Chibi Nia walks over to R9 and shakes Crya awake.
Nngh...no-help...hell-AIEEE!
Oh hey there little buddy, man I was having the worst nightmare!
Soulja Nia salutes and then retreats to S9.

Hrm, well, this is one way to save myself...
FEEL THE COLD!

Crya casts Cold Snap, freezing NaClestial, Floofknight 1, and Salt Wyvern 2.

Acting after Venia, Irongutta uses one of the Air El-Ite Knives to finish off Spark Robe 1. He then moves to O10, activating Unstoppable Force! He then attacks Spark Robe 2.

Retconnnnssss

Just scaling back some less-than-stellar elements of RP. Venia's getting a story nerfbat. The highlights:

-Venia no longer uses Operation. She understands the basic principals and may perhaps pursue them further, but she can't use it offensively as she has, so she's about equal to most Descendants in that regard. Affidavit Adjudication is instead performed with a combination of Pulchritude and... A combat-modified version of Venia's reality-warping hair dyeing machine that she gave to Nia. it still dyes hair don't worry
-Venia's tech level is somewhat less ridiculous. Any degree of reality warping is now 'obscene wealth' as opposed to 'fancy house.' (Venia's wealth levels remain the same.)
-Venia's alternate form's power has been scaled back some. It is still a massive deathblob, just for reasons somewhat less insane than before. What reasons? the ones you don't know about yet.
-Maria's theoretical endlist on her special (the Baleful Polymorph one she used on Venia in the backstory) are also reduced, namely in terms of valid targets in non-thymefield conditions.

If it sounds like a direct retcon, it probably is.

---

RP: The Northern Caravan

Venia's excellent gunning is interrupted by a shriek of pain from across the way. Color drains from Venia's face, she shakes, she could recognize that voice in a heartbeat and it was telling her everything she needed to hear or understand.

"MARIA! MARIAAAAAAAA!!!"

She screamed internally. she couldn't scream externally. Keep calm. Keep calm. She wasn't calm. Keep calm anyways. God, no. Keep calm. Keep calm.

"Venny, why d<0> y<0>u hate me?"

... OK, keeping calm wasn't going to work. A secondary option-explode productively.

"STOOOOOOOOOOP!" Venia shrieks, coming right off the heels of Echoss's own words-not that she knew what she said. Her eyes were on the rebels and she was fucking pissed. Her scream was so loud that it had set forth enough of a contrast to make it pretty obvious there was a screaming child not too far from here either. A pause.

"STOP! STOP, NOW! T-THERE'S A CHILD! THERE'S AN INNOCENT CHILD AND SHE'S GETTING HURT! H-her name is Maria, she's seven years old, she just found a cute spiralfloof friend and wanted to ride her and now some FREAKASS ELDRITCH ABOMINATION WANTS TO KILL HER! FOR CHEAP KICKS! Please, she needs our help! Please! We really need to be heroes and save her!"

---

There's a maaaaaaid, in the mines, lalalalalaaaaa~

Venia's Maid, completely disconnected from the above events, looks at Mustache Girl while Venia's voice emits from it. "... Right, sorry. It's rather hard to explain but basically, uh. This Maid is technically me? But also not me. Not as me as, uh, the me you know me as. Leagues less... That's probably confusing."

The maid approaches the fountain. "Watch out, I'm about to feed this fountain a lumipod," The voice intones as the Maid, indeed, 'feeds' the fountain a lumipod by tossing it at the flowing liquid, seeing how it interacts from a safe distance.

---

Shopping!

Venia 'purchases' all the free offerings from Chaos. She uses the Research Nanomachines on the V2 Dodgebooster. +1 DGE for everyone, yay! She uses the Relic Request to ask about Providence's Cane.

She then moves to Omorika's Research station, as she's done with World of Wonder, and requests research into Jotun Blubber, then asks Chloe to fish up some Samples.

---

Battle: Northern Caravan

"Don't think I forgot about you snooty little disgraces!"

Venia acts before Irongutta for various reasons. She quickfires two shots into Floof Knight (applying Unify on the first hit against them) 1, then finally leaves her turtlehole, marching to F14 and shanking the Maorium with an Air El-ite Knife. Be aware that Venia has +20% HIt and Direct Hit due to being in Range 1 of her summon. She then guards because of the incoming wave of enemies.

Her Whimsy patiently waits for Laranei to shieldpop the Floofknight, then stays perfectly still to fire off Elemental Splitshot at the Floofknight, hitting it with all three blows. Oh, right-it does so by holding its wand up into the air. It suddenly splits apart into a ridiculously supercompressed megamachine, which spouts three ion cannons individually the size of Iowa, all of which unceremoniously fire into the Spiralfloof for surprisingly low damage for their size and surprisingly high damage given the action its based upon. This somehow flings another El'ite Knife into the Maorium, even if its downed.

Cute wink. You think it just likes cute winking.

It appears as if Brutishace is boxed in. A slight predicament.

Brutishace retreats to S11, choosing to abandon the ancient art of standing still, and fires Twin Serpents at the third Brute, with his secondary target being the first Brute and the first Lancer if any of his attacks would result in a kill.

He also detonates his Specter Mine, softening the Generator up and destroying any Iti bodies nearby. Any healing Brutishace gets from Soul Siphon goes to Arthur and Nettle, alternating between the two for each body destroyed.

Auth takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. It appears Marron may have struck a nerve. And taken a swing at Auth's (extremely) minimal pride. He breathes out, a slight spark in his eyes, more than willing to prove a point.

uA: Marron... Allow me to make a statement that should clearly explain why your comment was hurtful.
uA: You will learn to play chess extremely quickly and effectively when your life depends on it.
uA: I have no problem with you playing, but I desire that you play properly at least. You had your king and queen on the wrong side.

Auth passes a Dangerous check, allowing him to not die to the brain hemorrhage he spontaneously has to Toast's comment. He does fall to his knees and have a extremely minor severe nosebleed, but he'll live.

uA: (Dear god...)
uA: (This is physically painful to watch. They're abysmal...)

He takes a deep breath.

uA: I cannot remain silent when it is readily apparent you have no understanding of even the basic rules, let alone the delicate intricacies of the game.
uA: First and foremost... the "Horses"? Knights. They're the pieces that can "jump" over other pieces. Because a horse can jump higher than a person can.
uA: You did get the Rook's movement mostly right - it can only move in the cardinal directions. It cannot move over other pieces.
uA: Taking a piece does not merit an extra turn. That's... another game, one with cards I believe.

Auth offers pearls of wisdom to Marron and Toast, neither of whom have any idea in the slightest how to play chess. It's going to be... a long day...

Auth muses to himself that the reason Chaos beat Marron every time is because he possibly knows the rules.

---

In battle, Auth moves to S9 and sighs. As the only person who could exert any Zone of Control... guess it's up to him to limit the flow of enemies. He downs a Charian Brew (Eterna Remedy?) and casts Perseverance - Fire on himself. It's going to be a loooooooooooooong day.

The Wooly Mollusk moves to T12, and pings the NaClestial with a Water Gun.

Adrian charges up Purge.

Laranei does what Laranei does best: Setting things on fire. In this case, Floofknights. Specifically, Floofknight1 at M16, with two shots from her gun. Also she does this before Venia because yes.

ALSO! CRAFTING!



Then, remembering her keychain upgrading attempt from earlier, Laranei seeks out the "Tiny Pink-Haired Cutie" known as Marron. Upon finding her, she shows that she hasn't really learned how to be better at talking to people as she holds out her keychain.

Laranei: You're Marron, right?
Laranei: Nia told me you could like... maybe upgrade this?
Laranei: You know. Get it to be better and stuff.

Laranei smiles for a moment, then realizes her manners are once again missing.

Laranei: Oh, sorry. My name's Laranei!
Laranei: I'm more used to setting things on fire than talking to people...

Battle action:

Verdana's eyes flare with flames when the Husk's attack actually deals damage to Maria. Seems he didn't really like that. He closes his eyes, inhales, exhales, and opens his eyes, then picks up a red phone from... somewhere to listen to the other end. After a moment, he turns to Maria.

"Here, eat this. It'll help with the bad hurty feeling."

He proceeds to toss her a Celefruit Rind, then turns his attention more to Cushion. The Vagrant's Will in his hand glows faintly...

"Get her to safety. As far west as you can go. Now. Fly extra fast if you have to."

After that, the staff stops glowing as he turns back to the Husk. Suffice to say, he does not seem particularly happy with that thing, as the fire in his eyes swiftly returns. A moment later, he steps down to P5 and administers a hefty Newton Hammer right to the Husk.

"Attacking a child? How... disgustingly unforgivable."

Dialogue format dump zone

Hex skates to N13, and then activates WHIRLING BLADES YET AGAIN, spinning around in a blaze of death to O12, P11, P10, Q10, R9, S10, T10, and U10, hitting the Husk with every bit of Fire Damage from Ember Drive.
He then retreats to S8.

A little annoyed by the salty clones of himself, Wyvern decides they need to be taken out. He uses Shocktrip Coating on himself before zooming to P15, using Evolve Strain, and slashing SaltWyvern2 right across the throat. He then uses Riposte to taunt the Naclestial.

Wyvern: I thought iti were meant to be a threat...
Wyvern: Everyone sure made it sound that way, but you look practically harmless...
Wyvern: Weakness isn't a good survival trait. Which is why you won't be around very long.
Wyvern: Let's play a game. You're going to attack me with your big stupid claw things. I'm going to dodge them, because you're bad. And to finish, I'll do whatever I want to you.
Wyvern: Sound like fun~?

Wyvern stances up at the ready.

"Thank you very much!" Packo has been healed and as such, he will lose the power of being scared at the end of this turn.

He moves to K4 and scans Betrayer2. What the hell is that thing? Meanwhile, he sends Beep and Boop to SSpitter1, who just got a nice whacking, and Betrayer2. Packo seems to resent that the Iti scared him so much...

D31 Roll:
3 - He/Him

Candy:
Chara, after a miniature eternity of restless and eventless wandering throughout the house, comes back in a circle to the dining room, noticing the chess game seemingly everyone is watching over. After winning a Persuasive roll, he comments from the other end of the room in an odd tone.

"Ah, chess. The one game everyone makes their character be an expert in when they want to easily show they're intelligent. How I long for the day I come across a genius dart thrower, or a CS:GO player with a PhD."

"It also happens to be the one game every Witch in existence is supposed to learn shortly upon ascension, if not before or during their training. The Creator Witch herself has a fixation on it, so the entire race followed suit."

He moves a little closer, inspecting the current progress with a clearly interested expression. One mixed with some other emotion... Mocking? Annoyance? Whatever it is, it doesn't show in his speech.

"Without any further comments, I bet thirty spider eyes on Marron winning the match. Not this one, of course. I mean the impending, unavoidable match against our beloved Author over here, who seems to be having an anime nosebleed. Wonder which one of you two caught his fancy. Here, another bet: ten spider eyes on it being Marron again."

Meat:
Chara scurries off to O12, downing an entire bottle o' Chairian Brew (which most certainly does not constitute as underage drinking, no siree Bob) before longstabbing the Husk. Hopefully. Being an absolute butterfingers might result in something that isn't that.

Summa stands right where she are, and considers doing this weird "scanning" thing everyone has been telling her to do every now and then... She looks over at the Floof Knight, knowing that it should probably be scanned.

"I... You know what, no. I have better things to do."

Tsar'ina turns around to face Ette right next to her.

"Hey, I need you to "scan" those... Fluffy knights for me. Alright, thanks, I'll go over there and kill things. Thanks!"

And with that, Tsar'ina runs over to R15, the Silver Maria in hand.

"I'm a universe away from home, and you little creeps still follow me around! Impressive, but it won't save you!"

Instead of using her comically large sword, Tsar'ina snaps with her free hand, and sends a Flicker of Insanity towards SSpider1. With this, she commands SSpider1 to take out SSpider2. It may take away from of her MP, but seeing the two spiders fight it out is definitely worth it!

Action - Thina - North Caravan

Thina moves to Q14, taking cover behind the log, then she meditates.

Turns out you can't move and meditate. ... Just meditate then.

Crouching low to the ground, she feels her body shifting again. There was... a lot of fire around here, which meant she could use a gene adapted to hot climates. ... And somehow, being adapted to hot climates meant resistance to literal fire. As she crouched there, lines of scarlet energy run through her armor. Her muscles condense and shrink with a strangely liberating, yet nauseating feeling. Her mane fades away, like scraps from burning paper, eventually leaving her smaller, swifter, and with -1 AC.

EDIT - RP - Wilson - RE: Ire / Speed / Toast

Wilson stares back at Marron, slowly tilting his head side to side in a very dog-like way. If he had picked the wrong person for the first trick, might as well try to play it off. Maybe he could make Marron think it wasn't him. Or something.

"Arh?"

He does his best to look mildly confused, partly for the camera. He keeps this up until Ette blows his cover.

"... I... ... aw."

He looks down, somewhat sheepishly.

"Can't get anything here..."

But now that his act is up, he looks rather annoyed, ears folding back.

"Eh, don't worry. Wouldn't ask your advice on how to play this either. Maybe he can help you," he says as he walks out from under the table, referring to Auth. He thinks to himself for a moment before offering one last 'pearl' of wisdom.

"... You might want to focus on using one piece a lot. You know, minimize any potential losses."

He looks up at Ette, now working at the kitchen.

"Please, Mister Wilson is... me, I suppose. Nobody's really called me that though. And I can,", he uses his paw to make little air quotes, "cook, but that was with alchemy. ... Back a while ago, I was (partly) known for making cakes and coffee. ... Not sure why I made the coffee when I couldn't drink it, but I did. So... I could help out if you want. What do you need help with?"

==RP==
Arthur looks at Mari. "More or less 'mix a bunch of random things in a pot to make something remarkable', yes, though some of those following my profession do hew to the more ancient philosophical ideas of alchemy as well -- lead into gold, the Great Work, searching for the philosopher's stone, that sort of thing. Personally, I don't put too much trust in those ideas, but they do have a certain allure... Anyway, yes. I make potions, unguents, salves, and other various preparations, and personally tend to experiment and try to discover new alchemical properties or formulas as well as the more mundane brewing."

==BATTLE==
Arthur darts back from the surging flames as if burned -- which, of course, he was -- and to E6. He looks over to Taeda.

"Miss Taeda? Could I have -- nnngh -- a little help dealing with these things?"

After requesting help, he takes out an Ultra Laser Pointer and sprinkles more watery elemental dust over its lens, before aiming it at the Cinders and firing -- what comes out is not a beam of coherent light, but a blast of high-pressure water, soaking the Cinders. With the attack over, he takes out a few alchemical salves and unguents and spends some time applying them to his burns along with some bandages, before moving to F6.

Translation: Move to E6, Ultra Laser Pointer[Water Elemental Reagent] on the Cinders, First Aid self, retreat to F6.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED AND SEVENTY>

To start, five new Codex entries have been filled in! These are for:
-Yume
-the Naclestial (v4)
-the Saltlings
-the Deceivers
-the Floof Knights

Anyway.

---

Echoss does the harvesty thing. He sends his Minigolems to mine plasteel and pocket bones, obtaining 7 Plasteel and 40 Spider Bones. He also looks at Bass, causing his position in the timeline to magically autocorrect. Two more Haloblooms are also harvested, which also consumes a Bottled Bottle. He also slaps together a Mana Vial with 1 Blue Sap Blob and 5 Fresh Manabloom.

Echoss also prepares to go on a peaceful harvesting trip with Chloe. It'll be fun, probably.

---

Toast and Marron continue their game of chess. She notes that Marron can take another move, as she took her piece. The puppeteer shakes her head.

MARRON: I... don't think it looks that way?
MARRON: I'm gonna ask Auth-

She turns to look at the Author. His expression instantly gives Marron the answer she seeks. Marron snaps back to look at Toast, intimidation marking her face.

MARRON: whoa gorilla okay
MARRON: ...Someone's grouchy.
MARRON: I guess it's your turn, then.

While it is unclear how the game is going, it's likely that in the interest of time, they could start making more actions per post, or something. I don't know how that'll work.

---

Mustache Girl opts to retreat up a level. A wave of nausea overtakes her as she does this, causing her to take (2) points of damage. Nothing too serious, but... well, it hurts. However, she instantly counteracts this by making bandages with a Spider Silk Spool, and a blob of Green Sap. This restores (10) HP. The sap stings a little, but it's better than dying.

---

Venia's maid experiments with a fountain. Namely, she tosses a Lumipod at the fountain' waters. A long, sharp-clawed hand made of the crimson liquid shoots out of the fountain, and seizes the Lumipod. It's pulled into the fountain, where the Lumipod is instantly torn to messy chunks. The liquid of the fountain begins to shift in hue, becoming a luminous white.

Elsewhere, Venia goes shopping! Okay, maybe it's kinda questionable as to if she's actually shopping, but she claims the Nightmarron, the Cardboard Callsign, the Research Nanomachines, and the Relic Request, which she tunes to Providence's Cane. The Research Nanomachines are used to research DGEBoost v2! (Note that this won't apply in the current battle.)

She also moves Omo onto researching Jotun Blubber, then requests for Chloe to go and fish for samples. She seems confused at her request- "fishing" for them?

CHLOE: ...Fishing?
CHLOE: I mean, I could try?

Before Venia can clarify her request, she and Echoss are off to go fishing for samples. She returns with a fishing hat, a broken fishing rod, and a decent looking pile of samples... and also, fish.

CHLOE: Yeah, not the most efficient way of getting samples.
CHLOE: Especially since a Seeker ate my fishing rod.

CHLOE: It was kinda fun to kick back and go fishing, though!
CHLOE: I did manage to find a few samples, so... here ya go!
CHLOE: Oh, and fish! I caught fish!
CHLOE: Kinda makes me wanna have some fish tonight...

Chloe throws 32 Samples into the inventory, as well as 4 Barkfin, 2 Skyscales, and 1 Shellfish. She also throws her broken fishing rod into the inventory, yielding 1 Uniform Log.

---

Auth tries his hardest to not die of chess. He succeeds, but only barely. He delivers his retort towards Marron, who seems to feel a slight pang of regret after snapping at him.

MARRON: ...Life and death?
MARRON: This seems like an awfully boring game to make life and death.
MARRON: Still, though. Sorry.

He suffers for a moment as he watches the couple play on. He spends some time explaining some of the rules of the game to Marron. He's promptly cut off by an angry puppeteer.

MARRON: H-Hey, I know how to play this game!
MARRON: I-I mean, not perfectly, but I know enough!

After a few seconds of fury, she simmers down once again, and actually bothers to listen to what he has to say, however un-amused she might be. Suddenly, her eyes light up with a question!

MARRON: Hey, do you know the rules surrounding combining your pieces?
MARRON: Chaos keeps doing this really tough opening in the early game, when he combines his pawns to summon Mega Chesstron, and I don't know how to counter it.
MARRON: Any tips?

...This sentence will probably end up straight-up killing Auth. Poor chessboi.

---

Laranei does plenty of crafting!

First, she combines a Volcanic Regalia, 4 Plasteel, a sheet of Hardened Glass, and 6 Joltwire to create a Great Divine Fireblaster! The damage is being nerfed, though: a +2 on a double-hit weapon is a total of +4 damage in one upgrade, and that's a bit nutty. Otherwise, the rest of it is good!

Second, she alchemizes a Crystal Pen, two Platinum Ingots, and two Searing Clusters together, yielding the Blaze Ring Pendant! That'll be a Tier 4 item... and you can't get that many boosts from a Tier 4 item. I'll grant 30% Ignupierce for this tier, and 30% Fire Resistance.

Finally, she chats up a "tiny pink-haired cutie" to ask for an improvement to her Dreadnought Keychain.

MARRON: Hm? Yeah, I can upgrade this.
MARRON: Shouldn't take too long, either.

As per clarifications in the Discord, Marron accepts 80 Credits as payment, and creates the Dreadnought Armada Keychain! It's just the Dreadnought Keychain, but she's made a swarm of little fighter ship keychains to go with it.

MARRON: And done.
MARRON: No idea if this'll actually make it stronger or not, but the ships are cute.
MARRON: ...I want a fighter ship, so I can rain death on people from the skies.
MARRON: Speaking of that, Roxxy still owes me a pair of wings.

Also, Laranei introduces herself. Hi!

MARRON: Laranei? Uh, hi.
MARRON: I'm Marron. It's nice to meet you, I guess.
MARRON: So, are you like, a fancy arsonist, or...?
MARRON: I'm pretty sure someone would throw a fit if I brought a flamethrower out against the Chairians...

Marron considers taking a few levels in Arsonist. But then again, those levels in Chessmaster are looking mighty appealing, too...

---

Chara visits a game of Chess. This promptly leads Marron to wonder why everyone's watching her.

MARRON: ...Why the gorilla is everyone so interested in this game of chess?
MARRON: Like, it's not a competitive match.
MARRON: It's not even a flashy match yet.

Then, Chara begins betting spider eyes on Marron, as well as suggesting that Auth is fancying one of them. The puppeteer reflexively summons a needle into her right hand. She hesitates for a few moments, before allowing it to dematerialize.

MARRON: S-Seriously!
MARRON: gorilla off already!
MARRON: This is getting- no, it IS annoying!

While Marron's snapped at people various times these past few rounds, it really does seem like she's going to snap a little more violently if she keeps getting this much unwanted attention.

---

Wilson goes about the room. Marron, already rather annoyed, takes offense to Wilson's comment, staring at the fox with relative animosity. She however, doesn't comment on it, or on his advice. She only stares. Ette however, is far more friendly towards Wilson, continuing her chat with him. What could he help with in the kitchen?

ETTE: (Hm... you could... be my tastetester!)
ETTE: (I don't have tastebuds, and Marron is... busy.)
ETTE: (Or if you're up to it, you could... go ask Chaos for ingredients?)
ETTE: (This household has run out of milk. My sister would never let that happen.)

ETTE: (He's kinda dumb and a little spooky, but you should be able to buy ingredients from his shop in the living room.)

Errands, or tastetesting? The age old question that isn't actually old.

---

Arthur explains his field of science to Mari. Her interest piques.

MARI: Oh, neat.
MARI: Y'know, I've been meaning to get into alchemy myself...

MARI: ...That's a lie.
MARI: Small talk, or something.

MARI: I do kinda wanna see it in action though.
MARI: Mind showing me a... "trick", I guess?
MARI: Simple potions or something. Whatever's cool.

It is unknown as to whether Mari will be disappointed by any sort of display he does or not. Probably depends on how many flashing colors there are.

---

<THE CARAVAN, ROUND FIVE>

North: Fortunately, a ceasefire order from Echoss has made some of the Rebels back off! Be sure to thank Maple later, if she doesn't die a horrible death? Anyway, you still have the Mechonis to deal with- blow them to pieces with your unholy DPS!

Center: Honestly, even with the Husk in play, things are going really smoothly. Maybe lay the smackdown on the Husk so that he needs to drink his liquor for the achievement? Or maybe deal with the Spiralfloof Knights, as those will be going after you guys soon enough!

South: Things are also going pretty alright here. Just make sure to not accidentally thaw out your stunned foes, and to kill the Naclestial! As a note, he's at 1 HP: kill him here, and he'll probably transform into OMEGA SALT WYVERN. He's fairly weak to Dark, so consider throwing Dark attacks at him?

Battle action:

Chibi Nia moves first (ie: right where my post is)
She moves up to O12 and tosses a double-use of the Yggdrasil Vessel with a note taped to it that reads "You might want to drink this if you enjoy not dying in the next five seconds" at the Lurejet (yes I'm healing him) and then shoots the Chairian Ranger with her rifle.

Echoss moves after Mari, Laranei and Auth.
Echoss moves up to R12, and then casts Itemstorm. First he smashes an Air Crystal Bombshell into the Mechonis (using the air crystal that was conserved the first round I used one), then he smacks it with both of the remaining El-Ite Knives, followed by a Wither Sphere.
After this I use an Ice Elemental Blaster Shot to pick off any enemies that might have survived the earlier storm of attacks, with the following priority:
Scarlet 4
Lurejet 2
Eviscerator 2
Evsicerator 1
Scarlet 1
Scarlet 5
Mechonis 2

All attacks are aimed at the Mechonis's Mounted Turret first, if that somehow dies midway through the combo, boosters go next.

Splinter Spider moves up to Q13 and bites the Mechonis


Overworld Actions:
A butterfly flutters down to Nana, whichever zone she's presently in (if she's not still by the projection box in Zone 3). It flutters down to her shoulder or hand or whichever is the convenient landing point for talking to her, and transforms into a holographic Echoss.
"Hello Miss... you know that greeting doesn't work well when you haven't yet learned someone's last name. Hello Nana, are you feeling any better, or are you still shaken by our... discovery?"

The Echoss minigolem finishes clearing out the bones in the spider observatory. It then looks around. What else is possible to break in here?

I also craft a searing bomb since it's almost update time and I won't finish an actual craft in time in all likelihood

Hex continues fishing.
...he's using a tiny bit of the Abomination for the bait. Uh.

/ploco

-= Last Round =-
Leaf wipes a bit of blood from her lip, glaring down the Firefighter. The Mollusk swims to K6 and pierces the Firefighter. Leaf falls back to I8, mounting the Splinter Spitter. It splinter skitters to J5, firing a splinter at Sapper2. Additionally, Leaf casts Toxic Plume at M2.

-= This Round =-
RP when I'm not freakin dying god damn it.

RP: Northern Caravan

"You want my attention? You think you can take us on?! You think that will save you? We came prepared!"

Venia's bleeding (in a non-status way), pretty badly charred, and suffering from a rather debilitating amount of poison, and yet here she is, smiling, and she knows she's smiling, the lunatic.

"... Anything for the people I love! Everything for them."

"YOU ESPOUSE FALSEHOOD."

A voice-clean through her mind like butter! She nearly grasps her own skull in pain. Is it the poison or the wounds, or adrenaline, the fading into nonexistence, or worse, something real, something there, an invisible tormentor? Venia has no clue but her mystery mind assailant shuts up moments later, and she shrugs off her moment of weakness.

"BRING IT! COME ON!"

---

Mariaaaaaaa

Maria watches as the battle progresses and Cushion joins the fight, eyes glued to her fiery savior with naughty words. And she is totally enamored-in a platonic sense. He reminded Maria of Venia when she was super-angry, though he was way less angry. And he made all her hurties go away! "Goooo, burney staff guy! Hit him again! Hit him again!" Maria shouts.

And then came the scarlets, and now Maria was really enthralled-they were flying swordspeople superheroes! "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this is amazin', you people are amazing! I love you. I love all'a you. Hit the weirdo again!"

---

GROUND EVER

The maid stands, and makes like one of those windup ballerinas; abruptly whirling up and spinning in place on one foot. Really fast, actually. Incredibly fast. Such velocity! Such poise! The ground beneath her practically liquiefies (and flies out of the way so as to prevent such a perfect thing from becoming dirtied), and so it goes until she hits the vein of Rosetainted metal, which she starts drill-pirouetting upon with great force and vigor.

Battle: Northern Caravan

First, the Whimsy hands Venia a cup of Eterna Tea. She downs it-sloppily enough to give Auth a cardiac arrest if he saw it-but she downs it all the same. Her wounds stitch up and clean themselves off, the power of restoration coursing through her veins. The Whimsey then Sprintflies to L3, skirting around ZoCs and using its trait to fire off a basic attack at Mechonis 1, all damage flowing to its turret systems, with her boosted basic wand of doom.

Venia stands, and moves to I12. She activates Affidavit Adjudication, firing it off at Scarlet5. In an unavoidable instant, she is sapped of her will to keep going... Heroine's Will has been annulled due to a handy application of TraitNull for 3 rounds. This also applies Unify, which is technically a separate bonus action and could be countered.

This done, she turns back to the Mechonis from her somewhat-more-fortified position. She activates her Status Resolve on the Mechonis, immediately stripping it of Empowered and downticking Enlightened, and giving herself Empowered2. She then throws a Wither Sphere at the Mechonis, with all overflow going to the Mounted Turret. Finally, to cap things off, she uses CALL on her weapon and fires her gun twice at the Mechonis, dealing all overflow damage to its Turret and hopefully destroying it.

"Chloe! Use that Furniture Flinger and toss over that big chair onto the Mechonis over here, try to break its turret, or its boosters!" Venia shouts. "Mari! See that Scarlet next to the Lurejet and Irongutta?" Venia says, pointing out the fourth Scarlet. "Activate the Megu patch, use the Helix Totem, and nuke the area around there!"

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