Venia Praefortis walks along, ever busy, fiddling with a gray cap connected by wire to a small screen, a few other hovering holographic screens, her line phone, and several other things, as she mutters to herself, walking in Yggdrasil’s Crossing. ”...Mm, no… Ugh. I need help…”

Meanwhile, the sorceress with relationship problems is looking for duel partners. Having exhausted most of her original choices, she begins turning to those she was less familiar with. One such person is Venia Praefortis, and as such, Toast walks into Yggdrasil Crossing and right up to Venia.

"So, uh, Venia..." she starts, not really sure how to ask the question, as Venia turns to listen, "...how's it going?"
”... I can’t quite describe how its going. I feel like a sack of gorilla, but at the same time I… I’m quite charged. Best I can say is as busy as it can get. Uh, do you need anything?”
"Well, uh, 'negotiations' didn't really go as I planned with Marron."
”...Negotiations?” Venia says, confused.
"I tried to apologise about the whole 'friendly fire then running away' incident, and… well, now we're duelling. Sorry about that, by the way."
”It’s… I’m not exactly happy about what occurred, so I can’t really duel with you in full faith… But I accept your apology,” Venia says, nodding affirmatively. ”...Toast? I… I say I feel charged but at the same time I feel exhausted. Uh, I know you’re also busy, but I could use your help here real fast if you’ve got a few minutes to spare.”
"Er, sure, she responds, a little surprised, "I'm pretty certain people will still be around to get recruited, and giving Marron some time to cool down a bit might be a good thing. Or, uh, in shorter terms, 'what do you need?'"

Venia responds by causing the ground between Toast and her to shimmer. A rather fanciful version of the Workstation Prime appears, with several papers and a few red gemstones laying on top. Two rather fanciful chairs on opposite ends also appear, seeming more fit for fireside reading than busywork.

”It’s… Rather complicated, but basically… Err. I’m not the only one who’s having a bit of fallout from my actions. Uh, long and short of it is, operation ‘read Nia’s mind’ did not go to plan,” Venia says. ”... And given how Nia’s possessions are stress-triggered? Let’s just say I’m trying to ready emergency precautions. And that’s not getting into the Husk-heard it got all in your faces at Magic club. Last sighted at Scale Yggdrasil. Where we’re headed next… To keep it simple, all I need is for a bit of magical help to imbue these scrolls with the Fluxblade spell, so people who don’t have it can cast it on the fly. Is that, is that alright to you?”

When Venia mentions 'magical help', Toast's previously-weary eyes light up a little.

"I can help," she states definitively, "I don't have much experience with Flux or Entropy, since I only encountered it last year in the mindscape, but given how pervasive it's been since we got here, it should be easy enough to work out." She points at the crystals on the workstation. "Are these them? The, uh 'entropy things'?"
”Entrophies,” Venia says. ”And, thank you, seriously. I’m more experienced on the matter with the substance, it's mostly just the issue of printing them to the scroll I’m having difficulty with… Sit down, please,” Venia says, taking a seat herself, followed by Toast opposite. From the seated position, Toast sees Venia’s setup rather clearly; a few piles of magically-reactive paper and a single jar of ink, a crystal pen laying within. Several of the papers have red ink marks on them, scribbles of incantations abruptly transforming into <0>’s midway through writing, though most of the ones that didn’t get cut off immediately already veer quite off the mark for a proper scroll to begin with.

”Simple process, in theory. I transfer the energy from the Entrophies into this spellpaper here as a substitute for ‘natural’ magical energy, unlike with other elemental sources, but otherwise its just a standard transcription, I believe. Of course, Flux is… Well, you can see,” Venia says, gesturing to the failed papers. ”Not sure where I’m going wrong here.”
"It is kind of a mess…"
”I know, I’m not sure if I’m making mistakes or I just need to strengthen the magical binding so the Flux doesn’t make butterflies, which is why I’m asking for help.”
"Right, well you came to the right girl. I have a few theories on what could be the cause of all the butterflies, but the most general solution I can think of is creating a ward against the entropic effects after the entropy has been applied. The best way I can describe it would be as putting the 'entropy' in stasis, or dormancy, without removing it outright. While I haven't done anything like this specifically, I've done it for things that are less… 'entropy'."
”Ahh, uh, yes, hrm, I actually haven’t thought of that. Or, uh, well, I did, just not immediately after. I’ve done something like that before, so this shouldn’t be too complicated...”

Venia mutters a few words of magic and grips the pen. One of the Entrophies glows a bit more intensely than before as Venia’s hand moves across the paper, a small bubble of frozen time appearing as the red ink stains the paper.

”... Uh, Toast, so, I have, uh. Other questions,” Venia says.

Toast gives a quizzical look. "Well, if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at magic. So if there's something else you wanted to know-"
”How did, uh, how did, Marron…” Venia starts, and pauses awkwardly. ”... Like. She’s rather abrasive, isn’t she? How… How did you know? I. Uh. I know that’s rather abrupt, but. I heard Destiny say something about you being lovers?... Didn’t sound like she was tossing around a rumor, either,” Venia finishes, blushing like the sun.

Toast opens her mouth to speak a few times, vaguely resembling a fish in doing so. "That's, um…" she pauses for a moment to think, before settling on something to say, "I guess 'the secret's out.' ...Not that we were really doing a good job of hiding it. Though, with all that's happened... But, uh, your question. 'How did I know?' Like, how did I know I liked her that way or…?"
”... Yes,” Venia says, somehow still keeping to some relatively stable handwriting. ”... I, uh. I… Mph, uh, I’m sorry, I kind of just spoke without thinking about what was happening… Uh, yes. T-t-t-thhh… That way,” she sputters. ”... Is that too personal? I’m so sorry it was too personal wasn’t it.”
"Oh nononono! A-actually… I kinda like talking about this stuff. I-If I was a normal girl, th-then maybe I'd be doing it more often…" she says, trailing off.

Normal. That word. That impossible ideal that everyone but you had. A time-travelling nephilim duchess and magitechnician with metaphysical cancer talking with a time-travelling human(?) amnesiac sorceress with two prosthetic arms from a lost planet, and the idea of normal comes up. Venia’s expression instantly goes wistful. Normal, what life would be like if she was normal?

”... Well, uh, I guess that just makes it less awkward?”

Toast smiles, now a bit more comfortable with her new company, "Y-Yeah, I guess it does a bit. But, um, the question. Which I still haven't answered." Despite recently saying she didn't feel awkward talking about it, she's still hesitant in articulating herself. "I-It's a feeling, I think. I'm not sure if you'd, uh, feel it differently, but for me it's like... a warmth; one that I only feel around her."
”A warmth.”
"Y-Yeah. Like… when I walk past her, or when our eyes meet, I feel it. When I'm with her, or when I hold hands with her, it burns brighter, and…" she catches herself, slowing her tempo a little, "...And it makes me feel like I could stay there with her forever."
”Forever…” Venia says, pressing her free hand to her temple, and contemplating. Or, appearing to contemplate.

”Venia by all that is holy you are not allowed to mention that sensation in your crotch, by all that is left of justice and goodness in this twisted reality you will not make this eighty times more awkward by bringing out that factoid when describing what you feel. Do not, do not, do not.”

”... So, it’d feel like you get, uh. Hot? Like, like you’re in a bed? Or, like, even a sauna? That kind of warmth?”
"I… don't know what a sauna is, but a bed sounds fitting, I think. That's what it 'feels like', I-I think."
”... Even now?” Venia asks. ”Even with-wait.”

Venia pauses to look down at her writing. The stasis ‘bubble’ is gone from her initial text, which has morphed into a slightly morbid picture of the Butterfly impaling multiple stick figures with little crimson lines.
”...”
"..."
”...Well then. Hrm. Uh, that’s… Yeah. I think we’re gonna need a stronger stasis spell. Uh… Wait, no, maybe just a purely magical one? Entropy is, uh, by logic it's the degradation of energy over time, loosely phrased. ‘Time’ being a keyword. Perhaps a more… Magical type of stasis would do better, in your opinion?”
Toast ponders this for a while, "I know a few ways we could put it in another stasis, but not many of them would be safe for me. However, I've already got a better process in mind."
”Oh? What were you thinking?”
"The writing is imbued with entropic energy, so if I use my magical language to suspend 'entropic' quality from it temporarily, then we should more or less be able to write freely, without, uh…" Toast gestures at the stick figures.
”... Huh. Didn’t think that was possible with just magic alone,” Venia says, putting the morbid image on the stack of failures before pulling out a new piece of paper. ”Let’s try that out. When you’re ready… Err. Do you need to use it on the pen as its writing or on the Entrophy?”
Toast thinks about this. "The pen, I would think and perhaps the ink too. Though first, I just need to find the right word…"
”The ink’s created by the pen, its just red because of the Entrophy, so I guess you just need the pen, then,” Venia says, handing it over to Toast. ”Be careful not to get the red ink on you, uh, it stings. Also it might slowly, uh, well, warp whatever it touches. Maybe. That may only happen if its directly ingested, but I’d be safe.”
Toast, who was previously grabbing for the pen by the feed, stops and grabs it from the back. "That's uh… I'll… be careful. Now… the word."

With her free hand, Toast takes out a worn-looking spiral binder notebook, no larger than the size of her palm. She flips through it with a thumb, before reaching a blank page. Then, she closes her eyes, and starts scribbling on the page at random with the pen. Venia watches on, intrigued. "I don't know the word for 'entropy', but if my theory is correct, the link that this book has with my magical language combined with the randomness of my scribbling and the entropic nature of Flux…"

She suddenly stops, and blows on the paper to dry it a little. Despite having been scribbling on it for a minute or so, only a very small part of the paper is covered in red ink. A single word: Perdit.

”Perdit… Perditio… Can’t be a coincidence. But that just makes it beyond doubting, then, wouldn’t it?”
"It's not the first time I've seen similarities like this. ...I'm really not sure how to explain it. But, uh, now that my book has Flux on it, it's probably a good chance to test it out." She points a crystalline finger at the paper, and mutters a few words. "Perdit Malta Illaye'os Perdit," she incants, red ink on the page dulling to black.

"Right, uh. Perdit Cato Vari Illaye'os Perdit. Do you want to write again- I don't really know the spell, so…" She offers the pen to Venia, who takes it and begins again.
”Thank you, Toast… Oh, right, uh, the question. Do you still get that feeling around Marron, like, even now?” Venia says.
"Well, uh…" Toast thinks about this for a moment, "...Yes. Even if I nearly killed her, and if she 'nearly' threatened to kill me back… I still feel this way."
”... Right. I… That’s really something else… I just, uh, hope, it goes well. I… I think I’ve felt like this once. I just… I just needed to be sure. Absolutely, positively sure, because…” Venia says, trailing off, flapping her gums soundlessly.
"Wait, um. Is this about… someone here-"
”Nia.” Venia says, her attention instantly and utterly grasped by that statement. Toast is somewhat taken aback by her frankness. ”... I’m absolutely going crazy over this, Toast. I don’t get it. Like… I had a report of what happened in the Mindscape, nothing invasive but I knew you at least, like, knew each other a bit for some time before now. But, like. I knew Nia, actually knew her, for a day, tops. And that’s… That’s like. That’s like real love at first sight bananas right there. I don’t believe in that stuff, I never had. Even my only other crush ever took a while to warm on me but Nia, Nia… I don’t know what to say or think now, I think I may’ve been feeling this way since the start and the whole Chaos Butterfly thing has been making me oblivious and I don’t know what to think about it all, and now she’s on the verge of a possession if not basically already possessed and I feel incredibly guilty…

Venia pauses, and resumes writing. ”... I went a bit nutso over that, didn’t I. Uh, gorilla. S-sorry.”

Toast is stunned into silence for a moment. When she eventually does speak, she speaks softly, "Well… it sounds like you're really crazy about her, and from what I've seen… I'm sure she feels the same about you. Have you... told her how you feel?"
”... I didn’t even realize I felt this way until I got so stressed out about everything I started hallucinating.” Venia says. ”Call me queen oblivious, I guess… But like… Like…” Venia pauses again. ”... Pardon me, but, like, I’m a girl, and she’s a girl, and I never ever thought that I’d be like this for a girl, I know Nia can be, and you and Marron of course, but, like, I’ve never ever felt this way about any girl, or think these weird thoughts or get all weird in the c- THE CHEST! Weird. In the chest.”

”Nice save, queen oblivious. Real smooth.”

”Like, the point is, like. I’m just… I just don’t get why I feel so weird and gay all of a sudden. Or, uh, bisexual? Bisexual,” Venia says, now thoroughly red in the face. Her composure, as is becoming a standard for this day, is now totally obliterated in a thorough awkwardness bombing.

"That's, um. I'm not sure if I have an answer for that. I'd never really met people until the mindscape, so I don't exactly have much experience. But uh, for me, being "bisexual", as you called it… I guess I didn't really question it. If I like Marron then… well, I like Marron. For me, it seems… almost normal?"
”... Almost normal.”

Venia ponders this-and ponders to a few days gone by, of some less-than-open-minded friends. She may’ve talked of Ursa quite openly with Chloe and Omorika, but she had omitted quite a bit as well-mostly for sake of brevity.

Yes.

Brevity. From Venia Praefortis.

Believe it.

”... I, I mean. It doesn’t feel… Forced, or anything… I. I think I just have to think about this a while, now. But, thank you… I think you’ve cleared up a lot for me. Err, there’s one other thing you could do for me… We’ll be spending a bit of time writing the scrolls themselves, and such, and all, so we have several more minutes.”

Toast looks at Venia quizzically. "What do you need?"

”I need you to listen, because I’m about to dump a lot on you. Not ‘super hard every detail is important’ listen, but, like, listen, because… Because I need help, and because… Because everyone ought to know who I am and who they’re working with.”

"Okay."

And Venia talks-of how the Mighty have Fallen, which, to keep this post brief as it can, will likely be linked to directly rather than attempt a recap here. She talks of Ursa, and her experiences struggling under the mafia, and her powers, and her peers, and Maria, and her darkest sins, and the Duchy and the Emperor and her suicide. She talks, and writes, and holds back tears enough to keep constantly writing the scrolls. She’s at least in a more stable mood than before. By the time she’s done, she’s halfway through the final scroll.

”... That’s everything. Everything I have. T-Toast, I have… One last question. I… I feel like I know what to do-about Nia, about Sussui, about everything. If I’m not doing it… I mean. Others will, they’ll have to. And I have no… I have no delusions. I feel like I did, once-just, that, like, coming here and saving a universe or something would magically balance out all the times I should have been better… And maybe that’s part of why I took the Duchy in the first place, or why I decided to come personally and on my own. But, like… Do you really think I can… You know. Put all this behind me? Move on? Because… Even with all that I’m trying to do, I still feel like I can’t ever, ever do enough. And I hate that feeling… and I hate that feeling because, maybe just for a moment, Nia made me feel something different instead, and… And now I realize, to keep it short, that she’s feeling the same feeling that I am, and… And it hurts even worse. I can pull through, right?... She can pull through, right? Someday?”

Toast looks a bit overwhelmed by the barrage of information tossed at her. She thinks for a bit, taking some time to sort out what Venia had just told her. Eventually she comes to her senses and nods- at first in a concerned way, then starting in an affirmative manner. "Yeah, of course you can. Look, your past might not be the most dazzling display of pure righteousness, but if you feel regret for doing it, then I feel that you're a good person. So… if Nia makes you feel that way, and if she feels the same for you, then... you probably deserve each other."

Deserve. Her? Deserve? Only hours ago did Venia think what she deserved was a swift, decapitating kick to the head. She, deserving Nia?

Nia definitely deserves someone, though. However wretched. Something was better than nothing, and if Venia felt that way...

”... Thank you, Toast, sincerely. For both your words and, well, with the scrolls.”

Toast smiles, before pushing back her chair to stand up. "So, uh. If you ever need help again, whether it's related to magic or… well, feelings, I'll do my best to help."

Venia stands up too, taking the scrolls she’s created and holding them up to the light. ”Oh, thank you for offering. I’ll let you know if ever I’m in trouble, and… Uh, I suppose that you have a favor to call me up for? If nothing else, I’m sure I can provide after this is all over. Uh. Assuming we’re not dead, ehehe.”

Toast grins, before giving a wave to Venia and leaving the workstation, off to find other people for her team. Venia grabs her final creations, before carefully stuffing them in the inventory, and continuing along, walking along, her next destination-Yggdrasil-looming in the distance…

---

Materials Expended: 1 Spell Scroll Crafting Charge, 1 Sticky Note Crafting Charge, 1 Crystal Pen, x3 Entrophy.

(T?) Fluxblade Scroll (x?)
An arcane scroll imbued with a Fluxblade spell. The magic vanishes after a single use.
Spend 5 MP, then cast the Fluxblade spell as if you had 12 in all stats (instead of your own).
((15-15 Glitch Damage, 80% bonus on Entropic foes, Range 1-4))