World Tree MUSH

The camp is made in the damaged fortress formerly referred to as the Ring of Fire. A banner is hung from the tower with the scales balancing a flame and a gem, and the Immortal Flames with the help of some of the hostages who either don't want to go home, or for whom the way home has yet to be found have established some semblance of stability here. Unfortunately, these Immortal Flames are new to this whole World Tree thing, and need some advice.

So, they invited those who beat Ifrit back to talk about things. Temulin is waiting outside for the others, clearly looking to get some things said before they go into the fort, looking a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.

    Emily floats out of a staticky portal in the form of 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 glitch, wearing a neon-pink crop-top bearing the text "I'll Stop Wearing Pink When They Invent A Darker Color" and bright red booty shorts with an AI's protracted rant about hating humanity printed on the backside.

    She puts on her typical amused and faintly smug smile as she nods to Temulin. "Heya," she says. "... You doing all right?"

    Uni returns to the area, after having left to attend to some of her enclaves, thanking them for their help against the Lord of Inferno. Some don't undetstand what she means, others felt the pull, but all are happy to help. The black-haired girl approaches, giving Temulin a little wave, and nodding toward Emily. "You needed me to come back and help explain things to the reinforcements we received?" she asks "I'll help however I can, but even I'm not really sure about the whole Tree business myself."

    After how roughly the battle with Ifrit ended, Yumi is looking a lot better. Healed physically, and more importantly, dealt with things in Hyrule long enough to at least distract her from her own issues - and Rydia has had a couple weeks to recover.

    Yumi may or may not have stubbornly, persistently pampered the poor summoner during this time.

    So she's here now, and she looks like she's doing well enough. More concerning is seeing Temulin looking legitimately apprehensive about something; the magical girl cants her head curiously as she approaches, waiting to hear the answer to Emily's question.

    Invited back to the Ring of Fire? It's a place Rydia of Mist would rather not step foot back inside. But here she is, riding in on her trusted chocobo steed. The girl looks... She looks as though death warmed over. Though color has returned to her face in the past few days she still looks tired.
    Tired of all the damned pampering.
    It is a very fussy Summoner that has returned to the fortress, slowly clambering down from her avian steed.
    "So yeah. We're back."

"Hey. I'm fine. Thanks for coming." Temulin answers, sighing deeply. "I just wanted to give you guys some context before we go in. These guys are the Immortal Flames, one of the three armed forces of the City State of Ul'dah. Ul'dah is... 'the jewel of the desert, where they turn sand into gold' or to put it in a phrase you might be more familiar with 'late stage capitalism.'" She explains, "The brass blades are common bandits pretending to be border guards and police; the Sultansworn are probably the most honest of the bunch, and the Immortal Flames sit in the middle. Capable, but ... there's corruption in the ranks. I don't know these guys specifically, so while they came at a good time, I wouldn't trust them completely, if I were you."

There's a pause, "They. Uh. Well..." She shifts her eyes, "I may have had drinks with their general, I may think he's a decent guy. I am pretty sure he knows there's corruption in the ranks. I don't know if they know me, I hope they don't, but if they do... uh." More eye-shifting, "I may or may not have first come to Ul'dah as the personal envoy of an Admiral leading an allied city state. I may or may not have made helped them deal with a serious problem soon after. If they do know me, they might give you the wrong impression. I was in it for the money. Ok?" She turns around and knocks on the gate, which opens to let them in.

    Uni blinks... but says nothing about that highly specific denial. Instead she listens, and then enters the arena after the gate opens. The black-haired, red eyed young goddess walks in and takes a spot off to one side, letting others take the lead, shifting into an observer mode for the moment.

    Emily snickers. Actually, it looks like she's trying not to laugh, and not really able to control it for a few seconds. Then she grins at Temulin. "Okay, okay, got it!"

    She strides forward with the rest of the group and looks around. "Oh right," she says. In a swirl of silvery nanomachines, she changes back to the dark-hair-and-darker-trenchcoat-and-strangely-dark-shadows-on-her-hat form she's been using lately (which still has four arms). "... I'm still wearing the booty shorts under this, though."

    Yumi's eyebrows arch. Her arms fold. She gives Temulin a faux-suspicious look.

    "'Late-stage capitalism', huh? I didn't know you were so well-read, Temulin." She's openly teasing at this point. "I'm not sure it's the Immortal Flames giving us the wrong impression here." She can't keep the giggle out of her voice, though, and her arms unfold pretty soon thereafter. She's more than willing to step into the gate when the auri woman opens it.

    Rydia stares Temulin down.
    All the may-or-may-not-haves that may or may not have happened sure sound suspect.
    Does Rydia comment on them though?
    No.
    No she does not.
    Instead she waits for the gate to open and follows in, before tugging on Yumi's sleeve.
    "What's a capitalism?

Fortunately for Temulin, Rydia asked Yumi what a capitalism is, and so she doesn't have to. Emily and Yumi get a narrowed eyebrows, "What?" She asks, clearly frustrated by their responses; before going in. The sergeant of the Flames has set up an office for himself, and the group is escorted there.

"Thank you for coming, I see the Lominsan Envoy is with you." Temulin whispers 'former' in there. "We appreciate your help with the Primal, unfortunately; we see to be unable to return home without passing through Amal'jaa territory; and given that we do not have the numbers to force ourselves through, we're going to have to find another route. We were hoping you would be able to provide us with some ideas about how to go about it, or at least how to get by until we do." He glances outside, "My men haven't been getting paid for about a month now; they're getting antsy."

Duncan may have needed more time to recover than he'd thought. He really pushed himself, and with abilities that essentially are cast off his HP, that's a dangerous prospect. He's looking a bit haggard as he arrives, in fact, having removed his helmet so he looks less like a Hyur-sized monster.

He's a little bit behind the others, but he probably caught most of Temulin's warning before coming here. Either way he's staying quiet, since this isn't his world. He doesn't know his way around, he doesn't know what would be doable here or not, and he isn't going to risk making a suggestion that's not acceptable. But! He is here! For whatever that's worth.

    Emily glances at Rydia. Her answer is succinct and to the point: "I forget." She grins cheerfully back at Temulin. "Nothing, nothing!"

    She hmms at the sergeant. "Traversing the World Tree is an art, not a science," she says, in the tone of an educator -- very different from the way she usually speaks. "Navigation is a knack which you pick up over time. Your previous difficulty, I venture, was due to the fact that your world was a Bud until recently, and was next to impossible to enter or leave. Now that it has Blossomed ..." She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Well, things should be considerably easier now. The trick is that very few connections between worlds will land you somewhere dangerous-in-and-of-itself; you'll likely find a safer destination just by looking around."

    "I'll explain more later, but basically it's an economy where the concept of 'money' and 'markets' exist," Yumi replies to Rydia.

    When the Sergeant greets them, Yumi offers him a polite bow in reply. "It's good to see you're all doing alright, at least. Your healers did a good job patching us up. As for the problem at hand, that's... a pretty difficult situation to be in." She plants one arm on her hip, looking thoughtful. "...if there's one Vine to your world, it's almost guaranteed that there's another path out there somewhere, but I don't know much about finding new Vines. I'd just end up stumbling around blindly. But I can at least advise that in the interim, you could all act as a mercenary or adventurer company. Especially with magic, and especially with healers. I'd offer to help buy supplies, but I'm still just a school student with a weekly allowance. I couldn't do much for an entire group of soldiers."

    "I'm not much help with finding home. My own seems to be a Bud still. Only a few of my people are even in the Tree proper." remarks Uni. She lets Emily explain things, far better than she could do it. "I'd suggest hiring yourselves out for mercenary work to pay for yourselves until you can find a way home... it's what I've had to do, and what the other CPUs have had to do too."

    "But." That answer only seems to confuse Rydia more. Don't most economies involve money and markets? At least as far as she knows. The girl's brow knots as she visibly tries to make sense of this. Regardless of how mature she is, there are just some things an eight year old will have trouble getting a grip on.
    Rubbing at the back of her head, she'll just have to wait for that later explanation as they group now has to explain things to the Immortal Flames. But just remembering the very Primal they had defeated makes Rydia shudder. Memories of Ifrit are not pleasant to say the least.

Temulin sighs. "It's a system in which the rich getting richer and the poor being exploited is not treated as a flaw in the system or just how things are but a moral imperative to which to strife." She explains to Rydia, "Which results in such things as laws being written not based on what's good or smart, but things like who donates the most money to the clergy of Nald'thal." She says that right in the face of the Sergeant, who merely sighs and doesn't comment.

"I'm looking for a good way back myself." She answers the Sergeant, "Once I'll do I'll let you know, for a reasonable fee." She offers, smiling. The man nods, writing down the advice he's been given. "One of my men mentioned you picked up a strange crystal which then disappeared?" He asks next, and Temulin pales a bit; looking towards the others like she really wants them to reject that for her.

    "He must have been mistaken. I didn't see any crystal and I was right by her." remarks Uni without skipping a beat. "The battle was rather intense, perhaps he was still flash blinded by the fire."

    "Crystal? What Crystal?" Rydia lies through her teeth. "Don't know anything about a crystal." Said, once she's had her explanation of capitalism, proper, via Temulin.
    "We fought off -Ifrit-, the Lord of the Inferno. We were lucky to stagger away with our lives, let alone with any precious spoil."
    Rydia's got you covered, Temulin.

    "'End-stage capitalism' is a little different from capitalism in general," Yumi clarifies. "But that's... kind of a dicey subject. Better for another time." For now, she just falls quiet and listens to Temulin and the sergeant talk; when Temulin's eyes pass over Yumi, the redhead pointedly turns to look another way, conveniently finding something else to be interested in. She's a terrible liar, okay? She knows she is.

Duncan shakes his head. "I was a bit too out of it after the battle to see much of anything," he replies. "If there was something like that, I couldn't tell you anything about it." The fact that he looks like he hasn't slept in a week of Sundays probably helps this statement immensely. That said, his statement is not a lie in the least -- he can't tell them anything about it, because he doesn't actually know anything about it.

    Emily nods to Temulin and Rydia. "Oh right, yeah!" she says. "That's a perfectly-correct description of that stuff, I think."

    She looks between Temulin and the sergeant. Then she shrugs. "I can verify that I didn't see anything like that at all," she says, in what sounds like a completely natural bemused tone of voice. "And I am very observant," she adds, stepping forward and pointing directly at the sergeant's nose. That doesn't even sound like a boast; it's simply a statement of fact, born from experience.

    A hologram silently appears behind her, positioned so that it's obscured by her body from the sergeant, but visible to Temulin and the rest of the group: three concentric circles, silver, gold, and pearlescent from outermost to innermost, labeled from 3 to 1 in that order, with a question mark next to them. Obviously, she's asking whether she should turn off her capacitor seals.

"Very well." The Sergeant writes it down. "Thanks for your advice. If I have anything more to ask, I'll let you know via linkpearl." He pulls out a box of spare gemstones, much like the one Temulin is wearing on a loop around her left horn.

When Temulin glances to Emily and sees that she quickly shakes her head, and jerks her head to the exit, before glancing back towards the Sergeant. "You're welcome. This was your freebie, next time we meet I expect to get paid." She gets up and walks out, and once outside she leans against the wall. "Thanks. I think I owe you guys an explanation about that crystal, huh?"

    Emily dispels the hologram and follows out after Temulin, trying to make her movements in the trench coat look as dramatic as possible. "You said that it was a Crystal of Light for the element of Fire, and that you 'think' you're supposed to collect 'em all," she says; she remembered that much from right after Ifrit. "Are there more details you didn't mention?"

    Uni accepts one of the pearls, She unties one of her ribbons, loops it through the fastener on the pearl and reties it, letting it dangle, much like Temulin's on her horn. "As you iwish, Sergeant, however my advice will not be free next time." she asserts, following the AuRa's own assertion on being paid next time around.

    Leaving the office, she looks expectantly at the dark knight, head canted to the side like a curious puppy.

    Yumi is out shortly thereafter as well, and all she has for Temulin is a curious look and a soft, "Unless there's some big deal that might be a problem down the line, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to. Or at least, I don't mind." Dangerous or unwelcome surprises are one thing, but if it's just a personal problem Temulin doesn't want to talk about, she won't press.

Duncan too, accepts an offered linkpearl, with a nod of thanks. However, as soon as he leaves the building he wraps it in a bit of cloth and tucks it away in a pouch on his belt. If they can be used to communicate, he reasons, they can be used to eavesdrop. He too looks to Temulin at the mention of the crystal. Like Yumi, he seems to be fine with her keeping the secrets. "If it's something you'd rather keep to yourself, or something that might be an issue of too many people hear it, it's all right to keep it.

    Soooooooooo...
    "What was that about?" Rydia asks point blank once the group is out of earshot of the Immortal Flames.
    "The whole crystal thing I mean. What business is it of theirs?"

"I don't think it's any of their business, I think he was just curious. Otherwise I think he would've pressed harder." Temulin answers Rydia first, before sighing deep and reaching out with both hands, revealing the crystal of fire and another one of another element, before making them vanish once more. "As for whether this is something you guys need to know, I don't know. Hydaelyn is the name of the star from which I hail. The star upon which Eorzea rests." She begins to explain, "It's also the name of the giant crystal of light who looks after it. Apparently, sometimes she asks for help; and for some reason she's told me to collect all six of these."

"I think it's related to do those 'Paragons' Ifrit mentioned." Temulin adds, "That's a nickname used by a group better known as the 'Bringers of Chaos' or 'Ascians.' In the visions where she talks to me, I fight one." She explains further, "I don't know what this all is about, but so far; I've mostly just been ignoring it; but she also told me that 'through my deeds' those crystals will reveal themselves to me. And now another shows up, and we're not even there."

"Sounds very 'Main Quest'-y to me... wait... I've been hanging around Neptune too long; though I do guess it fits regardless. Some kind of destiny or something." remarks Uni, frowning and cripping her chin with her thumb and index finger, pacing back and forth as she muses. "Fate and prophecy are kinda sticky subjects too. Overused these days, really."

A lot of the cosmology is going to go over Duncan's head. But he does get an idea as Temulin explains about her visions and the 'Paragons'. He offers, "It could be that the... whatever Ifrit is, are sort of the forebearers of these 'Paragons'," he suggests. "If that's the case, defeating these summoned entities could be a way to stymie their machinations. Even if not, if there's some connection to things called 'Bringers of Chaos', I'd venture that breaking anything of theirs you can manage is a good idea."

But then, he offers with a shrug, "Of course I can't say for sure that any of that is accurate or true. All I can really get out of that is that someone wants you to do something, and when you see a crystal, you're doing the thing they wanted you to do."

    Yumi looks thoughtful at this, pondering the implications. "That's... it sounds like you might have a Destiny-with-a-capital-D. I can't speak to whether you should go looking for it or not, but it looks like if you don't, it'll come looking for you. If these Bringers of Chaos are bad news, you can always give me a call to help deal with them." It goes without saying, of course; she's got a hero streak a mile wide.

    Emily nods thoughtfully. "I'm with Yumi," she says. "Sometimes, destiny is subtle, and you have to strain yourself just to figure out what it is, let alone how to bring it about or avert it." She smirks faintly. "This seems to be one of the not-subtle times." A shrug. "Not much else to say about that, I suppose. What else is there to say about these 'Paragons'?"

"Except I already know my destiny. It's to become Temulin Khan and lead my people on a glorious conquest leading to uncounted suffering, only for the conquests to fall apart after I die. It's what I've done every time I've been alive, why would this time be different?" Temulin answers, clearly displeased with that destiny. "She bet on the wrong knight." Temulin sounds confident about that part, "Ancient embodiments of stars can make mistakes too.' She shrugs a bit, "Anyway. If I ever let it get to my head and talk about maybe becoming Khan, beat me up, ok?"

Duncan tilts his head a bit at this. He just... has so many questions. But he doesn't ask them. They'd seem strange. And what he'd say apart from that... well, it would probably be seen as cruel, so he'll keep that to himself. However, as Temulin requests applying percussive maintenance to her alignment if it breaks, he nods. "I don't think there will be any shortage of people willing to try and take you down if you go too far down that path," he reassures.

    Yumi smiles a little. "You know, I read something good in a manga last week. 'Destiny doesn't make bets. It makes investments.' And besides, I know you well enough I'm pretty sure you won't settle for anything less than 'winning on your own terms' for either destiny." She rolls a shoulder, then adds, "But yeah, you know me. If I think you're going all death-and-bloodshed, I don't mind smacking you over the head with Prominence until you straighten up again." Heck, Temulin knows that better than anyone else here.

    "Got a Stun Slug with your name on it." remarks Uni at the request for percussive alignment maintenance. "And I don't miss." She reaches out to clap the Knight on the shoulder. "You sell yourself short, too. No self motivated person I know would put their life on the line like you have."

    Emily considers this pronouncement for a moment.

    Then, her face devoid of expression, she leans in and bops Temulin's cheek with her fist. It's not a real punch -- there's no real strength behind it. But it might hurt very briefly.

    She then turns away, tipping her hat. "Don't tell me about what you were built for," she says dryly. "I thought I existed to serve the Masters of my world -- a world which is now called the 'halcyon remnant'." She shrugs. "Of course, sometimes the failure of destiny is more subtle than it is other times, as well."

    ... She's might be projecting there, just a little. But the sentiment is similar to Yumi's.

"Thanks." Temulin is mostly just nodding, even taking Emily's bop with grace, but it's Uni who gets her to narrow her eyes; which start glowing red. "You have no idea why a dark knight acts at any given time." She states in a dangerous, low voice. "Don't pretend like you have any clue that you do." The red eyes fade, and Temulin look aside. "I told you, I'm in it for the money."

    Yumi doesn't miss that red glow in Temulin's eyes; but before the others can say anything, she gives them a glance and a quick shake of her head - 'no, leave it be'. "Unless there's a Primal involved," she says instead, choosing to reach for the next thing Temulin says to bypass the topic of that strangeness.

    Uni quirks a brow, then shrugs. "If you say so." she replies, then turns to leave. "You know how to contact me if you need me."

    Emily regards at Temulin's glowing eyes. At that look from Yumi, she opens her mouth as if to respond, then immediately closes it, and smiles. "And I'm just in it for funsies," she says, a certain cheerfulness in her voice. "Well. I will likewise get involved as I need. See you folks around!" She tips her hat, and begins strolling away. Still trying to be as extra as possible.