefer to take over Londinium though, that'd be way more fun for me."

    Looks like the scorpions are mostly giant pests, which was probably why Josuke and Saber were able to handle most of them alone. So that means the wasp is the bigger threat! A blast of magic causes another flash of light from Saber's feet, launching the knight forward to give a quick slice toward the legs of the wasp-thing, obviously deciding to just make it ungrabbable.

    Josuke tries to explain more simply -- "Portals! Vines are portals. We all got here through a portal that didn't take us where we were supposed to go. That happens sometimes. I guess the Tree thought you needed help!" Which, uh. Yeah, that's fair to think, given the situation. "Or thought you could help take care of these things."

    Oh they're giving names too! "My name's Josuke! Josuke Higashikata!" He actually manages to sound friendly while he's fighting.

    Now, if all the scorpions are dead, and the wasp(s?) ISN'T, that's a problem. Josuke looks at the dead scorpions, and gets an idea. Crazy Diamond makes to break off one of the stingers, and then hurl it in the direction of the wasp(s?).

Emily can't keep quiet any longer. She rolls her eyes, still smirking, and says, "Temulin, your world is the only one that has a 'Bloodborn kingdom', none of us actually has any associations with any of that and trying to make comparisons to your own stuff is -- whoa!"

When the Rider calls out to her, she whirls around, and shoots straight up into the air, hovering a dozen feet above the wasp-monster as she launches another phalanx of five bolts of golden light directly at its face! She grins cheekily, and in a mock-whiny voice, she adds, "I was totally about to handle it myself!"

She pauses. "'Londinium'?" she murmurs to herself. She briefly gets a faraway look as she tries to connect to the local internet, grunts in annoyance as she has trouble connecting, then smiles as she manages to load Wikipedia. "Nope, sorry Saber, I'd say the problem is that Londinium as such doesn't actually exist anymore!" She turns back to the Rider. "Anyway! I'm Emily Nyx. That's Nyx-model Eudaemon, serial prefix MLE0. I'm a magical shapeshifting robot." Her smile ever-so-briefly takes on a sinister edge. "Let's just say that it's just as well that the world I'm from came to an end before I was activated, so that I cannot fulfill my purpose."

"Oh right, aether travel is not a thing any of you would be familiar with. Uh, it's basically a public transportation system where you can go from any aethernet shard to another in the same network, doesn't usually have a range of more than a few malms though." She glances to Emily, "That clear enough?" She seems a /bit/ annoyed by that response but picks up on another detail, "And if you guys don't have a 'bloodborn' kingdom then how do you keep track of the differences between Spoken in the bloodborn kingdom like me and Forgekin in the bloodless kingdom like you?"

With most of the scorpions dealt with, she blows a whistle and jumps into the sky, the giant bird of prey's talons grabbing her by the shoulders and dropping her at her target, darkness streaking with her blade as she attempts to strike the wasp-scorpion thing, "Hey ugly. How many onzes of toxin do you think it'll take to down me? And do you think your ugly mug has enough time left to get that all in me."

>> SUMMARY[Temulin Dotharl] >> Temulin uses Provoke, targetting unknown vilekin

    The armor on the wasp-scorpion thing is apparently pretty tough, except around the eyes and joints. Which is exactly what Saber and Emily hit. The blinded thing is easy prey for a stinger from Josuke, then literally getting swatted and a nice cut into the exoskeleton from the Temulin. The attacks definitely seem to be wearing the thing down, and it even looks like it tries to lash it's tail at Temulin... at least until it realizes it doesn't /have/ a stinger to hit her with. Then it screeches again.

    The Kamen Rider adjusts his hat, looking considerate, "Huh... so that's what those strange portals are." He says more to himself than anything. Then he pops out the barrel to the revolver and sticks another in, giving it a spin before placing it in his belt. The harmonic tone this time is from a low to a high tone. Mystic energy surges around him before coalescing into his feet. "You may want to back off when I do this." He says towards the others

    And then he's off charging the wasp-scorpion. The wasp-scorpion, still blinded, is pretty much an easy target for him to jump and give a sizeable front kick to the wasp-scorpion right in the torso. The Rider calls out, "Stampede Kick!" Which sends it flying down the street, into a few more of the giant scorpions. A noticeable hoof-like print is left behind on the thing... before it literally explodes. And takes a few giant scorpions with it.

    Landing after the kick, the Rider stands up and turns to the others. "I'm Kian Armstrong, Kamen Rider Steed. At your service." He tips his hat to the others.

>> GAME >> Kamen Rider Steed spends an Edge for: Stampede Finish - Intro scene for fun.

    "London, Londinium, whatever. Father would never let me live it down if someone else destroyed it before me!" Saber calls out! Oh yeah, introductions. As the legs fly off, Saber parries a counter and skids back, then grunts, "Just call me Saber. My Master doesn't want me giving out my identity." Even though some of the comments are hints at it, and obviously Saber is way less concerned with keeping it secret than this mysterious Master.

    Before the sword can be brought to bear again though, the Rider Kick flourishes out to make the wasp... explode? "Bad...." Saber rumbles... then finishes with, "ASS! THAT WAS AWESOME!"

    Josuke looks at Temulin as if he has no idea what any of that meant. "Uh... what? I understood some of the words, but I don't think they mean what I think they mean." So... they DON'T keep track of it, at least not in Josuke's world. He has no idea what Temulin is talking about, or even how to START unpacking that question.

    And then the Kamen Rider guy is charging mystical energies! Josuke is quick to back off, even before he's warned to do so, not wanting to get caught up in whatever those energies mean! The flying kick, the knocked back wasp, and the explosion all cater to his inner kid! Well, not so 'inner', really, since he's not exactly that old anyway. "Whoaaaaa," he breathes. "That was so kewl!"

    Yes, 'kewl'. Because he's Japanese, and he didn't say 'kakkoii', like he was supposed to for 'cool'. He said 'kappyoi'. Bit of an odd thing, but yeah. Similar response to Saber there.

Emily just ... giggles at Temulin's questioning. Her response is more blunt than Josuke's: "What in the goddamn hell are you talking about?"

At Kian's warning, she glides back and watches the gathering energies with interest. When the Rider Kick goes down, she nods in approval, still with that amused and faintly smug smile. "Okay, yeah," she says. "I'm with Josuke and Saber. You done good, Mr. Armstrong!"

She looks around, still smiling at the greater scenery. "Are the rest of the monsters down?" she says. "... Or is that not clear? Sometimes on the halcyon remnant where I'm from, herds of robots go on stampedes or whatever when an entire networked system goes FUBAR, and it's hard to tell when it's actually over."

"Bloodless, everything that isn't part of the transcendent Kingdom and doesn't have blood. So you have Morbols in the Seedkin Class, Garlean Magitek in the Forgekin class, Coblyn in the Soulkin class, Bhoot in the Ashkin class, all of which Bloodless. The way you describe yourself sounds like Forgekin." Temulin explains patiently, though she's starting to sound a bit frustrated. "Are you telling me that my time studying the Raimdelle classification system was a total waste?"

Unlike the others, though, her response to the kick and the thing exploding is a 'tch' and a look away. "Steal my kill will you?" She glances towards Saber, "That still counts for my contract." She insists, and blows her whistle. The giant bird lands next to them and she grabs a wireless credit card reader from one of the bags. "Amex, you said, right?"

    Kian turns to look at the others, then shrugs, "I don't know? Is anyone able to tell if they are gone?" He turns to look around to be sure a few times. Then shrugs, "I do not see any."

    Pulling the revolver from his belt, the armored suit he's wearing seems to separate out, then fade into... nothing. No sparks, odd sparkle effects, odd portal, nothing. Just disappears. Except for the hat and the revolver. The hat he adjusts.

    Looking at Temulin, Kian shakes his head, "Oh, great. Mercenaries now? What next?" The revolver is stuck inside his jacket as he looks at the others, "So... those weird stable portals are what brought me here, I take it? This isn't one of the Invader dimensions like the ATP, Theta-Wave, or the Underworld?" He pauses, then looks around, "... never mind, it's Mexico. Can't be the Underworld."

    Saber huhs, "You thought I was serious about American Express?" The armor shimmers, revealing a slender but athletic and well-muscled girl in a t-shirt and shorts, hand on her hip. "Eh, don't worry, I can pay you, but it won't be Amex. If you have an account though, I can transfer some funds electronically, that'd be easier all 'round. I'll just have to get them from Master." The shroud about Saber's identity is still active, but it now doesn't disguise her actual sex.

    "Anyway, I'm a knight and these people needed help. It's kinda my job and Master is hands off about this world, so I get to do what I want. Pretty sure there are some straggler scorpions, but nothing the locals can't handle. Yeah, stable but sometimes they dump you weird places." She scratches her head, then glances at Josuke, "Nice moves, dude. Thanks for the assist." Brusque as she is, she doesn't mind someone helping out when she isn't attached to the job herself.

    "As for you, call me Saber, like I said. It's a classification for Servants like me. Just like Rider is, but I'm guessing that's something else for you."

    Josuke winces a little at Emily's mention of things screwing up in her world. "Oh jeez, I hope that's not happening here," he notes. "I didn't see any metal on these things, so I don't think they're networked. But I didn't really check, since I didn't want to dig through bug guts. These are new shoes."

    And he just gives the most blank look to Temulin. No, he has no idea what any of that is. "I guess... it's something like how the Speedwagon Foundation categorizes Stands?" he offers.

    He offers a thumbs-up to Saber at the compliment and thanks for the assistance. Its brusqueness doesn't seem to bother him -- Jotaro's not much different. "Sure thing!" he returns brightly.

Emily shrugs. "It's certainly a waste if your world doesn't Blossom," she says, without an ounce of sympathy. "Temulin, the thing is, different worlds are different. It's the whole reason a Dark Knight can meet a rebellious Eudaemon who doesn't have much to rebel against, a Saber, a Stand-user ..." She looks at Josuke for confirmation that she's using the right terminology, before turning her smile on Kian. "... and, I presume, a Kamen Rider?"

She grins at Saber. "I'm pretty sure Temulin is always one hundred percent serious about money," she says cheerfully. "And, y'know, I was serious about pitching in, though."

She turns back to Kian, and crosses her upper arms and puts her lower hands on her hips. "So, yeah," she says. "Welcome to the World Tree! Definitely more fun than my introduction to the greater multiverse." Her smile falters slightly. "... reminds me, I need to go hit up Dante sometime soon ..."

"Yeah, yeah. Different worlds are different, and there's no Earth in mine so I'm missing out on a bunch of shared cultural background that most of you guys have." Temulin answers Emily. "I keep mixing up units too. Every time I try to buy a dozen ponzes of meat for Denhes they have no clue what they're talking about." She sighs, and glances to Saber. "Pray forgive me, but when it comes to payment I don't joke around. A professional must needs stay on top of these things." She writes down the details on her bank account and hands them to Saber, "Just make sure I get it. I take cash, too, if that's easier."

The Dark Knight turns her attention to the newcomer, lifts her visor to reveal her blue skin and red-ringed eyes, and points her weapon at him, "Yeah, I'm a merc. My only marketable skills are in violence, and I need to earn my living somehow. You got a better idea or are you just moralizing while... I'm gonna guess living from the hard work of your parents instead of having to take some actual responsibility."

    Kian looks at Temulin, glaring quite a bit. "My parents died in a demon attack when I was ten." He says directly. "I'm just one of the unlucky to get attacked later and be able to fight back."

    The Rider looks to Saber, humming a bit as he looks her over, then shrugs, "I'm almost scared to ask, but what's a Servant? Sounds like something a few of the Riders go around with... ah... I forgot what they call them on the 'Net."

    Looking over at Josuke, he looks directly at the Stand or whatever that thing is, "So what's with that guy?" He points right at the Stand, too. "I mean, he's certainly a lot stronger than most people I've seen."

    Then someone drops the Kamen Rider name and he looks to Emily, "Yeah. I'm a Kamen Rider... and sorry my fight came this way and made it worse, I guess. That thing was able to molt or something and go faster. I'm glad you guys at least kept it down so I didn't have to chase it again."

    "Eh, this is pretty normal for my world," Saber says, waving it away. "We're kind of fucked all over. Some jerkwad thought magic would be more powerful if there were less people, and figured 'hey, if I kill 9 out of 10 people magic will be strong again.'" She snorts, "Asshole mages."

    The others can answer what they are, but Saber can answer Servant. "A Servant is a summoned creature of magic that is the spirit of a dead hero, bound to a Master to supply the magical energy. Usually a Magus, or in my case just someone with a very strong reserve of magical energy. Got a few naturally-spawning ones here, too, but those are a little different. Only one I've run into is Merlin, but I hear there's a Kiyohime running around trying not to burn everything to the ground while she saves people."

    Josuke nods to Emily's silent request for confirmation of his 'Class'. And he also volunteers for Temulin, "I can pitch in a little bit too. Though it's in Japanese yen and I don't know what the exchange rate for it on the Tree is just yet..."

    Kian's asking about his Stand gets a, "Huh? Oh, right." Since the danger's past, Josuke lets the Stand disappear, though the large pink figure turns into silvery-blue energy/dust that is then absorbed into Josuke's form and disappears. "That's my Stand, Crazy Diamond," he explains. "It's... a poltergeist, is the easiest way I can explain it."

Emily shrugs; with four arms, there's a lot more to shrug. "Reapplying capacitor seals three and two," she says. The pearlescent aura appears, the gold and silver ones reconstruct themselves, and all three fade. "Not your fault," she tells Kian. In another swirl of silvery glitter, her weapons vanish and she's in the form of a silver-haired woman in a green trench coat, a black bandeau bikini top, black jeans, and combat boots. But still with four arms and glowing purple eyes. "These things happen sometimes. The World Tree decided that 'right here' was where you needed to be."

She looks sidelong at Saber. "That too," she says, her grin returning in full force. "Also, this 'Kiyohime' sounds fabulous, I tell you what. Wouldn't mind running into her at some point."

She nods to Josuke. "I can't analyze Stands since my sensors are for civilian purposes and not for scientific ones," she says, "but 'poltergeist' as a metaphor for 'Stand' sounds like it's almost as awesome as your hairstyle."

"Oh, a tragic youth. How sad." Temulin answers annoyedly, "And how, exactly does that give you the right to moralize how other people make their money?" She nods to Josuke. "Saber's got the bill, I don't really care how you split up paying it so long as I get my money." The dark aura that's been surrounding the knight fades, and she shrugs. "Why's it called a Stand anyway? Looks like a pseudo-Primal to me. Like those things that Rydia kid summons."

    Kian sighs, then looks to Temulin, "It doesn't. But neither do you need money if you know how to live off the land instead." He shrugs. "Plus, it seems wrong to charge people that are under attack by things like giant scorpions or that..." He considers, looking over towards where the wasp-scorpion exploded. "... ah, shoot... now I'm not sure what that thing was. Probably a demon, since I didn't see any mk fluid."

    Scratching his forehead, the cowboy shrugs and turns to the others, "So... i just got one question here?"

    "How in the hell do I get back to my world so I can at least report what the portals are?" He asks the others. Definitely a first time portaler, right?

    "Just chill a bit, Temulin, he's still new here!" Saber grunts, "I can totally understand that. My father wouldn't even recognize me. Then we killed each other, so it kinda sucked. Having no parents sucks." Kinda. "There are other Vines charted that you can use though, we can hit the city nearby to figure out where. Might take a while to find your World, but if these things have been popping up, SOMEONE has charted it."

    Saber glances at the others. "Yeah, I need to chill for a bit. One thing being summoned gets you is a bunch of info dumped in your head about the modern day." She taps her head. "Most of it is important stuff like basic history and local slang, but there are a few things that are just incidental. And guess what? One of those is that Coca Cola here is still made with sugarcane. My treat. We can cool down and then one of us can show this guy to the nearest Vine."

>> SUMMARY[Saber] >> Sharing important info.

    Josuke grins at Emily's praise of his hairstyle. And then out comes the comb, to straighten it of whatever the battle might have done to shift it. Not much, by the way. He puts enough pomade in that to where nothing short of a direct hit is going to shift that coif! "Hey, thanks!" he says brightly. It's not smug at all, it's just honest thanks for a compliment.

    To Kian's question, he notes, "Find another Vine -- uh, portal. You'll eventually get home, most likely. Though I've heard of people not being able to get back, too. I'm not sure why that is, what the difference is."

    Saber's mention of Coke with actual sugar in it gets a tilt of his head. "As long as it doesn't have me sitting on the toilet all night," he notes. "There's a reason I drink Pepsi." Totally not advertising for anybody!

Emily looks between Kian and Temulin, and shrugs. "Like I said, Temulin," she says. "The halcyon remnant is a great place to let loose. And Kian, I'd say the vine that brought you here is right abouuuuut ..." She points. "... there."

She brightens at the offer of soda; she's developed a sweet tooth since leaving the World Tree (largely as a factor of not being able to get drunk). "Ooh, excellent," she says. "That sounds like a wonderful idea!" A pause. "... Do they have cream soda?"

"Look, kid." Temulin tells the guy who's obviously older than here. "I'll give it to you straight. I'm not cut out to be a hero, if I stop being a merc it's because I stop running form my destiny." A short pause, "And if you're as much of a hero as your attitude tells me, you don't want me to stop running from my destiny; so give it a rest."

She sounds pretty annoyed by this. "I'm cheaper than most mercs, and I don't take up jobs that I don't trust." A pause, "Thal's Balls, I'm a dark knight, not a feckin' warrior of light, so treat me that way." She glances to Saber, "I am going easy on him."

"Something to drink sounds good. They have anything stronger than soda, though?" She asks, then pauses, "Or wait. Earth. Fine, I'll take the soda." She glances to Emily, "I don't need a place to let loose, I need to make an actual living."

    Kian looks at the others, then shrugs, "Coke sounds good... hm... maybe get a bite to eat. Wonder if I could find some tamales to bring back? I think someone was asking for a good place to get them on the 'Net."

    He considers, then looks over at his bike and moves to start walking it back over.. "So which way? And seriously, if there's tamales or tostadas, I'm definitely picking some up."

    At the information on the Vine/portal, he looks at the others, then back towards it. He sighs. "Great... long road trip back home possibly. Eh, glad I got a few more Riders in my area to handle the craziness, then."

    He then quirks an eyebrow, looking at Temulin, "Seriously? You and me probably need to have a talk sometime. That, and I'm avoiding you meeting the Court of Locusts. They might have a field day with you."