==BATTLE==
Crystal moves to L5, uses Sol, and basic-attacks the Old Guard followed by an activation of Dust Blast.
The healing goes to Lukas through Mist's Aid.

Once he's been knocked back, he retreats to I5, procs Light Eternal to convert the Enchant:Light to Ordo, and ends turn.

Pope Bill equips the Creeping Flesh, then joins the Fortified Farm battle and moves to L7. Once that's done, he casts Sword Beam and attacks Firebomber1! (If the Firebomber dies, Pope Bill commands the resulting Malignant Tumor to move itself to M3.)

<ROUND TWO-HUNDRED AND SEVEN>

Normally, I'd have a spoiler dedicated to stats, but the only thing of note that's happening is that Pope is equipping the Creeping Flesh. And so, it is done.

---

JOEbob attempts a... craft? Turning your own personal planning notes into a weird craft isn't really conventional, but... sure, why not? 2 Cryptic Schemes obtained! This consumes a Crystal Pen, and let's say a Mental Cluster.

---

Mustache Girl tries to traverse islands! She throws a chain between the islands, which strangely zig-zags due to the grid-like nature of the game. Still, it reaches! She then crawls across the chain, ever-so careful so that they don't plunge into the abyss and die. Once there, they enter the cavern! It's quite spacious, tall, and... dark! It's also filled to the brim with Harpies. Eep. Good thing they're all quite sleepy!

Meanwhile, in the House, Boshi decides to spam the Cloud Cannon onto the flames that the computer left behind. This manages to extinguish a tile of fire, and also has the side-effect of wiping away a good deal of ash. The fire still rages on.

---

Mr. Krabs continues to ruin my fragile aesthetic. He buries the rotting corpse, and shoves the cage into his inventory. It breaks apart into 5 Titanium Ingots. With that out of the way, Mr. Krabs heads to the last occupied cell in Cellblock Omega. He then returns to the surface, and takes a look at the Crest on the surface. He jots down the symbols. There's exactly twelve, spaced out like what you might find on a clock.

...Of course, it doesn't help that the crest is in a circle, which makes it hard to tell where the sequence is meant to start! Still though, from the twelve o' clock position, going clockwise...

UP DOWN RIGHT RIGHT DOWN DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT UP UP DOWN

He follows them as written up there, but... doesn't end up anywhere. He's not even transported to some random, non-specific room. Just another one of those four-way corridors. Maybe there's something more to the sequence?

Meanwhile, somewhere where my aesthetics aren't being ruined, Maria begins crying due to an explosion. Responsible adults to the rescue! Chloe and Nia head over to Maria's side, with the cyanette picking up the small princess, holding her tight.

NIA: Don't worry, Maria! Your second mom is here!
NIA: We've got this under control!
CHLOE: Yeah!
CHLOE: Although... let's bring you somewhere safe, okay?

CHLOE: Nia! Let's head to the kitchen!
NIA: Okay!
CHLOE: ...Second mom?
NIA: yes

Nia gets Maria up onto her back, and carrying her piggyback-style, drops her off at the kitchen. In addition, Marron's Christmas cookies are sitting there on the table, untouched! Well, mostly untouched: Marron and Ette have eaten a few. Still, it's a colorful feast!

Back at the scene of the fire, Venia gives a quick recap of the past few moments to the Sleuth. She's however, quickly dismissed.

SLEUTH: The Sleuth waves his hand at Venia dismissively, as his other hand reaches into his pocket.
SLEUTH: He mimics the motions of a lighter as he supposedly "lights" a tobacco pipe.
SLEUTH: This pipe however, only blows bubbles. He chews on the end of it as he speaks.
SLEUTH: "I'm quite aware of what's happened to me as of late." he notes, pausing to blow a barrage of bubbles from the wooden pipe.
SLEUTH: "I was perfectly conscious for all of it, after all."
SLEUTH: He pauses for a moment, before remembering basic manners. "Thanks for the help, by the way."
SLEUTH: He turns towards the roaring fires, pipe still in his mouth. There's sleuthing to be done.

He begins to investigate the fire. That is to say, he grabs the Armistyx that Venia was kind enough to provide him with, and begins to violently assault the fire, with the Armistyx in LARGER BUBBLE PIPE SCYTHE MODE. The fluids slosh over the fires, extinguishing a full tile, and with the help(?) of Venia, he manages to put out another.

Also, Venia decides to open her remaining presents. The tiny Verdana runs over to Venia with the present its holding, before promptly dismissing itself. Within the tiny box is the Valor Catalyst! It's quite the pretty sight, glowing a gentle red. Within the other present from Echoss, Venia finds a somewhat stronger version of what she's wearing. Grand Duchess's Robes get!

---

Chloe is reminded of Echoss's home. She's somewhat bashful as she realizes she's forgotten!

CHLOE: A-Ah, sorry!
CHLOE: That's incredibly i-impolite of me, forgetting like that...
CHLOE: There's just been... a lot going on, y'know?
CHLOE: I'll do my best not to forget this time!

A few deep breaths later, and she's calmed down.

CHLOE: It's really pretty, though!
CHLOE: It must be a bit of a pain though, keeping watch over like, a whole seven spheres, some with whole planets in them...
CHLOE: It's also probably way, way different just worrying about this one little planet...

CHLOE: ...Oh, hey.
CHLOE: Do you like your job?
CHLOE: Running a whole empire seems like it could get really stressful, and it's most certainly not for me...
CHLOE: But hey. Maybe you like it?
CHLOE: ...Heh, Nia would probably love running a country. Then again, she'd also probably end up being an accidental dictator.

The blonde giggles to herself ever so gently, before returning her focus to Echoss, her crystal blue eyes staring into his. Elsewhere, back at the House, some golems attempt fire suppression, making use of a two Raindrop and a single Ashen Crystal to help extinguish the flames. This puts out another tile. Echoss also asks Mari what happened.

MARI: So I did that thing where I do really reckless, dumb stuff with a computer where something inevitably ends up coming to life.
MARI: Except this time, instead of replicating the Butterfly, I made a Sleuth.
MARI: ...Sorry about the house, by the way.
MARI: I'll help fix it after, if you want.

Then, in the Everground, Pionobot decides to anchor himself to the island, and blow it to the side with the Cyclone Regalia. This draws the islands closer, which'll probably be handy for if you're not light enough to cross that chain.

---

Crya decides to play some drums! They're forced to steal the drumsticks from the cultist playing the drums, who is then frozen to the wall. They then end up playing a pretty simple drum beat, but to the cultist lady who's been listening to random drum beats for the past hour(?) or so, it's quite heavenly to her.

CULTIST: yessss
CULTIST: now that is a banger
CULTIST: here's payment for the gig

Crya is paid 300 Credits. It seems that the random cultist is now craving a full-band performance. Who could possibly play each role? And would it be worth it?

---

Auth asks Nana if she's okay with him recounting how they met. Accepting Author's hug, she nods gently whilst in his arms. Although Nana is about as tall as the Author, she really seems quite smaller as she sinks into his arms. It's also hard to tell that she's older than him.

NANA: I still do h-have some gaps in my memory, yes...
NANA: You can t-tell her, though! S-She deserves to know!

---

Sol Aeterna suggests to Chloe that maybe she wield her. She ponders it for a few moments, before nodding her head.

CHLOE: Sure, I'll take you for a spin later!
CHLOE: Y'know, they say "a wand chooses the wizard", and I guess that's true in this case!

Given that she's currently in combat, she doesn't equip Sol just yet. Maybe remind her once she's out of battle? EN then stops by Taeda to give her some advice on how to use the Zardoz. Try shorter bursts of fire, an idea which Taeda has totally neglected in favor of using it like a bullet hose. The priestess nods, before giving the technique a shot. It works out, markedly improving her accuracy! Taeda does a little hops as she celebrates.

TAEDA: Oh, that seemed to help!
TAEDA: Thanks, EN!
TAEDA: I wonder why it can shoot so fast though, if you're meant to shoot it like that?
TAEDA: It's a bit weird...

Taeda continues to get her bearings with the firearm. Short bursts here and there, peppering the target with holy magic. Why does a magic gun have recoil, anyway? Who knows?

---

Ette continues to tend to the mysterious boy. He slowly comes to, trying to rise as he asks the girl's name. As the ex-puppet realizes that he's conscious, she suddenly panics, and waves her arms at him.

ETTE: W-Whoa! You shouldn't be moving! Or talking!
ETTE: Your injuries look really serious...
ETTE: Just sit tight, alright? Everything's going to be okay.

The question totally blows past Ette. Silently, she continues to apply bandages and magic to his wounds. The boy then begins to drift as noises chatter from the forests around the duo. Without hesitation, Ette picks up the boy, and carrying him fire(wo)man style, begins to make a slow retreat from the woods.

ETTE: It's kinda dangerous back there...
ETTE: It'll be safer at home! I have lots of friends there!
ETTE: Maybe they can help you?

She's silent as she continues to carry him. Looks like Ette's plenty strong enough to carry the boy without struggling.

---

Chara muses on how to fight Fran. Chloe attentively listens up until she learns that both Marron and Fran are on the roof.

CHLOE: W-Wait, she's on the roof? With Marron?
CHLOE: S-She's in danger then, i-isn't she? We need to go help her!
CHLOE: Come with me!

Immediately taking initiative, she grabs Chara and drags her upstairs (or if she's willing, gently persuades Chara into going upstairs with her), and peeks out the window, only her blue eyes and long blonde locks poking into view. There, she witnesses Fran take a fighting stance, raising her fists towards the puppeteer.

Marron scoffs at Fran as she sees her prepare for combat, and suggest some "rules", even if "rules" are really stretching it.

MARRON: Wait, we're really doing this?
MARRON: Fine then! I'll beat your gorilla!
MARRON: And if I win, you need to stop calling me your sister, damn it!
MARRON: Alright!?

Regardless of her opponent's response, she slowly closes the distance, arms raised. She opts to test out Fran's defenses with a few rapid jabs towards the face. With how fast she's throwing punches, it's clear that her defenses are weak, but word, she's punching quickly! It'll be hard to find a proper opening. Neither of them (or at least, Marron) notice that Chloe's watching from the window, totally unsure as to why they're having a fistfight on the roof.

While that's going on, Chara decides to loot a present! It's from Chloe. Inside, she finds the Discordance Headband! It's made of a comfy fabric, with metal plates sown to it. The plates have the ominous symbols of the Discordance upon them. It's unclear how Chloe even managed to make this, but maybe she got help with the symbols from Chaos or something? Whatever it is, it seems like quite the handy thing.

In addition, Joseph decides to ingest 15 vials of Fluxblood. This not only gives him a terrible stomachache, but begins to make their vision go terribly blurry, and they swear they hear something behind them, whispering. No matter how many times he turns to try and find the source, the voice always remains behind him. As minutes pass, it's unclear as to whether these effects are going to fade anytime soon or not...

---

There's a few new NPC presents, so Chloe and Nana decide to tend to them while they're hot! Chloe grabs her gift from Chara, and... gets a 404 error. Seems like the contents of the present aren't actually defined, somehow! Chloe scratches her head, and sets it back beneath the tree. Maybe the error will clear up on the next bootup. That's usually how these sorts of errors fix themselves, right?

Nana also decides to go open her new present! She gently opens the box and finds... a video tape. VHS format. Upon the box of the tape is a blank label, but there's a note included with the box.

"YOU WILL NOT IMMEDIATELY BE ABLE TO WATCH THIS. BUT YOU WILL KNOW WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO. AWAIT THAT MOMENT, AND MAKE SURE NOBODY IS AROUND YOU WHEN IT COMES."

The apothecary's heart rate goes up as she views the note. Is somebody playing a prank on her? How cruel could somebody be? They know she's already not the best with scary situations, and now they're doing this to her on a holiday? She considers smashing the tape... but what if it's actually important? She stashes it in the inventory. Video Tape get.

---

<LABYRINTHINE CHAMBER, ROUND THREE>
I'd say things are going pretty smoothly... but if you don't properly manage your threats here, that could change! Three Old Guard are within striking distance, and the Hallucinations will pester some of your party if not dealt with! Still though, maybe you could just... murder all of the Old Guard this round? Who knows.

<RUINED BATHS, ROUND THREE>
While there are more Netwyrm Heads, things are still pretty under control. Just be careful, and make sure that you keep eliminating those Blossoms! Kill enough foes, and maybe I'll end the battle right here and now.

<FORTIFIED FARM, ROUND TWO>
Well. You could certainly use more troops on the field at this moment in time. Especially since the Ashstormers are going to begin barraging the farm, presumably with Fortbreak Shells. Losing your fortifications may be bad for your survival. It might be worth pushing in towards the enemy to neutralize their artillery!

Leaf happily returns the hug, pleased to have recieved a gift from the girl, and wondering what Yggcrawler Bait is made out of, and how she figured it out in the first place, wondering what she could do in return. She smiles widely as she sees the plush spider, squealing softly, and giving it a tight cuddle, pleased with how soft it is.

-=+=-

The boy remains motionless for some time, unresponsive to Ette's words as he lies on the ground, wounded and in need of help. The boy still does not react as Ette begins to bandage his wounds, but after she begins using magic, he finally stirs, and struggles to open his eyes, slightly confused as his left refuses to do so. He gazes... up, from this angle, at Ette, watching her in heavy confusion for a few moments. He seems at least comforted as he recieves care, but he can't quite recall anything. After a while, he slowly opens his mouth to softly speak, in a half conscious mumble.

???: Who... are you?

He struggles to rise for a moment, before gasping softly in pain and letting himself rest, visibly frustrated, but not really able to do much beyond lie there and let the ex-puppet use her magic to try and help him. The boy is quiet for a decent while, and some painful memories seem to come back to him. He takes a deep breath, analysing his wounds, and noting the care the girl is taking to tend to them.

???: I... can't open my eye... or move my leg...
???: I'm lucky I landed near someone and not...

His voice trails off as he struggles to stay awake.

-=+=-

Ziah recieves a request from a girl named Mari to break down a barricade. It's funny how now an Player is now following orders for an NPC, but it's fitting. After having meditated, he crawls his way through the tunnel to I8, and conjures a swirling mass of pulsing darkness in his hands, which, once it grows large enough, he fires at the barricade (L11). He then quickly spins around and stabs the adjacent sinner with his key.

Chara is taken aback by the first question, an uncomfortable uncertainty washing over her. Really, should they fight Fran? Could they fight Fran? Of course, Chara was not naïve. She knew that characters fighting against their authors is by now an overused trope, one only appreciated when it's Twin who does it, whoever that is. But what if, just this once, committing a cliche were to pay off for everyone involved?

That thoughtflow is soon interrupted by another, more emotional one, as she realises that Chloe is... stuttering. Did she scare her? Will she think less of her for being a creation of Fran's? Did she already ruin everything, right after digging herself out of the grave she set herself up for in the beginning?

All these disgustingly fluffy thoughts are cleared away by the Thymefield question, and she finally decides to speak instead of internally fretting.

CHARA: Well... hm.
CHARA: Honestly, I don't even know what powers she has outside of complete authority over us.
CHARA: She technically shouldn't have any, but I guess she'd give herself a few standard utility spells, something to make her fit in with the place...
JOSEPH: So far, she's only shown the ability to create portals, and to swallow weapons.

Chara turns to the boy annoyedly, ready to shove him out of the room, when the sentence finally registers in her mind.

CHARA: What do you mean, she can swallow weapons?
CHARA: Wait, how do you even know that? Even I can't see her actions!
CHARA: And what do you mean, she can swallow weapons?!
JOSEPH: I mean that she can swallow weapons whole, what else?
JOSEPH: There's a shorter term for that, but it's a no-no word.

The Apprentice Witch sighs exasperatedly, but provides no further retort.

CHARA: Well, alright, there we go. First rule of fighting Fran: aim for anywhere other than the head. The further away from it, the better.
CHARA: Next on Discovery Channel: Where even is she?
JOSEPH: On the roof, engaging Marron in "sisterly bonding."
CHARA: Why do you know this
CHARA: why is marron relevant
CHARA: what

---

Speaking of us! Man, it's been, what, an update and a half since the supposed time of the continuation? My bad, ehehe. But yes, let's hurry this along, shall we.

After landing on that same roof, I dazedly rise only to almost lose my balance again. Wowie, this is already getting fun. I can barely hear Marry’s swearing through all the ringing going on in my ears. But I understand that we’ll apparently be fighting? Golly, I couldn’t think of a better start to our bonding myself!

Alright, let’s see. I’m no professional bare-knuckle fighter or anything. I did get up to being a Green Belt in karate, but our training was such that we spent almost no time learning one-on-one fighting. What are the differences between fighting and formal karate? The battle stance… right, the battle stance! Cutting away from my narrative monologue, I slightly lower into the one and only battle stance: both arms in front of and the knuckles facing away from me, the right arm slightly higher than the left; weight focused on the right leg, both knees bent, both legs primed for springing in place. It’s like a reverse fencing stance, actually. Never realised that. Isn’t life full of surprises?

...I now realise that I should probably insert an image to serve as a replacement to my lousy description of the stance. The closest approximation I found is this, because either our trainers were idiots, or Google is full of "fake karate."


Alright, what’s next? I… I forgot all the proper names of attacks and blocks. Hell, I forgot most of the attacks and blocks themselves. There’s uh, there’s three attack areas, stomach, jaw and… chest? Weren’t chest attacks forbidden though? Or, no, that was neck, everything above the jaw, and the lower half of the body… Alright, yes, so there’s those three basic punches for those areas, and when you do those your arm rotates. That, and the other arm is pulled back so that it can be launched from the waist for combo attacks. There’s- there’s also like, four blocks, of which I remember only three. One swipes a jaw attack out of the way, the other is for chest… right, and the third is for the stomach, yes, that makes sense. What’s with the fourth one though?

There’s also t...three? three? Three?
kicks.
Whose casual fighting variations I never learned.

OKAY LET’S THROW ALL THAT OUT THEN UUUUH

Okay what else do I remember. I remember… I remember going apeshit in class once. This posh cunt, you know? Like Dave Strider except with idiotic quasi-rockstar black hair and none of the irony. I remember how I once got so tired of his… ego, that we got in a fight as we returned to the classroom. Memory’s a bit of a blur, but I know I drove him through two chairs and a desk- and not even the usual school desk, I mean these heavy wooden tables that were meant for pairs- and landed him onto the ground. At that point I left to prepare for class, but a friend later mentioned that the guy actually started crying. I don’t remember how I felt about that.

There was also this fight on the way back home. A slightly younger kid that kept hounding me on my way home and calling me by a nickname I despised from the bottom of my heart. See, I had the misfortune of sharing a first name with a character from a TV series, except his surname was… the literal translation would be “Smoker” but, due to linguistic differences and his, well, sexuality, the appropriate one would be “Sucker.” Really, it was a roundabout way of calling me a fagét. Everyone did it, ever since two particularly troublesome twin brothers learned of my very existence and started the meme. This fool was just one of many, but he was the only one obnoxious enough to follow me home while chanting it. So, after months of provoking me into it, we finally get into a fight. It was a bit laughable, really. All he did was run into me, attach himself to my shoulders and keep trying to kick me like that, while all I could do was spin us both in a circle. I honestly don't even remember how I won- I think I managed to floor him here as well? Whatever I did, I actually made him bleed from the mouth, but I didn't learn of that until tomorrow. He avoided me for a week, but then resumed calling me by that name, though he never followed me home anymore.

...what was the point of this again? Figuring out what my fighting style is? If so, it seems I tend to wrestle a whole lot, which means it's my weight that made me win those fights... Gah, I have no idea anymore. At least someone will get a reaction out of this shitty half-biography I guess. Someone, anyone… anyone?

Sigh.


As previously said, I lower myself into that fighting stance. Though all this has gone on in the background, my expression is still beaming with joy.

"Whew, alright sis! I can already see we'll get along well, if this is your taste in activities! Now, come on, first one to get too worn out to continue loses!"

This will only be a nice, friendly fight, hopefully more organised and less one-sided than all the other fights in my life were. If anything, the use of precise narration should make it enjoyable in any way…

Well, with all that out of the way, I approach.

---

At some point before the Christmas tree up and explodes, Chara speeds into the main room and attempts to grab her present by performing a Youth Roll across it. What happens instead is her years of avoiding acrobatics training coming back to haunt her, as she unceremoniously rolls head-first into the tree. Twenty seconds of defeatedly groaning later, she ditches the dramatics and just unwraps her gift there and then.

Elsewhere, Joseph decides to experiment. See, both Chara and the old lady have been wondering how exactly Overworld actions work. Or, well, how original actions do, ones that aren't standard stuff like resource gathering, chest looting, crafting and interaction with machinery. No, they both wanted to know how the truly exceptional things here came to be. Echoss' Delivery Service and his golems. The house expansions. Venia's ascension thing, the one that the sadsack's been fuming and complaining about so much that I had to take over her narration duties. Her fault for concerning herself with worrying over a single human, ne?

So, because both still keep wondering about that, but never have the time to do anything about it, it is my duty to discover new ways for us to prosper. And more importantly, it is my desire to get them both off my back. I shall start with some simpler material-oriented experiments, and then work my way up to attempting sorcery.

To begin with, Joseph takes fifteen... droplets? Vials? The Inventory's liquid quantification is confusing. Either way, he takes fifteen somethings of Fluxblood and ingests them.

Kalis, hoping they didn't post too late, will move to H5 and cast Force Nail on <3>.

- LABYRINTHINE CHAMBER -
Lukas moves to J14, Warp Powders to H13, basic attacks <2>, then retreats to G13.

RUINED BATHS

Delay turn until after Crya is revived.

The Reflector skirts around to J12, uses a bonus action to grant Shields Holding to Crya after she is revived, and basic attacks Spout5. They swap their Light resistance to Earth using Protean and gains... Terraveil? Elveil to Earth. I don't have time to check the name..

The Mirror Reflector will move to space J13, use Shields Holding on themselves as a bonus action, and cast their own Suffocating Hatred, targeting space L9 and inflicting Taunt.

"NIA": Those Netwyrm heads are going to be a problem!
"NIA": Can anyone here do something about that?

Battle: Ruined Baths

Venia swiftly hat-pings the Heart Wildcard out of here. She then pops Vigil for Ordo, cashes in immediately on a Purge on the Large Netwyrm Head for massive damage and also giving her another Heart stack. She also uses this time to use the Shock Therapist on Cyra. She then activates Heart's Desire to switch positions with Nia.

Nia will Flirt Spout 4, causing it to feel such immense awkwardness that even though it is a mostly-mindless monster that may not even have ears it will nevertheless fling itself right into the instant-kill lava. She'll then use the staff to force a similar fate onto Spout 2.

---

The House

Maria, upon the table, takes the gun, and pushes it a great distance away from her, sliding all the way to the edge, still crying. Seeing the cookies on the table, her wailing halts as she reaches for a cookie, though her tears persist.

"... I love cookies," she says, somewhat somber. "I don't like guns, they scare me," Maria adds.

Meanwhile, Venia's aggression with her powers finally seems to bear some fruit as she starts actually incanting something along the lines of a basic hidden force-the resulting gush of water comes out like a forceful bomb moreso than anything, hitting with enough force to scatter some of the scrap and ashes on the floor, and probably eliminating a tile of fire.

"Woah!" Venia yells. "... So anyways, uh. Let's just, get right to it-you interested in working with us? I mean, to take down the Sphere, save-slash-purge Ire, all the good stuff? We can use all the help we can get," Venia says, trying to turn her powers back at the fire and remove whatever's left.

---

AESTHETIC SLAYER

-later-

Bow Kid waits for Ziah to act. Then, she moves to (D11), hits <1> with a Calamity Crystal loaded with a Darkmatter Cluster (for Dark damage), and then whacking them. She retreats to (C13).

---

MU backs the hell out of the nest. She's not dealing with them until she has some form of backup. In the meantime, she helps make the chain easier to cross by adding another chain across the islands, securing both chains to their respective islands, and using planks made out of Uniform Logs to make a proper bridge. She then uses whatever iron was necessary to make a chain going from the bottom of the large island to the bridge, making sure the bridge stays up when weight was put onto it.

...Something tells her they might need to make a chain going directly down to the cliffside soon, so she starts slowly going up; not quickly enough to cause herself any harm, but just enough for her to not vomit and take damage.

The Ruined Baths
Daskter moves to H5 and pops twin Bolts at the Large Netwyrm in the toilet.

Conscript moves to L7 to once again poke the bear (basic attack Large Netwyrm)

Conscript Leader moves to I5 to focus fire on Large Netwyrm.

If Conscript dies, another takes its place.
The Conscript move to L7 to again poke the Large Netwyrm with its attack.

Nidra:
Energizing Nap Auth
Move to D12.
Last Dream Wildcard♣.

Echoss waves his hand at Chloe's apology
"No, no, it's okay. It has been a rather busy day."
Her comment on running the place:
"It is not an easy job, no. I have a few personal advantages, and a lot of very good people helping me.
It is very different, though I've found that beyond a certain number of people it stops becoming 'different' and more just 'difficult'."
Echoss chuckles at the Nia comment.
He sighs. "Running it is definitely stressful. There's always something wrong, some place that needs more help than I have on hand or people who've fallen through the cracks...
If I am to be totally honest... I really do miss the older days. When all I had to worry about were economics, and the occasional adventure. Nowadays it's politics, diplomacy, reprimands and making sure the paperwork is filed correctly.
Sussui is the first time I've really taken time off for myself in a while... well, besides sleeping but..."
He shakes his head.
"Ah well that's... something I'm not ready to talk about just yet."

Echoss seems to be speechless for a moment at Mari's response, then just gives a precursory nod.
The Echoss golems finish putting out the fire.

In the everground, Pionobot tosses another iron chain across the gap, and then clambers across the gap on multiple chains at once so as to not drop to his death.

Not!Echoss does some more commissioning from Nia, this time asking for the Hammer of Banning +3 to be upgraded.
In the near future they'll be upgrading the Hydrahead Flowers and sock puppets again, but for right now I'll just do the one to keep things together.


In the Battle, Echoss casts zillycharm on himself, moves to L20, and POWER THROWS the elemental blaster (light setting) at Eviscerator 2. This somehow does more damage.

we really need to get more attack consumables up and running still.

After being rezzed, Crya repositions at I9.
Her Chibi Nia takes a shot at the Nest.

Bairbones post since the update's apparently in 24ish and i don't want to stand idly by while not acting:
3 GP go into intellect. if last round Was supposed to uptick, then another 1 goes into resonant and at the end of the round another 1 into Ingrain- else, at this uptick- IE after the intelect has its effect once- I buy ingrain and resonant, 1 each. Also, my enlightened should be enlightened 3, because Schemer.

I move L4, M4, N4, O4, then pretend to cast Terraform but actually cast illusory trap to make the Illusion of two bunker-wall style walls- N4 and N5- covered in spikes like that spike trap from the crystiliary approach, linking up with the M.tumor for defense or something. as for the rest of my supposed tiles, they'd be behind the walls, obviously. As for why I went ahead of the supposed walls... well, I think I'm past the ashstormers innermost ranges- at least, the top two ones- so I should be fine. Technically these illusions are mobile, but even so I doubt they'll last the round, though they might. There might also be an item use at some point. Edit1: After doing so, I retrieve the Elemental Blaster, spin the gear around to Light, and fire it at Magirifle 1. It Might get stopped by the cover, but if not it'll get'm.

Edit2: Since I'm here, I will also make a crafting attempt...later. It's nowhere near done because I just realized it's pretty late, but here's what I have so far. yes, I decided what I'm making, no, this isn't to be considered an attempt until i'm done anyway.
As for how in the world I do this considering I'm mid-battle and- from what I remember before JOE fell asleep- did not have any capability to be in two places at once justified except where one place is in trion form- is a mystery. I'm going to handwave it as "maybe it just happened earlier, like before he woke up. he was sleepcrafting".
...yep. sleepcrafting. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
(Minutes in the past, but not many...)

RP - House

Sol Aeterna's core thingy makes a nodding motion. At least, probably a nodding motion. The closest equivalent, maybe.

"Very well. Contact me when you wish."


Meanwhile, over with Tae, EN continues watching to see how the priestess handles things. She grins a little as she sees the priestess managing short bursts better.

"Coolio, tha's workin'. Lemme know if ya feel like ya coul' use gun mods, by th' by. Ah'm way better at moddin' guns than ah am at cookin'."

The question about full auto makes her shrug in response.

"Dunno why it's got tha' firerate on it. Ah'm reckonin' it's usually used by people who've got real tight grip an' recoil control. Tha', or th' full firerate's there as a panic button. Point in direction an' hol' down th' trigger, an' all tha'. Sometimes, volume o' fire does more good than precision o' fire."

EN chuckles, then has a consideration about things. Namely, the target practice...

"Right, uh... mos' targets ain't gon' be standin' real still an' convenient fer ya t' hit. Sometimes they'll behind cover or movin' 'round all o'er th' place. Reckon ya wanna try practice against targets in cover, or movin' 'round? Coul' jus' assemble some barricades fer cover, an' th' movin', well... ah s'pose ya coul' shoot at me while ah run round an' stuff. Ah'm armored up 'eavy 'nuff t' take it."

A strange offer, but an offer nonetheless.


Battle - Fortified Farm

Verdana notices he's been pretty badly injured. He frowns a little, then glances at the Eviscerator, then at the Scarlet. Then, he smirks.

"Whoever said I was blundering? I have successfully made fools of both of you while making you assume you were making a fool of me! You see..."

Verdana: selfcast Cure, use Chairian Brew

Verdana surrounds himself with glowy light, pulls a frothy mug of non-alcoholic beverage out, drinks the beverage in one gulp, then performs a MAGNIFICENT POSE while his health restores to full. It is MAGNIFICENT. It perfectly shows off the fact that he has regained full health.

"You can't kill me. I am but a simple medic, and yet my armor is invincible! You'd need some kind of weird venom-coated daggers that block healing powers, and I don't see a single one of you with those! And that's not even all..."

Verdana's eyes flash.

"My special technique is ready! And if I am provoked further, I shall unleash it! The smartest thing all of you could do is decide this farm isn't worth the effort and walk away..."

Verdana's eyes flash again. There's an aura surrounding him. A special one.

"But I'm willing to bet none of you will even consider doing that. A better question... Who wants to be the first one to experience the brunt of our power unleashed?"


Craft - Engie you prick why are you stealing the christmas tree

In the middle of conversations and cool things happening, an Engie drone appears in the house, slides over to the christmas tree in a T-pose, then picks it up, accidentally dragging presents with it.

"Wait, no. Those need to stay."

He manually returns the presents to the ground and gives them a gentle pat to make sure they remain undisturbed and safely ready to be opened, then promptly runs off with the christmas tree to a safe place. Which is to say, the fountain. Then, he initiates craftpost.



Once his work is done, Engie proudly inspects this absolute shitshow.

"Yep, that'll do fine."

The boy nods softly, heeding Ette's advice and doing his best to remain still, though slightly confused by the soft chatter that comes from the forest. Yet, when Ette attempts to pick the boy up, he cries out in pain as she grabs his injured leg.

???: I-I'm sorry, it... still hurts.
???: Would you mind holding the other leg instead...?

Once Ette presumably puts him down and picks him up without too much struggle on his end, the boy lets out a soft sigh, and lets himself be carried. Even now, he was slightly embarrassed at being carried. He knew he was light, but she was holding him like he weighed no more than a child. As Ette carries him away, his previous thought pops back into his mind.

???: Are we... in danger?

-----

Ziah heads to G8, idly flipping his hair, before activating Exploit Breakdown. He makes a fingergun at <1>, and with a click, he sends a black flame of teneblight from his fingertips, exploiting his already large weakness to darkness, and making it even bigger. The key shifts element to dark, causing it turn black. Ziah steps forward to deliver a doublehanded overhead slice, diagonally down and to the left, before stepping back behind the wall.

Auth nods, next to Nana.

AUTH: Well... I'll start at the beginning then. We found Nana passed out in the burned campsite. She was still alive, so we pulled her out of there before dealing with the Rebels. Actually, the first thing I did in that battle was pull her out. After she calmed down, she introduced herself as Nana, and we took her with us to try and protect her.
AUTH: We could tell, though, that there was... something that wasn't right with her. There wasn't much we could do about it at the time, though. When we encountered the Yaga, we found out what was wrong. Nana had been possessed by another Eliti - the Maxim. The Maxim leapt out of her, and she seemed pretty badly hurt, but we couldn't do anything while Maxim was... blading about, I guess.
AUTH: We resuscitated her and healed her after the battle, and that's the story of how I saved Nana's life twice in one day. We continued to chat from there, and found out that the Maxim had left its mark on her. I made her the sleeve to cover her arm, since that's where that mark was left.

Auth notes the sleeve he made for Nana, which covers her arm that sometimes turns into tendrils.

AUTH: I admit, part of it was so that I wasn't going to get accidentally stabbed when I got hugged, but I knew that if there isn't a way to reverse this, it's going to be kind of important that she has something that'll prevent people getting stabbed by accident.
AUTH: I didn't know what it meant to Chairians when I made it though. I learned the message I sent by accident later on... and learned that I had been fulfilling it unintentionally. I decided, afterwards, that I'd be doing it on purpose.
AUTH: Nana confessed earlier today, although it feels like it's been months since she did. I accepted it... I'd considered doing the same thing, actually. And that brings us up to now.

Auth thinks, quietly.

AUTH: Did I miss anything, Nana? Probably... are there any details you want to add?

----

Battle! Auth floats over to E9, and attempts to tame the Mollusk, for lack of a better action.

==BATTLE==
Crystal moves, Spectral-assisted, down to I10, attacks <2>, and then Sliding Slashes through them and to E14, before retreating to F13.

Battle: Labyrinthine Chamber

Irongutta glared at Old Guard <3>. "Ooh, I'll stomp ya good for that one, ya weird grot!"

He moves to M5 to finish off <3> with another basic attack!

Though if it is already dead somehow, he'll opt to move to G3 and squat in some dusty tunnels.