"The child was Naka.... was that you?" she asks giving his responce... giving him a closer sniff to try and tell.

She puts the toolbelt on. "This is mine, my other self was a shape shifter... we had a means of binding things to our souls so they could shape shift aswell that the spirits tought us... it reconected when I touched it and adapted to my body." she explains.

She offers to let the elder smell one of the now larger tools. "You can smell what I use to be like before coming here if you wish." If they are shocked that something bigger than the tool bag comes out of the tool bag she will explain that is another trick spirits tought them.

She will use her fur to make a nice little warm place in one of the pouches to place the egg too.

If it's them she will crawl up onto there shoulder and give them the same (with out the healing aspect) lick on the head as before she gave, then sit on his shoulders to ride piggyback.

She searches her memories a little worried now thinking about things.... to see when Nimiaom left and came back how much time had passed for the others compared to the time that passed for her.  She is worred how the crystal affects the warping of time/space around it. There would be no way for them to tell by looking.

Shi quivers a moment, "Yes, Nimiaom. I was Naka," shi responds.


They nod, but Glitch can tell they don't fully understand - they do get the idea.

"May we dreamshare with you, and see what you are saying?" Kinaraowm asks.


Shi does, and so do Glitch's parents. They are interested and curious, but not concerned.


This doesn't surprise them. It's novel, but not shocking.

Almost immediately the shell dissolves, and the phoenix connects its vascular net to Glitch's circulatory system, giving Glitch immediate and intuitive knowledge about how the phoenix is doing, and even basic emotional telepathy. The pouch encloses itself to form a pseudo womb. This doesn't surprise her parents, who explain to Glitch that shi can nurture any creatures she finds in need in this way, and as long as she cares about them, they will heal or grow as much as they need to (in time).


Kinaraowm/Naka is very pleased by this - tears are streaming down hir face and shi is in joy.


The voice of Nimiaom soothes Glitch's mind with the shared knowledge that the crystal doesn't warp time more than the sask bodies compensate for.

Nimiaom lived about 20,000 years after building her habitat and before dying at a young adult age. That was about 30,000 years ago. Kinaraowm who was Naka was still a young adult.

The voice of Nimiaom speaks to Glitch in her mind, "Gichi," suddenly Glitch realizes that all of the adults have been referring to Glitch as "Gichi" - she had thought the word meant "baby" but now realizes that it's her name to them. Nimiaom continues, "Consider me to be your instincts. Will you trust me? You can always assert your will if you change your mind at any time. At other times, I will be silent, anyway."

She was worred about the time diffrence.... if the three boodiemen where still out there they where recovering many many times faster than her if time was dilated, and they may still have the same intents as before.

She agrees to them dreamsharing and Nimiaom acting as her instincts.

She will show them the ritual to bind things, aswell as her old self with the stuff she use to have. Including her labcoat, goggles, eyes, wrist device, and backpack.

She remembers a conversation with Slotter about how time doesn't mean anything in the Verse - the multiverse, that is. Versers are regularly versing into worlds where they meet up with another Verser in a completely different part of their personal timeline than the other Verser's timeline. Sometimes you'll see someone within 30 days from your perspective across a Verse, and the other person may have never yet met you, or they may have met you 1000s of times since your last meeting with them. That's to say nothing of the number of years of differing experience you may have from meeting to meeting.


So they dive into her memories, experiencing being a shape-shifter for themselves as if they were her. That portion of Glitch's soul imprints itself onto their souls. Seeing that Gichi is very mature for hir age, and has the memories and spirit of an adult colony and the mother of many, they collectively decide to share some of their own memories with Gichi.

Gichi remembers how to sing to the Living Tree Crystals, and cause the Living Tree to shape and grow and call out to their companions. Shi sees how Living Tree and Sask share the same genetic ancestry, and how they go-with one another. Shi sees how the entire genetic heritage of the entire hyper-habitat and whole Living Tree and every organism part of the environment is stored within the genes of the Living Tree, and can be grown from the Tree itself when it is large enough to support them. Shi remembers that their Tree is but one of many throughout the universe - present in millions of galaxies among the distant stars. She remembers how her ancestors trapped antimater to allow the universe to form with greater amounts of matter, and then farmed the ancient primordial hydrogen cloud to form optimal future galaxies. She remembers how their ancestors before them had farmed a previous universe and survived to the death of the final black hole, then provided a cosmic burst of dark-energy ((the repulsive force in the universe)) causing the nearly uniform ancient universe to reset into an exploding singularity baby universe. Gichi remembers how to welcome a new species or plant into the genome of the Living Tree, so that it is forever part of the environment as much as it is a benefit.


The voice of Nimiaom says, "Thank you."


Although her old body was destroyed by the black hole, epithelial cells of her old body remained. Some of these managed to work their way into the pouch with the egg, and Gichi's body was providing them with their own individual pouches. Glitch felt a vague sense of being in multiple places - in each of those pouches and the whole sask Gichi body - at the same time.

Gichi's instincts - Nimiaom - causes her to relax her mind and go along with the flow for a time.

Kinaraowm/Naka asks Gichi if shi will accept hir old mantle - the duties of being Gichiaom. Gichiaom would be a brave leader of the people, and guide them in spiritual matters. Nimiaom reassures Gichi that hir instincts would lead her directly in these matters - it would be Nimiaom speaking through Gichi as Gichiaom. The sask were already familiar with this type of thing.

Gichi's parents say, "You could still ask Kinaraowm to stay with us and teach you, or you could just live your own life, staying with us as long as you are willing."

If she incorporate some of those cells into herself aswell that would be nice otherwise just lets them all grow along side the phoenix. She asks if she can take up the spiritual role while still being tought and staying with her parents. She will do what ever is best for the Sask though.

She will try and see if she can sniff out her DNA though and find her other stuff, or if others can do it for her.

Although Sask genetics is extremely self-correcting and prevents the direct incorporation of the traits of other bodies ((so the somatic powers of Glitch's body can't be directly copied into Gichi's sask body)), the genetic information of Glitch's body is included in the same genetic ark that the Living Tree can use to produce plants and animals for its environment.  Glitch's body continues regrowing in Gichi's body.


Kinaraowm is pleased with this idea.

Having accepted hir spiritual role, Gichi will not be expected to go through the rite of passage through which a new habitat is established. Instead, shi is methodically taught everything shi will need to know about Tree Singing and cultivation. One of the later tasks she accomplishes with this skill is the creation of an armour/spacesuit made of Living Tree which can be used to stay alive in the void of space indefinitely (it took hir about 50 years to complete the project - though it only took about 5 minutes each day). Shi is also taught about the ancient practice of Planetization Torpor wherein an aged sask who has tired of life will find a remote young star with an accretion disk and gather a mass of debris around their body and go to sleep. They will enter into a permanent Torpor wherein their body will decompose to provide the chemical bath for future life, and their mind and spirit will become the celestial spirit of the new planet itself.

Various other teachings are given to Gichi, and if they become important, Nimiaom will remind hir at the appropriate time. In the meantime, Nimiaom (GIchi's instincts) took over the mundane daily activities and learnings. From time to time, someone will visit the habitat from elsewhere, and ask Gichiaom a spiritual question or ask for advice on some complicated matter. In every case, hir instincts gave hir the words to respond with, and the person went away satisfied (of not, if that was to their benefit).

After nearly 100 years, Gichi's body reaches its adult size, and hir family has already begun to return to their own respective habitats. Shi is considered a pre-adult in age, but old enough to undergo the habitat rite if shi wanted, or remain with hir parents for a few more decades if shi preferred.

Just then, a group of 3 sask comes to the habitat to ask Gichiaom for help. They explain that they are from a section of a different Living Tree around a different nearby black hole - about 1/100th of a galactic diameter away from this Tree structure. About half of their Tree seems sick, and the sask in the habitats of that zone are acting very un-sask-like. They have taken to singing Tree into condensed Tree disks, and using these disks as currency to trade items with one another. There are even some sask who are giving their labour away to other sask in exchange for these Tree disks, and singing Tree into specialized shapes in exchange for extra disks. Although sask culture varies from place to place, this seems very unusual and is concerning to these three sask. They ask Gichiaom for her thoughts. Nimiaom whispers to Gichi's mind that shi has to remain silent and wait for Gichi to make a choice about how to respond, then hir instincts will kick in. Kinaraowm doesn't know what to think about it, but offers that they could visit the other Tree if they wanted to.

Offers to  Nimiaom that some one else was placed into a sask body likely from the crystal. This could be bad if they where trying to cause suffering.... or it could just be a humanoid trying to make things more familiar to them and twist things to there advantage. Explaining to hir how one with an idea how economies work often introduce them to people who dont understand them to take advantage...it matters little what the currency is so long as it's rare enough not everyone can have it. It is one reason why rat views on ownership is more like sask...you own what you need ir may need.... if you hord people are free to take from you.

Ether way economics was introduced some how and is a foreign consept sask care little for....so should look into why they have embraced it at all....what is being sold they are so interested in to embrace it?

Needs investigated.

The three return to their habitat with these ideas to investigate.

Things return to normal for a in Gichi's home.

After a consultation with their Tree Spirit, the three determine that there were no souls from the crystal given reincarnation into a sask body. They investigate the sask for the presence of humanoids, and discover that they are being infested.

A humanoid creature small enough to go unnoticed has begun to mine certain proteins and minerals from the sask and their habitats. Of itself, the loss of the physical matter isn't that big of a deal. But everyone who is infested with the tiny humanoids is trading the Tree disks. There are a few individuals who seem to be amassing the greatest number of disks, and they also are the most infested.

Although the elders of the rest of that Tree have all warned the infested sask of the dangers of currency, and the presence of the humanoids, nothing seems to be getting through to them.

One of the three investigators return with a cohort of 10 other elders from that Tree to seek further assistance. The other two investigators have joined the currency epidemic, and are denying that there is a problem.

Asks if anyone has tried speaking with the humanoids, tried to find them a better home and move them off the Sask into a planet to there suiting. A planet is likely much more suitable to there living conditions.

Some say they have already tried to talk with the humanoids, others say they haven't really tried that hard. So they all go back to look into Gichi's suggestions, and about a month later, 2 of them return. The rest have been infested and lost interest in the idea of putting things back to the way they were.

These two had managed to speak with the humanoids through a specialized creature they found in the Tree's genetic repository - a frog-like thing about the size of a sask's fist (so about the size of a large skyscraper for the humanoids) which acts like a universal translator, and can even dilate time for the participants of a conversation when they experience the flow of time in vastly differing ways. Which is good, because these humanoids seem to be experiencing time-flow at a quicker rate than the sask experience.

The humanoids are called Ichneu, and they come from an empire that has control over about 12% of the resident galaxy. They refused offers of worlds to inhabit, and explained that the sask habitats and bodies offer a plethora of resources that the Ichneu Empire is not willing to forfeit. Once admitting this, they refused to communicate any further with the sask ambassadors.

The infested sask who were informed about the presence of the Ichneu within their bodies didn't seem to mind the knowledge, and refused any assistance in ridding themselves of the infestation.

As the two sask are informing Gichi about everything, a sask from a neighboring habitat enters Gichi's home with a sack of Tree disks and a collection of 'clothing'.

"Greetings, everyone!" she cheerily begins, "I was wondering if you'd be interested in trying out some of these things I've created - they are like a decoration for your body! All I ask in return is that you use some of your Tree to make one of these disks, like what I have here, and I will give you the decorations for your body to keep for yourself. Are you interested?"

Asks for Nimiaom's advice on Sask culture. Informs her of the corruption these humanoids suffer the consuming drive of growth for the sake of growth and such perversions of the natural order of things. They are agresive and invasive and do not care they are harming or refuse to see the harm they are causing and will not leave willingly because of the value to them the bodies of the Sask offer. This was why humans needed culled in her realm they comsumed nature to incress there producitivity to incress there numbers to cosume more nature to incress there productivity fether growing exspinentionaly. If they are not stoped all Sask will become infected and evechaly they will start exstracting more harmfull amounts from the Sask and the trees.

They must be removed and taken to another place making it down to them they are not welcome here. They have homes to return to if there people are struggling there are ways we could offer them assistance that would not harm Sask.... but this needs to end, she is quite sure they may even be willing to go to war for the right to take from the Sask as most empires would...

Something needs to be done but something the Sask would be ok with.

For the moment, Nimiaom remains silent. However, there is a flash of light and energy over Gichi's left shoulder, and a tiny 6-limbed were-rat emerges. The were-rat bows toward Gichi's head, and speaks into hir mind, "Master, I could teach you to summon the Vizrathian Horde. We would gladly come to your aide, and ensure that the humanoids bother the sask no longer."

(The Vizrathian? If glitch don't know she asks the rat... also checking it's energies for tank and the like if she don't know it)

link to a message in this game




*Rolls & advances*
It seems really difficult to spiritually sense things at the moment. Its spiritual energies might have a touch of the taint (or maybe not), but are mostly Wyld with a bit of Weaver.

(I would guess uncorupted wyrm too then lol)

She sighs and agrees to learn but adds  "If there empire has grown so big and all consuming to draw your attention then you may restore balance.... if they have not fallen so low then simply discouraging them from harvesting the resources that harm the Sask in as non fatal ways as you can." She knows crows and ratkin to both be cunning and at time devious creatures.... killing is not something they necessarily have to do. "I think the Sask would prefure you take a non leathal route ether way though."

((Probably, but Gichi can't be certain since it was so difficult to sense.))


The Vizrathian rat opens its hand, and a half-full mosquito lands on Gichi and bites hir. Some of the blood from the mosquito squirts into Gichi and is recorded by hir Tree-sask genetic library. In her mind's eye, shi can see that this DNA doesn't encode for any living entity, but instead encodes an organic computer. The Vizrathian explains, "If you want us to come to you, meditate on the image of a rat's skull, stare into a purple light like this one," he shines a light in Gichi's eyes, "It should be this particular shade of purple..." and he proceeds to give hir the frequency of the light in question, "and hum this tone..." and he hums a particular note, "while making this overtone," and he shapes his mouth to produce a second note which discordantly adjoins the first. Then he teaches hir how to make the notes at the same time. ((Like Mongolian throat singing))

Gichi's mind is able to see how this particular combination of stimuli will trigger the DNA to form and then activate the organic computer in the skin of her hand. Once activated, it will project energy in a particular way which shi can't quite wrap hir mind around, but from Glitch's experience, shi is fairly certain it will activate a particularly powerful portal.

The rat continues, "Once you do this, we'll receive a message somewhere in the multiverse, and we'll be able to open a portal and come through to do your bidding."

*Learn the somatic skill, Summon Vizrathian Rats 1/1*



*Rolls & utter failure with a surprising twist* ((if you review the roll log, you can contest these results if you like, explaining why they should be different, and I'll hear you out))

The rat stomps his foot and beats his chest with four fists, "Are you insane!? I am sorry, master, but we will not restrict the cleansing nature of the Chaos that we bring to the multiverse!" He presses a button around his neck. "Ours is an Unholy fire of Chaos that punishes the wicked and brings justice to those who insult Mother Nature. We are Her henchmen, and we do the dirty work. We will not rest until every single one of those things which have infested the sask people has perished! We will not rest until their empire has been reduced to ashes and a few lonely colonies of the innocent. Then we will set up watchmen to watch their descendants for a thousand years, and we will crush them again if they try to rise once more! There will be no rest for the wicked!"

As he is finishing his speech, a large flash of light beams in the space above the habitat, and a portal the size of a solar-system appears as Ringworld Vizroth presses through into this universe from some foreign universe. Immediately, starships begin launching from the Vizroth, some disappearing through portals (probably leading to the other Tree where the infestation began) and others flying in various directions. 3 of the ships are heading toward Gichi.

Sighs to Nimiaom  "I fear that I've made them angry now... I don't think i could stop them from doing as they said.... if this isn't your wish I'm sorry....maybe you could talk to them..."

Nimiaom communes with Gichi, "There may be a way. Would you be willing to sacrifice yourself to save the sask, the horde or the humanoids? If the sacrifice was the same for one group as it was for the other groups, and the sacrifice would be accumulative, which of the 3 groups would you accept a loss equivalent to your life in order to save? Assuming you can choose 1 group, 2 groups or all 3, which groups would you save at a cost to yourself?"

At about this time, Gichi feels a stirring in her skin where the Phoenix and Glitch cells are incubating - it seems both will be ready to hatch out of her soon.

"The humans and hord are some what out of balance.... but the do not deserve to be driven to near extinction just brought into balance once more. I would sacrifice myself for all three, but the sask more than the others as your race is more integral to the balance. The hord are kin by they do not listen to there blood.... or there blood is tainted." She lightly pets the parts where the others grow. "I wouldn't sacrifice them though, that is my choice not there's"

She worries about the hord calling in such an agresive force too that it will harm the saak. The way to deal with such is from the shadows make them dissapear, show them fear, not go to open war. Open war on this scale will harm the sask.

*rolls*
Glitch's direct chastisement of the Horde screams through the Blood. Although they aren't completely converted to Glitch's perspective, they understand enough to realize that they can accomplish their goal better if they strike without being seen or noticed directly.

The Horde redirects its attack. They begin targeting the Tree Coins first, then the inactive technology of the Ichneu (humanoid infestation). About 20% of the Horde makes open war with the Ichneu, but keeps themselves away from the Tree to protect the sask. There are sask casualties, but they are mostly from economized sask who are moving very fast and have become merchant warriors against the Horde.

The Vizrathian Rat on Gichi's shoulder explains, "The Ichneu are stealing the Tree Coins from the sask without their knowledge. The few sask who have discovered this, have been targeted with certain cerebral wasting toxins and technologies to make them more docile and compliant. That's how they're controlling all of the infected sask - through neuro-toxins and selective brain damage. That's why we have no problem with hunting them. They are also stealing cellular energy and complex proteins, enzymes and medicinal substances from the sask bodies they infest. In the last 500 or so years of their empire, the Ichneu have escalated from siphoning off of one eccentric sask, to slowly consuming as much of the sask population as they can inefest. But not for long."

Nimiaom accepts Gichi's terms. At that moment, Glitch (still unconscious) emerges from the skin-womb of Gichi with all her stuff nearby. Simultaneously, the phoenix emerges from Gichi. Gichi feels hir instincts calling hir to die in a very particular way. Shi starts by drawing power directly from the Tree crystals nearby and begins to expand, growing first to full adult form, then continuing to ancient one size, and then beyond. Her cells continue to expand past the point of interconnection, as Gichi's body seems to disperse. Gichi feels her awareness stay with the cloud of hir cells as they coagulate around all of the nearby Ichneu and the entire Vizrathian Horde (including the one who was on hir shoulder).

*Gain somatic sask skill Cellular Cloud*

The cells then form skin-wombs and begin digesting those they have swallowed, until nothing but a single copy of their DNA remains for each - their minds stored within the mind of Gichi. The Cellular cloud condensates near Glitch's body, but has expended too much effort and dies as Glitch awakens. The condensed cells of Gichi's body disappear along with the distinct mind of Gichi (shi is still present with Glitch, who is connected to hir ghost).

Gichi's parents are nearby, and they look down with intense magnification to see Glitch. They are so large that they probably have their own gravity, but the high gravity of this habitat seems to compensate for that. Gichi's parents begin to mourn.

The Ichneu Empire and the Vizrathian Horde are no longer threats. The self-healing powers of sask bodies will repair the extensive and subtle damage that the Ichneu had done to them in about a year (sask time). The damage done to the neighboring Tree will take longer to Sing back to health. Thanks to a plan set in place many centuries past, the Ichneu Empire has split into a loose federation of colonies held together by mutual consent, and their population has been reduced to 1/10th its original size.

(well guess the other threat becomes another time line lol)

Glitch tries to communicate mental and see if there is anyway they can restore the coins to heal the tree? She also grows as big as she can so they don't have to use strain to see her.

((Huh? Gichi will wake up as described in Glitch 1.5 after Glitch dies here too.))



"There isn't much we can do," Kinaraowm explains, "These have been altered to maximize their content of certain substances that the Ichneau seem to have found valuable, which makes them slow to change. It will be best if we bundle them in roots, and let Tree reabsorb them over time."


She finds that each of the 292 ratkin persons in her mental colony has developed enough spiritually that they are able to manifest in full sized ratkin bodies. The combined mass of all 292 ratkin allows her to grow to 370m tall. She's still pretty small to the sask, but they don't have to strain so much to see her.

Now that Glitch is outside of Gichi's sask body, and no longer being nourished by it, she starts to notice that she feels drained. Her nanites have already determined why, and are reporting their findings on Glitch's subconscious mind. Her experience with Shamanism helps her realize their findings: this universe doesn't exist with the same  spiritual/physical laws that she is used to. Her body is incompatible with this reality, and there is nothing she can do to keep herself alive for more than a few hours.

On a side note, the little black spherical rock (which is a gigantic boulder larger than her gargantuan size from Glitch's perspective) that belonged to Nimiaom is clearly an Order object of some kind, because it seems to be draining her ability to use Chaos magic while she is touching it. However, she feels she could probably use Order Magic with it.

Finds that interesting and tries to make the rock smaller using magic.... she's hopefully getting better at this whole things not being the size they should be thing by now. She apologizes for what happened and to here parents that she couldn't be there child very long.

Seeing how she is going to die and there is no stooping it she will try and do something she's only hurd about. Using choas magic, the remaning spiritual energy she has, she will try and convert the rest of her physical form to spiritual energy. (which would make it a willpower / Somatic / spiritual roll)  This is only something she's ever really hurd about though but she's known of fera who have put all here selves into an attack.....   so maybe she could put all of herself into healing the tree.

And instead of fadding away slowly will hopefully turn into spiritual energy to use mothers touch to regenerate the damaged tree.

*rolls*
Glitch feels her abilities with Chaos energy suddenly drained (by 3-4 temporary status points each - so for example, 4/4 would be 1/4), but a sudden understanding washes over her brain, and she is able to rearrange the size of this object which seems to be made of pure Order energy, without affecting the way it seems to exude power.


((not long for them, but hundreds of years, if I remember right - which I may not - I'll check it if it becomes relevant))
Realizing that the same awareness which looked out from Gichi's eyes is now looking out from this tiny alien, they scoop her up maternally, and show her their affection. Something about this display gives Glitch more energy - not more time, but more energy.


*rolls totaling over 1200*
She puts literally and spiritually everything she's got into this one overpowered Mother's Touch healing spell, and it pays off. The Tree recovers to full health, the coins are completely reabsorbed, and the neurological damage done to the sask is mostly reversed. There are still some absent or empty habitats, where the sask who lived there had died since this all began, but not many.

Glitch's awareness blinks out and she feels her memories slipping away - back to just before she was born - as she finds herself waking up.

Glitch appears above the atmosphere of a small planet. She is in her ordinary polymorphic body and also simultaneously aware of herself in her adult sask body. In the sask body, some of her motor control and memory seems to be lost, but it keeps coming back in dribs and drabs. (picked up from here in Glitch 1.5)