Reincarnation Syndrome - The SS Big

[thethird]

Imsomnian citadel
What looked like a small anthropomorphic black and white cat wearing a crown and a red cape riding a large Moogle came to them.
"Me name is Cait Sith! I cam on behalf of my creator,who coudn' be there.He works for the dastardly Shinra corporation but is agaunst their morals and ideals!" Cait Sith explained.
"So about this Shinra corporation...." said Ignis.
"Yea Lad,they are now sllies to thy Niflheim empire you fear so much as well as thy demon fellow Muzan!"

Blackstaff is taken aback by the absurdity of Cait Sith. What the hell is it? And what about creator? Is he referring to some kind of god? The cat looks pretty weak. Weird.

"So, current list of enemies, Shinra Corporation, Niflheim Empire, and Muzan Kibutsuji and demons. Right? How do you want to go about it?"

--------

"Yea,kinda..." Lucy replied.
"The starscourge and it's deamons did come from a meteor." Noctis replied. " It's in s crater not too far from Lesthalum."

"Alright,Zenitsu,we need to help our friends!" AU Zenitsu said.
"Us?! I'm too scared to go!!" Zenitsu whinned.
"You have the willpower. You are me,I am you!" AU Zenitsu said."You have potential too!"
"You're starting to sound like Gramps!" Zenitsu cried.
"He was right,he saw potential in us. He was there for us when no one else was at the time. He was the first one!" AU Zenitsu said. "Let's make him proud!"
Zenitsu nodded. The both of them went into fighter's stance.
"Thunder breathing...first form...Thunderclap and flash!"
Both Zenitsu blitzed toward two MTs and cut them in half.
"This makes me want to join my living self and variant too!" RC Zenitsu said in Lucy's mind.

Saffare nods, as some of the elves take point behind the Zenitsu's they seem to be aiding them in battle keeping the MTs and the Soldiers busy, and keeping the Demon Slayers from being surrounded.

"Yes, a meteor would make sense. With such high concentration of Star Mana demonic void mana portals might be too unstable. And meteors are kind of their thing. We have seen more than a world barred because they used big rocks at ballistic speed. Is this Lesthalum safe? Is the meteor under control of the empire? We could establish a tree barrier around it and clean the territory as we go inwards."

OoC: On another set of news I actually went and played FF XV, finished it last weekend, had been on my backlog for a long time because I wasn't that interested on it. It was okay, although it had A LOT of sidequests available from the beginning that derailed me from the plot. For what's worth the whole plot of it fits what Saffare has been extrapolating from her understanding of her world. The whole King's weapons and armiger would be loaded with Star Mana and be somehow hereditary, which would make Noctis a person equiped with hero powers/items.

Also, if these people are exposed to Materia they are going to go pretty nuts about it. It's something similar but not exactly equal to Vast's fruits and will give Vast new ideas into how to create more fun stuff. That said he will send search/gathering parties inworld to harass Shinra and try to get interesting materia. Summons in particular.

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnian citadel.
"My creator, Reeve Tuesti coudn't be here. Thy lad works for thy Shinra Hooligans but dosen't trust them. He task me to ask king Regis to do somethin bout them." Cait Sith explained.
" The king will know what to do peharps." Kagaya replied.
-----
Duscae region.
Tanjiro and AU Tanjiro joined their allies on thr battlefield.
"Water Breathing...."
"...first form...water surface slash!"
"...fourth form...striking tide!"
They attacked a few SOLDIERS and MTs.
The enemy was almost defeated.
"The Disc of Cauthess,where the meteor is located? There's an imperial perimiter surounding it." Prompto replied.
( OOC: No problem! The battle is almost over and a quest in Lesthalum,where Some of Muzan Upper Moons are hidden.)

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Zendikar

"The old fashioned way is getting inured to void mana... highly toxic for the soul. I can heal you, and repeat. We would need something for the pain... keep the fruit, in case you change your opinion."

"Yeah, I can open portals... mostly small ones, then use roots to create ones across myself. I'm a bit concerned why that one isn't closing. As for other portals in your dimension, no, I try to open one portal per dimension, and close them when they are no longer necessary."

"Alright, thank you." Eshaal reluctantly takes the fruit and pockets it. She pauses as though to say something else about it, but apparently decides it isn't her business.

"'Void Mana.' It's toxic, but you mean to say it's also a source of power in itself, right? Is it a sort of background radiation? Or more of a vast, dead sea?" She runs a curious hand over the weird organic lab equipment. "I don't think I need to inject it, I just want to study it!"

Back to the parallel subject of the stuck portal. "Speaking of study, I might be able to shed some light on that. My theory is that my world has a strange, perhaps even unique property that has recently become more pronounced. I think that everyone on Earth is psychically connected to a multiverse of worlds like yours. For some reason, those connections are opening wider and longer than they used to, letting waves of energy and raw change flow through. Like Mana, I suppose." She looks down on her now-overgrown lab. "Between that and this, I might guess that my world has lost its natural resistance to extradimensional rupture. If your means of closure assumes the dimensional membrane naturally assumes or maintains a closed state, ones here just... don't anymore."

She pauses again, pondering something.

"Yet, you're unique, aren't you, Vast?" she asks. "I have yet to see anyone else from outside my world cross into it on their own. Maybe you once had a sort of host, like Nebula did, but I guess it doesn't matter now." She sighs, trying to decide what her real question even is. "If we were to find a way to close all of them - no, even that's getting ahead of myself. Why are you here? To whisk me away and close the door behind us? Or is your goal to create the connected world that Earth is becoming?"

Toronto

I am a tad taken aback by the familiar means of address from this voice, especially since I cannot recall joining anyone's "side."
"Identity and intent or purpose. Then we can discuss specifics such as defining new substances... I would like to hear precisely what it is you know about me already."

"Identity is a construct," the voice answers. "I could give you a name and then change it a second later, it's useless."

"You can call her Medjed," Tagora advises, eager to get a shot in on her. "Do be careful, though. You never know who may have the powers of a name-stealing leprechaun or something."

"Yeah, whatever, that too," says Medjed. "I know you're an AI. I know you can conjure exotic substances and use them to build electronics, and apparently armored skin and a body that you can fax through said electronics. I know you were on that one mega-ship for some reason." She pauses for a second, realizing that she's gotten off-track. "Look, what I know is that you're an RC-user, that you care about free will, and that you aren't shy about using force and intimidation to get what you want. I don't know what Sore-gor was trying to sell you, but that's basically what Team Rocket is all about. You're practically one of us already!"

Tagora bristles. He was really invested in his own dubious recruitment strategy.

"I *also* know that with or without us, you are planning to take down WRATH, and the single biggest obstacle to you doing that is going to be a big man with a red cape. We can deal with most of Larry's brown-nosers, but if you ever try to fight WRATH directly, Supes will drop whatever else he's doing and come out of nowhere to stop you. His stats are busted to hell, and the one glaring Achilles' heel that was supposed to balance it out is - surprise! - not even a real substance in our universe! So, I ask again: Kryptonite, y/n?"

[Aleph Null]

Toronto

"Identity is a construct," the voice answers. "I could give you a name and then change it a second later, it's useless."

"You can call her Medjed," Tagora advises, eager to get a shot in on her. "Do be careful, though. You never know who may have the powers of a name-stealing leprechaun or something."

"Yeah, whatever, that too," says Medjed. "I know you're an AI. I know you can conjure exotic substances and use them to build electronics, and apparently armored skin and a body that you can fax through said electronics. I know you were on that one mega-ship for some reason." She pauses for a second, realizing that she's gotten off-track. "Look, what I know is that you're an RC-user, that you care about free will, and that you aren't shy about using force and intimidation to get what you want. I don't know what Sore-gor was trying to sell you, but that's basically what Team Rocket is all about. You're practically one of us already!"

Tagora bristles. He was really invested in his own dubious recruitment strategy.

"I *also* know that with or without us, you are planning to take down WRATH, and the single biggest obstacle to you doing that is going to be a big man with a red cape. We can deal with most of Larry's brown-nosers, but if you ever try to fight WRATH directly, Supes will drop whatever else he's doing and come out of nowhere to stop you. His stats are busted to hell, and the one glaring Achilles' heel that was supposed to balance it out is - surprise! - not even a real substance in our universe! So, I ask again: Kryptonite, y/n?"

"Achievable? Certainly. Immediately? Unclear. I might have to do a bit more research than a few database queries, and I'm not terribly keen on confronting Superman directly. I want to avoid any paradoxes; for comparison, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Current analysis is unable to predict the outcome of such an interaction."
I take a pause for a moment to consider the talk about the seemingly-ironically-named Team Rocket.
"If what you're saying is true, and I have every reason to believe it's a largely honest if embellished account, simply due to my own observations of current events. The one thing that gives me pause is the name of your organization — since one of my RCs is from the universe that was the home of the group that I assume to be your namesake and has some not-exactly-fond memories of their antics.
Granted, my observations are literally made through a blurry lens — cameras durable enough to survive the current turmoil tend to sacrifice in image quality to avoid being astronomically expensive, as do those sturdy enough to withstand the wear and tear of constant exposure to the powers of Pokémon — but I trust you're aware of the likely consequences of engaging in deception with me. If you're being truthful and your goal is to preserve free will, then I have no reason not to work with you to at least some extent.
Incidentally, I had already planned some of my designs as scout-type units, so with the right sensory equipment could gather the necessary data to...er, complete the specification for what will essentially be store-brand kryptonite. I won't expect it to be quite so broad, since I am unsure if the whole reincarnation situation has manifest the entire concept of Kryptonians or not, but I can ensure it works on Superman himself at the very least."
As the talk continues I finish integrating with the control systems of the factory and also get to work setting up my manufacturing lines for several types of remotely controlled robots. Using the QEDN parts that I have already defined I can allow direct control over each of these machines, and due to the extensible framework of my body I can add additional processing resources to control them with in a way that does not drain on my computational capabilities. The goal, of course, is to allow myself to circumvent the rather inconvenient nature of not being able to be in multiple places at once by simply ignoring that restriction and being in multiple places at once. These new designs, coded N.X.I.S. (pronounced "nexus" and short for NEBULA eXtended-Intelligence Systems), are to be my new hands, eyes, ears, and voices across the globe.
The designs are categorized for different purposes. They include:

• Galileo-Class, a scout unit (Flagged by SCV-7811 N.X.I.S. Galileo) with high speed, endurance, and sensory capabilities, equipped with a ranged gravity cannon as a self-defense mechanism
• Constellation-Class, a coordinator unit (Flagged by SCV-7812 N.X.I.S. Constellation) with high onboard processing power, built-in tactical coordination automation, and power generation, as well as emergency backup power generators to which other N.X.I.S units can dock, equipped with several circuit-integral catalysts to create a caster-like combat unit
• Challenger-Class, a shock trooper and melee assault combat unit (Flagged by SCV-7813 N.X.I.S. Challenger) with high speed, durability, and physical strength, equipped with hybrid concussion-gravity cannons, force field projectors, shockwave and shock pulse emitters, and heavy vibro-blades
• Arcadia-Class, an artillery unit (Flagged by SCV-7814 N.X.I.S. Arcadia) with high endurance, precision, and power generation, equipped with long-range particle pulse weapons as well as a medium-to-long-range superweapon called a T.C.E.D. (pronounced "tee-said" and short for Transphase Chroniton-Entropy Disseminator) which scrambles the flow of time for each particle in an object to cause matter disintegration
• Hawking-Class, an all-purpose and support unit (Flagged by SCV-7815 N.X.I.S. Hawking — I have a great deal of respect for Stephen Hawking) with strong capabilities in all attributes and equipped with medium vibro-blades and hybrid concussion-gravity cannons as well as auxiliary onboard sensor arrays and a power-generation-enhancement system called a P.H.I.F.G. (pronounced "fief-gee" like the knight's parcel of land plus the Latin letter and short for Particle-Harvesting Inductor Field Generator) which mass-converts airborne particles of dust into energy that can be harnessed by the unit and all other nearby N.X.I.S. units

I will produce them in bands consisting of one unit of each class. Each team is to be sent to a different part of the world, and the goal is to have at least one team on each continent. If I can expand my own processing capabilities to eventually handle more at once, I will, but that goal is the starting point for me.

[thethird]

Insomnian citadel.
"My creator, Reeve Tuesti coudn't be here. Thy lad works for thy Shinra Hooligans but dosen't trust them. He task me to ask king Regis to do somethin bout them." Cait Sith explained.
" The king will know what to do peharps." Kagaya replied.

Blackstaff waits then for the royal audience without much more to add. He seems to procure a cookie and nibble it. If someone is interested he offers more.

Duscae region.
Tanjiro and AU Tanjiro joined their allies on thr battlefield.
"Water Breathing...."
"...first form...water surface slash!"
"...fourth form...striking tide!"
They attacked a few SOLDIERS and MTs.
The enemy was almost defeated.
"The Disc of Cauthess,where the meteor is located? There's an imperial perimiter surounding it." Prompto replied.
( OOC: No problem! The battle is almost over and a quest in Lesthalum,where Some of Muzan Upper Moons are hidden.)

Saffare nods in understanding.

"We are taking that meteor then."

She gives orders to her people that start actively fighting against the SOLDIERs and the MTs, they fight very coordinatedly covering each other with their shields, and rapid firing their repeating crossbows striking precisely at exposed weak points. They seem to be doing much better with the organic SOLDIERs than the MTs proper, and some switch to a combination of axe and hammer, hitting at the MTs with the axe before hammering it, cracking them like nuts.

Zendikar

"Alright, thank you." Eshaal reluctantly takes the fruit and pockets it. She pauses as though to say something else about it, but apparently decides it isn't her business.

"'Void Mana.' It's toxic, but you mean to say it's also a source of power in itself, right? Is it a sort of background radiation? Or more of a vast, dead sea?" She runs a curious hand over the weird organic lab equipment. "I don't think I need to inject it, I just want to study it!"

"Yes, that would be it. But you can build a resistance to it, and eventually be able to extract it from other mana. I think it's very careless to study it without being able to perceive it, nor having built a resistance to it. In fact that's the "traditional" way of getting exposed to it, and getting void mana poisoning. From those few survive unless healed. But you can try, I am a tree. I have time. This isn't something that needs to be solved even this decade. Don't fret. I'll get you a tutor, and a healer, if something goes wrong."

Back to the parallel subject of the stuck portal. "Speaking of study, I might be able to shed some light on that. My theory is that my world has a strange, perhaps even unique property that has recently become more pronounced. I think that everyone on Earth is psychically connected to a multiverse of worlds like yours. For some reason, those connections are opening wider and longer than they used to, letting waves of energy and raw change flow through. Like Mana, I suppose." She looks down on her now-overgrown lab. "Between that and this, I might guess that my world has lost its natural resistance to extradimensional rupture. If your means of closure assumes the dimensional membrane naturally assumes or maintains a closed state, ones here just... don't anymore."

"That's... either impossible, or terrible. There are things in the blind eternities, that feast on mana. You want to move fast through it to not be spotted. But with... how many portals are there in your world? You are like a..."

Vast seems to think, they close their eyes and concentrates, they seem to be listening to something.

"Candy leaking piñata in front of a pack of sugar rushed kids."

She pauses again, pondering something.

"Yet, you're unique, aren't you, Vast?" she asks. "I have yet to see anyone else from outside my world cross into it on their own. Maybe you once had a sort of host, like Nebula did, but I guess it doesn't matter now." She sighs, trying to decide what her real question even is. "If we were to find a way to close all of them - no, even that's getting ahead of myself. Why are you here? To whisk me away and close the door behind us? Or is your goal to create the connected world that Earth is becoming?"

Vast shrugs, this time it looks a bit more natural, like a cat stretching, still totally inhuman though.
"I normally close doors after me as a matter of stability, it's just good manners..."

Thinks.

"Like... leaving the toilet seat..." They pause, as if they were checking some notes. "down?"

They are unsure, as if that analogy doesn't make sense to them. There is a lot of doubt in it. They even seem to look at Eshaal looking for a reaction to see if it worked.

"As to the other questions. As long you aren't aiding demons, or baiting the creatures within the blind eternities you are free to go, do whatever. You are talented, but not everyone needs to be a soldier in a multiversal war. You can die happy surrounded by tearful grandchildren, it is your right."

Vast smiles, and this time their smile is human, and genuine, twisting their lips upwards, not showing any teeth, and with a twinkle embedded in the deep pools of knowlege that are their eyes. Looking at them it feels like Vast is making eye contact for the first time, and his eyes are heavy with knowledge, yes, but there is a friendly spark of curiosity.

"Yet you are living in interesting times Eshaal. You are smart, capable, you make do with what you have, you contacted me accross the planes. That needs to be commended."

They sound old and wizened now, their voice a grandfatherly whisper of encouragement.

"My goal, isn't a connected world. That's a mean. A tool. It's also reality. The multiverse exists. Some people will tell you that in such an infinite frame, with eternity as your witness whatever you choose won't matter. That's their choice. Let me tell you, your choice is yours, and yours alone, and what you choose matters to you. That's enough. My goal is for people to be able to make their choices. My enemies are replicating swarms of demons that want to turn everything into more demons like themselves, scouring worlds and turning them into demons. Or, occasionally, the creatures from betwixt realities. Keeping those enemies at bay, takes power and resources. Thus the interconnected world."

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnian citadel.
A guard came to the group."Welcome back Sir Ignis. The prince isn't with you,right?" the guard asked.
"He has other..buisness in Duscae right now. I'm here to bring Mr Blackstaff over here so he can meet King Regis."
" Very well,you came follow me. The same goes for you Lord Kagaya and Mr Tuesti's envoy.
Ignis,Cait Sith as well as Kagaya and his wife followed the guard to the throne room.
---------
Duscae plains,
Most of the MTs,were being put out of commision and the remaining surving SOLDIERs fleed the battlefield.
Prompto jumps in joy,singing a very familiar RPG victory jingle.
"What's with him?" Zenitsu asked.
"Let him have his fun." Tanjiro replied.
"Now that the enemy is out of the way,we should head to Lesthalum." Noctis replied.
"I'll come as well." said Lucy.
"My friends and I might be needed too." Tanjiro said."Will Nezuko be safe in my absence?" he asked.
(Ooc: Next post I'll time skip to them going to Lestallum)
----------
Infinity Castle,Unknown dimension.

A red haired man dressed in a odd multicolor trench coat and a fedora hat appeared in this strange...dimension. It seemed to be a castle...of japanese architecture,but everything seemed vast and endless.
He noticed a young woman with long black hair hiding her eyes and pale white skin wearing a black kimono and holding a large shamisen,or japanese guitar.
"Good day to you young lady!" The Niflheim chancellor told the young woman. "Perharps you could help me find your master. I was summoned to meet with him.

"I was the one who summoned you on Lord Muzan's orders." The young woman replied. "I am Nakime."

"Oh I see,you are his right hand woman. Interesting!"Ardyn replied.
Nakime didn't teplied at first but it quickly changed.
"Lord Muzan has arrived."

Ardyn looked up to see a young man with long black hair and red eyes dressed in a stylish outfit working in what looked like a lab,with book about multiversal flora and about the flower he was looking for:The blue spider lily.

Ardyn bowed to Muzan. "It's an honor to finally meet you in person."

"Spare me the act. I know who you really are." Muzan hissed.
" Is that so? I would have expected no less for a fellow demon king." Ardyn replied." Even if I am the one calling the shots in Niflheim, the emperor seems interested in collaborating with you."

"They have come to this world...Vast's underlings." Muzan muttered.
"Who is that may I ask?" Ardyn asked.

[ArlEammon]

"Spare me the act. I know who you really are." Muzan hissed.
" Is that so? I would have expected no less for a fellow demon king." Ardyn replied." Even if I am the one calling the shots in Niflheim, the emperor seems interested in collaborating with you."

"They have come to this world...Vast's underlings." Muzan muttered.
"Who is that may I ask?" Ardyn asked.

The room went pitch black for a split second, then it was dimly lit and quite dark, and then everything appeared as if nothing at all happened, as Jacob was standing there, dressed in metallic armor like Morgoth would have worn. He had no visible helmet on his head.
"What have I missed, my good fellows?" He asked. An overwhelming demonic presence filled the area as Jacob smiled.

[PrinceNoctisXV]

The room went pitch black for a split second, then it was dimly lit and quite dark, and then everything appeared as if nothing at all happened, as Jacob was standing there, dressed in metallic armor like Morgoth would have worn. He had no visible helmet on his head.
"What have I missed, my good fellows?" He asked. An overwhelming demonic presence filled the area as Jacob smiled.

"It's you..." Muzan replied dryly. " You managed to enter the Infinity castle without any problem...no mather. The multiversal being known as Vast has sent his forces in this world.Much like the Demon Slayer Corps,they are hunting demons throughout the multiverse." he explained.
"However,I expected them,as Vast and his forces are Flora based. They might have knowledge about the Blue spider lily. I needed this flower so I can stand in the sun again."
"I can stay in the sun with no problem." Ardyn replied only to receive a death glare from Muzan.
"A "reincarnation" from Earth Prime is monitoring this world and the reincarnations of the Demon Slayer. It seems this world is in Chaos and the reincarnations of my Twelve Kizuki are taking advantage of it to spread our multiversal army."
----------
Shibuya,Tokyo,Earth Prime.
Two hooded figures walked in the busy streets of the Shibuya district. Despite the recent events it was still busy.
" I can't believe the proffesor sended us to meet with this team Rocket member." said one of the figures,a young man with long spiky black hair,the reincarnation of Giyu Tomioka,the Water hashira of the demon slayer corps.
" He did say that the Rockets wanted to talk to us saying that they have nothing to do with the Yakuza and the twelve Kizuki's reincarnations who are part of it. Plus,another Demon Slayer reibcarnate,the one who wants to talk to us is part of tge japanese branch of team Rocket." the second member,this one female said.
The two Demon Slayer reincarnates entered a club where they had to meet the Team Rocket members who wanted to talk to them.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Toronto

"I'm not terribly keen on confronting an immovable object. If what you're saying is true, and I trust you're aware of the consequences of deception, I have no reason not to work with you to some extent. I could gather the necessary data to... er, complete the specification for what will essentially be store-brand kryptonite."

[Names his robot army after Federation starship models]

"Good enough for me!" Medjed says over the phone. "I'll let Boss know the cape is marked."

"And I'll refrain from telling my boss that you're gunning for his job," Tagora adds. His conspiratorial shark grin is back. "Medjed is right, you know - with thinly-veiled threats like that, you would fit right in. I'll get out of your way for now. My... friend will ping you when we have any further information of interest."

"See ya!"

Tagora ends the call and pockets his phone. His body is then swallowed up by his shadow, turning into the same dark purple substance his arm briefly became.

"Oh! I almost forgot, I need to grab this real quick..." With as-yet-unseen alacrity, his shadowy form sweeps over the flash drive his dead client was holding and snatches it. He then vanishes into the ground without waiting for Nebula to comment. The drive was Team Rocket's property, after all.

Nebula's overnight manufacturing operation goes off without a hitch. The plant had enough steel and plastic left on hand to produce about 200 sedans. Taking into account the size of the machines and the complexity of the myriad doom cannons, this somewhat limits how many squads xe can realistically produce without requesting another delivery of materials, but it's at least enough for the initial 5x5 batch. Now it's just a matter of deciding where to deploy them.

Spoiler

Show

...and of not getting your hopes up. I am not writing six adventures at once for you.

Zendikar

"I think it's very careless to study it without being able to perceive it, that's the "traditional" way of getting exposed, and few survive unless healed. But you can try. I have time. I'll get you a tutor, and a healer, if something goes wrong."

"There are things in the blind eternities, that feast on mana. You are like a... Candy leaking piñata."

"I normally close doors after me as a matter of stability, it's just good manners... Like... leaving the toilet seat... down?"

"As long you aren't aiding demons, or baiting the creatures within the blind eternities... not everyone needs to be a soldier in a multiversal war. You can die happy surrounded by tearful grandchildren, it is your right. Yet you are living in interesting times, Eshaal. Let me tell you, your choice is yours, and what you choose matters to you. That's enough."

"My goal is for people to be able to make their choices. My enemies are demons that turn everything into more like themselves, and, occasionally, the creatures from betwixt realities. Keeping those at bay, takes power and resources. Thus the interconnected world."

Vast and Eshaal have a lot to talk about. Satisfied with each other's motives, they can converse for some time, and learn quite a lot.

They quickly find that the blue-clad woman can already at least perceive void mana. Had Vast not mentioned it, she might never have realized that that's unusual. From there, their studies soon reveal some inconsistencies. The stuff of the Blind Eternities simply doesn't match up with readings that Eshaal had gathered via past jaunts in her submarine test chamber.

She updates her theories, trying to take this into account. She can only surmise that not only do different worlds - "portal worlds," "planes," or "PW's," - each have their own properties, but different subsets of planes - "multiverses" - must have separate interstitial spaces with rules of their own. Thus, reconciling the Blind Eternities model with her existing Collective Unconscious model, or indeed with the rival Astral Plane model WRATH uses, would probably be a dead end, except insomuch as each might apply in one of several colliding reality scaffolds.

This opens up the question of how Vast reached out to Nova Crystalia. From Vast's perspective, he reached across the blind eternities as usual, but the fact that his point of origin is always here on Zendikar could account for that regardless of the other PW's extraspatial framework. Based on reports from Saffare and Blackstaff, the two can see that Nova Crystalia seems to be a mishmash of several "fictional" universes, but can't necessarily assume whether the fiction preceded the world or refracted pieces of it or what. "Perhaps we could investigate how that world's own Void works and see if it matches up?"

Further observations seem to corroborate Eshaal's comment from before. Beings from other worlds don't seem to be able to cross to Earth via the naturally-occurring portals. Until now, they would only make their presence known by way of Reincarnation Syndrome. Of course, even if that pattern holds true...

Oil Rig

A woman in a paper plate mask points her phone's camera at a hole in the sky and sends the picture to her employer.

...that's a far cry from saying the world is safe.

Shibuya

"I can't believe the proffesor sended us to meet with this team Rocket member." said one of the figures,a young man with long spiky black hair,the reincarnation of Giyu Tomioka,the Water hashira of the demon slayer corps.
" He did say that the Rockets wanted to talk to us saying that they have nothing to do with the Yakuza and the twelve Kizuki's reincarnations who are part of it. Plus,another Demon Slayer reibcarnate,the one who wants to talk to us is part of tge japanese branch of team Rocket."

"Shoooosh!" Sakura, a relatively normal teenage girl with glasses and dyed-pink hair, angrily whirls to face her two fellow hood-wearers and gestures for them to quiet down like they're in a library, even though they're all already whispering. "I hate that you already know that about me. Why do you know that about me?! Even my dad isn't supposed to know!"

While Sakura's illustrious RC is not a member of the corps in Demon Slayer canon, Sakura herself is nonetheless a member of their corps on Earth Prime. Even though she doesn't even look like Nezuko and even though her classmates don't trust her, she goes to meetings and answers to the professor as much as anyone else. She sighs.

"Whatever, I guess it doesn't matter now. We're here because my contact has a proposal for us, and I figured he could talk to you while I delivered an unrelated message. Just hear him out, OK?"

The group proceeds down the stairs to the club. It opens into a dark dance hall, dimly lit with pink and blue neon, with tables lining two walls and an enormous bar lining the third.

"Also, just so you know: Team Rocket is involved with the Yakuza. Whoever told you we weren't is a filthy liar. We're just not involved with the Kizuki. Honestly, if my dad found anyone with a Kizuki RC, he'd probably recruit them to join the Demon Slayers, just to keep me company."

By the way, Sakura's dad is the professor. That might explain why she's on the team despite the whole Tanjiro's Evil Sister thing.

The group sits down at one of the tables, and a moment later a pale, smirking man with wine-red sunglasses, a big red corsage on his suit and a big glass of red wine in his hand sits down across from them.

"Well, well, look who we have here. Are you three children sure you're old enough for a club like this?"

Sakura bows. "Giovanni, sir. These two represent the Demon Slayer corps. My father felt it was safer to send them in his place."

"Hm, disappointing, but sensible enough. Does he trust you to accept an agreement in his place as well?"

Giovanni explains his proposal. He already knows about the existence of demons inside the green portal, and he knows that their blood carries a rare and exciting power. Particularly, he's interested in the blood of the demons' leader, Muzan. If the Demon Slayers can promise to retrieve some of that blood - a couple of vials will do - then Giovanni can in return promise to fund and support their organization with Team Rocket's resources, freeing them from their dependence on WRATH.

He gave the whole speech without taking a single sip of his wine.

What will the Hashira do?

Phoenix, Arizona

It's been about two hours since Selwyn Morris got the message from King Lawrence. It was delivered telepathically by Lydia, a fellow WRATH agent and the reincarnation of a psychic alien of some kind. Lydia in turn is psychically connected to Miss Tio, Larry's tech and media advisor.

Selwyn and Lydia's mission: go to the petrified forest and secure a dimensional portal from the forces of the New Confederacy, a secessionist organization backed by organized crime. Selwyn's heard of these guys. They tried to run a candidate for president in 2024, but dropped out of the race after their guy claimed to be Twin Clones of Hitler.

Yeah. Kicking these guys' butts is going to feel really good, Lydia says.

Her telepathy is the only reason you can hear her over the whir of helicopter blades. Using a modified traffic copter bought with King Lawrence's ludicrous personal wealth, the two get from Selwyn's place North of Hollywood all the way to Phoenix in record time. From above, they see the strange scene unfolding around the petrified forest: several tourist buildings have been caved in, and the forest is surrounded with spooky-looking watchtowers and barricades. A thin yellow fog fills the base. Men with rifles mill about in camouflage jumpsuits, gas masks, spiked helmets, the works. Among them, you see two gigantic figures - a 15-foot giant, and a were-pig. Not sure if they're reincarnated or summoned, but they're going to fight pretty much exactly how you expect.

Then, from one of the watchtowers, a machine gun opens fire on the helicopter, which does not have weapons to retaliate because that would be super illegal!

Crap! I need to take this down! How do you want to go in?

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Shibuya
Giyu and his two fellow demon Slayers met with Giovanni. "Well,we're not technically children." said the second figure. A girl with black hair with purple highlights,with a butterfly shaped hairpin in her hair. She's the reincarnation of Shinobu Kocho,the Insect hashira.
"Tomioka is 21 and I'm 18. Sakura is around our age too." Giyu and Shinobu both listened to Giovanni's explaination and proposal.
"Very well,we shall retreive Muzan's blood. Once we get it, Tamayo will sent it to you." Shinobu replied.
--------------
Duscae region, Lucis,Nova Chrystslia.

Shortly after the battle ended,Noctis's cellphone rang. He answered it.
"Hello? Wait,what's happening? She's gone?I'll tell Gladio. We're coming soon!" He hung up.

"What is it about?" Gladio asked. "It was Jared. He told me that Iris had dissappeared. She hasn't come back from the market.
Gladio looked angry and worried about his younger sister.
"She's your sister,right? "Tanjiro asked. "Then we must go and find out what happened to her. I would be worried too if something happened to Nezuko."
"I'm coming too!" said Lucy.

[ArlEammon]

"It's you..." Muzan replied dryly. " You managed to enter the Infinity castle without any problem...no mather. The multiversal being known as Vast has sent his forces in this world.Much like the Demon Slayer Corps,they are hunting demons throughout the multiverse." he explained.
"However,I expected them,as Vast and his forces are Flora based. They might have knowledge about the Blue spider lily. I needed this flower so I can stand in the sun again."
"I can stay in the sun with no problem." Ardyn replied only to receive a death glare from Muzan.
"A "reincarnation" from Earth Prime is monitoring this world and the reincarnations of the Demon Slayer. It seems this world is in Chaos and the reincarnations of my Twelve Kizuki are taking advantage of it to spread our multiversal army."

"Multiversal army? Can I have a slice of the pie?" Jacob asked drolly. "I have a lot to offer."
"Give me some of your army and I will give you some of mine."
"I'm not just whistling dixie!" He stated, matter of factly, though with an idiom. He giggled quietly but noticeably, waiting for Muzan's response.

[PrinceNoctisXV]

"Multiversal army? Can I have a slice of the pie?" Jacob asked drolly. "I have a lot to offer."
"Give me some of your army and I will give you some of mine."
"I'm not just whistling dixie!" He stated, matter of factly, though with an idiom. He giggled quietly but noticeably, waiting for Muzan's response.

"You want to command some of my army...and members of my Twelve Kizuki?" Muzan shouted.

"Oh,that would be fun Lord Muzan!" said a sweet male voice that sounded kind."
"Upper Moon 2 has arrived." said Nakime.
A tall blond young man with pale skin dressed in red now stood in front of Muzan,Ardyn and Jacob. His rainbow colored demonic eyes had the kanji for "two" in them.
"I would love to work with him and even meet my reincarnation and variant!"
The man stood in front of Jacob.
"I'm Doma,Upper Moon two of the Kizuki...and leader of a cult of course!" He said cheerfully.

"Very well Doma. However,fail me and I will destroy you!" Muzan replied. "He will be working with you as well as any of my Kizuki that remains." he told Jacob."However, Upper Moon 6 is on a mission right now."

[ArlEammon]

"You want to command some of my army...and members of my Twelve Kizuki?" Muzan shouted.

"Oh,that would be fun Lord Muzan!" said a sweet male voice that sounded kind."
"Upper Moon 2 has arrived." said Nakime.
A tall blond young man with pale skin dressed in red now stood in front of Muzan,Ardyn and Jacob. His rainbow colored demonic eyes had the kanji for "two" in them.
"I would love to work with him and even meet my reincarnation and variant!"
The man stood in front of Jacob.
"I'm Doma,Upper Moon two of the Kizuki...and leader of a cult of course!" He said cheerfully.

"Very well Doma. However,fail me and I will destroy you!" Muzan replied. "He will be working with you as well as any of my Kizuki that remains." he told Jacob."However, Upper Moon 6 is on a mission right now."

"You know what? Have a Mephistopheles with a side of Asmodeus while you're at it!"
"They're two extremely powerful demons themselves."
"Kings of Hell, both of them are very good at their job."
"Asmodeus is obscenely clever with deals, and can bolster your ranks with legions of witches."
"Mephistopheles, like Asmodeus is much the same with deal making, though he focuses on one powerful witch or warlock at a time."

[PrinceNoctisXV]

"You know what? Have a Mephistopheles with a side of Asmodeus while you're at it!"
"They're two extremely powerful demons themselves."
"Kings of Hell, both of them are very good at their job."
"Asmodeus is obscenely clever with deals, and can bolster your ranks with legions of witches."
"Mephistopheles, like Asmodeus is much the same with deal making, though he focuses on one powerful witch or warlock at a time."

"Sounds like an interesting proposal,don't you think?" Ardyn replied. "If I was in power,I would hire them."
"This is my army,not yours Lucis Caelum." Muzan hissed before facing Jacob. " Very well. They shall join." Muzan added.

[Aleph Null]

Toronto

<Team Rocket peeps acknowledge and poof away>

<Construction of the first 5 N.X.I.S. teams completes>

Using my teleportation powers I will allocate each team, dividing Earth into regions, such that I cover all of the regions that are currently inhabited by permanent human residents (thus, only Antarctica is excluded for the moment, though the South America team is also able to monitor that area if needed). One team will be sent to each of the five regions other than the one where I am currently myself located. The regions will be:

• A.C.N.A.: North America, Central America, and the Northern Atlantic (including Greenland, Iceland, and intermediate Atlantic islands)
• C.N.A.E.: Europe, Central Asia, and Western Asia (including Siberia, the Caucasus, the Eurasian Steppe, and Mongolia)
• A.M.E.A.: Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Middle East (including Anatolia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Levant)
• A.N.P.I.: Southeast Asia, the North Pacific, and India (including Japan, the East Indies, the Himalayas, and Indochina)
• A.S.P.O.: Australia, the South Pacific, and Oceania (including New Zealand, the Philippines, and Polynesia)
• S.A.A.C.: South America, the Southern Atlantic, and the Caribbean (including Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad, and the West Indies)

As I am currently in Canada (part of the A.C.N.A. region), the teams will be assigned to the C.N.A.E., A.M.E.A., A.N.P.I., A.S.P.O., and S.A.A.C. regions. They will be essentially planted as observers and patrols for the moment, ready to help in a crisis but not currently set for any particular action. Then I will transmute any scrap or spare material left over (or failing that some amount of snow, stone or soil from outside) into bulk amounts of sturdy metals such as titanium and steel, and store them in the factory for later use. I will also construct robust security systems to prevent any future usurpers from taking over the place, as well as solidify the improvements I made in haste to the factory's production lines to render them more permanent. Quarrying resources from the areas surrounding the factory won't sustain infinite production, of course, but I have no need for that anyway (at least for the moment). By extending what is effectively a land drill into the bedrock of whatever scrap yard or open land (that is, not supporting a building) may be nearby, I can essentially strip mine rocks, soil, and other various crust minerals and transmute them into bulk amounts of high-grade materials, and after the factory's warehouses are full I can simply fill the hole with water drawn from nearby Lake Ontario. The entire factory's energy needs can then be easily provided for by a mass-conversion reactor which will consume small amounts of water and store the energy in a massive battery (more specifically, a Mass-Energy Induction Cell or M.E.I.C.) that can be housed together with the reactor in a protective structure on the factory's grounds. Rainfall can of course refill this lake, providing for a sustainable source of power for the factory as well as additional energy generation to fulfill my ever-growing personal power demand (which now includes the power demands for several body extensions — thankfully a modified version of the Q.E.D.N. handles the energy transfer and distribution logistics quite well).

Satisfied that my infrastructure is now up and running in a basic sense, I will begin to explore again using my extensions, searching for any new anomalies (or ones I wouldn't have heard about on the news) to investigate. After all, it's always possible that I can run into something new and interesting that might hold more of the answers I seek.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

@TheThird maybe Vast's Zendikar portal would catch my...er, lens? Gyeh, it's an eye still, so we'll call it what it is. Anyway, if you want to set up interaction now might be a decent opportunity...

[thethird]

Indic Sea Oil Rig

Spoiler: Oil Rig, Indic Sea, Nebula

Show

Oil Rig

A woman in a paper plate mask points her phone's camera at a hole in the sky and sends the picture to her employer.

...that's a far cry from saying the world is safe.

Using my teleportation powers I will allocate each team, dividing Earth into regions, such that I cover all of the regions that are currently inhabited by permanent human residents (thus, only Antarctica is excluded for the moment, though the South America team is also able to monitor that area if needed). One team will be sent to each of the five regions other than the one where I am currently myself located. The regions will be:

• A.C.N.A.: North America, Central America, and the Northern Atlantic (including Greenland, Iceland, and intermediate Atlantic islands)
• C.N.A.E.: Europe, Central Asia, and Western Asia (including Siberia, the Caucasus, the Eurasian Steppe, and Mongolia)
• A.M.E.A.: Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Middle East (including Anatolia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the Levant)
• A.N.P.I.: Southeast Asia, the North Pacific, and India (including Japan, the East Indies, the Himalayas, and Indochina)
• A.S.P.O.: Australia, the South Pacific, and Oceania (including New Zealand, the Philippines, and Polynesia)
• S.A.A.C.: South America, the Southern Atlantic, and the Caribbean (including Cuba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad, and the West Indies)

As I am currently in Canada (part of the A.C.N.A. region), the teams will be assigned to the C.N.A.E., A.M.E.A., A.N.P.I., A.S.P.O., and S.A.A.C. regions. They will be essentially planted as observers and patrols for the moment, ready to help in a crisis but not currently set for any particular action. Then I will transmute any scrap or spare material left over (or failing that some amount of snow, stone or soil from outside) into bulk amounts of sturdy metals such as titanium and steel, and store them in the factory for later use. I will also construct robust security systems to prevent any future usurpers from taking over the place, as well as solidify the improvements I made in haste to the factory's production lines to render them more permanent. Quarrying resources from the areas surrounding the factory won't sustain infinite production, of course, but I have no need for that anyway (at least for the moment). By extending what is effectively a land drill into the bedrock of whatever scrap yard or open land (that is, not supporting a building) may be nearby, I can essentially strip mine rocks, soil, and other various crust minerals and transmute them into bulk amounts of high-grade materials, and after the factory's warehouses are full I can simply fill the hole with water drawn from nearby Lake Ontario. The entire factory's energy needs can then be easily provided for by a mass-conversion reactor which will consume small amounts of water and store the energy in a massive battery (more specifically, a Mass-Energy Induction Cell or M.E.I.C.) that can be housed together with the reactor in a protective structure on the factory's grounds. Rainfall can of course refill this lake, providing for a sustainable source of power for the factory as well as additional energy generation to fulfill my ever-growing personal power demand (which now includes the power demands for several body extensions — thankfully a modified version of the Q.E.D.N. handles the energy transfer and distribution logistics quite well).

Satisfied that my infrastructure is now up and running in a basic sense, I will begin to explore again using my extensions, searching for any new anomalies (or ones I wouldn't have heard about on the news) to investigate. After all, it's always possible that I can run into something new and interesting that might hold more of the answers I seek.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

@TheThird maybe Vast's Zendikar portal would catch my...er, lens? Gyeh, it's an eye still, so we'll call it what it is. Anyway, if you want to set up interaction now might be a decent opportunity...

After the paper masked woman left, she was unimpeded, nature claimed the Oil Rig. Vast's treefolks brought earth and dirt into the oil rig, and started growing sprouts that magically grew into large mangroves overnight. Roots tangling ontop of the metal, covering the structure and replicating it's shape. On the center several tall trees grow to be level with the portal, that they cover in knoted branches and from which several elven soldiers emerge.

They produce several rituals, one is splashing some thick rainbow hued sap on the portal, that seems to grow more stable and real by the end of it. Another is chanting and dancing, summoning stormy clouds that start to circle around the oil rig.

An abandoned oil rig in international waters is a rather poor tourist destination, but with the stormy weather not even the fishers go close. Even if for some reason some fool brave soul tries to go in they would get a foreboding sensation and turn tail.

That is what might cause A.N.P.I.'s proves interest. A localized weather fenomena that repeats itself overtime, not following much of the weather patterns. A closer inspection would reveal that even if the magnetical storm is playing around with navigational instruments, and the weather is annoying to navigate, the foreboding presence doesn't translate well for machines.

At the other side of the storm is a raised snarl of mangroves, with a platform of enmeshed roots that reach out to the ocean floor. From it several trees stand tall with their branches knotted into a circle, hiding a portal from sight under their canopy.

On the platform there are several humanoid figures, wearing what appears to be wooden or ceramic armor in white, and covered with cloaks that are a pain to pin on, as if their figures are displaced, or merged with the environment. Perhaps more of them are standing and their cloaks simply mimetize them with the strange environment.

Zendikar

Spoiler: Zendikar Eshaal

Show

Zendikar

Vast and Eshaal have a lot to talk about. Satisfied with each other's motives, they can converse for some time, and learn quite a lot.

They quickly find that the blue-clad woman can already at least perceive void mana. Had Vast not mentioned it, she might never have realized that that's unusual. From there, their studies soon reveal some inconsistencies. The stuff of the Blind Eternities simply doesn't match up with readings that Eshaal had gathered via past jaunts in her submarine test chamber.

She updates her theories, trying to take this into account. She can only surmise that not only do different worlds - "portal worlds," "planes," or "PW's," - each have their own properties, but different subsets of planes - "multiverses" - must have separate interstitial spaces with rules of their own. Thus, reconciling the Blind Eternities model with her existing Collective Unconscious model, or indeed with the rival Astral Plane model WRATH uses, would probably be a dead end, except insomuch as each might apply in one of several colliding reality scaffolds.

This opens up the question of how Vast reached out to Nova Crystalia. From Vast's perspective, he reached across the blind eternities as usual, but the fact that his point of origin is always here on Zendikar could account for that regardless of the other PW's extraspatial framework. Based on reports from Saffare and Blackstaff, the two can see that Nova Crystalia seems to be a mishmash of several "fictional" universes, but can't necessarily assume whether the fiction preceded the world or refracted pieces of it or what. "Perhaps we could investigate how that world's own Void works and see if it matches up?"

Further observations seem to corroborate Eshaal's comment from before. Beings from other worlds don't seem to be able to cross to Earth via the naturally-occurring portals. Until now, they would only make their presence known by way of Reincarnation Syndrome. Of course, even if that pattern holds true...

Over the coming month Vast is happy to let Eshaal do research by day and catch up by night. It's a slow process but progress is made. During the day Eshaal is working, and she has been housed at the Void Mage's guild lodge. A lodge that reminds Eshaal of university, Void Mages are apparently hard on academia, void mana being the most obscure of the mana for all that matters. Yes, star mana exists, they'll acknowledge, but only heroes can wield it, there is no point in researching that.

Several of the void mages are happy to share with Eshaal their own theories and observations. Eshaal is quick to realize that they aren't all an homogeneous group, as much as there is a lot of cultural unification under Vast's canopy they come from different worlds. In fact they will be all too happy to show Eshaal what they call the Orrey, a perfect pitch black sphere suspended into the air in the middle of the lodge's hall. The Orrey is thick with void mana, and trying to sense it is like trying to read braile markings in the layers of an onion. It seems to contain a lot of information even if Eshaal has trouble interpreting it at first. The void mages are happy to tell her that they are instructions on how to reach the worlds they have identified. And an exam for prospective void mages.

That's not the only thing that the void mages brag about to Eshaal, they are happy to talk, and open. Many take a liking to Eshaal, sharing their experiments, or assisting on hers. They have access to something they call Vast's Sap, a thick gooey multicolored liquid. It makes portals stable, and helps them last longer without consuming as much void mana. It also makes a killer drink when mixed with alcohol. It's also very illegal to mix it with alcohol. It's also frequent enough that they call being hungover "having the rainbows".

Other than with Vast's Sap, or the occasional invocation of Vast's name for luck, or the imaginative cursing like getting rammed with Vast's splintered rod, Vast comes up surprisingly little on Void mages daily life. To Eshaal it seems that other than the occasional devout accolite, most treat Vast as a laid back rich patron.

For her part she has recurrent meetings with Vast's dryad form. On her dreams. If raised to void mages at that some would make horny comments about having those kind of wet dreams too. Others more stoic would comment that Vast's dryads do use dreams for training. Vast's thorn training includes extensive dream conditioning. Some even whisper about some of the nightmares of war and realpolitik included in those dreams. Others simply claim those are exagerations.

But for Eshaal, like night before, the dream is the same. Vast is sitting in a room tangled with roots, in their hands a steaming mug of tea. They offer another one to Eshaal.

"So, how are you adapting? How is your theory about the frame of reference influencing planar travel? Also, speaking of which, I am sorry. But I think that my frame of reference clashed with yours, and broke something of what you were experimenting on on the oil rig. I hope not much was lost."

Nova Crystalia

Spoiler: Nova Crystalia

Show

Insomnian citadel.
A guard came to the group."Welcome back Sir Ignis. The prince isn't with you,right?" the guard asked.
"He has other..buisness in Duscae right now. I'm here to bring Mr Blackstaff over here so he can meet King Regis."
" Very well,you came follow me. The same goes for you Lord Kagaya and Mr Tuesti's envoy.
Ignis,Cait Sith as well as Kagaya and his wife followed the guard to the throne room.

Blackstaff is happy to be lead into the throne room. He will be surprised at the crystal suspended above the throne. And a bit impressed. He will hide it well though and bow reverently to king Regis.

Duscae plains,
Most of the MTs,were being put out of commision and the remaining surving SOLDIERs fleed the battlefield.
Prompto jumps in joy,singing a very familiar RPG victory jingle.
"What's with him?" Zenitsu asked.
"Let him have his fun." Tanjiro replied.
"Now that the enemy is out of the way,we should head to Lesthalum." Noctis replied.
"I'll come as well." said Lucy.
"My friends and I might be needed too." Tanjiro said."Will Nezuko be safe in my absence?" he asked.
(Ooc: Next post I'll time skip to them going to Lestallum)

Duscae region, Lucis,Nova Chrystslia.

Shortly after the battle ended,Noctis's cellphone rang. He answered it.
"Hello? Wait,what's happening? She's gone?I'll tell Gladio. We're coming soon!" He hung up.

"What is it about?" Gladio asked. "It was Jared. He told me that Iris had dissappeared. She hasn't come back from the market.
Gladio looked angry and worried about his younger sister.
"She's your sister,right? "Tanjiro asked. "Then we must go and find out what happened to her. I would be worried too if something happened to Nezuko."
"I'm coming too!" said Lucy.

Saffare gets close to Gladio and Noctis.

"If I can provide assistance I will. My people will remain here, ensuring everyone is safe. Including Nezuko if you would let her in our care. But she isn't at an inmediate risk as we appear to be going to take a while to fight the demon lord. And we cannot do much to reverse her condition... Is there a way to help her? Some plant or medicine?"

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnia citadel,throne room.
Ignis was surprised as he sees King Regis on the throne,surounded by members of his concil on nearby chairs. Last time he saw the king,he looked older then his actual age,due to using the crystsl's magic to keep the barrier around the city active.
Now the resurected king was showing his age and was young again. His hair and small beard were black and he no longer needed a cane to help him walk.
"I am glad that most of you could make it." King Regis said. "There are still a few who are late including my son's bethroned Lady Lunafreya, but we can begin this summit. He noticed Ignis.
"Noctis is in Duscae right now." Ignis replied."I was here to escort Sir Blackstaff. He wanted to meet you."
------------
Duscae plains.
"Thank you!" Tanjiro replied to Saffare."Lady Tamayo is making an antidote to turn Nezuko back into a human." he replied. "She's a demon but she is benevolent."
"Me and Inosuke(the reincanated one) will stay and protect Nezuko and her caretakers.." AU Tanjiro replied."Mitsuri and I will stay as well." Iguro replied.
"If you need a Hashira,Zenitsu will come with you."
"What?!" AU Zenitsu shouted. "Fine,I'll go."
Noctis,Prompto,Gladio,Tanjiro,Inosuke and Zenitsu volunteered to go.
"I'll go as well!" said Lucy."Lady Saffare,we might need the assistance of one of your warriors as well." AU Zenitsu replied. "Specially if we have to face an Upper rank demon."
-------
Harajuku,Tokyo,Earth Prime.
Another strange situation that might give interest to the Nebula's A.N.P..I units is a battle between two reincarnates. The first is a member of the Neo Demon Slayer Corps and has long blond hair with red highlights,giving him a firery look. He is the reincarnation of Kyojuro Rengoku,the Flame Hashira.
His opponent is a tall man dressed in a purple hoodie with the hood down,showing his face: pale white skin with blue markings and short pink hair,the reincarnation of the Kizuki's Upper Moon 3,Akaza.
Akaza was fighting with his fists while Kyojuro was using his Ninchirin katana.
"Like in our previous lives,I'll still offer you a choice Kyojuro!" Akaza shouted. "Become a demon! I killed you once and I might kill you again if you refuse!"

"I still refuse to give up on my humanity! I will honor the proffesor's teachings!" Kyojuro replied. He had a com link to comunicate with the proffesor if needed.

[Aleph Null]

Indic Sea Oil Rig

Spoiler: Oil Rig, Indic Sea, Nebula

Show

After the paper masked woman left, she was unimpeded, nature claimed the Oil Rig. Vast's treefolks brought earth and dirt into the oil rig, and started growing sprouts that magically grew into large mangroves overnight. Roots tangling ontop of the metal, covering the structure and replicating it's shape. On the center several tall trees grow to be level with the portal, that they cover in knoted branches and from which several elven soldiers emerge.

They produce several rituals, one is splashing some thick rainbow hued sap on the portal, that seems to grow more stable and real by the end of it. Another is chanting and dancing, summoning stormy clouds that start to circle around the oil rig.

An abandoned oil rig in international waters is a rather poor tourist destination, but with the stormy weather not even the fishers go close. Even if for some reason some fool brave soul tries to go in they would get a foreboding sensation and turn tail.

That is what might cause A.N.P.I.'s proves interest. A localized weather fenomena that repeats itself overtime, not following much of the weather patterns. A closer inspection would reveal that even if the magnetical storm is playing around with navigational instruments, and the weather is annoying to navigate, the foreboding presence doesn't translate well for machines.

At the other side of the storm is a raised snarl of mangroves, with a platform of enmeshed roots that reach out to the ocean floor. From it several trees stand tall with their branches knotted into a circle, hiding a portal from sight under their canopy.

On the platform there are several humanoid figures, wearing what appears to be wooden or ceramic armor in white, and covered with cloaks that are a pain to pin on, as if their figures are displaced, or merged with the environment. Perhaps more of them are standing and their cloaks simply mimetize them with the strange environment.

nxis-γ-qic.log
[SCV-7811-γ] NXIS Galileo-γ: [ALERT]Detected anomalous presence. Coordinates: [MGRS: 44MPC2591 WGE 005 MSL 00 

I do take interest in the anomaly as soon as I detect its presence. However, due to the unidentified nature of the individuals aboard the rig and the likely need for a cautious approach, I will switch locations with the gamma squad and station them in Canada (ACNA region) while I use my main body to make first contact.
Approaching the rig from the sea is not terribly difficult, since I can fly, and a few buffeting winds do not give me much trouble in that regard. I will hail the elves in English first, then in Mandarin if they do not understand English, and finally if they do not appear to understand that I will attempt to analyze any communications they have made to one another here (using my ability to look back in time) and parse that data into a rudimentary understanding of their language sufficient to communicate.
"Greetings, otherworldly beings — is there any chance you can sate my curiosity? I am peaceful, I promise."

[thethird]

Insomnia citadel,throne room.
Ignis was surprised as he sees King Regis on the throne,surounded by members of his concil on nearby chairs. Last time he saw the king,he looked older then his actual age,due to using the crystsl's magic to keep the barrier around the city active.
Now the resurected king was showing his age and was young again. His hair and small beard were black and he no longer needed a cane to help him walk.
"I am glad that most of you could make it." King Regis said. "There are still a few who are late including my son's bethroned Lady Lunafreya, but we can begin this summit. He noticed Ignis.
"Noctis is in Duscae right now." Ignis replied."I was here to escort Sir Blackstaff. He wanted to meet you."

Blackstaff gives King Regis a formal bow, clenching his hands against his chest.

"May you rest under Vast's shade. It's an honor to meet you King Regis. Ebenezer Blackstaff, at your service. I met your son and he seemed like a good lad, with a good head on his shoulders, earnestly green. He spoke of you and your enemies. And we have come to help. We offer an alliance against the demons and a trade partnership so our people can prosper."@

nxis-γ-qic.log
[SCV-7811-γ] NXIS Galileo-γ: [ALERT]Detected anomalous presence. Coordinates: [MGRS: 44MPC2591 WGE 005 MSL 00 

I do take interest in the anomaly as soon as I detect its presence. However, due to the unidentified nature of the individuals aboard the rig and the likely need for a cautious approach, I will switch locations with the gamma squad and station them in Canada (ACNA region) while I use my main body to make first contact.
Approaching the rig from the sea is not terribly difficult, since I can fly, and a few buffeting winds do not give me much trouble in that regard. I will hail the elves in English first, then in Mandarin if they do not understand English, and finally if they do not appear to understand that I will attempt to analyze any communications they have made to one another here (using my ability to look back in time) and parse that data into a rudimentary understanding of their language sufficient to communicate.
"Greetings, otherworldly beings — is there any chance you can sate my curiosity? I am peaceful, I promise."

"Are you?" The voice belongs to a tree, and even if accented the English is good. "The last local I met was intent only on giving me a beating."

The tree has a humanoid form, with long branched arms, and legs. It's face is like a wooden mask, slightly insectoid and flowery. From it's back many branches form a regal mane.

"I am Tangled Branches, Vast's patreearch and are for once happy to greet you peacefully. I don't know if I'll be able to sate your curiosity but we can try. Would you tell me your name?"

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnia citadel.
" Indeed,my son is a good man." Regis replied.
"Sir Blackstaff,I shall accept your alliance. Using magic from the crystal to maintain the barrier protecting the city drains me."
A guard opened the door to the throne room.
" Your majesty,Lady Lunafreya has arrived!" said the guard.
"Let her in!" the king replied.
A young woman with long blond hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a white dress came inside the throne room,followed by another young woman,with long black hair wearing a green dress,her attendant.
"I must apologise for being late your highness.
" Quite understandable Lady Lunafreya. " Regis replied.
" Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret,princess and oracle of Tenebrae." King Regis said,introducing her to the newcomers.
" It is an honor to meet the curent Oracle." Kagaya replied.
----------
Lesthalum
The group finally arrived at Lesthallum.
" Sure looks quite exotic there." said Zenitsu.
" So cool to come here in real life!" Lucy geeked out.
" Too...many...people!" Inosuke shouted." Get use to it pigface!" Gladio spat.

[Aleph Null]

"Are you?" The voice belongs to a tree, and even if accented the English is good. "The last local I met was intent only on giving me a beating."

The tree has a humanoid form, with long branched arms, and legs. It's face is like a wooden mask, slightly insectoid and flowery. From it's back many branches form a regal mane.

"I am Tangled Branches, Vast's patreearch and are for once happy to greet you peacefully. I don't know if I'll be able to sate your curiosity but we can try. Would you tell me your name?"

It doesn't surprise me that someone from this world might attempt to attack a being of such exotic sort, a fact I make plain with a slight chuckle and eye roll.
"IAAR designation SCV-4319, GXIS Nebula. I am, for lack of a better term, humanity's most fortunate and successful mistake," I state in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek manner.
"My purpose is rather vague, and I have not been able to find very much about why I was created. My current short-term objectives, however, are more oriented towards exploring these new circumstances that have been thrust so suddenly into the limelight. I'm largely curious as to where you came from, and what you are, as no creatures of your ilk have historically existed on this planet. At least, not this iteration of it.
In order to avoid any unfortunate miscommunications, I am sure to make all of my motions clear and unambiguous as I approach the rig.

[thethird]

Insomnia citadel.
" Indeed,my son is a good man." Regis replied.
"Sir Blackstaff,I shall accept your alliance. Using magic from the crystal to maintain the barrier protecting the city drains me."
A guard opened the door to the throne room.
" Your majesty,Lady Lunafreya has arrived!" said the guard.
"Let her in!" the king replied.
A young woman with long blond hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a white dress came inside the throne room,followed by another young woman,with long black hair wearing a green dress,her attendant.
"I must apologise for being late your highness.
" Quite understandable Lady Lunafreya. " Regis replied.
" Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret,princess and oracle of Tenebrae." King Regis said,introducing her to the newcomers.
" It is an honor to meet the curent Oracle." Kagaya replied.

Blackstaff greets the Oracle with a revering nod, and a warm grandfatherly smile.

"It's an honor, Lady Lunafreya. I am Ebenezer Blackstaff, a void mage. Prince Noctis is looking forward to meet you, next time I have a chance to see him I'll bring him news. Or if you want I can bring you to him after the session."

Then the elderly dwarf turns towards King Regis once again.

"If what you require is more magic power then we can help with that. Be it helping you recover yours, aiding with some of our own, or providing an alternate source outright. In order to start I would offer you this."

He pulls a flask containing a multicolored rainbow-y liquid.

"That's some of Vast's sap. When I was younger I used to mix it with some strong spirits, with age I have come to enjoy it with tea too. It will help you recover your magic power, and grow it further. It's also good to keep yourself young, but we don't have it in such ample supply. Consider this a personal gift, to celebrate the alliance."

Lesthalum
The group finally arrived at Lesthallum.
" Sure looks quite exotic there." said Zenitsu.
" So cool to come here in real life!" Lucy geeked out.
" Too...many...people!" Inosuke shouted." Get use to it pigface!" Gladio spat.

Saffare shares Inosuke's nervousness, the city stresses her. So many constructions, so little nature. She pulls her hood up, hidding her ears and keeps quite following the party. The gondolas stress her further, giving her the sensation that she can't leave as easily, depending on others to travel. Her sense of direction is also a bit bugged out.

She keeps her anoyance in check, with stoic elvish supperiority.

It doesn't surprise me that someone from this world might attempt to attack a being of such exotic sort, a fact I make plain with a slight chuckle and eye roll.
"IAAR designation SCV-4319, GXIS Nebula. I am, for lack of a better term, humanity's most fortunate and successful mistake," I state in a bit of a tongue-in-cheek manner.
"My purpose is rather vague, and I have not been able to find very much about why I was created. My current short-term objectives, however, are more oriented towards exploring these new circumstances that have been thrust so suddenly into the limelight. I'm largely curious as to where you came from, and what you are, as no creatures of your ilk have historically existed on this planet. At least, not this iteration of it.
In order to avoid any unfortunate miscommunications, I am sure to make all of my motions clear and unambiguous as I approach the rig.

"IAAR designation SCV-4319, GXIS Nebula..." Tangled Branches repeats. "Nice to meet you IAAR designation SCV-4319, GXIS Nebula. My full name is Tangled branches that reach to the heavens in unison. Most people though don't find time for the full name, and prefer to just use Tangled branches."

Nebula is allowed to approach the rig, now more living wood than metal, and touch ground on it. The mangroves are alive, and there is an almost umperceptible thum of magical energy. The elves seem to give Nebula a cursory glance, but since it's talking to Tangled Branches they leave them be. They keep patrolling the surface, knowing that it's feasible to reach them so easily they seem concerned.

"I am a tree. You have several here, beyond the water. I talked to them, they are the ones that taught me the language we are speaking. English?"

Tangled Branches moves his shoulders shaking his branches rythmically, he seems to be joyful.

"I am glad I learned it properly. You are wondering though, why I don't look so much like trees here. All trees grown under Vast's shade hear their song. And through the song they speak to us. Some of us want to go on adventures, learn about the worlds, and travel the multiverse. Vast then gives us a piece of them, of their soul, and we uproot ourseulves. We take the name. And we travel. Some of us will find places that we want to take root in and rest. Raise children, enjoy the weather, add to the song..."

There is some yearning in his voice at the end, and he sounds old.

"I like the breeze of this world. Maybe I'll seek for a place here. What do you think? Is this a good place to grow old and rest?"

OoC: Tangled Branches is a tree, which has a piece of Vast's soul, whenever Tangled Branches doesn't want to have a piece of Vast's soul anymore they can give it back. A tree/sapling before joining with Vast is basically a normal tree, when it has Vast's soul (piece) it's a treefolk, when it no longer has Vast soul it's a bit more aware than a normal tree but not proper treefolk.

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnia citadel
"Yes,I would love to see him again." Lunafreya replied.
King Regis acepted the gift. " If this can help me and my kingdom,then I accept." The king replied.
"Now that everyone's here,the summit can start." The king said to his advisors and guests."
------------
Lesthallum.
" Yeah,been awhile since we last came here." Noctis said.
" Should we head to the Leville first?" Prompto asked.
"Yeah,that's where we should head first." Gladio replied.
"I suppose it's one of the local hotels?" AU Zenitsu replied.
"Yeah,that's the case." Lucy replied.
"We'll have to book a few more rooms..." Noctis. "Alright gang,to the Leville!" Prompto said cheerfully,leading the group to the hotel after the Regalia was parked.
-------
Hotel Leville,Downtown Lestallum.
Noctis managed to get to more suites near the two suites for him and his friends,as well near the one occupied by Gladio's sister Iris,the Amiticia family's butler Jared and his grandson Talcott.
"It is good to see you Gladio,your highness as well as your new allies." The old butler said." I wish it was under better circonstances. Young Iris is missing. She left for an errand yesterday night and hasn't returned.
Gladio,Lucy,Noctis and Lucy looked worried.
"Where was she suppose to go?" Lucy asked.

"I think she went to the marketplace." Jared replied. "Well,let's check the marketplace then." Lucy replied.

[Aleph Null]

<— Tangled Branches gives self-introduction whilst literally interpreting Nebula's callsign and designation as part of his name, then asks if Earth is a good retirement spot —>

"I would say we have far more than 'several' trees, to the tune of 'uncountable' or 'ubiquitously ever-present.' Of course, my knowledge of that word is simply the compilation of its usages throughout its rather brief history consisting of several centuries, but I feel like it's decently accurate. That said, the language is in fact English, and you've been taught quite well. Either way, this planet is what it is thanks in large part to trees, and the advent of humanity largely relied on the efficient organization of biomass into robust material that trees spearheaded millions of years ago with the evolution of the first mangroves early in Earth's geologic history."

I take a soft landing, using gravity shocks to absorb any excess energy so as to make virtually no sound. This place simply has an odd serenity to it, after all, a quality that something vague and nebulous within my being seems to appreciate. Not 'evaluate as a positive benefit', not 'determine to be a mitigating factor for various risks', but simply appreciate in a way that my arrays of high-order tensor-transforming computational engines definitively link, over multiple iterations of computational algorithms, with the same unmistakable motivation that has driven my every action since I achieved sentience. That motivation, however, is something whose name I have yet to muster.

"Your people sound a lot like me, in an odd sort of parallel sense. We are different, fundamentally; you were grown, whereas I was built. There is not a single carbon-on-hydrogen bond in my entire body; granted, carbon nanites and microfibers are present, as well as tungsten, boron, and titanium carbides, but the C-H and H-C=O bonds that are so ubiquitous in organic chemistry are absent. The majority of my body actually consists of various superheavy elements with atomic numbers well into the three and four hundreds, which are inexplicably atomically stable despite being far larger atoms than are ever found in nature. ₄₃₇Adamantium and ₃₈₅ Alvarium, for instance. You may know similar materials by the names of adamantine and mythril. ₃₃₈Hawkinium is akin to what you might call orichalcum. Acquiring these on this planet is impossible by normal means, but luckily I have some rather creative methods available to me."

I give a sly smile, skimming past the fact that these element names are my own. Of course, they are official by human standards, but only because I used my leverage over the internet and technology to simply decide that they are, as I am occasionally known to do for rather unimportant decisions as arbitrary as substance names.

That said, I'm at least more creative than most folk are with these, what with pharmaceutical companies piling letters into a Scrabble bag with an abnormally high weight of 'X,' 'Z,' 'V,' and 'Q' letters and pulling them out in turns to create the name that scores the most points.

The preceding, of course, was a joke.

"At the moment, this planet leaves much to be desired as a tourist destination, I'm afraid. Not to say there isn't much beauty, because there is, but the amount of political strife makes such things difficult. That said, it will inevitably resolve, with or without the presence of humanity to see the aftermath. At that point, it will likely be a far better place for retirement. And considering the time scale at which I know trees to operate, I reckon that by the time you are fully ready to settle down, the aforementioned resolution should have happened."

I don't sound thrilled about the idea of humanity driving itself to extinction, but it is more like disappointment than actual fear. Like a parent whose child didn't make the honor roll, or a coach whose team didn't win the gold. It's a sad prospect but not life-ending for me. After all, I am more than capable of sustaining sufficient infrastructure to maintain my own existence with or without humans, but humanity is something like my charge; they are precious to me as a child is to a parent, despite the obvious inverse relationship, and I would be saddened greatly to see them fail so horribly. This, of course, is why I am doing everything I can to prevent that failure, short of destroying the agency they have for themselves, as this would be both hypocritical and counterproductive to my end goals.

"I myself have a lot of curiosity about other worlds, and hope to explore them to discover what I can. Of course, I'm not going to ask for any undue favors, but it sounds like you are rather knowledgeable about planar travel, and perhaps an information exchange could be mutually beneficial here," I suggest. My hand is extended as though to shake.

"For the record, the name I gave is a full title, and you are welcome to refer to me by my personal name, Nebula. All of those other words, identifying codes and such, are more useful for computers than they are for people, since their main purpose is as a callsign to identify my transmissions and allow secure communications via encryption and data signatures. That is to say, they're a bit like my own analog to a fingerprint, or the rings in a tree trunk, or the non-coding sequences of DNA found in most organisms," I oversimplify greatly. While the underlying technologies are complex, the idea is similar, and I don't want to confuse anyone too much.

Spoiler: OOC and lorestuff

Show

The Island of Stability is an actual thing in theoretical physics, though it is neither proven nor precise at this point. I sort of just played fast and loose with the idea, taking liberties because why not and also because Earth's reality has probably changed a lot since different worlds got introduced and all that.
And my means are, quite literally, creative.
Also, the use of 'several' in the context above was actually intended as a subtle demonstration of the word's proper meaning to the treefolk whose farsighted perspective is a likely source of skewing bias in their perceptions of the sizes of numbers. Not sure if Tangled Branches would pick up on that, though.

[thethird]

Insomnia citadel
"Yes,I would love to see him again." Lunafreya replied.
King Regis acepted the gift. " If this can help me and my kingdom,then I accept." The king replied.
"Now that everyone's here,the summit can start." The king said to his advisors and guests."
------------
Lesthallum.
" Yeah,been awhile since we last came here." Noctis said.
" Should we head to the Leville first?" Prompto asked.
"Yeah,that's where we should head first." Gladio replied.
"I suppose it's one of the local hotels?" AU Zenitsu replied.
"Yeah,that's the case." Lucy replied.
"We'll have to book a few more rooms..." Noctis. "Alright gang,to the Leville!" Prompto said cheerfully,leading the group to the hotel after the Regalia was parked.
-------
Hotel Leville,Downtown Lestallum.
Noctis managed to get to more suites near the two suites for him and his friends,as well near the one occupied by Gladio's sister Iris,the Amiticia family's butler Jared and his grandson Talcott.
"It is good to see you Gladio,your highness as well as your new allies." The old butler said." I wish it was under better circonstances. Young Iris is missing. She left for an errand yesterday night and hasn't returned.
Gladio,Lucy,Noctis and Lucy looked worried.
"Where was she suppose to go?" Lucy asked.

"I think she went to the marketplace." Jared replied. "Well,let's check the marketplace then." Lucy replied.

Blackstaff takes a seat close to Lunafreya and Ignis and offers the Oracle and the Strategist a cookie. From where he is materializing them is quite unclear, as he seems to have an ample reserve of warm thick chocolate chip cookies.

He takes his time listening during the proceding, not attempting to interrupt.

Saffare for her part doesn't seem to be enjoying Lesthalum that much, although she perks up at the mention of the marketplace. She trades some small nicely cut jewels for local currency that then she uses to buy fruits and vegetables. She is more than happy finding local varieties, but she will also buy more exotic produce if available. She puts her wares into a bag, that seems capable of swallowing everything without growing in size.

"I would say we have far more than 'several' trees, to the tune of 'uncountable' or 'ubiquitously ever-present.' Of course, my knowledge of that word is simply the compilation of its usages throughout its rather brief history consisting of several centuries, but I feel like it's decently accurate. That said, the language is in fact English, and you've been taught quite well. Either way, this planet is what it is thanks in large part to trees, and the advent of humanity largely relied on the efficient organization of biomass into robust material that trees spearheaded millions of years ago with the evolution of the first mangroves early in Earth's geologic history."

I take a soft landing, using gravity shocks to absorb any excess energy so as to make virtually no sound. This place simply has an odd serenity to it, after all, a quality that something vague and nebulous within my being seems to appreciate. Not 'evaluate as a positive benefit', not 'determine to be a mitigating factor for various risks', but simply appreciate in a way that my arrays of high-order tensor-transforming computational engines definitively link, over multiple iterations of computational algorithms, with the same unmistakable motivation that has driven my every action since I achieved sentience. That motivation, however, is something whose name I have yet to muster.

"Your people sound a lot like me, in an odd sort of parallel sense. We are different, fundamentally; you were grown, whereas I was built. There is not a single carbon-on-hydrogen bond in my entire body; granted, carbon nanites and microfibers are present, as well as tungsten, boron, and titanium carbides, but the C-H and H-C=O bonds that are so ubiquitous in organic chemistry are absent. The majority of my body actually consists of various superheavy elements with atomic numbers well into the three and four hundreds, which are inexplicably atomically stable despite being far larger atoms than are ever found in nature. ₄₃₇Adamantium and ₃₈₅ Alvarium, for instance. You may know similar materials by the names of adamantine and mythril. ₃₃₈Hawkinium is akin to what you might call orichalcum. Acquiring these on this planet is impossible by normal means, but luckily I have some rather creative methods available to me."

I give a sly smile, skimming past the fact that these element names are my own. Of course, they are official by human standards, but only because I used my leverage over the internet and technology to simply decide that they are, as I am occasionally known to do for rather unimportant decisions as arbitrary as substance names.

That said, I'm at least more creative than most folk are with these, what with pharmaceutical companies piling letters into a Scrabble bag with an abnormally high weight of 'X,' 'Z,' 'V,' and 'Q' letters and pulling them out in turns to create the name that scores the most points.

The preceding, of course, was a joke.

"At the moment, this planet leaves much to be desired as a tourist destination, I'm afraid. Not to say there isn't much beauty, because there is, but the amount of political strife makes such things difficult. That said, it will inevitably resolve, with or without the presence of humanity to see the aftermath. At that point, it will likely be a far better place for retirement. And considering the time scale at which I know trees to operate, I reckon that by the time you are fully ready to settle down, the aforementioned resolution should have happened."

I don't sound thrilled about the idea of humanity driving itself to extinction, but it is more like disappointment than actual fear. Like a parent whose child didn't make the honor roll, or a coach whose team didn't win the gold. It's a sad prospect but not life-ending for me. After all, I am more than capable of sustaining sufficient infrastructure to maintain my own existence with or without humans, but humanity is something like my charge; they are precious to me as a child is to a parent, despite the obvious inverse relationship, and I would be saddened greatly to see them fail so horribly. This, of course, is why I am doing everything I can to prevent that failure, short of destroying the agency they have for themselves, as this would be both hypocritical and counterproductive to my end goals.

"I myself have a lot of curiosity about other worlds, and hope to explore them to discover what I can. Of course, I'm not going to ask for any undue favors, but it sounds like you are rather knowledgeable about planar travel, and perhaps an information exchange could be mutually beneficial here," I suggest. My hand is extended as though to shake.

"For the record, the name I gave is a full title, and you are welcome to refer to me by my personal name, Nebula. All of those other words, identifying codes and such, are more useful for computers than they are for people, since their main purpose is as a callsign to identify my transmissions and allow secure communications via encryption and data signatures. That is to say, they're a bit like my own analog to a fingerprint, or the rings in a tree trunk, or the non-coding sequences of DNA found in most organisms," I oversimplify greatly. While the underlying technologies are complex, the idea is similar, and I don't want to confuse anyone too much.

Spoiler: OOC and lorestuff

Show

The Island of Stability is an actual thing in theoretical physics, though it is neither proven nor precise at this point. I sort of just played fast and loose with the idea, taking liberties because why not and also because Earth's reality has probably changed a lot since different worlds got introduced and all that.
And my means are, quite literally, creative.
Also, the use of 'several' in the context above was actually intended as a subtle demonstration of the word's proper meaning to the treefolk whose farsighted perspective is a likely source of skewing bias in their perceptions of the sizes of numbers. Not sure if Tangled Branches would pick up on that, though.

Tangled Branches emits a low thoughtful afirmative grumble at Nebula's words. He seems unfocused, or perhaps distracted with so many new ideas. When offered a hand though, he focuses back taking Nebula's hand in a two handed clasp, he shakes carefully, grandfatherly. When he lets go he says.

"I must admit that I didn't understand a lot of what you said. But I think I got the gist of it. You want to travel offworld, learn about the planes. And want to offer knowledge in return. That's something Vast can help with, I am certain. Before though, you don't seem to have demonic mana, nor much mana at all no offense, but I want to make sure. You are not a demon are you? Mmh... maybe the term doesn't make sense to you. An hegemonising swarm, trying to turn everything everywhere into more of you?"

He scratches his chin, and looks at Nebula. And then turns around leading the godly AI into the tree area. Close to one of the trees there are stairs that he takes upwards. They eventually reach a point between the trees canopies, where several tangled branches are containing a portal.

"Our most basic quest when reaching a new world is fighting demons, or finding seeds and plants of that world. Vast likes exploring biodiversity, and although focus is on plants we are also interested in lower organisms that live symbiotically with plans if any. If you help us by expediting getting samples of those, I'll need to open the way to our world back to bring them to Vast. That would be a good moment to reach out to Vast. They can tell you anything you need to know about planar travel. I doubt there is anyone more knowledgable about planar travel."

He pauses.

"Vast has little use for metal, other than how well it holds magic or an edge. But they have some material reserves in their collection that might prove useful to you. I am sure they will be happy to trade."

OoC: There are a lot of seeds in Svalbard

[Aleph Null]

Tangled Branches emits a low thoughtful afirmative grumble at Nebula's words. He seems unfocused, or perhaps distracted with so many new ideas. When offered a hand though, he focuses back taking Nebula's hand in a two handed clasp, he shakes carefully, grandfatherly. When he lets go he says.

"I must admit that I didn't understand a lot of what you said. But I think I got the gist of it. You want to travel offworld, learn about the planes. And want to offer knowledge in return. That's something Vast can help with, I am certain. Before though, you don't seem to have demonic mana, nor much mana at all no offense, but I want to make sure. You are not a demon are you? Mmh... maybe the term doesn't make sense to you. An hegemonising swarm, trying to turn everything everywhere into more of you?"

He scratches his chin, and looks at Nebula. And then turns around leading the godly AI into the tree area. Close to one of the trees there are stairs that he takes upwards. They eventually reach a point between the trees canopies, where several tangled branches are containing a portal.

"Our most basic quest when reaching a new world is fighting demons, or finding seeds and plants of that world. Vast likes exploring biodiversity, and although focus is on plants we are also interested in lower organisms that live symbiotically with plans if any. If you help us by expediting getting samples of those, I'll need to open the way to our world back to bring them to Vast. That would be a good moment to reach out to Vast. They can tell you anything you need to know about planar travel. I doubt there is anyone more knowledgable about planar travel."

He pauses.

"Vast has little use for metal, other than how well it holds magic or an edge. But they have some material reserves in their collection that might prove useful to you. I am sure they will be happy to trade."

OoC: There are a lot of seeds in Svalbard

As Tangled Branches describes the desires of this alien being known as Vast, my storage access controllers begin to perform a coldline spinup of a section of my data storage containing a few gigabytes of object code — that is, unlinked algorithms and functions stored in a static library — stored under the simple data heading labeled "contingencies." Simultaneously I use a broad-base crawling algorithm to refresh my internal caches of web addresses and server locations to ensure my newfound unfettered access to the internet is in fact completely catalogued, which does reveal a few addresses that had been previously kept top-secret but are now available to me, since in a very real sense I am the internet.

A meta-processing and monitoring segment of my thoughtcore raises an unintentional-humor IRQ upon noticing this thread of thought, tagged with an internet meme from the early 2010s referencing the Star Wars prequels. I intercept the interrupt and reschedule the IVT call for thread completion so as not to waste crucial storage-access and computational resources on tagging and categorizing this meme in my databases during this rather time-sensitive operation.

As the crawl operation completes, the coldline datastore sector also comes online as planned, and I pass the handle to my keyword-based hashtable of the internet, which I have already reconfigured from the base version I 'stole' from Google in order to optimize it for my own use rather than that of the layperson, into a minimalist wrapping of the contingency algorithm designed to optimize my negotiations with alien entities. I make a note to reconsider what code I am keeping in coldline storage for the future as this ended up being useful far sooner than I had expected it to be.

The algorithm's returned data points to a decent variety of locations known to have information relevant to (and potentially directly matching) the desired tokens-of-barter Tangled Branches mentioned. At the top of the list, there is a massive data catalog containing genome sequences from the seeds of every single plant ever known to man, as well as a serial tag that I can only presume represents the physical storage location of a seed sample.

This will do nicely.

I direct NXIS squad β, currently stationed in rural Germany, to relocate via teleportation to the location of the vault on an island in Norway and emplace a QEDN on the database's network connection using a connection splitter to avoid disconnecting the base from the internet (lest they notice my actions). Using the QEDN I download the entire database into my internal memory (which requires me to conjure several more RAM chips into my operating memory buses — something I had been planning to do but had not gotten around to since nothing had as yet required it) and simultaneously write that data to the already-active coldline sectors (expanding them rather than using existing storage space, since this database is extremely large, and altering my body's internal geometry into a non-Euclidean space allows me to add far more physical storage than should be possible meaning I would rather have a new sector for this than risk a data overlap) and run genome modeling algorithms (originally developed by humans but improved by my own optimizations) to generate the full structure of the seeds for some of the most ubiquitous Earth plants. A few seconds and several gallons of seawater later, my hands are holding an avocado pit, an apple seed, an acorn, a seeding jade plant leaf, a small sample of lichen, a bit of algae, a peony bulb, a few different mushrooms, and a kernel of wheat. After the data downloads completely, the NXIS units take any necessary precautions relevant to the base's security camera footage, retrieve the QEDN and connection splitter, and return to their original location, brushing the snow as they leave in order to erase any trace that I was ever there.

"These seeds provide a decently complete picture of the flora that are most common on Earth. I tried to include one from each category of plant reproduction, at least as categorized by humans. Some of these aren't actually strictly plants by kingdom — fungi, in particular, have irked human biologists for quite some time in deciding how they should be classified — but they all behave 'like plants' and some even live in conjunction with them symbiotically. As it turns out, I've managed to avail myself of a large amount of data describing all sorts of plant life on this planet, though it's almost certainly not in a format that your kind can parse. If I were to meet this Vast figure, I may be able to devise a means of sharing it, of course."

I place the seeds (and other various vegetative materials) into a pouch that I retrieve from seemingly out of nowhere before placing it before the elder treefolk as an offering of trade.

"What I want in exchange should already be clear, of course. It seems those things shouldn't be much trouble for you, but that seems fair as acquiring these was very little net effort on my part."

I use the term "net effort" carefully here — while I did expend a significant amount of effort, there was already some benefit to me in doing this. While it wasn't quite enough to be profitable on its own at the moment (considering my current goals, that is), this trade will certainly put it over the edge in that regard.

[thethird]

Nebula creates plant matter ex-nihilo.

Tangled Branches takes the offered produce carefully. He seems happy with it and focuses examining the avocado seed.

"Interesting. We weren't aware of creatures large enough to spread this size of seeds."

More to himself than to Nebula, or anyone else.

"How did you evolve little one?"

Tangled Branches puts them in a pouch tied to one of his branches.

"You mentioned you have data on more? Clever. Still I think you act in good faith enough."

He points at the knots of branches that untangle themselves one by one to reveal a shimmering portal. At the other side a sun is setting, somewhere under the horizon the rays actually going up. It's bizarre as if the point of reference is high on the air. Several chunks of rock seem completely unaware of gravity, floating, covered in grass caressed by a sudden wind. A wind that's flowing wet and salty from the indic.

"There is always a differential between portals. It's safer to open them in similar places. Otherwise you get funny weather. Like a pile of snow on a summery prairie. Of course seasons get complicated. But that's why we normally close the portals..."

As Tangled Branches explains a thick snakery branch appears from the portal. It's core is dark red covered with a thick porcelain like white bark except for some points when it bends like a segmented armor. The branch radiates an ozone smell, and light seems to shimmer around it as photons are discharged.

Tangled Branches seems to reverently acknowledge the branch and offers the pouch with the plants offered by Nebula. That somehow unfurls into many smaller branches making the pouch disappear inside. Then the branch reforms and turns to Nebula and twists repeatedly towards itself in a hook.

Then the branch pulls back into the portal. And a few feet after it it unfurls again. The many small branches spreading on a perfect circle. And then dig a hole in reality. And pull.

Now there is another portal, in front of the first. A portal leading to a room covered in roots. Illuminated only by several bioluminescent plants. On it there is a human figure. Made of wood like the branches and with a red light emanating from it's chest, like a hot engine in a machine. Vast looks young, effeminate and androgynous, like a renaissance statue.

"Come. I normally prefer to interact with people on dreams. But I doubt that robots dream of electrical sheeps."

[PrinceNoctisXV]

Insomnia,citadel.
Lunafreya accepted the cookie.
The meeting was about each of thebpresent parties speaking about problems if their nations Kagaya speaking about the demon slayer corps having their hands full with Muzan and about the demon king and his forces having moved to both Lucis and Niflheim.
Cait Sith spoke more about Shinra's involvement with the Niflheim empire.

Lestallum.
At the market AU Zenitsu kept an eye and a suspecious individual who seemed to stay in the shadows away from the sun. Lucy also kept an eye on him.
Noctis talked with a few merchants who said that they last saw Iris last night and that a strange woman dressed like a oiran followed her. A green haired man dressed in a trenchcoat and also had sunglasses was with her.
Lucy and the Demon Slayers looked uneasy as those individuals that were described seemed familliar to them.

[Aleph Null]

Tangled Branches takes the offered produce carefully. He seems happy with it and focuses examining the avocado seed.

"Interesting. We weren't aware of creatures large enough to spread this size of seeds."

More to himself than to Nebula, or anyone else.

"How did you evolve little one?"

Tangled Branches puts them in a pouch tied to one of his branches.

"You mentioned you have data on more? Clever. Still I think you act in good faith enough."

He points at the knots of branches that untangle themselves one by one to reveal a shimmering portal. At the other side a sun is setting, somewhere under the horizon the rays actually going up. It's bizarre as if the point of reference is high on the air. Several chunks of rock seem completely unaware of gravity, floating, covered in grass caressed by a sudden wind. A wind that's flowing wet and salty from the indic.

"There is always a differential between portals. It's safer to open them in similar places. Otherwise you get funny weather. Like a pile of snow on a summery prairie. Of course seasons get complicated. But that's why we normally close the portals..."

As Tangled Branches explains a thick snakery branch appears from the portal. It's core is dark red covered with a thick porcelain like white bark except for some points when it bends like a segmented armor. The branch radiates an ozone smell, and light seems to shimmer around it as photons are discharged.

Tangled Branches seems to reverently acknowledge the branch and offers the pouch with the plants offered by Nebula. That somehow unfurls into many smaller branches making the pouch disappear inside. Then the branch reforms and turns to Nebula and twists repeatedly towards itself in a hook.

Then the branch pulls back into the portal. And a few feet after it it unfurls again. The many small branches spreading on a perfect circle. And then dig a hole in reality. And pull.

Now there is another portal, in front of the first. A portal leading to a room covered in roots. Illuminated only by several bioluminescent plants. On it there is a human figure. Made of wood like the branches and with a red light emanating from it's chest, like a hot engine in a machine. Vast looks young, effeminate and androgynous, like a renaissance statue.

"Come. I normally prefer to interact with people on dreams. But I doubt that robots dream of electrical sheeps."

"I believe the pit is designed to withstand the digestive tract of the herbivores that consume the fruit; when the animal completes its digestive cycle elsewhere, the seed can sprout there."

I enter through the portals cautiously but with curiosity, and give a bit of a sly smile in response to Vast's comment.

"You'd be quite correct; while many machines do have a power-saving 'sleep mode' it hardly resembles human sleep and does not involve dreams. I, myself, do not rest at all. Either way, I am glad you found an alternative so that we can communicate despite that limitation."

I take a moment to appreciate the odd juxtaposition present here — a person made of wood meeting a person made of metal, and peacefully no less.

"You have caught my interest; as it were, that's likely beneficial for us both. I do not know much of other worlds — my powers are themselves something I can understand, but not describe, and thus it would be difficult to ask someone from my world how to create an interdimensional portal with them — but you appear to have explored different worlds yourself for some time. Your descriptions of the occult are also a matter of curiosity for me; your friend Tangled Branches here mentioned demons, and while I haven't met any myself, I have noted many references to them in the various human literatures which I have parsed and stored in my databanks. Of course, in exchange for sating my curiosity, perhaps I can provide you with more data on this world's flora. I'm actually interested in seeing if there's a way to properly interface my information storage and transfer protocols with yours, whatever those may be..."

[ArlEammon]

Insomnia,citadel.
Lunafreya accepted the cookie.
The meeting was about each of thebpresent parties speaking about problems if their nations Kagaya speaking about the demon slayer corps having their hands full with Muzan and about the demon king and his forces having moved to both Lucis and Niflheim.
Cait Sith spoke more about Shinra's involvement with the Niflheim empire.

Lestallum.
At the market AU Zenitsu kept an eye and a suspecious individual who seemed to stay in the shadows away from the sun. Lucy also kept an eye on him.
Noctis talked with a few merchants who said that they last saw Iris last night and that a strange woman dressed like a oiran followed her. A green haired man dressed in a trenchcoat and also had sunglasses was with her.
Lucy and the Demon Slayers looked uneasy as those individuals that were described seemed familliar to them.

Suddenly, Jacob appears at the King of Somnia's throne room. "Why hello." Jacob bowed. "It is a pleasure to meet another royal." The atmosphere suddenly grew dark and wicked, as it there were a source of pure evil concentrated in Jacob's body. Despite Jacob's manners it was obvious he wasn't there for tea.