Emerald... moves over to I8, and scoops up some ash from the ground, mixing it with dirt to form a ball, which he chucks over to Venia. When it's close to hitting her, it puffs into a harmless cloud of ash, which... glows magically? And seems to protect her, how helpful. ...Ignuveil cast.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE>
Hex (or I guess Astrec) goes treasure hunting, but again! He tosses together 1 Small AI Core (25 Crafting Credits), 12 Wire Scraps, 1 Joltwire, 2 Circuit Boards, 2 Titanium, 1 Aero Core (you don't even have one: 25 Crafting Credits), and 3 Cogs (...There are no cogs in the inventory: 15 Crafting Credits), as well as 5 Durability from the Coilbust Laser Drill Drill to send out a drone to attempt to retrieve the treasure at the bottom of Sequoia's Lake! The drone flies in... and is immediately shot at. Fortunately, the drone is smaller and more evasive than Astrec could probably ever be, and manages to avoid the worst of the damage. It then drills below the lake, and seizes the treasure with minimal issue!

...Getting out is another issue entirely, though. Water rushes through the small hole in the bottom of the lake because physics, and the drone isn't quite fast enough to avoid getting waterlogged! It does however, manage to make it to the surface, before crashing and burning, destroying all materials used in the creation process. However, the treasure is seized!

...The chest is laced with sigils, each written in crimson. Seems like it was dumped there some time ago. There's a small note inside, scrawled in some old script that you can't quite make out.
-5 Flux
-8 Rose Weave
-5 Entrophies
-Old Staff (Weapon?)

He then wanders off to Marron's shop, and places in an order for a Hex Plushie.

MARRON: Yeah, alright.
MARRON: ...Who even are you, anyway? All I know about you is that you don't like getting hit, yet you still eat a whole lot of gorilla in battle.
MARRON: At the very least, I don't need to guess what you'd like...

MARRON: But yeah. Consider it done. Money is money.

---

Calibri witnesses the Chloe and Calibri plushies being cute together. He nearly faints, but Chloe's there to make sure he doesn't flop over and smash his face into the ground. Just his knees.

CHLOE: W-Whoa!
CHLOE: W-Well, if adorableness causes you to faint, thankfully we won't have any issues with that in combat!
CHLOE: Still, though... they're adorable, aren't they?
CHLOE: Maybe they'll have a duel later. With like, sewing needles or pencils or something. That'd be kinda cute, too~
CHLOE: I mean, not AS cute as them simply fumbling around, but... it'd be cool.

He then brings up Magic Club. Could they visit together?

CHLOE: Hm? Yeah, I guess we could!
CHLOE: I mean, I won't be able to do much because I'm a pretty fledgling mage, but... I'll do my best!

Elsewhere, Verdana decides to feed Gibbet, the not-so-baby Gallow. He gives him a quick rub on the head, getting a happy chirp out of the birb. He also feeds it a Carnival Corndog, and then tries to feed it a Quick Foodstuff... but it ends up bapping away the Quick Foodstuff, before chirping angrily. It must have acquired a refined pallet due to the constant volume of generally high-quality food stuff. Still, the Corndog adds +10% Tameness. He also sets up some snacks for Gibbet to enjoy while he's out, telling it to not leave the house. He's not quite sure if the bird understands, but... it's worth a shot, right?

Elsewhere-er, EN hurls herself out the kitchen window (being careful to open it first), and goes to talk with Lutea. Who was this weird woman she saw?

LUTEA: Oh, she was-
LUTEA: ...

She suddenly goes silent, staring at the ground for a moment. She suddenly snaps back to attention, as if she didn't do anything.

LUTEA: ...
LUTEA: Sorry, must've blanked for a second. Did you say something?
LUTEA: I'm... confused.

She stares at her blankly.

LUTEA: D-Did you need something from me?
LUTEA: If you want some remedies or flowers, maybe I could sell you some.
LUTEA: O-Of course, I'd give them to you at a discount for your services here...

---

Venia does more words. Seriously now. You haven't had a post below 500 words in the past few months. But anyway...

She promptly teleports towards Her, who promptly floor-sink-aports away from her at the same time. They keep teleporting around for awhile, before Her eventually gives up and opts to just remain in place. She then gives Her a hug. It doesn't seem that she's quite complaining about it, but if Her was a being who could blush, it might not actually be blushing, in a massive subversion of every interaction Ire has ever written. Venia then thanks Her.

HER: ...
HER: Are you certain that I did that?
HER: I'm an embodiment of everything wrong with Nia.
HER: I guess you didn't... listen to me.

...She seems to be a bit unsure about what she's saying. Venia then backs off, and begins talking. Apparently, she knew that all of this existed since Sequoia's lake, suspected it at the River Crossing, and the like.

HER: Wow.
HER: Aren't you a sleuth. Congratulations.
HER: Although, perhaps this means that she's breaking. There's holes in her little facade that just about anyone can see through.
HER: That may be good for me.

Her cackles to herself, sending ripples throughout the ground. Venia then /afk's to go and grab Chloe from reality, and also implement her into the ring. But first, the two chat. Nia's existence (most of it) is a lie!

CHLOE: ...
CHLOE: W-What...?
CHLOE: I-I... I-I d-don't... y-you're l-lying...
CHLOE: ...gorilla!

Chloe burries her face into Venia, and begins sobbing.

CHLOE: W-Why d-didn't I notice a-any of this?
CHLOE: I-I'm h-her best friend! I-I could've h-helped h-her, o-or something, but I c-couldn't a-and s-she's broken a-and I-I d-don't know h-how to fix her, a-and I-I sh-hould've noticed, a-and...

Venia is forced to play damage control for a moment, leaving Chloe to sob for a moment. She pulls her in tightly, leaving her to her devices until she eventually calms down. While she's obviously not ready to go inside Nia's mindscape, she grabs hold of the Golden Dream Ring, and takes the plunge. Fortunately for her, she appears within Her's realm, instead of on the surface of Nia's mindscape. Venia introduces "Nia" to Chloe.

HER: You... brought C-Chloe here!?
HER: ...
CHLOE: S-So... y-you're Nia?
HER: Yes. Yes and no.
HER: Just call me "Her". It'll be easier to know who we're talking about.
CHLOE: ...O-Okay?

...Chloe seems understandably freaked out by Her's appearance AND the nightmarish realm she's currently standing in. Venia then begins to glow with Pulchritude, and then asks Her to show her everything. All the painful memories that Nia never wanted to deal with in the first place.

HER: ...
HER: You want.
HER: To see.
HER: Everything.

The ground begins to bubble, as if it was boiling. Swathes of what appear to be Memory Orbs pop out of the ground, each one trailing bits of red-black matter behind it. There's a couple million, maybe billion orbs. Both Venia and Chloe feel like their altitude has decreased by quite a sizable amount.

HER: You don't know how big this realm is, do you?
HER: ...
HER: ...But.
HER: I want me fixed, too.
HER: I won't show you everything. Unless you want to live a couple years of Nia's life out.
HER: I will however, throw you a few specific memories.

HER: ...As a note.
HER: DO NOT do anything stupid.
HER: You might think that the mountain is the center of the Mindscape. And it almost is.
HER: However, it's a few meters off of the center.
HER: Can you guess what's in the center of the Mindscape?
HER: Spoiler. It's me.
HER: A facade cannot exist without a foundation to sit upon, after all. There's no way it could be the center of her Mindscape, that stupid mountain...

HER: Anyway.
HER: Shall we begin?

Before Venia and Chloe can say much, several of the Memory Orbs shoot back into the aqueous floor below them, and their feel their altitude rise considerably. Then, an orb shoots up from the ground, mere feet away from them. A radiant pulsar of red echoes from it, and Venia and Chloe can feel themselves being whisked away...



...The memory fades out, leaving Venia and Chloe to catch their breath.

HER: Yes. Wow. Heartstopping.
HER: It seems innocent enough, doesn't it?
HER: I figured it'd be a good starting point for your "adventure" of sorts.
HER: Now, we have a wide variety of memories to choose from.

HER: Here. I'll let you take the next pick.
HER: You'll probably end up seeing all of them soon enough, however.

Three orbs float in front of the duo. The one on the left seems to contain an older woman, with the same hair and eyes as the young Nia. The middle orb seems to hold a locker room of sorts. The orb on the right... contains nothing but inky darkness.

HER: ...
HER: Ah, you've taken precautions to ensure that the "Queen" of the facade doesn't find out you're here, right?
HER: She may force you out if you're discovered. Nia herself would be incredibly unhappy with you. Then, we might not be able to fix her.
HER: Tread carefully.

...It's time to pick an orb! Chloe will likely just default to whatever Venia picks to view next. Back at the Magic Club, Maria takes sight of a person climbing the magical barrier. The Husk. The Husk turns to look at her, face flickering between a gigantic eyeball and... a face. He stares at her.

THE HUSK: The Husk stares at the girl, bewildered at her ability (or lack thereof) to analyze a situation.
THE HUSK: He turns, and skitters around the shield, towards the girl. "Are you saying you can't do this?" spoke the Husk, a sinister undertone plaguing his voice.
THE HUSK: "Why, I'm sure you could do it if you tried!" lied the Husk, not disclosing that the shield is actually quite painful to touch.
THE HUSK: The Husk then scampered down the shield, ending up close to Chloe. He laughed as she recoiled in fear at the sight of him. "Not yet, not yet!" the Husk chimed in a strangely happy fashion.
THE HUSK: He slid a finger across his neck, before scampering up the shield, out of sight.

...As he said, he's climbed back up the shielding, out of sight of the party.

CHLOE: ...Not yet?
CHLOE: Creepy...

Venia then goes off to assign a few things to Chloe in NPC Assignment Land, which is totally a place that exists. She requests a collection of psychic materials- parts from Zweets or Reverie's, maybe. Then, perhaps she could repair the Golden Dream Ring? Chloe smiles and nods, before setting off, wheelbarrow behind her.

She eventually returns, a little bruised and bloodied, but otherwise okay.

CHLOE: O-Okay, so I decided to go hunting for the parts you requested, but they were actually trying to hunt me...
CHLOE: I-I'm okay, though! They didn't stand a chance!
CHLOE: Anyway, here's the items you requested~

She (and her golem guard) drops off 15 Zweet Fragments, and 11 Reverie Fragments. She also drops off some crystals she found: 11 Seer Crystals, and 7 Mental Clusters! She also uses a few spare parts from her expedition, tinkering with them and the Golden Dream Ring. In the end, she restores 2 Durability to it. She then claps her hands, smiling.

CHLOE: There we go!
CHLOE: Come again, alright?

Venia then continues with her work, collecting the Stick-ier from Nia! She then tosses her 80 credits to upgrade the Resistor! She begins preparations right away... and expresses frustration when it refuses to be called the "Transistor". That's probably for a higher tier, or whatever. From there, she then collects the CAV Booster from Omo, and schedules her to work on the Divine Inspiration upgrade for the Helix Totem. She nods, and gets to work straight away.

---

Crya puts on a little presentation for Magic Club, showing off her ice abilities by fly-skating via creating ice, and creating a snowman... before murdering it. Ette seems on-board with Crya's presentation right until she murders an innocent snowman. She mourns the loss of fluffy life. Everyone else (at least, the NPC's) seems to have enjoyed the presentation quite a lot!

---

Auth goes to visit Magic Club. While he considers leaving, he's beckoned over by Marron.

MARRON: Hey! Auth!
MARRON: You gotta show us your stuff! The inky stuff.
MARRON: It's kinda cool. Maybe I could learn to do that with my blood...
ETTE: (I don't think we even have 10% of the blood we'd need to do that.)
MARRON: ...Okay, yeah. It'd also generally just make a mess, wouldn't it?

---

Toast gives Marron a quick squeeze, before going off and presenting her own sort of magic. As she presents, Marron watches on, enthralled. Possibly only because love, but who knows. Chloe appears to have broken out a notepad, and is jotting down notes on Toast's work. When Toast sits back down, Marron cuddles up to her, stars in her eyes.

MARRON: Y-You can do more than one type of magic!?
MARRON: I knew you were a wizard, but that's like... really cool!

MARRON: ...Oh, yeah! You said you were gonna teach me your language.
MARRON: Can we do it while watching the other presentations? It'd be neat.
MARRON: ...Also, what's a mango? Is it a food? Could we eat one?

The puppeteer cozies up to Toast while she ponders her response.

---

Nezira presents her magic! Chloe smiles at Nezira, and gives her a confident thumbs-up before pulling out her notepad once again. As Nezira presents, she occasionally sees Chloe trying to manifest her mana from upon the root she's sitting up. It takes her a minute or two of fidgeting and closing her eyes really, really hard, but she does eventually manage to manifest a somewhat weak aura of blue around her hands. As Nezira finishes up, everyone applauds.

Nezira returns to Chloe's side, pulling herself up onto the root. How'd she do?

CHLOE: That was great! It was informative, too!
CHLOE: And look! I can sorta... manifest my mana!
CHLOE: ...I thought it'd be gold, or maybe a cool red or whatever... but blue's a classic color, I'd think.
CHLOE: But yeah! it was awesome!

Nezira then notes that she'd like to get Chloe a wand. She takes a moment to think about it.

CHLOE: Hm...
CHLOE: A wand would be cool... but it'd be impractical to dual wield a wand and a sword, I'd think. Or to swap between them.
CHLOE: Is it possible to like... have a wand sword? I-I mean, if that's not possible, it'd be fine... but it'd be cool to do both at the same time!

Chloe begins to look over her sword, awaiting an answer. She's probably thinking that she could stick a wand in the hilt somewhere. That might work. Elsewhere, Nezira engages in logistics! This involves harvesting the farm, looting 120 Wheat (and 80 Wheat Seeds), 60 Gaiaroot Potatoes, 30 Psychoid Leaves, 17 Refined Wood, and 5 Gigistem!

She then tosses some things into the farm: 27 Manablood Seeds, 13 Coffee Beans, 9 Psychoid Seeds, 9 Hotpoints, 9 Wheat Seeds, and 9 Gaiaroot Potatoes! She also takes this change to begin growing things in the Crystillery as well: 10 Seer Crystals, 5 Ashen Crystals, 5 Luminous Crystals, 5 Crystal Pens, and 5 Shadow Crystals.

---

Brutishace (or I guess Iawa) does a presentation! His system's a deal different, relying on artifacts that cast specific types of magic. He then introduces his adoptive daughter, Odaru.

MARRON: W-Wait, where are all these people coming from!?
MARRON: I-I thought t-the Thymefield would stop-
MARRON: ...Eh.
MARRON: Not like it matters.

MARRON: Welcome to the vore planet, where the creatures want to eat you and the people probably want to eat you.
MARRON: That last part is unconfirmed, but who knows.
MARRON: Also, why does everyone but me have huge gorillaing-

Odaru continues with the presentation. Once she's done, everyone gives a round of applause. He leaves the Comet Staff lying around for others to try. While nobody's really looking (except you know, the update itself), Ette grabs the Comet Staff and shoots an ice bolt into the fence surrounding Scale Yggdrasil. It slips through the bars, and there's the telltale sound of a Seeker being torn in half.

Ette puts the staff back down, giving it a pat as she leaves it be. Nobody can ever know.

---

Mustache Girl goes mining! This is down here for no reason. I totally didn't miss it on my first time through! She quickly rips out a chunk of the Durasteel, harvesting 10 of it in one fell swoop. She then explodes it, harvesting the remaining 7.

...Interestingly, those items weren't directly teleported to the inventory. She has a feeling she'll need to go to the surface to deposit her collection, but odds are she wouldn't be able to go back down into the mine for a little. Anyway, she uses 5 Sturdy Vines to make another rope in the hole.

---

<FAR OFF FIELD, ROUND THREE>
R4 hasn't taken too much damage- try and change that! Nobody really too too much damage, so it'd be a good time to go and push forward and get some damage in! It's probably worth noting that you lost a lot of damage to the Regen of R4- it'd be worth focusing down individual parts, so that the regen can't kick in! Also, don't forget about the Bomb Bays. Forget, and that'll be a TPK.

At some point in time, Simeon goes to check up on the Airship. He examines the Carnival Generator to figure out how it makes electricity, whether there are any specific types of power cables to be used, etc.
--------------------
To do: Ask Taeda to come check out the Helix Shrine
Go to the library and take the speakers and find Dark Carnival Cables/Adaptors
Grab a fish

Battle action: Move to L18, shoot Rifler.

Astrec thanks Marron for the Hex Plushie, then lifts the Old Staff from the chest, and after pressing F for the drone, and breathes in...
"WAKE UP!"
If it doesn't respond, he carefully pulls off a bandage and repeats his yell, then replaces the bandage. Then, if it responds, then apologizes for yelling.
uC: Sorry for yelling at you. Was trying to wake you up. I'm Astrec. I assume you're one of those weapons that the Rose Cult stuffed souls into I've heard about?
He waits for a response.
If it fails to respond, he unwraps a bit more and sees. If no response, he returns the bandages to their condition.
Regardless of the response, he slings it over his shoulder and heads to the house.
uC: Venia! I found something you might want to take a look at.
uC: You know your Gauntlet? I think i found something like it.
He unslings the Staff, and places it in the main house area, and chats with it if it talks. If it doesn't, he waits for Venia.
While he waits, he unwraps the staff if it doesn't protest.
BATTLE:
Hex moves to Q15, and lunges north at the rifler, to Q154

==RP/MAGIC CLUB==
When Nezira gets back to Chloe's position, she congratulates Chloe on managing to manifest her mana.

"Nice, you managed to take another step! And personally, I like blue -- maybe I'm just biased because my magic is also blue, but hey, blue magic users unite!"

Upon Chloe's comments about swords, Nezira thinks for a second.

"Oh, sorry if I gave the impression I meant for it to be a combat weapon thing for fighting! I meant more like a wand you could use when you were learning or casting magic outside of battle -- it kinda seems like in-battle magic isn't really a problem right now for even the people that don't use it otherwise. But... ooh. That gives me some ideas about combining wands and swords. Give me a second to note these down!"

Nezira takes out a notebook and a pen and writes down, with sketches, a few different ideas -- there's a wand design that seems to have crystal prongs between the handle and the shaft of the wand (with a sketched-in magical blade around it), a wand design with what looks like disembodied sword blades on either side of the wand, a sword with two split blades and a wand inset in between, a wand with an attachment that adds a blade to it, and more.

"Whew! Sorry, you just inspired me. I'll make a few of those with basic materials later just to try them out, I think -- you don't need to feel obligated to use any of them, I just want to see how they work when made! But yeah... my idea was just, like, a learning/casting wand, not something to dual-wield in battle along with your sword -- as a gift! If you want, though, I can also see if I can make one of these designs I just thought up for you as an alternative, more 'combat'-oriented sword-wand? I'm kind of hesitant to modify your actual sword like that without figuring it out first, especially since it's probably important to you..."

==BATTLE==
Nezira moves down to H14, and holds her staff out, letting the lenses rotate and using Align Lenses!

She also says hi to Chloe, since they're next to each other now!

RP: Niascape

Venia waits, listens, and observes quietly, the charismatic fire dying out. Then, she contemplates what she's seen, before responding to the question of if she took precautions.

"... I don't have any precautions in place for the Queen. I wasn't going to hide what I was doing to begin with. I was going to tell you everything. It was part of the deal I struck to even look in here. There's ethics to all of this. Even if you didn't consciously acknowledge this, you'd subconsciously be aware, anyways," Venia says. "Being the core means I can't slip that by you. You are, after all, the most Nia thing here, being the core and all. You really are Her-Nia Khioneas. As you've said. And you want to be free, get rid of that facade that's causing nothing but trouble for you, heal, and make something better-something to stand up to that mind-jacking punk up there and whatever else is out there. But you also say you're just the bad stuff, the worst parts of Nia, and only a part of her at that, not the whole thing, and you keep saying you loathe it all, so you're saying you hate... Yourself. You are aware of that, right? The core claiming its the worst part of itself and hating itself-that sounds bad even if you're not aware of it, sounds contrary. It almost feels like you, Nia, don't want to be Nia at all. But you know what, I understand that feeling! I didn't want to be anything anymore, and I was willing to do anything to change that, however dumb! And that wasn't the first time, either! But... You told me that was bad, and you shouted at me that was bad, and everyone agreed with you! You understood what my pain was and you hated my pain as you knew what I felt, so you told me it was wrong-that's empathy! So I can say that you're at least where something good is. That's why I'm here, trying to help you get rid of the Butterfly, because you are a good person who is worth this fight to save."

"... You dyed your hair in that memory because you wanted to distance yourself from your mother as much as possible, right? You wanted to prove that you were more than her. I can figure she's not a parent of the year award winner without being told... So let's see why, then."

Venia selects the left orb. The one with Mrs. Khioneas, winner of the Parent of the year award, all years.

"... Hey. You know. I... I really couldn't talk coherently then, either... I guess you did want to ask me questions, then? Tit for tat? Quid pro quo? Ask me anything, one for one. I can answer."

---

RP: Magic Club

Maria's response to the weird stranger with his weird face is pretty standard-hide behind the Kitsune, peeking her eyes out through the tail, and then just clamping her hands on her face. "I can't see the fiend so the fiend can't see me! YOU CAN'T SEE ME FIEND!" She yells.

She continues on until the Husk stops being a threat, at which point Maria rejoins Magic club, somewhat disturbed, though it quickly fades as more magic tricks are shown, she forgets all about it, and claps, gasps and smiles enthusiastically at everything.

"Oh, mister, mister!" Maria shouts, noticing Auth. "Magic club! Magic club! You can do a magic! Venia said so! She told me you were the bestest at making people feel better! How do you do that? I wanna know, I wanna know!" She shouts.

---

RP: Verdana & Astrec

Venia stares at Verdana's response, cooling down to a more neutral tone and generally relaxing a bit. "I'll be frank. Where I'm from-or, well, when I'm from, but also where-you'd either be required to find a way to completely suppress that aura so it doesn't affect others, or, well, you'd be swiftly gunned down by law enforcement faster than you could say 'oops.' That kind of mind-altering stuff is serious. Just one person with that kind of power could... Ruin people. And I mean seriously ruin them."

"... I know you're better than that, but its unnerving me, is all, that you're even doing that. I didn't-."

Venia is abruptly cut off by Astrec barging in. "... Something like Ga'aunt? Let me see." Venia says, reaching out for the old staff with her left (Ga'aunt-wearing) hand. "Ga'aunt, do you think you can...?"

---

RRRR: The interqual to VVVVVV, I think

Venia moves to J11, cheekily cheating the Suppression damage by not leaving the zone, and fires at Bomb Bay 3 with the Entropic Key, proccing another Alternating Weapon Attack. Her hat pings the second Harpoon, seeing as it's already going to wake up due to Glacier Drop. She retreats to I10. "The rest of R4's having problems, take out those bomb bays, now!" Venia shouts. "That Radar Dish also needs to go!"

"...Heh..."

Calibri still appears just a little light-headed as he steadies himself from having near-fainted. The fact that Chloe decided to help him not land bad sure is a blessing... He carefully rubs his head while getting back on his feet, blinking a few times before turning to Chloe and nodding.

"Yeah... apparently that's a thing now. Excess cute makes me... light-headed or something. I'm not even sure how that works... Heh. Ya reckon it'd be cute to give them tiny model swords?"

Calibri giggles. It seems like there's something of a more warm feeling to his general presence. At the very least, he seems more Expressive... As for the matter of magic club, that's going to be a little weird since there's already a Chloe instance existing there. In the event that Calibri and Chloe walk off to magic club, I have absolutely no idea of how a timeline could work out that doesn't result in there accidentally being two Chloes at the magic club, so, uh... have fun figuring that one out. The important thing to note is that Calibri is now at magic club, having got there through ambiguous arbitrary unknowns.


Going by his expression, Verdana seems honestly surprised that his aura could ever be something in any context that would make people try to gun someone down. The look in his eyes is enough to tell that while he doesn't truly understand what he's being told, he at least is aware enough to know that Venia's standards include "mind change thing equals bad thing". He glances a bit to either side for a moment, refocusing on Venia and nodding once she states it as being unnerving. "I don't think I'll really ever understand, to be honest, but since it makes you uncomfortable, I'll try to not do the expressy thing. Fair warning, it's generally a little weird when I don't have the thing be happening."

Verdana closes his eyes, focusing hard on the aura around him. It appears to gradually recede into his body, akin to a balloon slowly having the air sucked out of it. As he pulls the aura back in, he seems to start appearing just a little more unfocused in some kind of way, although once he opens his eyes again he seems grounded in reality... mostly. His gaze is a tad unfocused. And he has, for whatever reason, sprouted a pair of adorably fluffy cat ears on top of his head, making him currently the most pettable thing in the room that isn't Cupcake.

"Repression is not natural for me, ow... Is that better, miss Venia? I'll probably be able to control any of the weirder side effects with practice and time..."

...Cue Astrec barging into the room. Verdana seems surprised, turning to take a look and seeing Astrec present. As for Astrec, well, there's not much to see here except for Verdana with cat ears being quite physically close to Venia. Verdana remains completely silent for a moment, then tilts his head to one side.

"Um... Hi?"


EN was going to acknowledge and wander off once she heard what Lutea had to say, but given the fact Lutea ultimately didn't say anything of note, EN just tilts her head to one side for a moment, then resets her head position and shrugs.

"Uh... Well, tha's kinda odd. Ah came o'er 'ere cause ya was bein' all mentionin' some weird lady passin' through 'ere, an' ah felt like askin' wha' ya saw regardin' th' weird lady, but then ya jus' sorta cut yerself off mid-sentence an' didn't actually be sayin' anythin' 'bout 'er at all. Ah was askin' ya in case th' weird lady 'appened t' be someone ah know, but... ah guess y'ain't really seen anyone or somethin'?"

More headtilt. EN appears quite confused about what's going on. She also internally suspects some foul play, and decides to try for a subtle scan on Lutea via briefly borrowing a pocket scanner and checking what might have happened... Something occurs to her.

"Though, y'know wha', while ah'm 'ere ah might well see wha' ya got in stock, huh. Feel like th' remedies 're gonna be more relevant t' us, since we's kinda gettin' in situations tha'd call fer healin' stuff an' all, unless one o' us starts feelin' all romantic or somethin' an' wants t' do a flower arrangement fer someone they's interested in... Anywho, afore ah start bein' rambly. Wha'cha got?"


Battle action

Calibri nods to acknowledge Chloe giving him the okay with just calling her Chlo, then loses track of what he was going to do this round. He pauses, fidgets, then...

"...Let me check the plan for a moment."

Calibri pulls out a sheet of paper with instructions written on it in crayon. There's a pause. He puts the paper away.

"Okay, it says to keep attacking the treads. Can't really get a good slash at it from here thanks to positioning, but..."

He moves to H15 and casts Force Nail on Tread 2. It seems he's a bit hesitant about getting too close to the tank...

Ziah skips over to M7 where he blindly aims over the treads. By some miracle, probably luck, the arrow ends up heading towards R4's third bomb bay.

Ziah intends to go over to magic club, and possibly show off his luck, somehow, but happens to notice something in the corner of his eye as he approaches them. Specifically, someone he recognizes as a cultist. He makes a quick prayer for Helix's guidance, before approaching Bass.

"Uh... hey? Everything alright over there?"

Ziah waits from a response from Bass, nodding as they talk, probably.

"Right... Well, I'm Ziah. Nice to meet you!"

He again waits for a reply from Bass.

"So, uh. Can I ask what you're doing in the bushes? Or... is that a secret, maybe?"

Ziah racks his brain for possible reasons that Bass might be in a bush.

"M...agic club? Maybe?"

Packo sprints to N16.

"I-I am going to try and go behind everyone! Who is with me?" He says, as he starts running as fast as he can.

Running out of breath, he arrives at a place next to the tank. He sees how the rest of the crew seems to focus fire on the tank. "H-Hello?"

During the last turn... Dread has set in. Again.

Nidra moves to K12 and casts Last Dream on Autocannon2.

The Battle Far Off the Field "Where's the battlefield then?"

(Actions after Emerald+Marron)
-The Pioneer activates the Marksmen ability to move (apply swift 2)
-Proceeding to move to I8

-Marksmen moves to G9.

-I move to I7

The Pioneer starts sparking the Thread 1.

I light up the Harpoon 2

The Marksmen lines up a shot against Harpoon 2 and fires.

Zone 2: The Library

Moving to the Southern Wing

I start collecting the Splinters

The Man sidles over to K14 and fires at Bomb Bay 3.

Toast can't help but blush as Marron both cuddles up to her and compliments her wizard-y skills. Unsurprisingly, she's not used to compliments.
"U-um, yeah! I had a lot of free time on Between... so I spent a lot of it learning magic."
She beams at Marron, before getting up again (regrettably out of marron's embrace) to demonstrate her magic language. I'll get to this either now or next dop.

~~

Acting first, Toast moves to J12 and uses her trait to cast Nidra's Psycho Link on the two Harpoon Launchers (second linked to first). Then, she retreats to I11, taking suppression damage.

Destiny runs to L15 and hacks away at Treads 2.

----------

Crya quickly reassures Ette that the snowman is ok by reforming it. She then watches the rest of the presentations.
Wow! These are all interesting magical spells and systems! I should record all of these for Scalta. If I had a pen and paper, that is.

Might as well get my action in now and do RP stuff Later:tm:.

Auth smiles as Nana pings him with the Support Dart. He turns to her, smiles, and waves.

uA: Thanks, Nana! I appreciate the help.

Auth meditates, and targets the MP Regen to Nezira. Here's hoping Auth won't get hit.

----

Remember that RP stuff I was supposed to do? It's go time!

In the kitchen, between Auth's painful looking sputtering and bleeding from the mouth, Boshi may struggle to actually get the 'Shroom down his throat. He would, eventually, get there though, where Auth recovers soonafter.

uA: What was I doing...? Well... Mama told me that she b-baked a c-c-cake for me. Since people were celebrating Valentine's day and... that's my birthday.

Auth shudders, remembering the horror of the cake.

uA: I couldn't... not eat the thing. I fully expected it to be bad, since Mama can't cook, but...
uA: D-don't ask me how bad she is. Just trust me on this one.

Auth sighs, thanking Boshi for helping him to not-die.

---

Auth seems kind of surprised that Marron and the... small girl who he's not spoken to before. The awkwardness there rises a bit as Auth wasn't expected to be asked to show off his ink trick. He sighs, rubs his hands together and sits down.

uA: I-I suppose I can... show off the ink stuff, but it's not really very... interesting.

Auth places his hands face-up on the table. Ink manifests in the palms of his hands, flowing up and around like water, but black.

uA: Um... I can manifest ink from my hands. I can manipulate the ink I summon freely, or any other ink that my hands comes within about 15 centimetres of.

The Ink from Auth's hand floats up and around through the air for a bit. It's fairly fast and extremely fluid. It comes back down, and Auth manifests it into the shape of a knife.

uA: It's really high pressure, when I force it into shapes like this. So it's actually got a cutting edge.

Auth demonstrates on a piece of wood, cutting it clean through. He puts the knife away, and by that I mean the knife of ink collapses its shape into just fluid ink, and it flows into his sleeves, not leaving an ink stain anywhere.

uA: Um... I can heal with the ink too. Although I suppose it's more that the body heals itself, really. The ink really just convinces the body to tend to its own wounds, especially when the ink comes in contact to a wound.

Auth sits quietly after, thinking for a bit.

uA: I'm sorry it wasn't very interesting, and that I don't have anything I can actually share with anyone, but it's a personal trick I can't do anything with for other people... sorry...

Terry claps for Auth's demonstration.
"That's wonderful, writerdude!"

---

Terry moves to O6, and basic-attacks Bomb Bay 1.

Boshi wasn't at all surprised by the fact that Auth just called EN "Mama". I mean, after all, he's a Yoshi that takes care of a human-like child like she was his own for pete's sake!

Though he does perk up after he hears that Auth's birthday was here at one point. "(Oh hey, happy birthday! Didn't know it was today.)"
"(...It's really strange how we celebrated Christmas and Valentines in October though. Eh, not complaining.)"

Auth then says that he couldn't not eat the cake. Boshi was understanding of this, and nods.

He then tells him not to ask how bad EN's cooking was. He chuckles. "(Oh I know how bad her cooking is. Honestly that "cake" - and I use that term VERY loosely - looked more like an oversized hockey puck with metal shards and a corpsetaker leg in it. Also she put poison in it and thought it was a viable ingredient for a cake. By that logic she'd probably make a microwave explode just trying to make instant noodles for all I know.)"

"(...I honestly hope she's not a lost cause...)"

His sentence seems to trail off... something's probably on his mind. Though he snaps back to reality when Auth thanks him for the help, though it does take a second to register. "(Hm? ...Oh, no problem! Just glad I was there when it happened. And uh, sorry if that Ultra caused you any grief.)"

"(...Say, do you know any good chefs around here? I seriously want to remedy the creation of that... atrocity... by making a cake that Princess Toadstool would be jealous of.)"

---

Sophia manages to get to the Endless Gardens, and decides to walk over to Scale Yggdrasil. At this point she was greatly concerned about not seeing anyone, even though there were plenty of people right next to her at Scale Ygg. She looks up and down the giant tree for a moment, and places her hand against the barrier.

Yep, still there.

She steps back, and looks around some more. She notices the picnic blanket, and rushes over to it, not realizing the Magic Club was in session and phasing through anyone who tries to stand in her way. She notices a small patch of fire where Marron's fireball struck earlier, as well as everyone else's magic... it's probably best to stick around, she thinks.

---

MU keeps digging deeper from where she is now by using a charge of the Coilbust Laser Drill.

The vine rope continues extending downwards as she digs.

---

Boshi moves to (R8) and proceeds to make the Assassin explode. Boshi should end up at (R6). He "retreats" to (R7).

Emerald steps up to L9 and grins, reaching his stick out to eat Autocannon one, just because why the heck not, before turning to the Harpoon, and welcoming it the the slam jam whoa oh black betty, bambalam.

Battle and Stuff

There's a glimmer in Wyvern's eye as he stares down R4, his gaze flicking over to Tread1, specifically. He casts Essence of Restoration, before looking down at his claws. Reluctantly, he activates Evolve Strain, wincing slightly as their transformation seems to hurt him a little. Holding the hand of the Wyvern Plushie to calm him down, Wyvern darts to K7 and attempts to rip into Tread1.

Magic and Stuff and Club and Stuff
...wait what?

Wyvern makes multiple sounds of awe as he watches each of the members perform their magic, seeming thoroughly impressed with Iawa's in specific.

Wyvern tilts his head curiously as he catches a glimpse of Ette blasting an ice shot, smiling slightly as he hears it seemingly hit its mark.

"Nice shot~"

Once Ette places it back down, Wyvern timidly reaches over and places his hand on it. He looks up at Iawa to make sure he's allowed to pick it up. Assuming he is allowed, he lifts the staff gently, in awe at the fact that it's almost bigger than he is. He mimics Iawa's motions a few times to get a feel for what he's meant to do.

"So..."

Wyvern shuts his eyes briefly. When he opens them again, they seem to be a little brighter. He turns, and repeats the motion a little more forcefully, seeming to put in a fair amount of effort, causing him to fire a missile of ice at the barrier, which likely shatters as it hits it. Wyvern shudders as it's fired, draining some of his energy, but he also seems surprised that he's actually succeeded.

"Oh, um..."

He turns back to the group and makes like Ette, placing the staff back down with a gentle pat, sitting back down with his legs curled up. Once he's done so, he turns to Marron and thinks for a moment.

"Hey... Marron? If you ever need blood, I could give you some of mine, to see what it does."

Wyvern hides behind his own legs slightly as he realizes what he's said is rather strange.

"I-I know that sounds weird, but... I think mine's different, somehow. I read a bit about dragon stuff in the endless library and... apparently, draconic blood has a "high capacity of magic affinity." That's..."

He pauses looking around briefly at the members of the magic club.

"Th-That's actually why I'm here. I wanted to figure out if I could do any magic, since I think I'm meant to be able to... but I don't know if I can."

A small smile grows on his face.

"But, even if I can't, it's really cool to have friends who can! Which is why I'm happy I get to be here."

Wyvern nods, content.

Iawa Brutishace eagerly applauds Auth's short but concise presentation on inkbending! He also regrets not being at the club sooner and could only barely peek out at others' presentations, but he got the tail end of Nezira's- he silently admires her magic's flexibility. Brutishace also nods to Wyvern in approval when he picks up the Comet Staff.

Meanwhile, in the Far Off Field, Brutishace stands his ground and casts Drain Life on the second Autocannon. Any instances of healing from Soul Siphon go to Hex. It's the best thing he can do now that the blare of the horn has struck his ears.