Venia walks to Scale Yggdrasil, a long chain of talking and making things already behind her and yet more to go. She’s met with Toast, Boshi and Auth thus far… What else is left? What other scenario should she prepare for? She contemplates a multitude of scenarios by herself. What if they have to face a wave of enemies and need herd-hitting attacks? Or what about if people go down and Keiko or Auth cannot reach them? What of exploiting Nia’s mechanical nature to fight back against the Butterfly in a more overt manner? So many possibilities-and more.

She eventually just sighs, not sure of what to do, pressing a finger to her temple. As she does. She closes her eyes to just breathe in, pausing. ”I can do this. I can do this… I have to. We have to.” She opens her eyes again, blinking, staring at Scale Yggdrasil, branches illuminated by a setting sun. Time is running out-in the day, and in her capability to break time over her knees. She takes it in, top down, and then notices someone close to the bottom.

Mari is sitting upon one of Yggdrasil’s roots, tinkering with a small mechanical device. Venia can make out a few spindly appendages sticking out of the device: most likely legs of a sort, but she can make out what appears to be some sort of sophisticated body-mounted cannon. Mari opens up a small hatch on the top of the device, and with great finesse, slams an AI core into the slot. She then smacks the hatch closed, tosses the thing into the air, and hits a button on her wrist-mounted computer.

The device suddenly springs to life, several probably-unnecessary lights awakening on its surface. A small motor whirs to life, and a constant gust of air shoots out of its bottom, giving it propulsion. A drone of sorts. She muses to herself, a pleased look crossing her face.

MARI: And there.
MARI: Looks like I’ve still got it!
MARI: I mean sure, we still need to mount weapons, add teleportation, and double-down on the neon aesthetics, but for what we’ve got, it’s alright…
MARI: Seven point eight. If we’re being generous.

Venia stares at the drone, trying to make out its systems from here, before looking at its inventor. She’s already dragged quite a few people into her works… But at the same time, didn’t Nia say it was all about your friends? Venia approaches. She figures she ought to more formally introduce herself now that things are ‘normal’ again.

VENIA: Hello, Mari, again!

Mari’s eyes shoot open. She’d barely been paying attention to her surroundings. She stammers a little as she turns to face Venia, before quickly collecting herself.

MARI: Oh, hi.
MARI: ...Venia, right? Venia… Praetorian, or something?
VENIA: Praefortis. Venia Praefortis. Uh, couldn’t help but notice you working on the drone.
MARI: Hm? This thing?
MARI: It’s really not much. Made it out of some spare parts from my escape pod, and a few things I may or may not have nicked from the inventory…
MARI: So… what do you want?
MARI: You’re prooobably here for a reason.

Mari stares at Venia blankly. She’s probably trying hard to look her in the eyes. Venia’s gaze is equally blank as she tries hard to figure out the answer to that question. What does she want? Other than the unhelpful answer of ‘help’ of course.

VENIA: … OK, so, to keep things simple, uh. Things are not going well regarding the Nia situation. I believe another possession is imminent. I’m trying to prepare for it as best as I can.
VENIA: You were the one that said the Entropic Key was basically a MacGuffin on the whole deal, after all, and all of my thus-far research has revealed no alternatives.
VENIA: I, uh, I’m trying to make things to help, you know. Beat her, so we can Purge her of the Butterfly properly.
VENIA: … Err, can you lend a hand? Or are you busy with the drone thing?

Mari kicks back, and ponders her options for a moment. On one hand, she really could use more time to improve the drone. On the other hand, she could help Nia, and spend time with someone she found… desirable. She sits there, staring at Venia while she thinks.

VENIA: Uh. I mean. You know, given the Butterfly’s last, uh, full body possession immediately, uh, resulted in the Butterfly-possessed Nia trying to murder everyone?
VENIA: I’unno. But I think it’d be worthwhile to at least prepare to, uh. Not get murdered. Especially given the circumstances.
MARI: oh gorilla what?
MARI: She did what now? I feel like I’m missing something here.
VENIA: Err. The Butterfly is invading Nia’s mind, as we know, but under periods of stress, she becomes… Very vulnerable to having the Butterfly act for extended periods.
VENIA: The last time it happened was two days ago; she was ordered by Xavier to kill us and was freaking out trying to take a third option, then the Butterfly took over her body and nearly killed Chloe.
VENIA: When its not in control, it forces Nia’s pain sensors up to human level; if it is, it tones the pain down to nothing. And of course, Entropy empowerment makes Nia's puppetted body far stronger.
VENIA: Basically… She becomes incredibly tough and incredibly deadly. Or, became. And that was just the last time-its doubtless going to be worse this time.
MARI: ...Oh.
MARI: Oh, gorilla. That’s… not great.

Mari hops down from the tree’s root, drone following her as she jumps, buzzing a short distance behind her.

MARI: I… can’t really just let Nia stay like that, can I?
MARI: I mean, I’ve also sorta... made her into a…
MARI: ...Look, I’ll help, if you want.
VENIA: I understand, and I appreciate it.
VENIA: I’ve already been doing a lot to prepare. Partially because, uh, I really don’t feel at ease if I’m not doing something, partially because it's important to me, and partially because it’ll just be a really really hard fight.
VENIA: Most of what I’ve been making with the team to prepare have been quick-fire gear. Scrolls with Anti-Entropy Spells, small devices to replicate a shielding spell, and, uh, approximately twenty slices of cake.
VENIA: So, hrm. I’ve been thinking; we probably need something to break hordes of enemies. I remember the last time we fought Nia she had drone backup…
VENIA: Perhaps, hrm… Something that hits a lot of things at once. Like a bomb. Or a laser.
MARI: Hm, a bomb could work.
MARI: Is the Geneva Convention a thing here, or-
MARI: Actually no, we’re dealing with Nia. I’ve answered my own question.
MARI: Laser. Probably a laser.

Venia nods. A shimmering distortion appears on the ground between Venia and Mari, as a replica of Craftstation Prime rises from the ground, followed by two incredibly fancy chairs.

MARI: Wait, so.
MARI: You can just… summon a crafting station?
MARI: Why the gorilla do you need me, then!?
VENIA: Thyme field.
MARI: Ah. That’s fair.
VENIA: … Also, I’ll admit. I’m used to a technological standard so far ahead that this stuff looks downright alien to me anyways. I mean-I get wires, now, but that’s about where my understanding kind of hard stops.
MARI: ...Weird flex, but alright.
MARI: So. Where should we get started?
MARI: If we’re actually going with the laser concept, I’m thinking an orbital laser could be pretty fun. And effective.
MARI: Should be able to end the battle in a shot or two, if we construct it properly. It’ll take a lot of resources, but we cou-
VENIA: As much as I agree with you, I predict our battleground is going to be…

Venia points at the top of Scale Yggdrasil.

VENIA: … Right up there. There’s a lot of reasons why shooting a laser at it would probably be bad, but most of all, uh, we’d probably all die from the collapsing inferno well before Nia would.
MARI: ...Aw. That’s boring.
MARI: So… what do you want to make? Like… what, are we talking a gorillay laser pointer, or a planet-killing beam?
VENIA: It has to be very quickly fired and readily handled in an off-hand… Which, when I put it that way, is basically the description of a laser pointer.
MARI: i can’t believe my technological genius is being wasted on a laser pointer
VENIA: … Granted, we’ll probably overtune it to death beam levels, because a literal laser pointer is going to be useful for nearly gorilla-all.
MARI: ...Oh, alright. That’s more fun.
MARI: So. Let’s get started, then?

Venia nods silently and begins pulling stuff out from the Inventory. Mostly stuff from the Electronic section, but also some electric and light-type elemental crystals, as well as a Prism Star.

MARI: So, if you’re as inept as you said you are, you should probably handle the casing.
MARI: As funny as it’d be to have it explode in the user’s hand, we’re not gonna just like, hand these out to our foes and pray to god they’re dumb enough to nuke their own arms off.
MARI: So, it’ll need to be heat resistant, not sear the user upon use, and probably last for at least… five seconds of sustained fire?
MARI: Meanwhile, I’ll handle the inner workings. Prismatic alignment, beam focusing, hooking it up to the power supply, and more importantly- choosing the color of the beam.
MARI: Does that sound alright?
VENIA: Seems good to me.

The two take to their respective jobs. Mari immediately begins experimenting with the elemental crystals provided to her, while Venia takes out some Durasteel and begins melting it down into a usable shape.

Mari’s first technological breakthrough is with the Prism Star- even a small light shined through it would be amplified by quite a bit. Without even hesitating, she takes out a hammer, and smashes the Prism Star into far more workable fragments, which she begins to shape into lenses using a small wrist-mounted cutting beam.

MARI: Oh, right. How big do you want these things to be?
MARI: I’ll need measurements. If I waste time on making lenses that are too big, I’m gonna flip this workstation over.
VENIA: That is a good question… They have to be held in one hand and be quickly aimed. Uhhh… Hrm.

Venia manifests and flips open a textbook on advanced physics, and basically skims it.

VENIA: 530 nanometers sound good to you?

Mari barely bats an eye at the units used.

MARI: Seems optimal. Sure.

Mari presses a button on her wrist-mounted computer, and a small optic pops out of it. She slots it over her right eye, and begins to work on the Prism Star fragments with incredible precision.

VENIA: So, uh. Where’d you learn all of this?
VENIA: It feels like you have a lot of know-how in basically… Everything, really. Xavier too.
MARI: Hm?
MARI: I’m mostly self-taught, really.
MARI: Sure, I’ve made a lot of use of the internet, but most of what I’ve learned was driven by myself.
MARI: Wanna make a metal frame? Time to learn simple metalworking.
MARI: Wanna make your own games? Time to learn programming.
MARI: A lot of the things I’ve made have driven me to learn… like, a lot!
MARI: Sister jokingly mentions wanting a laser sword? Get into some theoretical physics, and learn how to bend light beams so that they can be used for long-ranged strikes.
MARI: Of course, I also learned a whole lot from…
MARI: ...t-the Butterfly. Y’know, that thing you’re trying to kill.
VENIA: … Sounds like myself, barring basically doing the technological version of what every evil wizard has ever done with evil dark gods. No offense.
VENIA: … But, like. How did that work? The Rose doesn’t sound like someone to loan knowledge for free. ‘Know Thy Enemy’ and all that.
MARI: I assume you know about Ire, right?
MARI: Or the Chairheir, or whatever the hell people call him nowadays.
MARI: While I did learn a lot from working with the Butterfly’s sort of “code”, it really started teaching me a lot when I implanted it into Nia’s head…
MARI: She started talking about the weirdest things. Theorems. Designs. They all made sense, too.
MARI: ...I guess that’s how Nia ended up here. Xavier must’ve learned wormhole tech several centuries ahead of schedule, and teleported his dumb gorilla here, along with Nia.
VENIA: … And I guess it never occured to you for a second that the Butterfly was telling you this to goad you into making it to its specifications?
VENIA: A set of holographic matter projectors only it could use, controlling pods to manipulate Nia’s form efficiently… I guess Xavier must’ve just been in this rush to make things that he didn’t stop and consider what he was making and why.

Mari seems the slightest bit offended.

MARI: Hey, I- or I guess, we?- were like, basically becoming gorillaing gods n’ stuff!
MARI: We were doing so many amazing things, and how could anyone stop? I have done stupid [gorilla] that actual, reputable scientists have said were totally impossible!
MARI: Could you stop yourself, if there was infinite scientific knowledge literally an arms reach away?
VENIA: No, no, I… I understand exactly what you mean. That thing is surprisingly compelling for something that’s apparently weak to the literal concept of a well-spoken argument.
VENIA: I swear it tried to possess me once-or maybe I was just hallucinating it? Wasn’t in the best frame of mind at the time. Wasn’t even trying to invoke it, the opposite really. Must’ve just broken down. Barely had anything more than artifacts on me. Artifacts made to fight it. If that, even. I think it came close to breaking me.
VENIA: … OR, I could have been totally out of my mind on hallucinogenic seeds, beer and exhaustion.
VENIA: What it was saying almost sounded tempting, terribly tempting. Something along the lines of offering myself to it so I could just… stop thinking all these horrible thoughts I had. It was pointless to resist and yadda yadda yadda.
VENIA: And I have this... Downright crippling depression. Not having to think about how much you suck and how everything you do sucks is… That was tempting. I honestly don’t know how I resisted. Or even if I did. And then you get Nia, who has to deal with it directly in her head…
VENIA: ...
MARI: ...Geez, has anyone here not been gorillaed on by the Butterfly?
MARI: ...Also, when did this happen to you? Like, geez- if this happened recently, maybe we should like, wrap some tinfoil around your head and see if that fends off the Butterfly, or something.
VENIA: I’m of a mind that everything that’s been happening right now may very well be of its design. I’m a bit paranoid, though.
VENIA: But-I tried to help Nia by finding out what the Butterfly was doing in its Mindscape, ended up learning nothing and, err, through means I can’t disclose, unintentionally stressed her out a ton.
VENIA: Before that, well, the state of war that lead up to the Chairians being in a civil war and generally being uncooperative with us was brought about by the Chair God-Ire’s superior-getting some kind of vision about how the monument to peace would be horribly misused, then destroying it, setting off IKEA. Which then lead to Chairian civilization getting thrown into the dirt when Ire ‘thought’ that summoning most of their armies into the Second Godmodding War was a good idea, which lead to the remnants of the Council sealing him up. With help from the Butterfly’s own brainwashed servants, the Rose Cult.
VENIA: And there’s Ire spawning Iti left right and center in the Sphere thanks to the Butterfly, which has left Spark, IE the head of the council, of a mind to weaponize the damn thing. The other reasonable voices got threatened into compliance so he basically got his way.
VENIA: And the ‘Iti,’ so hellbent on destroying everything, have been shown to zealously guard a glyph with one of their most powerful specimens.
VENIA: As if everything on this planet was now being set up to guard the Sphere until such a time as it could detonate. Awfully convenient for it.
MARI: oh my god we’re all actually getting gorillaed on hard
MARI: ...That was meant to be a joke, y’know.
]VENIA: It hardly feels like one.
VENIA: And that’s just the grand scheme of gorilla. Do you see this gauntlet I’m wearing, on my left arm? And the ‘eye’ it has?
VENIA: That’s a person. The Butterfly’s servants-the Rose Cult-think of rebellion… poorly, so they shoved his soul into a gauntlet, then shoved him in a box and threw the box in a river. And they just, left him there, possibly for centuries.
VENIA: And that’s disregarding how the Rose Cult themselves have basically had their heads and bodies torn to shit to make room for that gorillaing gorilla, to just puppet them however the hell it wants damn the consequences or their feelings, and basically leave them husks barely capable of holding a conversation that isn’t a joke at their own gorillaing expense! They were people and now they’re not! I, I… I get worked up over it, alright?! It works me up!
VENIA: It… It just… It just reminds me of things I’ve done and I hate them so much, and now I’m seeing it from the other side of the coin and every time I think about them I get so angry I barely even realize it. I had to get someone else to tell me they were setting me off.

By this point, Mari has completely stopped working on the lenses. She’s also accidentally carved a hole into the table with her cutting laser. Venia’s breathing has gone heavy, and the finger resting on her temple has nearly bored into her skull from the force she’s exerting on it.

MARI: ...Uh.
MARI: ...Geez, this is… way heavier than anything I thought I’d be doing when I agreed to do some crafting with a pretty hot-
VENIA: I-don’t talk about that!
MARI:U-Um, alright?
VENIA: … Sorry, sorry. I… Ugh. This is all working me up.
VENIA: You, you can see how this is all important to me, though, right? Why I’m fighting? I… I didn’t even know myself until now, but now that I know, it's important.
MARI: I… I can see why.
MARI: S-So… now what? Do I like, try and comfort you, or tell you that things are gonna be alright, or some gorilla!?
MARI: Because honestly, I-I don’t know how to deal with this! I-I’ve never been great with talking to people, a-and sure, transforming into a girl has honestly helped, b-but I’ve rarely ever talked about heavy gorilla like this!
VENIA: … Honestly, that you’re just here to talk helps more than anything else. I…
VENIA: Sorry for, uh, dumping that baggage on you. I seem to be doing that, like, all over the gorilla place recently.
VENIA: But, I’unno. Every time I do it it just feels like there’s this little weight lifted off my shoulders.
VENIA: I. I just don’t know myself… Uh.
VENIA: uh mari you’re boring a hole into the table there

Mari blinks a few times as she snaps back to reality, and stares at the hole she’s currently making.

MARI: ...Oh.
MARI: Uh, gorilla.

Mari deactivates her laser for a moment, before reactivating it to go back to working on the lenses. Venia pauses herself, taking her finger away from her well-pressed temple, before continuing to bend metal into place for the casing... Only to notice the casing is entirely too large for the lenses needed. Sighing, she takes her work thus far and flattens it with her own fist, and almost reaches for another ingot in the inventory, before a lightning bolt of inspiration surges through her mind, and instead of another durasteel ingot, she reaches for a… A halberd?

VENIA: ‘Laser’ is a bit of a conceptual focus, and the Thyme Field likes certain conceptual keywords-for instance, attacks that hit in long, straight lines can be grouped as a ‘laser.’
VENIA: It may make it more effective, then, to use metal from a weapon that can be used to strike in a long straight line. Odd, isn’t it?
MARI: ...I don’t think that’s how science works.
MARI: Like, at all.
MARI: Buuuut, if we’re going off of video game crafting systems- I guess it makes sense.

Mari finishes shaping up a batch of lenses, and pushes them to the side to prepare the laser’s source- the emitter. She takes one of the Luminous Crystals, and hooks it up to a power source, connecting it with an array of wires. She then adds a simple switch to the crystal, and tests it out. The crystal begins to illuminate- not so much a beam as just a glow. She spends a lot of time polishing one end of the crystal down to a fine tip, acting as a “focus point” for the crystal’s power. Meanwhile, Venia takes intense measurements of her frame, nodding to herself once she confirms that this time she has not oversized it, before muttering something under her breath. A small azure point appear near her index finger, which she uses to start cutting holes in the frame for the outer switch, among other things.

VENIA: … On a track that isn’t about how much I suck, uh.
VENIA: Well. I guess I can also understand the appeal to… Well, power.
VENIA: Feeling unstoppable is a hell of a rush, isn’t it? Being able to do all these things other people could only dream of…
VENIA: I mean, look at the crafting table and how I put it here-I could pretty much do that for anything. If only the Thyme field wasn’t here…
VENIA: Well… OK, I can’t by myself make like a planet-killing thing, last I checked, not directly. Super-big stuff is off the table, it seems.
VENIA: But I could make a lot of smaller things that can then form into stuff like, uh, Mr. Krabs, or other outright marvels.
MARI: It is a rush.
MARI: I used to have these cool robots that I called “God Hands”- or I guess if I had one now, it’d be a Goddess Hand, but yeah.
MARI: I had this whole robot army to go with them, too!
MARI: ...And then somebody turned them all into dogs.
MARI: Long story.
MARI: It’s one thing to have immense power, and another thing entirely to just lose it all in one fell swoop...
VENIA: Know where you’re coming from, there. I just feel like the world keeps kicking me down as soon as I find a way to rise up.
VENIA: …
VENIA: … You know what? This conversation is getting real depressing real quick.
MARI: You’re telling me…

Mari finishes filing points onto her batch of elemental crystals. Now with something that’s serviceable as a laser catalyst, and something to focus them, now she can focus her own sights on raw firepower. She takes one of her spare crystals, and starts with a bit of control, hooking it up to a particularly powerful power source. The crystal begins to emit a radiant beam out of its point, unfocused and unfiltered without its lenses.

The scientist nods, before erecting a small safety barrier between herself and the crystal. She amps the power, and the crystal begins to glow a light orange. She amps the power more. The crystal glows radiantly for a few moments before it promptly detonates, sending shards flying in every direction, lots of them bouncing off of her defenses.

MARI: Okay, you’ll probably need to install a heat sink on your casing.
MARI: If we want to empower the beam and keep it handheld, you’ll need just like… a simple way to reduce the heat. Try like… an ice crystal? Hell if I know.
MARI: Magical rocks have a way of changing things.

Venia nods and pulls out a Glacier Crystal from the inventory, chipping it into useable chunks as she begins to create a heat sink… Before remembering she doesn’t actually know what that is. She levitates the crystal and reaches into a distortion to pull out another advanced physics textbook, which she skims.

MARI: Oh, also…
MARI: You… mentioned Mr. Krabs once?
MARI: ...Why would you make a cartoon crab?
VENIA: Ah, Mr. Krabs. Two reasons for his existence.
VENIA: First was a memorial. Staying in an odd part of the multiverse with a salty old geezer and then a paradox decided ‘lol kill him for no reason lol’ and killed him, so I made it in his image. Which leads to the second point.
VENIA: Mr. Krabs is the latest in a series of prototype armors I’m constructing. I said I dealt with technology from a far, far future-to be frank, if any of it would work around here I could’ve dealt with a lot of this mess on my lonesome.
VENIA: Uh, anyways; the purpose of the armor… Well. I come from a time when people kind of, uh, well. They see ‘technology’ and think ‘the latest way to literally defy the laws of nature.’ And that isn’t a metaphor. I’m fairly certain that if you examined half of what I made you’d probably realize it’s violating, uh… Mass of conversation and energy?
VENIA: But, like. Its mind-boggling. I’m fairly certain 99% of the actual experts are only slightly more aware as to how it works than anyone else. I just happened to know one of the 1% who really knew what they were talking about, and observed his work, and… I’unno, actually.
VENIA: Thought I could, just, just… Hrm. Just, like… Improve upon it? I didn’t know why at the time but when I looked at it I saw a lot of… Flaws, in his work. And he knew what he was doing wasn’t perfect either but he couldn’t say what it was, and to me it almost felt like it was on the tip of my tongue, so I… Uh, I took it upon myself to recreate his work on my own, with his help and approval, which I did, and then, uh… Well, I tried really hard, and then, uh...
MARI: ...Hey, could you teach me some of this stuff later?
MARI: Or like, show me some of the schematics?
MARI: I wanna break the laws of nature, too.

Venia almost doesn’t acknowledge Mari. Her gaze goes blank for several solid seconds as she contemplates what came next, but the more she focused in on it the more incorporeal the memories seemed.

VENIA: … Well, I got really drunk, I remember doing something that for whatever reason isn’t coming to me right now, and then, somehow, viola, I… fixed the flaws.
VENIA: Or, uh, ‘fixed’ them? I think I fixed so many I don’t actually know what the individual flaws were. And I still don’t even when I compared them, actually…
VENIA: The results, uh... Continue to… Surprise… me? OK wait no that doesn’t make any sense. Like, gorilla, what? I should know what the hell the thing’s capable of and what it isn’t.
VENIA: …
VENIA: … Oh, yeah, Uh, schematics!
VENIA: … I didn’t write the schematics down. gorilla.
VENIA: Oh, but, uh, here’s some for something a lot simpler I did, one I, like, actually understand.
VENIA: I need to really review what I did when I really get about to bugfixing the little gorilla, wow.

Venia pulls out a schematic for something ‘relatively’ simple, a sword simply imbued with various concepts. It appears to be a replica of Nero’s Red Queen sword, of Devil May Cry fame-imbued with the concepts to make it work like it would in a video game, according to Venia’s dirty margin scribbles. Which would include, among other things, the ability to ‘rev’ the sword to increase its ‘force’ (Venia’s notes always include the semiquotes around that word), and general indestructibility. They also refer to multiple concepts that Venia simply doesn’t describe, as if they simply didn’t need to be stated despite looking awfully critical, as well as units of measurement for ‘force,’ ‘motor’ and various other concepts as if they were tangible things to infuse. Mari looks over the schematics, and stares blankly at them. She holds it up, and tries to comprehend what the hell literally any of it means.

MARI: ...Yeah, what the hell?
MARI: Are you sure this is… not like, some sort of… like proof of concept?
MARI: Not a schematic?
VENIA: I’m very, very sure… I mean, I guess that there’s a lot of stuff on there that wouldn’t make sense to you, though?
VENIA: Like, some of that stuff is basically referring to entire fields of quote-on-qoute ‘physics’ that don’t even exist yet.
VENIA: It’s honestly quite hard to understand myself, and that’s one I did in fact make and I know what it does. Hell, it took outside intervention for stuff like this to even exist...
VENIA: … Or, well. I’ve heard of one robotic entity-the inspiration for Mr. Krabs and, uh, the armors that expert guy I mentioned were making-that was around Earth circa… 2014? Just one. Way, way ahead of schedule.
VENIA: Apparently went all Skynet on everything though and then the creators kinda vanished after it got overthrown. Kind of ancient history now, though.
VENIA: Wait what am I saying, like, that wasn’t ‘ancient history’ NOW, that was just a year ago… Uh, hrm. Uh. Time travel, man. Wow.
VENIA: Uh. Hrm. What was it called…? Augh. History lessons, you’re failing me.
VENIA: … Uh, I mean… Hrm. I guess I’ll just lend you a textbook? I mean. That’s how I learned, anyways. Just reading things.
MARI: ...I doubt it’d help much.
VENIA: You’d be surprised.... I learned a lot just by, uh, quite frankly, smashing my head against it until it just kind of clicked. Not just technology, either. Like, uh.
VENIA: Honestly, I was kind of, like, kind of… Let’s say I was pretty bad with words and socializing at one point, and then, well, for a lot of reasons I self-tasked myself to raise, well, a child, effectively on my own.
VENIA: like, uh, supplies ‘n’ stuff were very easy, as I could just, like, make ‘em, but like, teaching her anything was… Difficult.
VENIA: I, I grew to learn her over time. What all those little things she said meant, what she was thinking, how to calm her down when she was angry or how to comfort her when she was crying…
VENIA: I didn’t expect that to be applicable elsewhere, but, I’unno. It just feels like sometimes there’s this weird dissonance between what I can do for others and what I can do for myself.
VENIA: … Until recently, anyways. Sussui’s been this weird little second chance of sorts for me. Like, possession aside… It almost feels like that things might just be… Hopeful, for a change.

As Venia says this, she holds up the casing to the sunlight, and her newly created ventilation system and heat sink to go with it, looking it over.

MARI: Lookin’ good!
MARI: The casing, I mean. Not you.
MARI: I-I mean-
MARI: ...Gonna stop myself before I say anything else.
MARI: Think it’s ready for a test?
VENIA: I think so, myself. Let’s give it a whirl.

Mari slots in her lenses, her laser source, and hooks it up to the heatsink. She fiddles around with the casing for a while, making sure that everything fits in nicely.

MARI: So, you wanna do the honors?
VENIA: Might as well.

Venia takes the laser out from Mari, and also whips out what appears to be a china plate of some sort. Venia tosses it out in front of her, following its arc with the laser pointer, and presses the button. Five lines white light rush out in arcs around the center, before bending to meet several meters away from Venia, combining and rocketing forth in a straight line, piercing the plate mid-flight and melting through it with enough heat to crack the plate before it hits the ground before fading.

MARI: Oh, hell yeah!
MARI: Do that again!
VENIA: uh
VENIA: i didn’t actually stop

Venia, indeed, did not stop holding down the button even after the laser stopped firing. She releases the button, and then presses it again… Nothing. Venia presses the button a few more times, but, nope. Dead.

VENIA: …Well. That’s sad. But I figured that would happen.
VENIA: Despite the lack of reusability, it otherwise functions as intended. It just seems to dump the whole load of power all at once in the span of a few seconds.
VENIA: Of course, with that level of power and range, and the fact we can probably make several more… Yeah.
VENIA: That’s probably the Field forcibly inducing conceptual ‘faults’ to make up for its practicality. So, uh, I say that’s a success.
MARI: ...Eh, yeah.
MARI: You’ll probably only need one to kill someone, anyway.
MARI: ...Okay, given what I’ve seen, you’ll probably need a few to kill someone, but still- it’ll be a nice addition to our arsenal.
VENIA: Indeed. We lack quick-use weapons that could hit this much across a wide area. Or, quick-use weapons at all.
VENIA: Hopefully it’ll do when the time comes…
VENIA: Err, in any case, uh. We still have the necessary materials for several more, and given how quick these things die out…
VENIA: Have time to make more? I mean. I could try to copy what you’ve done to do it on my own, but we’d get it done faster together.
MARI: Hey, sure. This is for Nia, after all.
MARI: Shouldn’t take long, anyway. Prototyping’s the hard part- mass production is a bit easier.

This said, Venia pulls out more materials for more of these laser pointers, and begins working with Mari on more. Time flies fast as they work, until finally the duo run out of materials, with seven ready-to-fire pointers on the table to show for their hard work. After it’s all said and done, Venia wipes sweat from her exhausted brow.

VENIA: … Well. I’m quite satisfied. This’ll do, for our purposes.
MARI: Yeah. It shoooould be enough, unless somebody wastes them on poking single targets.
MARI: Calling it now- that’s how most of these will be used!

MARI: ...Oh, I have a bit of a question.
MARI: You’re doing this for Nia, right?
MARI: How do you feel about her? You can probably infer it, but we have… a bit of a complicated history between us…
MARI: And it seems like you care about her… like, a lot.
MARI: You’ve like, done this whole crafting thing with three other people? There’s certainly something going on here.
VENIA: I...

Venia’s face takes a turn for the crimson as her mind flashes a series of images, not all of them ones safe to describe on a game best rated ‘T for Teen.’ A warmth flares in her chest, and her crotch. ”Venia by all that is holy do not mention the crotch feeling. Its in the chest, not the crotch.” Mari giggles at Venia’s reaction to the question.

VENIA: … She’s been my friend, and, well. She stopped me from committing suicide right after the whole Bottles think broke out.
VENIA: That was Mr. Krab’s fault-faulty programming… Leading theory is he’s mimicking the person he’s based on and jumped at what it perceived to be a chance to get cash. Hit me hard. Nearly lost it. She… Snapped me out of it.
VENIA: I quite literally owe her my life. And I also need to seriously bugfix Mr. Krabs, thanks for reminding me…
VENIA: … And now I keep thinking about her all the time. Or, well, I did, but I guess before it was about the Chaos Butterfly and how awful it was, but now I’m thinking of her all the time. And I keep feeling this feeling in the cro-chest. Chest! Chest. In the chest.
MARI: I’m gonna pretend that I don’t know what word you replaced there.
VENIA: … Yeah. Uh, but, like, for how much I feel about her… Uh. I just. I just feel like I totally failed her. I try to tell myself that another possession was basically inevitable, but, like. It was really all because of me.
VENIA: I’m trying to… I’m just trying to save someone who shouldn’t be in this godawful situation to begin with!...
MARI: I’m leaning more towards that it’s not your fault, and that… well, y’know how the butterfly’s been screwing with us since like, the dawn of time?
MARI: Maybe there’s not much we could’ve done to prevent it… but we can stop anything bad from happening to her.
MARI: I know for a fact we can- a bunch of random idiots from all walks of life has always proven strangely effective against deities and gorilla.
MARI: So hey. Don’t beat yourself up over it.
VENIA: Yeah, I read about that! … Then again, one of those ‘random idiots’ is apparently also a goddess of strategy and simultaneously knows pure magical arts that, uh, made you, uh, a “Transcendent of Storms,” and quite frankly I don’t know how anyone would do that with my tech.
VENIA: I’m just hoping we can replicate the feat.
VENIA: … Mari, it’s been nice talking to you, helped get things off of my chest.
[color=#00003B]MARI: Yeah. It’s… actually been pretty nice.
MARI: C-Could we talk more? Like, later?
MARI: I-It’d be cool, to, like, y-you know…
MARI: S-Socialize…?

Mari’s face is lightly glowing. Venia allows herself a snort.

VENIA: Sure! Sure. It's been nice, actually having people to talk to.
VENIA: I could try to teach you the whole ‘conceptor’ thing, or such.
VENIA: And, uh, Mari? Err, I know you-or, well, Xavier, who is also kind of you but not-uh, well…
VENIA: … Look, I mean. This place has been a big way for me to start over after a lot of screwups. Or, well, not entirely. Can’t forget the past, and all. But I mean, here, everything you’re guilty of as Xavier, or Mindscape Xavier… I don’t think it really matters to anyone here.
VENIA: A do-over card, kind of. If we live.
VENIA: A way to start over. And I think that’s kind of something that you and I have very desperately wanted for a while now. Like, does that make sense?
MARI: Of course.
MARI: Becoming a chick and leaving the mindscape’s been like, a new start for me, so… yeah.
MARI: Of course, it got interrupted by getting imprisoned, but hey- I’m free now.
MARI: And, knowing I can do whatever the hell I please, without someone lording over me… is liberating.

MARI: So… see you later?
VENIA: See you at the Elevator… I need to keep close to Nia. Or, will need to. Got more chronology to screw with before it's all said and done...
VENIA: Key and all. So, uh… It was nice meeting you!
MARI: It was nice to meet you, too.

With that, Venia marches away from Scale Yggdrasil, pointers safely deposited in the inventory, one last wave to a new friend as she carries on.

---

Materials Expended: 70 Wire Bits, 7 Joltwires, 7 Durasteel Ingots, 7 Luminous Crystals, 1Glacier Cluster, 1 Prism Star Crafting Charge, 1 Durasteel Halberd Crafting Charge.

(T4) Ultra Laser Pointers
A simple laser pointer, over-tuned to ultra-lethal levels. A kink in the lens makes it useless point-blank.
Deal (10-11) Light Damage and inflict Burning3 for 3 rounds. Range 2-6. Laser.

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