World Tree MUSH

    It's been a bad time to be the alleged queen of witches of late. After a lot of initial success in her harrassment and piracy campaign against United Process Control, Circe had been thwarted in a few of her recent attempts and also now had a not inconsiderable bounty on her under several of her better established aliases, including the name Circe itself.

    Normally, she's not one to let that stop her too much, but this evening she's decided to do what she does fairly well and try to ignore her problems for a while. She's in a dive bar on Mars, named 'A Shot Of Courage', and is currently half draped over her table. The place is mostly empty, with a fan at least circulating the air okay, but it's dimly lit at best.

    She'd also sent out a group message a bit ago to everyone she's gotten contact information for, which may include anyone she's met who very much did not give her a contact method. The message somewhat pathetically offered meeting up for drinks and conversation here, which wouldn't be sad except none of the people who received it are really friends of hers. It included the bar name, and it's kind of likely to get someone or other who might want the bounty rather than Circe's questionable company.

>> SUMMARY[Circe] >> Circe's group messages are easy to reply all to not because she's bad at them, as an elite hacker, but rather because she's an asshole.

    [YOU HAVE A MESSAGE, LADY.]
    Glancing up from the myriad control panels of her ship, Samus Aran arches her brow skeptically when she sees just who the message is from as it displays across the viewscreen.
    "That's funny. I didn't give her my contact." She muses.
    [You are literally the most sought bounty hunter of several universes.] ADAM points out.
    "Point." The Hunter concedes as she punches in the coordinates.
    It's not long after that she's pulling in to Mars' local port and disembarking her ship. The Hunter is dressed casually; a bomber jacket worn over a light top and a sturdy pair of cargo pants.
    Under it all is the sleek fitted blue of her zero suit, just in case she needs it, as she pushes the bar door open. And there's Circe draped on a table.
    "Okay. I'll bite."

Holly's been busy studying at Columbia, so she hasn't had a chance to get out much lately. Of course she wouldn't have any idea that Circe's wanted, she doesn't really pay attention to such things. She just wanted to meet with her again. Of course Servis and Lavaux are along for the ride as well, it's difficult for her to get rid of the pair. She frowns a bit upon seeing Circe's reaction at the table, "Is everything okay?"

  The Rogue Shadow doesn't take very long to arrive in the area. As soon as the message had arrived, and as soon as the ship's captain had perceived that it was a group message over unsecured lines, she had flown into a rage and immediately punched in the coordinates. Thankfully, the journey was just long enough for General Eclipse's temper over this breach of privacy to cool, at least somewhat.

  By the time she shoves open the bar's doors and strides in, she's mostly simmered down her rage to a cold fury. She's wearing her usual smuggler's sort of outfit, Rebel General's belt buckle, and twin blasters.

  Oh, she's also wearing a frown.

  Moving stiffly and grumbling all the way, Juno Eclipse throws herself down into a chair opposite Circe.

  "Bartender!" She raises a hand. "Whisky. Whatever's cheap. Make it fast." Those blue eyes rake Circe over, and the hard line of her mouth thins even further. "You want to talk? Let's talk." Juno glares. "You have a lot of nerve, exposing my contact information and coordinates like that."

    This really could have worked out a lot worse for Circe! There were like twenty receipients of the message after all, so she could have twenty pissed off, armed people here instead of the three mixed reactions she's getting. She'll look rather blearily up at the entering people, and then speak up cheerfully. "Oh! I'm glad you all came!" She'll glance between the three, gesturing at the other seats available at the table for Holly and Samus. She seems to be either unintimidated by Juno so far or.. perhaps completely awful at picking up on the anger.

    "Absolutely nothing's okay!" She'll answer the one direct question that got asked of her, looking over to Holly. "This world's going down the shitter, my family might be gearing up to try to overthrow the assholes in charge, and generally absolutely everything completely sucks. Even the alcohol is somehow worse than it was either in the really old days or just before I.." She'll trail off, and blink at Juno and Samus, seeming to catch up at least a little on the possibly not entirely friendly reactions they had to the invite. "...Hey, you two aren't going to start something foolish, right? Because I don't really want to fight right now, but if I have to you are walking into a place I prepared in advance, you know? Those weapons don't really seem like something you should use on a fragile body."

    With Juno calling the bartender, Samus settles herself into a seat.
    Her back is to the wall and her eye lazily trails to the various points of ingress and egress to the bar just to take note of where they are.
    She didn't become the galaxy's greatest bounty hunter by being a slouch, as she holds her hands up. First things first and most importantly:
    "Whiskey. Top shelf. Two cubes of ice."
    That's her order, and she waits for it to be brought over before she continues in any fashion.
    "What do you take me for, some rookie that's chasing her first bounty?" She replies to Circe. "I'm annoyed you contacted me over a very open and unencrypted line. I'm disappointed, not angry."
    Considering she could probably handle anyone that came her way, she doesn't seem as angry as Juno, no.

"Oh, are they asking you to help overthrow those in charge? You mean you didn't give her your contact information?" Holly has a confused look on her face at Juno and Samus wondering why they were upset at being contacted before she takes a seat.

 "This place isn't rigged to explode or anything like that?" Lavaux looks around for what Circe set up.

 "Don't be stupid, she wouldn't set up anything that has a chance of hurting herself as well." Servis figures it's something more subtle like gas or poison.

 "Could I get a strawberry soda, please!" The witch doesn't drink herself.

  "What? No. I don't travel anywhere without my blasters. Whether or not I have to use them, well. That's to be entirely up to you." Juno glances down at the weapons, before folding her arms over the table and glowering. "Once again you've managed to waste everyone's time. And fuel, in my case."

  Half a glance is cast to Samus. "I've got a headache the size of Coruscant brewing, so why don't you see if you can shake some answers out of our friend, here?" Juno's busy, because her whisky is due to arrive any time, now, and wasting a good measure of whisky (even the cheap stuff) would be terrible.

>> SUMMARY[Juno Eclipse] >> Juno turns over Operation: Get Some Answers over to Samus and lurks in the background.

    "I mean, you could be a rookie. You never even really gave me your name. And who do you take me for? Encrypted channels around here just draw attention, you know." Circe says, even though that's a hundred percent not true. "But I wanted some company, and it seemed a great way to get some of you to at least show up." She'll give a glance back to Juno after speaking to Samus, adding. "I'm pretty sure you've made money though associating with me. Don't pretend you actually are opposed to some piracy against a company like that."

    Circe will put a finger in her own drink, stiring it, the ice rattling around. Weirdly, a bit of a glow appears within it briefly, before she shuts her eyes and answers Holly's question. Holly's question she wanted to poison herself more for, after all. "They haven't actually asked me. I doubt they ever will. You said you knew who I am, right? Or near enough, it seemed. The power I had back then was always so minor compared to dear old dad and his siblings, and beyond that I'm pretty sure they're aware I hate most of them. I think the power imbalance might not be as bad as it was then; I'm.. very different, and I believe they are too, but.. it's hard to shake how family views you. The parts of it that still remember, anyway. They all just stumbled into what they are now, as far as I know. I'm the only one whose mortal half was smart enough to reach out and seize the opportunity."

    "I'm no rookie." Samus says mildly as her drink is brought over. She takes a small sip before spending some time nursing it. "Actually, I'm very opposed to space piracy." The Hunter notes.
    But she didn't come blasting.
    "I mostly came here for the 'why'." Said after another small sip.
    "What do you have against the UPC?"
    She has absolutely no idea what Circe is going on about when it comes to her mythological background. That's ancient ancient ancient ancient ancient history in her universe.

"Well, I'm on good terms with my parents myself but sorry to hear you don't get along with your family." Of course Holly doesn't know how her extended family feels about her. Holly looks confused again when Samus brings up the UPC not knowing what that stands for. "Why don't you get along with them? Different views?"

    "Hmm, I guess I should explain a little bit. You're not locals, after all. I didn't have any locals I wanted to invite, since most of them would probably try to kill me for money." Circe will say, lifting up both her hands, the snake bracelet tightening around her wrist as she does.

    "So! Right now, here in this world, many of the ancient gods are reawakening inside of new mortal bodies, fusions of whatever body they ended up in and their ancient selves, but with much less restrained power. Some of them are pretty well known and active, others may or may not be around at all, and.. well, most of them were always petty assholes before and they still are now. But they're half god at most, part god, part mortal, both sides having influence, right?"

    Circe will smash her hands together, and add. "Purely accident. Well, them. Me, my mortal bit was a girl who grew up crushed under the weight of a certain company, her family all but starving, destitute and desperate. She turned out to be really good at computers and chips, and eventually after what we might call a life of crime she wound up working with a cortical stack - a brain implant - that had a piece of a goddess inside. So she shoved herself in and made herself something with power, but not quite as much power as she used to have. And that company was still all but immune to anything she could do, and she had a new, shitty, massive extended family who used to crush people every bit as bad as those companies do now, and then she decided to get drunk at a bar and ask the people who stopped her from damaging that company to stop stopping her so she can stop them!" The story may be missing some important pieces, because Circe is gesturing wildly and raising her voice now.

    "Please, do. Elucidate." Samus replies to the offer of an explanation, sipping her whiskey.
    She gets a tale of ancient gods returning to the world, both divine and mortal in their shells, and a girl buried under a company she grew to hate, huh.
    "... I'm going to need another drink." The Hunter decides after the tale comes to a seeming end and Circe's voice starts raising. "And you might need one, too."

"Oh, that's pretty neat! I figured you would prefer to be in someone who wields magic though." Holly wonders why she went with technology instead. "Are you inside other people as well since it was just a piece? That would be kind of confusing, but I guess it would be easier to get more followers that way. How did part of you end up inside of a brain implant though? I mean they didn't have computers thousands of years ago." Holly has even more questions now.

    "Great question! I don't actually know. The chip was in someone else first, and most everyone around here has them now. Most people can move to a backup, but... well, something doesn't work quite right for that for some of us. And I still have some.. sort of powers. My abilities with technology are beyond the normal, in ways that my mortal half know don't always make full sense." She'll admit, with a slight shrug.

    "I don't know everything, but I think I remember more than most of them. There's gaps and holes still. But even back when, I was exiled off to an island for reasons I was never told, after some agreement between my father and uncle. And so.. I think you'll find I'm quite right that everything is awful here, and I can only pick what I want to make better."

    Samus gets her second drink after polishing off the first. She's still slow with this one, but she is paying attention amid deep sips.
    "So let me get this straight." She says. "You're saying you're some kind of reincarnated god because of that 'cortical stack'. And you want to get back at the UPC for grinding people under its wheels like most big corps do." She's following along so far.
    "What I don't get are your methods. So far I've only seen you turn a few guards into literal bears and made a terrorist threat against a space station."

"Well, it sounds like they're more powerful than her! Maybe that's all she could do. Magic can be kind of unpredictable sometimes." Holly frowns a bit at that. "And it sounds like she's in a weaker body than she was a goddess."

 "Well, a bear army could be useful for taking on a company. Especially if they had cybernetic implants and stuff." The plan makes perfect sense to Lavaux.

 "Not if you have to fight them first, though. Wouldn't it be better to turn them into something some harmless if they were in your way?" Servis on the other hand thinks that would just makes things more complicated.

    "Oh, you were on the group that found that ship? Well, there were a lot of ships that WEREN'T found. I was cutting off their supply line for manufacturing clone workers for a while, more or less singlehandedly. And I don't kill people, so of course I wasn't going to really harm the guards. They weren't even really bears! They just had, y'know, the minds of bears. It would have been really relaxing for them, you know, if you hadn't gone and wrecked it. So that's why I'm asking for you all to please stop getting in my way..."

    Circe's head, resting on one hand, will slip down to the table, red eyes starting to shut. Seems the drinks might be getting to her, and her story might be just about done regardless.

    As Circe starts to drift off, Samus finishes her drink and rises from her seat.
    She looks to Holly and her ghosts.
    "They were bears. She turned people into bears."
    That's a little bit hyperbole but three of the four crew members were hibernating when Samus found them.

"Oh my roommate turns me into animals all the time as part of her research!" Holly doesn't sound too surprised by all of this, "She hasn't turned me into a bear yet though. It would be kind of hard to go to class as a bear with the cramped hallways though. Besides like she said, it's better than killing them right?" Holly can understand what Circe's trying to accomplish.

    Circe isn't quite asleep yet, but is clearly only just hanging on. She'll say, in all but a whisper. "Killing is the only sin that cannot be forgiven, killing kin even worse. It would have been a peaceful life for them, everything provided, restful.." And... she's out, it seems, asleep fully now. At least she clearly believes that part of it; she sounded almost wistful, regretful that the bear crew hadn't gotten their long term hybernation plan in the end, after all.