<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED EIGHTY-SEVEN>

Echoss marks down construction plans. Omorika accepts the plans, but before she can get working, Echoss informs her that he needs to go.

OMORIKA: Hm? You need to leave?
OMORIKA: Understood. I would appreciate receiving a reason, however.

OMORIKA: I wish you luck with whatever it is that needs... doing.

Given that Omo's just been given an army of golems and such to work with, she makes great use of them to automate the process of panel creation. Of course, being the one who knows the spell to create a Geo Panel, she ends up putting most of the work in, burning through mana potions and cups of coffee alike.

And once all of the Geo Panels have been set in place, she still needs to create the books. Fortunately, enchanting the books is a relatively less strenuous process, and she's able to take a it a bit easier. She purposely leaves the books in a fairly incomplete state, so that she can set the effects of the books to Echoss's specifications later.

Once she's done, she grabs a Uniform Log. She plants it down on the ground, manipulates it into a chair, and begins to recline in it, resting her body. She awaits the return of Echoss patiently.

He also tells the Chairian Trio that facing off against a pack of Fell Beasts on their own would be a bad idea.

WILLOW: I mean, obviously!
WILLOW: I'm just saying that if the big guy strolled over to us alone, we could totally take him.
WILLOW: It wouldn't be easy, but we could take him!
CLAUSA: Believe what you want, I guess.
CLAUSA: Even if it's wrong, a-and would get us all killed!

Echoss then decides to go and grab the Chairians some candy! He goes to visit a certain Gazyer that's been stapled to a tree, and robs the candy from it. This yields 12 pieces of candy: 3 Chocobars, 5 Berrybombs, and 4 Bloomdrops! The rest is kept aside for Willow, Clausa, and Salix. They happily accept the sugary donation.

WILLOW: Huh, thanks!

She holds a piece of candy up to her eye.

WILLOW: This stuff's kinda weird looking.
WILLOW: Like, it's not the sort of thing you'd find on Sussui. At least, I think so, anyway...
WILLOW: Wonder how it tastes?

She pops what appears to be a Chocobar into her mouth. Her eyes light up.

WILLOW: B-By Helix!
WILLOW: This is good! Really, really good!

Willow begins to snack on the candy she's been gifted, passing a few pieces to Clausa and Salix.

SALIX: Thank you for your donation, sir Echoss.
SALIX: We shall put it to good use.
SALIX: Or rather, Willow will.
SALIX: It's likely a massive improvement from army rations.

...Meanwhile, in the Everground, Pionobot tosses two entire trees in a bucket. It somehow doesn't collapse. Amazing.

---

Mustache Girl investigates some crystals. She prods the crystal pile with a stick. No effect. She then tosses a loop around the Volcanic Regalia, and pulls! The crystal breaks off, unleashing a gigantic plume of fire from the tip! This melts the ceiling, causing it to drop down onto the pile of crystals... and Mustache Girl! Molten rock deals (3) damage to her before she can get out of the way.

...The entire pile of crystals shudders, and the ground quakes! The pile rises from the ground, a gigantic mass of flesh below it! It seems that this pile of crystals is the shell of a gigantic Iti! It roars, and prepares to attack Mustache Girl!

This may be bad.

---

Auth explains Taeda's situation to her. She went berserk, and beat up the Butterfly. She begins to blush.

TAEDA: I-I... d-did what!?
TAEDA: P-Please tell me I didn't say or do anything stupid!
TAEDA: Ah, t-this is so e-embarrassing...

Taeda imagines herself beating the Butterfly to death with her bare hands, saying crass things all the while. She covers her face with her hands. Although she's embarrassed, she still attempts to rationalize what Auth's feeling.

TAEDA: U-Um...
TAEDA: M-Maybe your brush with the mutation l-like... awoke a l-lot of repressed memories?
TAEDA: I-I don't know! I'm not good with psychology...

Back in Zone 0, Auth returns Nana's affections, saying that he loves her as well. While Nana doesn't quite understand what a kiss is, Auth opts to show her. He plants a kiss on her wooden lips. Nana flinches at the sensation, but opts to go with it, attempting to kiss him back. While it's almost certainly the least satisfying kiss to ever occur due to splinters and both of their bodies being rather cold, it's still a passionate one. Even if neither of them know what they're doing.

This process finalizes the bond, granting Nana a new trait: Symbiotic Bond! It's kind of like a Heart Bracelet, but with one fixed effect that's specific to Nana, which triggers if she's in close proximity to Auth.

...A bit of blood dribbles from Auth's face as they break off. Rubbing up against her bark isn't exactly pleasant. Nana panics, and gently wipes it off with her left hand.

NANA: A-Ah! Sorry!
NANA: I-I didn't mess it up, d-did I?
NANA: S-Sorry, sorry!

NANA: A-Although... t-that was an i-interesting feeling...
NANA: I wonder if I'm the first Chairian to kiss someone...

Nana continues to sit next to Auth, fidgeting and unsure. She eventually throws out a suggestion.

NANA: S-So...
NANA: C-Could we... d-do something together?
NANA: I was wondering if we could g-go to the Church of Helix, a-and help our friends out...
NANA: B-But, if you j-just want to talk, o-or read, or something... t-that's cool too!

Accepting the offer to go and travel to the Church of Helix would probably go and close this part of the timeline, and then they'd go to the Clownverted Barracks. Or they could continue with this bit of the timeline.

Time, man. How does it work?

---

A Person:tm: that's likely related to Lukas decides to beat down the wooden boards with a plank he got earlier. Bronzewood against Bronzewood. This proves to be an ample bludgeon, destroying the rest of the boards and obtaining 6 Bronzewood. This reveals the Destroyed Barracks, which was already visible on the map earlier. Still, maybe it'd be worth investigating it? Especially the corpse, or that machine. Could be fun.

---

Calibri asks Ette about potential Mindscape information. The puppet shakes her head.

ETTE: (Memory healing? I dunno, sorry.)
ETTE: (Maybe you're better off asking Chaos? He made me, and the Mindscape I was made in, so maybe he'd be helpful?)
MARRON: Sis.

Oh, Marron's around.

MARRON: Chaos and "being helpful" are not physically allowed to be in the same sentence.
ETTE: (But you just put them both in the same-)
MARRON: N-No I didn't! Shh!

She then turns to Calibri.

MARRON: Before you ask me... no, I don't know how to restore memories or things like that.
MARRON: I have performed a sorta "necromancy" on a Memory Orb before, though... so maybe I could help? Something needs to be in it for me, though.

An offer! How enticing. Meanwhile, Verdana fast-travels somewhere else, and vents to himself. Maybe somebody should go check up on him.

---

Coming down from the tower's top, Venia and Nia begin their discussion. Venia takes a moment to vent to her girlfriend, Droplet's line calling Nia a "puppet" having scathed her. Nia places a hand on Venia's shoulder, and pulls herself closer.

NIA: Hey, c'mon. You're being kinda hard on yourself.
NIA: I know that you're good enough to not... accidentally puppet me, or something.
NIA: And if you did do it to me... I'd forgive you, anyway.
NIA: If this puppeting thing isn't something you can't really control, I can't really blame you, can I?

NIA: I mean, everyone's forgiven me for attempting to kill them, when I couldn't exactly stop myself.
NIA: Twice.

She giggles at herself. Venia then thanks her for snapping her out of it. Nia blushes gently.

NIA: Hey, you're welcome~
NIA: It's not a problem, y'know. I'll do what I can for you!

NIA: Oh, speaking of that... should we see if we can work on turning you into a water... transcendent, or something?
NIA: Is that the term? I dunno.
NIA: Point is, I think it might help you a bit if you're not constantly under time pressure and that jazz.

As Nia awaits a response, in the opposite tower, Maria goes on an adventure! Mari sighs.

MARI: Oh. Alright.
MARI: Guess I should put the head away.

Mari puts the head and the controller that Maria dropped back into her bag, before getting dragged off by Mari. The two of them then go up the spiralling steps to the top of the southern tower, with Mari scouting the way forward with drones. They don't detect anything though, so their trip goes uninterrupted. Once they arrive at the top, they find a (thankfully) vacant tower, equipped with telescopes.

MARI: Oh, neat.
MARI: Telescopes.
MARI: Maria, have you ever used one...?

The scientist awaits a response. If not, she'll probably take her to a telescope, and teach her important things like looking into the distance, and looking at literally anything but the sun.

---

<BOOZY BARRACKS, ROUND FOUR>
Battle cleared! Nice work! With those Cultists out of the way, maybe you can investigate the room? Or just use the codes found on the poster on the wall. They'll either lead you somewhere nice, or somewhere incredibly dangerous. Who knows?

<CLOWNVERTED BARRACKS, ROUND FOUR>
Not too much to say, really. Destroy the Geo, then wipe up the Carnival? Shouldn't be too bad. The Beatmap this round is a bit dangerous though, so watch for that.

<SCALEFUSED CHAMBER, ROUND FOUR>
Only four foes left, and two of them are stunned! Four REQUIRED foes, anyway- the Mirrorwind isn't a required target. Tear through them ASAP, and also tend to Chloe's wounds if you can- they're pretty severe.

The Summa stays right where she was, standing in the same area where she smacked the ever-loving life out of the first Jester. She turns over to Jester2, smacking them with the side of her sword, still doing approximately the same damage as a basic attack (and somehow slashing) attack.

"Come over here, you giggly brat!"

RP: Nia

Venia manages to get down to the ground floor with Nia and unfold two of the chairs to sit on. She uneasily eyes the Relinquish Will tome on the floor, picks it up, returns it to the inventory, and settles in.

"... I have a lot to speak with you about, but first... Well."

"I don't know what happened up there. I didn't think I'd be bothered much at all if she didn't call you 'my personalized hand puppet' or something. I guess it was... I can't get over what I've done, or what I can do, and if I did it to you-without even noticing-I'm not sure what I'd do but I'd hate myself forever over it. I mean, its irrational. I'd notice if I did such a thing. But the idea, it festers in my head and eats me up. I was seeing red the whole time... Until you snapped me out of it. Thank you, seriously... "

You think this conversation could go on a while. But I don't think I have the time to levy everything right now.

---

Mariaaaa

Maria looks at Mari with a tangible glint of excitement the instant she insinuates she's on an adventure.

"I'm on an adventure! I'm on an adventure, I wanna adventure." She exclaims, grasping Mari's hand (and dropping the Gamecube controller on the floor). She giggles and starts heading for the stairs, all the way up to the top of the tower if not stopped.

---

Battle: Scalefused Chamber

Venia's Corruption uses Gigantic Presence, targeting the Scalewind and that's it. It also moves up a tile to I18.

Venia's Chibi-self moves to D20 and frees Bass from his Root. As it has an Item Action left over, it tosses a Lumipod at Scalenoid1, despite the huge DGE, in the hopes that the Blind kicks in to make it somewhat less deadly.

Venia herself moves to K19 and takes aim at Scalenoid2. "If we can kill these things before they get active, the better," She says, using CROSS to double-fire bullets. This gives her TimeParadox to contend with but oh well, it'll be decent damage to the Scalenoid even with the massive AC interfering.

"Nia, can you lend a hand? Try dropping some glaciers on that Scalenoid."

10 The masked person rips the two-slot machine from the ground, carries it across the room, and drops it on the corpse.
20 If it starts (continues?) moving, they lift the machine again, and drop it.
30 GOTO 20
----
Lukas floats to R15 and beyond.

Leaf grins at the idea of racing through the abandoned streets of the town near the house, nodding eagerly.

LEAF: Sounds fun!
LEAF: Will you lead the way for me?

Kokichi meanwhile continues to talk to Eyehara. Is he forever doomed to not fulfill his purpose in life? Kokichi shakes his head.

KOKICHI: Don't be so grim, it'll spoil your flavour.
KOKICHI: I need to get you cleaned before I can eat you. And you also need to promise you're safe to eat.
KOKICHI: If I get sick because of you, I'm going to be really mad.

He also continues to chat with the rebel, now understanding where they are. Kokichi's eyes light up as Arrate mentions fireworks.

KOKICHI: Heyy, that's super neat!
KOKICHI: Although...
KOKICHI: I'm not sure how impressed I should be that you can set up fireworks. Anyone with hands and half a brain should be able to do that.
KOKICHI: Unless you've got a demonstration to win me over, maybe?

He pauses. Something's clearly on his mind. Kokichi seems... confused, almost.

KOKICHI: Do you parents call you arrate seven three three as well? That can't be your real name, right?
KOKICHI: Do you actually have parents? Or are charians planted or something.
KOKICHI: How are charian children made?

Kokichi awaits what is probably a reasonable response to his asking about reproductive charian behaviour, activating ace up my sleeve just in case.

Overworld:
Echoss nods wearily, he'll give Omo a reason when he gets back. Probably. (could Echoss be listed in the newest bedroom in the basement for anyone who wants to go talk to him? Descriptive note should be: "sitting crosslegged on the bed. Every so often he starts to curl up, then straightens up again with a deep breath, muttering something to himself.")

Oh, also! I gave descriptions for what I wanted to the geos to do in the link. It should be in the notes on the respective geo tiles.

Once Omo is done with the golems, they begin work on the house. Setting up the frame of the house expansion so that it can be filled in.


With the Trio, Echoss chuckles.
"I'm glad they're good. They look to be styled after Earth candy, though they're not brands I'm familiar with."


In the Everground, Pionobot pokes the fountain. This is incredibly ill advised in all likelihood but at least it'll give information.


Battle:
Echoss moves after Venia and Verdana
"Ah! Hold on Miss Elem."
Echoss moves to I19 and, having been buffed up some by Verdana (hopefully), chucks an Electro-manaetic Pulse Emitter at the Scalewind, and a Chairian Brew to Chloe. If the chairian brew dupes, toss the duplicate to Nia. If the EMP dupes, slap the Scalewind again just in case. Or just don't throw it I guess.
(please give me some useful conserves this time ;-;)

The clown church
After Brut's Action

Conscript 1 destroys the Null Geo book.

Shocktroop moves towards the Discolossus to M10 to smash it.
He tries to take a couple of shots at his targets with his turret mounts before he moved (Turret Mounts)

Conscript 2 moves to N8 and scans the Wildcard

Daskter moves to O9 to scan the Discolossos

Dorothy looks at the person she just missed, and who presumably locked her out. She was simultaneously on the verge of tears; both from being hit and from being locked out; and absolutely fuming mad.
"P-peck you too."
"You r-ruined a perfectly good turntable, too..."

Dorothy acts last this turn.
She grips the Helix Totem, using it, and expends her stored STATUS beat; her next action will apply BadlyAching11 for 2 rounds!

"Y-you'll pay for this!!"
She begins dancing to her own beat, replaces the MOBILIZE with an ATTACK, then smacks Juggler3 once, then the Drop Dancer twice. If one of them is dead by the end of her turn, she focuses all the attacks onto the other.

---

Light burning, but MU wasn't too phased... up until the Bastion came up.

Knew it.

She scurries backwards, and slaps together a makeshift staff out of a Glacier Cluster and Silverwood Log. Channeling some temporal energy through the staff, she excites the Cluster, and directs the frigid blast up at the burnt tree, before re-focusing it on the Bastion, causing a great amount of freezing.

But despite this, she wasn't gonna take this thing down in a timely manner. So she shouts up for help.

"WE'VE GOT A BIG ANGRY THING DOWN HERE! I NEED SOME HELP!"

RP: Nia

"I can. I should, anyways. Sometimes it feels like my subconscious... Slips. If you get that."

She pauses, wondering what to say next.

"The Hallucinations! You've been forgetting!"

"How stupid can you possibly be?"

Oh. Right. That.

"... Lately I've been having hallucinations too. Its new, kind of after the whole thing in your mindscape... Uh. Most of them have been strictly auditory. Some are visual. They occur more when I'm stressed... They run the gamut from encouraging to demeaning. I don't know if it's related to anything, I'm just... I'm just worried that I'm losing my mind. I'm not sure if it'll go away... I'm just... I don't know what to do about them. I'm really scared that I'm losing msyelf. I'm not sure if it's the cancer or if its stress or just, a thing that's occured and won't go away. I'm just..."

She trails off.

Nia brings up the cure.

"Uh. Hrm. Things have been going kind of smoothly. Unexpectedly so. Erm. What am I missing... Flux Mutations. I need to know how far those things can go. I need elemental power in the appropriate varieties... Uh, about, like. Hrm... I would need a step up from a Regalia, basically. If it even exists. Otherwise I'd need a lot of Regalias of the appropriate element, along other crystals. Uh. Hrm. More Ember Cores would be useful... It's materials mostly at this point, and I'm kind of honestly surprised its going this smoothly, but. You know."

"Creating the delivery system is going to be the real pain. I'd need a Blade Strain, Fluxblood, the Ember Cores, the Regalias and other elemental factors, and other materials... And then, once I have them, then I'd need to stab myself with it. The theory, going off of the only two recorded instances I have, is that I'd first need my body to become 'malleable' to Elemental Attunement, then quite simply shove a lot of elemental power into my body and pray to god I survive. Yeah. Not exactly wonderful odds... I don't really know of any alternatives. May want to consult Nezira on this..."

---

Mariaaaa

Maria looks at the Telescope. She doesn't understand it, but the general idea isn't lost on her-she immediately approaches the northern Telescope (thank) and pokes her eye into it, staring into the northern tower.

"Ohmygosh, there's fiends over there! ... The eyeball fiend's lookin' at something on the wall but I can't read it." Maria says. "Look, look!" She says, jumping up and down at Mari to grab her attention.

She nearly loses her blanket to the wind, but manages to snatch it and wrap it back around herself.

---

Everground

The maid snaps to attention at Mustache Girl's request. Immediately reading the terminal to get a quick grip of the situation, Venia identifies a structural weakness that could be exploited-namely, the ground under her feet.

Venia's maid dips down into the area where the entropic thing made a tunnel, and points a finger at the walls. A laser pointer whirls up, and begins cutting through the dirt below. Really fast. Incredibly fast actually. Venia swivels the laser around the Maid's feet, turning in a roughly spherical direction around her feet.

When her rotation completes, the whole of the ground directly beneath her feet is only tangentially connected to the walls around her, and it would take very little to send it tumbling down. And she does-a swift kick to the floor and Venia's maid descends rapidly, crushing the crystalline shell with the solid rock.

---

Battle: Scalefused Chamber

"No further!"

Venia moves to N17 and activates Unexisting Force, targeting the third inactive Scalenoid! Venia's soul flickers into view for the brief moment necessary to make it plain that it, and not some abrupt invisible force, is what's left a glaring gash into the fabric of reality roughly around the Scalenoid. When it's said and done, Venia just looks... A tiny bit more 'there.' It almost makes her stand out.

"... I'm not sure whether to be disgusted or not."

Venia then activates Affidavit Adjudication, thrice! She aims twice at the Scalenoid, her jury-rigged reality-warping gauntlent ablaze with pulchritude. "Something entirely made of butterfly scales and entropy is nothing! Entorpy is a natural process, and even if it weren't, the sheer mass of it would evaporate those fragile butterfly scales into nothingness and destroy the whole thing!"

And thus it was so-the Scalenoid abruptly evaporated under its own (relatively mild) entropic power, leaving only a few telltale scales behind. Venia turns to the Scalewind next. "With so many spells being flung around, it's only logical that it should be nearly out of gas, especially since its existence is defined by entropy!" She yells, and reality complies, happily sapping some of the energy the Scalewind had. This particular action applies Unify, too. Venia immediately follows up with an EMP Emitter, hopefully sapping even more energy from the Scalewind. Almost gone...

Venia then takes her actual, normal action, using TRIGGER to apply Ordo and thus remove any temporal-based paradoxes from the equation. She then retreats to M16, where her hat pings the Mirror Image Scalewind.

Venia's Corruption moves to I17 and just basic attacks the Mirror Scalewind! its unlikely to kill, but its very likely to severely debuff the thing and leave it open to a proper smashing. (I'm not sure if the Mirror Scalewind will vanish when the original does.)

Venia's Chibi self moves to E21 and chucks a Cinderfruit at the Executioner.

"Bass, move out of the way, Nia's coming in! Nia, see those two chumps in the corner? Blow 'em away!"

Nia's Chibi Venia points at the Scalenoid. It is swiftly inflicted with Ensnared4, hopefully cutting its dodge down to size.

Bass is asked to move before Nia so he can vamoose him and his Fluxshades from Nia's imminent attack... Hopefully after the Fluxshades do some damage to the Scalenoid to soften it up.

Nia should move to D22, and her Chibi Nia should move along with her for the boost in damage she provides, then she'll fire Super Soak down south, hopefully one-shotting the Executioner and the Scalenoid.

"Go Nia!"

Nidra moves to H18, uses the Sheep Counter on herself, uses the Warp Ring to move to J15, and releases Super Soak on Scalenoid3.

Brutishace moves to K14 to avoid being on a Geo Tile when its corresponding Geo Book gets destroyed and casts Twin Serpents on the Discolossus! He wishes he had Twin Eclipses right now, but he can't have everything. Plus, his damage is buffed from the debuff he got! Although considering the effects of Uncanny Valley, he might want to invest into Twin Eclipses once again...

Auth smiles, shaking his head at Taeda's reaction. Seems he doesn't seem terribly upset or anything at how Taeda acted in the battle.

AUTH: Don't worry about what happened, Taeda. We all understand that it was as a result of your mutation, and that it wasn't you acting out like that.
AUTH: You're a very kind person, Tae. Don't worry, nobody thinks less of you for the battle. None of that was you. Alright? Don't beat yourself up over it.

Auth thinks quietly. He can't think of anything he spontaneously remembered after the mutation... not that, then. Still, knowledge that this feeling might be unique to him... it's helped settle that, even if that knowledge isn't a comfort by any means.

AUTH: I can't think of anything like that... thank you anyway, though. You helped me more than you know by even telling me that nothing happened with you.

As Auth goes back about his business, he looks notably concerned. What could it be, then? Taeda had no idea, who else could know? Auth can't think of anybody off the top of his head, maybe Omo?

Or maybe just wait, and see how it turns out.

----

Auth chuckles quietly after Nana returns his gesture. That seems to have meant a lot to Auth. He's just as lacking in experience compared to Nana, he can't say she did anything wrong. The emotions were conveyed just fine, even if the execution was shaky. Auth doesn't seem to mind the splinters that badly, even... taking care to remove them.

Except he accidentally swallows one. Oopsie... Auth seems marginally alarmed for just a second... but seems fine. Auth can feel something plenty special between the pair of them. The bleeding stops shortly, and Auth smiles.

AUTH: No, you did everything right, Nana. Don't worry. None of it was your fault, none in the least.

Auth thinks through Nana's thought... an interesting consideration. Auth seems to be slightly honoured, thinking it might be true.

AUTH: I'm no expert, of course, but I think it might just be the first. Wouldn't that be cool? We've made all sorts of history today, haven't we? Haha.
AUTH: I'm glad that things turned out so well. We've certainly made a good start.

Auth nods to Nana's suggestion of going to do things with the others at the Church of Helix.

AUTH: Certainly plenty of time for us after we're done there, isn't there? Let's go and help out, we're gonna get rid of the Rose Cult.
AUTH: Finally. They've been causing plenty of trouble...

Auth stands up, offering an arm to help her up. As they start to walk off...

Has Auth's skin tone darkened since they kissed? That couldn't be, though. There's no reason to.

----

In battle...!

AUTH: Yup! Impressive, isn't it? We're not done yet!

Auth points to the soon-to-be-destroyed Null Geo, which should obliterate everything. Auth then looks for a new target, on low health... primed to be Liberated. So Auth can feed the overkill on the Discolossus.

Auth downs a Manavial, moving to N12 around the Discolossus' ZoC, and then casts Liberation on the Juggler2. That thorn in everyone's side. Auth directs the Healing, in the form of a Clerical Error, into Discolossus' face.

Calibri considers things.

"...Maybe. I'll think about it for a bit. Would probably go for it right away, but one, I'm pretty sure that particular bit of necromancy... pseudo-necromancy? Either way, it didn't quite work out as positively as intended, and two... well, I'll put it like this: if this condition gets to the point where necromancy is the best way forward, there are definitely worse things happening."

There's a pause.

"That being said, I don't have any better ideas, so... shoot, I guess? Not literally, of course. Mercy kills are against company policy."


Meanwhile in battle, Verdana is doing things. Namely, using a Helix Totem charge on Echoss, then running off to H20 and sending a Cure over to Nia. It might be important for me to specify he's doing this before Nia's move, just in case. Also that he still seems... quite out-of-it.

"...There..."

Meanwhile, is the Scalewind still alive? If so, Soldier Chibi Nia waddles to G19 and fires at it. Is it dead? Then is Scalenoid1 or the Executioner still alive? If so, Soldier Chibi Nia waddles to E20 to pick off whichever one is alive (whichever has lower health if both), then retreats to F20. If everything of note is dead, she instead curls up and takes a nap on the floor.

Dialogue format dump zone

Kalis will move to L6 and fire another Chaos Bolt at the Discolossus. No Loaded Spellbook boost this time, but still tons of miscellaneous buffs.

Battle: Scalefused Chamber
Irongutta moves to I18, activating Unstoppable Force with a total bonus of 25% extra damage! He then basic attacks the Scalewind if it is still alive.

Piggo charges in to I16 and attacks the Mirror Scalewind with the fury of 30-50 sapsqueals.

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED EIGHTY-EIGHT>

MARRON: Trick or treat...?
MARRON: No, wait. The sentence is "Happy Halloween" or something.
MARRON: Uh.
MARRON: Ahem.

MARRON: Happy Halloween!

MARRON: ...
MARRON: Give me treats or I'll break your... feets.
MARRON: Yeah.
CHAOS: go[t][t]em

---

Person™ rips a machine from the ground! They smash this into the corpse in the room, which doesn't really react to being bashed. The man is then locked into an infinite loop, causing him to violently [something] himself across this plane of existence. He'll probably be okay, though.

---

Kokichi talks to a quiche and a rebel. The quiche is told to be less grim, as it'll ruin his taste. It immediately lightens up.

EYEHARA: oh, okay
EYEHARA: i don't think emotions translate to flavor but maybe it's different with me

EYEHARA: i'm 100% safe to eat trust me though
EYEHARA: i was made with only the finest items
EYEHARA: except i'm not actually sure what i'm made of
EYEHARA: but it's the finest stuff

He also talks with R-8733. Kokichi asks for a demonstration to win him over, but he declines.

R-8733: Oh, I'd love to show you something, but performing anything sufficiently fancy would be an incredible safety hazard!
R-8733: Remember, kids! Safety is cool!

He then asks some random questions. Is R-8733 your actual name? Does he have parents? How are babies made?

R-8733: R-8733 is an identification number, but I think being called that is artsy.
R-8733: No, you may not know my name.

R-8733: Also, I have parents.
R-8733: Also, new Chairians are made by...
R-8733: ...holding hands, and something else?
R-8733: There's a priestess somewhere. Try talking to her?
R-8733: I dunno much about our biological processes.
R-8733: I just sorta... "am".

Also around the same time, Leaf asks Nia to lead the way to the abandoned town streets! The wizard giggles.

NIA: Oh, it's not too hard to find!
NIA: Go two minutes south of our base, and you'll be there! Give or take a few meters.

Nonetheless, she guides Leaf to the street anyway, riding her spider Eggo all the while. Perhaps its time to race?

---

Echoss... does a bit of stuff. Like, it's really small. First, he properly sets the Geo Books, probably goes a bit insane, and also continues work on the frame of the house. Some of the outline becomes walls. He also notes to the Chairian Trio that the candy he's found is likely styled after earth candy.

WILLOW: They have this stuff on Earth, too?
WILLOW: I wanna try some Earth candy. That'd be great!
SALIX: Perhaps it'd be fun.
SALIX: Obtaining some would be incredibly unlikely, though.

Little does he know that somebody's probably going to break their back getting some. Or making Chloe do it. Speaking of Chloe, back at the House, she returns from her little break downstairs, her eyes full of energy once again.

CHLOE: Heya! I'm back!
CHLOE: Hopefully, my break wasn't too taxing on you, Echoss.
CHLOE: Anyway, I'll be happy to take requests once again~

Down in the Everground, Echoss pokes a fountain. It doesn't attempt to devour / murder / [DATA EXPUNGED] / owo him, so that's cool.

---

Mustache Girl creates an Ice staff! This uses a Glacier Cluster and a Silverwood Log. It lasts for roughly two blasts- one shot against the burnt tree up above, and a ray of frost against the Bastion! The ray of frost deals (9) damage. The blast that hit the tree above causes it to smash into the Bastion, cracking its crystal shell for (14) damage! In response, the Bastion doesn't attack just yet! Instead, a radiant flame engulfs its body, and a series of Searing Clusters grow across the exposed parts of its body, massively increasing its defense! You'll need to shatter the crystal shell to properly damage it- any ideas?

---

Venia continues her talk with Nia. She mentions how she's been having hallucinations as of late. Nia takes Venia's hands in hers, her emerald eyes gazing directly into Venia's.

NIA: Maybe it is just stress.
NIA: You've done so much over the past few days... hell, even the past few hours.
NIA: Out of everyone here, I'd say you've earned a break the most.
NIA: Even just an hour or two of rest might help you take your mind off things.

...Nia's stomach rumbles, as if perfectly on cue. The wizard giggles.

NIA: We could get some grub, too~

The two of them then get to discussing the cure. Venia notes that she needs flux mutations, elemental power, ember cores, and a few things to make a delivery system. Nia ponders this.

NIA: Uh, that sounds... tough.
NIA: We could probably chat with Chloe, and see if she can go and hunt some things for us!
NIA: Like, she could track down a group of Embers, or something. Then we can join her and beat them up!
NIA: Or... maybe the people in that big ol' Everground place might find some Regalia's for you?
NIA: Or maybe we could grow a few in that farm of ours! I mean, we'd probably need to upgrade it first, but its an idea!

NIA: Also... i-is the process really that potentially lethal?
NIA: I-I mean, I'd go through with it anyway because I-I know there's not much in the way of other options for you...
NIA: ...B-But obviously, I wouldn't w-want to lose you...

Nia trails off. A tinge of gloom mixes with the silence of the air. Meanwhile, in the opposite tower, Maria plays with a telescope! She points out to Mari that there's something written on the northern tower.

MARI: ...There is?
MARI: Huh. Good eye.
MARI: Here, lemme take a look...

Mari takes the telescope from Maria for a moment, and scrys the wall.

MARI: It reads...
MARI: "EYES EYES WINGS WINGS MAW MAW EYES WINGS MAW EYES SCALE."
MARI: ...Yeah, what the goril- erm, frick?
MARI: That's... a bit weird.
MARI: Maybe it's helpful.

Mari then watches as Maria's blanket almost gets caught in the wind and flies away. She sighs, then pulls out something from her bag.

MARI: Here. I have some cable.
MARI: I can tie the blanket to you so that it won't fly off if the wind gets it.
MARI: Would you like that? I can like, tie it around your arms or neck so you can have a cape blanket or something.
MARI: It'd be stylish.

While Maria tackles what might be an incredibly hard question, Venia's Maid in the Everground launches an assault on Crystal Bastion! She burrows through the ground, sending a gigantic pillar of rock down onto the Bastion! The rock pillar shatters, dealing a solid (19) damage to the Bastion, whilst also cracking a segment of shell! A rock platform forms on the back of the Bastion, slowing it down. It'll probably take a bit more to damage the Bastion now- there's likely only so many heavy things you can drop on it!

---

Auth reassures Taeda that everything's fine. Though she went crazy during battle, he notes that the party knows it was a result of the mutations that she underwent, and that nobody would think less of her. The priestess's hands slowly drop from her face, which is also slowly losing its earlier all-consuming blush.

TAEDA: I-I... I guess that makes sense.
TAEDA: We don't really know what mutations can do to people, do we?
TAEDA: A-Although, hopefully nobody holds the whole... g-going crazy thing against me, or anything.
TAEDA: Thanks, Auth!

Then, to her surprise, Auth thanks her for noting that she felt nothing special.

TAEDA: Huh? Does it really help that much?
TAEDA: You're welcome, though.

Back at the House, Auth continues with Nana. Auth accidentally eats one of Nana's splinters, causing the source of said splinters to freak out a bit.

NANA: D-Did you j-just eat me?
NANA: I-I mean, i-it was only a small piece, b-but... t-that's...
NANA: A-Ah...

Nana covers her face, her cheeks clearly flush with emotion. And yet, she still seems to be smiling a bit.

NANA: T-That's probably indecent, y-you know!
NANA: I mean, I-I don't know i-if it is, b-but there's p-probably something wrong with that!
NANA: U-Um...
NANA: Y-You're not going to c-choke on me, a-are you?

The GM facepalms at what might be a somewhat suggestive line, but oh well. Anyway, Auth notes that their kiss might've been a historical first. The apothecary smiles gently.

NANA: Y-You really think s-so?
NANA: That'd be nice... b-but I'm not sure if I-I could take being put i-into the history books!
NANA: O-Or becoming famous, f-for that matter...

Nana then happily takes Auth's hand as they go off to go beat up some Rose Cultists. Combat couples. The best kind of couple.

---

Calibri notes that Necromancy is probably a bad idea to Marron, who seems miffed.

MARRON: Hey, I'm sure I could make the necromancy thing work way better this time!
MARRON: I'm like, at least fifty percent more competent now!
CHAOS: fif[t]y per[c]en[t] of zero is s[t]ill zero-

Marron spins and with one furious swing, bashes Chaos's skull(?) in with Therma, causing him to flop onto the ground. He gives a thumbs up as he slinks back into the ground, vanishing back to his shop as abruptly as he appeared. The puppeteer sighs as she plants a tiny gravestone where Chaos sank into.

MARRON: gorillaing jackgorilla, sneaking up on me like that...
MARRON: Who does he think he is, anyway!?

---

<CLOWNVERTED BARRACKS, ROUND FIVE>
Battle cleared! While there were a few hiccups in that last round, there were too few foes to realistically continue the battle. So, it ended! Great work! With the room cleared out, you can... well, there's not much to look at in this one. Still, using information obtained from the other battles, perhaps you can begin to move forward inside the Rose Cult's base?

<SCALEFUSED CHAMBER, ROUND FIVE>
Battle cleared! Magnolia wasn't so bad, was she? Anyway, you could probably make great use of the Projection Box to advance forward... somewhere! You'll need a code, though. And a plan, because who knows where this will lead you? Probably nowhere good. We'll see, though! You remember how to use it... right?

+1 to HP.
----
dispel.

The Person™ de-hardlights, dropping the machine on the corpse one last time. Beneath the hard-light facade of the masked person is a small drone, its form slightly, yet constantly shifting. This time, it turns into a robotic crow.

It flies out of the Rosen Catacombs, and begins to circle around the Northern Tower.
Light shines from its eyes for a moment. It continues its course through the Spider's Roost, and finally, returns to the form of the masked person as they enter the Observation Outpost. They approach the Projection Box.

eyes, eyes, wings, wings, maw, maw, eyes, wings, maw, eyes, scale
----
/WIP

Respec:
I spend my 3 skillpoints to grab the Worshipper perk.

Overworld actions:
The golems continue working on the house and set up more of the walls. They're very meticulous, or maybe that's just being a bit slower normally. Who knows?

With the trio.
"Hmm... Well I have access to a few brands recognizeable on Earth. It would probably take a bit of frabricator tinkering to have any that's properly the same..." Echoss's train of thought meanders off.

Chloe returns to find that Echoss is not, in fact, around. Though judging by the state of the collection forms he pretty much kept up with the requests anyways.

In the Everground, Piono tries to scoop out some of the liquid in the fountain. This might get more of a reaction?

Because time shenanigans Echoss is also in Zone 4.5. He checks up on Chloe and Nia
"Are you two doing alright?"


Also craftpost and NPC services?

Zippity zat, its time to stat.
Ace in the Hole (loaded with Deep Thinking)
-3 INT.
-1 MMP.

I'll keep Limit Breaker purely because it'd be a pain to change.

CRYA: Ey handshome youre loo- bluh that is STRONG!
Crya puts one point into AGI before searching the room opposite of the Boozy Barracks.