Mountain Goat (Eff. 14 INT, 15 SPC)
80 HP (3 pts, Puppetlike) (2 AC, 4 R) (Nanomachines, son)
35 MP (3 pts, Puppetlike)
(4-4) Slashing (Puppetlike)
5 CRT
9 HIT
1 DGE (1 pt.)
3 CNT
18 CAV

Light (-60%)
Slashing (40%)
Piercing (10%)
Crushing (10%)

Puppetlike - 5 Pts.
Final Stand - 2 Pts

Nanomachine Hull - 15 SPC

Venia’s blatant disregard for chronology continues as she ventures to the house, hand pressed to her temple. ”I’ve already completed the Fluxblade scrolls… I need something else. Healing thing. Or, healing things. Tough fight ahead. Can’t go in under-prepared. Can’t lose. Mustn’t lose.”

Venia stops short of the actual door of the house, peering off to the glass door on the side. Behind it is a certain blue Yoshi, who was busy at work making… Something.

”... Hrm. Food has a healing effect, right? That'll be useful, will it not?” Venia thinks to herself as she approaches the glass door and slides it open.

”Uh, hey, Boshi,” Venia starts. ”(Oh hey, Venia. What’s up,)” Boshi responds, carrying a wide assortment of baking utensils and the like to the counter. ”Uh, hrm. Uh. OK, so, erm… What’re you doing?” Venia asks. Boshi lets down the stuff onto the counter; spoons, a whisk, a number of bowls, measuring cups… ”(Makin’ a cake. Felt the need to do it after I witnessed EN make… uh… an atrocity of a cake.)”

Venia pauses. ”Uh… How ‘atrocious’ are we talking here? Like, just bad tasting, or…?” Boshi continues to take out things from the nearby cupboards; a few different sizes of cake tins, it seems. ”(Two words: Corpsetaker Leg.)”

Venia blinks. ”... Corpsetaker leg.”

”(That’s only one of several… ‘ingredients’ she used. Metal shards, actual poison… you get the idea.)”

Venia sighs. ”OK, so the most charitable explanation is that EN has an exceptionally strange palette or meant that for an enemy. I’m just going to assume one of those two things and ask for no further explanation… Uh, in any case. Uh. I suppose you, uh, want, uh, some help?” Venia asks. ”... I can’t actually cook but I can probably get ingredients and do other simple things.”

Boshi places the cake tins on the far side of the counter for now. ”(I’d gladly accept your help. Not exactly easy making a cake from scratch without a cake mix, ya know.)”

”Right. Just tell me what you need, I can probably get it,” Venia says. Boshi nods, and thinks for a moment. ”(Hm… I can supply the eggs, and we’ve got wheat to try and make flour with, I guess… now that I think about it, we’re still missing a lot of ingredients to make it,)” Boshi notes. ”(Sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk.)”

”Right,” Venia quips, as she reaches her hand into a shimmering distortion in reality. Seconds later, Venia’s hand grasps a quality bag of sugar, which she sets on the counter. ”... Uh, is there anything else ongoing? I’ve been busy with Nia and everything else, can’t keep an eye on everything at once,” Venia says, as she reaches back into the shimmering distortion. Meanwhile, Boshi procures some rather delicious-looking Yoshi eggs. They seem perfect to cook with. At the same time, Boshi stares in awe at how quickly Venia got the sugar. Boshi frowns, and sighs. ”(...You, uh, might have noticed Hat Kid hasn’t been hanging around me for a while now. It’s… uh, how do I explain it…)”

”Why do you call her Hat Kid, anyways, actually?” Venia says, completely off-track. ”Like. She’s far too competent at fighting things to actually be a kid right? Like, she just looks like she’s Maria’s age… I’ve completely gone off track, uh, has something happened? Uh, is she missing?”

”(...Honestly, I don’t really know how old she is. She looks and acts like a child, but she’s a prodigy in… well, a lot of things. Her being an alien from another planet might also explain things, though,)” Boshi says, as he makes flour from the wheat. ”(To be honest, I really only use that name for her when out in public or otherwise while in a group. Her real name’s actually Sophia.)”

Sophia. Venia reaches into the shimmering portal as she contemplates this new knowledge-its that name. ”Sophia, huh.” Venia says, as she retrieves for Boshi two bars of butter from… Well, the brand is unfamiliar to Boshi but it appears to be gourmet-grade. ”Funny. That’s what my mother’s name-off track, off track! Something happened to her, what?”

”(O-oh, right. Uh, one second,)” Boshi says. It seems he’s having issues making the flour. So, doing what seems like overkill, he slams a Time Piece next to the bowl. The wheat instantly transmutes itself into flour, and appears ready to use. ”(The issue. Right. Thankfully she’s not missing; she’s actually at the base of Scale Yggdrasil, far out of the combat area. ...granted I wouldn’t fret if she was lost or anything. She’s more than capable of handling herself.)”

”(But, uh… I guess she can’t exactly see us or otherwise interact with us right now? It’s… it’s a mess.)”

”Can’t see or interact?” Venia parroted. ”... Like, some kind of… Is she basically a ghost, except she can’t see us instead of us being unable to see her? Uh, basically it?”

”(S-something like that.)”

”... That’s…” Venia pauses. She reaches into the distortion again, and comes out with some high-quality vanilla and some milk, both again from brands Boshi likely never saw before. ”... How’d she get like that? Messing around with more Rose Cult contraptions, or something else?”

”(Thankfully no Rose involvement. That’d make things thousands of times worse. Plus it was starting to form before the reset, I think,)” Boshi says. He’s ready to mix the ingredients together. He cracks a few of the eggs, and puts them in a measuring cup. ”(...Honestly, I hoped something like this wouldn’t happen…)”

”(Oh, uh, hand me the milk, please?)”

”No Rose involvement…” Venia murmurs, handing Boshi the milk. ”... OK, but do you know what did happen, or…? Like, anything going on while it was developing? I, I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”

”’I can’t help period’ is more like it.”

Boshi takes the milk and pours a fair amount into the mixing bowl. He also dumps the eggs in, and starts mixing for a bit. ”(To be honest… I don’t really know the specifics. On Creation - I think that’s what it was called - all I managed to glimpse were a number of… what looked like red text boxes behind her head before she collapsed in front of me.)”

”(...Memory’s a bit hazy, so I couldn’t tell you what exactly was on ‘em at the time. Though… though one look at what was on ‘em told me all I needed to know. Or, uh, wanted. Wanted to know.)”

”(Post-reset, she wasn’t on my back. That’s what should’ve been the case at the time. Instead she was way up in the sky, falling down to the planet. After seeing a streak of purple across the skies, I followed it here. Tried to catch her, but, well… she… she didn’t even register my presence, and she essentially phased through my arms. She landed safely, fortunately, though to this moment I can’t shake what I’d witnessed.)” By this time the ingredients in the bowl were well-mixed. He slows down a bit. ”(Now, the butter. Don’t really want to stop mixing for too long...)”

”... Quite strange. Hrm. I’ll… Yes, I’ll have to look it over. Look her over. What’ve you tried? Here’s the butter,” Venia says, passing the butter. ”... What’ve you tried to do, about any of it? I’d like to know what you’ve done already, just in case. Conditions like these… I doubt that it’ll get worse fast but it will get worse, almost certainly, that much I can say for near-certain.”

Venia ruminates as she watches Boshi mix the cake. Red text boxes. Text boxes. Like a video game. Like code? Like Operation? She wonders, ponders. It wouldn’t be THE OPERATOR, they just wanted a good time, but who else could do that? Would they do it to others? She didn’t want more eldritch false-gods afflicting her teammates. Not now. Especially not now.

”(Thanks,)” Boshi says. He takes a stick of butter, undoes any wrapping that might be on it, and places the entire stick in. He mashes the butter with the whisk before continuing to mix. ”(I couldn’t try a lot, as I don’t really have a lot in the way of magic. I would try using a time piece somehow, but I already knew the person who done this had countermeasures for it.)”

”(Next step was to try and communicate with her somehow. Asked Cal to try and communicate with her. I think it worked, seems she hasn’t wandered off past Scale Yggdrasil. I’ve yet to ask him how he did it, though…)”

”... The person who done this?” Venia repeats. ”Who?” Venia asks, gaze intensified.

Boshi slows down his mixing again, and grabs the vanilla. He puts a few teaspoons into the mix, and continues mixing. All the while, Boshi seemed to be losing his composure as he brings up the name ”(Adria.)” A faint aura of hate can be felt radiating from Boshi, followed by dead silence as the dino tries to contain himself. A name he will never forget.

”(All signs on those damn text boxes pointed straight to her - alien characters, scientific origin, a space station orbiting the planet… I hoped the Thyme Field would be enough to stop her from doing something like this… though I guess where we were meant the field was at its weakest, or something. Ughhh...)”

”...Who?” Venia asks, again.

Boshi… remains silent for a few moments, trying to settle down. ”(...I… I-i’m not sure if I can continue without flipping out… just know that me, her, and Sophia have a long, long history with each other. For all the wrong reasons.)”

”Understandable,” Venia says. ”In any case… I could be able to do something about it? We’ll see. I’d need to look at her… And as long as she isn’t getting worse over time, there’s more pressing matters to deal with. Or, at least… More immediately likely to explode.” Venia says. ”Actually, uh, kind of the reason I came here in, in the first place.”

Already, it seems like Boshi’s settling down. ”(I think the Thyme Field’s keeping Sophia from getting worse, so that’s something,)” Boshi says. ”(Now, pass the sugar, please? And, uh, I’m guessing it’s Nia.)”

”... You’re not the only one who’s noticed her… Trance, then? Yes, Nia.” Venia says, passing Boshi the sugar. A small little fire sparks inside her as she says the name-a warmth. A wanting. And at the same time, a chill. A failure. Another failure. Her whole body tenses. Boshi listens. ”That’s… Well. My intended mindscape expedition… Did not go well. I… I… I heard what happened at Magic Club. The Husk got up in Maria’s and Chloe’s faces… Threatened Chloe, skittered off to the top of the shield. He’s presumably still there, up top. And now Nia’s drawn to up top. You can see where this is going. I, I. I’m…”

She pauses, breathing shaky. ”... I… I haven’t been as considerate of her feelings as I should’ve been, and I feel like an awful friend, and, well, now I realize we can’t actually stop another possession-half a gut feeling, half just not having really anything to deal with it until it's already in full swing. And, now, now I… I, really just get these feelings in my chest. It’s, its like this, this burning fire. I have trouble not thinking about her. And I, I don’t know why. It isn’t just… What’s happening. I… I can’t explain it. Or, I can! But I can’t. But, I, I know what I have to do, at least. It's just… Its just the tension. The storm approaching. In theory, we, we just, use the Key, Purge like we did on Calypse and Lucid and Maxim, and burn the Butterfly out and away. But, like. It’s just. So much can go wrong! It’s totally untested on the source, as opposed to just the Eliti. Or we could muck it up in a variety of other ways. Or the Possessed Nia could just fly off and we never get the chance… So nervous. So, so nervous.”

”... Food seems to have this… Healing effect, in the field. Not all at once, but a gradual regeneration type deal. I’m trying to get us geared up as possible. Like Coffee for Lucid. Even if, even if Nia doesn’t go crazy on us, there’s still the Husk, so we need… Entropic defense items. But also, well, uh, this. I’m pulling out a load of tricks to just keep track of everything and get everything ready for what I think is gonna be a big, big showdown. Cake sounds good.” She says. ”... But, also. I’d really just like to, to help. You know. I’m just, I just feel, like I can’t ever, ever do enough. But especially not now.”

Boshi blinks. She wants to help. But, more importantly, it seems like she wants to help with more. Venia, the lady who has already done so much, doesn’t see what she’s done as enough. Boshi knew he hadn’t done nearly as much as Venia, and yet nothing felt like enough for him either. To him, it was… bizarre for him to learn this, but actually sorta welcome. A simple connecting thread between Venia and Boshi.

”... I’m sorry. I’ve just dumped a load of gorilla on you, unwarranted. Uh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry…” Venia says, breathless.

Boshi doesn’t take long to process what she said. A genuine smile crosses his face. ”(...Nah, it’s fine! You seemed to want to get that off your chest anyway. And I’m always up for listening, )” Boshi responds. He’s already added the sugar and mixed everything together. He then adds a little bit of something for some extra flavor - a little bit of shredded strawberry. ”(...Last heart strawberry. Ah well.)”

He does one final mix of the cake batter, distributing the strawberry evenly. He makes sure he has all the right ingredient amounts, and adds more as needed. He stirs them up too.

Finally, Boshi stops. He sighs. ”(...You really like Nia, don’t you? More than a lot of the others. I… well… I don’t really know how to help her outside of what you mentioned, but we can stick by her side at the very least. She’s going through a lot right now, I’m sure. If and when we do battle the possessed Nia, try to keep her spirits up, maybe. That’s what I’d try and do.)” Venia nods aggressively at this.

”(Honestly, though, you’ve done so much for the team already. And yet, you don’t think you’ve done enough? It’s… kinda relate-able, honestly. Not feeling like you’ve done much at all, while in reality you’ve done a lot. Compared to Sophia’s adventures and what she went through, mine were small fry in comparison… always felt like I could do more. Even around here, I know I can do more… it’s sorta important to remember what you’ve done as well as what you want to do and what you are doing in the present.)”

”(And… and even when you feel like you haven’t done enough or have done barely anything at all, or if you get all down in the dumps in general, a lot of us here will be happy to help you back up. It takes a lot of guts to come out and talk to people, y’know. You’re doin’ great.)”

Venia’s hand goes to her temple. Omorika. Chloe. Nia. Toast. Boshi. Verdana and Calibri. Others, certainly… at least apparently. Some part of her told her it was all some sort of elaborate ruse, like the Yakuza were. And yet-

”He’s totally right!”

-and yet she feels like she should know better than to doubt them. A unified cause. A single goal. Distrust was impossible. An odd, offbeat harmony had formed. Quite impressive for the most patchwork and eclectic group she’s ever seen.

”(I... know that might not have been the most helpful, but… I’ll be here whenever you need a shoulder to lean on. You can count on it!)” While he was talking, Boshi managed to pour the cake batter into six separate tins, with three different sizes, and two tins per size.

”... Thanks. It’s. It’s been a lot. I… I really understand what you mean. I think I do. Uh… Hrmph. So, uh, what happens now? With the cake, I mean.” Venia says.

”(Oh this part’s easy! We just put it in the oven for a bit! At least, I assume there’s an oven. How else are all these other baked goods getting made? Heh,)” Boshi says. He opens up the front of the nearby oven, which seems to have already been preheated, and brings one of the tins over. Then another. Repeat until all six were in the oven. Boshi then closes the oven door, flips over a time piece, and waits.

”(...I never did tell you about the cake we were making, did I?)” Boshi remarks. ”(It’s a recipe made by Princess Toadstool herself. She taught me the recipe once, and I can see why King Koopa kidnaps her every other week, among other reasons. She makes some damn good cakes, too. Some the size of houses, even.)”

”Huh.” Venia says. ”... Hopefully the taste transfers to healing power well. I mean. It appears the quality of the food translates to the quality of the healing… The Thyme Field is weird. Either its making it a natural law of reality that food puts the metabolism into overdrive, or its making all food have qualities like the red sap-like, uh, healing potions. Not to mention the… Powers we’re getting. Like, Chloe was a normal woman and now she’s capable of standing and fighting after a full rifle clip. Nevermind the rest of us.”

Venia pauses, looking at the timer. ”... Have you seen Maria around? As long as she’s with the Kitsune she’s basically in a fortress, but I keep getting antsy whenever I don’t know where she is… Oh, she was at Magic Club, wasn’t she? I wonder if she’s concerned about Sophia.”

In another place, about the same time, which is to say well before Scale Yggdrasil becomes a battlefield, Hat Kid’s image is assaulted by a fusillade of snowballs. ”SNOWBALL! SNOWBALL! SNOWBALL! SNOWBALL!” Maria yells, giggling.

”Maria’s a good kid… A real cutie, too. My little muffin. I… I don’t know what I’d do if something hurt her. I never felt like I’d feel anything like what I do for anyone else the way I do around Maria, but...” Venia trails off, thinking about it-only a day before did she tell Droplet that she didn’t understand love at all. A pot calling the kettle black, right there!

Boshi chuckles. ”(Knowing her, probably trying to get Sophia’s attention. They seem to like each other, after all. They’re also the only two child-like children around here, so I guess it makes sense.)” Boshi takes a look at the timer. Almost done. ”(...well, even if Sophia’s the most capable fighter in the world, I still worry about her. She still gets scared, and she’s not really immune to getting sick either. I’d… hate to know what I’d do if I lost her…)”

Venia looks at Boshi. The odd internal thought that they could very well switch places with almost no change occurs to her.

The oven dings as the time piece runs down completely. ”(Ah, cakes are ready!)” Boshi says. He opens the oven door. Almost immediately, the smell of strawberries and vanilla cake circulate through the house. Slipping on some oven mitts, Boshi takes out all of the cakes and puts them on the counter. He pulls out a few cooling racks, and takes the six cakes out. ”(Just a few more ingredients, now. Icing, and strawberry jam. Or jelly. One of the two. Think you can get those, too?)”

”Not even a contest.” Venia says, reaching into the distortion with both hands. She reaches back with a platter of glistening silver, studded with gemstones, upon which master-craft jam and perfectly sublime cake icing were both placed. ”Oh, uh, I guess you can keep the tray too? I’m… It sounds wasteful but honestly I can just make another whenever. Value is relative, and all…”

Boshi just stares in awe. Neither Bowser nor Peach had anything that fancy, and she could just conjure up silver and gemstones just like that. Wow. ”(...Uh… thanks.)”

Venia’s gaze seems to harden up a bit, but then she sighs at Boshi’s reaction. ”That’s… That’s what everyone does, right there. No real way around that… It’s. It isn’t a big deal, honestly. Honestly! I’m, I… OK yeah I do care quite a bit, yeah. Yeah. It’s… It’s totally natural, and all, so I get it, but, like. That’s everyone’s reaction… Bleh, bleh! Sorry, on a rant about it again. That kind of thing’s been the wedge between me and most people for years. It gets on my nerves.”

”(O-oh. Um, yeah, sorry. Didn’t really know, and all. Anyway. Cake.)” Boshi grabs a bread knife, and slices the rounded bit of the cake off of each of them, creating flat surfaces. He puts the left over cake on a leftover cooling rack. He then opens the jam, and spreads it over all of the areas he cut. He then puts the cakes together, so that there are three different sized cakes.

He then takes the icing, and scoops up a large amount of the stuff. He puts a large dollop onto each of the cakes, and spreads out the icing evenly over the largest cake. He then puts the next smallest cake onto the top of that cake, and spreads out the icing on that cake. He does all this again for the smallest cake, putting it on the second-smallest. He also breaks up most of the cake tops into large crumbs, and sprinkles them all over the cake as garnish.

But it appears he’s not done yet. He takes out two Celefruit, and takes out their cores. He cuts them up in such a way as to use them as more garnish. He places pieces all around the cake, ensuring it’s all evenly spaced around it. It looks complete now, and Boshi takes a step back to look at it. ”(So… how’s it look?)” Boshi asks. He also remembers some of the left over cake he put aside. ”(...How’s it taste…)” He brings a piece over to Venia to try. Of course, he gets a piece for himself, too.

Venia takes the cake and fans the air above it into her nostrils as she breathes in. With no change in expression, she pulls out a silver fork for a moment, then withdraws it to instead just messily chomp on the front. ”... Wow, that’s… That’s really good, I think!”

Boshi also takes a “bite”. Which was more like devouring the entire piece whole, but eh. Sweet, fruity, and fluffy. Not too rich, well done… it’s all one could ask for in a cake, really. Boshi clearly enjoyed it. ”(It’s great, actually! Almost as good as one of Toadstool’s, in my opinion.)” Boshi takes one last look at the cake. ”(...I’m quite proud of this cake. Haven’t made something like this in… well, ever!)”

Boshi slips the fairly large cake into the inventory. ”(Thanks for the help, by the way! Cake wouldn’t have come together without those ingredients, y’know.)”

”Oh, it’s, it’s nothing, really,” Venia says. ”And, uh, let me know if there’s anything else I can help with, other than Sophia. I’ll need to check up on her after we’ve dealt with… Whatever’s coming next, really.”

”(Yeah, hope we can get that sorted out. See you on the field.)”

---

MATERIALS EXPENDED: 2x Celefruit, 75x Wheat, 4x Titanium (Utensils, Bowls, Cake Tins, Cooling Racks), 2x Plasteel (Utensils, Bowls, Measuring Cups), 2x Aurora Crystals (Oven Pre-heating), 10x Food Packages (5 credits each)

The Princess Special (T4? Consumable, Food)
A sublime cake that would make a princess jealous.
Roll 2d6 upon using. Do something based on the result. Range 1-2.
Durability: 100%

{RESULTS}

For all rolls, this item grants Mending6 and Energized3 for 3 rounds, and removes 5% durability from the cake. Upon hitting 0% Durability, the cake has been fully eaten, and may no longer be used.

Add up the two numbers rolled.

2-3: Nothing else of value occurs. Tastes good, though.

4. Restores (1) HP. There was a temmie flake stuck in that piece for whatever reason. Eh, tastes good all the same.

5. Restores (6) HP and (3) MP. Nice.

6. Extra cake! The cake does not decrease in durability. Also restores (6) HP and (3) MP.

7. A piece of Celefruit! Yay! Restores (9) HP and grants Swift1 for a round.

8. A small lump of sugar is found! Restores (12) MP and grants Empowered2 for two rounds.

9. A little extra icing! Nice! Restores (12) HP and (6) MP, and adds 3 intensity to the base statuses. Both statuses also have their duration increased by 1.

10. There was a larger pocket of strawberry jam in that piece! Restores (15) HP and (5) MP. A random ally within Range 1-2 also receives this healing. (Only the healing from this effect-not the base Mending/Energized. If there are no allies in Range 1-2 to receive this healing, you restore 5 extra HP instead.)

11. Everything is well-balanced in this slice. Restores 50% of the user’s HP and MP (rounding up), and makes the user’s next damaging or healing action minicrit. (If multiple targets are involved, the guaranteed minicrit is random among them.)

12. The perfect piece of cake. Fully restores the user’s HP and MP, fills 50% of their SP, grants 15 bonus SHP which only disappears when drained, and makes the duration of the Mending and Energized last the duration of the battle. The cake also does not lose durability.

Link to Templating Document here.

After Venia’s stop to help Boshi with cake, Venia ventures into the house proper, seeing about four people plus a pair of drones: Packo, Nezira, Irongutta and Auth. Toast’s duel is over-and presumably whatever happened didn’t sound bad. At least, not from the way the first three were talking. Opting not to disturb them, Venia moves up to Auth, keeping himself a fair distance.

VENIA: Ah, Auth. Uh, that’s your name, right? Or, at least, uh, what you like to be called?
AUTH: Er, yes, something like that. Hello.
VENIA; Hello to you as well, Auth. Uh.

Venia pauses, taking a breath. Her baggy eyes, her somewhat slouched posture-her exhaustion was obvious even to a casual observer.

AUTH: Are you… okay? Just… you don’t look like you’re doing so well, is the thing…
VENIA: No. No I’m not. To keep it simple, things went poorly with Nia and I now heavily suspect she’s going to suffer another possession episode at the top of Scale Yggdrasil due to a variety of factors.
VENIA: It’s a battle I-no no no. It is a battle WE cannot afford to lose. I want to come prepared.
VENIA: … Granted, there’s also fair chance that the Husk may also be up top there-you may have seen him at Magic Club-so we may also have to prepare to fight him as well.
VENIA: Its… Yes, its stressing me out. I want to come prepared, though. That’ll help me feel at least like I’ve done all I can when the time comes. Can you help?
AUTH: I’d be frankly surprised if there wasn’t someone who was stressed beyond a healthy degree, given the stakes of what we’re here for. I’m happy to help, if there’s something I can do.
VENIA: Great! Great. Uh, hrm, hrm, I had a load of ideas…

Venia takes a breath and begins rummaging in a shimmering distortion in midair, pulling out a variety of papers. She mumbles as she shuffles through them.

VENIA: ...Ah, here. Uh. Hrm.
VENIA: Uh. This one may be up your alley. Or maybe not. We’ll see. Its a type of, a liquid charged with repellant energy to form a barrier. A temporary one, but a strong one.
VENIA: Take a look.

Venia hands Auth a specific paper from the stack as she stores the others. Its margins are crammed with notes and figures in extremely precise, almost minuscule handwriting, regarding exactly what she just described-an aqueous barrier.

AUTH: Well… I think it would definitely be possible, from an apparent glance. It’s very detailed… It does sound like something useful.
AUTH: I guess the question is how I can help with making it, then.
VENIA: Excellent! Uh. Hrm. Well, uh, the notes say that the substance must be mostly aqueous…
VENIA: … OK I’m not going to drown you in science here.
VENIA: The most compatible base substance that I could use is ink.
VENIA: You appear to have ink-based abilities, and for that matter, an ability to create close to exactly what I am describing already.
VENIA: If you would, uh. Basically, what I would want is the ability to make that-or something close to it-with a device, rather than require your energy.
AUTH: Well… hm… That’s possible, I think. If I were to do it, I would try to get the device to reclaim whatever is being used, so that you don’t need to constantly create ink as a barrier, but have a constant amount used. I… think I could try to get a device that sort of copies the ink creation bit, though.
VENIA: Excellent. Given the nature of the Thyme Field, we’ll use that as a base, then recreate it using things we already have. Uh, meet me downstairs, the workstation is down there.
AUTH: Um, yes. Understood.

Venia hastens herself down the spiral staircase. Auth follows not long after, having no particular reason to stay up very long. Venia is already setting up a myriad of devices, as well as materials, down on the counter.

VENIA: So, uh. Hrm. First, I’d need to, uh. Err… Uh. Demonstrate. Demonstrate the, uh, thingy. Uh, what do you call it? The ink-shield thing.
AUTH: Er… Perseverance! Right, sure…

Auth takes a deep breath to concentrate, and then uses the technique on himself. Ink shoots out from his arms to form a black, transparent trapezohedron-shaped barrier. Venia takes one of the things she set down-apparently a glass pane in a plastic frame-and puts it up to her face like it were a camera, taking a photo of the scene-which it does. A bar forms on the surface of the screen and begins to fill… Slowly.

VENIA: … Hrm. Definitely not magic, then. Or, not raw magic. Eh. We’ll find out, but that’s not the important part.
VENIA: Uh…

An awkward pause.

VENIA: … So, uh. While we wait… Err. What’s been going on for you, lately?
AUTH: I mean… besides the whole ‘Spherebreaker” thing? Not all that much, I suppose. I can’t really say I’ve had any specific problems besides sleeping… but nothing too interesting has happened either? I’m not quite sure how to put what I’m thinking into words, sorry.
VENIA: Uhh. So, how’d the duel go? Hadn’t heard of the results yet.
AUTH: Oh, um… Toast won. I spent 90% of the fight unconscious, so I don’t exactly know how she pulled it off.
VENIA: And, Marron…?
AUTH: I think Toast and Marron are back together? I think it’s mended, mostly. They talked it out privately, but…
VENIA: but…?
AUTH: I dunno. Give it some time just to make sure, I would say. Given what lead up to it, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were still a few cracks…
VENIA: Hopefully they’re still combat able. Uh, but you said you were unconscious for most of the duel itself?
AUTH: Yeah, Chloe knocked me out literally in the first exchange, and I didn’t get woken up again until afterwards.
VENIA: … Damn. That sucks… Hrm. Uh, so, uh. How’re things going with Nana? I see you two together quite a bit, or, have seen.
AUTH: I think she’s going to be okay. I’ve been meaning to make a stab-proof sleeve for her, though, as like… protection.
AUTH: So she can’t accidentally turn her arms into tendrils and stab someone. Like me. Again.
VENIA: Hrm, that’s all? Not to, uh, be an eavesdropper, but I did overhear something about her core feeling funny in a way she was OK with…
VENIA: Uh. I’m not sure quite what a core is to a Chairian, but from what I’ve gathered, uh, it sounds like their brain, but also their heart?
AUTH: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking as well. I’m not completely oblivious, as much as I can pretend to be.
AUTH: I think, in this case, the core is acting like the heart of a person, if you’re trying to get at what I think you are.
AUTH: Though that reminded me to ask Omorika for a book on Chairian physiology.
VENIA: Uh, yeah…

Toast’s voice drifts into the forefront of Venia’s consciousness: "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."

VENIA: … It sounds like you’ve been through this before. This, uh, being admired thing. And it's quite obvious she admires you. Saving her life, and all that entails.
AUTH: Yeah, I’ve had experience with the whole ‘saved my life’ thing… Sometimes, and I said this to Nana, I forget how much that can actually mean to somebody since it’s the sort of thing I do all the time.
AUTH: Something commonplace for one person may be extremely significant for someone else. I did appreciate the… being brought back to earth that I got from it.
VENIA: I said ‘the being admired thing,’ though, uh, I guess that’s also really interesting. But, uhh… I understand that, totally. I have…
VENIA: … I have downright alienating amounts of money. Never mind the supernatural powers that made that fortune possible-its just that I have a really, really hard time, just, like…
VENIA: … I’unno. Just feels like there’s no value in it for me at all. I’ve pretty much done and used everything I reasonably could with all that cash, none of it’s satisfied me for much more than a few minutes.
VENIA: It all just became mundane… Is that the kind of thing you get?
AUTH: Heh. Yeah, it is something like that. I like being able to help people, but when you do that constantly and such… it stops becoming something significant. It just becomes habit, rather than… something special each time.

A dinging noise comes from Venia’s tablet as she opens her mouth to speak. She puts it up to her face, long and small strings of complicated code in latin (or a language like it) dancing on the panel for a moment before settling on a rough three-dimensional image of Auth’s Preserverence, as well as lines of text jetting off of it in various points and a small section of text boxes off to the right side.

VENIA: Ah, uh, the thing is done.
VENIA: Whoever did this… Jeez, they must’ve pulled out a lot of stops. This was only a cursory glance, as far as these things go, so I’d make sure you get a second opinion, err, if you can, or you don’t know, but it appears this… Affinity with Ink may come from a counterfeit Octothorpe.
VENIA: … It’s counterfeit because of its source, not the effects. It lacks the more… Esoteric properties and a few others that would make it dangerous to use, but also lacks a significant portion of its power.
VENIA: Anyways, that’s probably for the better, it means it won’t interfere with most forms of magic, and given how many different people with different magical abilities and systems are in the party…
VENIA: … I’m getting off-track. Uh, next step… Uh, wait. Any questions?
AUTH: I’ll be totally honest with you, none of that entire bit made a tiny bit of sense to me, but… given where I think this ability came from, I’d be frankly shocked if there were any stops in it at all.
VENIA: I’m more surprised the lengths gone to ensure it would work, even if it isn’t a counterfeit Octothorpe… You generally don’t have to go, err, ‘that high’ to get powers… Off track, off track. I suppose there aren’t any questions, then. Next step…
VENIA: You said that you would ‘try to get a device that copies the ink creation bit.’ Like, did I mishear something along the way or do you have such a device?
AUTH: Ah, er… I may have said something improper… I don’t actually have the thing, I must have misheard something…
VENIA: Right, must’ve misheard something myself. Uh, I think I can, just…

Venia reaches into a shimmering distortion again, pulling out another device quite like a TV remote in shape. She presses a button on this remote at the glass tablet, and a beep confirms… Something. A purple smog emits from the remote, which doesn’t seem to bother Venia too much.

VENIA: OK, so. I copied the information on the tablet and transferred it to this remote. The remote is now capable of basically copying what you did, exactly or near-exactly. But only the Perseverance; not the whole ink thing in general.
VENIA: This just means we have a practical base to work with once I open it up…

Venia presses her thumb against the side of the remote, which causes it to click open and slide apart. Instead of the guts of a remote, however, a hollow case lay, within it a hand-sized square device with a red button on it.

VENIA: Most of that remote’s interior stuff is actually in the casing itself… Its quite compressed. What it does is attempt to create a device to match certain specifications, in this case, the tablet’s data on Perseverance.
VENIA: From here… It’ll just take replicating what’s in the device with stuff we’ve found in the Thyme Field. And, from there, making copies.
VENIA: … Mind-boggling, I know. Nominally I’d just use the remote to make copies, but, thymecurse.
AUTH: Yeah, I see… so do you have any idea of what we’ll need? If it’s electronics, we have plenty of those…
AUTH: That’d be on you to handle, though, I’m no good with any sort of electrical wiring or anything like that.
AUTH: Using magic materials and metals and stuff is what I can do.

Venia pries open the single button, revealing a golden spinning diamond floating in the center, a small vial of regular ink plus ink in several other semi-implausible colors (each contained within a sealed canister labeled appropriately), several wires, several enchanted wires and a few ‘wires,’ if wires could be made of raw mana. The device’s exterior appears to be made of a light blue metal, for whatever reason.

VENIA: Hrm… Hrm. I’ll handle the wires and the creation node. I can get regular ink from a Crystal Pen, but I don’t know about these other seven inks…
VENIA: I suppose you would know better, being this is an attempted facsimile of your own powers. I guess you can also handle the casing? Its best if we copy this one to one. What say you to that?
AUTH: I think I can do that… let me see…
AUTH: If they’re facsimiles of my powers then I assume the other seven would be the Neathbow, and they’re a little hard to come by but I’ll do my best. I can get one right away… I just need something to mix it into.
VENIA: Let me know if you need anything as we go along.

Venia reaches into the inventory and brings out a lot of Wire Scraps, Plasteel, a Crystal Pen, and several Golden Ingots as well, for some reason. She hands the Plasteel to Auth, and after a moment’s thought, a second Crystal Pen.

VENIA: That… Should be everything we obviously need. We’ll throw more stuff into things as we move along.
VENIA: … Hrm. Uh, hey, can you talk while you work, or do you need to focus?
AUTH: I can talk, it’s fine, just for this first bit I’ll need a second…

Auth has put the ingots aside for a second, holding the crystal pen carefully. He rummages around for a glass vial and a knife. The pen is broken, and the ink within is carefully poured into the vial. There’s the sound of deep breaths, as Auth brings the knife across his palm and lets the blood drip into the vial as well. He treats the wound when he feels he has enough in the ink. Venia stares in rather abject confusion/concern.

AUTH: Violant may be the easiest to get, but it certainly is the least fun. I don’t like having to get it…
VENIA: You can say that again, you already look quite-erm.
VENIA: You already look… Uh, rather… Mmm, unhealthy? Unhealthy.
VENIA: You do kind of concern me, and others. And self-harm is always concerning, while I’m at it.
AUTH: Oh, yeah, I know that… but I have a reason in this case. Violant comes from Master’s Blood and the chances of us getting that in a reasonable time period is about zero. My blood is… the same colour. So I did what I had to do.

Venia’s look of concern does not leave her. Now that she thinks about it… Has she seen auth eat? He looks thin and pale, unusually so.

”Not like I’m one to talk about not eating.”

VENIA: … Alright, uh. What would you need for the other six, then? Theoretically.
AUTH: Theoretically? A Ray-Drenched Cinder, a special type of coral, a Hunter’s Eye… er… a star-shell… a mirror charm and Irrigo. Just… Irrigo is a pain. You’ll forget that you have it and… like, I know I made some earlier but I completely forgot how I did it.
AUTH: Oh, I remember. I destroyed some psychic crystals. Since they reflect memories, in solution they made irrigo. But you see how I’m kind of concerned about getting them easily, right?
VENIA: Right… Hrm.
VENIA: Given the Thyme Field and its… Inner workings, generalizations could do for the real deals. So, Seer Crystals in solution for Irrigo. Coral-probably any kind. Something… Cinderous. Something related to Hunting. And… Star Shells, star shells, is there anything with a star or a shell in it? Hrm. Hrm hrm hrm. I’ll look into the inventory…
VENIA: So, uh, you wield the ‘Apocyan Inkblade,’ right? And Apocyan is one of the colors. Hrm, do you think you could… ‘Pour out’ some of the ink from the blade and that’d do for the Apocyan?
AUTH: Oh, that’s right, I didn’t even think of that. I’d need to siphon some off since ‘pouring’ it forms the blade, but it does leave a residue so…

Auth draws the vial from which the inkblade forms, and gently places it against another vial. Ink from it gently pours into the vial, and once it’s filled, Auth puts the weapon away.

VENIA: Nice.
VENIA: Alright, let me just see about the other stuff and you can siphon the inks off from there. I’ll need a minute to search through this…
AUTH: Sure thing, go ahead. I’ll work on the case then.

Venia begins rustling through a shimmering distortion with a free hand. Her other hand, plus some telekinetic force, begins manipulating the wires and etching minuscule magic runes in midair.

VENIA: … This is kind of an abrupt question to ask, but.
VENIA: You seem awfully well-versed in love, given your reaction to what I brought up with nana and all.
AUTH: It is a fair question. I suppose you could say something like that… more that I’ve had a lot of exposure to it than personal experience. Since I did a bunch of favours for the Masters I needed to know how to tell. That’s all.
VENIA: Right. I’ve gotten some gist of your ‘Masters’ from reading through the summation of your time in the Mindscape, loosely, but, that’s neither here nor there. Love.
VENIA: … Hrm. So, hrm. So, we’re doing this right now because we’re trying to prepare to fight Nia, right?
VENIA: … I. I think I’ve got feelings for her, somehow. I think. I’ve heard a few people say that there’s more to it than that, but, like… How do you know? I need to know that I’m not just being stupid.
AUTH: This probably isn’t helpful, and I know this, but… you should follow your heart on this. I don’t think anyone besides yourself can tell you how you think about something, it’s something you need to work out yourself. You’re concerned about Nia, right? Since we might be about to fight her again and all… but if you really wanted to know?
AUTH: If I wanted to tell if someone had feelings, I would generally need to watch them over a period of time. See how they interact with each other in all sorts of situations to try and get a read. I think it makes sense though. Think back to all the time you’ve spent with her, but as an outside observer. Maybe that’ll help? It’s the perspective others usually have… so…
AUTH: I’m rambling, sorry, when I think about something and talk like this it tends to come as a stream of consciousness like that.
VENIA: …
VENIA: It’s alright. And… And I think I needed to hear that. Thank you.

Venia withdraws her hand, pulling out… About half the items Auth would need. An Ender Mirror. A Starcrystal Scarf. A Cinderous Sapling. A Hunter’s Mark, and twenty Seer Crystals.

VENIA: Uh, those things should have the colors you’re looking for. An Ender Mirror for a Mirror Charm. A Starcrystal Scarf for a Star-Shell. A Cinderous Sapling for a Ray-Drenched Cinder. A Hunter’s Mark for a Hunter’s eye. And, uh, the Seer Crystals to make Irrigo with.
VENIA: One other thing… Uh. Hrm. How do I put this.
VENIA: I… Uh. It’s just. You seem so serene all the time. Like, nothing ever troubles you, ever.
VENIA: And you never ever seem to get angry.
VENIA: Like… I need to know what your trick is to that. If nothing else, it’d help with all of my… Episodes.
AUTH: I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t get angry, or if nothing troubled me. It may not look like it, but… honestly, everything troubles me. All the time. I have an annoying tendency to worry over the slightest thing… but…
AUTH: I try not to let it… control me, so to speak. I know that it’s there and I try to deal with it in, like… I’m not sure how to word it, actually.
AUTH: If something is worrying me, I do what I can to fix the situation. If I get angry about something, I either step away or try to fix it. I make a proactive effort to sort my emotions, but… I’m not sure how much I can say about it. I can try to give an overview like that but…
VENIA: … No. I, I think I understand. Uh, thank you, again.

”I don’t understand anything, I just think I do… Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.”

VENIA: On that note, uh, anything bothering you much at all? I’ve been saying a lot, wondering if there’s anything I could help you with. Now and after the whole crisis with the Sphere is resolved, I mean.
AUTH: I mean… there’s not anything bothering me right now, I don’t feel. I don’t have any concerns beyond trying to get the Sphere broken and the situation here stabilised. My home life hasn’t been better, so… I mean, no complaints.
VENIA: Home life?
AUTH: You know, like… life? At home? With family and stuff? Most of my family has come back together, so…
VENIA: No, I mean, what’s life like at home?
AUTH: O-oh. That. Um… well, I mean, I live in a big library so I’m working a lot of the time, but I like doing it. It’s quiet but not uncomfortably so… and there’s enough for me to do there. Since it doesn’t have just books and stuff, it’s got movies and video games and all sorts of things. I’m… not quite sure what to say about it myself.
VENIA: … Huh, a librarian at a loss for words. Almost like a little paradox.
VENIA: Hehe, don’t worry about it… I get like that myself sometimes too… Mph.

Venia turns her attention to her work, only to find herself almost finished with most of the wiring herself. Auth seems to have been working while talking as well, as all of the vials in front of him are filled with ink, slightly glowing in an unnatural way.

VENIA: It appears we’re almost done… Now just to, uh, put it all together and, uh, see if it works.
AUTH: I hope it does work… it should, given the effort put in. I’ll give these to you, one second.

Auth hands Venia the vials of ink, and does a final check on the plasteel casing, spinning it around and checking to see that the dimensions of the casing match the original, before handing that to Venia as well. Venia takes these, and delicately positions them within the device to perfectly match the original, creating a mostly-perfect replica of the first, before restoring it to full.

VENIA: All that’s left is to test it, so…

Venia clicks on the big red button. Seconds later, the device shudders, before abruptly generating a mass of ink, which quickly seeps up Venia’s body. Rather than form into the trapezohedral form from before, however, the ink opts instead to cling to Venia’s shield instead. Otherwise, it is the same-a notable semi-translucent blob of ink now covers Venia’s form without inhibiting her sight.

VENIA: … Not what I expected, such a notable divergence, but I think this helps just as much. If not more. What do you think?
AUTH: I… admittedly, I kind of expected it would take a different shape when complete. It looks fine, though. I suppose the only real thing to do is check if it’ll block attacks though.

Venia, almost reflexively, takes out her own splintershot, holding it in her left hand and firing it into her right. The surprise shot totally removes the Inky shielding around the hand, as well as most of the actual shielding, but leaves the hand unharmed. Seconds later, the ink reforms around her hand.

VENIA: … I suppose that settles the matter. It works.
AUTH: Yeah, that it does. I’m glad it worked in almost the way we wanted it to. It’s effective enough. Heh.

Venia looks at the materials they’ve used thus far-Venia has, per usual, overdone it quite a bit.

VENIA: … We definitely have far more than what we used for this on-hand. Might as well just make more, right?
AUTH: If we have the resources, I don’t see why we shouldn’t make more.

And thus, the two settled into a groove of working, creating more devices, as Venia ruminates upon what has been said…

---

Materials Expended: 300 Wire Scraps, 25 Seer Crystals, 5 Plasteel Ingots, 5 Gold Ingots, 2 Crystal Pens, 1 Ender Mirror Crafting Charge, 1 Cinderous Sapling Crafting Charge, 1 Starcrystal Scarf crafting charge, 1 Hunter’s Mark Crafting Charge.

(T4) Ink-Wrought Veil (amount: ???)
A small device that, with a press of a button, generates a shield of ink.
Grants Repulsor14 and Elveil4 for 3 rounds. The Elveil is a random magical element wielded by an enemy present in this battle.

(Repulsor: +1 Temporary SHP that lasts until this status is depleted.)

Link to Template Document, for Ire ease.