Battle Action first and foremost:

Auth drinks a coffee, contorts violently because he really can't stomach the taste of it, and then moves to J12 and revives Wyvern on J11. Wyvern would need to move quickly out of the way, though.

---
Let's start with Magic Club. Not like there was anything else I needed to do, though, I think.

At Marron's comment, Auth conjures an Ink Specter. He looks at her, very slightly confused. He speaks through the Specter, rather than his real self.

uA: You mean these, right...? Yeah, they let me be in multiple places at once, they're pretty neat. What I suppose I meant is that I didn't have anything I could teach - like Toast taught her languages...

Auth rummages around in his coat, though, revealing there to be many, many, many pockets inside.

uA: uA: Hm... house keys, Inkscalibur, pen knife, extra pen nibs, one point four reams of paper, extra ink canisters...[/color][/font][/b]

Auth eventually produces a lead plate, seeming to glow red from heat. On top is a strange symbol (Hurtling Forever Towards The Earth).

uA: I know Correspondence, though. Less "magic" and more "representations of the law", but they can be used for magic-like weaponry I suppose. I would teach you how to write it, but this sort of thing would be extremely dangerous to Chairians to learn, since if it's not done properly it sets you on fire.

Auth thinks quietly to himself, and then finally answers Maria's question.

uA: Ah, I think I know what you're saying, little one. I... suppose I could. Technically. But it's not a good idea, else I'd have done it with myself.

Auth produces a small vial, which can't be seen into. He places it on the table.

uA: In this vial is the essence of the colour of lost memory, Irrigo. This would be the way I'd have to do it, use it like a scalpel and cut out the memories that induced her depression... but she wouldn't agree to that. It's not a healthy or responsible way to deal with it. Your memories make you who you are - your experiences, your thoughts, your life so far. If that was just cut out... it's like cutting a part of a person out. Cutting out an important part of them.

Auth thinks he might have overcomplicated it, now that he thinks about it. He needs to remember his audience...

uA: Um, sorry if I confused you with that, how much of it did you get?

Keiko meditates.

Magic and Stuff

Wyvern thinks to himself for a moment, and attempts to continue his conversation with Marron.

"Oh, so it only works with related blood... interesting. Isn't there an altar around here that does weird stuff with blood as well? Do you... maybe know anything about that?"

Wyvern pauses, rubbing his eyes and yawning quietly. He seems to be getting somewhat sleepy, despite it being the middle of the day. He apologizes, before smiling again.

"Seminar is where you learn stuff, right? I heard... I don't actually know where I heard it."

Wyvern goes quiet for a moment.

"I'd like to learn magic though, if you're teaching it. Should be fun!"

The... void? And Stuff?

Wyvern slowly awakens, finding himself floating in an infinite abyss of pale blue light. Snow falls from an unknown sky. His eyes are an icy blue, matching the void, and his hair is a white as the snow that falls upon him. His horns are a little bigger, as are his wings. Wyvern speaks in draconic for the first time in a while, as it seems to him.

"<So... this is it, is it?>"

He sighs. And shuts his eyes, before instinctively opening them again. In the distance are two figures; white silhouettes, barely visible against the void. Wyvern feels something form in his throat. He reaches out with his hands before beginning to fall.

Wyvern's eyes burst open as he's resurrected by Auth, breathing heavily and rapidly. He clenches his fists as he pushes himself off the floor. There's a burning rage present as he charges to L7. Wyvern activates Essence of Restoration and evolves his claws without hesitation, before furiously slashing at the Tread.

-RP: "Magic" Club-

Irongutta was surprised when his punch went right through Kokichi's head. He was expecting to feel a nice connection between his fist and Kokichi's face. The blinding array of lights that came from him didn't help, blinding Irongutta for a moment. "Gah!" He rubbed at his eyes for a few moments as his vision slowly returned to him. Looking around, he wasn't quite sure where Kokichi wound up at first, at least until he looked up and saw him quivering on the large root above.

Irongutta stood triumphantly and turned back to the rest of the Magic Club. "Hah! Y'see that? I punched 'im so 'ard that he kersploded into light and wound up there!" Satisfied with his violence, he simply opts to sit back down on the little picnic blanket and resume watching the presentations at Magic Club.

-Battle: Far Off Field-

Irongutta notices the large scuffle. Well, who could ignore it really? He practically got red in the face, shouting at the rest of the group and stomping on the ground. "KEEP IT TOGETHA YOU GROTS! ELSE YOU'LL 'AVE TO ANSWER TO ME, AND I CAN PROMISE YA I'Z A LOT WORSE THAN THIS TANK 'ERE!"

Irongutta runs to Q13, activating Unstoppable Force. With this power, he then uses his weapon skill, SHOCKwave, aiming to hit the R4 dead center at N11.

Pope Bill decides that now is the time to use his special on R4. And so, he aims it at N11, R4’s center.

ROUND ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT
Toast does Magic Club. Given timeline fracturing, Marron and Toast are actually still chill at this point in time. Marron gives Toast's langauge a try!

MARRON: Um... I think I've got it!
MARRON: Masith Tifi Teth!

A burning cookie emerges from the air, shooting outward. It lands on the grass, sparking a small fire. Toast quickly puts out the flames with a spell of her own.

MARRON: ...
MARRON: So, is there a way to have... a nonelemental cookie? Maybe I'm just thinking about the words wrong...
MARRON: Cookie summoning is like, the sort of magic that every girl strives for.

Chloe also experiments with Toast's magical words, mixing in some of the ones she learned earlier.

CHLOE: I call thee from the gales, and unto my enemies!
CHLOE: Yone Banten Teth!

Chloe calls upon an elemental sword, made from coalesced air. It shoots forth, and bounces off Yggdrasil's barrier before vanishing.

CHLOE: Ooh, fancy!
CHLOE: Imagine if I could like, conjure a storm of those! Maybe I'd make them fire swords, but god- or I guess Helix, Helix knows that the Chairians wouldn't like that...
CHLOE: I'll be sure to practice, Toaster!

...Chloe is now juggling two different magical systems. This can only end well.

---

Ziah asks Bass about robes. Are they cultist robes? Is he a cultist?

...Can he get some robes?

BASS: yeah they're cult robes
BASS: they're rose cult robes
BASS: i wear them because they're strangely soft

BASS: also yes- ex cultist here.
BASS: Word of advice, do not get mixed up with the Rose's affairs.
BASS: I mean, sabotaging them is fine and well and all, but...
BASS: they're kinda dumb and stuff
BASS: an interesting kind of dumb
BASS: but still dumb

Bass then pulls out some paper from the hood of his robe. It appears to be sewing instructions.

BASS: anyway if you want robes, follow this random sheet of paper
BASS: just make sure that venia doesn't kill you
BASS: i secretly live in fear of her
BASS: she's gonna not recognize me one day, and it's gonna suck
BASS: but on the other hand
BASS: these robes
BASS: man
BASS: almost makes the rose cult worth it

---

Boshi tries to comfort Toast. While its success is... dubious, it's kinda sweet and the only reason I'm actually mentioning this part is because karma. Also because it transitions nicely to Mustache Girl heading to the eastern part of the Everground! She stumbles upon an underground lake. It seems like there's fish... or at least, SOMETHING in there! At the very least, it's kinda pretty...

---

After blazing through the first few posts, the GM hits Venia's post. She rants about how she'd like to rip their heads off.

HER: Honestly? I'd like to rip their heads off, too.
HER: Figuratively, possibly. Who knows. Fairly certain that after our experiences with this world, their flailing would be but mere struggling to us.

Venia tries to ensure to Her that she's not despicable. That there's more to life than just pain. That she just needs friends.

HER: ...Perhaps I'm not despicable. That's out to the jury.
HER: What's certain is that we're far from smart, or perhaps even rational.
HER: ...And this life. This life has barely anything but pain.
HER: Even before my creation. There was oh so much hate.

HER: The world.
HER: The stupid world.
HER: Always fighting for stupid reasons. Power, money, fear, money, recognition, money...
HER: Have I mentioned money?
HER: Mother had plenty of it. None of it used on us.

...Venia then states that she wants to be her friend. Nia's friend. Her seems to freeze up a little.

HER: ...Are you certain about that?
HER: There's no telling what we may do.
HER: Perhaps you're just foolhardy. Or perhaps the more blunt term, "stupid".

HER: ...
HER: But then again, maybe you really just do want to help.
HER: Chloe. Her intentions were always pure. Kind. Polite.
HER: Perhaps there is another like her.
HER: We shall see, though.
HER: All I can do is wait, after all.

Her then swerves the last memory orb into position. It radiates with a brilliant light... even if the light is actually shadow, or maybe like a black light.



HER: Well, that's it.
HER: I have plenty more memory orbs in reserve.
HER: We could go on and on, for years and years...
HER: ...but that would be redundant, wouldn't it?

HER: So, what do you think?
HER: Of us. What we've been through.
HER: You wanted to see everything. And now you have.
HER: Do you truly believe you can help with all of this?
HER: Several years of pain and misery.

HER: ...It'd be easier to simply disappear.
HER: Rebuilding us... may be an impossible feat.
HER: But I don't know that. Perhaps it is possible.
HER: The only certainty is that it'd be far, far easier to disappear.
HER: ...

Her is silent. And seemingly inattentive, failing to avoid Chloe walking up to her and giving her a tight hug. Still embracing, Chloe begins to chat with her.

CHLOE: O-Oh, Nia...
CHLOE: I wish I knew what to say to you...
CHLOE: T-There's no way I can make all of this pain go away.
CHLOE: But... I know you're strong.
CHLOE: And don't tell me that you're not. You're incredible.

CHLOE: I've been friends with you for years, and never did I guess that... w-well, you were holding all of this back.
CHLOE: I didn't know that I've actually been friends with the world's strongest woman!

CHLOE: Even if you say you're broken, callous, or just despicable...
CHLOE: ...I don't think you're anything like that.
CHLOE: You're wonderful.

The ground around Her begins to bubble. The bubbles begin to slowly spread across the endless red plane around Venia and Chloe.

CHLOE: I... I think that actions speak louder than words.
CHLOE: And those years that I've spent with you... everything we've done together.
CHLOE: They've been wonderful.

CHLOE: I... I never thought less of you back then, when you confessed to me.
CHLOE: I never thought less of you after our fight- o-okay, maybe it took a bit, but t-those things do happen, after all...
CHLOE: ...And right now, I don't think any less of you.

CHLOE: You... are my friend.
CHLOE: You... are perfect just the way you are.
CHLOE: You... are Nia.

...The ground goes from a gentle bubble to a furious boil. Her's own form appears to be getting quite unstable, her face, limbs, and hair beginning to melt. Perhaps Venia might want to take a moment to speak, too? It... it might mean the world.

---

Calibri chats with Chloe on the tree. Like, Chloe's not on the tree, but he's still chatting from it. He's apparently quite curious about everyone's personality traits.

CHLOE: ...Hm, speaking of personality traits...
CHLOE: ...It'd be neat to see what you see in me.
CHLOE: And what magical type I'd logically have~

She gives an expectant, yet gentle smile. She does get distracted by him searing the ground near him, but she's still waiting for that response.

CHLOE: ...Eh?
CHLOE: What was that about?

Elsewhere, EN keeps on chatting with Lutea. She could certainly provide the materials for an iron shell of sorts.

LUTEA: Well... I'm not talented enough to make a shell.
LUTEA: I haven't actually worked much with metals, or anything like that!
LUTEA: It's just a theory.
LUTEA: I mean, if you could provide the shell, I could put a lot of Tornadopetals into it!

...She doesn't seem to have much to say. However, maybe EN could provide a shell of sorts for her?

---

Astrec and Irongutta gain a level in automotive repair! That's an incredibly specific skill that'll probably never come in handy later, but hey! Car get!

HEX ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Auto Repair Lvl 1
IRONGUTTA ACCOMPLISHMENT GET: Auto Repair Lvl 1

Hex then tries to name the staff, but it turns out Venia named it Boxican in her post. He then tries to communicate with a voice in the divider. However, the text in the divider is nothing but text. It does not feel. It does not think. It does not exist.

---

Auth does some Magic Club. He conjures an Ink Specter in response to Marron.

MARRON: Yeah! Those things!
MARRON: They're really cool!
MARRON: ...I mean, it'd be cooler if you could teach me how to use them, but they're still cool.

He then shows off his knowledge of the Correspondence. Marron stares at the sigils, and recoils in pain a little.

MARRON: O-Ow, that hurts to look at!
MARRON: Screw cool magical writing- that's already pretty potent!
MARRON: Just like, stick a plate of Correspondence on your head, and nobody can look at you because the writing will burn their eyes off.

MARRON: ...Still, that's pretty cool. Can you like, attack with it, though?

Marron awaits an answer expectantly. She won't be happy until something detonates.

---

Wyvern asks Marron about a blood altar. She bobs her head up and down.

MARRON: Yeah, I know something about that.
MARRON: Toast put her hand on it, and it got gorilla'd.
MARRON: I think it like... sucks your blood? From what I know though, it sucks a lot. Like, it sucks, and it sucks a lot of blood.
MARRON: I wouldn't recommend it.
MARRON: ...Y'know, maybe I could break it. I can work with blood pretty well, so...

MARRON: Eh.

He then notes that he'd like to learn some magic.

MARRON: I mean, that's what this club is for.
MARRON: Normally, I'd refuse... but yeah. Club.
MARRON: ...I mean, I'm not sure why you'd want to learn MY magic.
MARRON: You should like, learn Toast's magical words and stuff! Ask about if non-elemental spells are possible. I want a cookie that ISN'T on fire. Or made of blood.

---

The game has a bit of processing to do! It pulls the Physical Runes from Nia's crafting queue, and places it safely within the Player Crafted Inventory. Hurray! Oh, also: 1 Flux. Hurray again!

---

<robot fighting time>

...A cutscene interrupts your normal update! Marron is carried to the boundary of the map by Ziah. An antsy Taeda is awaiting there for her. She wastes absolutely no time putting Marron onto a stretcher she prepared. Enlisting the help of Willow, she carries her to the Preserve.

TAEDA: H-Hang in there, Marron!
TAEDA: I-I'll have you back up and fighting in no time! Just you...
TAEDA: ...H-How do I work on a human? I-I mean, my healing magic seems to work on them just fine, but...
TAEDA: U-Um...
WILLOW: Just... wing it! If you don't act soon, she'll probably be worse off!
TAEDA: A-Alright!

Taeda begins work on Marron, grinding together some herbs into a salve, and pasting it over her wounds.

WILLOW: Huh. I've never seen you use normal medicine before.
TAEDA: Oh, I normally don't. But, if I'm not in combat, I like to apply some herbs and such.
TAEDA: It's not much, but it accelerates the process!

She follows this up with an incantation to Helix. A light wraps around Marron's injuries, healing them. She's already looking a deal better. Less cuts, the bruise Chloe left on her cheek is fading... and with a quick application of cloth, a deal less bloodied. Taeda also places an ice crystal wrapped in cloth on her head, where the large cut that bled over her face was.

...She'll recover. Soon enough.

---

Anyway, back to the matter at hand: R4 is basically dead. Only a few more blows, and it'll explode! There really isn't much to watch out for- just go for it, and gun it down! Or maybe save Chloe, too- she'd appreciate it, even though she'll live if you kill R4 right here, right now.

Niascape

Her's comments about ripping people's heads off makes Venia visibly nervous enough to immediately interject:

"Now, uh, OK, the last time I did anything like that in a literal sense I ruined my life. Can't recommend it." Venia says.

She otherwise remains silent until the memory is over (she does look rather nervous about the 'money' thing though), and almost speaks up before Chloe's big thing, pauses again, and then, finally, responds. "... That's... I've felt that way before, like just... Vanishing, would be better, for everyone. As I've proven at least once... And... Well, that was weak of me! I feel sorry for even doing that in front of you, after all you've been through I feel weak for feeling so hopeless in front of someone even worse off than myself. But, I don't think its hopeless for you! You're stronger than you know, for not having, just, gone insane from the stress of it all! Its not these horrible events that define you, its what you've learned from them and how you've acted on them, and you've done all in your power to know better and be better than all the horrible people around you. You've made a mistake, sure, and I won't deny it, that was a huge mistake. But people make mistakes, that's perfectly natural! And other than that, you really have been better! ...Better than I ever was. I can't help but be impressed."

Venia's body flares with embers of white as she continues, moving down to give Nia a hug as well. "I owe you my life, which I think I've already said. I'd kill myself before letting that stupid Butterfly have its way with you. You've been one of the only friends I've had in a long while... You've been through enough hell! You deserve better, even if you don't think so. You are a good person! A strong one! And, sure! You're not perfect, you're not a genius, you're not this ultimate prodigy or anything! It doesn't matter to me, you don't have to be that person to be awesome! You can be whatever the hell you want to be, Nia! You're absolutely wonderful as you are right now and you'll only get better from here. And if you need any help-if you're lonely or if your worried or need someone to vent to-I'll be there for you, I promise!"

Venia pauses to breathe. The embers die. "... There's just one real obstacle to 'rebuilding' you, aside from the obvious. That Butterfly. Imagine every gorillahole you've ever met crammed into the vague shape of an ugly one-eyed insect and you have that thing. I have a method to kill it-it's risky and tricky and it may not work. I have several more theories, which I'd need better quality resources to even try. But... Well. You've been unaffected, haven't you? That could change, but, if you're not affected when it tries to possess you again... You're strong, you represent something very important, and that's power in the Mindscape. Maybe you could intervene if it tries anything? No mean feat, but a lifetime of anger at everything like it, leveraged against that ugly gorilla? It may help, a lot. For everything."

"... I'd love to stay and chat, but we don't have much more time. Chloe, time to go. And... Nia? Stay strong, for me, alright?"

Assuming nothing weird happens, and/or no Chaos Butterfly, Venia deactivates the ring, booting herself and Chloe back to the real world.

---

Once there, Hat's clone vanishes into wherever Hat's clone vanishes to, and Venia grabs Chloe's arm, tight. "OK, Chloe, before we wake her up... We will say what we did down there, but we won't go crazy on her immediately. Give her some room, some time to digest the information, and such. Be calm," Venia says to Chloe before waking up Nia. "We shouldn't be acting weird around her or anything, even after all of that, OK? It'll stress her out."

"It almost sounds like I know what I'm talking about. Even if I don't."

Venia fetches one of the bowls of Ice Cream from the fridge for Nia before waking her up, making sure one's in front of her.

"... So, welcome back, Nia. We're done, and I don't think we will ever have to do that again. There's a lot to talk about, but first, thank you for letting us do all of that in the first place. Ice cream's for you, if you want it. Once you're done, whenever you're ready, I'll give the report on what happened, and, uh, we can just roll from there, OK? I just feel like I've kind of been up in your business the whole day so if you need it I'd like to give you whatever space you need, alright?"

---

Magic Club! Magic Club!

Maria looks at Auth as he gives a (belated) explanation, still rather sad. "... Mister, I... I get it. You can't help Venny that way, 'cause that would be bad... I still don't like it! You can keep Venny from doin' dumb stuff, right?" Maria says, as she looks at the glitched-out Hat Kid, drawing closer.

"You're ignorin' me! I'mma poke you if you don't stop ignorin' me!" Maria shouts. When Hat Kid, inevitably, 'ignores' her, Maria pokes her, hand phasing through and glitching things out. "... Oh my gosh its like a weirdo hologram!" Maria says, suddenly estatic. "I'mma poke it."

And thus, Maria starts poking Hat Kid's holographic form rather relentlessly, all over, each individual poke called out with the word 'poke' as she does so. "POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE POKE!"

Meanwhile, the Kitsune seems to actually be recording things on a holographic piece of paper for later, as Maria clearly wasn't interested in memorizing anything.

Venia resists the urge to appear behind Bass as he speaks to kerprank him

---

Verdana

Verdana's response just makes Venia feel more awkward. "... Time travel in my time is restricted to government and military business, always has to be approved by the Emperor before going forwards, that's only in my country as everywhere else its illegal, its always paradoxical if you wanted to go back-its just ultra complicated," Venia says. "... But, uh... Look, I'm just, uhh," Venia says. "... I mean, its as you've said, so I... Augh, look. That's... Really forwards! That's... I'm really just not sure how to respond to any of that! I... You're really reminding me of someone else right now and, and, that someone else is..."

Venia just trails off into muttering, before pausing, sighing, and turning away from Verdana. "... Look, I'm just. I'm just not interested!... Not in that way. Sorry. I need to go. Thanks for the chat."

And Venia does, indeed, go, getting up off the couch and exiting the house for some air, finding herself roughly at the Airship, leaning against it.

"Oh, god, I was an ass."

"Better than to leave him pining for a monster. Or pine for one myself."

---

WE CAN DANCE IF WE WANT TO, WE CAN LEAVE OUR FRIENDS BEHIND

Terry moves first, then Nidra, then down the list as normal.

"EVERYONE ATTACK R4!" Venia shouts, conveniently managing to avoid blurring until after she's said everything. After the goo dissipates, Venia tosses a Spray Pack at R4, giving it slightly higher weaknesses to Ice and Electric-based attacks. She then moves to J6 and uses Alternating Weapon Attack to switch to the Splintershot and fires at R4 and hopefully cancel out most of the Weaken. Her hat pings Nana awake.

"Chloe, retreat! Go help Taeda with Marron, she'll appreciate it, please!" Venia says, pointing at the vague area of retreat that is the spawn zone.

Well, sometimes you intend to, right? Maybe Marron kissed another girl...
Jokes aside, Toast obviously didn't mean to. But you should think more about who's in front of you before using a devastating attack. Which is why I choose to funnel my inner power into Ultra Instinct instead of Heat Death.

Destiny runs to N7 and slashes at R4.

Packo moves before R4 is destroyed if it is destroyed this turn!
________________________________________

While the battle goes on, Packo cannot help but to look to the downed group of Nanotechnicians, and whoever else is standing, and feel remorse.

"P-Please, don't let them die!"

Packo looks in fear at the damage he has caused to the guy he just smacked. Luckily, he seems to be still breathing...

"They never had a chance to defeat us! And besides... Their machines are... More polished than mine..."

He looks at the dozens of nanomachines, either destroyed or waiting for the input of their unconscious masters. Meanwhile, his own noise drones are returning - compared to the efficient nanomachines, they look ugly and are way too big, and the only thing they can do is to annoy people... Right?

"T-They need a resident healer right now!"

After Nidra hits him for some decent damage, and the Nanotechnician hits him for less damage, Packo feels weak and doesn't want to fight against them anymore.

He goes directly to the Nanotechnician:

"I don't want to hit any of you anymore. Let us destroy the Ball in peace... And I will heal you if I have to."

It is then when he retreats the drones, storing them safely inside the handle of his weapon.

"Your... Machines are way cooler than mine... Are they powered by magic?" He asks, trying to start a friendly conversation with the Rebel. Meanwhile, he takes from his own plushie, trying to get rid of the bad effects he has on him.

"My weapon can really heal, see?" He says, as he presses the green button on his weapon. A loud click causes the weapon to glow.

He then moves towards Irongutta, who has some wounds, and proceeds to whack him at full force. His wounds are healed!

"See?" He repeats.

He also sends his drones to the Autocannon... And Bruttishace.

Each drone is behaving differently depending on the target. The drone near the Autocannon seems to have some difficulties trying to taunt it...

EINSZWEIDREITANZENEINSZWEIDREITANZEN - It's trying its best, but it's less loud than usual.

Meanwhile, the one around Bruttishace seems to be playing a very light monotone flute-like sound.

Packo is hoping that his words and actions cause the Nanotechnician to stop attacking them, and instead tend to the fallen, somehow.
_______________________

Packo uses the Packo Plushie, moves to O15, casts Life Essence Augment, and hits Irongutta to heal him. He sends one of the Drones to Bruttishace, to heal for 2HP, and one to the Autocannon to taunt it.

"...I..."

Verdana doesn't have anything to say quickly enough before Venia's already left the house, leaving him all alone on the couch. Well, there's a robotic cat nearby, that's a thing, but for the most part he's alone. Even if he did have any other company with him right now, that wouldn't really be any good for either him or the company. He's now relegated himself to sitting there, staring at the floor and just trying to process how things lead up to this point. Since he lacks self-doubt, that's going to be a tad difficult...

That... didn't go quite as I was expecting it to. Well, sure, I wasn't expecting it to work, but... something went wrong. Really wrong. What happened? I can't... follow the events that lead there. Something about... okay, let me just process this... She didn't like the emotion aura thing, or the time thing, and I'm not sure how she feels about the time travel thing. Okay, okay... that's... weird views, but okay, they are what they are. But... then what... something about me? I don't follow. Is this another one of those weird human wrong things? Or does she just... h...

Verdana's eyes promptly glaze over as his mind tries to process an emotional aspect that it simply does not posses the ability to have. His eyes revert to normal soon enough, though, although that's not much of an improvement as he promptly slumps his way down the back wall of the couch. Come to think of it, the air around him is seeming a little bit dusty, and there's a certain amount of pressure building nearby that probably isn't a good sign...

"...Well. This is... not what I wanted. Although I probably should have seen that coming, really... I hope I haven't just... fucked things up irreversibly... like I used to..."

A pause. His eyes close, and the air around him starts heating up to a dangerous level...



Verdana's eyes snap open, and caught in the middle of exiting a very bad memory of his, he unconsciously lashes out with his power at the first thing his body can perceive - the couch. Instantly, he ends up flinging himself off of it, simultaneously launching something out of his body into the couch, and in the process launching the couch straight out the front door, through one side of the fountain and out the other. The couch promptly meteors into the ground some distance past the fountain, sliding across the terrain violently through sheer momentum and eventually coming to a stop some distance away that's still visible from the house, a violently-swirling black-tinted memory orb embedded clean through the middle of it.

As for Verdana himself, he's just crumpled in a heap on the carpet for a few seconds, then propped up against the wall right near the window, shivering violently and almost completely curled up into a ball. If one could hear him, and let's be honest there's not a lot of people who can do that right now, they'd be able to hear him quietly whimpering in fright. He's also ignoring most of his surroundings right now, eyes laser-focused into the distance on that black-tinted memory orb containing the very memory he just experienced... All things considered, Verdana probably doesn't want that one back.


There's a fairly big robot dude watching the scene as the black memory orb and couch go sailing out of the house. He just stands there and stares for a few seconds, then shrugs, wandering over to take a closer look...

"Huh. More forceful memory ejection than last time. That one must be a real bad apple."

He promptly pokes the orb. A second passes. The drone straightens up to the full height of 10 feet, staring into the distance for a few more seconds before glancing back down at the orb.

"Wow, that's kind of messed up. Surprised the kid ain't got Experimental Department level issues. Granted, mindscapes are just representations... Probably. I dunno. There is absolutely no way in hell I can deal with that independently..."

He pauses, then turns around. Given how far away the couch was launched, this puts him in perfect view to see the entirety of zone 0. He slowly wanders back towards the house, deciding not to take the black memory orb with him just yet. On the way past, he seems to become aware of Venia's presence, turning to face her and tilting his head for a moment, then untilting.

"Huh. You're that girl he looks up to or something, aren't you. Maybe you could help or something... Let me think of how to phrase the relevant information so you're not left out of the loop for what just happened."

The Engie drone pauses, holding up one hand to indicate he's still thinking, then eventually he lowers the hand and continues.

"Okay. I have picked out the most relevant things. What you need to know are these things: First of all, I'm his employer, or boss, or whatever else you wanna phrase it as. Second of all, Verdana can't process Doubt, it simply doesn't exist as part of his psyche. His understanding of it is limited to the same way a blind person understands colours. Of course, sometimes when he ends up accidentally viewing certain traumas of his, that provokes a feeling of doubt in him that can't be processed. The result is that the trauma in question is lived through by him, then ejected. It's only happened once before, but I figured out everything I needed to from seeing it happen."

The drone pauses, then realizes he might be needed to explain where Venia would come into this. As such, he continues.

"Truth be told, I'd try and help but I absolutely cannot in the slightest due to the massive species gap. That's kind of what I'm asking you to do, if it's not too much trouble for you. There's two potential solutions. One, keep prompting him to feel doubt until he's ejected every trauma from his body. Or two, keep his mind off of doubt entirely so that the traumas eventually fade from his memory entirely. Either of them could go wrong, and I honestly have no clue myself which one is safer, which is why I'm trusting it to someone who has a higher chance of both getting through to him and understanding what's wrong with him. Honestly, it's your choice whether or not you decide to do something about him, but if you do it'd be pretty neat, and I'd probably also pay you by either retrieving a thing of your choice from the company or commissioning the Experimental department to make said thing if we don't already have an instance of it. They're so insane they can probably make anything with proper motivation. Even things that nobody else has any understanding of."

Another pause. The drone takes a look at the house, then shrugs.

"Anyway, I guess that gives you something interesting to consider, maybe. I'm gonna do some other things for a while. If you need more talky stuff, just call out for a big gray guy, that exact phrasing, and I'll be right over."

The drone proceeds to rocket into the air, obviously having jumped extremely powerfully, then he plummets out of the sky and falls into the zone 1 Abyss, smashing into the absence caverns and promptly tumbling down into the Everground. He seems no worse for wear from the sudden fall, standing up fine and taking a look around.

"...I have absolutely no context for what is going on here, anyone around to fill me in?"


Elsewhere, Calibri gains a bit of a blank expression on his face for a few seconds, then shakes it off and turns his attention back to Chloe.

"If you haven't noticed already, Hat Kid seems to be... not perceiving us very well. Although she does still seem to see some things... Just felt like writing something and seeing if that'll get a response from her."

He shrugs, which looks a little odd since he's hanging upside-down from a tree, then continues talking as if there's absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happening.

"Anyway, personality type... Hmm... Well, from what I've seen of you so far, there's a tendency towards the Solar elements. Beyond that, I'm not really sure. I'm better at judging one's morality and karma over one's personality traits, heh. What do you reckon feels right for you?"


Elsewhere once more, EN is still chatting with Lutea, and given the mention that Lutea can't really make a shell on her own, EN now has a job to do. She nods to Lutea to quickly confirm what she's doing, then speaks.

"A'ight, jus' need a bit o' time t' figure out wha' ah'm goin' fer 'ere, an' ah'll sort tha' out fer ya. Gimmie a minute."

She promptly turns and walks her way out of view, retrieving some metals from the inventory. She's decided that it'd probably be best to start things off with a fairly durable iron shell just to make sure it doesn't end up being shaken apart by tornadopetals. Thus, she goes to the place where she upgraded her armor earlier, tossing a pair of Iron ingots into the hole area and promptly firing up the flamey melty furnacey stuff once more. It'd probably be wise for wooden-based things to be kept far away for the process. Once the iron ingots have melted down properly, EN takes a look at them, then just whips out something generically cold to chill them out, taking a look at how they've now formed. By all means, it's almost complete, but it needs a proper place to put things in it.

EN creates the necessary internal hole part in the nearly-complete shell by punching it really hard, and while physics should dictate the protoshell shattering entirely, her punching it very hard somehow results in her leaving a fist-shaped indent in the would-be-shell. As one can predict, the end result of this sequence is something more of a cylinder-dome-ish thing with a rather large fist hole punched into it. By the power of Magical Engietech Bullshit ™, the quite roughly-made thing proceeds to turn into an actual proper shell.

With that complete, EN returns to Lutea, carrying the shell in one hand.

"This th' kind o' shell ya was thinkin' o'? Weren't sure on specifics."


Battle Action:

Given how things unfolded this round, Calibri's attention is on Chloe for quite a while. He seems uncertain about what to do... He then sighs.

"Yeah, probably for the best you get some healing or something. Stay safe, Chlo..."

He then turns his attention to R4, moving to K10 and slashing R4's barrel tip, then tossing a Searing Bomb onto N11, then retreating to J9.

The Man stays where he is, and uses Heartpiercer on the R4.

Toast(?) sends a volley of cards at R4.

~~

"Oh! I forgot to ask before, but if any of you wanted, I could tell you the attributes of your aura. Cooould be fun."

2
Later, Nezira approaches her with a suggestion on how to identify cookies. Toast thinks on it a bit.
"That's pretty insightful- I hadn't thought of that. Then again, I suppose I haven't really made things out of cookies before. And water is inocuous enough that I hadn't thought it to be a trend. In fact, this could open up a few other possibilities I hadn't considered. Would sword swords work? Burrito burritos? Well, for now, cookie cookies might be worth checking. Plus, if something goes wrong, pretty sure the worst that would happen is nothing. Or we get covered in cookies."

4
"Good question. Creations are usually temporary, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to about an hour, based on the intent put into casting. Though, if I can remember the modifier word, then it should be possible to create permanent things, albeit at a higher tax on your aura. On the other hand, I've also had creations last far, far longer than I would ever want them to."
Toast stares accusingly at her crystal limb.
"Also, you gotta show me how that chalk thing works sometime."

Nezira then incants the incantation, which would sound kinda funny if translated literally. A chocolate chip cookie appears in her hand, slightly warm.

The Battle off the Field

Heh all units focus fire on the R4! Lighting him up with my Command Banner, both Marksmen will coordinate their fire against the R4 blasting chucks out its already heavily damaged armour. (Daskter Lights R4, Both Marksmen basicattack+trait attack R4)

/rpstuffhere

---SCALE YGG---
In case people missed the previous reply...


Sophia waits patiently for a response, if any. And, indeed, no amount of poking, prodding, or shouting will get her attention at all.

---ZE CAVERNS---

The Engie Drone crashing through the roof of the caverns certainly makes MU jump. She almost throws a Time Piece in the direction of the noise, before realizing it was just an ally. She shakes her head hard, before calling out.

"Be there in a minute, big guy!"

She looks through the lake to see if there's anything that might pose a threat if she takes a quick dive by holding a single piece of Yggcrawler Meat over the water. If something does emerge and tries and is able to bite her hand off, she drops the meat and yanks her arm back to avoid getting eaten.

She then returns to the Everground proper.
"Sorry for the wait, big guy. We're on a mining trip! ...Well, I am. I'm the only one doing anything down here... Aaaanyway, I think I heard some of those purple monsters down in that hole I dug earlier. There's also a vault over there," she says, pointing to the Vault she just found. "--and a lake where I came from. Help a girl out?"

"And, er, fair warning, careful when climbing back up. Might be a curse under here. Or, something."

---

Boshi moves to (O7). He jams the pickaxe into the destroyed tread once again.

"(Au revoir.)"

It then explodes, killing Boshi outright.

Notably, upon death, the Hat kid Plushie itself animates, standing upright and drawing its equipped umbrella.

Nidra moves to K10 and last dreams the stratoshield.

Hex moves to Q8, and Lunges to Q9, stabbing the R4, and proccing Cinder Rush and Ember Drive.

RP STUFF

Astrec asks Chaos what he did with the Dreamer after the events of the Mindscape.
/wipmaybe?

Terry casts GO FIRST.

Terry moves enough spaces straight down to get out of Range 1-2 of the Stratoshield, then slaps R4.

==RP/MAGIC CLUB==
--Chloe, anime floating sword blade discussion--
"Yeah, it's similar to my wand design here that uses floating sword blades -- I'd just need, like, a central control system incorporating some properly-enchanted crystal and then a few crystal-inlaid blades to control and make float. It'd be more tricky because of controlling more things and making them move in a way that doesn't directly correspond to the control unit itself, which is why it'd need to be learned before actually fighting with it... but yes, it could work!"

--Chloe, wand info--

"Alright!"

Nezira thinks for a second.

"So, there's three general classes of materials that get used for making wands (and staves, and other various magical implements) -- wood, metal, and crystal. Technically, according to wandmakers and magic theorists, it's 'structured organic material', 'metallic elements', and 'minerals' -- people have used bone in place of wood for wands, and plain old stone is useful for certain things -- but those three things are the basic materials."

"Wood is the most generalist material, and people discovered it first -- it's easy to just pick a stick up off the ground and carve it into a rod shape, after all, and then you notice your magic works better while you channel it through there and the rest is history. It's best at control and letting you work with mana better, though it conducts and focuses magic somewhat better than just bare-handed casting. Different types of wood have subtly different properties -- oak, ash, and maple are all different, for example -- but they're similar enough to be functionally interchangeable except when you want to be really precise."

"Metal was discovered later, after forging and metalworking was developed and someone thought 'hey, what if I make a metal rod and channel magic through it?' It's the undisputed king of conduction, essentially letting you push more power than you normally would, more strongly, and thus cast stronger spells, but that comes at a price at times. Certain metals, generally ones considered 'impure' through some sort of conceptual thing, actually give a penalty to how well you can control your magic when you're casting through them. A wand made of, say, cast iron, would basically be only useful for outputting and rudimentary control of raw mana -- useful in magical combat, but not for much else. That scales up as the metals change -- copper, for example, is one of the better pure metals at conduction and doesn't give much of a control penalty, while precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum are still very good conduction-wise and actually also manage to boost control."

"Crystal, on the other hand, has unique properties that make it really interesting and useful for wand-making -- basically, it's basically the only material that stores magic in useful quantities while at wand-size format, and not only that, can store proper *patterns* of magic in the case of any precious or semiprecious stone. Normal stone is still very good at storing magic, but crystals and gems store it better, store patterns, and are the best at focusing magic in general to let you have more fine-grained control and a certain amount of more power from the strength of the focusing, and also have certain other useful properties. The discovery of crystals' properties enabled the first items that could cast spells with nothing more than mana input and others that could maintain enchantments indefinitely. Natural crystals dug out of the ground were and are the best because they naturally attuned to ambient mana over their long existence and during the formation process, but synthetic ones remain very useful."

"(As an example, you could magically sharpen and harden a sword before crystals, but the enchantment would get worn away by ambient magic over time and require constant refreshing, while now you could inset a crystal into the hilt that would absorb ambient magic over time and automatically maintain the enchantment. Likewise, wands and staves could be carved or shaped to make mana flow in a certain way and make it easier to cast a specific spell or effect with them, but with a crystal that has the spell encoded in there, you just need to simply push magic in to create the effect.)"

"Other than that, there's certain mechanical properties that change wands and staves -- how wide the wand is at any point affects control, since the mana spreads out along that widest axis and needs to be controlled across all of that, while the greater cross-sectional area at any point, the more mana it conducts. A cylindrical wand or staff is the best because of this -- if you make a flat one, for example, you get the conductance of its area, but the control level of its widest width, which isn't really a good use of material. A more tapered, sharper tip also increases focus and control at the expense of conductance, while a blunter one increases conductance but reduces focus and control."

"You'll notice that some of my designs have crystal components in them, like this one with the magical blade -- that lets you just channel raw mana in and get a pre-created spell result (the blade) out!"

--Toast (1)--
Nezira notes down all of Toast's language words in the same notebook as the one she wrote down her wand ideas in, then gets a sudden idea upon hearing Toast's rambles about creating 'normal' objects, and approaches her group.

"Ooh. It's possible for identifiers to be forms, so might it not be possible for forms to also be identifiers? What if you used the form of the item you're trying to create as an identifier, say, creating a cookie that (instead of light or fire) is identified as 'cookie'? Hmm. I want to try this out."

Nezira writes down 'Tifi Tifi Cartum' on a piece of paper and shows it to demonstrate her idea, being aware that saying unknown-effect incantations out loud is not the best idea.

--Toast Response (3)--

"So you think it'd work? Definitely good to try out, in that case. Let me just set up something that *should* automatically dispel any especially bad or unstable results..."

Nezira takes out a piece of chalk and carefully draws a circle of runes on the ground, before infusing it with her blue mana. The circle glows a bit, before settling down. Nezira steps into the middle of the circle, but before speaking the language, asks a question.

"Are the items your language creates lasting? In other words, do they dissipate after a while, or remain no matter what? I'm thinking about food vanishing in the stomach/from the metabolism here, and you'd obviously want to avoid that with food."

With that done, she holds out her hand and says the incantation, while picturing a chocolate chip cookie; "Tifi Tifi Cartum!"

--Toast (5)--

Nezira looks down at the cookie in her hand. "...Yesss! I honestly didn't expect that to work, but it did!"

She brushes her eyes with a blue-glowing hand, then looks at the cookie with magic-assisted sight.

"Looks like temporarily-conjured cookies should be safe to eat... even discounting the duration, it should dissipate harmlessly once eaten, and just spread into the body of whoever ate it as more or less pure magic, to be absorbed or removed. Probably the same'll go for other food items. Con; you don't really get bodily nourishment from eating food conjured this way unless it were to be made permanent through some means like that permanency modifier. Pro: you can eat as many temporary cookies as you want and not get any of the ill effects of overeating on sugary treats, and might even get a small boost of magic from it assuming someone else made it."

She steps out of the circle, scuffing it apart, which releases a pulse of magic that dispels the cookie.

"Oh, the circle? Basically, I infused a sort of triggered general counterspell and activating detection-spell into the minerals of the chalk. If it detected runaway or out-of-control magic inside itself, or if someone inside experienced a surge of stress that might be caused by undetected uncontrolled magic, it would've released the counterspell into the circle and dispelled as much as it could. The actual form of the circle wasn't really required to be shaped like it was, given my knowledge, I just find it helps when doing magic to do 'magical' things -- and certain of the runes I used help with that specific 'shape' of spell-system."

==BATTLE==
Nezira moves up to F9, scans the Breaker with her last Quick Scan (applying Observer Eye), and then uses the Small Charged Stone -- 2 samples and 2 MP restore from the scan, as well as Analyzed. She then casts Proximity Burst on R4's Barrel Tip.

She also recommends to Chloe that before she leaves the battle, she take a couple of drinks from Yggdrasil's Vessel to get fully back to fighting shape.

<ROLEPLAYDOP>
It's been awhile since one of these, hasn't it? This isn't the actual update- just me tending to some roleplay to reduce the potentially massive workload tomorrow.

---

Venia chats with Her as she begins to destabilize. She affirms to Her that she is a good person- a strong one- that she can be whatever she wants to be. Her begins to destabilize even further, looking like she might quite literally break apart as Venia begins to hug her.

HER: W-What...
HER: W-What... what d-did I ever do t-to deserve either of y-you!?
HER: I-I... can't... stop.
HER: W-Waaahhhh...

Her, instead of simply just crying, promptly explodes, her body liquidizing and becoming one with the ground below... and also one with Chloe and Venia's faces, being quite sticky. Her crying can still be heard, echoing throughout the dark. The sky shudders. She eventually does quiet down after awhile, her body reforming a short distance away from the two.

HER: ...
HER: Y-You saw... nothing.
HER: Humph.

...Now that she's a little more stable, Venia's embers go out, and she begins to muse about her plans. "Rebuilding" Nia. Of course, there's one major spanner in the works, a butterfly in the door when the elephants are attacking- the Chaos Butterfly. She's strong. She can fight it off. Right?

HER: The Butterfly...?
HER: I... I suppose I could fight it.
HER: But, I feel... unstable.

The red-black ground is still bubbling. It seems like there's constant ripples moving through it, as well.

HER: Something's going to happen soon.
HER: I can feel it.
HER: That sense at the back of your mind, when you know that something- anything, is going to go wrong.
HER: That sensation I've felt throughout most of my life.
HER: ...
HER: I will do my best.

HER: ...

Her looks up at the sky. Still inky-black.

HER: I... suppose you need to get going, then?
HER: That is alright. I have something to work on as well.

From below Her, one of those gigantic eldritch creatures of tentacles, eyes, and scars rises up. She sticks out from the top of it, a sore thumb amidst the chaotic form. The creature is notably smaller than the one Venia witnessed attacking the Nia's up on the surface.

HER: ...Farewell, Chloe. Venia.
HER: I will stay strong. For the both of us.

The two of them disappear in a flash of light, returning to reality.

---

...Once the two snap back to reality, Venia takes grip of Chloe's arm. She's still a little delirious from the whole transferal thing, but she's still listening attentively!

CHLOE: R-Right! I've got it!
CHLOE: Don't overwhelm her, be honest, and don't be weird!

Venia retrieves a bowl of ice cream for the sleeping Nia, while Chloe goes to purchase some sprinkles from Chaos, using 0 credits because they're not real items. Venia frees the bowl from its time stasis, and Chloe sprinkles the sprinkles upon the top of the fluffy white delight. Chloe gives Nia a little bit of a shake to rouse her back to life.

NIA: ...Eh?
NIA: Hello, world!
NIA: ...What am I doing, again? What were we doing?
CHLOE: O-Oh, um... hey!
CHLOE: We used the Dream Ring thingy to take a look inside your head, remember?
NIA: Oh, right!

NIA: ...So, uh.
NIA: What'd you see?
CHLOE: Oh, um... I'll let Venia talk about that. She was there for the whole thing, so... it'd be smart.
NIA: Alright!
NIA: Venz, what'd you see?

...She wants to get straight into it. She seems totally unassuming, like you didn't just rife through the deepest, most forbidden recesses of her mind.

---

Destiny jokes about Toast and Marron, much to Chloe's dismay. Maybe, according to Destiny, Marron kissed another girl? Chloe snaps back at her!

CHLOE: D-Don't even joke about that!
CHLOE: This is serious! I-I mean sure, what Toast did was dumb, but...
CHLOE: The fact that you're joking about this shows how little you care!
NIA: Also, I'm gonna interject for Chloe and call you a gorilla, because it's implied~
CHLOE: N-Nia! D-Don't-
NIA: ehehehehe :P

---

Calibri explains to Chloe exactly what's going on with Hat Kid. She's... unwell. In the sense that she can't see her and such.

CHLOE: H-Huh? That's awful!
CHLOE: What might've done that!?

She starts yelling, somewhat randomly.

CHLOE: HAT KID! CAN YOU HEAR ME?
CHLOE: CAN YOU GIVE US A SIGN!?

Chloe sighs.

CHLOE: ...That's not gonna work, is it?
CHLOE: Well, the plain and simple method was worth a shot...

Anyway, the two continue with their chat about personality types and magic. Calibri ends up asking Chloe about what she might think about her own personality traits. What's right for her.

CHLOE: My personality, huh...?
CHLOE: I'm not sure how I'd describe myself. You'd probably be better off asking Nia than me, but... I like to think I'm kind enough to people.
CHLOE: I've always tried my hardest to help others, and be there for them. If somebody got hurt... I'd strive for justice!
CHLOE: ...I'd probably try to help them, even if it was stupid or futile to try to, eheheheh...
CHLOE: And if it helps, I really like spending my spare time on games, practicing my swordplay, and tinkering with things: kinda like Xavier on that last bit...

CHLOE: Does that help at all?

EN then tosses together 4 Iron Ingots, punching them together into an iron shell. She hands it to Lutea, who nearly falls over from the sudden weight of the thing.

LUTEA: T-This would do nicely!
LUTEA: It's... really heavy, though!

...She's going green in the face, trying to hoist it up any further than she is at the moment. It really isn't that heavy, though. Hell, Marron might be able to carry it without breaking much of a sweat- she'd complain, sure, but still. She hauls it inside, and begins work on the bomb. She carries it to EN with the help of Beluta, the both of them carrying it like they might a big piece of furniture.

LUTEA: Here you go!
LUTEA: T-Tell me if it works well, alright?

Tornado Bomb obtained! It has also been given a recipe.

---

Toast does more magic! She answers Marron's question about making non-elemental cookies. She responds with basically "no", causing Marron (6) disappointment damage.

MARRON: Whaaaa? Boo.
MARRON: Well, your language is still cool, though...

Toast continues to demonstrate her magic, sundering Chloe's burrito in two. In that instant, Chloe feels nothing but the most pure, utter betrayal. She pouts at Toast, who promptly stitches her burrito back together with magic. Chloe combos this spell with a bite attack, slaying the upper half of the burrito.

Toast then offers to show people the attributes of their aura. Obviously, Marron and Chloe jump to attention.

MARRON: Hey, what's my Aura like?
MARRON: ...Is it like, something we can determine, or is it something at birth, or what?
MARRON: Whatever it is, my aura better be awesome!
CHLOE: ...What she asked!
CHLOE: Like, the request to see her aura, and the actual question.
ETTE: (Oh, oh! Read me, too!)

Then, during Toast's talks with Nezira, the latter of the two summons a cookie. A proper cookie! Marron jumps by, and snatches the cookie with her mouth. She slinks up back to near Toast, and begins to munch on it.

MARRON: ...Not bad!
MARRON: Wonder if we could use your magic to make like, shortbread cookies.
MARRON: Shortbread is awesome, and I have a craving.

Marron happily munches on the cookie, with her only worry being if it'll disappear in a matter of moments or not. Then she might bite her tongue.

---

Chloe listens to Nezira ramble on about wands. Or at least, she tries- Nezira can practically see the smoke coming from her head about halfway through the talk.

CHLOE: M-My head feels kinda overloaded...
CHLOE: J-Just... I've learned a lot today, and I'm not gonna retain any of it at this rate!

She quickly jots down what she's remembered onto a notepad.

CHLOE: So basically;
-Wood is pretty basic and simple, and basically anything works.
-Metal is powerful, but only if it's good metal!
-Crystals uhhhhhh
CHLOE: Hm...

Nezira needs to quickly catch Chloe up on crystal wands. She jots it down quickly.

CHLOE: ...And crystals are good for storing and focusing magic!
CHLOE: Then the general shape of the wand is important- generally speaking, cylinders are good!

CHLOE: T-This is a lot to take in...

Chloe takes a few deep breaths, then responds with a question of her own!

CHLOE: Oh, miss Nezira!
CHLOE: ..."Miss"? I-I think I'm starting to register you as an actual teacher...
CHLOE: What about... hybrid wands?
CHLOE: Like, you have a wooden wand, with a big crystal in the end of it! Like you see in games a lot.
CHLOE: Or like, a wand made of wood, with metal mixed into it for stability or durability or improved whacking efficency?

CHLOE: ...Wait, by this definition, is a spear a staff...?

Chloe assumes the thinking emoji face. Her head is still smoking, trying to process all of this information. It's strangely endearing.

---

...Elsewhere, not in someone's post, Chloe retreats from a battlefield, by request of Venia. She moves with a bit of a limp- it's a determined limp, but a limp is a limp. Willow meets her halfway to Taeda, helping her along to the doctor. Taeda has prepared a cloth on the ground for Chloe to lie on.

TAEDA: I thought there might be more of you coming!
TAEDA: I-Is everything alright back there? You don't look so great, Chloe...
CHLOE: Everything's basically handled! I just got... a little beaten up, that's all.
WILLOW: A little? Girl, you look like you've been TKO'd already!
CHLOE: H-Huh? Do I really look that bad?

She really doesn't. Sure, her hair is a little frizzled from getting shocked, and there's some blood and cuts from where the other attacks nipped her, but she's actually still pretty presentable. Perks of basically being an anime protagonist.

TAEDA: Well, you're gonna look worse if you bleed out.
TAEDA: Come and lie down! I'll fix you up!

She lies down next to the unconscious Marron, and winces as Taeda applies various things to her wounds. A few bandages around her arms and the chest area, and she's looking... more acceptable than before!

Just then, Marron begins to stir from her sleep. Taeda panicks- wasn't she warned about her potentially going hostile? Fortunately for her, Marron wakes up quietly, perhaps a little too sore to move. She tries to push herself off of the ground, but instead gracefully faceplants into the cloth she's resting on.

MARRON: G-Gah...

Her left hand slides up her face, getting a feel for a small bandage and some salve on her cheek. She then turns her head to look at Chloe, who freezes up.

MARRON: C-CHLOE!
CHLOE: E-Eyah! Marron!
CHLOE: I-I'm sorry about punching you! I just didn't want you to hurt Toast, and I-
MARRON: oh my god SHUT UP!

The puppeteer stares at Chloe. She's all tense... but quickly loosens up, rolling over onto her back.

MARRON: No, it's...
MARRON: ...
CHLOE: Marron, are you a-alright?

Marron goes from on her back to completely facing away from Chloe. While Chloe might not be able to see it, her face is a bright red.

MARRON: ...
MARRON: ...T-Thank you.
CHLOE: E-Eh? I didn't do-
MARRON: I'm thanking you for PUNCHING ME IN THE FACE!
MARRON: What part of that is hard to understand!?
CHLOE: S-Sorry, I didn't pick up on the sarcasm-
MARRON: THERE WAS NO SARCASM!

She pulls the cloth she's resting on over her face, sparing the world from her lava lamp-esque blush. She groans into it for awhile, soon calming down and turning to face Chloe, sitting cross-legged, face still flush.

MARRON: ...Thank you for punching me. Really.
MARRON: I... I'm happy I didn't main her in the middle of combat.
MARRON: I mean, she's a dumb gorilla and I wanna punch her lights out, but... i-it's not like I-I...
MARRON: ...I-It's complicated, okay!?
CHLOE: I understand entirel-
MARRON: NO YOU DON'T!

She stares at Chloe, beaming animosity at her. She soon stops, and goes back to being a normal type of frustrated.

MARRON: I mean, m-maybe you understand, but...
MARRON: Ugh, I'm just... gorillaing pissed, or something...
CHLOE: It's fine for you to be mad. Toast did nuke you, after all...
CHLOE: But... y-you two are gonna make up, right?
CHLOE: I-I heard from Destiny that you two were a couple, and-
MARRON: W-What!? She...
MARRON: W-We haven't really gone public yet, because I wasn't sure if it'd be healthy, or if it was the right thing to do...

An air of nervousness washes over the puppeteer.

MARRON: W-Whatever!
MARRON: Point is, I'm gonna make her pay for this!
CHLOE: P-Pay for it!? W-Wait, that's not healthy at-
MARRON: Hey, she DESERVES it! If she's gonna beat me up, I'm gonna beat her up, too!
MARRON: Once she's on her knees, maybe I'll listen to whatever gorilla she has to say...

CHLOE: U-Um...
CHLOE: I... I won't be able to talk you out of hurting her, will I?
MARRON: Y-You're not defending her, are you!?
CHLOE: I-I'm not! I just think I know you well enough to know that you're not the kind to just sorta... sit down and... y-y'know.

CHLOE: A-Anyway, if you're dead set on fighting her, c-could you please make it... sanctioned?
MARRON: ...What?
CHLOE: Just... letting you go and beat her up leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
CHLOE: I-I fought with Nia, and I-I don't want you to feel what I did, back then...
CHLOE: So, if you like, talked it out first and then organized a fight, it'd be a better way to work the anger out of your system!
CHLOE: That way, you can... u-uh, "beat her up", and there won't be any hard feelings!
CHLOE: Like, if I could do things over with Nia again, and we absolutely had to fight, I'd make it formal. Feels less bad to punch a friend in the face when they've said you can!
MARRON: ...
MARRON: I mean, I guess...

Marron's eyes suddenly light up.

MARRON: Yeah! I can duel her again!
MARRON: I can shoot her a bunch, and prove how far I've come! I-I can beat her stupid cheap magic tricks!
CHLOE: I-I was thinking more on the lines of wrestling or a fist fight since that doesn't involve maiming anyone...
CHLOE: ...but, it's certainly better than just assaulting her.
CHLOE: And you've done it before, so... I-I guess it's okay?

Chloe seems a little disappointed with the outcome. Marron begins making plans.

MARRON: Okay, so it's gotta be me and sis.
MARRON: That leaves two more members. Maybe I could recruit Wyvern, since he got murdered by Toaster...
MARRON: ...But maybe I could get allies from Chaos again. They were... alright...

CHLOE: Oh, Marron?
CHLOE: I think I might wanna join this.
MARRON: Ugh, you're seriously gonna help her out!?
CHLOE: N-No! I-I'd be on your team!
CHLOE: She killed Wyvern and hurt Emerald, and if I'm being honest, I kinda wanna see her put in her place a little, too...
CHLOE: Plus, I'll make sure you don't do anything brash.
MARRON: I-I wasn't going to!
CHLOE: It'd also be a good way to get a bit of training, too!
CHLOE: I sparred with Calibri, and got my butt handed to me- it'd be good if I could get some practice in against more talented foes!

Marron stares at Chloe blankly.

MARRON: Y'know what?
MARRON: Sure. Why the hell not.
MARRON: You're... alright with a sword, I guess...
CHLOE: Alright! I won't let you down, Marron!

Chloe gives Marron a warm smile, prompting the puppeteer to turn away from her.

MARRON: Yeah, yeah...
MARRON: J-Just... t-this doesn't mean w-we're friends, g-got it?
CHLOE: I-I know!
CHLOE: I was hoping we could discuss strategy, though...
MARRON: ...Right.

The two women begin to talk tactics. Anyway, Marron is planning to duel Toast again soon- perhaps it'd be ideal to discuss team composition? For now, her team consists of herself, Ette, and Chloe! There's one more flex slot- maybe one of you could join Marron? Or alternatively, go chat up Toast and help her in a duel. Of course, it might be smart to wait for until they actually meet up and discuss this sort of thing...

---

And that concludes the Roleplaydop! See you tomorrow for our regularly-scheduled update!

-Battle: Far Off Field-

Irongutta moves to Q12, gaining Unstoppable Force! This turn, he opts to use SHOCKwave on the R4's center (space N11) a second time. Hey, if it works, right?