I move to H13 and slash at Yaga!

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHT>
Nia decides to snag the first post by virtue of being best girl. She takes this moment to finish manufacturing Therma and the Infernal Sharpshooter's Rifle, also producing 5 Flux in the process. She picks up the [word to describe flux here] substance, and tosses it into the inventory.

---

Echoss chats with Chloe a bit more. He chats about how his knowledge pales in comparison to Nezira's.

CHLOE: Hey, Nez is pretty nice. You could probably chat with her and maybe learn something about the universe.

The two go on, with Echoss freezing up upon the mention of Ire. why did I name him after myself this is confusing Chloe notes how impressed Echoss seems.

CHLOE: Yeah, he did!
CHLOE: Honestly, he blurs the lines between magic and tech- did you know I came to this planet through a portal of his design? I didn't even know he- or anyone, really, could MAKE portals!
CHLOE: ...Oh, one more thing. The way you mentioned... the void? How long ago was the Second Godmodding War for you? Are you... from the void, or something?

He then asks for some information on Ire. Chloe shrugs.

CHLOE: Oh, I guess I could help you!
CHLOE: ...If I'm being honest though, I... don't really know how he works.
CHLOE: I mean, I did work on him, sure... but what I did was like, tiny parts of a tangled web of code.
CHLOE: Xavier's the real mastermind here. If you wanted information, you'd talk to him. I could give you the basics, but I'm afraid I can't really do much more.
CHLOE: Sorry...

Chloe sighs. Echoss notes that she seems more skittish. She nods.

CHLOE: ...W-Well, yeah.
CHLOE: I mean, Bass seems like he's noticed something weird, and I need to protect a child so that she doesn't get eaten o-or worse...
CHLOE: I-I'm... w-worried, to say the least.
CHLOE: I just really, really hope it's nothing...

Chloe chains her previous sigh into another sigh. Echoss then decides to do a bit of crafting, creating another Searing Bomb. He then uses 6 Spider Silk Spools and 4 Green Sap Blobs to prototype some Spidersap Snares! They get heavily nerfed(?) though, being changed to apply Slow instead of a root, since on-demand root would be really good. This is good, but just a bit less so.

---

Terry awakens his innate power as a crafting boy to create a Searing Bomb. I have a feeling I'm gonna be typing these words a lot in the future.

---

Maria continues on her garden trip. She takes a moment to admire the tree, exclaiming that she wants a tree like that.

CHLOE: It's a really pretty tree, isn't it?
CHLOE: It'd probably be really hard to get a tree like that for yourself, though...
CHLOE: ...Maybe if you were really rich, or had really good friends, you could get one, though! Maybe I could get a Chairian to help you get a tree like this, eheheheh...

Maria then gushes about the "sword giraffe". Chloe tightens her grip on Maria's hand.

CHLOE: D-Don't get close to it, Maria! T-They might be pretty, but t-they're... well, dangerous!
CHLOE: They'll hurt you with their blades, and I don't think anyone wants that...

Maria then runs up to the Swordfighter, and asks who they are.

SWORDFIGHTER: Eh, I'm just some random guard who forgot to get in the shields before they went up.
SWORDFIGHTER: I can't really do much on my own, so... yeah. I'm here.
SWORDFIGHTER: If something comes up, I'll do something about it.

Maria then wonders where Chaos is.

CHLOE: ...Yeah, where IS Chaos...?
CHLOE: Ugh, I-I can't believe he'd leave us! W-What if something happens-
CHAOS: yo
CHLOE: ...
CHLOE: I'd be surprised, but I think I'm used to you just sorta being places by now.
CHAOS: yeah i[t]'s ge[t][t]ing predi[c][t]able isn'[t] i[t]
CHAOS: wha[t] isn'[t] predi[c][t]able [t]hough
CHAOS: is [t]ha[t] jukebox i passed on [t]he way here
CHLOE: ...I didn't see a jukebox. Weird.

Chloe shrugs, before going on with the tour.

HEMLOCK: ...It appears we've been joined by some red person.
HEMLOCK: Rose person, do you know this... thing?
BASS: oh yeah, that guy
BASS: doesn't think mollusks are legal tender
HEMLOCK: ...
HEMLOCK: I'd pay for a mollusk, honestly. Delicious lil' buggers...
BASS: excuse me i have one as a pet
HEMLOCK: Why'd you try and sell it, then?
BASS: it became my pet after he didn't work as money
BASS: i think it's a "he", anyway
BASS: but yeah we're cool, the mollusk and i
HEMLOCK: ...Alright.

HEMLOCK: Anyway, we'll be continuing around the tree, clockwise.
HEMLOCK: Interesting fact about Yggdrasil: The roots you see outside of here are actually mostly cosmetic.
HEMLOCK: Scale Yggdrasil, being an artificial tree and military base, has a network of steel supports in the earth. This was done to increase Yggdrasil's durability in case of an attack, where the roots might be damaged.
HEMLOCK: The roots aren't protected by Scale Yggdrasil's shielding. Should the roots be destroyed like how they were in the recent Tabletopian firebombings, the metal supports will keep it upright.

The group continues around the tree. All is well.

---

Forgot this earlier, so Simeon talks with Mindscape!Chloe. He asks a score of questions: How is Omo? How did Chaos get booted out of the Mindscape?

MINDSCAPE!CHLOE: Oh, Omo?
M!CHLOE: I haven't actually seen her in person, but Temmie's said that she's calmed down.
M!CHLOE: She's still delirious, and it might be awhile before she returns to a proper working capacity... but she's not crazy anymore!

M!CHLOE: As for Chaos, he wasn't so much "booted out" as it was that he's been denied access anywhere besides the top of Nightmare Mountain.
M!CHLOE: He hasn't been paying the Temmies their dues because "they live in my head and that's payment enough", or something like that.
M!CHLOE: It all came to a head when Chaos refused to pay his bill for a bowl of ramen, so the Temmies threw a revolution and now have a pretty good lock on the Mindscape.
M!CHLOE: Apparently, the lack of competition in the Mindscape has made them a superpower of sorts...
M!CHLOE: ...The price is living here is stupidly high now, actually. Good thing Oppy and I can provide for ourselves~

M!CHLOE: Anything else you wanna talk about?

---

Oh, forgot this, too. Mustache Girl goes and harvests entirely too many things at once, again. She starts by smacking the Titanium Vein with a sledge and reap, getting 12 pieces of it. The spire still stands, a testament to the natural durability of random rock formations. She then heads to the Forest of Departure, slashing up the remaining Sentences, obtaining 5 Feather Rope Coils, and the remaining 10 Gold in the vein.

---

May as well address some of the in-battle roleplay here just to save space in that part of the update. We'll start with Nezira, who decides to threaten Maxim. She smiles rather happily towards her assailant.

MAXIM: I mean, this body is disposable.
MAXIM: You can do all you want to it, but I'll be okay.
MAXIM: Poor, poor Nana. Getting attacked by all of her party members...
MAXIM: Oh, what will her dear sister think, if she's killed by such brutes? That'll look good for your image...

MAXIM: ...Admittedly though, it looks like it's way harder to fool you non-Chairians.
MAXIM: I'm also usually not discovered moments after taking a body, and it really wasn't ideal to be discovered so quickly...
MAXIM: I also usually initiate, too...
MAXIM: It's way more fun that way. The Chairians will be fighting some Iti, and suddenly there's a funny little guy or girl with blades in their face, cutting everyone up...
MAXIM: Nothing like a good ol' flank attack to brighten my day~

Venia then flips out just a little. She calls her a sociopath.

MAXIM: Sociopath? I think us Iti are basically all sociopaths.
MAXIM: I'm surprised that you're surprised...

Venia then suddenly goes full delirious. Maxim shows a slight hint of concern.

MAXIM: ...Huh, you alright?
MAXIM: Y'know, if life's ever getting you down, and you're feeling sick... you can get me to gut you~
MAXIM: So just come here and-

Venia then opts to go through with her transformation into a gigantic spider monstrosity like she usually does when she gets angry. Maxim stares slack-jawed for a moment.

MAXIM: ...Huh.
MAXIM: And I thought we were abominations.
MAXIM: Y-You... You'd fit right in with us~
MAXIM: Monster.

Maxim gives out a devious little laugh, before preparing herself for combat.

---

<THE PRESERVE, ROUND FIVE>
Thanks to some clever bomb-based tactics, the Yaga has taken massive damage! In addition, Maxim has been killed by RNG clever tactics as well! You're in a pretty good position... save the few of you who have fallen to the enemy assault this round. If there's one thing you NEED to do this round, it's to watch out for the Bilebaroness: that thing WILL explode upon death, and it WILL party wipe you should you fail to exercise caution.

Astrec walks up to the Jukebox and scans it. Then he procures a ten foot pole, backs up, and pokes it. If nothing happens, he carefully moves around it, taking a good look and poking it with a stick a few times.
HEX:
D11 --> Self Fury --> E13

Let's start by talking with Chloe.

First, Chloe asks Echoss about the Second Godmodding War and the Void
"The Second Godmodding War? Well... that's sort of a complicated answer. You see... time doesn't flow in the Void the same way it flows inside of universes. Most universes anyways. I don't know the exact average, but... the minimum amount of time since the Second Godmodding War out in the Void seems to be somewhere in the mid hundreds. Years I mean. I'm... pretty old, and my breakout moment happened a good few thousand years after the war ended. It's pretty much Ancient History for most folks.
But, yes, I do live in the Void. Most folks in the Multiversal community do. Living inside of a universe comes with a number of downsides that most people feel aren't worth it."

At the comment on Ire, Echoss hrms.
"Ah well, that's fair. I suppose I'll need to talk to Xavier at some point then. Thank you though, Miss Elem."

"Alright, stay safe. Tell me if you need reinforcements, the rest of us are in the middle of combat, but should you need it I could probably be there to assist fairly quickly."

I get incredibly annoyed upon the discovery that I didn't save my changes when I typed up the megabark mining last round, so I'm going to make up for it by ruining the Yggcrawler's day entirely. Butterfly Echoss materializes again, frowns at the Yggcrawler, then pulls out what looks like an ipad, except more ornate, with blue and orange lines all over it.
He points it vaguely in the direction of the Yggcrawler, taps the screen of his ipad(?) and then swipes. The Yggcrawler is confused for a moment, then even more confused when it's gravity is abruptly sideways and slightly upwards, instead of down. It flies off into the distance and Echoss punches the megabark vein into submission.

Crafting:
I make a searing bomb.
2 things left

Battle:
Echoss frowns. Things sorta went downhill pretty fast here, didn't they?
He's not sure what to do at the moment actually... then he notices the Migi trying to keep back around Salix. Echoss decides he should probably do something about that at the very least, and marches over to B12. First, he casts Hidden Rock, hitting the Migi in the face. If that doesn't work (40% chance) he flips the Malice Striker around a few times and impales the Migi with it. If the Migi survives that (16% chance), Echoss's brow furrows and he caps a searing bomb in its butt.
If it still isn't dead at that point (6.4%) Echoss rubs his eyes tiredly and massages his temples, trying to fight back the growing headache.

Also, in a freak accident involving a hat full of pigeons, a broken frisbee and two thirds of a seeker's head, Maxim gets hit with another lumipod from Echoss's player crafted inventory. Totally unrelated though I promise.

Non flavor text action: Move to B12, hit Migi with Hidden Rock. If that doesn't kill it, stab it with the Malice Striker. If THAT doesn't work, blast it with a searing bomb. If THAT doesn't work, sit down and cry. Also toss lumipod at Maxim because he's a jerk.

Hat Kid flinches at the sight of the Yaga burrowing up from the ground. Nothing lasting, though, given she's been through worse. Much worse.

No, what really caused her to become upset this time was the fact that Boshi died again before her very eyes. She seems to be trying to re-convince herself that he's gonna be back soon from a revive... I think it's working? Hard to say.

Hat Kid shuffles to (E4), and deletes the two corpses next to her. She hangs out there for now.

---

Mustache Girl is peeved that the pillar is somehow still standing. But, well, the ore's almost mined out, so it's no big deal. She generically mines out the rest with the ol' Ashen Reap.

Once the ore is completely mined out, she heads over to the actual mine, and marks (T79, T80, S80, R80, Q80) for mining. Somehow.

She... doesn't actually know how to proceed without generically mining away at the tunnel. So for now, she just chips away at (T79) with the Ashen Reap.

Maria's Wonderful Garden Trip

"Ah!" Maria shouts as Chaos appears again-she doesn't seem nearly as used to it. She giggles right after, though. "Mister Chaos, you are really awesome!"

As the tour goes on, Maria's curiosity comes to the fore with a tsunami of questions. "What's a jukebox? Also, what's that blue thing around the big tree? And what's that yellow flower? And what's a 'cosmetic?' Who's that?" Venia says, pointing over in the general direction of where, moments ago, Salix was hearding Splinter Spiders-and where Mr. Krabs is now, just kind of standing there. He hasn't left. "Oh, that's Venny's robot! Hi, Venny's robot!" Maria yells, waving at the robot.

---

RP: The Preserve

Venia shakes at Maxim's words, even as Maxim is forced out of Nana's body. "YOU'RE ONE TO TALK ABOUT BEING A MONSTER, MAXIM!" Venia screams, barely able to keep herself away from Maxim's deadly body. "I, I CARE FOR WHAT I DID! YOU DON'T, FILTHY PARASITE! I'LL CRUSH YOU! PASTE YOU! YOU'LL BE MY NEWEST WALLPAPER!"

One of Venia's tentacles shudder, then volley out blackened crystals akin to splintershot rounds at Maxim's newest body, looking to destroy it, as well as others around her. "I'LL BREAK YOUR MIND LIKE THE CHEAP CRAP IT IS! JUST LIKE LUCID AND CALYPSE! A BRAINDEAD BUG! THAT'S WHAT YOU'LL BE, MAXIM! THAT'S WHAT YOU'LL BE! A GODAWFUL IMPOSTER, A GODAFWUL FIGHTER, AND SOON A LITTLE BRAINDEAD gorilla! COME ON!"

---

Battle: The Preserve

Venia sticks where she is and fires on Maxim with the Splintershot. Her hat erases the F16 corpse. I hope for better crit luck.

"Willow, leave that gorillaING PARASITE to me! I can take the punishment! UNLIKE AN INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE BUG I KNOW!"

---

Other

Round 109 is here, which means Nia should be done with The Man's Portable Armory Upgrade. Just a reminder from the client.

...I craft Searing Powder from Gunpowder and a Cinderfruit. Yay.

The Man moves to F15 and schuts Migi #1 dead.

Having exhausted her MP supply, Keiko moves back to D11.

Nidra plays a soft chord, Perseverance. She then moves to I5, and casts Nightmare Singularity on N5, before retreating to H4,

Brutishace finds himself surrounded on all fronts- he needs to find some way to escape...

The necromancer nudges his way past Irongutta, trying as hard as he can to excuse himself, then pops out at L14. Thankfully, there are a bunch of corpses lying around to steal souls from.

Brutishace works his horrific magic and fires a shot at the fifth Petal with his Avenger Pistol, sucking up the healing magic for Irongutta to benefit from. He then sucks up the nondescript corpse at N12, healing Destiny with his twisted power.

Destiny notices Venia's rage.
Young one, I think it is ideal you calm down. Unless you can use your rage to punch a large wound in a parasite getting pissy is a terrible idea. A clear mind helps give more space to tactical thinking, such as where it is ideal to attack this creature.
Besides, it is not that bad of a fate for someone...
Well I think I am not really one to talk. I have seen significantly gorier things, like my "intestines" of sorts being carved out by a blade. Thankfully Deva was there so I did not die at that moment.

Destiny then notices that Packo has a Headcrab.
Oh, that's unpleasant. You should attempt to grab it, and then with great force yank it off.
Well, that would be good advice if we were not so weak and could survive for more than a few seconds with these headcrabs. I will help you.

Destiny runs to M15 and stabs the Gotou that's bothering Packo.

Simeon stares up at Maxim, who is now right next to him.
"Well, that went badly. Willow? Follow me."
Hopefully, the two of them run so that Willow is on N15, and Simeon is on N16. Looking taking aim, he shoots the Zaliska at the Bouquet.
"Okay, that was satisfying. Could you throw those knives at those Cysts, and that Nanite over there? Thanks."

Auth moves to C11, with Flight, and uses Valiance on Nana, reviving her at C10. No RP or detail because I've not been well.

==BATTLE ACTIONS==
Pope Bill moves up to J7 and casts Cure on the Carrion, then retreats further up to J6.

Nezira moves to K7, then activates Transcendent Analysis!
A nimbus of blue energy forms around her, shifting between the forms of different players and NPC allies -- Boshi, Auth, Toast, Nidra, and so on through everyone until it settles on a spectral outline of Teag.

She copies Skeletal Toss from Teag. Her left eye acquires a familiar blue aura, and she thrusts her hand out to the side. A skeletal hand pops up from underground, grabs the Bilebaroness, and yeets the Bilebaroness to O6 -- moving (M9, N9, O9, O8, O7, O6).
Exact damage, counting the Bilebaroness' Volatile Sac, negative AC, and Crushing resistance, to make it explode on O6 and not before then.

She then drinks a Cup of Coffee.

Rusher 1 moves to M7 and destroys the Carrion's corpse, while Rusher 2 moves to J4 and slays the Petal.

Toast moves to J6 and launches a Cinderfruit to N4 if the Nanite corpse is existent. She then Cures the Corpsetaker of being alive. Or is she curing it of being undead? Signature Stacks are expended, Arcane Inspiration is active.

Zed flies to S18.

Irongutta moves to M12 and attacks Seeker Sphere 2!

Terry moves to K13, tosses a Splinter at the corpse on N12, then fires his attack rightways/east.

___________________________________________

Packo moves after Destiny!

Packo doesn't move anywhere and eats a piece of Licherian Bread. He then guards!

EN makes a frustrated noise at the Gorged blocking her path, then sighs and reaches out to place one hand on one of its shoulders.

"Ah'll keep it real wit' ya, lil fella. Y'ain't got nearly 'nuff strength in ya t' do anythin' meanin'ful t' 'arm me. Git outta me way an' ah'll ignore ya, stay in me way an' ah'll kill ya."

She then waits. If the Gorged obliges and moves out the way, she just moves on through as far... uh... right as she can go. If it doesn't get out the way, she promptly slams the shield into the Gorged2's face, directing the cone of ash south... um... southright. Either way, she turns her innate directional shield to the... uh... left.


Meanwhile, back at the house, Verdana checks the inventory to see what things are there. He finds out about the Yggapple Pies. He pulls one out. There is a moment of thought. (Don't worry, pobyo okay'd the idea of feeding birb a pie.)

"Interesting... Here, little one. What do you make of this?"

He proceeds to place the Yggapple Pie onto the benchy tabletop thing, right beside the Baby Gallow.


Meanwhile, slightly outside the house, it appears that Engie drone from earlier is now going for a wander. All the other assorted Engietech people are still lazing around inside the house proper, not being very helpful with anything for now. The drone isn't sure where he wants to go, so he proceeds to rocket really high into the air by jumping strongly. He promptly drops out of the sky and lands right next to the Jukebox, staring at it for quite some time. He then decides to give the thing a poke or two, maybe look for a way to turn the thing on.

"What's this thing doing here? Funny place to put a jukebox. Come on, do something useful. There has to be a reason why someone put a jukebox here. It wouldn't just be because someone thought this place would look nicer with a jukebox. That's ridiculous. The aesthetics of a jukebox clash in slightly dissonant but contextually amusing ways with the surroundings whenever they are placed within the confines of a garden. So what do you do, little box?"