+1SHP
Also please gimme +20% Light and +10% Dark resist on my trinket.

The Holding Pens
"All Cultist, I recommend you guys use the doors at the south or west to escape the ensuing clusterfuck that's about to happen. You guys have nothing to gain in this fight, so don't die for nothing."

I spawn at S12 and spawn a conscript at T12

Settings:
Attack: Crushing
Weak: 20% slashing

Overworld:

Go ahead and expend them as I'm building, that way I can tell when I'm starting to run low.
Speaking of which, the golems begin working on the flooring for the first floor.
"Is there anything you need me for Miss Omorika? I believe there's time loops that need closing work to be done at the Rosen Catacombs, and I should probably head up to help out there when I can. I can keep an eye on things here with my butterflies and golems unless more than manual labor is needed still."


"It is my pleasure Miss Willow. You three enjoy the candy, I'll station my butterfly up top to help keep watch."
And with that the hologram transforms back into a butterfly, fluttering up to the top of the tower where it keeps watch over the area.

Back with Chloe, Echoss takes a few piece of chocolate from the horde and consumes them thoughtfully. Yum candy.


In the chapel, Echoss nods to Chloe. "Seemed like a good choice for initial downing."
He blows another butterfly off of his palm and sends it over to the altar. The butterfly puffs and seems to filter down into the ground.
The Executioner at the altar suddenly feels something stab his foot, popping his divine shield. When he bends down to try and see what it is, a small pillar of rock launches the altar up into the air where it flips a few times before landing directly on top of the executioner with a crunch.
"...that wasn't very quiet, perhaps I should've thought that maneuver out a bit more."


In the Everground, Pionobot runs over and grabs the two trees that Mustache Girl dropped out of the wall a little while ago and hurls them into the anomaly.


Autocraft 2 clockwork boms please


Echoss also helps Chloe gather up some glass sheets! We're out and we need some for the windows.


Battle:
Join South Chapel Battle at E3
PCI: 2 searing bombs and a crystal bomb shell
Hat: Celefruit Mix, Meldblossom Tea, Chairian Pastry

Echoss waits until Nettle has moved, then moves to J5, casting shopping spree (4 water el ite knives) and self-smacking with the Helix Totem.

Nettle's mook sense tingles, and she makes her way to the South Chapel, somehow. Maybe she inches out of the room and just kind of leaves the Iti and everyone else to their own devices. Maybe she doesn't. I'm tired.

She spawns in at W4, moves to S4, then uses the Warp Ring to drop in at O4. Right in the middle of the northern group of Damned. However, a keen eye would note that she has in fact dropped right into her element.

Six massive roots, courtesy of Rampant Growth (and its Undergrowth passive), plunge out of the ground and wrap around their Damned prey, pulling them into the earth. Her threshold increases 6 times accordingly.

Nettle then hefts her cane as the ground below N8 trembles. Megu Patch + Upheaval is cast!

~~

Toast feels a buzz from the back pocket of her jeans. She fishes out a rather ordinary-looking phone out of it.

"Oh, I didn't realise I still had this on me..."

She wakes it up, looks through the notifications, and notices the text from Venia. Her eyes widen.

"Marron! Venia's found the last of the ingredients for Ette's body ritual! I think we can finish cooking later- should we find Omo?"

Crya suddenly decides she wants to boost Ice Stalagmites, taking 2 points from Hailstorm, reducing its boost level by 1, throwing 1 skillpoint into Stalagmites and 1 into AGI.

Crya rushes to Venia's aid at C4 in the South Chapel, her Chibi Nia spawning in beside her at B4. She rushes to D8 and casts Ice Stalagmites at D12 before retreating to E6.

Brutishace heads over to the Iti Holding Pens, spawns in at Q13 and grimaces at the third Chosen.

"If you don't want to die, then you will want to lay down your arms. Preferably immediately."

Brutishace moves to O11 and fires Twin Serpents at the second Chosen (he can see them, right?). He'll save the corpses behind for later use. He then retreats to P11 to avoid the Siren's mind control zone, and try to avoid the Maw's line of sight. Playing Path of Radiance has taught me something, at least...

I advocate approaching from the bottom to try defeating the Vilebaron to avoid all the caged Iti near our spawn, which will be easier to deal with once the Vilebaron is dead and we can target the first Siren.

After hanging around at the Boozy Barracks for a while, Laranei gets an idea. After all, the alcohol puddles here seemed to be remarkably flammable… and there must be more where that came from. Searching around the area, she comes across a few barrels of alcohol, which she… borrows. These cult people wouldn’t mind a barrel or two missing, right?



After that, she takes a few moments to consider what to do next, when her eyes fall on her self-made Blaze Ring Pendant. It could use with a bit of an upgrade, and she knows just where to go to get it improved. After all, she’d asked the same person to help out with her keychain. So, she tracks down Marron once more.

LARANEI: Hey! Marron!
LARANEI: ...your name was Marron, right?
LARANEI: Anyway, I was wondering if you could do something for me.
LARANEI: You got time to help?

Assuming Marron confirms that yes, she is Marron, and yes, she’s got time to help, Laranei continues with a grin.

LARANEI: Ah, great, so I haven’t started forgetting yet.
LARANEI: Aaaanyway! I’m really happy with what you did for me with the keychain.
LARANEI: Think you could improve this for me too?

Laranei hands Marron the Blaze Ring Pendant.

LARANEI: I’d like it to help me resist fire better.
LARANEI: Think you can do that for me?

If Marron agrees, Laranei’s grin widens.

LARANEI: Thanks a bunch, Marron! I appreciate it.

Afterwards, Laranei equips the upgraded item, then decides to search around for a fight to join. After all, who’d want to miss out on a good fight? Not Laranei, of course. After wandering around a bit, she finds a fight to fight in, and joins the Iti Holding Pens battle!

Upon Entering the battle, she heads over towards the Maw, and shoots it twice, then tosses a searing bomb at it for good measure!

[Spawn in @ Q13, Move to N11, Shoot at the Maw (K9) twice, then use Searing Bomb on it. She then retreats to O11]

MODE: SNIPER (RANGE 4-6)

Lukas flutters into the South Chapel Hall fight at W4, moves to T9, and charges up Purge.
----
The Person turns back into the bird, then moves to Q27 and beyond.

Leaf Build Stuff:
Replace Noxious Staff with Vagrant's Will
+1 INT
+1 DEF
+6 STR

Leaf enters the Holding Pens battle at Q13, and is prompted offscreen that her taming is no longer a bonus action. She shrugs, apparently not bothered by this as she proceeds to move to N12 around a caged Iti, and tame the Splinter Spider, then mounting it. Leaf commands the Spider to move to L10 and stab the Maw and then retreat to M11 while Leaf is useless and does nothing.

Nidra puts a point in SKI.

She then joins the Iti Holding Pens battle at R13, uses the Sheep Counter on herself, Power Naps Daskter, moves her pillow to Daskter, moves to P10, and basic attacks Gorged2 twice.

Droplet

"To briefly answer your questions... No, there was no way that was going to get any prettier. On the Sphere-I'm definitely betting the Butterflies are going to do something spectacularly stupid, or at least attempt it. Our task here is to go and kill them before anything can happen... Otherwise, well. Uh. We're all dead. I'm not saying 'please ally with us,' you obviously have more important things to take care of. But we may need your assistance later... I think compensation can be provided if necessary. And thank you for the Godblossom Extract."

Venia offers Droplet a hand to pull her up some, if she needs it, and wordlessly hands her the Clockhand Necklace (the last remnants of the Chronopiece) before taking her leave.

---

Venia, once at the ground floor of the northern church tower, deposits the Godblossom Extract into the inventory, and sends a message.

IC: I've retrieved the Godblossom Extract from Droplet. This means we can do the Ritual to give Ette a new body now.
IC: Can't do it myself. Too busy. Someone else?

---

Creation

With this done, Venia takes the Scanner and heads over to Creation's page, before beginning to text into it.

IC: Hello?
IC: Spherebreakers to Creation, you there?
IC: Apologies for not speaking sooner (or typing sooner), the scanner was possessed and we only recently got it unpossessed.
IC: Apologies for the Bottle event by the way. Would have stopped Mr. Krabs had I known.
IC: I hope you're doing well. Three Glyphs of four on our end, though I guess you already knew that.
IC: With that said, a question. We have the Sleuth's head, and we have his code, clean of the Butterfly at last. The idea of restoring him to full functionality is available. I'm not sure what you think of that...
IC: But we can always use more allies. What would it take to run his code so he can remanifest, spec-wise? Any advice would be handy.

---

Mariaaaaaa

"I'mma go see Venny. I wanna play with her," Maria says, as she starts wandering down the stairs, grasping Mari's hand. She heads straight down to the bottom of the tower. It appears she's not swift enough to reach Venia in a go...

---

Date!

Venia texts Nia.

IC: Yo, I'm ready! Set up over at the Altar Garden. Waiting for you~

---

Evergrooound

Venia's Maid chucks Searing Clusters into the Anomaly and throws more Nanostorm canisters into the ground, restoring more HP to herself and everyone injured as possible.

---

Battle: South Chapel Hall

"Magnolia! Can I have one question? What the hell is with your axe? So many souls in there... Are you, like, the Axe, and not the Chairian? Is it just your Phylartecy?" Venia asks, apparently curious.

Venia hangs where she is. She uses TRIGGER, giving herself Ordo, and then summons a Boss Organized at D5.

From her usual display of multicolored fog, a silver skeleton coalesces, dressed in a fine suit buttoned with emeralds, a fedora ripped from the 1920s if people mastered the art of weaving onyx into strands in the 1920s, and holding a rather ornate knife of gold. It's smoking a cigar, or, rather, there's a cigar clamped between its teeth.

"... Eugh."

Organized (Boss & Crony) stats here

She also eats 50% of her MHP in damage because of Hyperactive, but hey.

Nia does not join this battle, double Heart Bracelet cheese is quite a bit and best girl needs a break.

Skillpoint assignments I asked for recently:
Calibri: Remove 1 HP skillpoint, add 2 STR skillpoint
Verdana: Remove 1 RES skillpoint, add 2 INT skillpoint

Bit of RPstuff: Verdana has gone back to the house. He's doing a bit better thanks to the fading of the things that happened earlier, though he's still visibly in less than stellar condition. After a moment, he decides to literally crash on the couch, flopping face-first over the back of it and sliding forward a little, staring at the floor while his legs just sort of rest on the back of the couch.

"..."

Too bad there aren't really many good therapists in fiction. Despite normally being someone who one would probably not consider getting a therapist for, Verdana currently looks like he could probably use one. That, or someone willing to sort out his questionable choice of seating position.


Battlestuff: Calibri appears in the Iti Holding Pens battle section thing, specifically sort of just flickering into existence at Q13. He winces, evidently feeling some residual soul pains, and the cracks in his form glow briefly... Then, a certain charm he's got on him glows faintly.

"...A bit of pain won't hold me back. I'm stronger than that. I have to be."

He unsheathes his sword, Surrexerunt, currently holding it in a reverse grip. He moves up to R9 and uses weapon active skill thing Roris Marini. Something occurs to him, and he glances to Chosen3...

"Well, at least you're probably more on the sane end of the spectrum. How about a deal, I'll help with you not dying in exchange for two things - first, a promise you won't attack me or any of the others. Second, a bit of information... Care to explain what all these Iti and all these cages are for? They aren't exactly the most innocent choice of decoration, so."

Dialogue format dump zone

D31 Roll
3 - He / Him

---

CHARA: First off, no it wouldn't. Not even that version of Earth is aware of it for the most part, save for some key persons who had contact with the Masters and the Neath.
CHARA: Second off... I was not actually born on that particular version of it. It's not "mine," so to say.
CHARA: Mine was probably the same as yours, save for an underworld much smaller than the Neath existing on it. The major differences come from what beings lived on it, and what laws life obeyed...
CHARA: But that is all a story for some other time.

Then, Chloe reveals something that surprises even me, the neutral, unbiased narrator.

CHARA: ...
CHARA: Another version of you?
CHARA: This is... new, huh.
CHARA: Anyways, I'd rather not speak with Chaos for personal reasons, and also because I made a deal with Matron for both of us to stab him. Would be impractical, no?
CHARA: But then again. Marron is too busy overseeing her girlfriend while she fails at basic cooking. Might have to set aside my grudge, if I am to drag any information out of him.
CHARA: Thank you.

He paces around a bit, trying to find anything else to talk about.

CHARA: So...
CHARA: The weather's pretty nice, huh?

---

Chara...
Oh my God.
Chara...
...charges again.

HOW FAR CAN THIS MADNESS GO

---

CP in store: 6

Bow Kid decides she doesn't want to be in the spooky chapel anymore, and hops back into the Projection Box. She exits out of the box in the Scalefused Chamber, and heads into the Destroyed Barracks.

She launches an air blast at the cracked wall, hoping to open it up and see what's on the opposite side.

---

MU throws her payload into the Anomaly before looting the Bastion's corpse for whatever she could find in there. She also takes the time to rip out some of the Searing Clusters still attached to the Bastion.

She tosses everything she loots into the Anomaly.

Battle Action:

Auth arrives with Nana. He flies to U8, and casts Curaga on X12, in the middle of the Sinner group at the bottom of the map.

AUTH: So you're Magnolia, then? Good afternoon.

He's polite, if nothing else.
----

Auth nods, to Omo's response. A sword bearing magical colours, that's what it is. It's a bit more special than that.

AUTH: Well, yep. I put a bit more into it than that but the colours are the most important bit.
AUTH: I'll probably explain it to you later...
AUTH: I did explain it to Chloe before so it's not much worth repeating myself...

Auth smiles at Nana's assuring herself that everything is going to be okay. Auth agrees, having seen them out there.

AUTH: It's not a fair comparison between Omo and anyone else. Omo is special, an amazing talent, after all.
AUTH: Though I've seen a little of what Betula has done. He's not half bad.

Auth nods, sharing Omo's confidence.

AUTH: And even if there was a problem, we could go to protect them. It's important to protect as many as possible...

Auth smiles. He doesn't have much to say about the meeting... but he doesn't have to. After all, it's fairly obvious how it went. But soon after, then... Omo points out that something is happening to his body. Auth finally looks down to his hands...

AUTH: Huh. So you're right.
AUTH: I didn't notice...

Auth's tone conveys no emotion. But from his face... he's confused. He doesn't know anything. He hasn't got any idea how this happened, what even is happening to him. His hands soon start to freeze up, as Auth seems quite alarmed at the sudden changing. Moreso, perhaps, by the fact that he didn't even notice it.

The progress of it seems to be speeding up. A partial transformation, in fact, in progress. His "hair" appears to be nearly fully like foliage now, just the tips of some of his hair remaining the original blood-red of his body. And his skin looks almost exactly like bark, in the same way a Chairian's does.

Although, this change would come to a sudden end when Auth appears to transform into a wooden statue of himself. In thought, total quiet. The sort of thing Auth probably would wanna see of himself. This lasts for all of a couple of minutes until it starts to crack, like a cocoon or an egg, until a being walks out from inside. He looks exactly like a Chairian, dressed exactly like Auth, with the half-vampire's steel blue eyes, but with pale, birch-like bark and autumn foliage. He has a thin, lithe frame, and a demeanour exactly like Auth.

And then... the world knew.
The world knew that the last semblance of sense it still had just hanged itself from its bunk bed. And with every step Chauth made, its body continued to decompose.
The world knew. The world knew that, even on this godforsaken planet, it had entered an age of shit.
Somewhere, in the distance, the distinct sound of a table being flipped is heard.


This new Auth-like figure stretches, quietly, before walking towards Omo and Nana once again.

AUTH: What just happened? I feel like I passed out for five minutes.
AUTH: I expected my head to be hurting more but it doesn't.

Irongutta enters the Projection Box in the Scalefused Armory and follows the path: EYES, EYES, WINGS, WINGS, MAW, MAW, EYES, WINGS, MAW, EYES, EYES, SCALE

This leads him to The Steps To Oblivion. Trying to go all sneaky-like, he doesn't fully exit the box and peeks out. The left was blocked by your average everyday abomination wall, and the right seemed to have enemies that could be punched.

Irongutta was a thinking Ork, however. In fact, he quickly devised a plan. Though, he'd need a little help with this one. Exiting back to the Scalefused Armory for a brief trip, he approaches R-8733 in the hallway.

"Oi! R-8, I need yer 'elp on somethin' real quick. I'm sure you'll like this idea!"

Rummaging through his inventory, Irongutta fishes out a bomb casing (made from an Iron Ingot, similar to its use in the Searing Bomb recipe), a Tornadopetal, and a Squall Cluster.

"Idea is that I make this into a nice bomb, but wivv wind instead of uh, explodin'. Or I guess it'd be like an explosive wind? Anyway, point is I made this casing to be a bit more fragile so that it'll crack if ya chuck it 'ard 'nuff. Then when it splits open like an egg, the disturbed flower an' crystal together will make a sudden burst o' air that'll knock them cultists well off their feet!"

Though after his explanation, Irongutta paused. He seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Er, but besides yer opinion on this one, I need ya to uh... actually put it together. See, that windy flower is a bit too delicate fer my 'ands and I don't 'ave my tools on me, so I think that yer the one for the job 'ere. I'll even let ya 'ave the honors of chuckin' it at those cultist gits on the other side of that projection box!"

This impromptu craft will consume x1 Iron Ingot, x1 Tornadopetal, and x1 Squall Cluster.

After whatever R-8's response is and however the crafting goes, Irongutta leads him back to The Steps to Oblivion and motions for him to throw their creation.

...Amidst the confusion caused by the powerful wind, Irongutta ferociously charges forth to the cultist jerks at the eastern end of the room, initiating combat!
"WAAAAAGH!"

<ROUND ONE-HUNDRED NINETY-ONE>

It's that time of day again.



Okay, now for the rest of the update!

---

Echoss continues the ceaseless process. As the golems continue their work, tiling the floor (consuming 3 whole piles of materials because catch up), Echoss asks if Omo requires any help. She shakes her head.

OMORIKA: No, I believe that I'm fine.
OMORIKA: In fact, we should both likely redirect our attention to the Catacombs, yes?
OMORIKA: Shall I travel with you?

As Echoss possibly considers the question, he also decides to begin watching over the area surrounding the guard tower in Zone 4. Salix leaves the tower for a moment to observe, accidentally breaking the shoddy repair work of the door as he leaves.

SALIX: Hm, yes.
SALIX: That sounds like a wonderful idea.
SALIX: I can continue calculating our losses, and you can make it so that I don't need to rely on Willow to keep watch.

Willow yells back at him from inside the tower.

WILLOW: You're saying that like I'm doing a bad job!
SALIX: To be frank, you've looked at that bowl of candy longer than outside this building.
WILLOW: shut upppppp

Deep underground, Echoss decides to also murder the Executioner within the Chapel. The altar is launched into the air, which then pancakes the Executioner. This is obviously quite noisy! Then, out of the corner of his eye, Echoss notices some twitching. Chloe suppresses a shriek as she watches the body that's been slumped over a pew begin to flail, falling to the ground.

Slowly dragging itself across the ground, the creature groans in [SOMETHING] as it leaves a trail of both Thyme Matter and sap in its wake. It manages to make it about one tile across the room during the span of this post. Chloe points her sword at the creature, then turns her head to Echoss.

CHLOE: W-What... is that?
CHLOE: For something that looks so... developed, its even less imposing than a Seeker...

...While that happens, Echoss does some prepwork, automatically making 2 Clockwork Bombs with 4 Iron, 4 Titanium, and 4 Copper Gears. He also works with Chloe to go and get some Glass Sheets! The two of them returns with a cart full of some somewhat crude looking glass... but it's still glass! 25 Glass Sheets get!

CHLOE: I've never made glass before, y'know.
CHLOE: Actually making it out of sand was... kinda fun!
CHLOE: Hopefully we made enough!

Then, as per the usual way of wrapping up Piono's posts, Pionobot yeets two entire trees into the Anomaly present in the area. 24 Elden Everwood obtained!

---

Toast notifies Marron of something. Notably, that all of the ingredients for a ritual that could restore Ette's body have been collected!

MARRON: W-We what!?
MARRON: T-That's... incredible!
MARRON: Yes, I know I'm technically from the future right now, but shut up.

MARRON: Let's grab Ette! Right now!
MARRON: I don't wanna wait a second!
ETTE: (U-Um, you know I'm in the room, right?)
ETTE: (I never stopped making cookies in here.)
MARRON: Oh.
MARRON: Right.
MARRON: Sorry for ignoring you...
ETTE: (It's alright~)
ETTE: (I can be plot relevant again! Yaaaaay!)

Marron decides to temporarily liberate Toast from her cooking lessons, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her to the living room. Ette follows eagerly behind them, entering the living room. Ette sits down on the center of the carpet, while Marron begins to fiddle with the inventory.

MARRON: So...
MARRON: We have these ingredients, and we need to grind them up, mix them together, and create a mixture...
MARRON: The quantities seem pretty precise... mess it up, and I miiiight hurt Ette more than I help her.
MARRON: Then, once the mixture's prepared, we need to prick my finger, get a drop or two of my blood, and mix it into the fluid.
MARRON: Then, we pour the mixture onto a vessel that contains the soul itself, and from that vessel, the body should spring forth.
MARRON: That doesn't sound... t-too hard...

Marron begins to shake.

MARRON: U-Um...
MARRON: W-Why am I... trembling?
MARRON: I-I'm a good chef! T-This is basically cooking!
MARRON: I-I can do this, I c-can do this...
MARRON: I won't mess u-up, l-like I usually d-do...
ETTE: (You can do it, sis!)
ETTE: (I know you can! You won't mess this up!)
MARRON: W-Who said anything about messing this up? M-Me? No!

...Marron can't seem to bring herself to work on the ritual. She may either need words of encouragement, or someone to help supervise the process. Obviously, some words (or hugs) from Toast would help, but maybe help from some of her other friends and/or allies would work out?

---

Laranei creates a boozy bomb! She sweeps up a few bottles of booze from around the Boozy Barracks, and tosses them into... glass barrels. That's pretty safe. 2 Soda Bombs obtained! She also meets up with Marron at her workstation, asking if she has time to help make an item. While yes, the craft has happened as of the stats spoiler up there, she's still capable of talking to her.

MARRON: ...Yes, my name is Marron.
MARRON: Making things is the job I've been shoehorned into, so... yeah.
MARRON: Gimme yo gorilla!

Marron collects the Blaze Ring Pendant, smacks it twice with a hammer, and this somehow upgrades it into the Blaze Ring Pendant+. Marron hands it back to Laranei. Somehow, its ability to be worn as both a ring and pendant have increased!

MARRON: There you go. Enjoy.
MARRON: Gotta say though, this hammer's pretty handy! It'll greatly cut down on my-

The hammer suddenly and violently explodes, erasing it from existence. Marron plants her face firmly into the desk.

---

The Vague, Nondescript Person attempts to explore. The game is sick of having a vague, non-descriptive person, so it decides to name this person Dootdoot. Dootdoot somehow transforms into a bird, then heads to (Q27). This somehow doesn't make the people in that area lose their stealth bonus. Dootdoot manages to find another hallway. How fun! This one has not one, but TWO blockages. This is highly annoying.

---

Venia does a whole lotta stuff. While this was originally the post I was worried about, the rest of the update has proven itself to be quite long. Lots of you doing lots of things. How about I shut up though, and just do the post?

Anyway, Venia briefly answers Droplet's questions. Odds are, the Butterflies are planning something. After a small fit of coughing, Droplet responds.

DROPLET: Well, it's nice to know that you believe the Butterflies are gonna gorilla us all sideways too.
DROPLET: U-Ugh...

Droplet smacks away Venia's hand that's offering her help, but still accepts a gift from her. It's a necklace made up of the remnants of the otherwise broken Chronopiece that Daikon once held.

DROPLET: Oh, you're giving me back my boyfriend's stuff.
DROPLET: Classy.
DROPLET: G-Go and... y-y'know. Leave.

...Once Venia's out of view, she quietly puts on the necklace, and sighs. Venia then decides to use the Scanner to attempt to text Creation. There's a lull. She can't quite tell if it's listening or not. A few minutes later, she finally gets a response. Anyone on the surface might notice a sudden streak of green light surging across the sky.

Courier sent.

Please rendezvous with the courier, somewhere near your coordinates. They have items which may help in your query. While that model is no longer receiving support, it's quite touching to see someone still interested in it.

Once she's done texting Creation, she opts to go and ping Nia on her phone, telling her that she's ready for them to meet up. It takes a few minutes, but thanks to the portals that Toast set up around the place, it doesn't take her very long at all to arrive. Still dressed in her usual wear, she calmly and slowly walks into the area, and gives Venia a seductive wink.

NIA: Hiya!~
NIA: I wanted to wear something cuter, but... well, I don't exactly have access to much at the moment.
NIA: Maybe I could take off my sweater, but it's a bit chilly for that.
NIA: Oh well.

She calmly sits herself down on a cushion upon the blanket, as close to Venia as she possibly can be. She leans against her, holding her face awfully close.

NIA: So, anyway, what do you wanna do first?~
NIA: Lunch? Chat? Me?
NIA: Maaaaybe not that last thing. Yet.

She giggles as she finishes her sentence, before gazing into Venia's eyes, gently rubbing her shoulder up against her. Meanwhile in the past / future / something, Maria devices to travel down a floor, wanting to meet with Venia as fast as possible. While Maria's slow walkspeed annoys Mari, she keeps her mouth shut and follows at her pace. Also at that time, Venia's Maid unloads 8 Searing Clusters into the inventory, and also throws some Nanostorms around the room, restoring (9) HP to everyone. This is enough to fully heal everyone but herself.

---

Verdana crashes on a couch. This isn't far away from where Marron is attempting / planning to do the Ritual. Ette takes notice, waving violently to attract his attention.

ETTE: (Hi! Verdana!)
ETTE: (Do you think you can help Sis out?)
ETTE: (She's really nervous right now...)

...Something to do might help get his mind off of things, no?

---

Chara continues her talk with Chloe. She notes how maybe he was born on Chloe's version of Earth.

CHLOE: Huh, were you?
CHLOE: Maybe we can like... compare timelines, or something?
CHLOE: Your Earth might've not have certain events happen, or something!
CHLOE: Although, I'm more interested in how you managed to switch planets...

Chara then learns that there are two Chloe's, noting that she'd rather not speak with Chaos, and that he made a deal to stab him.

CHLOE: You want to stab him?
CHLOE: He'd probably live, y'know.
CHLOE: I think he's immortal. Or at the very least, very, very hard to kill.
CHLOE: Good luck with that, though. He probably deserves it.
CHLOE: ...Even if he's really helpful.

...Struggling to think of things to say, Chara notes that the weather's actually pretty nice.

CHLOE: ...Yeah, it's actually pretty nice out today!
CHLOE: It was raining pretty hard yesterday, so I'm glad that it's not snowing in the Old Pass today!
CHLOE: Trudging through snow while fighting an army of Chairians? No thank you.
CHLOE: I wish it was a bit warmer on this planet, though...
CHLOE: Turns out being an arboreal wonderland doesn't strictly mean it's hot 24/7.

Chara also continues charging. This is too much power for any one Spherebreaker to have.

---

Bow Kid enters the Destroyed Barracks. They obliterate a wall with a powerful blast of air, then... discover that this crack just leads to the opposite room. It also however, reveals a small cubbyhole. How quaint!

Mustache Girl also continues her expedition, tossing all of her items into the Anomaly! 4 Samples, a Volcanic Regalia, and 10 Searing Clusters enter the inventory. She then decides to work on the Bastion's corpse, ripping chunks out of it. This yields 2 Bastion Thymeports! There's still a lot to go of the body, though! They then take 7 Searing Clusters from another segment of the Bastion. This loot instantly enters the inventory.

---

Auth, in the midst of his conversation with Nana and Omo, rather suddenly transforms into a Chairian. This involves him transforming into a statue made of wood, which prompts even more panic from Nana.

NANA: U-Um, Author!?
NANA: W-What's happening? W-Why aren't you moving?
OMORIKA: I... I don't quite understand this...
NANA: Author? AUTHOR?

She begins to knock on the statue, shaking it around in an attempt to revive him. Soon enough though, the statue "hatches", and Auth pops out, looking much like a Chairian. In fact, he's a Birch- the same species as Nana! He promptly receives a hug the moment he animates, with Nana half-sobbing into his shoulder.

NANA: W-What happened?
NANA: S-Stop scaring me l-like this, p-please! M-My core i-is bad with t-this...
OMORIKA: ...Hm.

Omo approaches Auth, then flicks his body. It makes a click like wood.

OMORIKA: Um, hm.
OMORIKA: Congratulations on... switching species?
OMORIKA: I... do not know what happened. At all.
OMORIKA: Your situation has gone from unprecedented to... well, increasingly unprecedented.
OMORIKA: This is quite a lot to take in, isn't it...?

Nana continues sobbing within Auth's arms, while Omo begins to note down observations about his body. Two women fretting over him at the same time. Truly, he is a harem protagonist.

---

Irongutta grabs R-8733, travels to the Scalefused Armory, and asks for help in creating a bomb. R-8733 nods, accepting his master's request.

R-8733: A wind bomb?
R-8733: Yes! The concept is brilliant!
R-8733: I've never made something quite like it, but I'm sure that with the proper ingredients, it should be possible to create!

He doesn't even need the promise of being the one to throw it to begin work, but he appreciates it anyway. A few moments later, an Iron Ingot, a Tornadopetal, and a Squall Cluster are thrown together to create a rather small Cyclone Buster. This bomb is then immediately thrown into the Steps to Oblivion, right in the middle of the group of cultists at the door. This blast scatters the Cultists about the room, and leaves them vulnerable to an attack! Irongutta and R-8733 rush in to take advantage of the situation!

- = S T R I F E ! = -

---

Kalis talks with Marron. He apologizes for butting in on their quest.

MARRON: Meh. It's fine.
MARRON: More hands means more things we can kill.
MARRON: So... welcome. I guess.

He then asks about what "gorilla" means.

MARRON: Oh, about that...
MARRON: It's this weird curse or something that prevents people from swearing.
MARRON: Frankly, I think it's bullgorilla. Swearing's cool.
MARRON: It doesn't seem to affect some of us for some reason. I think it's based on... taste?
MARRON: Hell if I know.

---

The lab churns out the Airship Controller! Omo begins working on the Throwlem Yeeters right away.

---

<ITI HOLDING PENS, ROUND TWO>
Reinforcements from the south! Those Wildcards will be rather annoying if they get in the way of your targets, so maybe take them out? Or just ignore them, and gun straight for the marked targets. I won't judge. (Except I will.)

<SOUTH CHAPEL HALL, ROUND TWO>
Magnolia's gotten her buffs up, so beware! She's hitting way harder, and could probably beat Hex in a footrace. God forbid she rolls a crit, too! Anyway, it seems like the situation in the middle is pretty solved, thanks to Nettle. Just maybe destroy the Divine Shields of your targets, so that Upheaval can work its magic.

<THE STEPS TO OBLIVION, ROUND ONE>
Word, this is a tiny battle! Be careful- ranged attackers may suffer given how close-quarters this battle might be. Anyway, the bomb that was thrown into the area has disrupted the enemy forces- the Seers in particular are stunned for this round, so don't worry about them. Deal with the bigger threats first!

QUOTE

MARRON: ...Oh, another new guy. MARRON: How'd you get here, anyway? Everyone arrives here in some weird, convoluted way... MARRON: Whatever. Welcome to the team, I guess. MARRON: As for where the hell this is... this is the Rose Cult's base. The "Rosen Catacombs", or something. MARRON: The Rose Cult's like... a bunch of people who worship a big ol' butterfly who wants to gorilla the very idea of existence, and basically kill everyone. MARRON: Our... "quest" is to kill the Butterfly and destroy a Sphere that'll do said gorillaing of the universe. MARRON: Pretty basic stuff, I guess.

KALIS: I, uh, kinda accidentally teleported myself in.
KALIS: Sorry about that. I hope you don't mind me butting in on your quest.

KALIS: So doomsday cult, then. Not sure what you mean by "gorilla", but I'm going to assume it's not good.
KALIS: Take out the cult, destroy the doomsday machine, kill the evil god.
KALIS: That's a bigger quest than I saw myself undertaking any time soon.
KALIS: But then again, I didn't see myself undertaking *any* quest any time soon.
KALIS: I guess that's just how it goes.
KALIS: Sometimes you start the quest, and sometimes the quest... starts you? That sounds kinda weird, but you get the idea.
KALIS: Thanks for filling me in!

Marron leaves. Kalis stands there for a minute.

KALIS: *Chooses.* Sometimes the quest *chooses* you. Why couldn't I think of that a minute ago?
KALIS: And I totally forgot to ask where these catacombs are in the larger world, so I guess I'm still lost.
KALIS: And now another fight's broken out, judging by the sound.

They run over to the South Chapel Hall and join in the fight there, arriving on square X4. They take a look at the stat blocks for the entities and come to the conclusion that they have some gimmicks that would be really cool had Kalis had opportunities to learn them earlier in the dungeon but that right now are really confusing them. They cast Deep Thinking as they take stock of the situation. Again. Being a wild mage is fun and all, but it can sure be confusing.

Nettle moves to M7, drops a free Forest Storm on each of the Shackled, Executioner1, and Onlooker3 to pop their divine shields, continues to M8 and uses Phase Shift on Executioner1. She uses her trait movement to drag the Smouldering to E10.

The earth ceases shuddering for a brief moment, before hundreds of massive roots tear out of the ground, flailing and crashing through the centre of the hall, dealing approximately (41-45) damage to everything unlucky enough to be left in that area. Eventually, the roots retract (probably bringing a few seekers with them), leaving an area with a surprising lack of Rubble tiles.

~~

Toast sits down behind Marron and wraps her in a gentle hug, the sorceress' chin resting on the puppeteer's right shoulder. (Well, assuming they are sitting. Otherwise Toast is a bit tall for that.)

"It's okay, Marron. I'm here, and I won't let anything go wrong. This is just like cooking, and I know you're great at that."

She releases her girlfriend from the hug, but not before giving her a peck on the cheek.

"You got this."

Positioning herself on the floor, she remains there for support, to help if anything goes awry, or if Marron just needs an extra pair of hands.

D31 Roll
22 - They / Them

---

Chara chuckles at both the narration and Chloe's misinterpretation of their claim.

CHARA: No, no, I'm positive it wasn't your Earth.
CHARA: Unless it had several races of Monsters, and the aforementioned cavern stretching from one mountain to another.
CHARA: But then again, all that could've still existed, if yours was a timeline where they never returned to the surface...

They pause, deep in thought.

CHARA: I never did learn much about my world's history. My village didn't have a school or... anything to make it a decent settlement, actually.
CHARA: I'm not sure if I just had the "luck" to be born in the worst of all possible places, or if the rest of the world was just as undeveloped.
CHARA: But that was in the 21st century of some calendar. I doubt it was the Julian or Gregorian.
CHARA: Monsterkind, too, did not teach history, save for how and when they fell. I believe that period of time corresponds to the early-to-mid Medieval Age of most versions of Earth.
CHARA: Then I kinda died.
CHARA: And, more frustratingly, lay dormant for an indefinite amount of time. Meaning, I have no idea how much time passed between my fall and my return to "life."
CHARA: Enough for a modern city to rise where my village once stood, apparently.

Yet another pause ensues, as they try to grab onto anything that could help them put together their own chronology.

CHARA: ...this is very, very annoying.
CHARA: I wish my hatred for everything human didn't prevent me from looking at my partner's history books, back when we still lived there on the surface.
CHARA: From what I've managed to patch up, though, I believe I used to live in Greece.
CHARA: A very different Greece, one that used the Latin alphabet.
CHARA: Or maybe my parents were just drunk as all hell when they named me.
CHARA: Wouldn't put it past them.
CHARA: But then again, my surname...

After a few more moments of struggle, the "child" just plops face-down onto the ground.

CHARA: Who am I kidding anymore? None of my world's timeline makes sense, and its concepts are barely any more understandable.
CHARA: Curse you, Toby.

---

They lay there unmoving long enough to warrant a line break. Perhaps even two.

...yeah, seems like two will be necessary. Might as well jumpcut to the next conversation thread.

---

CHARA: So, how I managed to switch planets.
CHARA: I didn't exactly do that.

CHARA: What if I told you that this universe, this multiverse even, is but a single crystalline fragment in an endless sea of others?
CHARA: A single fragment that can be entered, modified, merged with another, broken, eaten, whatever comes to mind to the one who can access it?
CHARA: And what if I told you that there exists an entire race that can access this Sea of Fragments?

CHARA: What if I told you that, on the grandest scale, the term "Witch" carries much more meaning than it does in the lower echelons of existence?
CHARA: That the entirety of reality is a self-recurrent Mandelbrot trainwreck, Plato's cave allegory taken to the illogical extreme, where true power is measured by the level from which you can laugh at the lower ones?
CHARA: That it's all just a joke, repeating forever?
CHARA: This is your reality now.

CHARA: I had the bad luck of running into one such Witch. Not that luck had anything to do with it- she was looking specifically for me.
CHARA: I was offered a deal. A deal I acted far too impulsively on.
CHARA: I was made like one of those monsters.
CHARA: An Apprentice Witch.
CHARA: Lovely title, is it not? An useless one as well. It's just a basic necessity, so that I may enter Fragments at will.
CHARA: All in all, I am a Piece. A fine Piece in the various games that truly free Witches organize.

They listen as Chaos is described as immortal, then take a few painfully slow steps towards Chloe. The air crackles with something old and mystical, something suffocatingly sweet and electric and foggy and true.

CHARA: Everything breaks, Lady Elem. It is written in deepest Red. It is one of the unimaginably rare facts that hold true everywhere.
CHARA: It is the same truth that I exploited to break the air within the room and make you choke. I implemented it as a defense mechanism for whenever I get unhinged enough. Shame it happened in the company of someone who had nothing to do with the source of the distress.
CHARA: But do you know what this truth also means?

CHARA: * EVERYTHING DIES

CHARA: Everything dies. Even "immortals." That's the thing, really. True immortality? Unattainable. Because somewhere out there, there exists something or someone that can end you.
CHARA: It's only a matter of whether you come back from it.

---

CP in store: 9

Wind begins to gather around Lukas, carrying fallen bits and pieces along. His colorful, glassy, shard-like wings unfurl. His eyes glow with the glistening, pastel pink of hair. The bits and pieces form a small, makeshift halo around his head.

He stretches his hand out, and a spiral of water cuts through Magnolia and the Executioner behind her. He coughs up a pink, glittery fluid.

Dootdoot flies into a Projection Box, then exits another, this time at the Chapel. They carry a bottle of Rosewater, aiming at Lukas and the puddle of glitter around him. They miss.

The bottle lands on Magnolia. He aims his key-rifle at Magnolia. A calm, white light travels all throughout its frame. A part of the light vents itself out of the key, forming a pair of wings on the key's stock. He pulls the trigger.

The light unleashes itself on Magnolia. He doubles over again, the glitter slowly flowing from his mouth. The leftover light of the Purge flows into him, and he steadies himself.

---

Here's the plan:
- Action 1: Super Soak, south-west.
- Item Action: Rosewater on Magnolia.
- Action 2: Purge on Magnolia.
- Retreat to V8.