Crya runs to G6 and uses Ice Stalagmites on Rotting Widow 1. Chibi Nia spawns at G7 and runs to F10 if possible. Crya herself retreats to E7.

Keiko moves to C6 and cleans up any traces of enemies with a dose of Heavenly Ray, setting D6 as a Mana Well and jumping there.

Battle: The Town Armory

Irongutta scans Fell Beast 4! He then calls out to his allies.

"Oi! You lot scrap one of them hovercraft for me! I needs their parts!"

Piggo moves to M11.

I read the update a second time, and notice something I completely misinterpreted the first run: Nana spooked Chara, not spooned.
Spooned as in, used her spoon as a catapult to throw porridge or whatever at her. Just to clarify.
So, because that actually seems way funnier to me, I will use a free action to ask the Holy GM to "retcon" it to that (not edit the original, just acknowledge this)

Candy:

Before even starting her backstory proper, Chara is swiftly and suddenly hit by something straight in the cheek. Her confusion only grows, as the Chairian across her repeats what she was just thinking, while absolutely fuming.

A second passes.
And another.
In the third second, like a very bad cut in a video, her head is thrown back and she is laughing. Just. Laughing to herself uncontrollably. You can't tell if her cheeks are red because she can't even breathe, or if it's active embarrassment.

"Oh dear, I just said that out loud, didn't I!
"I am so sorry! Seems like being a narrator for a good part of my life's really brushed off me. Can't even keep my paranoia to myself, hehehe!"

She is then rebuked by yet another person. Auth. Came right to the rescue. How nice of him. _{She hates him already.}

"I... already apologized... look. When you spend a half of your life around a certain type of people, you start viewing all people as them. When you spend an even longer time around buttercups, having them in vases, gardens, embroidered on all your possessions, and even manifesting as part of your powers, you start viewing all remotely yellow flowers as buttercups. Even tulips, or sunflowers.
"I might have been hasty to judge you. All those I met who called themselves angels of death have been, or tried their hardest to be, emotionless and stone-cold. But you wear your heart on your sleeve, as they say. And that is good. I would rather you tell me up front that you are offended, than that I have to interrogate it out of you."
"Will you please forgive me, then? Oh 'guardian angel' of mine?"

She then dumps her entire backstory into the empty space, not particularly caring even if people listen to it. It's just something that she likes to do; serve as background noise, so that nobody is left in deafening silence. "Not like she has been for so long, buried underground," I would say, if I didn't have taste and wanted to make her even sobbier than necessary.

When all is done, she thanks Ette for telling her about the Inventory. By that time, her drunken stupor is almost completely cleared up. She siphons two cookies from it, and begins munching on one as she replies to Marron's lovely snark.

"Yes, of course I was. You got me, you win, have this second cookie.
"Or maybe I was just following the obligatory "ritual" of every newcomer telling their life story to their party. That might've been what happened.
"But yet again, maybe the ritual is for everyone to reveal it bit by bit over an infuriatingly long timespan, and I am just breaking that monotonous routine.
"Or maybe I just wanted to waste everyone's time. But I am not that cruel, am I?"

Suddenly, and with no chill at all, Marron drops that one specific line.

"I have no idea who Chaos is, but let me tell you, I cannot begin to describe how sorry I am for him.
"That version of me… is the only one I would never dare tackle. In fact, I do not even know if I can call it a version of me at all.
"They... it... is like a dark reflection of mine. Both of us have way more than one soul, yet its case is even more ambiguously moral than mine. I hated humanity, whereas it hates humanity. And everyone else, I believe.
"I would call it a shadow, but it does not follow me, and we have only met a few times. All of them were filled in pure dread from me.
"If this still does not convince you, let me tell you straight. Let me promise you, right now.
"If I find out any of you who know about it, also know a way to kill it, but are hiding it from me..."

She giggles for a bit. You all know what she's about to say. You all know the "refrance."

"... you are going to have a bad time."

Meat:

The Chara Splinter dully sends the others a warning through telepathy.

"All co-fighters, this is Chara, be advised."
"I am about to vandalize the ente-entri-entr-tre-"
"THE RED EVIL THING."

Without further ado or embarrassment, he unleashes Fluxblade on the Totem that's two tiles away from him, ending his turn.

Quick Post!

Laranei Heals her mount like she tried last turn!
Then she moves to L13!
And shoots Magirifler2!

Wyvern drifts to J16 before Chara's turn, worried the totem might blow up or something. He guards.

Action: Thina - Spider's Roost

Sadly, I cannot do everything I want to because I haven't been hit enough.

Thina walks forward to H6 and basic attacks Migi1. Unless it's already dead.

If it is, then burn 10 HP for Unravel, targeting RWidow1. Chain it to target Migi2 with 'healing', but flip it to dark damage with the Corrupted Cleric Veil. If Migi2 is dead, target SSpider1 or SSpider2, whichever has more HP. If both of them are dead... uh... Chain the healing back into Thina? But don't flip that to dark, of course.

If Migi1 is dead and Thina ends up casting Unravel, then Thina should have enough DNA to evolve Armored Body, which she does.

"... I want to stand this... Stay in the front."

Chloe moves to L10, tosses the Vilebaron corpse to M11, then continues to I8. She then attacks Yume, and retreats somewhere appropriate.

Toast tosses a Cinderfruit at Auth, moves to P12, drags the Zweet2 corpse to O13, then casts Mass Animation (Skeletons) at N12. They are directed to march upon F3. She then retreats to N12.

Flare from Chaotic Contingency is focused on Hound1.

Ziah grins slightly at Ette's question.

Ziah: I guess it was kinda my job, but it's more that I was a treasure chest.
Ziah: Well, a shape shifter in the form of a treasure chest... unwillingly.
Ziah: I was bred in a dungeon, and...

He pauses, slightly regretting his words.

Ziah: By bred, I mean given birth to, not...
Ziah: And by dungeon...
Ziah: Okay, yeah, it was a dungeon. It was more like catacombs though. I kinda lived there my entire life, so...

Ziah idly brushes his hair to the side, placing his hands in his pocket.

Ziah: You know those Mimics you guys have fought?
Ziah: I'm basically one of those, but not from here. I'm not even sure how I got here.
Ziah: I also don't think I've killed anyone, but... I wasn't fully sentient back then, so...

He notices a slight tension in the air, shaking his head.

Ziah: Not that I would ever kill anyone unless I had to. Um.

Ziah, not sure how to continue, waits for a response.

-=+=-

Leaf seems like she might cry as the Lurejet takes down the Splinter Spitter. This look is quickly replaced with a sort of vengeful glare, as she silently darts to E6 and tosses a Gigistem at the Lurejet2, then using Corrosive Mix. Two crescent shaped grass projectiles appear behind her, Razor Leaves, which quickly fly at the Lurejet.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED SIXTY>

Echoss does a variety of things. First, he commissions Chloe to go an find some Cobblestone and Uniform Logs. She shrugs, and immediately gets to work. She returns fairly quickly with a wheelbarrow full of logs and stones. She dumps it off in front of the house.

CHLOE: Normally, something interesting happens when I go off on these trips.
CHLOE: This was not "normally". This was "abnormally", in that nothing interesting happened at all.
CHLOE: Kinda disappointing, really...

CHLOE: Anyway!
CHLOE: Here's your stuff.

64 Uniform Logs and 128 Cobblestone enter the inventory. Just inside of the house, Pionobot notes that the arm should work out. Mari claps her hands together.

MARI: Alright.
MARI: I'll grab some stuff, then we'll get started.

Mari returns with a bundle of non-descriptive material, and begins to cobble together an arm. As she works, Pionobot mentions that he'd regrow limbs outside of the field. She seems... excited, to put it lightly.

MARI: So, I could like... lob off your limbs, then dissect infinite copies of them?
MARI: Sick. I'll be sure to acquire a chainsaw before we leave the field.
MARI: ...Or something less rippy-teary.

After about thirty minutes of work, Mari produces a surprisingly competent robotic arm. It's a bit on the barebones side and doesn't exactly look pretty, but it's an arm.

MARI: Behold! The gorillaArm v1.0!
MARI: I call it the gorillaArm because... it's kinda gorilla. Not gonna lie.

MARI: Given what I know about your body, it should probably be compatible with you. I mean, it's kinda gorilla, but an arm's an arm.
MARI: Give me more time later and I'll probably upgrade it for you. Or, since you have an arm now, you could probably upgrade yourself?
MARI: Hell if I know.

If she gets Pionobot's approval, she'll slot in the gorillaArm v1.0 into his arm socket. Then, as a final action... he decides to attempt to murder Letsid? That seems kinda mean. He promptly blows Letsid into the mine along with a bunch of Iti, Ben Stillers the existence out of the remaining Iti on the surface, then collapses the entire Gaiadiamond Mine to lock Letsid and the Iti inside.

That seems just a little bit like overkill. The game opts to process Letsid's post at this very moment- she's not really capable of running to the Absence Caverns, or really doing much of anything. She's stuck in a dark cave full of Iti, and there's no escape! Or so she'd think- a string of lucky dodges later, and she ends up in one of the ends of the pitch black cavern. Sunlight wafts through a small vertical tunnel, covered by a trapdoor. Letsid quickly scrambles up to the top!

...She emerges somewhere not really on the map, but she's able to pull herself out back to the area outside of the Gaiadiamond Mine. It appears this ordeal has dealt exactly (26) damage to Letsid, leaving her at 1 HP. It'd probably be worth for her to seek out a healing before a stray Seeker coughs in her general direction.

---

Venia loots a storage room! She digs into the bullets, stuffing them into the inventory. 400 Sanctified Rounds obtained! Venia then digs into the rest of the storage, looting 32 Iron Ingots, 16 Titanium Ingots, 32 Gold Ingots, and 8 Rosetainted Metal. She moves to loot the next crate, but is forced to duck and cover as the Butterfly Statue in the room fires a laser at her, which scars the wall behind her. It appears the statue is a small Exhibition of sorts.

She may want to exercise caution in how she deals with it, lest it blow up a box or two of valuable stuff.

Wilson gets spooked by Maria. The noise promptly shocks the nearby Ette to attention, who appears to be moderately enthralled with the cute fox that's suddenly appeared.

ETTE: (Whoa! Fluffy fox!)
ETTE: (I haven't seen a fox before!)
ETTE: (...I don't know how I know what you are, but you're cute!)

It seems she doesn't entirely understand that one of the new voices she heard earlier was Wilson. She waves hello to him, and attempts to give him a gentle petting. The fact that what appears to be a gigantic stuffed animal / puppet is the thing attempting to do this may or may not be rather terrifying to him. Who knows?

(also fennec foxes are cute and that video gives me a tiny bit of life)

---

Mustache Girl continues her mining trip, whacking 9 Megabark off of a vein. It sure is quiet. Almost makes you wish that you'd be stalked by a terrifying, many-eyed creature who speaks in both welsh and cognitohazards.

...

...Nothing appears. Whew.

---

Auth chats with Marron. The puppeteer goes from mere giggling to actual (if a bit subdued) laughter once Auth begins to blush. Once she calms down, she continues to speak, giggles fragmenting her speech intermittently.

MARRON: Pfft, sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have laughed, but it's pretty funny...
MARRON: Boy, that talk of yours is gonna be all awkward and stuff. Good luck!

Once the two of them have both collectively finished calming down, he notes that yeah; he'll go and make some tea for them.

MARRON: Cool. Thanks.
MARRON: If it's not better than the cardboard tea, I'll slap you.
MARRON: Not that I don't believe in you, it's just that I want half decent tea.

Back in an entirely different location, Auth continues his discussion with Omo. The librarian seems confused when he mentions that it'd be easy for him to perform the "extensive modifications" she was talking about.

OMORIKA: ...You do?
OMORIKA: Truly, you are gifted with powerful friends.
OMORIKA: I wonder perhaps, how it'd feel to be a human? Or a Tabletopian?
OMORIKA: ...Of course, a person in my position wouldn't have much time to meddle with those sorts of things.

...It appears that yes- the modifications she was talking about was a species change, which is probably unsafe. Anyway, the conversation drifts to the sleeve that Auth gifted Nana. A small smile crosses Stella's face.

OMORIKA: ...So.
OMORIKA: You may have accidentally pledged to give her your eternal protection. That you will always be by her side, to protect her from harm.
OMORIKA: It's symbolic; something to protect a vital part of the body. Our magical conduits.
OMORIKA: In most cases, this is a declaration of love.

OMORIKA: However, she may understand that you didn't understand our customs. Despite that, I'd imagine you're... "making her heart pound", as you'd say.
OMORIKA: Of course, us Chairians have a "core" in our heads as opposed to a more convoluted system of organs. The expression she stated was equivalent to that statement about the heart.
OMORIKA: Possibly because it seemed like you followed up on that pledge, leading her to believe that perhaps, you did know our social customs.
OMORIKA: The poor thing is probably hopelessly confused.
OMORIKA: You may want to simply explain things to her. It'd certainly save both of you a lot of grief.

While the two ponder Auth's next step, Auth also takes a bit of time to talk with Nana, who's currently flustered from how Chara noted her as an "angel of death". He asks if she's alright. She nods.

NANA: I-I'm fine!
NANA: It's just... i-it feels like everything's changed so quickly.
NANA: Conscription, the Iti, the parasite, and now you...
NANA: I-I really thought that people were seeing me as something deadly like that...

She looks up, chin still resting on the table. She's still blushing somewhat. Then, because Auth is talking to everyone basically, he also goes to make Ette a shiny new scarf! He tosses together 7 Yaga Scales, a Spiralfloof Floof, a Chainmail Scarf, and a bit of Phase Matter together to create the Scalemail Scarf! The puppet immediately wraps it around her neck. She appears to love it!

ETTE: (Comfy!)
ETTE: (You're always so nice to me n' sis~)
ETTE: (Thank you!)

The Author is promptly smothered in a warm, fluffy hug. Even her scarf feels nice to touch, despite it being covered in scales. The Auth plushie is also awkwardly pinned against his fleshy counterpart's face, caught in the middle of the hug.

---

Chara continues her chat at the breakfast table. First off, she clears things up with Nana.

NANA: I-It's fine, don't worry a-about it!
NANA: Maybe o-our cultures are just a bit different, a-and I didn't understand you?
NANA: And, well... a-a lot has been happening lately, s-so...
NANA: It was kinda jarring to be called an angel of death.

NANA: B-But really!
NANA: It'll be alright! I'm fine.

The conversation eventually turns around to Marron. Chara remarks about the apparent "ritual" of telling your backstory to the party.

MARRON: ...Ritual?
MARRON: It's not a ritual! It just sorta happens.

MARRON: ...Also, I've known you for what, thirty minutes?
MARRON: I don't know if you're a cruel gorilla or not.

Then, the subject of Chara comes up. Not the Chara at the table, the genocidal Chara. Except, that Chara is also apparently this Chara in some way? It's confusing. And apparently, Marron finds it confusing, too.

MARRON: So, the "genocidal" Chara is like, a reflection of you?
MARRON: And you're all just some weird-gorilla blob of souls, or something?
MARRON: ...Yeah, I don't get it.
MARRON: I'm also fairly certain that I don't know how to kill it. Chara. Not you. The other Chara.

MARRON: ...
MARRON: Wait, so do I shoot her, or not?
ETTE: (Shootin' people is rude!)
MARRON: Alright, alright.

MARRON: Oh, about Chaos...
MARRON: When I said he was "venting" about you, he was more like, going on about cool "genocidal you" is?
MARRON: Chaos is... special.
MARRON: If you see him, you'll understand like, right away.
MARRON: You'll hate him. I do, too.

---

Ziah clarifies his job to Ette. He's not really a treasure chest- he's a proper mimic. He makes the comparison of the Mimics that the group has seen on Sussui.

ETTE: (Oh! You're like, the real version of those bitey chests?)
ETTE: (That's really cool!)

He then notes that he wasn't really fully sentient back then. Ette perks up, quite curious.

ETTE: (You weren't sentient before?)
ETTE: (So... how does that work?)
ETTE: (And don't worry; I don't think you're the type to kill anyone!)

---

Venia and Nia continue their battlefield conversation. Nia raises an eyebrow at the mention of a new Godmodding War.

NIA: Eh? Another Godmodding War?
NIA: Didn't like... the big one already happen?
NIA: Weird.

Nia soon learns that Venia didn't really have much in the way of time to herself, but she mostly found herself reading books when she could. She smiles as Venia notes that she wants to spend all her free time with her, causing a gentle blush to cross her face.

NIA: Sounds better than whatever I've been doing.
NIA: It'd be cool to just spend some time with you! Like, maybe even just after this battle.

Then, her question comes about. What'd Nia think she'd be doing when she grew up? She takes a moment to ponder this.

NIA: Oh, y'know. Dumb things.
NIA: When I was like, five, I thought I'd be a wizard. Mom shut that down really quick.
NIA: Then I thought I'd be like, a pilot, or an athlete throughout elementary school...
NIA: But when it came around to high school... I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.
NIA: I didn't really think I was smart enough to do anything important, but I sure as hell didn't want to like, work at the local fast food place all my life, or some gorilla.
NIA: I thought I'd just take whatever sort of job I could take, and focus on surviving, and moving some place better...

NIA: And now I think I wanna be a wizard again, because being a wizard seems- no, IS- freakin' awesome.
NIA: Does being a wizard pay well? Important question.

She laughs a bit at herself, before continuing with her game of question ping-pong.

NIA: Hey, what do you wanna do when the Sphere's done with?
NIA: I'm not sure what I'm gonna do. Earth sucks, and I'm not sure if I wanna be there now that I know I can do just a bit better than Earth...
NIA: Earth's only redeeming quality is that Chloe is there, and she's pretty awesome. That, and also ice cream. Ice cream is sick.

NIA: I'd love to stick with you, obviously. Maybe become a... co-duchess? Or something?
NIA: Hopefully I wouldn't need to ditch Chloe entirely if I went with you. That'd... suck.

Nia begins to ponder her life's course, at least until a hail of gunfire / magic / thrown twigs interrupts her train of thought, forcing her back into the thick of things.

---

<THE NEXUS, ROUND SIX>
Yume's pretty low on HP now; you're probably getting close to, or are at an amount of HP you could easily burst down. Despite that, you shouldn't let down your guard: a lot of you have statuses, which means Yume's damage against you will be way higher! Also make sure to kill the silencers / sleepers; again, they're a massive threat that MUST be dealt with!

<THE TOWN ARMORY, ROUND FIVE>
GG! With enough of the rebel forces wiped out, they're unable to fight back! Now you just need to do something with the prisoners, and perhaps download some data from the laptop they were using? Seems like there's some handy stuff there- you may be able to use it to prepare beforehand. Anyway, maybe it'd be worth preparing for the Caravan raid about now? Or if you're feeling daring, you could investigate to the south.

<SPIDER'S ROOST, ROUND FOUR>
Not too much to report, really. The Totem's down, and it seems that its effects on the map have been reversed. It might be worth calling in a few more troops now that the Armory is done with; you have two more player slots, after all!

THIS IS FOR LAST TURN PLEASE LET ME GET THIS IN

Brutishace stands his ground and fires Twin Jolts at the Mechonis. Probably the best thing he can do now, and it'll fry the foe's circuits and incapacitate some part of it. Hopefully.

Summa moves over to C9 with a vengeance! She runs over to the Yume, and jumps up, trying to slash it in the face! Payback!!! (If she hits, of course)

Now that I've wasted enough time, proper introduction for Thina...

RP: Thina: Introduction

Outside of the spider's roost, Thina sits staring at the ground, idly pawing and it and drawing in the snow. She's a canine looking creature, like a painted dog or hyena (even though hyenas aren't technically canine, but shut up). Around her neck is a rather thick mane of brown grey fur, studded with three orange, half-fist sized gems, like tinted amber. The fur from her mane runs up the side of her head and streaks backwards, looking almost like fins.

Sighing, Thina looks up into the sky with muddy colored eyes, seemingly looking for a star. She didn't expect to find it, but was still disappointed anyway seeing all the unfamiliar stars. Nervously, she checks over her armor again, feeling and tracing wires, tubes, and runes that spiderweb across her body.

Many of these wires lead into the main, most important part of her armor, a large set of twisting machinery like a backpack. It's almost half the size of Thina, and it pulses and hums with strange power. Returning her gaze to ground level, she stares deeply into the spider's roost, seemingly listening to something. After a little while and some deep breaths, Thina walked forward on shaky feet, desperately hoping that there were other people like she had been told and she wasn't walking randomly into a cave to die.

Chloe's delivery service is commissioned once again: Refined Wood and Stone Bricks, take the harvester golem as I believe it's off cooldown right now. Thank.

Omorika's Research Station slot picks up World of Wonder.

The Lab purchases the Patche's Foci


RP:
Pionobot looks over at Mari. "Or... I could do the severing myself? Pretty sure I can do a cleaner job than anything you have access to. But yeah, you could. I've been through worse."
Piono takes the new arm and pushes it up against the socket. There's crackling, a bit of popping and an electrical zap. Slowly, the 'flesh' on the outside of his shoulder covers up and connects to the robotic arm. Shortly after that fabric matching the rest of his shirt materializes to replace the missing sleeve. He rolls his new shoulder a bit, and flexes the fingers, then looks up at Mari.
"Assuming this doesn't give my normal functions the boost they need to refrabricate the arm, I'll need to come to you. The original Piono's not much of a mechanic and I've been a bit preoccupied with" He winces and clutches his head for a second. "-THINGS- to pick up any myself. Not dying type things."


Battle Action:
Echoss glares at the splinter spitter, his eyes almost seeming to flash for a second but he takes a deep breath and promptly... walks straight through the wall of the cave. Coming back out of the wall at H13, he proceeds to load one of the fire El-Ite knives into his gun and punch it right into the Rotting Widow trying to eat Chara.
His chibi nia, unable to follow, toddles up North three squares.

Echoss moves to H13 using the boost from Zillycharm, then uses his weapon skill to shoot Rotting Widow 3 with a Fire El-Ite Knife obtained through shopping spree.
It gains the following bonuses from assorted passives:
Item Iris: +5 HIT, +5 CRT
Zillycharm wall movement: +20% damage
Weapon skill: +50% damage, +10 CRT

Chibi Nia moves to E6. Not good for combat anymore, but I can use it to dispense holy dews if needed.


Overworld actions:
The minigolems down in the basement continue their work, the one phased through the wall finishes pushing out the iron ore to the other, who changes it to ingots through magical video game reasons and plops it into the inventory, finally emptying out the entire seam.
(finish mining out iron seam)

The minigolem does not come back out of the room, even though the other one disperses into butterflies which then fly away. The one in the rock instead, could anyone see it, dissolves. Golden energy expanding outwards until it makes a wireframe shape around the outline of where the room should be following in line with the previous once Chaos carved out. There is a vhworp sound and the entire massive chunk of stone seems to collapse inwards.
The room still needs to be furnished obviously before it'll count as a room, but a good chunk of actually carving out the space as been done.
(starting work on adding a new room)

In the Royal Library a butterfly flutters gently down to the spot where the poor Chairian placed on cleanup duty is attempting to clear out the remnants of DJ Headz booth. The butterfly, not yet noticed, transforms into the miniature Echoss hologram.
"Hello there, would you like some assistance?"

Back at the farm some busywork is done. The Celefruit, Frostleaves, and Coffee are harvested, and replaced with another celefruit, some wheat, and manabloom
Harvest Celefruit, Frostleaves, Coffee. Replant.

The Man walks up to the group of tied-up rebels, and starts pacing around. He does this for a solid two minutes, before finally speaking up.

"I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, and I'd like you to answer them honestly. Do that, and I'll make sure you're let go unharmed. Otherwise, well, we might have a little "accident". Got that?"

He glares at the Rebel who mentioned "killing them later", before continuing with his questioning.

"First question, who do you work for? Second question, what relation does Dr. Cypress have to your organization? Third question, have any of you seen a plain black briefcase, and if so, where is it?"

The Man resumes pacing around while waiting for a response.

Mariaaaaaa

The seven-year old princess continues to giggle at Wilson-brunette in hair and eye, peach-tinted skin, wearing a yellow t-shirt with a smiling sun and small jean shorts, with a pink backpack and a big mischevious grin. But most of all a crown, a small golden crown, polished and shining even now, clipped to her hair. She sets down the Neru plushie before Wilson-which, while obviously slightly mobile, is also very much a plushie and hard to confuse with a real spider.

"It was funny, and you made a funny noise." She says still smiling. "My name is Maria, I'm a princess, and I am gonna go on an adventure. Who're you? You're fluffy. I love fluffy things. I have fluffy kitty cats!" She exclaims, pointing to the four cats behind her-each a different combination of black and white. "That one is Squid, because he is big and silly." Maria says, pointing at the largest cat. "That one is Skunk, because he's got a big white stripe on his back." Maria says, pointing at the otherwise average cat. "That one is Spider, because she climbs on everythin'." She says, pointing at the smallest cat. "And this is Samantha, the big mommy kitty." Maria says, pointing at the somewhat older cat. "And they all love me, and I love them too!"

---

Best Girl

"'Wizard' is not really a job on its own. Knowing magic is one thing but its how its applied that earns money, like any other talent or skill... Erm, generally though, magic goes into either combat applications for special operations or group siege magic, or goes into a sciencey-field where they push the limits of magic to test theorems 'n' such... At least in my time, but I think historically its panned out similarly. Right now is a pretty good time, Earth's changing ever since the Second Godmodding War-"

And then the second question hits. Adrenaline cuts her answer off until the fighting's over, but its made her pale, even afterwards. "... What after this? I was thinking for a while there wouldn't be an after this. After I get my cancer fixed and the sphere taken care of..."

Venia puts a hand to her temple, as she does, realizing that Nia's already making plans to go back with her. And she wants it, too, but...

"... After the Sphere, I'd settle a few affairs here on Sussui to make sure everything'll be alright, and then head back and reap the benefits of Sussui re-appearing in the present time. That was the plan, according to the Emperor, to optimize integration of Sussui back into the empire, but... I hate him! The Emperor. He's... It's very hard to describe, but its like. He's happy. And he's never ever anything else. You can't tell him. He'll do things totally psycho without even flinching and then go back round to looking like a saint, like he did nothing. He's competent-when he's not going crazy. But him and his whole system are fundamentally rotten, and he's too crazy to change it. I can't fight back against what he does, not effectively. Dude's re-established slavery, for instance, but its OK because he's only enslaving 'non-citizens,' IE basically enemy soldiers and civilians from outside the Empire. That's messed up in the head. And he is quite literally messed up in the head!"

"I considered staying here and just living out my life with you on Earth to avoid all of that, or somewhere else in the multiverse that's more peaceful, but quite frankly the multiverse at this time sucks. Like, Godmodding Wars are a dime a dozen-the new one that's just kicked up is only the newest major one, and that'd be six, nevermind the dozens of small conflicts and the times where the Anti-Godmodders just fail! The last one you probably recall is just the fourth. And all the damage that's been done here? That's just because of ONE action in ONE war. I don't want to get involved in that at all if I can help with it, and that'd be very hard. And most people consider this timeline, our timeline, to be a very, very 'optimized' one, like, one where things go well pretty consistently on the whole. Everything with Sussui is like an exception. And, on top of that-I'd be leaving behind like trillions of trillions of people. That'd be absurd and amoral, and I have a duty as a Duchess, even if I took the whole thing under duress."

"I've been considering rebelling, especially now... Not openly, though. He'd crush me like an ant in any direct conflict, and I'd estimate he'd do it easily, and that's while fighting a two-front war already and keeping things in a stalemate. I thought at one point that my relationship with Maria might help me steer him the right way, but I realize he's a bit too willful for that and I don't want Maria to become some political tool either. He doesn't really accept advice... Doesn't help that when he's not going nuts he's actually pretty competent. I didn't really have any option to rebel for the longest time, none realistic, but I thought of another way."

"... You may've not heard of it, but I did say I had this alternate uncontrollable form, right? Thanks to Maria and her silly little wish for a big sister that looked like her big sister and some unexpected polymorphing, anyways... It's complicated. It always is, isn't it? Uh, but, the point is-unlike me and the rest of the general population, the powers of this alternate form aren't registered anywhere AND I don't crop up as the user of these powers. In effect, the other form is a ghost and doesn't exist as far as the many, many thorough detection abilities of the world are concerned. So I was thinking-because I'm a silly little nerd-that I'd go all Phantom Thief or V and basically rip the empire apart piece-by-piece, aided by the insider knowledge I get as a Duchess and effectively able to slip off and on the radar as I please, taking and releasing plans and disrupting valuables, as well as beating down the less-pleasent nobles. There'd be a few kinks to smooth over... most prominently controlling the powers and figuring out how they work, or what they even are. That'd really help judge if the idea is valid. Which, I could do here, with some help."

"... As for seeing Chloe again... Mph. Mph! Time-travel of the sort I used is... Contentious, politically. Its paradoxical in nature and that can be bad even if its as controlled as it is. Anything that'd 'change things' is considered pretty taboo in the rest of the multiverse, and the Empire's excepting it for very special circumstances-in this case, effectively saving like trillions of lives retroactively. I think that counts as pretty special. But screw that noise! I'd find a way to make it work, for sure! I'm almost positive its possible to at least stay in contact, just a bit of experimentation is all."

"... Sorry that was a little winded. I just... Had a lot to say there." Venia says. "... And, uh. I... I'unno. I guess I'm pretty emotional on it all... My life's kind of a wreck."

"... Uh, don't want to break the flow even if I talked a lot. Uhh... Uh. Favorite animal. What's your favorite animal? I like Elephants. Elephants are big and cool and cute."

---

-Work on Airship-

Hat decides that since no-one else is really interested in this right now, might as well be him.

---

The Storage Room

Venia's maid swiftly manifests a deadly plate from out of nowhere in response to the miniature exhibition! The maid elegantly deflects its next laser into the floor, then, without any hesitation, slices the plate through the exhibition multiple times in a positive frenzy of motion, before finishing it off by taking exactly one of the Sanctified Rounds, loading it into a freshly-manifested revolver, and firing it directly into the Exhibition point-blank, watching carefully.

The maid then goes back to looting the rest of the crates for their contents, then taking the crates and leaving, assuming the Exhibition is dead.

---

Skillpoints!

Venia invests +1 into SKI. That's it. Huzzah!

---

Other

In case Sp33d0n can't post, he's given action rights for Auth to me. G12, Mana Vial, wait for Adrian to give him a Yggdrasil Vessel use, Liberation on Yume.

Crya uses Confuse Ray on Spider 2 before retreating to F8.
Chibi Nia runs over to J9.

Adrian moves to J10 and charges up Purge.

Boshi +1s his SKI... after the recently animated plushie feeds him a 1-UP Mushroom, of course. The plushie goes dormant again.

---

MU stops her little mining session for a bit, and wonders something; given the fact that living beings down in the Everground get more unwell as they ascend, what would happen if...

MU heads over to the Vine Rope near the bottom of the entrance to her current floor. She uses 2 Titanium Ingots to create a basket of sorts with a handle; solid, sturdy, and reliable. She then ties the vine rope to the handle, then tests it out by placing some of her stuff into it, carefully monitoring the force imparted on the vine rope, making sure it doesn't break.

Once all that's finished, she continues mining out the Megabark Vein nearby. She thinks maybe it's better that she's alone down here, doing all the boring work nobody else seems to want to do.

Action: Thina -- Spider's Roost

As Thina burns her health for Unravel, her armor shines with crimson light, causing her to stagger backwards away from the spider. Worry flooded through her mind, a sense of wrongness. She shouldn't be here, right?

"... I... Agh. Need... help."

Something seems to respond to her plea as her body starts to morph and alter itself. Her fur started matting itself down into something more like scales, and her body became sturdier. She had done this several times before, yet each time, each "adaptation" was a shock and usually made her feel sick. And each time, it was nauseating in its own unique way. Her center of mass kept shifting, almost swaying as dropped lower on her heavier body, and her muscles felt stiff, almost crystal-like as they hardened and defined themselves. Thina steadies herself, her body now sturdier, her mane and belly now sharpened into scales. She steps back and drops herself down into a low defensive stance, bearing her new armor towards the spiders.

"Okay... steady... like you practiced..."

That is to say, delay this action until everyone else has moved. If the Iti SSpider2 behind Thina is dead by then, move to G5 then down to G6. If it's not dead, stay put. Either way, defend after that.

Thina then spends her 1 new skill point in coolness. You know, to get more room drops and faster active item recharge.

RP: Wilson -- RE: Ire and Tazz

Wilson stays tensely in place, apparently not taking the whole 'spider prank' very well, but to be fair, he really does not like spiders. All his fur is still standing on end, certainly not helping him appear any less fluffy. ... Hm. Despite being a desert species of fox, Wilson seems to always be quite fluffy.

Wilson keeps holding still as Ette approaches, but as he feels Ette petting him, he shakes himself off and backs away a little out of reach. He's far too on edge to want to be pet.

"Oh- I... Hello. Please don't... pet me. I don't... Eh..."

He sighs, looking Maria up and down, but still shooting glances at the plushie.

"Oh yes. I'm sure... I'm sure it was very funny. Very funny indeed."

With narrowed eyes, he looks at each of the four cats, all of which are probably bigger than him. When Maria is done introducing her band, he returns to her original question.

"My... my name is Wilson. I'm here because..."

He was going to say "because I'm Talist's most popular character", but then he pauses, remembering that it's rather rude to force meta/4th wall stuff onto other people's characters. Different people tend to have wildly different attitudes towards that.

"I'm... here because I know there's something very important in this place. I don't know exactly what, but I'm not going to go trouncing into a den full of spiders in the hopes of finding out what."

He seems to growl slightly as he looks in the direction of the Spider's Roost, but then he realizes something.

"Oh, I never asked your name," Wilson says to Ette, "You're not... involved in this. I'm sorry. I just... don't... anything now."