At where magic club was, Calibri nods.

"Yeah. S'pose it's time to do that... EN's taking this battle, though, and for some reason the thymefield is preventing me from fighting at the same time as her, but I'll hang around in case she needs to fall back for a moment and let someone else take charge."

...Wonder if there's some way to get around that issue...


Over at the house, Verdana nods, acknowledging that Gibbet does in fact feel okay with leaving the house for a while. At least that serves as a convenient excuse for himself... He breifly ponders something, then decides to voice his concerns.

"Alright. Some time outside will be fine... I do need to be sure you'll try to keep close. It's a bit unsafe out there, and I really don't want to lose you somewhere..."

He falls silent for a moment, then pulls out the Vagrant's Will, muttering something to himself. Then, he turns his attention back to Gibbet, some of the essence of the staff beginning to glow in tune with his form.

"Be careful, and don't stray too far from me, alright?"

Assuming Gibbet is likely to keep close to him, Verdana nods and proceeds to try leading the birb out of the basement. Once outside, assuming that all works, he stares up at the sky for a moment to determine how well flying might go today, then closes his eyes for a second or two... Once he's ready, Verdana opens his eyes again, a notably large pair of wings sprouting from his back for no immediately apparent reason. They appear to have rather heavy themeing of two elements, those being fire and light, albeit kept down to manageable levels and possibly illusory since the fire isn't burning things or generating actual heat.

"...Here we go."

Without another word, he gives the pair of wings an experimental flap to send himself into the air, turns back to check and make sure Gibbet is still with him, then decides to take to the skies properly. Sure, he probably doesn't need the wings due to being a manipulator of gravity, but it's nice for visuals.


Elsewhere, EN is intrigued by the origins of the ISR.

"Huh. Well, guess ah'm usin' it now. Neat t' know this fella's got tha' kinda kick..."

She chuckles, then turns her attention to Mari. She seems quite amused at the idea of the bet.

"Aye, sure, ah coul' prolly manage it. Well, if there's a cauldron 'round 'ere anywho, can't really fling meself up in a cauldron if ah ain't got one. Heh."

She smirks faintly at the idea of winning the bet, as odd as it sounds out of context to be flinging oneself up a tree with the power of a hammer and STRONK MUSCLE, then she hears some other things being said. Namely things three and four that were addressed to someone else, but are kind of relevant.

"Ahkay, t' explain thin' three a wee bit more, ah'm more like... adoptive ma, wha'e'er tha's called since ah can't 'member th' terms an' all tha'. Main thin' is, ain't bio ma. Authy'd be a lot diff'rent if ah were, heh. Now, ah heard somethin' 'bout th' worse cake t' e'er exist..."

EN gains the most horrifying of all grins one could gain that isn't in the context of "hello yes I killed everyone evilly" or "it's time to die you sick bastard", then pulls a familiar Atrocity out of the inventory. The corpsetaker leg and blade strain she put into it might be wriggling slightly...

"Ah made somethin' a while back tha' th' others felt fits tha' kinda description aptly. Coul' prolly do somethin' much grander, given time, but there's th' keeps fer now since ah'm prolly naw legally allowed back in th' kitchen fer a while."


Meanwhile, in a hole, if Hex has not moved, the Engie drone pulls out a bunch of flex tape and promptly glues him to the ceiling with it, then takes a look down the hole.

"That's a hole. If I'd thought of it earlier, I could have done something to explore that safely (for me), but... guess we're doing this the hard way..."

He proceeds to reach into the DTG Chaos inventory somehow, pulling out a terrifyingly large number of mage robes (specifically about 1346 of them) and promptly dumping them all down the hole, then he proceeds to jump down there himself with very little regard for safety beyond having a metric assload of mage robes for landing softly onto. This massive influx of mage robes can't possibly have any majorly bad ramifications for any reason whatsoever, right?


FITE TIME:

EN... can't quite think of what to do.

"Uh... consultation time..."

She pulls out a terribly oversized phone and calls someone for a moment, yabbering away into the speaker for a while, then ends the call and puts the phone away before promptly marching right off the platform to end up on R16. There's a pause. She rotates the shield fully east, then eyes up Archer 3.

"Yeah, 'pologies 'bout this."

She promptly hurls a Cinderfruit at him, then begins to Mannrobics dance while standing on Venia's hat, which is sitting on Venia. How this works without breaking her (read: Venia) spine when she (read: EN) weighs 2 tons is anyone's guess.

/working

---THE ELEVATOR---

Boshi waits for Chloe to move. As does the Goat. Once the Watcher falls from Chloe's head, Boshi moves to (G16), and baps the Watcher with his pickaxe. He "retreats" down to (G17).

The Mountain Goat remains silent, but it shakes its head in an aggressive manner. Despite not being able to jump in its original game, it manages to jump on the Watcher's head at (H16). The Watcher likely has instant regrets as a behemoth at least 3 times the size and probably weight of him stands on his shoulders... After Mari moves and if the Watcher lives, the goat promptly attempts to gore him with its small (but powerful) horns.

...Don't ask.

The duel

Packo keeps nibbling on some bread. It is then when Marron's shots gracefully dodge cover and hit him, causing his bread to become weirdly mushy.

"... My bread..." He takes another nibble.

"It still tastes good, though..." A look towards Chloe, who looks quiet, and Marron, who is still behind barriers, prompts Packo to start sprinting out of cover. He doesn't seem as scared anymore, but instead, he seems more quiet than usual, but you can clearly see his cheeks with a strong red blush. Is he feeling ashamed? Or is it just that he might be on fire?

"..."

Going as fast as he can, he first reaches G10. He sends Beep and Boop towards... Ette. Packo looks with some melancholy as he grabs Nezira's downed body and starts dragging her away from the crew.

Meanwhile, the bots keep doing noise.

WELCOMETOTHEBREADBANKWESELLBREADWESELLLOAFSWEGOTBREADONDECKBREADONTHEFLOORTOASTEDROASTED

PACKOISALSODEEPLYINLOVEWITHYOUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Their damaging screams... Do go through, but Ette is going to end up unharmed. Packo still hopes to Taunt her, though- wait, WHAT?!

"...?!" Packo visibly flinches in response.

PACKOISALSOADUMMYDUMMYDUMMYDUMMYANDWANTSYOUTOSLAPHIM

"..."

The bots certainly are doing their job well... But he's not even sure if they are trying to provoke the right person anymore. Anyway...

With his remaining strength, which seems to be lower than usual due to the icy shots, the baker ends his turn in K12, placing Nezira's body in J12. Luckily, she is still breathing. As he sees her in this state, and he turns around to see the Author and Irongutta also unable to fight, he turns away from her.

"..."

Something is going on through his head right now. He seems to be thinking pretty hard. Nevertheless, he hopes Beep and Boop do their job...

_______________________________________________________________________

The Elevator

The battle rages on! Beep and Boop keep screaming the Scatman theme at full force, while the Devout Packo just hit earlier freaks out and heals himself.

"I-I don't want to hit you again... So please, just leave us alone, okay? What's at the top of this thing anyway? What are you hiding?" He tries talking to the Devout to at least get a hint!

Meanwhile, Packo notices new reinforcements.

"H-Hey! Four versus one is not f-" He turns around to look for the Watcher, but instead, there's a pretty big mass destruction bomb.

"W-Who put this here?! Come on, I am here too! One of your team! You know..."

COMEONCOMEONGIVEUSTARGETS The Bumblebeeps seem to need another throw.

Showing mercy to the Devout, just for now, Packo sends Beep and Boop to Fighter2 and Brute, while he smacks Brute!

The Bumbleebeeps then seem to finish with their Scatman shenanigans... Only for them to start beeping to Scatman's World.

"W-What are you two even saying?"

Then, just in case, he retreats out of Brute's side into Devout's side, at D13.

"Y-You can always just retreat and leave us alone and let us reach the top!" He insists one last time.

Lusiarre is slightly confused as Wyvern breaks from their path to the assumed house to somewhere else, asking if she can fight. She nods in response, and follows him, wondering what was going on.

And so, she finds her way onto the battlefield, immediately startled by Wyvern suddenly gaining wings. She doesn't quite understand what's going on, but she's pretty sure she's managed to find her way into a fight now, and - almost instinctively - springs into action. It takes her a few moments to figure out who she's supposed to target, but then quickly gets to work as she moves forward and puts her bag down, pulling a crudely carved doll out of it and setting it on the ground in front of her. Then, she takes out a stake, scouts around for a target, and nods as she finds it.

Closing her eyes, she begins to mutter something, likely a chant, as she carves strange symbols into the stake with a pocket knife. Once that is done, she stabs it into the back of the doll. This causes the stake to dissolve as the Voodoo Binding is made between the Doll and it's target, and Lusiarre's magic brings it to life. Wordlessly, it begins on it's journey towards her target by moving forward a bit...



Spawning in at M9, Lusiarre makes her way to Q10. She then summons a Swarmer (see below) at Q11, spending another 4 MP (for a total of 22 MP) to cast Fear the Voodoo also, linking it to Novice Sage 2. It then moves to P14, and does nothing for the rest of it's turn.







Ziah shuffles to O12, crouching behind the covers as he watches the movements of Bladedancer2. He loads an arrow and draws back his bow, following his target, before noticing the divine shield. He growls in slight frustration.

"Screw your divine shield!"

Ziah throws a Lumipod up in the air, waiting for it to come back down before firing the arrow, piercing the Lumipod as it flies towards the Bladedancer.

(Use a Lumipod on Bladedancer2 to remove Divine Shield, before firing at it.)

Keiko remains in place, and with not much else to do, she meditates.

Hex sprints to D5 and use a Christmas Cookiestar on the Magirifler.
"Hello, gentlemen (gentlechairs?), please kindly step away from the tree, or I'll be forced to stab you to near-death"

==BATTLE==

Nezira looks over at Irongutta. "Hey, can you pull that Yggcrawler over here? I think I might be able to tame it."

After Irongutta's action, Nezira moves over to Q10 and tries to tame the likely-discombobulated Yggcrawler. Assuming the taming is successful, she tries to carefully position herself to mount the now-tamed Yggcrawler. On the other hand, if it's unsuccessful, she retreats to Q11.

The Bastion shoots the Cable with Healthy Pulse, healing it.

Brutishace, unable to do much, simply Guards and stands his ground.

Wait for it... just a bit closer...

-Battle: Scale Yggdrasil Defense-

Irongutta nods at Nezira, acknowledging her request. "Consider that crawler thing tossed!"

First, Piggo moves one space to Q13 and guards.

Irongutta then moves to Q12 and gently picks up the Yggcrawler with Skeletal Toss, moving it to R9 without harming it.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE>
Destiny remarks on her tattered armor. Marron simply stares at her blankly.

MARRON: ...
MARRON: That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
MARRON; Look, you can just say, "I'm too lazy to get my stuff fixed".
MARRON: Or maybe you just wanna show off your "figure".

Somewhere else, Crya decides to chat with Lutea. What happened to all the grass?

LUTEA: Oh, hello! I don't think I've seen you before...
LUTEA: Um, so what happened? Well, the Tabletopians burned everything not too long ago....
LUTEA: The End War. Have you heard of it? Well, they dropped a lot of fire bombs all over the garden- a lot of it was destroyed...
LUTEA: A lot of us have been hard at work trying to restore the Gardens to their former beauty, but even with Woodmancy at our sides, we're yet to fully restore this area...

LUTEA: So... what brings you here?
LUTEA: Do you need some flowers? I'm not sure if I can spare many more, but if you need some, then I'll provide!

Should Crya not say much, she'll go back to... whatever it was she was doing.

---

Because it's long, the game opts to resolve Venia's in-battle chat here: Venia shows Nia a cool little gadget. It's a probably-magical device that dyes hair! Nia seems to break out of her weird trance for a bit, completely enthralled by the device.

NIA: Ooh, fancy!
NIA: Can I buy it? It'd save real me a lot of money on hair dye, that's for sure!
NIA: It's hard to explain why most of my pennies go into hair dye...

NIA: Ah, maybe I could try going pink like Marron...

Nia seems totally distracted for a moment, before her semi-psychotic state wanders back in. Then, like in the battle, Chloe and her have a bit of a talk, rendering Nia a state of frustrated. Venia swears to her that she'll never go into her head again. Nia doesn't really respond, only really nodding towards her.

Meanwhile, alternate timeline Venia makes a call with Cypress. Or at least, she tries to call Cypress- somebody else picks up.

HERSILIA: H-Hey. Skylabs speaking.

...Not quite who Venia expected. She does sound pretty weak- she did only get beat up a few hours ago.

HERSILIA: Oh, um... you sound familiar! When did you... get this number?
HERSILIA: Anyway, you... are...
HERSILIA: ...
HERSILIA: The name is on the tip of my tongue, but...
HERSILIA: ...Nope. Can't remember.

HERSILIA: Anyway... what is it?

Venia drops a quick report on her. R4-Sat0skr's been destroyed, the Yaga has been slain, and also this thing named Maxim. Hersilia seems surprised to say the least.

HERSILIA: A-Ah? Two more Eliti have been slain?
HERSILIA: T-That's... great news! I mean, I don't really know who you are, but... I mean, I guess I'll need to get proof, somehow...
HERSILIA: We heard about the tank, though. Some scouts relayed it to us not too long ago- big explosion and all that.
HERSILIA: Cypress seemed pretty genuinely surprised that it was destroyed. I think he was happy, though! I mean, he also might've been mourning it, as it was the sort of thing he likes...
HERSILIA: But, who really knows with him?

Venia then asks how Acacia is doing.

HERSILIA: We... haven't started her treatment yet.
HERSILIA: Cypress is still doing measurements, and cleaning the affected area, and designing an appropriately-sized bark replacement...
HERSILIA: It's not a simple process. She's been mostly unresponsive so far...
HERSILIA: But anyway, the reason I'm on the phone right now is because Cypress has been really busy tending to Acacia...
HERSILIA: And, since he's strapped for staff at the moment, and because I'm still injured, he gave me the job of responding to calls.
HERSILIA: It's kinda boring, but at least I feel like I'm helping...

HERSILIA: Anyway, Acacia's treatments should be done in a day or two. We're not really sure, though; estimates are impossible given Iti attacks and that Outsider who's been hacking everything...

HERSILIA: ...So, anything else?

Hersilia awaits on the other end of the phone. Perhaps it'd be nice to chat her up?

---

Toast and Venia create some scrolls. They also talk heavily about relationships as they go... and somehow, the idle chatter makes them lose track of time. By the time they're done talking, they've somehow created 7 whole Fluxblade Scrolls! They're also a little stronger than they've noted, too! This uses 1 Spell Scroll, 1 Sticky Note, 1 Crystal Pen, and 3 Entrophies.

---

The Author answers Mari's questions, dodging the one about sweet-talking Omo, while also serving Mari some food! Mari happily helps herself to a bit of the breakfast sampler, smacking with food in her mouth as she talks.

MARI: so good~
MARI: literally the best stuff i've eaten in like a month

Once she's done her portion, gulping it down with a satisfied "ahhh", she opts to properly respond in kind.

MARI: Okay, so:
MARI: Get the macguffins to kill the boss, pacifist run, and...
MARI: ...Sorry, did you say that Mother was married to Mama? That a mental typo or something?

She shrugs before resuming, kinda sounding like she's rambling.

MARI: Anyway, your father's dead, ur mom gay but literally, and also, cake!
MARI: Don't eat the cake. The cake will give you... space aids, or whatever the hell this planet has for diseases.
MARI: Thanks for the recap.

Mari makes preparations to scale the tree, because timelines™. Maybe they could chat a bit more before she [S] Ascends?

---

Wyvern does a makey-thing. Crafting! He sticks together a Crystal Pen, a Glacier Cluster, a Plasteel Ingot, a Searing Cluster, and unknown quantities of non-item tea to crate a Heart Gem! It does get a bit of a stat change though, as otherwise, powercreep™. He dons the gem.

---

Verdana does birbstuff. He decides that it'd be good to let Gibbet go outside. Gibbet follows him attentively as he goes upstairs, and out the door. Verdana then somehow grows a pair of wings, and takes to the sky with Gibbet! Despite not having flown much before this, Gibbet seems to be a natural- it must be programmed in, or something. It seems to enjoy the open air! They're left gliding around for awhile- clearly, this is a good time to teach the bird some tricks, or something.

Anyway, elsewhere, EN explains that she's not his biological mother.

MARI: Oh, well, obviously.
MARI: It's hard for metal to give birth to flesh, I'd assume...
MARI: ...Actually, I could totally circumvent that, but... that's a design for another day.

Mari then rolls small talk. It probably succeeds.

MARI: So... what's in the cake?
MARI: It looks... tasty.

Down in the depths of Sussui, the Engie Drone hops into the hole with a ton of mage robes from an unidentified source. The game parses these mage robes as an error after he lands, causing them to vanish into the folds of time and space. Still, he's arrived... somewhere!

...It feels like there's a greater weight upon his shoulders. Ominous.

---

<SCALE YGGDRASIL, ROUND THREE>
...So, it seems like the Rebels are planning on breaching a wall or two. It might be hard to stop, especially if more Firebombers spawn in! So, it might be smart to keep something on standby for an incursion of the walls! Besides that, you're doing fairly okay; just be sure to not neglect those flanks, and to maybe think of what you'll do when a bunch of snipers spawn next round! Not that I'm saying that a bunch of snipers will spawn next round, but...

<THE ELEVATOR, ROUND THREE>
Good work so far! You basically wiped the Chairian population from the first two waves... but Wave 3 promises to be a bit more of a doozy, with snipers and cannoneers beginning to take up the flanks! They're in pretty inconvenient areas; decide whether it's worth letting them live, or if you should try and deal with them yourself! Just keep things up- there'll only be more foes from here, especially when a ton of spiders jump the party from... below, of all places. Note that because of background walls™, spiders that'll appear on this map will have Flying. It's something to consider!

---

<VS MARRON 2.0, ROUND FIVE>
Due to Observer Eye being a thing, Ette was not able to disrupt Toast's meditation, which means that Toast has quite a few options right now! However, that MP pool can only last for so long! She has about one spell. Also, Packo's probably going to need to devote his time and energy to Taunting Ette, so that she can't revive Nezira! Or maybe he could just drag her body really far away. That's an option, too.

Duel:
Toast hops to D7, taking the boosters to get up there.
Sticking place at: B6, G7, H5, B7.
"Close enough for you?"

~~

Ygg:
After Nez has acted, and presumably moved, Toast casts Portal! Tears in space manifest themselves at P9 and H9.

Her Construct, a halberd-wielding suit of animated armor, uses its Battle Stance skill. (So uh, I kind of forgot to edit the notes of the summon (base stats and such), but they're updated now.)

==RP==
Nezira responds to Chloe's question about cooking for dinner.

"Ooh, I never thought about doing that... but yeah, I think I might! Thanks for the suggestion!"

She pauses for a second.

"Oh, I knew there was something I was forgetting -- you offered to give me your number back at Magic Club! Sure! I don't really have a phone, but I'm sure I can make something that'll work like one. That sounds awesome!"

==BATTLE==
Nezira climbs up to Q9, onto the Root, then carefully mounts the Yggcrawler she tamed last turn!

With its movement, she moves over to S10 and casts Proximity Burst on Firebomber 3, chaining the lightning across the Barrel Bombs and Firebomber 4. Considering the electric weakness from the rain plus her Enlightened4, this should be enough to finish all four off!

She then has the Yggcrawler retreat to S12, and from there, combines Quick Scan and Blinding Eye to splash-scan centered on S19, applying Attack Analysis (and Blind) to all four scanned enemies!

Meanwhile, her Bastion shoots The Man with a Healing Pulse!

The Duel

After resting, Packo grabs Nezira's body again, and starts sprinting towards H12, where he sends Beep and Boop towards Ette again. He nods to the bots as he continues sprinting, this time towards H15. He drops Nezira carefully on H16.

Meanwhile, the bots keep bothering Ette.

YOUALMOSTHITUSLASTTIME

WHYDONTYOUTRYAGAIN

Packo then looks at the battlefield. The barriers are gone. It's a 2v3, and he's starting to get stressed. Just how much can he keep this up?

The Defense

Pioneer moves to E13... It would be such a shame Devout if you're moved F16, would it not?
The Pioneer displaces the Devout to F16.

I attack the Devout1

Railgunner fires a "light shot" at Devout1.

24 damage minimum.

The Pioneer throws a rock at Devout1 if she does not go down. She is now a she.

-Battle: Scale Yggdrasil Defense-

As a note, Nidra wants to act immediately before Irongutta here.

Irongutta makes a roundabout movement to N14 by moving through P11, O11, N12, and M13. This moves him a total of five tiles, giving him the benefits of Unstoppable Force with a total of +25% extra damage.

He then absolutely slams Gaiawall3 with his basic attack.

If Gaiawall3 survives somehow, Piggo moves one tile to P14 to finish them off with a basic attack that is boosted slightly by Charge Ram.

Conditionally, if the Gaiawall3 is downed, Piggo will opt to move to N11 and guard again.

The Man backflip-barrel rolls to J10 and calls for a medic, sorta like this.

Terry gives a thumbs up to the Author.

---

Terry goes before Nia.
Terry moves to K11, standing on the Box of Horrors, then Skeletal Tosses the Crimson Scale to N15.

"I can hear you from right here, idiot! Do you really need to shout!?" Keiko yells back at The Man, before casting First Aid on him at his new spot in J10 without moving. Keiko adds Mana Well compatibility to K11 as well.

Search the true origin point; the place where we began our first ever journeys, so far ago.

Destiny moves to C12 and attacks the Terarobe.
-----------
Oh, uh, well no, I'm not in need of any flowers at the moment. No ailments to cure, no man to woo...
So, I guess I'll just leave you be, nothing too much happening here. See you!
Crya waves and walks away.

Despite missing two of three shots, Wyvern doesn't seem deterred, (not in character, at least.) readying his claws to slash at the Firebomber. However, he senses a possibly larger threat he turns to face the Eviscerator. Locking eyes with it, he dashes to U6 and takes a large upwards slash at its chest.