<ROUND EIGHTY-FIVE>
Mustache Girl decides to delve into the cavern in full! Except, there's a bit of confusion here- the map is a side-view! That is, the map is being viewed from the side, and gravity points downwards. She trips over herself trying to do things that'd probably make sense if the map wasn't facing sideways, and fails to do much of anything. Daskter then tries to use the Resistor to create a Command Bridge... but I fail to see how the properties of the Resistor allow that to happen! He still does steal the widescreen TV from Pop's Hideout, however. They seem mostly harmless, stuck in the screen.

JOE then decides to not leave battle, but still defends the Crystillary. He gets an order of his random instasummon bots to go and defend the Crystillery, whilst also summoning a legion of illusory rocks around the Crystillery. Then, three different figures pop out of the woods- okay, they're all the same in looks, but they're still different figures. They look somewhat like Creepers from Minecraft, save that there's a gigantic blossoming flower sprouting out of their head. And, of course, that they've given up stealth in favor of constantly singing with the most annoying noise.

BLOSSOMS, IN HARMONY: LOLOLOLOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
BLOSSOMS: LAH LA-LAAAH LA LA LAAAH LOL HAHA

It'd almost be majestic or beautiful in some twisted way if they didn't seem so intent on walking towards the Crystillery. It'd probably be best if they were warded off quietly- something like the explosion of an illusory trap could very well raise the noise to the dreaded 100%! Venia then tries to get Omo to regain control. She begins to cry tears of green, the droplets of sap being instantly vaporized as they near the flames.

OMORIKA: H-He died because I was being reckless, a-and I swore I'd never make that mistake again...
OMORIKA: And here we are, w-with my mistake causing others- this time, you, t-to suffer...
OMORIKA: If he could see me now... w-what would he think?
LUCID?: Here's what I think.
LUCID?: I want you... to burn in hell.
OMORIKA: ...
OMORIKA: No.
OMORIKA: He... he wouldn't want that.
OMORIKA: Abies... Abies cared for everyone!
OMORIKA: He'd... He'd always do what he thought was right! Even if it was dangerous, or life-threatening... o-or in the end, cinderous...
LUCID?: This is what's right.
LUCID?: An eye for an eye. A life for a life. Yours is the price to pay for mine.
OMORIKA: H-He cared for everyone on this god-forsaken planet! No matter what hell this world threw at him, he smiled, and kept on going! He helped everyone, no matter their position or their sins!
OMORIKA: And you're just a rock. A rock that slaughtered several innocent chairians who wanted to protect their home. A home that they've fought tooth-and-nail to rebuild!
OMORIKA: Before you try and play the part, why don't you try and learn the role?
OMORIKA: Why don't you GET OUT OF MY HEAD!?

Omo, still floating above the flames, begins to barrage Lucid with a non-stop array of Null Somnum bolts. While it manages to sidestep and block several of the bolts, one of them nails Lucid head-on. Lucid recoils in some sort of pain, before breaking its knightlike persona to fire a beam at Omo! Unable to dodge, she facetanks the beam, promptly ending her assualt early. She floats limply through the air, clinging to consciousness by a thread. The Ashen Knight eventually reforms, seemingly infuriated.

Will that bolt have any effect on Lucid? We'll see, probably! Meanwhile, Chaos continues talking with the random cat lady.

CHAOS: no a[c][t]ually [c]on[t]rary [t]o wha[t] mos[t] people [t]hink, i [c]an see
CHAOS: and by ex[t]ension, i [c]an see you

CHAOS: anyway
CHAOS: [c]razy [c]a[t] lady, why are you here?
CHAOS: if [t]he answer is some[t]hing s[t]upid like buying [t]hings like [t]riangles i'm burying you ou[t]side
CHAOS: like [t]hose [t]hree ou[t]side

CHAOS: ...[t]hey're s[t]ill [t]here, righ[t]? hard [t]o [c]he[c]k wi[t]hou[t] eyes

Chaos's eyes have inexplicably vanished, but he still seems to be staring at the couch the girl is hiding behind. Verdana then tries to commune with a mollusk. He asks if it can take the Helix Crystal. The mollusk bobs its shell and head forward- probably a yes. He takes the crystal, suddenly glad he didn't directly pick it up- now that it's out of the water, he begins to hear voices within his head. Faint, but they seem to intensify as he nears the crystal.

VOICES: UP START DOWN LEFT RIGHT

The mollusk nudges the crystal towards Verdana, before backing off. It then dives into the water, and emerges with another. It then begins to skirt off to the south, a trail of slime following it. How odd. The crystal is probably dangerous to take, but it might be handy? Who knows.

<OMOQUEST, ROUND NINETEEN>
This shouldn't be too hard to finish. Maybe kill the remaining Tabletopians for style points or something, I don't know.

<OMORIKA'S OFFICE, ROUND FOUR>
The situation outside of the Mindscape is going decently well, it seems. Sure, you've lost a summon and lots of people are on low HP, but that's nothing that can't be fixed. As for the Mindscape, everyone is on fire and that's probably not good. Dispelling status effects would probably be a smart idea, as well as keeping the pressure up on the Knight. Alternative, you might want to go and dispatch the other Ashen units. That'd keep some rather painful hits away!

[OMOQUEST - FINAL]

Construct: Reposition Omorika to E9
Behemoth: Punch out the Swordsman
Omo: Move to H9.

[THYMIUM]

Auth throws another Hope towards K13.

Teag goes to L16 and slightly overkills the Zweet 5.

Destiny runs over to K10 and uses Overpowering Strike on the Ashen Knight before retreating to L9.

Brutishace narrowly struggles from the Ashen Knight's grasp and moves over to N11.

Attending to the blast wounds will have to wait, they're relatively minor. The injuries his allies have sustained, however, are not.

To remedy this, Brutishace casts Curaga at K15, healing up Chloe, the Operative, and Marron.

This is not an optimal position, but it's out of the Ashen Aegis. Brutishace moves to N12 just to be safer.

Further retreat is always a later option.

Battle of an Office

"Hello Bass, may you please finish off that Reverie6? That would be nice"

The Marksmen moves to J16 and snipes Zweet1

I move to K16 and summon Conscripts at I14 and I15, and I transfer the Drone back to myself.

Sapper moves to P14, then pushes the Zweet to its death. (T16 its moved to)

Shocktrooper1 moves to N13 and blast the CrystalCluster in its range.

The Man shoots Reverie 1.

Toast moves to H14, tosses a Hidden Glow at Zweet1 (and a shot from the Elemental Blaster (Light) for good measure), then retreats back to her nice spot at H15.

Rounded up at each step.
Hidden Glow: [16; base+intellect] * [1.5; enlightened] * [1.4; light weakness] - [2; AC] = 32
16 HP damage, 16 MP damage, assuming AC is applied before the trait. Otherwise 15 | 17.

Hat Kid moves to (K17), drinks that Rejuvenating Remedy that was made earlier, Phase Shifts with Brut, then retreats to (M14).

Boshi slams his guitar down on the Reverie, should it still be alive. If it's dead by Bass, he walks to (O14), and plays a melody consisting of MOBILIZE -> ATTACK -> ATTACK.

---

Boshi somehow looks both puzzled and annoyed at the mention of space marooning.

"(....What? Space... marooning...? Did they seriously threaten that on ya? Ugh... lemme guess, it was Venia. She does seem to run her mouth a lot. Likely wouldn't actually follow through on it though.)"

He pauses for a moment, as if to recall something. "(Hah, I've never had to deal with contracts. Hat Kid, though... she went through about five or six to get her soul back this one time, according to her. Weird times...)"

"(But if being forced down to the planet thanks to the Sphere counts as being forced here... then yeah, kinda.)"

"(But hey, listen, if they ever attempt to follow through on this whole space marooning thing, I'll let you take refuge on our ship. It's really cozy in there, too! I'll show ya a few photos when we get back to the house!)"

---

Mustache Girl picks herself up and dusts herself off; turns out the part she thought was solid ceiling was actually the cave walls, and vice-versa.

Mildly annoyed, she walks over to the Iron cluster and mines it out with one fell swoop of the Iron Pickaxe. Then, sensing something going wrong over in the farms, she decided that the best course of action would be to pile up as many Ashen reaps as possible in the Set, and, with some time-slowing shenanigans, sets them all to explode, creating a massive shockwave that should lure the encroaching foes away from the Crystillery.

She runs back to the mines without further notice.

Venia routes another set of instructions to the party after a brief round of quickly ensuring no-one objects. Order is top-down. If I haven't listed you as a PC, your order doesn't matter beyond that you will move after Brutishace and Calibri have acted.

-Brut: Moves first, before anyone else. Curaga on L15 would heal Chloe/Marron/Calibri, who are all wounded.
-Cal: Moves second, after Brut but before everyone else. Consume a Mana vial and fire a Force Nail at Ash.
-Taeda: Move as far northwest as you can run, use Holy Dew on Marron, retreat out of the way of Ash's cone of death (N13.)
-Marron: Move fourth. Use your special on me (Venia); you will copy Hard Stare (weak ping at range 1-3) and Crimson Gospel (Glitch damage to negate Ash's resistances) and gain some bonus power, before firing on the Ashen Knight at O12.
-Venia: I will move to L11 and activate Purge, gaining Empowered and Enligthened2.
-Chloe: You'll move to K10, smack Ash, and retreat to L9.
-Omorika: Null Somnum me and Marron. After this, just conserve your energy and think about happy thoughts-positive thinking is Lucid's weakness just as much as Null Somnum. We won't fail you!
-Venia2: I'll move to K10 and introduce Lucid to the feeling of... Whatever Purge feels like to it. I'll retreat back to L11 after so our little wall of bodies isn't quickly passed.
-Ga'aunt: Move to N8 and hope that Lucid isn't going to block you twice.
-Marron2: Move to O10 and fire on Lucid again.

----|<|0|>|----

"YES, YES, THAT'S THE SPIRI-OH NO!" Venia's shouting couldn't have turned a sharper 180 in tone as Omorika's barrage is interrupted by Lucid losing his cool. Venia loses her cool just as fast. "HEY, HEY, YOU STUPID PUNK, LUCID!! HOWS ABOUT YOU FIGHT SOMEONE WHO CAN FIGHT BACK FOR A CHANGE?!"

Venia catches herself, shudders violently for a second, and then transmits the plan to everyone as calmly as she can (which isn't very calm).

"Omo, just, hang in there! It isn't about trying to kill Lucid! That's the mistake that you made in trying to go to assassinate IKEA, or at least part of it, and that's the mistake why Spark's in the wrong with the Sphere! It's, it's not about taking vengeance on others in some kind of endless all-consuming ouroboros, those Tabletopians probably didn't enjoy what happened!... Hopefully! I wasn't there for that! The point is, it's not about trying to strike back, it's about trying to preserve what's precious! Lucid's trying to get to you by showing you the worst things he can, all the burning Chairians and the fire and the death and the Sphere-but that's not why you're fighting and that's not why you're here! You're here because you want to make up for losing Abies and those Chairians who lost their lives in a completely pointless war! It's your duty and honor to defend them! You need to focus on that! Just, think of what Abies would do for you, just think of all the happy times you've had with him! Lucid's trying to warp your memories-you need to remember why you fight!"

Venia charges up the Entropic Key with the vestiges of an eerie, purifying white, not perfectly akin to her own silver sludge and not at all echoing with the power of entropy one would expect the Entropic Key to use. A flash of azure later, and-

"Nefas! Ecce mundus, caro est, et mori!" Venia screams, pointing at Lucid and charging forwards.

Lucid's natural instinct, owing to his form (perhaps) is to settle his shield between itself and Venia's dangerous-looking key, but as the key lunges back, Venia lunges even further forwards-directly crawling atop the singing shield (and having her shield take the heat in as much stride as it can), and looping the tentacle holding the key around the barrier-and down at Lucid's legs.

Lucid (hopefully) fails to react to either shake Venia loose or capture the oddly-angled blow in time for the beam of pure white to surge upwards from the key's location, a pillar of divine retribution in reverse, majestic light scarring the sky and piercing the smoke for a brief moment. Venia takes the opportunity to escape the range of the flaming sword, leaping off of the shield and back to her position, feat of awesome hopefully not negated by bad luck in gameplay.

"Unetis!" Venia shouts, probably unaware that the majority of the people around her don't understand what she's saying.

----|<|0|>|----

Meanwhile, in the real world, Ette gets a message from Tazz after a day of silence. "Sorry for the intrusion, but, uh, Destiny could really use a hand in not dying unconscious. Can you cover for her?"

----|<|0|>|----

"Wait, what? Ohmygosh, the weird stranger has x-ray vision!" The girl shouts from behind the couch. she falls silent as Chaos continues to chat until he asks why the crazy cat lady is here. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers... Wait! You have X-ray vision! That means you're a superhero! Ohmygosh!... Uhhh... I'm here because-"

"Milady Maria, please do not rush ahead of me so that I may safely inspect the area and protect you from the local wildlife."

A considerably larger and more immediately threatening presence silently slips into view of Chaos-a massive black fox barely capable of fitting itself through the doorframe, conservative in motion to the point that, as it stops, it is as still as a statue. Aside from its size and massive nine tails (no points for guessing it's a kitsune of some description), as well as a noticeable amount of thyme staining its legs, its most immediate feature of note is its complete lack of features; its head and face are proportionate and completely proper, but there is no nose, no mouth, no eyes and while it does have ears, it appears to merely be for profile rather than hearing; skin has enveloped them into a fixed, upwards position, leaving the whole beast as having no color other than jet black fur. What is on its face, in red fur, is some sort of coat of arms; a crown and a knight's helm hanged over a shield, itself bearing the sigil of two swords bound together by brambles and rose, far too precise for nature's work. It's rigid, unbreaking poise extends to not even turning its neck, facing the couch rather than either Chaos or the girl.

The girl-presumably Maria-pouts.

"It appears that Venia Praefortis is not here right now, milady Maria," the thing says, for at this point the idea this thing is sufficiently natural to be bestowed the name of a nature spirit is appalling. It is completely monotone, and only fluidity and a degree of feminine tone kills the idea its voice is actually some type of text-to-speech program. "That said, this is the designated 'safe' house, so we are 'there' now. Venia Praefortis has informed me prior to arriving that the 'hooded glitch-eyed fellow' who 'speaks with emphasis on the letters c and t' is known as 'Chaos,' and is operating as an allied shopkeeper and may be trusted, milady Maria."

"Oh. So he isn't a monster or a stranger?" Maria says.

"There is no intelligence to suggest that 'Chaos' is any type of 'monster' nor Fiend, and Venia has designated him as an allied shopkeeper and may be trusted, milady Maria." The beast responds.

"Oh." Maria stands up properly, proceeds to grab onto the arm of the couch to lift herself up onto it, steps over the whole couch before hopping off right in front of Chaos'es booth (her cats dutifully following her around the couch), reaches into a side pocket of her dress with her free hand, and withdraws a single silver-colored coin-a quarter, or something similar to it. She places the quarter on the counter, hand pressed over it, as she looks over the counter almost as tall as her to look up at Chaos, even taller.

"Mister Chaos, do you have a banana, please?" She asks, her head slightly tilted to the side, eyes wide in anticipation of yellow fruit.

Comet moves her hailstorm one square NW. She then blinks to D9, drinks from the vessel, and casts Discharge at Arkwind1. She also has her clone move to G16, then teleports to it.

Terry moves to M12, basic attacks the Zweet corpse, retreats to P12, then downs a Restoration Potion.

Keiko stays where she is, and casts First Aid on Comet.

"Oi, puppet!" Keiko calls out, directed towards Ette. "You should probably get up to protecting the sleeping girl over there. Can't really do much to give her a proper evacuation." The implication, of course, is to have Ette protectively hug Destiny.

I should have done this a lot sooner.

Queued up to happen directly after Brutishace - Oppy hums while dancing over to O12, pulling out a mana vial and chugging it quickly.

"...Not the best tasting thing I've ever had, but it has a purpose."

He then shoves a force nail through the Ashen Knight's body.


With that out of the way, RP stuffu...

Oppy turns to face Chloe. There's a pause, then he nods at her question, glancing away as his embarrassment rises again. Still, he gets over it quickly enough and turns back to her.

"Well... Admittedly, yes, perhaps the situation is a tad confusing. I'm sure you'll form your own opinion of the matter, given due time."

He chuckles, then turns over to Marron. He seems to have a smirk as Marron's face lights up, although that smirk fades once she gets around to the more serious description of how things have been...

"...Well, jeez. That's quite the unfortunate sequence of events there. If it's any comfort, which I somehow doubt it will be, you have my condolences in regards to having to go through all of that. Especially the part with the zombies, knowing how much you seem to hate them."

There's a pause. He glances between Marron and Chloe, listening to them both, then turns to Venia. Despite not raising his tone at all, his voice is perfectly clear over the sound of battle, fire, and likely disco inferno.

"I'm going to take a guess and assume you're the miss Venia that the other two mentioned... If that is the case, assuming I still am able to maintain a connection through Calibri once we're done with this battle, mind updating me in regards to how everyone has been doing? I would ask in the middle of battle, but all things considered it might be... not the best time."

Ignoring the complete contradiction between his words and the speaking of all those words, Oppy finally turns to face Taeda. There's a distant look in his eyes after she mentions EN's name...

"I... suppose I have. In fact, I definitely have, no suppose about it. Before I... resigned myself to the mindscape and conjured a replica to carry on in my place, I used to work alongside her. My memories picture her as someone quite... dense, at times, but well-meaning and easy enough to get along with. And a fellow appreciator of cute things, like kittens, heh."

Beat.

"Admittedly, her range of what qualifies as cute might differ a little from mine... not that that's necessarily a problem. I suppose I might as well ask and satisfy a curiosity of mine, what sort of impression has she provided you with so far?"

Irongutta moves to O13 and, using Skeletal Toss, carefully moves the IronEgg to P13!

Zed moves to R11 and attacks Reverie7.

Simeon moves to I10, attacks the Ashen Knight and then retreats to G10, popping Riposte again.

<ROUND EIGHTY-SIX>
Mustache Girl, still in the caverns, smashes her Iron Pickaxe into the Iron Ore vein! The pickaxe splits in half (the long way), but still yields 20 Iron Ore. She then decides to head to the Set, and set off a multitude of Ashen Reaps, creating a large explosion! This draws some attention from both noise-ridden zones, removing 20% from the closer Fortified Farm, and 10% from the Crystillary. This does little to draw away the Blossoms, who apepar to be busy attempting to nuke the latter location. Meanwhile, Maria goes to talk with Chaos. Chaos is 100% unfazed as the gigantic nine-tailed fox runs in, apparently already steeled to the horrors of Kitsune-tier bullgorilla. He appears to be rambling about something... odd.

CHAOS: don'[t][t][t][t] [t]hink i didn'[t] see wha[t] you were doing wi[t]h your dialogue [t]here
CHAOS: [t]iming [t]he appearan[c]e of [t]ha[t] fox as [t]o wi[t]hhold impor[t]an[t] plo[t] de[t]ails
CHAOS: [also, hi fox-[t]hing]
CHAOS: [t]ha[t]'s my dialogue [t]rick!

Chaos's dialogue interrupts as he ends up coughing out his vocal coords again, which he promptly smacks with a hammer before re-swallowing.

CHAOS: anyway, don'[t] s[t]eal[t]h-dodge [t]he ques[t]ion- you have a reason [t]o be here
CHAOS: answer i[t] and you [c]an have your plan[t]ain
CHAOS: ...okay, qui[c]k sear[c]h reveals [t]ha[t] plan[t]ains are no[t] bananas, bu[t] s[t]a[t]emen[t] s[t]ill s[t]ands[t]hing
CHAOS: plan[t]ain jus[t] sounds way more refined
CHAOS: and as a shopkeeper, i am [t]he mos[t] refined person on [t]his plane[t]

Chaos then notes that the girl has a quarter, and claims it. This doesn't add to his credit total, but a quarter is a quarter.

CHAOS: answer [t]he ques[t]ion and you [c]an have ano[t]her plan[t]ain for [t]wen[t]y per[c]en[t] off
CHAOS: if you [t]ry and [c]orrect me on proper plan[t]ain [t]erminolgy i'm re[t]roa[c][t]ively poisoning [t]ha[t] plan[t]ain

CHAOS: also yes you [c]an have one [t]oo, 'spooky'-probably-evil-fox-shadow-evil-fox-[t]hing

Elsewhere, JOE's absence causes the Blossoms to idle, leaving them to practice trololo'ing in round. They'll probably move in without his input in a few rounds, or if someone does something to attack them before then.

<OMOQUEST, ROUND TWENTY>
And with that, Omoquest is over! While I'd go and write something up here, I think there's more than enough writing in Omoquest itself, so go and read that! Some time later (after Lucid), I'll go and remove the Omoquest link from the OP, create its battle archives, and then create a link to it in the inventory. But for now, some achivements!

ACHIVEMENT UNLOCKED: Remembrance
AUTHOR ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Bookworm
COMET ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Bookworm
BOSHI ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Bookworm

You've also obtained 2 Skillpoints, and 500 Credits as a reward for clearing the game. Thanks for playing!

<OMORIKA'S OFFICE, ROUND FIVE>
Due to a string of crits inside the Mindscape, the Ashen Knight has been slain! And this battle's going to end earlier than expected. Anyway, now's your chance to get revenge on Lucid for tormenting your party! Lucid's Accomplishment will go to the attacker who deals the most damage to it this round, so smash it with everything you've got! If it doesn't die this round, that'll be awkward. So please kill it.

Comet blinks to H14, moves to H10, and places a teleporter at I9.

Hat kid recoils in pain from the Reverie hit, almost knocked down to death. She's currently breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping, blood flowing from her face...

And not moments later, she's dodged an entirety of an Arkwind's assault Matrix-style. She narrowly avoids catastrophic death today!

But seems everyone's going for an all-out assault, she proceeds to Phase Shift with Reverie8, move to (K9), then whap Lucid with her umbrella twice.

Boshi, meanwhile, is absolutely LIVID at Lucid for attempting to kill Hat Kid. He dances to his beat extremely furiously.

MOBILIZE: Move to (N12).

Then, before his two Attack beats, he Phase Shifts with Hat Kid and uses the Helix Totem. She retreats to (O14).

Frankly, Boshi is EXTREMELY pissed off; what whites Lucid could feasibly see in Boshi's eyes have gone red with hatred. As he utters these words, it feels like the weight of the entire Yoshi species' thoughts were placed on anyone who would listen. Lucid included.

"(I will NEVER fail my good friends again! ESPECIALLY NOT THANKS TO THE LIKES OF YOU!)"
"(D I E .)"

ATTACK: Boshi's guitar gains a painful-looking charge of electricity!
ATTACK: Like a thunderbolt that has appeared straight on top of Lucid, Boshi's guitar slams down onto him in an overhead swing, threatening to pulverize the damned fool.

---

Mustache Girl decides to mine out the rest of the Iron Ore with an Ashen Reap, seems it's a pickaxe and all. She proceeds to dig it out with explosions.

Then, she tests the hardness of the stuff below her, and blows it up, seeing how far she could get with an Ashen Reap explosion. Probably not far.