Destiny runs to G13, being sure to avoid the void, and hookshots on to the Operator.
It seems our duel has come to an end. You fought valiantly, and you were certainly more of a challenge than what we have faced beforehand. Though I question your durability, I do not question your lethality. You were a good challenge, Operator.
Destiny finally retreats to H13.

Calibri appears quite happy to see that Chloe's taken interest in his shifting of form. Since she does have a few questions and ideas relating to it, he decides it'd be best to answer them.

"Well. Glad you're a fan, heh. To be fully honest, I never saw the need to show that off until now..."

...His expression changes to quite a notable smirk once Chloe mentions the idea of pranking someone. That is perhaps not an expression most people would trust...

"You know, I actually hadn't considered pranking someone. But that sounds like a great idea, heh. Let's do it... at some point eventually, of course. Other things to do first. Like the sparring session, hmm..."

Now, some thoughtful consideration. After a moment, he pulls out a sword of some odd design that looks like an ordinary blade, albeit with two hovering orbs near it that make it look a bit like a division sign when held horizontally... This one, he hands off to Chloe, summoning one for himself too.

"These should do for weaponry. They're called Dividers, and what they do is pretty simple - they divide health values. That may sound complicated, but the important thing to know is that they hurt tougher things more, and they can't actually deal fatal damage. Beyond that, I hope you don't mind if I have a few friends helping me..."

An ominous blue glow sparks up around Calibri. A pair of eye constructs float into the air beside him, one on his left and one on his right. They hover in place while he takes on something resembling a defensive stance with his own Divider sword, waiting for Chloe to engage.

"They shouldn't hurt too much. You're doing pretty alright for karma right now. Don't ask how that correlates, it's hard to explain... Anyway, whenever you're ready."


Meanwhile, Verdana seems dismayed at the sight of Tabletopians trapped down there, about to die to an egregious number of bottles. He stands there and watches, then suddenly snaps his fingers, conjuring a radio out of bloody hell if I know where and speaking into it.

"Excuse me, fine fellows operating that one medical frigate that I sort of use as a flagship thingy! This is going to sound strange, but you see that continent down there? The one which isn't quite fully destroyed by bottles? I'd like to call an evacuation mission on the large gray area. It'll make sense once you see it, trust me."

He puts the radio away. Seconds later, a very large ship that appears to be upwards of 7km in sheer length pulls into orbit near the planet, focusing a light down onto the Tabletopian region far below. Naturally, it's a focused teleporter, currently set to only nab living things - namely Tabletopians in this instance - and pop them onto the ship itself unharmed. Might as well make an effort to save a few more lives, even if it's going to be reset in the end. Of course, if the continent has already been fully subsumed before the frigate had time to do anything or the Tabletopians somehow all refuse, it just buggers off instead. Regardless of what happens, one might hear Verdana whisper something quietly to himself.

"...There are so many ways that this could go wrong, and it's pointless since the world will reset anyway... Still. This feels more correct than watching them die."


Meanwhile, EN seems oddly comfortable with Mari getting in close and scanning her, humming quietly while that goes on. She smirks when remarked upon as being "pretty impressive".

"Eheh. Thank ya kindly. Though, ya did mention obvious design flaws - ah'm curious, wha'd ya pick up on?"

"Aye, fair 'nuff. Peeps've got preferences, an' it jus' 'appens ah don't match wha' yer ones be. Ah won't hold tha' against ya, heh."


Meanwhile, battle stuff.

...I can't think of anything creative to do. So. Since speed said I could control the Auth moves during his bad internet time, Auth to H8, resurrect Chloe with that Hanten mechanic that I don't really understand all too well. As for EN, she'll move to I12 and yeehaw while demo punching The Operator.

Ziah uses Mass Envenom and Focus Energy, locking his eyes onto The Operator and letting an arrow fly, hopefully into something vital.

Nidra moves to J10 and attacks the Operator.

-Battle: The End of Creation-

Irongutta moves to J15, gaining Unstoppable Force! He then consumes the Pink Egg at long last, gaining 20 HP, 10 MP and Empowered2 for three rounds. Irongutta then basic attacks the Operator and targets the Operator with his hat again for 4 MP.

Uhhh run up to the Operator and attack him, if barriers up move to M14 attack L14 cover

αROUND ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-TWOα

Toast chats about what they might do once everything goes back to normal. She suggests the picnic, among other things. Marron sighs.

MARRON: ...Yeah, it'd be nice to have that picnic.
MARRON: Maybe we won't even be attacked by Iti.

MARRON: ...Also, I'd be pretty happy to teach you how to cook.
MARRON: It's like, one of the few things I'm really good at.
MARRON: Maybe you can bake me a cake later...
MARRON: ...Like, a cake with cookies in it. I did that once. It was great.

Toast shifts a little on the ground. Marron shifts a tad bit too, leaning into her a bit more heavily, her real arm gripping tightly with hers.

MARRON: ...It's so c-cold up here...
MARRON: Fortunately, I have that blanket.

She pulls out the blanket she got from Ette, and promptly swaddles herself in it... and maybe Toast, if she's up for it. At least, she seems happy- or about as happy as one can be if the universe is going to end, but...

---

Chloe and Nezira continue their chat. Terminals, gods, magic... things like that. But first, benevolent forces.

CHLOE: ...Honeslty, after everything I've seen, I think my whole perspective of religion's been thrown out of whack...
CHLOE: But there's probably something kind out there, watching us...
CHLOE: At least, I hope it's kind. It better be kind.

She giggles a little. Then, their conversation drifts to magic, and yes- she did use Nezira's magic system!

CHLOE So I am a wizard!

Nezira then accepts Chloe's request to teach her magic. She smiles widely.

CHLOE: R-Really!? Y-You'll help me!
CHLOE: A-Awesome! I mean, it's a bit of a bummer we'll need to wait for everything to fix itself, b-but...
CHLOE: T-Thank you!

Chloe gives Nezira a quick hug- less than five seconds, but it's still kinda warm and snug.

CHLOE: ...I-I'm not being too... "grabby", r-right?
CHLOE: I-I'm just... happy, and, well... I'm pretty prone to mood swings and stuff...
CHLOE: ...I was crying only an hour or two ago, eheheheh...

Elsewhere but still on Creation, Nezira talks with the Operator. Could he make it so that it's possible to come back to Creation?

THE OPERATOR: No.
THE OPERATOR: ...Well, yes. It's possible.
THE OPERATOR: However, you really shouldn't be here. Creation is incredibly powerful, and you've learned quite a bit about the world that you shouldn't have, merely by being here for only a few hours...

THE OPERATOR: There is a very real chance that you'll come back by destroying everything again.
THE OPERATOR: But if you do that, I'll get Creation to create some metal spires that I can stick you destructive idiots onto until the world opts to refresh itself again.
THE OPERATOR: You also did destroy the world it was presiding over.
THE OPERATOR: On that principle alone, you might not be allowed back here.

The Operator goes back to smacking people with tentacles. I mean, he's about to get dusted by Toast, but... pretend that's not happening and that he's a really hard boss whoaaaaaa

---

Venia still does a lot. Apparently, even in Creation, Venia has an endless drive to do stuff and things. Anyway, she asks Mari one more question- what's Nia being threatened with? How could it be countered?

MARI: That's two questions.
MARI: Whatever.

MARI: Anyway, I installed one main feature for controlling her- shutdown.
MARI: ...There also might've been an electroshock thing, but I'm not sure if me kept that or not. I was on the fence about that one. Seemed a bit overkill.
MARI: Anyway, shutdown- it's not as simple as a binary on-off switch. I could disable specific parts of Nia, like say her weapon systems, advanced targeting, analytics, vocal features, arms, legs...
MARI: Because sometimes, it's impractical to shut everything down. Not sure what happens to her while she's offline- does she dream, or does the butterfly talk to her, or... well, I don't really know.
MARI: Dream science. Gotta get into that. I'd joke about triangle dream demons, but we killed him. I think.

MARI: Anyway, if we want to STOP me from turning parts of her off, we can simply edit how the power flow on the body works.
MARI: With the exception of some of the more vital systems, most of the shutdown mechanisms are simple as disconnecting it from the power.
MARI: I mean, if we want to prevent her head from being turned off or whatever, that might get tricky without damaging her, but I doubt I'd turn that off right away. It'd be kinda jarring to be there one moment, then gone the next...
MARI: I'd probably just like, disable her legs and arms. That way, I could still talk with her while keeping her suppressed. Or something.
MARI: Ethical? Hell no. Helpful? Almost certainly.

MARI: Anyway, you're welcome for the help and everything, but...
MARI: ...Why'd you pay Chaos to go and fetch me? Just because you could? Memes?
MARI: God, never thought I'd be in another grid-based RPG...
MARI: Eh, whatever. It's cool.
MARI: Later.

Then... Venia FINALLY gets her chance to access Nia's mind. She rounds up Chloe and Nia, and they visit a secluded corner in the Observation room. Chloe sets up a few curtains to keep out prying Secretaries. The two of them then listen to Venia's somewhat long-winded

CHLOE: I-I'm nervous...
NIA: Chloe, you're not the one who's getting pried into.
NIA: Why are you the nervous one?
CHLOE: I-I'm... s-sorta worried for the both of us, really...
CHLOE: I don't w-want to see anything bad happen t-to you, a-and you've sorta hated the idea of t-this, so...
NIA: ...It's fine. It needs to happen.

NIA: ...
NIA: So, uh. Do I need to sleep for this "Golden Dream Ring" to work, or what?
CHLOE: I... I don't think you need to?
NIA: Eh. It'd probably be less awkward if I'm sleeping.
NIA: I also might not stab you guys if I'm sleeping, maybe.
NIA: Just give me a sec- I have a sleep mode function. Sorta, like, smack me across the face, and I'll wake up. Or open my eyes. Either works.
CHLOE: You have a sleep mode? Why do you need a sleep mode?
NIA: My brain goes fritz-y if I'm awake for like, 24 hours in a row, robot or not. Gotta have my z's to process the stuffs!
CHLOE: Makes sense, I guess.
CHLOE: S-So, are you ready-

Nia summons a small screen in front of her, swipes through it with her finger, then promptly taps a button. Sleep mode engages, and a cyan eyeshade suddenly appears around her eyes. She slumps sideways, her head resting in Chloe's lap.

CHLOE: ...
CHLOE: I guess that's a yes.
CHLOE: Venia? Go...
CHLOE: ...Go for it.

Venia activates the Golden Dream Ring! The ring whirs to life as Venia finds herself plunged into the world of Nia's Mindscape...

---

...Snow. Venia feels the cold all around her. If it was cold on Creation, it's absolutely glacial here, the crippling cold in stark contrast to the fluffiness around her. Snow gently flutters down and around through the air, layering itself upon the ground. Despite the snow, there's still a beautiful blue sky all around, obscured by sparse grey clouds. The pillow-like snow occasionally gives way to ancient trees of spruce, towering into the skyline of the mindscape. Venia appears to be within the inner grove of a forest of sorts.

Around her are a variety of sights- there's a rather large mountain a short distance to the north, its grey surface capped with a drizzling of snow. Around the clearing with few scattered trees is a wide variety of snowmen, most dressed with carrot noses and coal eyes. Then, she sees movement behind her. Something tiny. She turns to take a look, only to sense more movement behind her. Whatever it is, it's remaining just at the fringes of her sight. Then, something lands on her back, clinging around her neck. Venia resists the urge to yelp or scream.

...The clinging creature is being quite gently about it. It's more like a hug, if anything. Venia witnesses a figure truding through the snow towards her. It's only about two or three feet tall, and it seems quite cartoonish, with a cat-faced smile. The thing on her back crawls up to her head, and takes a seat there. Both creatures appear to be chibi Nia's, of a sort. They're small, cuddly, anime-esque, and apparently rather curious. Before much else can happen though, there's the blaring of a siren. The Nia on her head and the Nia in front of her suddenly panic, and begin running in the general direction of the mountain. The Nia sitting on her head (who is apparently wearing a ninja mask) motions for her to follow.

As they make for the mountain, tracks trailing in the snow behind them (the Nia's appear to be leaving little peg-holes in the ground, because Chibi), she notices a couple of things. The Nia's are armed! The ninja-masked Nia is holding a katana tightly, and the normal-looking Nia is armed with a rapier. In addition, most of the snowmen she's running by appear to have semi-translucent heads- in them, she can see flickers of things past, shrouded in the snow. Most of them seem recent. She also spots another group of Nia's, hauling a group of snowman heads behind them in a sled, gliding effortlessly across the snow. Those heads appear to contain glimmers of Venia, Irongutta, the Author- a lot of the people she's just met, apparently. The Nia's then break off and join Venia's squadron, one of them staying behind to haul the sled.

Eventually, Venia and five different chibi Nia's arrive at a gigantic abyssal hole of sorts. Several Nia's are gathered around it, speaking in some sort of weird gibberish. It's probably a language of sorts, but Venia can't make heads or tails of it. She sees the sled-hauling Nia move forward into the mountain, snowman heads dragging on the sled behind her. As she stares down into the abyss, she witnesses several more Nia's arrive. Some have military helmets and guns, some are dressed in cute robes with wizard hats and staves, and seriously- there's an incredible variety of Nia's!

...Then, there's a shrieking from the hole. It's strangely feminine, as feminine as evil demonic shrieking can be. The Nia's tremble in fear and cling to one another, with some simply turning around and running for the forest around them. Then, from the mountain, a normal-looking Nia emerges- she appears to be an accurate replica of the real Nia. She begins to speak, this time not in gibberish.

NIA?: Nia's! We cannot let this thing through!
NIA?: ...Even if it's like, the second time today! Seriously! Getting kinda annoying!

NIA?: Time and time again, we've held this beast back! We won't break! Not today!
NIA?: Even though things have been tough as of late, we will endure! We need to!
NIA?: FOR US!
SERIOUSLY A LOT OF NIA'S: NIIIII! (YEAAAAAAAHHHH!)

Then, a burst of crimson rips out of the hole. A single tendril. It promptly impales the ninja-masked Nia from earlier, and before any of the Nia's can do anything, she's pulled into the abyss. Then, suddenly and violently, it appears.

A gigantic, amorphous creature made of an inky black-red substance, like two paints that have only just begin to mix together, the two respective hues still incredibly distinct. Most of the creature appears to be dedicated to a gigantic maw, which the ninja Nia from earlier is promptly deposited into and instantly macerated. Eyes dot the surface of the beast, as well as a whole variety of tentacles, pulsating masses, and scars. It appears to barely fit in the hole. Then, it shrieks again. The Nia's almost break formation, but the presence of the "alpha Nia" seems to keep them calm.

This creature, the one covered in eyes, made of a chaotic substance, and a gigantic maw...

...is not the Chaos Butterfly.

Venia looks up. The Chaos Butterfly appears to be crawling around on the ceiling. Due to distance, it looks rather small. It appears to simply be watching for now. A slap bracelet appears to be crudely taped to its eye. Back on the ground where the undefined monster is, she can hear voices that are distinctly not the Nia's.

???: WHY / NIA / CHLOE / NO / WHY / CHLOE / CHLOE / NO / NO / MOM / NIA / THIS / WHY / CHLOE / NIA / STOP / THERE / NO / NO / THIS / DIE / DIE / DIE / DIE / DIE

...All out war breaks out. Nia's scramble to keep the beast under control, bullets, spells, blades, and explosions tearing into the creature, sending chunks of red/black flesh across the field. Quite a few chibi Nia's are torn into shreds by the beast, exploding into puffs of stuffing as they're systematically destroyed. The realistic looking Nia slams what appears to be a glitched fencing foil deep into the creature, whilst also slashing its tenctacles and eyes into bits whenever she finds an opening. Eventually, the creature has shrunk considerably, now not stuffing the hole like it once did. It descends somewhat into the hole, tenctacles grasping onto the ledges for dear life. The Nia's begin to stomp on and destroy the tentacles.

The beast looses grip, and tumbles back into the abyss it came from. There is no sound to signify its impact with the bottom. Whatever flesh was removed from the creature seems to hop, skip, and jump its way into the hole, following the creature downward.

With the war won, multiple of the Nia's collapse, exhausted. A few priestess Nia's come around, waving their staves around whilst yelling gibberish, reviving some of the chibi Nia's from the dead. Somewhere, Venia can see a new Nia pop into the world, her head poking out of a snowbank somewhere. She dusts the snow off of her head, and promptly skips off somewhere. In fact, most of the Nia's seem to be dispersing, as if what occurred was no big deal.

The realistic Nia notices Venia amidst the clearing hordes of Nia's, and waves to her. She seems to beckon her onward wordlessly as she walks into an opening in the mountain. With that commotion over, Venia appears to be free to explore the Mindscape. The only real objects of interest though, are the Mountain, the various snowmen around the area, and of course, the hole. There's also the Chaos Butterfly skittering around on the ceiling, but he seems like more of a common household pest at the moment.

---

...While Venia ponders her actions inside the Mindscape, she also does a few things in reality. She tries to type a few things into the Scanner... but she notices a few things floating around in its screen. Iti of a sort? How'd they get there? They promptly lock her controls, and prevent her from typing anything. They then begin to giggle, with about four frames of animation, and no actual audio. Butts.

She then requests a few entries. Despite the amount of response text to her post being pretty freaking massive, the game opts to give it to her, anyway.

---

Chloe and Calibri steel themselves as they prepare for their sparring match. Before they start swinging, Calibri pulls out two blades- one for the each of them. Chloe gives the unfamiliar blade a look-over.

CHLOE: ...What's a health value?
CHLOE: Like, a video game term? HP? Do weapons work like that?
CHLOE: Well, as long as we won't really bruise each other that much, I'm fine with them!

Chloe swings the blades around, getting a feel for it. It's rather lightweight as far as weapons go. She gives it a bit of a spinning flourish, before pointing it towards Calibri, holding it with only her left hand. The sorta anime "prepare yourself" pose. She smirks.

CHLOE: You ready for this?
CHLOE: ...B-But, before anything happens... thanks for doing this with me!

Calibri conjures two drones, and they prepare to battle! Which is slotted into a spoiler, because why not.



...Anyway, Verdana decides to try and call down a ship to save some of the Tabletopians remaining in Tabletopia! While the wave of bottles is fierce, and he's not able to teleport every single Tabletopian on for fear of bottle contamination, he does manage to save a couple dozen Tabletopians. It's not much, but... every life is something, even if reality is going to reset itself. EN and Mari then chat a little, with the android asking about design flaws.

MARI: I mean for one, it seems like you're not properly waterproofed, or SOMETHING.
MARI: Not entirely sure what the readings meant, but seriously- someone of your caliber should be waterproof! Even the iOS 7 was more waterproof than you, and that thing wasn't waterproof!
MARI: ...Most of the other things are nitpicks, though.
MARI: Nothing much.

---

<THE END OF CREATION, ROUND SIX>
Whump. Toast, with a flurry of high-powered punches, manages to send the Operator sailing across the room. He flies back into the circular glass viewport surrounding the bridge, the glass cracking heavily as he makes impact. He twitches against the glass for a moment, before eventually un-sticking from the glass and falling forward, onto the ground. He disappears, his body hidden by the Update Terminal. Everyone is left breathless after the battle- I mean, maybe not as breathless as you were meant to be, but still. Pretty breathless. Then, there's a clapping from behind the Terminal, as the Operator gets back up. Even after eating 500+ damage in a single action, he's still standing.

THE OPERATOR: Well, I must say.
THE OPERATOR: Bravo. Bravo.
THE OPERATOR: I'd say that was... fun. I'm not sure how you would consider it, but I think it was a decent way to spend our time.
THE OPERATOR: I didn't quite expect that. Any of that, really. While your potential down on the planet below was staggering, to witness that power and so much more, all in the span of a few rounds... is truly mystical.
THE OPERATOR: Again. Bravo.

Creation spawns a small robot, which appears to be two plastic hands attacked to a servo. It rapidly claps, while blaring an airhorn every few seconds. It then vanishes in a poof of green flame, and is promptly replaced with a small war chest.

THE OPERATOR: ...Obviously though, after seeing that performance, I'll need to make a few adjustments to the parameters of the world... but it shouldn't be too much.
THE OPERATOR: So, anyway. Something for you all to pay attention to.
THE OPERATOR: The state of the universe. We're slowing down.

...Now that you're paying attention to it, with your adrenaline finally lowering, the universe DOES seem slower. Perhaps like 75% as fast.

THE OPERATOR: Now, in a few moments, your save should be-

The Update Terminal suddenly ignites with a green glow! The other terminals in the room, once blaring red, now show a green glow as well. "SAVE SUCCESSFULLY EDITED."

THE OPERATOR: ...As I was saying, your save is now updated.
THE OPERATOR: Once the universe stops moving and eventually crashes, you should all return to Sussui.
THE OPERATOR: Your memories will be intact, as well as everything you've obtained up on this space station.
THE OPERATOR: Consider it compensation for your time.

THE OPERATOR: So. You have one round before the universe crashes.
THE OPERATOR: I am using red for emphasis because I cannot paint black text black.
THE OPERATOR: It has been... interesting, meeting all of you.
THE OPERATOR: Given your performance up here, I believe that you'll be more than capable of conquering the dangerous of the Sphere, the planet below and everything that may stand in your way.
THE OPERATOR: So, go forth. Go forth and save this world. Perhaps prove me wrong, as it'd be more fun that way.

THE OPERATOR: ...
THE OPERATOR: Good luck.

So, you heard the guy- the universe will crash and reset in one round. You have until then to prepare, socialize, flirt, and generally do whatever. Once the universe loads back up, the fight with R4-Sat0skr will commence! Unless you don't like the idea of that. In that case, let me know on Discord!

As a gift for defeating the Operator, you've been given several powerful pieces of gear! Give them a look over? There's also a new spell, so that might be interesting as well!

"Well. That's that, then."

"So the world's about to end and everything's gonna be reset, or something? Well, in that case, time to go do something incredibly stupid."

The Man walks off to the southern end of Recreation and Maintenance, slugs the Attendant in the face, and attempts to enter the hatch.

Hoo boy. This post will be busy.

RP: End of Creation

Venia's stares and stares and stares, even as Toast moves in, crackling some unholy soon-to-be-nerfed power.

"Comeon, Venia! He has to do it somehow, I just need a little bit more-wait what's she doing?! Toast, you're not-wait no no no no!

Venia doesn't voice her objection to Toast abruptly turning into female Saitama, and being an eldritch spider gives her an incredible poker face with which to hide her innate frustration.

"Damnit! So close! She's just... She's... Wait. What is she doing."

And she watches the punches, each fluidly flowing from one another-OK, no they're not, she's mimicking Saitama, down to having absolutely no skill, and Toast does not have that level of physical skill. Her magical mimicry is completely pointless; the whole point of Consecutive Normal Punches is that they're not only held back, they're also the opposite of skilled. Indeed, everything about Toast's method of delivering her fists is completely backwards to how the actual technique is performed.

...

Just like how tentacles aren't stabbing weapons.

Just like how no-one can see him move even if he's in plain sight.

Just like how no-one should be able to see him, period, and yet here they were, looking upon a premiere eldritch horror just a bit past the point of his infamy.

...

It doesn't make sense! Venia, in that brief moment, feels like wanting to scream about how completely arbitrary and stupid Toast is being and how she's being rewarded for it, and how THE OPERATOR is being contrary in almost everything it does, and the number of other, impossible, arbitrary, pointless crap that goes on around here. Her silly hat is silly and fun to wear, sure, but it shouldn't make her any better at aiming; her jacket doesn't really help her fast-movement muscles, or her magical knowledge, and while Ga'aunt could be a booster to some physical brawn via just being a layer of metal, Venia isn't using the ancient mentor to punch things. It literally doesn't make sense, it shouldn't work, not even the Thyme Field makes sense or should work-it seems downright contrary!

Is that why its all called Fiction, then?

...Yes. Yes it is. Because it can't make sense. But since it can't make since, might as well make it even more senseless, right? Reality was pretty malleable, and she's always had the power to affect it. She could weave her very cancer into a powerful armor-what else could she do? What couldn't she do?

It clicks. At last.

"... Thank you, THE OPERATOR, for your compliments, and everything else. And with that out of the way... Perhaps, we may reposition the station away from the incoming horde such that we do not have the Update Terminal unintentionally annihilated by the Bottles?"

Venia makes no outward signs of her revelations-myriad as they are coming now-and instead just de-transforms, a bit of a wild spark in her eye. God knows what she's been thinking of in all of this... Maybe someone should ask? Its hard to say if she's actually well in there.

Before she leaves the premises, though, Venia takes a tome of Encourage, tactically ignoring the presence of the other Nia a few rooms away, and uses it on Nia, hopefully restoring her to a more able-bodied condition. She does the same for Chloe with Ette's help.

"Are you two alright? I have good news: we won!" Venia says, triumphantly. "Also, our 'save' has been updated, so to speak, so that means that when reality resets, no more bottles... Thank goodness... Maria... She'll be alright!"

Venia hugs the duo (a feat she is perfectly capable of due to her large frame), setting them up on their feet if they're not already.

"Soon this'll all just be a bad dream... I'd just hope our last moments prior to reset do not involve us dying to bottles again."

---

Niascape

Venia came prepared for the cold-apparently, judging by the fur-trimmed white winter coat and heavy duty boots instead of her typical wear. Even her hat isn't present here. She doesn't appear to be half-'bottle' in this world, strangely enough. Venia herself doesn't seem to notice her change in clothes beyond brief acknowledgement.

She reacts rather warmly to the Chibi Nias, breaking into an immediate smile and almost trying to scoop up one in a hug before the siren goes off-at that point, she goes ice cold. Nothing-not even the impalement and subsequent liquefication of the Ninja Chibi Nia-gets even a slight reaction from her, and she casually ignores pretty much all the carnage to laser-focus the beast's every twitch and the whole battle until its done.

"... As expected." Venia says, when its all said and done. "I'd be lying to think that there wouldn't be something like this. I figured it'd be more like a geographical thing than an entity... But quite honestly, this was mostly what I thought it'd be." She adds, talking to herself inside the Mindscape.

Venia actively avoids looking at the snowmen's cores. She came here to look at Nia's Mindscape for solutions, and as far as she can tell, the Chaos Butterfly isn't active. Yet. She stares at the beast for a few seconds, though, and makes a quick "I'm watching you" gesture at it before she follows the Alpha Nia into the Mindscape at a run until she's caught up, taking in the sights appropriately before responding.

"... OK. So. Hi. I'm Venia. I guess you know who I am and what I'm doing here. Thank you for putting up with this... Or, well, thank all of you. I'll do my best to help revert whatever changes the Butterfly's made for the worse around here... And who are you? I mean. Everything here is Nia by default so, I mean... You know what I mean." Venia says to the Alpha Nia.

"... With the introduction out of the way, well... I came here for a reason. There's two things I need to know before we begin, aside from anything you'd wish to include. First, anything you've got on the Butterfly as a denizen of this place. When it came, what its done, what its doing, that sort of thing. Second... Anything you've got on the entity from the pit. I think I have a bead on it just from seeing it in action, but I'd rather know than assume. If I can't do anything, I'll leave immediately-if I can, point me to it."

---

Meanwhile, in the real world, Venia's free hand is busy ruthlessly attacking a paper with a pencil, writing down a series of notes. Her handwriting is rather messy due to not looking at it, but still legible, and she's constantly writing and erasing new tidbits. Chloe's got a clear line of sight to the notes, at least.

---

Shopping

Venia purchases the Wheelbarrow and the Quickstitch technique from Chaos. She also takes this time to slip in Mari's Note to Nia, with enough credits to get it to T4. "I know your reservations about boring stuff, but think this may actually turn it into a comprehensive guide to Mari-slash-Xavier's robotics, or something along those lines... Who knows?"

---

Skillpoints and Special Revamp

Venia shuffles her skillpoints.
-1 HP
-1 INT
-1 RES
+1 STR
+1 SPC
+1 SKI
+2 AGI

She bids goodbye to her Rose Eater Robes for the Operator's Suit, and selects Tentacle Gift and Always Watching for her buffs.

She then tweaks her specials.

-Both of her specials scale the same way, so they are both changed. It is now: Damage Dealt, Allies Downed (x10), Damage Dealt with Purge/Salvation buff (x1.5), Alternating Weapon Attacks (x10).

-Unexisting Theorem's CRT boost is now +10 CRT instead of 150% CRT, to keep consistent with CRT boosts. As a compensation, the special now has a modifier to increase CRT: +1 for every 4 SPC and SKI.

-Most radically, Venia ditches Phantom Menace. Sorry, but you were overcomplicated for your effects! Venia has instead opted to blatantly rip off Monika with a new special.



The changes can be quickly summarized in the 'Current Build' tab of my Theorycrafting document, linked here. (Minus some formatting issues.)

---

Research

-Flux Extraction: Entrophy-

Venia's lips tremble as she moves away from the main group to examine one of the remaining Entrophys. A beautiful gem, really; clear with a red interior. As a person with a lot of wealth, she has an eye for value, and multicolored gemstones are automatically of better make than any plain old diamond.

It also has Flux in it.

Venia breathes in, and breathes out. Myraid revelations or no, it only makes what she gazes upon even more ugly.

First, she sets up a vaccum cleaner. Yes, that's it. Just a vaccum cleaner. Then, she takes out a slip of paper and a crystal pen from the inventory, and takes the Entropic Key in her hand, revving it up until its Purging power translates to an aura of Charisma, which she is now fairly familiar with. Instead of any purging chichanery, though, the fire creeps upon the pen, she grasps it firmly, and begins to write. Specifically, she writes a document entitied 'A fair and objective perspective as to why the Chaos Butterfly is utterly contemptible.' She snaps her fingers, and begins to write the document in the confines of a spoiler, which she puts below this paragraph.



Venia looks up at the Entrophy, pausing her writing. The Flux had long vacated the gem, leaving it clean and shiny, the Flux safely stored in the inventory. Venia smirks-her understanding of things is improving. She doesn't even need to directly correlate her actions to her results, now. The Flux fled the gem because it 'feared' Venia's witty retort at its master's character? No-because gemstones are inanimate, nonsentient, and incapable of any higher thought, as was the Flux within it, but the vauge implication of the act she was about to commit was enough to force it out. She takes the paper, crumples it, and also tosses it into the vaccum cleaner. It somehow sucks it up despite being inanimate.

"...That was satisfying," Venia says.

"Don't let it go to your head," Says her hat.

"A bit late for that, but point taken," Venia responds.

---

After the above, Venia spends 10 Flux to unlock Delve, giving her the T5 Entropic Key, and all that entails. She will, of course, immediately equip it as she already has the T3 Key equipped. Simple. This doesn't reflect upon the build linked above, as we don't know what the T5 Key's stats are like, but I'm sure that this can be quickly accommodated for.

---

One Last Thing.

Venia moves back towards the Refreshments table on V17, and unceremoniously takes the glasses of water and the table itself and shoves it in the inventory.

"You did make that for us, so I don't see much harm in it, Creation," Venia says. "In any case, I thank you for your time here-I wish we could have met under far more pleasurable circumstances than these, and I thank you for allowing us here after our egregious mistake."

"... There's hope for her, right?" Venia asks, her eyes briefly darting to both instances of Nia, sleeping on Chloe's lap and in a bear hug in another room. Wait, what? Don't question it. "We can recover her and make it all better, right?"

Toast tugs a little at the blanket, indicating that she'd like a bit. Then, once she is covered by it, she wraps her arm Marron and holds her close. The first thing that the puppeteer is likely to notice is that Toast's body is very warm. One might even say... toasty.

~~

After her final punch, Toast is left in that punching position, breathing heavily. She lowers her fist, puts her hands on her knees, and lets the excess magical energy refill her aura, before the excess from that evaporates. She falls back onto her butt, stabilising her breathing.
"...Whew."
Feeling many eyes on her after what she just did, she averts her gaze and smiles quietly to herself.

~~

I'll hold onto skillpoints until I figure out what I'm doing.

Boshi +2s his RES.

---Onto the RP. Buckle in, it's about to get dark---

The battle was won, with an overwhelmingly ridiculous display from the resident nuke mage Toast landing the finishing blow. Absolutely stunning.

So stunning in fact that Boshi's shades fell off a few moments after the event, in a comedic sort of sense. He also drops the pickaxe, which thankfully doesn't explode in his face. The objects fall to the ground with a clatter and a clank. Boshi pulls out a random notepad, and mumbles to himself; "(note to self... do not piss off the toaster... and while i'm at it... also do not mention her name to a shy guy...)"

Hat Kid, however, didn't hold up nearly as well. That sheer display of power would make any kid recoil in fear. Hat Kid was no different in this instance. Not to mention coming off of The Operator's shenanigans, due to him technically being Slenderman. Even the minimal static she was exposed to was etched into her mind so vividly that she can't even look at 1% of his body without clutching her head in pain. Not to mention the scary nature of The Operator's attacks; forcibly making someone attack their allies, tentacles that lash out at everyone, even the fact that the pages were cursed... it made her think: is nothing truly safe? Not even those you hold close to you? ...her mental fortitude was weakened after the fight, it seems... maybe not permanently, but it's gonna take a while to recover...

...but whatever else has been assailing her mind ever since that final round faces significantly less resistance. While she gets up normally at first, albeit shaken, it's obvious as she goes to one side of the cockpit that something's far from right; she's getting weaker, shaking more and more, walking slower, breathing heavier. More eerily, however, is the fact that there are strange red text boxes floating behind her, each of varying sizes and unreadable white text. As time goes on, these text boxes appear and disappear more frequently.

A look outside would reveal that there is another celestial entity outside, seemingly unimpeded by the fact there's an apocalypse going on on the planet below. It looks strangely like a moderately-sized space station, with a dark indigo as its main color, and comprised of two main sections, each similar in appearance from this angle.

Hat Kid makes it to the edge of the cockpit, and looks out into the abyss. She doesn't look down. She already knows what's down there; a mass of bottles, rapidly eating the planet and climbing into space. No; she looks directly at the space station, pressing her hands and face against the glass to try and keep her balance and to get a better look.

By this point she's grown unnaturally weak; all of her limbs were shaking violently, it physically hurt to breathe, her eyes fluttering shut, the strange text boxes reappearing at an alarming frequency and staying for longer. Eventually, it becomes unbearable...

"(Hm?)"
It's at this point that Boshi looks back to see Hat Kid after picking up his glasses and weapon. She's shaking more violently than ever. And those red text boxes, while transparent, almost obscure her backside completely. It didn't even take Boshi a second before he realized exactly what was going on as he bolts to Hat Kid's aid. At which point Boshi shouts something completely out of the ordinary, clearly in a panic; "(SOPHIA!!)" Boshi dives in just as Hat Kid was about to fall over backwards, weak and exhausted. Fortunately, Boshi catches her just as she was about to hit the floor, with Boshi sliding a short distance towards the window, where he spots the space station. The normally confident Yoshi went from calm to panicked to completely and utterly terrified in the span of a minute.

"(No... no no no... I-I'm too late... Sophia, speak to me!!)"
...Silence. Tears welling up in the child's half-closed eyes; not from fear, but from pain... a quiet whimper manages to part from her lips as she weakly reaches up to touch Boshi's face, who was worried beyond belief. A few seconds later, she drops unconscious (but still alive and surprisingly healthy). "(SOPHIAAAAA!!!!)"

Everything falls silent, save for the sounds of Creation and conversation going on in the background. Boshi takes the time to make out some of the text boxes. They seem to be in an alien language that next to nobody could feasibly translate. Thankfully, it seems that Boshi is fluent, and mumbles the translation to himself through his currently forming tears;

"(...
Adria Containment

Successful mental infiltration.

...

Adria Containment

Reset Protections implemented successfully.

...

Adria Containment

Illusory Imagery for Desirables implemented successfully.
...)"

He stands up, carrying 'Sophia' in his arms. He stands there in denial, trying his hardest to force himself to believe otherwise...
"(...no, she hasn't learned how to prevent the reset from affecting what she did... has she...? It...It'll just revert with the reset... just like with Maria... right...?)"

It's obvious he's a hair's trigger away from going ballistic...

((Oh, if you want areas to put them at, Q33 and R33 for 'Hat Kid' and Boshi respectively))

Terry does a bit of a statshuffle.
+1 to HP
-1 to MP
+1 to AGI
+3 to SKI
-2 to SPC

He then equips the Operant Pages. A quartet of paper sheets orbit Terry's head, and his hands are wreathed in static.

All this is only if it's okay with everyone. Otherwise, he just +2s SKI.

---

"Good game, Operator. Good game."

Terry takes a bow. Right after, he uses his limited knowledge of aircraft controls to move Creation up, up, and away from the bottles.

"See you all next reload."

Terry backflips, then falls flat on his face.

Arisa drops a skillpoint each into RES and DEF.

"oh did I miss something? sorry"

The battle is over. As The Operator is defeated by the mightiest of Jojo references before he is even able to whack him with his flail, still feeling angry, he briefly says:

"So you are reverting the World back to normal? Good. Thank you." He says, totally enraged, even though his word choice sounds polite enough.
__________________

__________________


__________________

Now that Packo's view on things has changed a little and his rage has been dispelled entirely, he decides to upgrade his stats. He realizes that he still has so much to learn about this world...

-1 INT
+1 SKI
+2 AGI
+1 RES

He hopes that he can get as strong as the rest of the crew soon enough... At least, he doesn't feel completely alone in that feeling.
__________________






__________________

Packo walks near Marron and Ette, tending to Nia and Chloe.

"D-Do you people need help? I could... Uh... Use my safety feature to heal these people, if you want..."

He seems worried that, somehow, the resetting of the World will be happening because they recover fully.

"I-Is it even worth? It looks like we are coming back anyway... You all seem to be... Okay?" He asks Ette, worried about the state of the two girls.

"When we get back... We will keep fighting to destroy The Ball-" He says. "A-And I will be on the same side as, uh... Toast, and Venia, and that other creature!" He says, trembling a bit from their sheer power.

I'll write this bit with the assumption that the "see Ette, get heals" part of Chloe VS Cal hasn't been autocompleted independently already... Once Calibri and Chloe have made their way together to Ette, Cal decides to get the puppet's attention with a quick and gentle boop. Despite the nature of the duel being not very lethal, wounds are still present, and Chloe might be a normal human with normal injuries, but Cal's ones appear to be quite bloodless, dusty, and inexplicably each cut appears to have numerous tiny eyes staring out of it. Truly, an unnerving sight for anyone with issues relating to trypophobia.

"Sup, Ette. Me and Chloe had a duel. It was fun. We're kind of injured, though. Got any healing? I'd ask Verdana but I have no idea where he went on this station."

It may be worth noting that Verdana is pretty blatantly in the exact same room, albeit busy with staring out a window at the 7km long Engietech ship some distance away, managing things from afar... Meanwhile back on Creation, once he's confirmed that heals will be a thing, Cal chuckles and turns to Chloe.

"Seems like the world will reset soon from what I'm overhearing. You wanna get anything from here before that happens? Or, well, if you're not up for nabbing random things from here, you want me to get ya anything from here? I don't think we can have the robots, the terminal, the green guy, or the business suit guy, but... Eh, if there's anything you want, just point it out and I'll see what I can do, heh."

...Something occurs to him once he's done talking. He promptly begins mumbling quietly to himself - his voice is already pretty quiet to start with, so this just makes him damn near inaudible. Perhaps not inaudible enough, though.

"...Wait... calculating time parameters... we did a halloween celebration then, and a christmas celebration at that time... that means, if my calculations are correct... Valentine's day... That thing humans have that means something, uh... this could get awkward, how do I handle this..."


Meanwhile, Verdana is indeed coordinating things on the Engietech ship at first, but eventually things seem to have settled. It helps that not a whole lot of Tabletopians were rescued in the first place relative to ship size. After he's done, he sighs, smiling a little to himself, then he turns to go find the Secretary who was given charge of taking care of Gibbet. Once he's found the Secretary, he waves hello and begins talking.

"Hello there! It appears we will be going back to a restored Sussui soon, so I want to ask. How has the little one been in your care? I hope they weren't too difficult for you."


Meanwhile, EN shakes a little at the mention of water, then nods mostly to herself but also to Mari.

"Mm. Water... Ah'll admit, tha' stuff gits e'erywhere. Liquids an' gaps don't mix all tha' great. Like, bit 'ard t' avoid water gettin' in th' wrong places when ya parts go like..."

EN pulls a minigun out of her arm to demonstrate the way her body has to open to let her get her things out. She then puts the minigun away, seeing no point in it.

"Wha' makes it more annoyin' is ah don't really 'ave a way 'round it fer now. Tried integratin' it, it's kind o' a pain doin' anythin' wit' me own body jus' due to 'ow it be, though... Ah s'pose ah wouldn't mind if ya 'ad yer own way t' go 'bout solvin' tha' issue instead, heh. Other nitpicks woul' be nice t' see gotten rid o', but th' water vulnerability is really doin' me a nuisance in way too many types o' situation t' count..."


Skillpoint stuffu: +2 to EN STR, +4 to Cal SPC, hold off on other stats for now.
Equiment stuffu: Cal - Apocalypse Flair -> Chloe Plushie, Soldier's Journal -> Guide To Logistics (if available).
Random flavortext: Cal finds out about the existence of the Chloe Plushie. He holds the plushie in his hands, staring at it for quite a while. He then giggles quietly.
"So cute~ I want one."
He then decides to find a nice place to have the plushie on him, beaming happily about having it. To be fair, it goes really well with his stats and he looks so happy to have one, it might be worth letting him keep that one.

As the game is about to reset, my characters take a look outside the windows, to count how many tabletopian ships there are, as well as make estimates on their approximate size.

Zahlia also raises an eyebrow at the sight of two Marrons in two rooms.

==RP==
Nezira looks kind of surprised when Chloe hugs her, but quickly moves over to hugging her back.

"...Whoa? Aaa."

Once the hug finishes, Nezira looks... well, the only real way to describe it is 'happily stunned.'

"No, you weren't being too grabby! Also, that was nice..."

She shakes it off after a second.

"...Anyway. I think everything's gonna reset pretty soon. It might be a bit of a weird feeling... notice how everything's getting slower? Things are going to go slower and slower until they stop, the universe hangs, and then it resets after a bit. I've been thinking about using a sleep spell on myself to avoid experiencing being frozen in place and still thinking, but at the same time... it might be interesting to experience. What do you think? (And, uh, I could use the spell on you, if you wanted?)"

She pauses for a second, thinking.

"And, uh... do you want to sit with each other as it happens, assuming we both decide to stay awake? It might be comforting to have someone nearby as it all happens. I've... never experienced a reality reset like this before, so I hope it's not too bad..."

Assuming Chloe says yes, Nezira sits down with her against a wall, and just stays there for a while, waiting for the crash.

Irongutta puts 2 points into DEF. It was a good way to go.

-RP-
With the battle over, Irongutta slowly comes down from his adrenaline rush. Even though the station likely wasn't that cold, he was practically shedding steam. After a few more moments of deep breathing, Irongutta was back to his normal, mostly amicable self.

And quite honestly, he was in awe at how the battle ended. Toast just went and sent the Operator straight to hell with a series of impressive blows that were enough to impress even the Ork. "Flamin' Mork, ya punched 'is lights out!" Irongutta spoke loudly, probably breaking whatever brief silence there may have been.

Heading to the northern end of the station, he prepped himself for the reset. He didn't quite get whatever that would entail, but he knew he'd wind up on the surface of Sussui again as a result. Irongutta lingered near the left (west?), looking out to the stars with piercing red eyes.

Astrec searches up The Everground, and the Entropic Key in the database.
If either is major plot, Acacia.

αROUND ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-THREEα

The Man attempts to muscle past an Attendant! He slugs it in the face! Now, no matter if he used his fists, face, or bullets, he'd deal (4) damage to it at best, assuming bullets and he rolled a 9 for damage. The Attendant barely flinches from the blow. As The Man dives for the hatch, the Attendant quickly seizes him... and throws him down into the Hatch. Success???

He does manage to get a glimpse of what appears to be a gigantic storage station for Secretaries, Attendants, and a whole host of other varied creations. He doesn't get to actually see it in much detail, as before he can impact the floor, Creation creates a hole in the floor, straight into the void of space. The Man dies in the cold, uncaring vacuum of space. He respawns moments later at the Origin Spawnpoint.

---

Venia... does some unholy amount of stuff. Seriously, now. Processing this one post is gonna take half the update. We're also putting every segment into a spoiler, for ease of organization.







...Also, she loots a refreshments table from Creation, obtaining 2 Silverwood Logs and 3 Waterdranks. There was more water, but they seemed to have automatically compiled themselves. She then talks with Creation, thanking it for allowing them to be here. It doesn't respond.

She then asks Creation if she can recover Nia, and make everything all better. A small plume of green fire appears in front of Venia. She sees a multitude of things emerge and promptly vanish from the fire, and it eventually completely fizzles out. Moments later, it spawns a gigantic checkmark, which promptly slams into the ground in front of Venia. She also decides to promptly loot that. Triumphant Tick obtained!

---

Boshi equips a +2 to RES, which cannot protect Hat Kid Sophia from suffering a 404 reset actually found. Ette takes notice of the commotion, as she's done with Chloe and Nia and doesn't have anything else to really attend to. She walks on over, and gets a look at the fallen Hat Kid?

ETTE: (...)
ETTE: (I-Is she okay? W-What's going on?)
ETTE: (I-I heard things, and they didn't sound good! Not at all!)
ETTE: (If there's anything I can do to help, let me know, a-alright?)

...Ette doesn't quite get the social cues that Boshi is probably only a few nudges away from exploding. Maybe this'll end badly for her?

---

Terry shuffles his stats around and equips the Operant Pages! By some miracle of ancient wonder, Terry's final stats barely change, thus making the only thing the GM needs to edit be his MMP value.

---

Arisa +1's her DEF and RES. 3 AC is actually pretty nice- most lesser Iti and such will deal peanuts to you!

---

Packo does a few things. First, he tries to craft 10 whole Stinky Splinters... and only manages to craft 1. He does however, manage to give it a valid recraft recipe, using only 1 Refined Wood and 2 Compost Blobs. Giving you 10 right away would mean you'd be hard-pressed to be unable to taunt something, which might be incredibly busted! Or at least, boring.

i should give some enemies taunt resist that'd be fun

He then +2's his AGI, and +1's his SKI and RES, while dropping a single INT. He's getting scarily min-maxed, with that high AGI and other defenses. From there, he does a string of crafts... all of which actually use too many materials, which is honestly not really a bad thing. So, the game automatically reduces material consumption!

He tosses together 2 Banquet Tables, 2 Joltwire, 4 Circuit Boards, 2 Speaker Systems, 1 Platinum Ingot, 2 Throwlem Crystals, 1 Bucket of Salt Water, 7 Crushed Pop Cans, 2 Coilgun Parts, 10 Wire Scraps, 1 Yaga Scale, and 1 Tornadopetal to create the Shouting Star out of the Smelly Star! It gets some hefty nerfs: -1 Base Damage, -2 damage per Drone Hit (but +2 Armorpierce on them so they're not entirely worthless against lightly armored foes), and a change to its general wording, which isn't a nerf, but... it's a change. It's damage output (some of which was passive) combined with mass taunting ability was too high, so it had to change.

He then... hits maximum allotted crafts, and promptly crashes the crafting OS. Plus, you couldn't equip the Steamstream Gloves until after R4-Sat0skr, anyway. It's also probably a little iffy to use Omo's Amethyst Ring within the crafting recipe. He then meets up with Marron and Ette, asking if they need help with Chloe and Nia.

MARRON: I'd say yes, but due to the way time works or whatever, someone's already tended to their sorry butts.
MARRON: They're probably still a little beat up, but whatever. As you said, there's really not much of a point doing anything, given that the world's reseting itself...
ETTE: (Also, we're okay! Sis barely got touched!)
ETTE: (Thanks for checking!)

---

In an alternate timeline / Chloe / I don't even know, both Chloe and Calibri get their faces tended to. They meet up with Ette, who promptly freaks a little at the injuries the two of them suffered.

ETTE: (O-Oh my gosh! C-Calibri, t-these don't look l-like dueling injuries! T-This looks serious!)
ETTE: (W-What would Chloe's family say i-if she was in a w-worse shape!? You need to be c-careful! Same goes f-for you Chloe, even if he's less injured!)
CHLOE: ...Less injured. I guess it's pretty obvious that I lost...
CHLOE: We'll be more careful in the future, though! Or at least, maybe stop before I'm moments away from collapsing...
ETTE: (Mhm! Anyway, sit still, and I'll fix you up really quick!)

The two of them lie down on a few pillows that Ette found somewhere, and she tends to their wounds with magic- and when that runs out, various herbal remedies, and one or two stitches. The two duelists then share a bit of a chat. Does she want anything from here before that happens? She ponders it for a moment.

CHLOE: Hm? No, not really.
CHLOE: I-I just... kinda wanna get back to the world I'm familiar with. Well, not like, "Earth" familiar with, but like, "the planet I've lived on for three days" familiar with.
CHLOE: ...I mean, maybe I'd like a cool weapon from Creation, but I don't think it'd give me anything.

He then offhandedly mentions valentines day. Chloe doesn't seem quite flustered as she should- actually, she's rather calm about it?

CHLOE: Hm, if we do keep celebrating holidays in disjointed ways like that, I guess Valentines is coming up!
CHLOE: ...Maybe I should give something to Nia. Sure, I might've rejected her and stuff, but we still generally gift each other something. Usually chocolate, or ice cream, or chocolate ice cream...
CHLOE: She usually just gets me the sappiest possible cards, and then something nice n' sweet~

Verdana then finds the Secretary in charge of taking care of Gibbet, and asks how the bird was in their care. Gibbet chirps happily as it roosts on the head of the Secretary.

SECRETARY: luxq ɟʌ bǝʌo nuɹl ƃɥo
SECRETARY: bǝʌɹɾ ɟʎɹɹs buɹn lz

EN meanwhile, finishes up her chat with Mari. She expresses her frustrations with her waterproofing- or lack of it.

MARI: ...Honestly, would it be that hard to fix up the whole waterproofing thing?
MARI: Give me three minutes, a tarp, and a nail gun, and I could probably fix it.
MARI: ...Okay, the fix there would be hot garbage, and probably hurt a whole lot. Waterproofing things gets iffy when the thing you're waterproofing is a living, breathing... robot?
MARI: Living and breathing do not belong in that sentence. Whatever.
MARI: For now though, you're probably just best off wearing a coat. Simple, cost effective, and possibly stylish. I'd recommend a lab coat, myself.
MARI: I modified mine with anti-stab plates, just in case I get jumped by another freaking tree or whatever.

MARI: ...Don't question it.

Anyway, they then both improve their stats: Calibri with a +4 to SPC, and EN with a +2 to STR. Calibri also rotates his trinkets, too: Chloe Plushie and a Guide to Logistics. Except, he can't actually equip the Guide to Logistics, because T4 item restrictions. rip

---

Simeon and Zahlia try and reckon how many Tabletopian ships escaped the planet. She reckons at least a couple thousand- there's a ton of them! Most of them appear to be large military vessels- must've not been enough time to scramble together normal evacuation vessels for everyone.

---

Nezira asks Chloe if they can sit together for the end of the world. Chloe nods, and gently smiles.

CHLOE: I'll pass on the sleep spell. I just... it'd be weird to just sorta lie down and take it.
CHLOE: I-If we're going to die and reset... well, I don't want to have it sneak up on me.
CHLOE: It's alright if you feel differently, b-but... yeah.

CHLOE: Anyway, I'd be more than happy to sit with you!
CHLOE: I-I'd want somebody by my side too, s-so...

The two of them sit down near the cockpit of Creation, and stare into the void, which is becoming increasingly occupied by bottles. Chloe moves her hand- it seems to stutter and jump a little.

CHLOE: O-Oh! I-It's getting closer...
CHLOE: N-Never thought I'd g-get to experience lag in r-real life! Eheheheh...

...She's trying her hardest to stay calm, but it's apparent that she's rather frightened. But yet, the end rapidly hurtles towards them.

---

Irongutta +2's his DEF. It was, in fact, a good way to go.

---

Astrec decides to look a few things up on Creation's terminal. It lags considerably while trying to load up the articles, but it does eventually get there.

---

The NPC's opt to invest into their skillpoints!
Chloe: +2 INT.
Marron: +1 STR, +1 AGI.
Ette: +1 INT, +1 SPC.
Omorika: +2 SPC.
Nia: +2 INT.

---

...Reality is really chugging along now. The collision of the bottles with itself is starting to glitch out too, with some bottles being flung out at incredibly high speeds into the far reaches of the the universe, trails of bottles leading behind them. Staring out into the void are two girls- Toast and Marron, snug together in a blanket, holding one another close.

Marron's face seems to light up gently as she embraces her girlfriend. She pushes away from her, and looks her in the eyes. There's a small fire within them. Marron begins to speak.

MARRON: H-Hey, uh...
MARRON: D-Do you... u-uh...
MARRON: ...
TOAST: Do I what?

...She appears to be having a hard time saying anything. Her face grows further red, and she tries her hardest to piece together her ideas without dying of raw fluster.

MARRON: R-Remember that thing that Chloe and the Operative did back in the mindscape?
MARRON: A-Around Christmas?
MARRON: I-I was wondering i-if we c-could...
TOAST: ...give gifts to one another?
MARRON: ...

The puppeteer is left in silence.

TOAST: Marron, we just did that.
TOAST: If you wanna exchange more gifts, that's cool though.
MARRON: N-No! That's not it!
MARRON: I-I mean, I-I mean like-
TOAST: Oh! You want to play in the snow...?
TOAST: There's no snow up here, but maybe we could find a place on Sussui to do it once the world resets.
TOAST: Do you want that?
MARRON: Yeah, that sounds fun-
MARRON: WAIT I MEAN NO

Marron's face is about the brightest it's ever been. She's some weird cross between angry, annoyed, and completely and totally embarrassed.

MARRON: A-Augh!
MARRON: J-Just... PREPARE YOURSELF!
TOAST: For wha-

Marron suddenly puckers up, and moves in towards Toast- really fast! A little too fast, as she ends up headbutting Toast, their foreheads knocking together. They both recoil back, clutching their heads in pain.

MARRON: O-OW!
MARRON: U-Ugh, n-no! I-I screwed it u-up...

Marron looks down, shame crossing her face. Toast places her hand on Marron's chin, and lifts her up to look her in the eyes. Marron glances away, embarrassment lighting up her entire face.

TOAST: O-Oh, u-um...
TOAST: I-I think I know what you want n-now...
MARRON: ...
TOAST: S-So, i-if you want to-
MARRON: Y-Yes!

And there, in the cold of the space station, were two lovers, hearts alight. The sorceress takes a sharp breath, and slowly moves towards the puppeteer. Their noses bump and they briefly recoil, both blushing and smiling together. Then, the two tilt their heads to try again. They lean forward, and and and and and and and andan andndn anddd anddndndnd dndndndndnddnnn//an//d/nan//nd/nda/n/ad//dn/n/nd/nd/dn/and/na/n/a/nad/na/n/adnan/=n/=n=a=n
=ndnnn=a/d=/n=nda=/n=/nd/dnannd=n=/=n=n=n=n=n==.-n--/./-.n../.-/nn../n-/./-n../=n=/==/=/====/=/=/===------------------------









































































































A problem has been detected and the universe has been shut down to prevent damage to itself.

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart the universe. If this screen appears again, you're probably a freaking idiot, but follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new forums or spreadsheets are properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your form or spreadsheet manufacturer for any universe updates you might need.

If any problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed forums or spreadsheets. Disable GRSN manipulation options such as tumors or game mastering. If you need to use Moderator Mode to kick or ban players, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Moderator Mode.

Technical Information:

***STOP: 0x0000001A

























































U:\>
U:\>load universe(thymium);
WARNING: UNIVERSE HAS BEEN ALTERED BY TWO (2) USERS SINCE LAST LOAD! ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO LOAD THIS SAVE?

U:\>two?
'two?' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

U:\>probably creation
'probably' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

U:\>yes
LOADING UNIVERSE. THIS MAKE TAKE AWHILE. PLEASE BE PATIENT.

[Oo________] 15%
[OOOOo_____] 47%
[OOOOOOO__] 73%
[OOOOOOOOOO] 100%

LOAD COMPLETE. PLEASE WAIT FOR SYNCHRONIZATION.














































COMPLETE.

...The world suddenly reappears. No tells, no fade-in or anything like that- just sudden re-existence. Everyone feels a little bit shaken, to say the very least. The crash was certainly an interesting experience, with everyone being locked in suspension for what only felt like a few seconds, before suddenly finding themselves back in the world they left behind. There's not a bottle in sight... or at least, no apocalypse-inducing ones, anyway!

...Unfortunately for one of you, before you can all catch your bearings, it appears that one of you re-appeared in front of R4-Sat0skr. A Rebel pops out of a hatch upon the fortress of metal

REBEL 1: Hey, who the hell are YOU supposed to be?

Another hatch pops open. Another Rebel.

[color=#880000]REBEL 2: Oh, I think they're one of those... outsiders. Y'know, the ones that killed the Gallow.
REBEL 1: ooooohhhhhhhh
REBEL 1: WAIT
REBEL 1: gorilla
REBEL 1: ATTENTION ALL HANDS; BATTLE STATIONS RIGHT NOW GO GO GO GO GO!
REBEL 2: ...Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you on that one.
REBEL 2: BATTLE STATIONS!

The two of them dive back into the tank. You flip back a few pages to get a sense for what the hell you're dealing with, exactly.

"The scent of ash and gunpowder is pungent. Cinders raise into the sky, wafting from the barrel of some metal monstrosity. A fusion of metal, fire, metal, brimstone, and even more metal. Exposed gears and cogs whir as a deafening "crack" lights up the area, the muzzle flash of the main cannon quite nearly blinding everyone who would dare look at the barrel of the machine. A shell of searing red crashes into Yggdrasil, its firework-like payload lighting up the sky around it, napalm dripping down onto the ground below."

"You take a closer look at the machine. Treads that lust for the lives of infantry. Several metal struts that extend out of the tank, rooting it firmly to the ground. A barrel about as long as a Yggcrawler, and about as thick as Emerald's HP bar. Durasteel plating coats every square inch of the machine. It's impossible to imagine that this machine could've been produced by Chairians alone. Yet, here it is. Ready to rain ash until the end of time."

And now, you're going to fight it. So that you can raid a gigantic tree without fear of both exploding and burning to death.




You are accosted by...

R4-SAT0SKR
4RM3D 4ND R34DY F0R C0MB4T

PLAY - The Tank (The Dear Hunter: Act III)






<FAR OFF FIELD, ROUND ONE>
...Oh boy. R4-Sat0skr. There's a lot of HP to dig through here, and between the shells, bullets, and bombs, it'll take one hell of an effort to break this tank down! To reduce its DPS and also get some free damage in, I'd suggest going after its subsystems and weapons first- especially the weapons! However, destroying the subsystems like the Treads and whatnot can make the R4-Sat0skr far more predictable, and make it far harder pressed to counter you!

After killing the Operator, this guy shouldn't be TOO terrible. I mean, now that I've said that, he'll probably TPK you, but... give it your best shot!