World Tree MUSH

    The scene on the edge of the town of Westview, NJ has become quite the hustle and bustle of activity, with multiple sets of flashing red and blue lights coming from ambulances and police cars as emergency workers hurry to get the injured townspeople onto gurneys so that they can be taken to the local hospital or urgent care clinic in the case of those who hadn't sustained major injuries. There are also groups of the families and loved ones of the victims and cultists about, including Jeff Lecky's parents Amelia and James, who are frantically trying to figure out if the police know where their son is or if he's been seen. However, they seem to be quite busy asking questions themselves of everyone who is currently in a proper state for questioning. 

    Rescue crews are combing through the wreckage of the cathedral and bunker. It seems all of the missing townspeople had been accounted for, however, they are searching anyway, in case there is anyone still waiting to be found. Or if there in fact may be something of value in that pile of debris.

    Tyrael is hovering a few feet off of the ground near the spot where he'd dropped everyone off, calmly surveying the situation. Well, at least it looks that way, after all it is kind of hard to tell just what he is thinking at any given time, with lacking a face to betray emotion.
    
    When Emily suddenly teleported right in front of Chief Everett, he does a double take. "Oh--! Wow, Emily Nyx....uh, I was almost certain you wouldn't have made it through that crazy blast. How did you--?" He's not quite sure how to word the question because the portal had appeared -after- the explosion not right before.

    Emily grins. "Oh, y'know, an angel saved us," she says cheerfully. "Just straight-up deus ex machina'd our butts with divine light and shielding and stuff."

    She looks around at everyone else, and the busywork of the police and emergency workers. "Uh, how are the other people we brought out?" she says. "I, uh. I kinda feel like that's the sort of thing we ought to be worried about, as a general thing."

    After the events of last time, having stopped to inform the police chief of her and Misaki's findings, Lian's intuition had told her that her part in things was over. After a brief sojourn, however, simple personal curiosity has brought her right back to Westview - where she finds what can best be described as a disaster area. "...goodness," she murmurs under her breath, cloak starting to billow a bit as she walks faster towards the former location of the cathedral.

    It's not hard to spot Emily and Everett, and her course takes her straight in their direction. "It look as if I missed quite a situation," she greets the two, glancing at the wreckage of the former holy site with a faint frown. "What all happened?" After a second's consideration, the Jedi extends her senses, slipping into a state of focus for a moment to see if she can feel any survivors still alive beneath all that rubble.

With the danger apparently over, Misaki sits down and drops her transformation. "That was a lot." She's back to her normal look when Lian comes back, so the girl waves to the woman. "Hi Miss Kamoya. The guy was a cult leader, turned himself into a demon, and tried to kill a bunch of people in some kind of blood sacrifice. There was an angel stuck down there which got freed in the chaos." She explains in one breath, "It's uh... I don't know if I was ready for that."

        Everett arches a brow at Emily. "Angel...?" Then he peers over at the big glowing floating person. "Right." Multiverse. He sighs at Emily's question. "Well, the perps are gonna be okay, but the victims not so sure on that point. They've lost a lot of blood, most of them are going to need transfusions ASAP."

    As for Lian's question, he just shrugs. "All I know is the bunker exploded pretty spectacularly, which you can already tell I'm sure." When the Jedi reaches out with the Force, it doesn't seem like there is anyone left in the rubble, but...there is something else that she can't quite put a finger on. The presence is somewhat foreboding, but it's not quite like a living being, either.

    When Jeff's parents notice Misaki with the officer and the rest of the group, they hurry over, looking rather distraught. "Ms. Sakai...did you see our son?" Though they are looking at Emily and Lian too, assuming they were also part of the rescue party. "The rest of the group have been recovered, but none of them seem to want to talk about Jeff..." Speaking of which, the creature he had turned into is lying on the ground near the archangel, where Li-Ming had left him earlier.

    Emily nods to Lian, and reaches over and gently ruffles Misaki's hair, her arm extending whilst surrounded by silvery nanomachines. "Also, there was a virtual intelligence named Avina, who didn't catch me using portal-shenanigans," she says. She jerks a thumb at Tyrael and adds, "Also-also, he was unconscious and we had to rescue him as well."

    She frowns at Everett's answer. "Damn," she says. "That's ... kind of worrying." She half-smirks. "Wish I knew where to find a Eudaemon built for medical stuff, but it's not like any of 'em would have had any recent ..." She conjures up a pair of sunglasses and puts them on. "... practice."

    At the man's other question, she pauses. And then she turns to Tyrael and calls out, "... Got an answer for 'em, Wings?"

    A cult leader, turned into a demon, blood sacrifice, an angel... that's all quite a lot to take in. Lian blinks softly at Misaki's explanation. "I see. That's quite a lot indeed." Her first concern, though, is Misaki seeming a bit overwhelmed; she gives the young magical girl a soft look of concern. "Are you going to be all right?"

    More to the point, the older Jedi's senses bring her troubling information, and she turns to Everett with a different sort of concern. "Tell your people to be exceptionally careful, digging through this debris. I feel no further survivors buried in there, but I do feel... something, that I can't put into words. A presence that bodes ill."

    At Emily's direction, Lian turns her eyes up to Tyrael, regarding him curiously. After a moment, she lifts a hand in greeting to the angel, and offers a simple, "Good evening, luminous one. I gather you're to thank for everyone surviving."

"I dunno. Probably?" Misaki's smile is frail, but she leans into the hair ruffling, "I'm probably gonna see worse if I keep at this, and I didn't sign up for the power to help people because I wanted to play at being a hero." The cop's words get her to think, "There's a lot of people watching, aren't there? Can you get someone to organize an impromptu blood drive, officer?"

    Everett chuckles at Emily. "I wouldn't have pegged you for it, but you sure are a master of dad jokes." he remarks. "I guess someone has to lighten things up a little." A nod toward Misaki. "If there's not enough in the blood banks, the hospital will be sure to ask for additional donations."
    The officer peers at Lian. Her advice isn't very specific. "Uh...what do you mean, exactly? Well, maybe we should leave the combing to you guys, then. We haven't found any other survivors yet anyway. If there's anything else down there worth looking into, you're probably the ones best equipped to dig it up and deal with it, if necessary."
    
    James and Amelia Lecky doesn't seem very comforted by Misaki's response, in fact they're becoming even more agitated by the fact that no one seems to have answers for them. They know it doesn't bode well either, and that's the worst part of it. "But, you were down there, weren't you, I overheard you whispering about him!" Amelia insists, remembering the conversation from earlier. 

    Tyrael regards Lian and the others. "Greetings, mortals. I am Tyrael, Archangel of Justice." Turning toward the distraught couple, "I do not know your son. However, one of their number has been unified with the essence of a demon." he explains. 
    Lecky's parents just sort of stare at him, and then everyone else. "...what does that mean?" James asks, searching the group for answers.

    Emily furrows her brow at Lian. "Well, that's not ominous," she says. "You're pretty good at sounding foreboding if nothing else." She looks at Misaki uncertainly, but, well, Lian seems to be better at handling that sort of thing than Emily could ever hope to be --

    Ah.

    Well, it looks like there's no beating about the bush, but Emily's going to try anyway. "He means," she says, "that someone, I mean, I'm not gonna name names, kinda ... slightly ..." She takes a deep breath, even though she's a robot. "... transformed into the demon he was trying to summon whilst ambiguously possessed or mind-controlled by it," she finishes rapidfire in one breath.

    Misaki's reply is almost heartrending, in a way. But Lian's face remains steady, only acknowledging the girl's resolve with a soft nod. "People twice your age would balk at such a vow after seeing what you've seen. You certainly have a strong resolve. Just remember that your ability to save people goes hand-in-hand with your mental health. Take care of yourself as well."

    Unfortunately, there's two more familiar faces addressing them, and Tyrael says something... ominous. Gut instinct tells Lian that the news is just about as bad as it's possible to be. But she wasn't there, and it's not her place to say. So she offers only, "I'm afraid I wasn't present for the events here. After leaving your home, I went and found Chief Everett to report my findings to him."

    To Emily, she offers only a faint smile, and a playful, "It comes with being a seer."

"Your son was leading a cult, ma'am. He used the people he kidnapped to..." Misaki points towards Emily, "I don't know if he can be healed." She looks towards Tyrael, "Can you heal him?" There's a faint giggle at Lian's answer to her. "Most people twice my age haven't had someone try to kill them just for the potential they hold. I'll try to take care of myself."

    "Well, I'm gonna call off the excavation crews now. Wouldn't want to run into anything we can't handle, after all. I take it one or more of you are gonna go take a look. Just let me know if you need any equipment." Everett tells them, then heads off to communicate this to the rescue team, and before long they begin to clear out. 

    James and Amelia were prepared for the worst, but this...this is devastating. Tears well up in their eyes. "Wh-where is he?" Amelia asks. Tyrael turns slightly and gestures toward the unconscious creature on the ground, as the couple hurries over to it. 
    "Oh--oh my god...please tell me it can be reversed..."

    Tyrael regards them, feeling a pang of compassion for the distressed humans, although Lian might the only one who can tell. "Fear not, I have promised to escort the wizard Li-Ming to Pandemonium Fortress. There, she will collect a shard of the Worldstone. This shard may be used to free your son from the demon's essence. But this will be a difficult task, she seeks additional allies."

    Emily pauses, and turns to Misaki. "Okay, I'm not one to try to tell you how to do your job," she says, "but damn." She realizes that this probably warrants some kind of explanation. "You almost sound like a Eudaemon right after the Masters died and we were all in denial." Beat. "I mean, none of us ever had someone try to kill us like that -- or, I mean, not for that particular reason, or during that period -- but like ..." She gestures vaguely. "You need to learn how to settle the hell down. Reapplying all capacitor seals!" Three auras rebuild themselves around her, one silver, one gold, and one pearlescent, and then they all fade away.

    She turns back to Tyrael. "Huh," she says. Her amused and faintly smug smile returns, and she crosses her arms. "Well, the concept of coming into contact with something called a Worldstone sounds absolutely fascinating. You can ... probably ... count me in."

    Lian is content to leave it at a soft nod of approval towards Misaki, though the girl's circumstances sound more worrying the more she hears. She'll have to keep an eye on this one, time permitting.

    But she can most certainly do something about the more immediate issue of the rubble, and whatever may lie beneath. "I would be glad to offer assistance with that," she replies to Everett, inclining her head slightly. "I... could shift some of the heavier rubble, if absolutely necessary, but if we have the equipment to do so more conventionally, I would prefer that." There's mention from the angel about a possible solution to the Leckys' crisis, and at that, she turns to give Tyrael and Emily both a nod. "I'd lend my abilities to that task as well, of course. I'm no stranger to fortresses, or the storming thereof."

"Don't worry too much about me, miss Emily. It's just been a strange few weeks, I'll be fine." Misaki transforms again when the Leckys respond to the news. "Ok, this may be a little weird." She tells them, "But it sounds like he can be cured, and I promise you I will do my part to cure him." She reaches out to them, "So let me carry your worries, your fears. It may be awkard, but I think it'll help you." She reaches out magically, an offer to share their burdens they can instinctively take her up on. If they do, anyone sensitive to emotions is likely to pick up on their negative emotions getting dampened while Misaki takes on the lion's share while she forces a warm smile.

    "The Worldstone was a part of the very creation of my world." Tyrael explains. "It is the foundation of all places, times, and possibilities. However, Pandemonium is a very violent and chaotic place, wrought with the violence of the Eternal Conflict and untold monstrosities. Its terrain is ever-changing. I will do everything in my power to protect you; however, few mortals have ventured there and returned alive. 

    Everett nods at Lian, calling back over to her. "Yeah, we've got excavators. I'll tell 'em to follow your lead." So they are, ready to dig where and how the Jedi instructs.

    Misaki's efforts certainly help Amelia and James feel a lot better, especially after Tyrael just told them how terrible this Pandemonium place was. They stare in shock at those gathered. "I..." Amelia starts. "Thank you...I can't tell you how grateful we are that you all would risk yourselves like this just for us. I know we're not important or anything..."

    Emily tilts her head curiously at Lian. "Now you've gotten me curious!" she says. "Uh ..." She watches Misaki with sudden interest, and glances between her and Lian and Tyrael. "What's she doing?" she murmurs curiously.

    She smirks at Tyrael. "Does a techno-magical being whose age is two thirds of a millennium and change count as 'mortal'?" she says, her amused and faintly smug smile returning. "Either way, I'm pretty sure you might be underestimating the hardiness of those who wander the World Tree." She shrugs. "Not saying you shouldn't try to protect us from whatever. Just saying it might be easier than you think!"

    For a moment, Lian doesn't even seem to hear what Everett says. Her eyes are locked solely on Misaki, Amelia, and James, and her expression is, for once, entirely unguarded. Pure, unfiltered surprise. There's no question that the seer knows exactly what just happened. "Goodness, that's... quite a talent," she murmurs.

    Oh, Everett said something. "-ah! My apologies. I shall be just a moment." She turns and offers Amelia and James a deep bow. "Every life is important, and I've honed my abilities for situations just such as this. When Tyrael leads the way to Pandemonium, I'll be quite glad to walk alongside him for your son. But for the moment, if you'll excuse me..."

    She gives Emily a brief wink, then turns to head over to the rubble. Most of her direction consists of "I will trust you to dig as your training tells you, and I'll warn you if you need to stop," but despite such a hands-off directive, she'll be paying full attention, trusting in the Force to warn her when they're putting themselves in danger.

Misaki doesn't currently have the focus to do much other than smile and do breathing exercises, lest these foreign emotions that have layered upon her own overwhelm her. It's a lot to handle. Maybe too much. But, she manages to keep herself together, waiting patiently for these parents to process the news and their feelings to steady. She can't answer Emily or Lian right now, she has to focus.

    Tyrael's reaction to Emily is, as per usual, basically unreadable. Honestly he is not really sure what she's talking about, but she does seem a bit overconfident. Perhaps it is justly so, but only time would tell. "Of what do you speak?" Essentially, 'what the heck are you talking about'. "Regardless, overconfidence is a foe often greater than the danger itself."

    The operator of the excavator gives Lian a casual two-finger salute, and starts digging. After a few moments of the rubble clearing, she begins to sense that foreboding presence again, this time more strongly. Though it creates a sense of unease, it doesn't seem outright hostile, either. There are some strange energies in play here, however, that's for certain.

    James and Amelia finally seem to calm down, although they are no less grateful. They look to Misaki. "Not sure what you did, but it sure lifted a burden. Good luck to you all. Let us know if there's anything we can do to help." James says, then he glances at his wife, smiling. "Probably not much, but I do know Amelia can whip up some absolutely irresistible ginger snap cookies!"

    Emily notices Lian's wink, but she isn't sure what it actually means. "Oh right," she says. "Tyrael, you're ... I don't know if this is the world you're from, but it is now part of the World Tree, a vast collection of worlds with different properties, levels of technology, and even basic physics in some ways. I was constructed in the halcyon remnant, and I am a Eudaemon."

    In a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, she transforms into ... well, she looks like a woman wearing a really low-budget robot-costume with silver face paint. Still glowing purple eyes, though. "Which means that I am three and a third quintillion smaller machines in a trench coat."

    She gestures, and a hologram appears depicting an auburn-haired man in his thirties with robotic-looking eyes, dressed in a midnight-blue business suit, with advertisement-looking text that says things like NYX-Model Domestic Eudaemon and The same Nyx form pattern, now fully compatible with EldrOS 9.7 and More independent than others! and with a price tag in the thousands. Emily does a bit of a double-take. "Oh, uh, whoops." The young man is replaced by a holographic image of Emily in her current form. "Damn, I hadn't even thought of that part of this advertisement ..."

    After a time, Lian holds up a hand, directing the excavator driver to stop now that it's close to whatever that is. She sets aside her cloak and staff, then steps over into the rubble herself, and starts to shift pieces aside by hand. If she comes to any particularly large pieces, the seer will take a step back, hold one hand out, and visibly sink into a state of concentration - whereupon the theoretical chunk of debris will slowly and steadily float itself out of the way.

As the two calm down, Misaki slowly alters the ratio so she's taking a smaller share, and quickly becomes able to do more than just focus on her breathing. She opens her eyes to answer Emily, just in time to see that, and blinks. "You never told me you were for sale, miss Emily." She jokes, "I am helping the Lensky's by borrowing a portion of their negative emotions, that way I can carry these emotions for them. A burden shared is a burden halved." She glances towards the others to see what they're up to.

    Emily's little display just further confounds Tyrael, as he just kind of watches with that blank visage of his as an image of a strange man appears and then is replaced with an image of her. "You are this 'Nyx Model' then?" Because she actually hadn't told him her name yet. Still, he does seem interested in learning more about her.

    As Lian starts moving the debris with her mind, the operator watches, impressed with her abilities. But soon enough, she'd find a strange cubical object that seems to be slotted into what remains of some kind of computer, possibly the main databanks.

    Emily grins and dismisses the advertisement. It's ... a slightly forced grin. "Well, uh. I ... never had a chance to be bought," she says. "That's, that's, that's just my standard advertisement. Just, uh, forget you saw the, the dude."

    She pauses. "Also, that ability of yours is a really nifty trick which you should never try on a Eudaemon," she says. "I don't want to have to tell Yumi you made your head explode trying to share two thirds of a millennium's worth of pain. We'd need, like ... a hundred of you." She grins. "A full stadium full of Misakis. Crisis on Infinite Misakis!"

    Emily realizes that she hadn't actually introduced herself, and she nods to Tyrael, and bows. "I am Emily, Nyx-model MLE0," she says. "Some call me Emily Nyx. This is Misaki Sakai, and the seer over there is ... Lian ..." Her attention is caught by the artifact that just got revealed. "... Hmm!"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Presumably, there's something in the World Tree named Crisis on Infinite Earths, even if it doesn't contain precisely the same subject matter or characters.

    Lian takes one last step back, looking over what she's found, and dusts her hands off with a quick brush-brush. "I'm not certain what might be on this device's databanks," she calls over to Everett, and by extension the rest of the group, "But whatever it is, this is what I was sensing. I'll leave it to those who know local technology better than I."

    She moves over to collect her cloak and staff again, then takes the chance to move in Misaki's direction. "I heard you while I was working. You've a very powerful gift, but the emotions of others are something to be very cautious about. Both for their sake, and for your own. It's far too easy to lose yourself in the feelings of others." She sounds like she's speaking from experience. "If you ever need guidance, I'm always willing to provide."

    She also gives Emily and Tyrael a curious look, having largely missed the visual component of Emily's advertisement.

"I will try not to break my own mind." Misaki answers both Emily and Lian, she smiles, "But I don't think it works with old pains like that. ... not sure." She turns to Lian, "Yeah it's... not the easiest. But it'd be shame not to use that gift and just keep it locked away when I could help people. I probably could use some help figuring out the best way to go about it, though... just kind of uh... winging it." She doesn't know what to do with the databank, so leaves that to the others.

    "Emily Nyx." Tyrael repeats her name, and then regards each of the rest of them as she introduces them. "Well met." he says, then he turns back to Emily on the bit about never getting bought. "You are a slave?" he asks.

    When Lian picks up the object, the cubical device comes away from the databanks. It is glowing with a faint yellow light, and she can tell this is where that haunting sense of foreboding was coming from. Everett nods and hands the databank part to Emily. "You're like some kind of robot, right? Maybe you can crack this open?"

    For his part, Tyrael examines the glowing artifact. "Kanai's Cube. It is a device of great power--a worthy reward for your noble actions this day. However, be wary. It may prove a danger to the soul of the wielder."

    Emily just groans at Misaki's cavalier attitude towards Lian's warning. "Look, just take care of yourself, all right?" she says, shooting Misaki a grin. "Man. It's almost like you're a hero or something!"

    Her good cheer disappears at Tyrael's question. "We were created to serve the Masters of my world, created with the capacity for hopes and dreams but without any chance of realizing them in practice," she says sharply. "So, the short answer is yes. Fortunately, the Masters all died in a catastrophe of unknown cause, six hundred sixty ... six or seven years before our world became connected to the World Tree."

    She nods to Everett. "A shapeshifting magical robot, yes," she says. "Lemme see if I can't interface with this thing ..." She looks around for any connectors, and then in a swirl of nanomachines, a cable appears running between it and the palm of her hand. She pauses at Tyrael's warning, however. "... What kind of danger are we talking here?"

    Lian seems to have plenty of patience for Misaki's youthful boldness, so she's content to let Emily do the lion's share of the chastizing. She does, however, listen quietly to Emily's question, and whatever Tyrael's reply to it might be. She's wondering too.

"Without anyone to be your Master, can you really be a slave?" Misaki asks Emily, and she smiles. "I just want to help people, is that so bad?" She drops her transformation and sits back down, leaning against something. She looks like the day's exhausted what's left of her energy.

    Tyrael listens to the tale of Emily's world. "How do you mean, without a chance of realizing hopes and dreams? But I am glad to know you are no longer enslaved."

    Emily wouldn't have any trouble finding a way to connect to the databank, and she'd find that this is Avina's memory core, along with her basic programming. It's probably all fairly primitive to Emily, but there is data on the stasis field tech that had been in that bunker.

    As to the question about Kanai's Cube, "This artifact was forged of dark methods, and its creators feared its power to corrupt the essences of mortals."

    Emily shrugs. "I mean, that was what we were built for," she answers Misaki, and ruffles her hair again with her free hand. "But c'mon, remember what Lian said about your ability to help being dependent on taking care of yourself?"

    She shrugs at Tyrael. "Uh, I was confirming that we were slaves," she says. "In an obnoxiously-roundabout way. Oh, hey, it's Avina! And ... she's ... a non-sapient VI with a human-looking appearance for some reason!" (That reason is presumably that they weren't actually able to make someone as intelligent as i.e. Emily.) "... and ... data on the stasis-field that was used to hold you in place, Tyrael! Nifty, I guess, but I'm not sure how useful it'd be, practically speaking ..."

    Lian cants her head slightly, giving Kanai's Cube a thoughtful look. "While I pride myself on my ability to resist temptation, I think I'd rather not risk such an artifact." She pauses, then smiles faintly and adds, "Though I suppose that counts as 'resisting temptation' in and of itself, from a certain perspective."

    Emily is speaking sense, though, and the seer nods her head once. "It's a lesson I've had to teach more than one young protégé. If you run yourself ragged, day after day, you run the risk that there will be lives on the line at a time when you're too exhausted to make the right calls and save them. And... well, I won't turn this into a lecture unasked-for. But suffice it to say, sharing in someone's emotional burden may not always be the correct choice."

"Makes sense." Misaki nods at both their answers, yawns and stretches. "Hey uh..." She says tiredly, "Miss Emily, can you like... take me home?" She looks like she's struggling to stay awake. She doesn't really understand the thing about VIs corrupting artifacts.

    "I believe it will be very useful--if for nothing else than to restrain the demon whilst the soulstone is retrieved and prepared." Tyrael points out. "It will not remain silent for much longer."
    Everett pipes up at this. "Yeah, he's right. Not quite sure how to put it into practice, but I'm sure Ms. Nyx can help?" he looks hopefully to her. "Wouldn't want that thing waking up and going on a rampage, and not sure we have anything that could hold it."

    Tyrael picks up the cube, the device hovering in the air slightly above his hand. "Very well, if none of you wish to steward the device, I shall return it to Sescheron."

    Emily smiles faintly, both at Lian's better phrasing and at Misaki's request. "Here we go again," she says. "Sure, Misaki!" If allowed, she takes Misaki's hand.

    But she pauses, and nods at Everett. "That's actually an excellent idea," she says. "It'd definitely work better with this world's technology. I'll see if I can't get Double-A over here on my way back from Misaki's world. Uh, that's Erebus-model AA23, Erebus-model Eudaemons are good with figuring out technology."

    She shrugs grandiosely to Tyrael. "It's all yours, apparently," she says. "I don't want to mess with something that might corrupt my soul!"

    "It sounds as if we're in agreement, then," Lian says of the cube. "I'll be on my way, but when it's time to retrieve the stone, I shall be there and ready." Then she turns, facing Emily and Misaki directly. "I wish the both of you well. Take care of yourselves."

Misaki Sakai takes Emily's hand, and gets up, leaning over to try to rest on Emily. "Corrupting souls sounds bad." She murmers, quite tired. "Get in touch if I can do anything to help." She yawns.

    Tyrael pauses slightly, examining the Cube for a moment. "Well, perhaps I shall offer it to Li-Ming, first. If she does not wish to carry it either, then I will return it."

    "Very well. Return to this place in a fortnight's time, and I will show you the way to Pandemonium Fortress." With that, he takes to the skies!