World Tree MUSH

    Word of this little welcome for offworlders has extended, and some may have even seen the official invite from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which controls this particular moon. It has thus far been very rare for Vines to appear in the outer Solar System so far, at least stable ones. This one appears to be sticking around for at least a few days, though it isn't clear if it's permanent or not. The Empire has taken this opportunity to capitalize on the fact that one of its Archdukes and heir-apparent was already passing by to visit. That's all that's available by flyers and invites...

    Those who are arriving will find a little welcome station has been set up by the Vine, with a nice little marked path to the city itself. And it IS a city! Epimetheus is a small moon, very very small, so there are only a few towns and installations on it. The local flora is more like giant mushrooms, and the largest natural light source is Saturn itself. Being one of the earlier settlements of the outer solar system, the buildings are a mix of quarried stone and timber imported, mixed with more local means of building, and quite a few gas-lit lamps using gasses drawn from inside the tiny moon. Stalls and buskers are set up along the main street, and it's a festive atmosphere despite the somewhat alarming presence of soldiers here and there. This far out, cars are pretty rare, but a few of them are present, all decked out in decorations.

    The more alarming thing is in orbit, some distance out, but large enough to make out from here. Several large vessels are about of course... most of them wooden 'solar sail' ships, but this one dominates the scenery despite being further out. A massive battleship of steel and cannons.

    Those who come through obviously armed will be asked to either leave their weapons there, checking them in, or agree to an escort. Those EXCESSIVELY armed will be asked to leave the weapons there. However, melee weapons like swords seem to be considered ceremonial, and the quick search they give is... not very competent.

    Aurelia has not been to this particular place. It seems strange that a moon would have air and life on it, especially in something supposedly familiar as *the* Solar system. She asks the locals about how the moon came to be inhabited, listening with interest. She's dressed in civilian clothes, acquiesing to a request by her false mother to wear something feminine for a change; a modest blouse and calf-length skirt. She wasn't budging on the oversized jean jacket though. Aurelia is not obviously armed, nor is she concealing any weaponry in her clothing. This doesn't mean she is unarmed though.

    Luke was quite eager to explore new places, and learning this one was in another planet, aka 'outer solar system' ? he just would not resist!. The boy simply has to be there, in his standard outfit, with a small black and white creature perched on his head, sort of panda like. They both look like... tourists, going 'ohhh' and 'aaah' at the flora, and the architecture as well. They don't seem to be too worried about the soldiers or the armed vessels, seems just security!. The kid seems unarmed, just his backpack, the pokeballs on his belt, and of course, Pangshi perched on his head, he looks harmless!.

    The answer to 'Why Merlin is here' is the same as the answer to 'Why is Merlin Anywhere'. Where there are people, particularly humans (or human adjacent), there are bound to be stories. And where there are stories, there are emotions. And where there are emotions, stories, and the human condition, one has a chance to find Merlin. 

    Wearing his robes, hood back to let his flowing hair hang down, the humble court mage casually makes conversation with a couple particularly influential locals. He is only carrying his normal staff, leaning on it a bit as he smiles and chats to said local nobility, "Salutations, salutations. A wonderful location you have. I thank you for hosting someone as absolutely dreary and unimportant as myself." He croons to local influencers, flashing a smile and brushing some hair back over his shoulder as he waves one hand to the group he is talking to. 

    "So in this world, humanity has taken to the stars? My, my. Please. Tell me about the expansion of your worlds. How far do humans reach in this world?"

    It seems that quite a lot of the people here have a good amount of national pride in their history, and of course with offworlders expected, there are many who are ready and willing to chat things up! Merlin and Aurelia are asking questions, and Luke of course looking on with wide-eyed wonder and all, so they get the quick rundown.

    "Welcome to Epimetheus!" The man is cheerful as he speaks. "Ah, a good question! This colony was set up almost fifty years ago, as part of the Ottoman Empire! About thirty-five years ago, it broke away, along with many of our neighbors. You see, the Empire mostly used slavic workers from the Balkans to build and supply this area, and with their withdrawal of power many of these colonies declared independence some time ago!" He smiles, "We here are a simple and hardworking folk, but life is harsh out here. Recently we've gained the support of the Austria-Hungarian Empire instead, backing us here, something that many of our neighbors do not have." He puffs up proudly. "This does make us one of the oldest colonies in the outer system! The... fifth, I believe, settled outside of the asteroid belt! Haha! I can't imagine the tiny ships they sailed out there on back then."

Wearing her black and white theater mask that has animated classic greek-theater style facial expressions to mimic the real ones beneath, the vampire hunter is taking a break from work. She is incredibly reluctant to hand over her weapons. Considering they treat the melee weapons as ceremonial and the flamethrower likely doesn't parse as a weapon at all to them, the only thing she's worried about is the railgun; which seems able to get through just fine. The mask smiles at them, before she continues. "So what do you think of this place?" She asks her companion.

    Earlier:

    "So 2B, I heard there are humans on other moons in other worlds too!" Operator 6O says chipperly.
    "Uh huh."
    "Why don't you go check it out?"
    "Not interested."
    "Oh well that's too bad. Because I already bought the tickets for you and 9S!"
    "Wait what?"
    "Mhm! You should go, it'll be great, like a nice little date!"
    "W-we're not like tha-"
    "Oop! Commander is calling me, gotta go, enjoy your date 2B!"
    <CONNECTION END>
    "... God dammit."

    Now:

    There are androids on the moon.
    This is backwards, the moon is where humans are supposed to be. At least on Earth's moon, anyway. But this isn't Earth's moon, and the two YoRHa androids that have just made it through the security checkpoint seem more baffled than anything else.
    "Huh, they let us keep our swords." 9S muses.
    "They're considered ceremonial." 2B replies, heels clicking with every step.
    "So like. The humans from this world are spread colonies to other planets and moons... That's kind of neat. It could give the humans back home a few ideas maybe, if Earth ends up not being viable anymore."
    "We're going to take Earth back."
    "Right, right!"
    "One response is all that's necessary."
    "... Right..." A pause. "Hey 2B, you don't think 6O was trying to set us up on a-"
    "No."
    "Haha... Right. That's just silly." 9S wilts.

     Luke nods a few times, listening with interest, "Fifty years ago?, that's amazing." he begins, "Back home there is not much space exploration as much as I know at least." he muses, while the panda on his head keeps gawking around. "So you have spaceships and stuff here?". The kid is certainly impressed, and looks around some more spotting Aurelia!. Or at least, the pokemon does, suddenly floating away from Luke's head, waving adn growling loudly at her for attention.

  Lucatiel of Mirrah didn't actually plan on being here. It just happened. Vines have a tendency to lead to unexpected places, so the welcome station was briefly visited by what appeared to be a fencer astride a magnificent horse.

  The horse was left behind for the welcome station staff to see to, along with thinly veiled threats if anything unfortunate happened to the animal. The swords stay, since nobody really insists too strongly, and the mask very definitely stays. Having nothing better to do, and being familiar with the intricacies of courtly life, Lucatiel had decided to stay.

  Mushrooms are stared at, pathways are taken, the battleship eyed dubiously, and the festive buskers and stalls are mostly ignored. The plume on the fencer's hat is visible even in the crowd. She wears two swords and a buckler, but she's made no move to touch the hilt of either. They're totally ceremonial. Yep. Totally.

  At the moment she's leaning against a stall not too far away from Merlin and his chatty locals, half paying attention to what they have to say. The masked face tilts incrementally closer to the locals; the brim tilts just slightly.

  "Fascinating." The voice is low, hard; muffled and weirdly distorted by the mask, but it's clearly a woman's. The hat brim tilts just a little more. "So you have traded one Imperial master for another, is it? What manner of support do they loan you, and what do these people give, in exchange?"

    "My, my." Merlin smiles at the man as he explains the abridged story of how the colonizations came to me, "That is quite the storied past you have! 50 years. Almost two whole generations." He leans on his staff a bit and considers the question as he is explained to, careful to not talk over anyone else that has questions such as Lucatiel or Aurelia when they take their turns to speak up, "And you say you came here on ships?" He looks up towards the stars a bit. 

    "They look more like ships meant to sail on the ocean than to sale on the stars. Tell me how they work! I simply must know."

    Serrah Delany is dressing up. For her, this means wearing a black blouse instead of a tank top or T-shirt, and a longer gray skirt instead of a rainbow-colored skort. When she was asked why she was bringing a sports bag filled with baseballs, she answered "It's ceremonial", and managed to keep a completely straight face until she and Diana were out of sight.

    "Pretty fabulous," she says. "Makes me wish we made it to the outer reaches of the solar system, but ..." She shrugs. "We pretty much only figured out that outer space was even someplace you could go by the twentieth century, and by then ..." She shrugs. "You know the rest." Her own world's vampire problems, in other words.

    She looks around. Ah, familiar faces. She waves vaguely to Luke and Aurelia.

    ... To the casual observer, her skin looks unhealthy and, well, undead. And even a cursory scan or anything like that would register her vital signs as 'dead within the past few minutes'.

    The pangshi is a familiar sight to Aurelia, and she gladly gives it a hug and follows it to Luke. "You're here?" Then noticing Serrah waving, she waves back to the baseball hucking madwoman.

    The guide is still smiling, and chuckles, "Well, they offer us defense and of course supplies. For example, see that battleship?" He points up to the massive metal ship. "That's the German ship, the Prinzregent Luitpold. One of the largest battleships in the world! A full on dreadnaught! Of course... that isn't here for us, it's simply passing by and the Germans are allies of our great Empire. A quick restocking of some fouled rations or something, I hear. But-"

    Right then, an older man laughs. Not a very nice laugh either. It's loud enough that those who weren't with Merlin and Aurelia and Luke can easily hear it... and he speaks in somewhat heavily-accented but clearly understandable English. "Heh. Nah, the 'nobody' there is right! Don't listen to the propaganda. What happened was that doddering old man of an Emperor just told the Serbs to clear out or else, and they did just that. Probably why the Archduke was almost-"

    The guide clears his throat loudly and glowers, and the old man glares back... then answers the other question instead of continuing. "Anyways. Ships fly up with an Ether Engine, and they use starcloth to catch the solar wind for sailing. Big ships like that one, they have turbines that burn some alchemical concoction to move faster than sails."

Luke Gray chuckles as he realizes why his pokemon ran off, waving happily to Aurelia and offering a hug, once close enough, the panda seemingly quite content to linger against their friend.

    When Serrah waves their way, he waves back, alongside his pokemon, "Serrah!". 

    The unpleasant laugh certainly catches his attention, and turns to the 'old man', then to the guide, unsure what to say, nodding to the explanation on how hte ships move, "wow."

    2B and 9S, who have since joined the guided group, display two different expressions entirely. Even with the blindfold, 9S's eager curiosity is impossible to miss.
    2B just plain frowns.
    "That ship is pretty impressive, huh?" The Scanner unit muses.
    2B pays him little mind, as her concern is elsewhere: "The Archduke was almost what?" She asks.

"I don't trust any place where the sun is this distant." Diana answers Serrah in turn, with a shrug. Clearly she has concerns about it, "Mister Gray." She offers in greeting to Luke, then nods to Aurelia. "Miss Shiny Gray." When she hears about Archdukes and Serbs, she frowns faintly, as though trying to recall something she heard vaguely once, but she can't get it. She glances to 2B and 9s, "It's pretty cool looking." She agrees.

    The guide reluctantly admits, "The Archduke arrived a day early, yesterday. Someone used a crude Tesla bomb on the car, but apparently it was shielded. Not to worry, they're being more careful here." He clears his throat. "Some elements are not happy about the occupation, even though it is also protective..."

    The old man growls, "And the Archduke is an asshole."

    The guide readily agrees, "There are certain rumors that he has a disagreeable personality."

    Merlin lets out a gentle laugh and tilts his head, "Most leaders tend to be either rather disagreeable or far too sacrificing for their own good. Or perhaps the best leaders are both. Who can really say?" Merlin sighs a bit as he leans on the staff. 

    "Still. You should not think you are out of the woods just because he survived a bomb. The death of a king is often caused by his right hand, they say. Or someone secretly harboring a grudge."

    Serrah shrugs. "I'll probably be of the same mind once I've been resurrected," she says. She chortles at the 'Miss Shiny Gray' remark. "Hey, Luke, hi, Aurelia! How's it going?" She strolls over to ruffle Pangshi a bit. "Aurelia, you've met D, right?"

    At that moment, her attention is caught by 2B and 9S's antics. She frowns at the two of them, as if trying to puzzle through something she doesn't quite understand. Something her vampiric instincts are telling her is ... off.

    But then she frowns at the guide and the old man as they give their explanations.

    "Ohhhh boy," she mutters to Diana. "I'm ... starting to have a bad feeling about all this." She pauses as Merlin offers his input. "... A really bad feeling about this."

    The boy moves to offer Serrah a hug as well, he certainly is fond of the undead lady!. "I'm doing ok, just exploring a bit, heard of this place nad got curious!". The panda squirms when ruffled by the vampire, trying to reach and ruffle back at her in return. He can certainly see his friend's expression change, "Is something wrong?" he asks

    Aurelia looks at Diana, after Serrah asks if she's met. "I... think you look familiar? I remember somebody looking like you really not liking Luke's pangshi here."
    She looks startled to hear her cell phone ring. "I... didn't think I could get reception in this world..." She says as she pulls it out.
    Looking at the caller ID, she sighs. "Gotta go. Magical society duties."

    The old man is the one to speak up, "Ah, I'm sure they're being careful. The Archduke is an asshole but I think he means well in coming here. Or at least his wife does, and behind every great man of power, eh?" He laughs at his little jest. Not exactly the most enlightened time here, despite space travel, eh?

    There's a bit of a bustle some distance away, and the guide pipes up, "Ah, that's him leaving now, I'd bet. Probably to address the crowd again. He gave a little speech last night but I hear some of his guard were injured. He's running early again... he isn't supposed to speak for a few hours..." A little rub of chin. "Well, maybe that will throw off any plans anyway."

     Luke rubs his chin, "PErhaps they were scared of other... attempts and changed schedules to throw people off?" he offers, "Even then, sounds a bit weird." he muses, looking at the source of the conmotion, while reaching for his panda, while Diana has been polite, he knows she certainly doesn't like vampires." There is a surprised gasp when Aurelia mentions having to go, adn Pangshi makes grabby paws to try to hold onto their friend, "Oh no.. hope it is nothing serious, please call me if you need help!" The boy offers Diana a friendly grin, "This place seems really cool!". He certainly might be missing to catch up on any particular... references some people seem to get, or even just the potential danger. Young kid!.

"I think we should keep an eye on things, might go bad by the sounds of it." D mentions quietly towards Serrah, glancing towards the tourguide. "Maybe he's going to hold another speech, if so I'd love to be there. Can we divert the tour a little to see? Royals are always so fascinating." She offers in that tone that is clearly supposed to convey the kind of fascination some twenty-first century americans have with the British royalty.

    In an almost lethargic manner, Merlin leans on his staff and looks towards where the bustle begins some distance away, "I see. Early, hmm?" Merlin tilts his head a bit, eyes shimmering slightly as he considers it, "Things are most interesting when they do not go according to plan, I would say," He says to the guide and to the man with him, "Thank you both for hosting me and putting up with my rather incessant questions. I do not believe I caught either of your names."

    "David!" The guide replies, when his name is asked. He then glances around, and rummages before finding a map, one of many printed on very cheap paper. Out here in the outer colonies, good quality paper is probably rare, though they seem to have plentiful and varied food somehow. "Here's a local map of the city. He's speaking here, of course, but that's not for a few hours." There'd be no point in doing the actual SPEECH early though, would there? The map is handed to Diana and Serrah, since they asked first.

    The old man grunts, "Armin." Then tips his hat. "Strange folks you are, but..." He gestures at some of the other offworlders, from incredibly graceful elves to short, squat, blue creatures, to a couple and their kids wearing gaudy bright shirts and hawaiian shorts.

    "Wha --" Serrah is startled by Luke's sudden hug! For a brief instant, her eyes flash with something dangerous. Then she laughs nervously. "Hey, careful there," she says awkwardly. Pangshi's ruffle-attempt does make her giggle. "Oh. Well, see you later, Aurelia." She frowns back at Luke. "This entire situation is just making me tense up for some reason. Y'know, 'danger's in the air', that kind of thing."

    She regards Diana as she offers that suggestion. "Y'know what, sure," she says, accepting the map from David as casually as she can. "Seeing what there is to see is kinda the whole point of us coming out here, right?"

    Luke tries to remember the names, "I'm Luke!" he says, even if the guide and the old coot likely heard it earlier, "Nice to meet you." he adds, smiling and glancing at the map, "Maybe we should go adn check that out, never seen royalty before." he says, sounding as fascinated as Diana is trying to be. 
    "Sorry, I forget people might not like that..." he replies to Serrah, reaching one hand down to his belt, "Do you think I should call another pokemon, just to be safe?" he says, while PAngshi tries to look offended at the implication that maybe the tiny panda is unable to properly protect Luke. "Safer... I meant safer." the trainer quickly adds.

    There are no antics here, 2B is as serious as ever. 9S is a little more blatantly interested, looking like a curious kid in a candy shop as he leans over to look at the map.
    2B glances at the myriad other offworlders and purses her lips into a curious moue.
    "There certainly is a lot of... Variety." She muses.

    Armin is the one who speaks up now instead of the guide. Despite seeming grumpy, he's helpful isn't he? "A lot of foreigners showing up the last few days. And the German boat there on top of it. Lots of strangers in the area. Plus a bunch here to see the Archduke..." He waves at the various other ships. Then he grunts, "Well, if you want to see him, best find a good spot, yeah? I did last night. Have to give him credit, at least the man seems to care about his employees."

    Merlin smiles at Armin and David. His eyes shimmer with a rainbow iridescence that overtakes their usual purple sheen, "I can see him just fine from here, actually. And I enjoy the conversation." Merlin states as he leans on his staff a bit and considers the situation. His Clairvoyance is not too terribly strained viewing the events of one world, particularly taking place a few hundred yards away. It's barely even a scrying spell.

"Lots of worlds, lots of people who want to see the royals." Diana offers, overenthusiastically tugging at Serrah's sleeve, "Let's go dahling." She offers, clearly playing a role here. "I want to go see the royals." She offers, clearly heading in that direction.

    Serrah chuckles. "Hey, you know, better safe than sorry," she says to Pangshi. "You wanna keep Luke as safe as you can, right? There's strength in numbers."

    She smiles faintly at 9S as he looks over her shoulder. "New to the World Tree?" she says amiably. And then it clicks with her what she's sensing. "Um ... you aren't human, are you? You and the other one ..." She gestures vaguely to 2B. "... don't seem to be ... alive." Of course, neither does Serrah herself, but in an entirely different way.

    She raises her eyebrows at Merlin's flagrant display of magic, but she doesn't seem particularly surprised or wowed. "Huh," she says. "Nifty." But then she ... actually blushes faintly at Diana's 'dahling' bit. "Uh, sure, D!" she says, following after her.

    "Nope!" That's 9S' reply to Serrah. "2B and I have been assigned off our world for a while now." He answers, beaming brightly.
    2B doesn't smile.
    But he does lift his shoulders into something of a shrug at the next question, "That's debatable! But I mean, 'I think, therefore I am' and all." He says. "But physiologically, we're androids, not humans." He answers as he and 2B follow to get a better view, too.

    The boy IS a bit impressed by Merlin, it is weird, he likely sees a lot of fancy things as a trainer, but still finds it very neat when humans do such things... or human like!. He is quickly returned to the task at hand as he hear Serrah try to appease his Pangshi, who reluctanctly nods. The boy reaches for his belt, fiddles with something there, and after a brief flash of red light, a tall, large figure appears next to him!. 

     The pokemon certainly is big, maybe imposing... intimidating? that might be debatable, the thing looks more like a theme park mascot than a battler, it is pink and black!, and it is very, very fluffy, as demonstrated when Luke reaches to pat the Bewear, his hand seeming to sink into the fluff, "Hey Bewear, we are going to see some royal people, and figured it might be safe... safer, if you join us" he explains, while the big pink thing lets out a rather sharp growl. 2B, Diana and 9S get a curious glance by the big pokemon, and a polite nod, before following next to Luke, almost like a bodyguard.

    The city isn't a large city, but there are enough visitors that it's quite bustling. Making the way to the stairs he'll be speaking at is not difficult so much as annoying, but it's not far away that a glimpse of the car can be seen. At first it looks like it's about to pass by. One bystander says something in the local language though, as the car turns down another street. Both he and the woman next to him start to laugh when that happens.

    It's some distance away, but still visible, when the car stops and the driver and aide argue with one another briefly. Also in the car is a distinguished older gentleman, probably the Archduke, and a woman who is of similar age. They are speaking to one another...

    When the young man that is standing nearby, utterly bewildered, suddenly steps forward with a revolver, bringing it up to fire two shot, one at both the woman and the Archduke.

    Luke is not the most observant of people, he seems focused on the crowd, and trying to see just what they were supposed to be looking for, and finally spotting the approaching car, "Is that..." he asks softly, trying to listen to the crowd. He spots the person approaching the car, but is far too late and slow to actually do something about it, until the gunshots, and then he finds himself being held by the big, fluffy bear, while it tries to protect its trainer from the gun wielding person, growling loudly while Luke squirms, "No, let go, stop that person Bewear!"

    Serrah relaxes. "Oh, androids, got it," she says. "I'm Serrah, this is D, and the kid is Luke. And Pangshi. And ... Bewear. Hi, Bewear!"

    She focuses on the moving car. "Huh." She puts a hand on Diana's shoulder. "Yeah, I'm not feeling good about this ... Sh ... oot, I just remembered, can you still do, uh, my thing?" A bit cagey about mentioning Stop the World in this context. "Or has it expi--"

    In her distraction, she completely fails to register the bewildered-looking young man as a threat until his gun has actually fired at Archduke Ferdinand. In between that and his second shot, she has the thought: 'Hey, coldly watching someone die would probably drain even more of your essence of humanity, and you cannot afford that.'

    She stops time, rises off the ground, and throws a baseball at the man's gun-hand at over a hundred miles per hour. To onlookers who don't have time-powers, it looks like she's on the ground one instant, and the next, she's hovering above the crowd, one hand outstretched, and there's a baseball already in motion. The transition is as instantaneous as if she was a video that suddenly skipped ahead.

    Merlin stretches a bit and tilts his head, "Hmm. Time to see if those with the capacity for Heroism can actualize... or if this will simply be a tragedy to further motivate them." 

    Merlin brushes some hair back over his shoulder and then taps his staff on the ground. There is a faint warm gust around him and, of all things on this world, flower petals. The Magus of Flowers then spins the staff and points it towards Serrah Delaney. 

    She can feel a rush of power wash over her as the magic takes hold, increasing almost all her physical parameters by a massive amount. The baseball doesn't leave her hand at simply a hundred miles per hour. The baseball is close to the speed of sound as it leaves her hand, exceeding even a bullet fired by a gun. 

    Having lent the absolute bare minimum of help (seriously, he didn't even activate his Skill 2 to give people invulnerability for a round. That would have fixed this entire thing), he pulls his hood up over his head and starts to walk into the crowd.

    The gunshots go off... but things don't happen as expected. Screams, panic, and of course the aides and guards rushing toward the assassin... who is way outmatched and also screaming. "AAHHHHHHH!"

    Why? Because a baseball just shattered his wrist! The bullet pings off the hood of the car, a bullet that might have hit someone else if the baseball had been slower. It DEFINITELY didn't hit the original target though.

    "Sophie..." the Archduke gasps... and collapses, bleeding, into the arms of his shocked and helpless, yet still living wife.

    And then the police and soldiers swarm the area.