Battle: Amidst the Clouds

"Oh, hey, Hersilia!" Venia shouts, drawing attention to herself. "Actually, uh, we need to see Acacia pretty soon. We discovered this, this, uh, this expensive magical treatment that could be, uh, be used to give Acacia her body back free of burns! I mean. Uh. It's not a mass-replicateable thing, it uh, it needs like godblossom extract and all sorts of valuable stuff, but we, uh, we happen to have enough for her!" Venia shouts.

"If you want us to, uh, actually help her for once, stand down! Otherwise, well, uh, you remember how our duel went, and like, I'd say you probably got closer than a lot of others have to, to pushing us to our limit, and we've improved a lot since then. Have you heard what we did to the Rebels? They're short a member of their own high command and a tank, now!"

Venia moves to AB9 thanks to the teleporter, while her Vic Viper trails behind her moving to AA9. Vic Viper takes a shot at the Morph and doesn't retreat. Venia herself uses Unexisting Force four times, twice on each Rotting Widow, ensuring they get downed as it can't miss, and also buffing Venia massively. She then takes a shot at Splinter Spitter 6, which between her new buffs and the four stacks of Unexisting Force will also certainly down it in one shot.

"Advance, Spherebreakers! And get ready to hack those turrets, we don't want the cannons up for long!"

---

Gibbet

Venia sits down cross-legged on the floor. [u]"Alright, Gibbet. To start, I'm about to try to teach you how telepathy works. It will help you communicate with others better. Telepathy is simple-it's using psionics to exchange ideas. You have a lot of psionic potential, so it should come somewhat naturally once you realize how it works. Let me demonstrate."[u] Venia says.

Venia proceeds to open up a telepathic channel with Gibbet, mostly showing him simplistic and easy-to-grasp diagrams of how telepathy works, how it looks, and more, in the hopes that Gibbet catches on.

---

The Old Pass

"Well, no more point in hanging around here for you. Me and my associates will take care of these fiends. Head south, the Behemoth's looking at the northern tower for some reason," Venia says to the Legionaire, as she starts to move towards the northern tower to see what the Fell Behemoth is trying to pick up. Quietly.

---

Mariaaaaaaaaaaaa

Maria blinks, a bit confused, but mostly disappointing. "... But I don't have that much money," she says, doing her best and sweetest puppy eyes.

The black kitsune (who as usual has been eerie and statuelike in the living room the whole time) turns its head to Maria. "You can likely ask Venia, or your father, his majesty, when he arrives to pick you up, your Highness."

"Daddy is coming?!" Maria exclaims, twisting to the black kitsune.

"He has affirmed that he will arrive some time today to ensure that you are escorted off-world tomorrow," The Kitsune monotones.

"Ohmygosh, I get to play with daddy and Venny!" Maria exclaims, completely forgetting about her quest for pig food. She starts spontaneously 'dancing,' which is about as good as her singing in technique (not), and equally enthusiastic (very).

After dropping off the Mechonis, I quickly run back over to the Vicinity of the farm. Y'see, there's a missile the rebels fired at the place themselves, so...
I retrieve 10 Green Sap, 10 silkweed bundles, 10 Cobblestone, 10 uniform logs, and 10 iron. I quickly Sap the cobblestone and Wood together into a pair of mottley barricades., using woven Silkweed in order to lash it all into shape so the Sap can set a little. I then use the I-can-only-assume-to-be-incredibly-sharp Bohemian to carve all the iron ingots into stubby two-sided spikes. one side I hit with my not-too-shabby 14 STR into being curved, then I jam all the spikes curved sides into parts of the barricades, using the curve to hold them in better. My barricades prepared, I dump one on the path from the River Crossing to the Cavern Entryway, and another on the path from the untamed woods to the same place. I leave behind two illusory traps to make the walls seem way taller and more impassible, then use the Warp Ring to teleport into the nearby trees and forest stuff without them seeing where I went, in case these evil rebels avoid my incredible plan to box them in. I mean, I've stolen a Mechonis from them, sure, but if you think that cures me from the possibly-irrational level of desire for revenge previously demonstrated, well, think again.
Summary: Box in those Rebels so their own missile'll kaboom them. using spikes and wood and stone, and 1 illusory trap per path.
Then hide so they don't kill me if they inevitably break past the boxes.
If the bottom of the farm is also a path they can take then just keep those barricade boxes for later instead and this is a normal craft.

[...It does cure me of overconfidence, and without my Special being charged they'd probably have decent odds of beating me if I initiated combat again, but on the other hand with the first mechonis safely disposed of, I can use Corrupt on the other if I need to escape, so I'd think I shouldn't be too worried.
(On the other hand, not being worried would make this an ideal time for a hypothetical anti-JOE task force which has been sabotaging me in secret for years to hypothetically do terrible things, so even though I shouldn't be too worried, ic!JOE is extremely worried.
I'm not sure whether ic!JOE actually believes in an anti-JOE task force sabotaging them for years. When in doubt, don't ask them about it ever )]

Zone 1 - Boshi

"(One segment down, and a few more injured.)"
"(...Sounds like it hecked off though.)"

...In the distance, Boshi spots something directly to the west, flying above the tree line. The faint silhouette of the Vedfolnir.

"(...What in the blazes...?)"

---

Zone 2 - Sophia

"Oh I don't think miss Omo would mind! She'd want us to be safe anyway."

"And we have a bunch more plushies! Though they're a... lot less, um... detailed, I guess? And a lot more... blood magic-y. I don' like those ones as much. They kinda hurt."
"...Though maybe..."

"...Gimme a bit."

Sophia starts pulling out plushie after plushie. Hex plushie, Packo plushie, Marron Plushie, Toast plushie, Venia plushie, Author Plushie, Wyvern plushie...

...and of course, the Chloe Plushie.

She gets to modifying the string and fluff that make up the plushies, to make them less like voodoo dolls and more like the Hat Kid Plushie; animate plushies.

Sophia breaks apart a Seer Crystal into small pieces, and carefully inserts them through the back of the plushies, nesting them deep into the stuffing before sewing them back up. She closes in on the scared Scarlet, and closes her eyes, forcefully linking the army of plushies to one master plushie; the Hat Kid Plushie, the most powerful of them all. It takes a few minutes for them all to be properly linked.

Once everything's done, she brings all 8 plushies to the scarlet. "Eight more, ready to roll! Including one of miss Chloe herself!"

Once she drops these eight plushies off, she flops back onto some sort of log or the floor or something, huffing in exhaustion. "I-it's been a while since I done that..."

"...I kinda wanna make more plushies, though. And just stuff in general. It... it was a really fun pastime."

---

House - Adria

Adria smiles about as well as she could ad Chloe's kindness towards her. Guess she was worried over nothing. "It's... been a pleasure, miss Chloe. And I'll be sure to compliment Marron when I see her."

From the looks of things, Adria isn't going to be done for a while yet, but nevertheless nods. "...Yes, I think I would like that. Thank you."

When Chloe leaves her be, she begins thinking about things as she eats. Perhaps a walk 'n' talk would do well for her. She thinks about several topics she could probably ask her, as well as some stories to tell. Maybe talk to her about a nightmare or two? ...Perhaps those should come later, all things considered. Maybe stick to the simple stuff for now.

That being said, she might need some sort of walking stick in case she loses balance again, though there's probably a broom or something around that could serve that purpose.

...

Adria eventually concludes her feasting. She could already feel her energy returning. Not wanting to keep Chloe waiting, she takes her dishes to the sink and places them into it. Afterwards, she heads out the door to meet up with her. While a little nervous, she looks about as ready as an exhausted, unsteady lady could ever be.

---

Everground - Hannah

"...I don't like the look of those... wings? I think they're wings. Might want to wait 'till later."

Hannah lowers the island until she's level with the cliff at (P168). She then lassos one of the chains on the side of the island onto (probably) a sharp rock formation near the cliff. She climbs across carefully, and walks up the island blocking the airstream. After creating some heavy shoes with 2 Durasteel Ingots (really they're just the ingots strapped to her shoes in case there's high-pressure air in the entire room), she begins digging through the wall at (M165) with the Heavenpiercing Drill.

---

Battle - Amidst The Clouds

Hannah and her mirror go after all convincing is done.

Hannah just kinda looks towards Hersilia's location and rolls her eyes, grinning. "...You think you're safe? Hah!"

Hannah boops the nearby Weapon Controller. Twin Railcannons turn and fire on Floofknight 4!

She and her mirror then move towards the teleporter at (L17). Hannah appears at (O10) and Mirror!Hannah appears at (Q10). Both Hannahs level their weapons towards Hersilia. They're just barely in range.

"Last chance before you have to face MY fury - drop your weapon and run, and you won't end up like that pathetic eel that just took off! come on don't make me beg for these guys"

If all the convincing and threatening did nothing, Hannah uses Necro Coating, then her and her mirror open fire on Hersilia.

The Old Pass:
Magically aware of Venia's work, Not!Echoss tosses a decoy down into the middle of the lesser fell beasts to distract them. Said decoy takes the form of a cardboard charian who, once inevitably ignored, walks up to one of the fell beasts and explodes into beaver-b-gone, which is actually just a brand of incredibly specialized specially designed anti-beaver neurotoxin.


Amidst the Clouds:
Pionobot waits until after Rosemary's turn, moves to M18, and fires on Aello 3 (or Aello 5 if 3 is down). He then switches to WARHAMMER SCYTHE (crushing mode shift)

Within the battle Amidst the Clouds, Brutishace gives a thumbs-up to Ette as a sort of "you're welcome" for his healing, then approaches the edge of the airship, moving to L16. At that point, Brutishace aims a Drain Life at F18, hoping to catch the maximum amount of the opposing Chairians in the blast.

I've got a plan to get to that ship later on in the fight, and clearing the enemies there is the first step.

Nidra:
Use the Yggdrasil Vessel twice.
Move to Y22, teleport to AA10, move to AA6.
Last Dream SBlaster2.
Retreat to AA7.

Bauhaus, who is supposed to be at O10, teleports to E10, moves to E8, and then basic attacks RWidow4.

BATTLES

If Aello3 is dead and thus not using its insidious ZoC, the Reflector moves to M16, teleports to H10 using the node, and flies to J9, hovering above the webs with their wings. They then Sprint to L5 and use Protean to swap their Air resistance to Poison. If Aello3 is alive... do the same thing, except it requires different pathfinding and one more MOV, but still manages to work, I think?

The Mirror Reflector fires the Calypse Cannon at the entire SkyLabs (this should technically be legal according to wording, but if you think that's dumb, then fire Twin Railcannons at Aello7 instead), then grants Shields Holding to the Drifter, giving them 13 bonus SHP.

---

ROLEPLAY

@Tazz: yeah okay "Chaos" has nothing to contribute to this side of the conversation. He secretly writes Maria's father on a list of potential investors and waits for the kitsune and Maria to finish their conversation.

@Maxim:
The Reflector retrieves some spider meat from the inventory, then produces a bag of salt to season it a little bit. They pass the salted spider-meat over to Maxim.

THE REFLECTOR: i recognize it isn't quite the bladed mangled corpse of a sapient chairian you're used to but well i'm positively sure you won't mind too much after not being fed, not fed for several days.
THE REFLECTOR: and if you do mind well that's just too bad isn't it!

The Reflector waits for Maxim to finish the food, then claps their hands to get the Iti's attention.

THE REFLECTOR: now, shall we talk business?
THE REFLECTOR: i know there's some spark piece component of intelligence in there. after all well you were able to converse with my newly acquired allies in that stolen body of yours!
THE REFLECTOR: unless you mean to tell us that was all ware.
THE REFLECTOR: but if that's the stance the tone you intend to adopt then there's not much i can do about it! beyond trapping you in an inventory for the rest of your days again of course.
THE REFLECTOR: so how about it? are you willing to hear, hear us out?

Asha uses Historia on herself blipping back in time to last turn. Her buffs become as follows:
(Empowered8, 2)
(Evasive12, 1)
(DirectHit, 1)
(Lucky3, 2)
This sets her DGE to 47 and CAV to 84. She also reappears at P14. Then, Asha moves to AC9 via teleporter.

She uses Alter Reality to swap Empowered8 to Enlightened8, and casts Foresight on herself. This gives her (Focused12, 4) and (DirectHit, 4), setting her HIT to 58 and CNT to 38. This is what it feels like to chew 5Gum.
This costs 10 MP due to the Heart Bracelet, and grants Asha +2 Might and +1 Magic.

Finally, she uses Phase Shift from her scarf Morph2, before retreating to X5.

Remiel moves to AA5 (they should have Swift1 from the Power Well+, so they'll be able to make it as long as the RWidows are dead) and attacks the core.

Bonus damage comes out to +140% [+20% (Dreamscaper), +70% (Gutsy Greatsword), +30% (Empowered3), +20% (Power Well+)], plus the x2 multiplier for attacking a core.

Remiel also hacks the nearby console in an attempt to sabotage the cannon.

"Knew I should have asked Cargonia for insuls."

Auth nods to Taeda.

AUTH: I'm not terribly surprised you haven't heard of anything like that, but there may be an Iti like that...
AUTH: I guess it does sound kinda gruesome, but that's kind of just the way it is.

Auth shakes his head to the suggestion that someone else could take her to the chapel.

AUTH: It's alright, don't worry. I can still take you there, it's ok. I don't mind.
AUTH: Thanks for your sympathy, though, it's appreciated. I can take you.

Auth doesn't need to take that long debating whether to go with her, floating along-side.

---

AUTH: Maybe they just kinda... took it? You'd probably know more about them than I do.
AUTH: I don't really know what they were up to. It's perfectly possible they were planning to do something scary with it...
AUTH: Considering how important it is, I would personally rather have the flower available to us.

Auth nods at Nana's comment, being willing to accommodate her.

AUTH: Alright, we'll head out soon then. I don't think it's far, but by the same token, I don't actually know where it is.
AUTH: I assume Taeda will know.

Auth smiles as Nana discusses the topic of his name.

AUTH: Ha, alright. I'll keep calling you Nana, then.
AUTH: My name is indeed extremely human. I think it has to do with coming from a human world.
AUTH: I mean, considering that you're not, "very human" is probably a valid description, especially as a positive.

Auth laughs as Nana is tricked into his mock-rage.

AUTH: Nah, don't worry, it's fine. It's a joke, considering...

Chloe interjects with a correct assumption about his origins.

AUTH: Indeed. I am from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The continent, and especially the French, are rivals to us.
AUTH: British toast? Less interesting, I don't think we have our own "toast"... but what I can do is make a full English breakfast. Which I think is far more fun.
AUTH: I wonder if we have any cabbage...

Auth considers how he could go and make a Full English Breakfast. It's big. It needs leftovers from dinner.

---

Auth chuckles.

AUTH: A devout? Not quite, although it's close enough that I guess you could say that.
AUTH: I haven't had the chance to speak to many Devout, though we have one with us. I wouldn't be shocked if more of them agreed with you than you might think. At least, the low-levels might.

Auth looks up quietly as Redbud points out their base of operations is soon to be under siege, and that the Scarlets would like to stay where they are.

AUTH: ...I see. I believe our base is reasonably defensible - we've had to fight off sieges before. I shall let the others know, though, we'll figure out what to do.
AUTH: Maple is doing well, I think. Or, at least, better than she was yesterday. We saved her from execution, and captured a Duneyrr and Linseed.

Auth thinks for another second as Redbud talks about their place now...

AUTH: I understand. I wouldn't want to fight former allies either. I suggested it because I wasn't sure if it would be safe for a small group here alone.
AUTH: I thought it might be safer for all of us who aren't liked by the Rebellion or Legion to stick together. But it's fine, if you don't want to, and you're sure you're safe. That's what counts, safety. It's what I was worried about.[
AUTH: But there's no Iti here? We cleared out the Iti a few days ago, but I thought that Iti would just kind of... reconvene? Interesting...

Auth thinks again. Plenty to consider...

---

Auth is still floating near Venia, waiting for a more specific request.

---

In battle...

Auth floats up into the air, waving to Herselia.

AUTH: Good morning, Herselia!
AUTH: It's been a while.

Auth listens to Herselia, asking them to leave for Acacia's sake.

AUTH: Well, among other things, we're actually here for Acacia.
AUTH: I'm sure we sent a message up, but we believe we have a treatment for Acacia's injuries. What did they do to her?
AUTH: I'm pretty sure we sent up a message asking that you undo whatever was done, so Acacia could be healed properly...

Auth glances down to Omo. He definitely asked her to send up a message...

AUTH: If you haven't heard about it...
AUTH: Well, we know it works, at least a little. One of our party members was burned and our treatment worked on her. I helped develop it with Acacia in mind.

Auth uses his Special to wake up Generic, and then points at Morph 5, to knock them out with his own Special.

<ROUND 236>

Venia attempts to teach Gibbet how to use telepathy! It looks at the diagrams that Venia provides, tilting its head (entire body?) in a confused manner. As Venia ponders how to get the concept across better, Gibbet eats the diagrams, somehow increasing his Psychic aptitude by 1.

...Venia then hears something in her head. It’s a bit ear piercing, and certainly a bit annoying. It sounds a bit like a child.

GIBBET: (hungry)
GIBBET: (food?)

Looks like the 101 points of Psychic aptitude are coming in handy today. Then, in the Old Pass, Venia tells the Legionary to fall back to the south. They obey immediately, beginning to press south. With them out of the way, Venia heads up to the northern tower, trying to discern what it is that the Fell Behemoth is going after.

As she’s there, she has a good chance to look at the walls of the town of Omnite. They’re made of solid stone brick, a few meters thick. Not even the Fell Behemoth would be able to break through. But, these towers seem to have thinner walls, to accommodate the space within. In fact, maybe-

The Fell Behemoth bursts right through the guard tower’s walls, roaring as the smaller Fell Beasts sneak out through the gaps they just made. Dazed ever so slightly by the rubble and smoke that now surrounds her, the Fell Beasts take this moment to surround Venia. They growl and snarl as they remain around her, not daring to close in. Meanwhile, the Fell Behemoth takes off towards the south, barreling towards the fleeing Legionary. Saliva flecks from its mouth as it charges forth! This could be a tricky situation…

Back at the house, Maria is busy getting scammed by Not!Chaos. As the transaction perhaps progresses, the real Chaos clips out of the floor, popping up right next to the Reflector. Capitalism awaits.

CHAOS:but wai[t]!
CHAOS: sin[c]e you’re su[c]h a valued [c]us[t]omer
CHAOS: i have a spe[c]ial offer for you
CHAOS: behold

Bam. Second basket of fries.

CHAOS: bam
CHAOS: a baske[t] of higher-quali[t]y fries for only fif[t]y [c]redi[t]s
CHAOS: wha[t] a s[t]eal, righ[t]?

Chaos stares at “Chaos”, his grin ever-widening. This customer is his. Also, it seems that Maria has somehow come into possession of 100 credits. She’s not entirely sure who taped them to her forehead, but they’re there now. It is also quite possible that Chaos has started a capitalist war. This can only end well.

---

JOE attempts to ensnare the Rebels into getting hit by their own missile! He slaps a bunch of barricades around the sight of the battle, covers them in spikes, then blockades the paths with Illusory traps. The Rebels begin to panic- when did they get surrounded? But, the medic remains ever calm. It won’t be long until the missile arrives.

...or uh, it seems like it really wasn’t a missile. It’s a dropship… but it doesn’t look like anything the Rebellion has ever employed. Hi-tech quad booster engines, acting like the rotors on a quadcopter. No traces of any magical equipment onboard, unlike the Mechonis. And within, are a few blocky wooden figures- kinda like Chairians, but just ever-so-slightly different.

Ropes descend out of the dropship, and the Rebels in the area take hold. They’re pulled up into the dropship, out of harm’s way. Then, a large wooden figure looks out one of the side doors, holding a large cylindrical object. They’re saying something, which JOE is somehow able to pick up.

???: Yo, pilot! The lifesign scanner said there’s a dude a few clicks yonder way, right?
???: *inaudible annoyance*
???: Cool! And it’s an outsider too, right?
???: *inaudible affirmation*
???: Radical! That means I get to nuke it!
???: Fifty creds says that I crispy-fry this shy-guy in one volley!
???: *inaudible confidence*
???: Oh, it’s on!
???: Ahem…

The figure yells something out the side.

???: THIIIIIIS IS FOR INTERRUPTING OUR MISSION WITH FETCH QUESTS!
???: THREE TWO ONE BANZAI!

Out of the tube the figure is holding comes a swarm of four rockets. Looks like there really was an incoming rocket strike! It’s just from a handheld rocket. Then, with a puff of smoke, the rockets each reveal themselves to be rockets that split into roughly thirty-two smaller rockets. This locust swarm of rockets begins to rapidly surge towards JOE’s position, easily zipping and navigating around trees in their path. This might not end well.

And yet, in all of this, there’s no traces of magic. What’s up with this vessel?

---

Sophia affirms that it’d be fine if the Scarlets stayed. Redbud lets out a sigh of relief.

REDBUD: Oh, you know the owner?
REDBUD: Mind passing the word along, then? I’d really like to be sure that it’s fine.
REDBUD: But if you say that she’d be fine with it, I’ll take your word for it!

Then, Sophia decides to go and modify a few of the plushies, making them more suitable as gifts, and less like voodoo dolls. A Seer Crystal is used to accomplish this task. Soon enough, the eight plushies are given to the worried Scarlet. They smile softly upon receiving the gift, poking out of her sleeping bag. She lovingly places them around the crystalline campfire, giving one of them a marshmallow on a stick.

Then, her eyes fall upon the Chloe Plushie. She squees audibly, pulling it into her sleeping bag. She cuddles up with both it and the Hat Kid Plushie, smiling softly as she rests.

REDBUD: W-Was… was that a Chloe Plushie?
REDBUD: Can… can I have one?

Chloemania has swept the Scarlet camp. Chloe merch was something they never knew they needed. And now you’ve opened their eyes. In addition, while the third Scarlet hasn’t done much since Sophia’s arrival, she’s also taken notice. She too, wants a plush.

On terms not related to capitalism, Adria accepts Chloe’s offer for a tour. Once she finishes off her meal, Adria meets up with Chloe, the blonde greeting her with a warm smile.

CHLOE: Hello again!
CHLOE: I hope the meal was to your liking!
CHLOE: Anyway, follow me! We’ll start downstairs!

Chloe takes Adria by the hand (if she’s fine with that), and leads her downstairs into the depths of the house. The two stand near the portal which Adria broke into the house through. Chloe seems blissfully ignorant of how Adria used the portal.

CHLOE: So, this is the basement!
CHLOE: I figured this was as good a place as any to start. Start from the bottom, and work your way up, right?

CHLOE: We have a portal right over here. I think Toast set it up.
CHLOE: Thanks to it, we’re able to travel across Locaa pretty darn fast! Although, we’ve needed to take down a few teleport relays thanks to the Rebels discovering a few of them.
CHLOE: Kinda scary, knowing that the enemy can use the portal against us…

Then, she strides over to the lab. Adria follows along, noting a “do not touch” sign upon a coffee machine in the room. There’s also a non-zero amount of empty coffee cups.

CHLOE: Then, to this side, we have a little laboratory. Usually, Omo’s around here researching whatever it is our team needs at the moment… but it seems like she’s away for now.
CHLOE: She’s pretty addicted to coffee, so we usually leave the machine there to her. Still, she wouldn’t be too angry if you took a cup or two.
CHLOE: Also, we keep Gibbet here! He’s a good bird.

Still at the lab, Chloe gestures towards the rooms to the eastern side of the basement, not actually approaching them.

CHLOE: We also have a few dugout bedrooms to that side, but…
CHLOE: W-Well, I’d rather not disturb Echoss. He’s had a… long day. And night.
CHLOE: Plus, someone might get grouchy if we snoop around their rooms, y’know?

CHLOE: Anyway, any questions? Complements? Complains?
CHLOE: I’ll show you the ground floor next, if you’re up to it!

Chloe bounces around on her heels as she awaits a response. Finally, Hannah continues to work in the Everground, descending the island downward a few tiles. She then tapes 2 Durasteel Ingots to her feet as a precaution, she begins to drill through a wall right above the blockage she created. Through the wall, she finds the source of the winds! A... screaming stone face? She's probably seen weirder, but it's kinda unsettling.

And smelly. The darn mouth needs a few breath mints...

---

Not!Echoss tries to distract the Fell Beasts! He throws a decoy in the form of a cardboard Chairian! One of the Fell Beasts breaks away from Venia to investigate, immediately ripping into the decoy and getting sprayed with deadly neurotoxins. GLaDOS, Hannah, and Rosemary would be proud. Anyway, the beaver dies of the resulting complications. That should help Venia's case out!

---

The Reflector continues to converse with Maxim. But first, a treat! They season a piece of Spider Meat with a pinch of salt (x0.01 bags of salt used), which Maxim manages to stab their tail into. With a bit of creative flicking and flipping, it manages to devour the meat in a swift fashion. It seems a bit more sociable now. The Reflector asks if it's willing to hear them out. It clicks a few letters out.

MAXIM: O-K-A-Y
MAXIM: E-A-S-Y T-O T-A-L-K W-I-T-H B-O-D-Y
MAXIM: G-I-V-E B-O-D-Y

It begins to inch towards the Reflector again. A body. It'll probably need a live body to inhabit. That could be complicated, as well as morally shaky. Still, maybe something could be arranged?

---

Auth and Nana continue their chat over breakfast. As they converse, Chloe decides to start putting away the leftovers, throwing 5 pieces of French Toast into the inventory. Auth notes that while he doesn't have anything like "british toast" that could compete with "french toast", he proposes that he could make a full English breakfast. Nana nods eagerly at the idea.

NANA: Ooh, sounds good!
NANA: I'll help if you want! I'm an okay cook. N-Not as good as Marron, o-or anyone like that... b-but I'm adequate!

NANA: A-Although... m-maybe we should do it tomorrow?
NANA: I've already eaten breakfast, s-so it'd be weird to have it today...
CHLOE: You could always have breakfast for lunch!
CHLOE: I do it a bunch! Nothing beats a breakfast burrito!
NANA: B-Breakfast!? F-For lunch?
NANA: P-Preposterous! B-But also intriguing!
NANA: It's settled, then! Breakfast for lunch!

Nana then sits up, stretching.

NANA: S-So, you said that we're going to go to a chapel, right?
NANA: I-I'm gonna get ready! I-I'll meet you outside?

If he says so, she'll head to her room, and get equipped for combat / traversal. It also seems like Taeda's already outside, a little red wagon beside her, filled with soil. Meanwhile, at the Whispering Library, Auth seems confused that the Iti haven't reconvened here. Redbud ponders it for a moment, before pointing to the Perception Filter not too far from her.

REDBUD: Oh, maybe it's because of that machine?
REDBUD: I think it makes it hard for Iti to notice this place, or something.
REDBUD: I don't really know, to be honest... but thank goodness for it!

Redbud re-examines the leg that Auth healed just moments earlier. She's never quite seen magic like it.

REDBUD: Where'd you learn that healing magic, anyway?
REDBUD: I've never seen anything quite that powerful before.
REDBUD: ...Or that painful, f-for that matter, but shhhh.
REDBUD: Maybe I should try and learn some healing magic, too!

She'll probably learn healing magic that isn't agonizing. It likely won't be as effective, but suffering bad, yo.

---

<AMIDST THE CLOUDS, ROUND EIGHT>
Hersilia's badly damaged, and the two cores of the defensive systems are really starting to take a beating! Keep at it, and you should be able to clear the map this round! Then again, I'm not actually sure about that... so be careful! The enemy can output quite a bit of damage, and Hersilia could potentially revive another group of spiders if you're not careful!

Battle: Admist the Clouds

The Vic Viper takes advantage of Shoulder Angel to lob another Elemental Splitshot at Morph2, hopefully scoring a clean down on the dodgy bugger. It then retreats to AC9.

Venia moves to W9. "Sorry about the kills, Hersilia, that was an accident! This isn't, though, to be frank, which I'm also sorry for, but I'd rather not die horrific poisonous death to Rotting Widows." Venia says, using the Warp Ring on the Rotting Widow. The Rotting Widow promptly finds itself over the abyss, and plummeting to its (possibly nonlethal?) doom. Venia gains a little bit of speed from the Warp Ring's usage and slides to V9 as a result.

"Seriously though, I'm not scared of Acacia going nuts on me of all things. If I have to beat her up to get her sensible, that's fine by me, I'm not holding it against her. And I'm surprised you're even scared. I've had to fight a horrific eldritch god and their possessed hosts twice, I've had to fight far too many Eliti, I've had to murder the absolutely gigantic Netwyrm from the inside, had to manage two unruly Zabuton in their own tank with minimal crew, and I've dueled Acacia twice-and I've been doing most of that while basically near death, a state that I've since fixed. Haven't seen me blurring like before, right? Look at me now! I'm made of water and I'm faster and stronger than I've ever been!"

"Now, uh, hang on a second, let me just prevent a certain someone from murdering you."

Venia turns to Hannah. "I am going to be blunt, Hannah, Yew. Do not kill her, or I will take Yew and either seal her in a concrete slab and bury it, or outright dismantle her on the spot. My patience for murderous antic does not exist for VIPs, Hersilia is a VIP, you are not killing her, period. Take her to unconsciousness, no further!"

Venia then waits for Toast's and Yew's actions, then fires on Hersilia's position before retreating to W9. (If Hersilia is downed already by some stroke of luck, she instead activates the Luminous Rose.)

---

The Old Pass

Venia blinks at how rapidly she's been surrounded and how absolutely screwed the Legionaire is, without help. She tries to call out telepathically to the escaping legionnaire.

"Hey! There's a tunnel to your right coming up! Dive in there, the Fell Behemoth shouldn't be able to follow you, too narrow!"

That done, the surrounding Fell Beasts have her attention, as she readies the Entropic Key-in the wrong mode, but it still looks pretty deadly at close range, and very alien. Still, the Fell Beasts tell better, judging from her lack of aggression, and one immediately barrels at her, knocking her clean over!

"gorilla gorilla gorilla gorilla!" She screams, losing some of her cohesion as the Fell Beast attempts to rip out her throat in one clean bite!

And fails. Venia blinks as she realizes the matter in her neck has been forcibly altered, and yet, she hasn't died.

It then clicks in her head that she is at least partially, if not totally, an amorphous blob of water with considerable control over her own body and no vital organs, and in her surge of adrenaline, she's mostly returned to that.

Suddenly struck by inspiration, Venia whips her amorphous body around the unfortunate Fell Beast, putting the beast's neck into a pressurized chokehold, water surrounding its head and getting between its powerful jaws. The beast thrashes, vicious but fruitless, as Venia wills the water between the beast's jaws to go further and further apart, water pressure fighting against the beast's considerable jaw strength. The other Fell Beast quickly rushes to the aid of its brethren as it realizes what's going on, opting to try to rip their brethren free rather than attack water, but fails to get a proper grip on the entrapped beast as Venia forces its jaws out, out, out-and snap! Cleanly broken in two, in a torrent of blood. Venia releases from surprise, allowing its ally to drag it away-right now it could be anything from merely in too much agony to get up, to unconscious from pain, to outright dead.

Venia blinks at her own handiwork-then rapidly leaps up from the ground, trying to put distance between herself and the other Fell Beast. The other, for its part, puts down its possibly-dead comrade and moves aggressively forwards, though not in an all-out charge. Venia dives out of the way of an attempted tail slap and quickly starts summoning something, a multicolored haze appearing. the Fell beast steps again and tries another whack from the opposite angle, but Venia dives out of the way again, keeping just out of its range-and then, suddenly, a burst of pollen surges into the face of the beast, making it stagger. A Socialite Fae makes a hearty laugh at its opposition as it claws at its eyes-partially blinded, enervated and tripped up, and quite dizzy. Venia takes the opportunity and runs, shoving the barrel of her weapon right into the screaming beast's mouth and firing. It squeals, its teeth unable to break through the barrel, as Venia continuously pulls the trigger several more times, until red comes out of the beast's mouth and it stumbles back, immobile.

Venia shoves the key free from the beast's mouth and gives chase, taking a path decently around the presumably-dead Fell Beasts but otherwise trying her darndest to keep decently away from the beasts. Her fresh summon hovers over them, applying more and more pollen upon them even if they're dead.

---

Gibbet

"Hungry? Food?" Venia puts back to Gibbet, grinding up another mental cluster and sprinkling it onto a Mighty Banana in response. After offering it to Gibbet, she continues. "That's a good start, but there's room for improvement. A lot. Let me show you again."

Venia re-coaches Gibbet in the use of telepathy. It appears she realizes this might take a while.

"We don't need total fluency here, this is hard stuff, just enough to ensure clear communication with others, alright? We won't be doing this too much more... After a bit more of this I'll see about actual combat practice."

---

Mariaaaaaa

Maria blinks. Now there's two of mister Chaos. "You didn't tell me you had an identical twin brother," She says. "... That's cool! Now there's two of you!"

Maria then realizes that some jokester taped a hundred credits to her head. She peels off the tape and claims the money. "Money!" She begins giggling, as she does, as she hands over approximately half of her money-fifty credits-for the second basket of fries the real Chaos offered. (Not that she knew the other was fake, just that she had a suspicion the second one was the one she'd been dealing with before.) "Thank you mister chaos...es!" Maria shouts as she goes to feed the fries to Piggo.

---

JOE sits on the ground. he hears people are going to be shooting him. he emits a "hm". he hears the rocket fire. he emits a "hmm". he sees the rockets approaching. he emits a "hmmmmmmmmmmm".
WELL! 128 micro-missiles is...
a bit much for him to tank, assuming they don't get blocked by his AC (and how funny would that be?)... wait, he doesn't have any AC. yeah, too much for him to tank. lets see, uh...55 HP + 18 SHP = 73 HP total, which if each missile is one damage leaves him decidedly overkilled Even if Exposed Mana. I mean, 70% resist to fire is all well and good, but-
And then he had an idea. a stupid, stupid idea.
Ok, so if I can get Igniveil (3) or better, I can facetank 128 micromissiles. Because I have 70% fire resist. Unfortunately, the best item for Igniveil gives only igniveil 2. and also the only item for igniveil. and it's not as low tier as I try to stick to...
But wouldn't you know it, Igniveil is a Basic status effect, the Poetry Pamphlet is recharged, and the poems give level 3 statuses by default!
JOE quickly mutters a poem about not dying in a fire, applying Igniveil 3 to himself! the only Rebel Rockets listed in the Codex Monstrum is the Mechonii's Rocket Pods. which do fire damage. The other half of this poem-use is about being really smart, granting Enlightened (3 +1 = 4). He takes out the elemental blaster, holding it in one hand, pauses- even as the missiles grow closer- to invest his battle-start GP into Resonant- and casts Double Illusory Trap, making a couple of traps positioned so they'll surely get caught in the detonation. Then he walks straight into the approaching swarm of missiles.

Presumably, they detonate. a conflagration of fire engulfs him. if he was able to cast, Two illusory traps pop like soap bubbles, sending bolts of light crashing into Yellow ??? Person per Illusory Traps effects. And then JOE walks out the other side of the detonation (technically speaking this movement falls under Retreat, since he already cast a spell. Since he didn't move before, it's not continuing in his earlier move direction, so it's valid.), flames clinging to his form and slowly dispersing, a murderous expression on his face. Based on his glances back, he's primarily angry that they've harmed the vicinity of the (former) farm Again, and STILL won't get Off His Lawn! Let it never be said JOE is not an unreasonable fellow.
JOE finishes walking out of the explosion, raises the Elemental Blaster, and fires it point blank into Yellow ??? Person set to Light damage or something. Then he kinda awkwardly stands there glaring at them because he doesn't have any actions left. The significance of blockier wood-men is largely lost on him, unfortunately, but maybe he'll grouse about them at some point and reveal the tabletopian alliance of the rebellion to someone. or people will just know because meta knowledge.

IN SUMMARY: JOE survives facetanking 128 micro-missiles by getting Igniveil 3 and so Fire Resist 100. He also casts (enlightened 4, resonant 2, double) illusory trap to retaliate at yellow ??? man when they get caught in the blast, uses his retreat to walk dramatically and vengefully out of the cloud of ineffective fire, and shoots yellow ??? person in the chest with the blaster.

Legends will surely be told of this day. the day when a local man... was too angry... to Die.

...For the above update. God damn I need to post earlier.

Crystal moves to N13 and attacks Floofknight2 with a basic attack, following up with a Dust Blast. He shifts the movement of the Dust Blast onto the Floofknight entirely, knocking them back a full three spaces. He immediately converts the Enchant:Light he gets from the Blast into Ordo.

Recognising that there's a Breach near him, Pope Bill casts Sol. Next, he basic-attacks the Floofknight4 on I20. Finally, he directs healing to the damaged Breach on N19.

The Old Pass:
Picture a scene. A lone soldier, pursued by giant beasts, charging down the length of a canyon to escape his gristly end at the hands of a gigantic demonic beaver.
This is not his story.
It's a story about the one about to rescue him.
Heroic music starts to play (I can't be bothered to look up a song, imagine something from like, Avengers or something) and I (being Not!Echoss) drop kick the Fell Behemoth in the side of the head at sonic speeds (not super-sonic. I may be a meme character but the Thymefield is still a thing). The fell behemoth is staggered and slightly disoriented. While it's doing that I T-pose slide backwards along the ground into a small house that rises from the earth behind me.
The Fell behemoth makes to pursue, crashing through the wall, finding itself in a living room that's larger on the inside.
"Alexa, intruder alert."
All the lights in the house turn green:
"Zoinks! Man you like, picked the wrong house to mess with."
It begins
Before the Fell Behemoth can handle its confusion, the back door bursts open, revealing
[ERROR: THIS FIGHT SCENE HAS BEEN COPYRIGHT STRIKED FOR EVERY TERRIBLE AND OUTDATED MEME IN EXISTENCE]

....

You know, I came up with this thing thinking I'd be able to demonstrate it.

...

This is taking a while.

If they were gonna copy-right strike my longpost they could've at least condensed the time.

Have some waiting music.

...

Yeah this running gag's gone on too long I'm just gonna fast forward.

...

mpletelyobliteratingthefellbehemothintotheumpteenthhigherdimensionalpowercausingittore
emergebackonsussuiwitheverythingintact(atleastcomparedtowhileitwasintheattackcutscen
e)butitbrainwhichhasbeendeepfriedscrambledandeverythingelse.

The house crumbles away as its only purpose was meme setup, and I sit on top of the fell behemoth's head, slowly driving swords into the base of its neck while I wait for it to wake up.


Amidst the Clouds:
Pionobot looks rather disappointed that the telenode he was going to use was just busted.
First, he uses the weapon console he's standing next to (if it has been used) to fire the railcannons back at the Sky Labs for some bonus damage, and then moves North one tile.
He promptly fires Westward with AEROBEAM, which turns South when it hits the Scout Core, causing it to hit the Scout Core (with bonus damage from turbulence), the Medbeam weapon console, and Morph 4


NPC stuff!
Not!Echoss requests the Sleuth scan a Shardnado
He also requests the Sleuth's side of the material collection service grab some halo nectars
Finally, he sends the Bouquet Singularities and Sock Puppet Court to Nia for an upgrade to T6!

Asha throws Lingua Franca down at W6, then uses Warp Ring to go to U4. From there, she uses Piono's Aerobeam via Lingua Franca for 60 SP. She activates Metamagic, giving her a total of 14 Buff Levels for this spell. It starts east, rotating north at R4, then east at R3. This means Hersilia and SSplitter2 take 120% multiplicative damage. She then swaps Focused for Evasive.

Zone 1- Boshi

"(...Toss me those binoculars for a sec, seems like there's stuff going down to the west.)"

Should the Fisherman oblige, Boshi takes a good look at the various goings on of the west. Otherwise he shrugs, as a timeclone yeets itself to Zone 4 to steal a non-<0> telescope from the Southern Tower for Boshi to use. Vedfolnir high up in the clouds. The "rebel" dropship. The missiles. He seems to take special interest in the dropship. He falls silent as he examines it.

"(...Hey so, I've been readin' a few history books about this planet during my time here... even got a good look at an airship of yours. But that dropship... that clearly ain't a Chairian make when compared to that Mechonis suit next to it, nor the common airship. So if that's anything to go by, along with the tech that was in that giant siege tank we blew to bits two days ago...)"
"(...I dunno about you, but I think we should scram before we get caught out here. As if the iti weren't bad enough, this isn't any mere rebellion we're dealing with.)"

"(We're also dealing with the Tabletopians. And they're out for blood. Outsider blood, Iti thyme matter, and Legion sap.)"

"(I swear if they so much as lay a finger on Sophia I'll beat them all to a fine pulp.)"

"(...Eh, sorry, got sidetracked. You coming with or not?)"

Boshi prepares the boat as he waits for any response.

---

Zone 2 - Sophia

(...peck)
"U-um, sure? Yeah, gimme a bit."

Fortunately for Sophia, there's lots of Chloe Plushies available. Somehow. The inventory's weird like that.

She pulls out another two, and modifies them in a similar way to the others. She had some Seer Crystal shards left over, so she slips them in there too.

She presents the two plushies to the two remaining scarlets. "Here you go! Don't... don't ask why we have multiple."

---

Zone 3 - Dorothy

After a little bit of meditating, Dorothy lies back on the blanket and dozes off. It's peaceful. Almost too peaceful. There also seems to be a faint, rainbow-ish glow around her. Probably nothing.

---

House - Adria

Adria nods, and hesitates for a brief moment as Chloe offers her a hand. Though she does take hold after that. Her hand was somewhat cold, though not alarmingly so. She allows Chloe to guide her down.

Once downstairs, she gets a good look at the surrounding area. The place she briefly glossed over last night. And a section she didn't even notice prior to then; the lab. The notable areas for her seemed to be the portal area and the lab. Starting with the portal area...

"Ah, the portal... I... that's how I got here, as a matter of fact. There were a number of them, you said?"
"...I vaguely remember taking the one at some sort of ruins... that was the one that looked - and was - the least guarded... s-so that's what that crystal chose. A-and well... here I am..."

She gestures towards the turret. "...That turret's sensors may want to be upgraded at some point. They fare horridly against smoke bombs... t-that's how I slipped in."

Next, they come to the lab. Adria resists the urge to steal the coffee for herself. Something tells her she'd want it...

"A lab, hm? ...I wonder what you folks study down here... t-though now I wish I hadn't taken the profession myself..."
"...I vaguely recall seeing this 'Omo' person last night, I believe? I-I don't remember... a-anything past when I was pinned to that wall..."

She shudders at the thought. They sorta continue their tour, but it was more a gesture to where the rooms are. But because privacy, it would be rude to go in without an invite.

"O-oh, this 'Echoss' must have been the person who um, i-initially stopped me f-from-"
She abruptly stops talking, shivers once more, and shakes her head quite violently for someone barely awake. She looks a bit nauseous too...
"N-no... no I... I don't want to r-remember..."
"...Nevertheless, I'll thank him properly when he wakes."

On to miscellaneous stuff. "...Why is there water running throughout the basement like a river? It's a bizarre design choice..."
"A-and please tell me there's no alcohol in those kegs... I-I'm not sure I could keep away from them after last night..."
"That crafting station over there... a little primitive, but it looks acceptable for robotics work. Maybe I'll do a little there when I'm less out of it..."

"...I-I think that's everything. Shall we continue?"

---

Everground - Hannah

"...Ew."
"And of course I forgot to pack terraforming tools... though maybe we could block it with some rock? Mm, but that observer's in the way, and I really don't feel like dealing with one of those right now..."

"..."
"...I gotta go through it though, don't I. Ugh, that sucks..."
"Yew, whatever's makin' that wind, please shoot it as soon as you see it."

Hannah actually makes some proper "Iron" Boots with the 2 Durasteel. They're not the comfiest, but they'll help keep her footing in these winds. Though chances are it won't be enough. She uses another Durasteel to add hooks to the front of the boots so that they'd act as hooks to keep her in place, and another Durasteel to make an aerodynamic shield of sorts to break through the gale. And just to be safe, she adds in some climbing claws with all that.

By now she's heavily loaded down. Might be enough to push through. She hops down with her gear, pointing the shield forward, holding Yew tightly in her grip, and beginning to move. Slowly, as to not break her legs trying to get through it as fast as possible. She just lets the observer chill.

---

Battle - Amidst The Clouds

(...well this is gonna be awkward either way i do this... ugh, dammit... it sucks being the only one between this tug-of-war... what to do... ...hm... maybe-)

Venia speaks to her and Yew directly. This was more than enough to get her startled and thoroughly intimidated. It didn't take long before she was drenched in sweat. "...Y-yeah, I-I guess it had to be said eventually..."
"(yeah so uh... don't. just don't. it'd be bad enough to lose easily my favorite weapon forever, but chances are i'll also be relegated to a more helpless position again... i don't want that. just the thought upsets me...)"

"(...i'll be able to explain better once this is over with. so bear with me here.)"

After Asha, Hannah uses the teleporter to get to (P23), activates the Utility Console's Sprinklers if they haven't been already, then teleports back to (Q10).

"...Bluh. F-focus..."

Hannah has Yew corrode Hersilia for a meaty chunk of unavoidable damage (note that Decaying also counts as Poisoned). She retreats through the teleporter again, back to her original position at (O10).

Move to Y9
Shopping Spree 2 rocket launchers and 2 knives (Fire)