AMIDST THE CLOUDS, ROUND EIGHT

The spiralfloof is so happy to have a friend! It decides to use its action to let Woodthorne mount it, and it then flies to F9, casting Cotton Guard on Destiny.

Woodthorne pets the spiralfloof, and then takes his turn! He casts Purify on Bauhaus, removing the BadlyPoisoned (And maybe suppressed?) status effect(s), healing him, and granting him even more SHP (not that he needs it...)

With his bonus action, he then casts Quick Purity on Destiny, reducing the cooldown of Sunder by 1 round!

Battle Action: Rosemary and Joykiller both retreat through the telelanding on D21 back to the main ship through the telenode on T17, retreats to Q17 for Rosemary and Q15 for Joykiller, then eats a fruitcake square.

BATTLES

The Reflector flies to O8, uses a bonus action to give themselves Shields Holding (Divine Shield edition) and casts Suffocating Hatred on K4, inflicting Taunt. (Unless this would bounce off the cover, in which case they move to N8 to get a better angle.) They then retreat to P7 (or O7 if parentheses action happened.)
The Mirror Reflector fires off the Calypse Cannon at the Sky Labs, then uses their action to... give themselves Shields Holding, I guess? Not much else worth doing.

---

ROLEPLAY

@Tazz/Chaos
Was going to work on this last night, but I am really not feeling it, for reasons you probably are aware of. So... fuck. (I was almost done with the Maxim section, so I ended up finishing it regardless.)

@Maxim
The Reflector considers Maxim's request for a moment, then retrieves the Thought-to-Text slate from the inventory instead and slides it to Maxim.

THE REFLECTOR: unfortunately i don't have any bodies on hand! except for my own, my own of course but that one's currently very much occupied. so i'm quite afraid you'll have to make do with this little tablet, darling. unless someone should happen to walk by and volunteer for translation duty!

The Reflector pointedly waits a moment to see if anyone shows up to volunteer for said duty. If no one does, they turn back to Maxim and clap their hands excitedly.

THE REFLECTOR: let's begin!
THE REFLECTOR: i, the being known as the reflector, am here to offer you, maxim, a permanent body, more powerful and possibly very possibly more malleable than anything, anything you have previously experienced.
THE REFLECTOR: in exchange? your undying loyalty to the spherebreakers until ware's defeat!
THE REFLECTOR: perhaps we can even throw return your legs in somewhere down the line, although likely very likely with adjustments safeguards prevention tools to limit your ability to harm innocent chairians.
THE REFLECTOR: in addition, my dearest companions will no doubt require some assurances of your loyalty, emergency measures in case of willing or unwilling betrayal.
THE REFLECTOR: go on, darling, do share your thoughts! we're all simply dying to hear them.

Brutishace, thankful that he didn't plummet into the Abyss, but with his Plan B uprooted, decides to run a variant on his Plan A. He declares a Sprint to move over to S17, uses the Telenode at to warp over to G10, where he moves over to H9 and takes cover there.

To finish up his turn, Brutishace spawns in a Skeleton at F10, where he destroys it with Soul Siphon and heals up Destinywith the resulting soul energy.

--SKYLABS--
Bauhaus moves to E9, then casts Abduction on SBlaster1. Haha grapple go brrr.

--THE HOUSE--
Bauhaus walks out of the house with a smile in his face and some scrambled eggs in his arms. Something catches his eye. He walks towards the pile of blue metal, wait, no, that's a tank. The Duneyrr from some time ago, specifically.

"How did you get this thing?"

Destiny moves to C9 and uses Phase Shift on Rotting Widow 1.
Miss, be aware of any potential threats that may replace my position.
After teleporting, Destiny runs to F4 and stabs Splinter Spitter 4.

Auth grins at the prospect, and pulls out a piece of paper and a pen, twirling it quickly.

AUTH: Oh, I'd love that, Nana. It'd be fun! The dish I'm planning takes a lot of preparation, because it's got a few components.
AUTH: But that'd be what makes it fun, right? So many things to work on, and then they come together into something impressive.

Auth listens to Nana's suggestion of doing it tomorrow, and Chloe's comment about breakfast being served for lunch.

AUTH: The all-day breakfast is supposed to refer to this, fun fact.
AUTH: Think we could speed up time around a pot somehow? You need to wash and boil beans for a while, it would probably be ready at dinner if we started now...

Auth swiftly writes down a hefty list of ingredients.

AUTH: I'm not sure how much of this we can actually get... I'll see what I can do, I suppose.

Auth nods to Nana's suggestion.

AUTH: I'll be along shortly, then. See you soon.

Auth checks that everything he has is in order before floating out to the front where Nana and Taeda are.

AUTH: Shall we get going, then?

---

Auth glances to the machine that Redbud is referring to. It looks vaguely familiar, now that he thinks about it.

AUTH: Oh, is that the perception filter? Come to think of it, we might have left something like that around here. That would explain why there's no Iti, then.
AUTH: I can imagine how much of a relief it is that you guys have that there, makes the place way safer.

Auth considers how to respond to the question of where he learned his healing magic.

AUTH: My healing... is an extension of one of my personal abilities which I don't know if it is possible to share, sadly.
AUTH: I'm very sorry for the pain in recovery, the injuries I normally have to heal mid-battle usually don't require such specific intervention. I don't know enough about Chairian anatomy to be able to tell whether any anaesthetics would work, if I knew I'd have used it.
AUTH: I think healing magic would be useful for you guys to learn if you're planning to stay out here. Helps make your group independent.
AUTH: I'd offer to teach some more standard field medicine, but I don't actually know how much of it is useful either.
AUTH: You have no idea how unbelievably annoying it is not knowing whether or not any of my knowledge applies here.

---

My battle action can be whatever someone needs me to do. I need to sleep.

<ROUND 237>
Venia accidentally has her throat ripped out by a Fell Beast. Except it’s made of water, so it can’t really be ripped out. Then, after making use of her body to envelop the Fell Beast (which Nia might enjoy), she rips off the monster’s jaw (which Nia would not enjoy). Soon enough, Venia slays the second Fell Beast! Now the only one left is the Fell Behemoth!

Elsewhere, Venia throws Gibbet a Mighty Banana, seasoned with a Mental Cluster. She then takes a few more moments to try and teach Gibbet telepathy, filling in some of the gaps in its knowledge. It then attempts to “speak” again. This time, while the voice is still childish, it’s far less like a screeching baby.

GIBBET: (hello!)
GIBBET: (what are we doing?)
GIBBET: (are you my mom?)

The bird does not have a proper grasp on biology. And probably neither does Maria, as Chaos’s mere existence is probably messing with her fundamental concepts of that. She hands Chaos the fifty credits for the fries, noting that she didn’t know that Chaos had a twin brother.

CHAOS: i have a wha[t]?
CHAOS: yo [t]ha[t]’s so [c]ool
CHAOS: i[t]’s like [t]here’s me, bu[t] [t]wo

Maria then hops off to feed fries to Piggo. Piggo seems to love them, despite the fries being from two weird glitch entities. They’re probably salted well.

god do i want some fries

---

JOE walks into a swarm of missiles. Unfortunately, battle laws do not apply to out of map encounters, and the game absolutely refuses to let you start a SECOND encounter. Also, for all you know, those missiles could be Electric-type missiles! Which they aren’t. They’re thankfully, fire-elemental. Anyway, given the laws of not actually starting the battle, the missiles hurt. A lot.

By some freak miracle though, JOE survives the bombardment! Sure, he’s a light poke away from death, but it’s better than he could hope for! This joy survives until a rocket that can only be described as a “drill on a rocket” violently impales him. It’s a bit on the messy side. There is now also a large forest fire on JOE’s old position. The figure on the dropship stashes away their rocket launcher.

???: Darn. It did take two.
???: It was an amazing battle, though!
???: *inaudible scoffing*
???: I mean, the explosion was pretty rad.
???:*inaudible request to get going*
???: Alright. Let’s gooooo!

Pchoo! And the dropship is off. The Mechonis follows with it.

---

Not!Echoss makes use of [DATA EXPUNGED] against the Fell Behemoth! Something happens to them. I’m not really sure what, but the Fell Behemoth is now in two halves. And the bottom half is still alive, at least until a few swords are gently inserted into the beast’s neck, killing it. Whew.

Elsewhere, Not!Echoss makes a few requests. 100 Credits are thrown to the Sleuth, who goes off and returns with a bunch of individual dead Shuria. A few rolls of tape later, and he’s assembled their bodies into a rough approximation of a Shardnado. This is promptly scanned.

>Codex Updated!

A request is then made to the Sleuth to go and grab some Halo Nectars. He complies, confiscating 2 Halo Nectar from Yung Venuz as evidence for… something. Finally, the Bouquet Singularities and the Sock Puppet Court are given to Nia! Taking 120 Credits total, this yields some Bouquet Dimensions, and a duo of Sock Puppet Galactic Courts. These items are likely going to get impossibly dangerous at some point.

---

Boshi's Daycare Service continues! To begin, Boshi requests the binoculars from the fisherman. He complies, tossing them to him. Taking a perch up on the shack, he gets a good view on the dropship. Tabletopians, he thinks.

FISHERMAN: Tabletopians? Out here?
FISHERMAN: But how? It's not like their tech would work, unless they had a team in place to assemble it for them within the field.
FISHERMAN: The only group capable of that is the Rebellion... and I doubt they'd willingly side with the Tabletopians.
FISHERMAN: We're all Chairians here, after all.
FISHERMAN: After all of the war and strife, I doubt the Rebellion would be willing to even consider working with them...

Boshi then proposes that they get moving. They oughta scram before the Tabletopian(?) Dropship finds them. He nods his head.

FISHERMAN: Beats getting exploded. Why not.
FISHERMAN: You've proven yourself to be a fine fellow, you...
FISHERMAN: ...I have no idea what the hell you are, to be quite frank.
FISHERMAN: Whatever you are, you're a fine person.
FISHERMAN: Once I get my gear onboard, we should get going.

They begin the arduous task of loading on the heavy equipment onto the corvette. This might take a bit. At the very least though, it seems like the aircraft haven't noticed them. Elsewhere, Sophia grabs two more Chloe Plushies, sticks in a few more Seer Crystal shards into them, and gifts them to Redbud and the other Scarlet. Redbud places the plushie on her head, the plushie sitting comfortably on her head.

REDBUD: Hurray!~
REDBUD: Thanks a bunch!

REDBUD: So, hm...
REDBUD: Anything you need? I think we'll be fine for now, thanks to you and your friend!
REDBUD: Thank you again for your help! And the friends!

...Elsewhere, Chloe feels a chill roll down her spine. She has this odd feeling that merchandise of her likeness is being given away, and it creeps her out to no end. Still, she tries not to let that bother her as she responds to Adria. Apparently, she came in through that portal.

CHLOE: Huh? You did? How'd you know there was a turret beyond the portal?
CHLOE: Guess whoever built the turret should take a look at the sensors, though.
CHLOE: Who knew that smoke bombs were the bane of high-tech tracking systems?

She also asks about why there's running water through the basement. She shrugs.

CHLOE: I think it's just one of those... "rich people things".
CHLOE: Something grossly impractical, but you get it anyway because it's cool.
CHLOE: Kinda seems like a waste of water, though.
CHLOE: I'd much rather have a swimming pool, y'know?
CHLOE: It'd be a nice place to kick back and relax... and less of a planning disaster!

With that out of the way, Chloe and Adria head upstairs, emerging on the ground floor. Chloe jumps back onto the couch, stretching her back against it.

CHLOE: Welcome to the ground floor!
CHLOE: There's really not much to the west- just the kitchen, a washroom, and a simple patio sorta area.
CHLOE: But... there's something really cool about this couch!
CHLOE: We call it "Couchtron"!

Chloe presses a button on the couch, causing the mecha to deploy. It's small on the grand scale of mechas, but still quite intimidating nonetheless. Deciding that it'd be dangerous to show it off anymore lest a weapons discharge light the place on fire, Chloe disengages the mecha, reverting it into a couch.

CHLOE: We have lots of lil' defensive measuress around the house.
CHLOE: I mean, maybe some of them like Couchtron aren't that little, but most of them are just turrets and stuff.
CHLOE: Anyway, onwards!

They head into the east wing, which is mostly barren at the moment. The only thing of note are a few doors, a staircase, and a sign left by Chaos proposing that they transform the area into a cozy lounge.

CHLOE: Believe it or not, this whole side of the house didn't exist until a day or so ago!
CHLOE: It's probably violating OSHA regulations, building a house that quickly... but it works!
CHLOE: I think you've been here before actually, but just to the north we have some communal washrooms.
CHLOE: Those stairs there then lead to a communal barracks, which seems kinda uncomfortable, but I guess we gotta make do, don't we?
CHLOE: ...I say that, but I have a cozy room to myself downstairs. Kinda feels unfair to the others, really.

CHLOE: Anyway, the last place we need to go is... upstairs!
CHLOE: We'll go once you're ready, if that's fine with you.

As she waits on Adria, Chloe takes a moment to examine the sign that Chaos left. A proper lounge... seems cozy! What she'd give to have a chance to kick back and just play some games for an hour or two. Finally, down in the Everground, Hannah upgrades to proper Iron Boots, made with... 2 Durasteel. Alright. 2 more Durasteel is then used to further upgrade the boots, and obtain an aerodynamic shield. With this weighty equipment in hand, Hannah jumps down into the airstream. She's nearly blown away, but her combination of gear seems to be enough to keep her steady.

She slowly marches forward, but as she approaches the domain of the Observer, it begins to ping at her and her shield. While it's not a big issue, if she walked much further forward, she'd be unable to block its attacks and the airstream at the same time. What to do...?

---

The Reflector offers Maxim the Thought-to-Text Slate. After plenty of effort, the legless parasite manages to fling itself upon the tablet. Words begin to appear.

MAXIM: (MUCH BETTER.)
MAXIM: (NOW, AS YOU WERE SAYING?)

The Reflector then brings up an offer: in exchange for its loyalty, it will obtain a permanent body. The creature chitters in deep thought.

MAXIM: (A BODY?)
MAXIM: (THAT WOULD BE WONDERFUL. AND DELICIOUS.)
MAXIM: (HOW DO YOU INTEND TO USE ME?)

Seems that it's interested! I mean, that could change depending on how you intend to use Maxim, but still. Diplomacy!

---

Auth makes it an official plan- breakfast for lunch! And Nana can help. The apothecary gives a quiet little cheer.

NANA: Okay! I'll do my best for you!
NANA: I wonder how it'll taste? I'm kinda excited!

Her excitement is still there, but takes a confused turn when Auth mentions speeding up time around a pot.

CHLOE: I remember that Nezira managed to stop time around some ice cream bowls she packaged for Nia.
CHLOE: Then again, I haven't seen Nezira in awhile...
CHLOE: But, it's probably possible! I don't know how to do it, but maybe someone else does?

NANA: T-Time acceleration? That sounds d-dangerous...

After Auth writes down his list of ingredients, Nana gives it a quick read-over. She doesn't recognize some of the materials, but figures that Auth will find a way to supply those things. Eventually, the two of them meet outside the House, and begin their expedition out into the village!

The town, despite being abandoned, seems lively enough. Not enough time has passed for vines to overtake the houses, or for the paint jobs to fade. What has happened though, is widespread damage. Whether it was the Iti, or perhaps firebombings from not so long ago, many buildings are devastated. There is little in the way of bodies, interestingly enough. Taeda would theorize that the villagers got out in time. Nana meanwhile, would theorize that the Seekers had some snacks.

The journey is quiet enough though, and eventually, the group reaches a turn. A confused Taeda looks at the map she prepared.

TAEDA: H-Huh? This was a three way junction n-not long ago!
TAEDA: T-This is strange...
NANA: A-Are you sure y-you didn't miswrite s-something?
TAEDA: I-I'm positive!
TAEDA: Well, i-in theory, the chapel would be to the west of here...
NANA: Y-You better not be messing with us!

A temporary map for exploring the village has spawned to the south in Zone 0. Either Taeda's bad at making maps, or something's wrong here. Finally, at the library with Redbud, Auth mentions that he had anesthetics. She glares at him.

REDBUD: Y-You have anesthetics?
REDBUD: Y-You could've tried that on me f-first! Your magic REALLY hurt, you know!
REDBUD: I'm not saying I'm not thankful or anything, b-but... w-well, you get it!

REDBUD: But... yeah. We're pretty different in terms of biology.
REDBUD: It makes sense that I probably couldn't do what you do.
REDBUD: But, healing magic! I'll try and learn that! Totally!
REDBUD: I'm not sure where to start... but we're in a library!
REDBUD: There's probably some magical scrolls and stuff around here!
REDBUD: It's not like we have much better to do, anyway.
REDBUD: I'll get to it!

With her healed leg, Redbud begins to browse various shelves around the library. Seems like that if there is magical scrolls and the like stored around here, it's probably not in the easy to access, public sections. Or maybe she's just bad at searching! Maybe it'd be worth giving her a helping hand, or some material of your own?

---

<AMIDST THE CLOUDS, ROUND NINE>
Whew! This might be our longest battle yet! The end is in sight, though! One of the cores is nearly destroyed, and the other shouldn't take too much effort either! Just be careful to not... get screwed over by RNG, or something? Yeah.

((For the above dop)).

Irongutta moves to AA19 and uses the teleporter to reach Y10. From there, he moves to V9. This activates Unstoppable Force as usual.

"I'm chuckin' yer webspinners off this thing till ya cry mercy!"

Using Skeletal Toss, Irongutta moves Splinter Spitter 2 to the abyss at T10, which also activates the crushing damage from Skeletal Toss.

Zone 1 - Boshi

Boshi notes the gear being packed onto the boat, and momentarily hops off to help pack it all up.

"(It's not entirely unheard of. Someone smart enough could figure out the Thymefield. One of our own managed to send in parts of a weapon for us to put together during our very first day on Sussui, without ever really being there herself. And the Legion's stretched fairly thin as well, if I recall, so slipping parts for a war machine or dropship into the Thymefield's not too farfetched.)"

"(However, the fact they're even here likely means they know what's going on in this part of Sussui - the Sphere specifically. They either know exactly what the Sphere is - that being a ticking timebomb set to wipe out everything in a 1/3 of a universe or multiverse diameter or something - or are merely just responding to the threat of it being sent over. It's hard to say.)"

The fisherman asks... what the heck is he, even?

"(Boshi Munchakoopa. A Yoshi. We're native to Yoshi's Island, in the oceans surrounding the Mushroom Kingdom. Don't really have a name for the planet. Kinda weird, but eh.)"

"(And I appreciate the compliment. Let's get these things on board, yeah?)"

Boshi continues piling the gear into the boat. Depending on how heavy it is, this might take a bit...

---

Zone 2 - Sophia

"Nah, we don' need anything! But I think I'mma relax here a lil' bit."

She finds a spot nearby, and sits back. She checks out the Hat Creation Kit she got a while ago, fiddling with all the tools within, to get a proper feel for them. Maybe she'll make a hat or something soon, who knows.

---

House - Adria

When asked how she knew the turret existed, Adria shrugs. "W-Well, it was fairly easy to take a very quick look through..."

The water running through the place.. one of those 'rich people things'. Makes enough sense. She nods, though when a swimming pool is brought up, she perks up with interest. "Yes, I think it would as well."

As they enter the ground floor, Adria was fairly indifferent to the whole layout. "Simple enough. Just wish there was more fla-"

And then Couchtron appears. Her eyes go wide with amazement. "O-oh wow! Alright, that is really cool!"

"Fortunately, I-I haven't had the misfortune of running into those smaller defenses... w-worst case scenario... I-I'd probably be a lot worse off."

As they make their way into the east wing, Chloe directs Adria's attention to the stairs and the bathrooms. "...A shower would do me some good right about now..."

She takes a look at her clothing. Blood splatters from where that crystal was hurting her, and potentially also from the surgery. It also looks as though her clothing hasn't been washed in ages. "...nngh, b-but I don't have any spare clothing with me... m-maybe I'll find some lying around... I hope I find some lying around..."

"As for upstairs... t-that's where I woke up this morning, so I don't think there's much need to go up there. I'll take anything at this point; beats standing 24/7 a-against my will. B-besides, it would be difficult to make so many rooms in such a small space. I can't blame anyone for not being able to."

She eyes the sign as well. A lounge area would spruce up the place, wouldn't it? But, it's not really her place to ask for it to be built.

"...Not too much to say, really. We can move on."

She certainly looks a lot more comfortable now. And energetic. She's still white as a ghost, though.

---

Everground - Hannah

"Of course you'd get in the way... of course... ... ...hm... don't want to anger it... maybe..."

Hannah directs Yew to the area directly in front of the Observer. It should be corroded; she has a plan to deal with it somewhat safely. Hannah pushes in further, until she can get a good look at the other side of the Observer. She directs Yew to fire at the rock above the Observer in a certain way, so that it'll flip the Observer rightside-up in the airstream. Chances are it'll slide into the crevice, so Hannah also directs Yew to cause a minor cave-in by weakening the ceiling at (J164), (L164), and the top part of (K164) (in that order), trapping the Observer should it get pushed into the crevice.

---

Battle - Amidst The Clouds

Hannah looks at the Morph on the ship in confusion. "Hey buddy, you know you're right next to that drill, right? Just sit riiiight there for a teensy bit..."

Hannah pokes the Remote Airship Controller, sending the Drill after Morph 1. If it's a down, at least she could feel some form of relief...

After that, assuming nobody slaps the nearby Weapon Controller, backs off to (Q11) to fire a Twin Railcannons at the West Weapons Tower, with Defensive Core 1 in it. After that, she uses the Teleporter to get to (E10). She then has Yew rail against Defensive Core 1.

Battle Action: Rosemary moves to the telenode on T17, and teleports to D9, with Joykiller spawning on E7. Joykiller proceeds to use their basic attack on the Sentient Blaster at F7

Woodthorne rides to D7, and fires his golden revolver at the core.
The spiralfloof casts Cotton Guard on rosemary, followed by a basic attack on the core.

Battle: Admist the Clouds

Venia and the Vic Viper use a combination of teleporters to move to D9 and C7 respectively. Venia uses her Heart stacks to gain Ordo, then immediately burns it on using Purge on the 1st Defense Core. She also uses the Remote Airship Controller to use (surprise surprise) the Twin Railcannons on the Eastern defense tower to destroy that Defense Core. The Vic Viper self-applies the Helix Totem, then fires its basic attack on the core as a followup.

"Asha, can you secure Hersilia? Just so she's alright?" Venia asks over comms.

---

The Old Pass

Venia brushes herself off, sighs in relief at the sight of the bisected Fell Behemoth, and approaches the Soldier, scanning the remains of the Fell Behemoth as she passes it by.

"You safe?" Venia says. As soon as she assures the safety of the soldier, she sighs in relief. "Alright... Didn't expect it to go down that easily, but I guess all's well that ends well. I suppose you should get going."

---

Gibbet

Venia abruptly perks up upon being called 'mommy.' Her face turns red as warm memories flash by-



Venia's well-honed parental instincts instantly kick into high gear. "I'll be your mommy if you want me to be your mommy," Venia says back. "We're gonna learn all the things together. You're doing very good, but we're gonna learn other stuff soon. We're gonna learn how to..."

Venia trails off and doesn't translate the end of her sentence. But he has to know, doesn't he? She reels herself back in.

"... I'm going to teach you how to fight, how to protect yourself and others."

---

Mariaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Maria pets Piggo. "Good piggy. Good piggy. Good piggy. Soon you're gonna be a royal piggy, and Cushion's gonna be a royal... Fluffy. And everything's gonna be awesome."

To help lay into the first Defense Core, Brutishace charges ahead to D6 and casts Twin Jolts on the machine.

BATTLES

The Reflector flies to K4 and basic attacks Splinter Spitter 1, just to hopefully get a tiny bit more SP.
The Mirror Reflector uses the nearby console to fire the Twin Railcannons at Defense Core 1, then uses their full action to ascend to godhood meditate.

---

ROLEPLAY

@Maxim: The Reflector smiles at Maxim's willingness to bargain.

THE REFLECTOR: simple quite simple! you would be fighting on the front lines against our mutual friend spark's mighty legions.
THE REFLECTOR: and well possibly iti and rebels and all other sorts of beings but you get the picture.
THE REFLECTOR: once you have proven your loyalty, it's quite possible you will obtain new duties, new duties in their entirety.
THE REFLECTOR: i have a few things in mind, but my allies would like to make sure you do not try something so foolish so regrettable as attacking us before they give you any truly irreplaceable tasks.
THE REFLECTOR: i of course have the utmost confidence utter confidence in your loyalty, but if my confidence is ill-placed then remember this.
THE REFLECTOR: however tempting, however tempting it may be to exact your revenge, there are many more of us than of you! and the spherebreakers are quite accustomed to your methods at this point.
THE REFLECTOR: without us, you are just another little whirring cog in ware's machine. with us... well that's the thing, that's really up to you now isn't it!
THE REFLECTOR: are these terms amenable?

@Chaos/Maria: actually this plotline kind of took care of itself

Not!Echoss:
Not!Echoss hops off the top of the Fell Behemoth and walks over to the soldier.
"Hello there, you seem like a decent person, here's my card."
Not!Echoss hands a playing card to the soldier, which has a phone number written on it that very clearly isn't an area code on Sussui, and the following words in dark purple comic sans:
"[name scribbled out]; professional meme character, purveyor of fine cheeses, and 4th wall integrity inspector"
Not!Echoss has vanished by the time the soldier looks up from the card.

Not!Echoss appears in the Mollusk den and immediately lays into the wall with the heaven piercing drill again.


Amidst the Clouds:
I don't have any ideas so Pionobot punches the floof-knight next to him in the face, doing absolutely nothing of use, and then presses the weapons panel button labeled "shoot skylabs defense core with the double railguns". A very specific, but extremely useful (in this circumstance) button.

Auth chuckles at Nana's excitement. He seems quite interested in making this himself, too.

AUTH: Yeah, it'll be fun. Your help would be much appreciated.
AUTH: As for taste? Not sure I can give an unbiased assessment. It tastes of nostalgia for me, at least. It reminds me of home.

Auth nods to Chloe's comment about what Nezira did to make ice cream.

AUTH: I... vaguely recall something like that. I could ask Asha or Venia for some assistance in that case, I don't know how to do time magic sadly. It takes most of a day to get one part of the dish ready and it just isn't the same without it.

Auth doesn't seem terribly surprised Nana doesn't know what some of the things on the list of ingredients are. It should be interesting for her to experience a few of the flavours that Auth is familiar with, if he can find some equivalents.

---

On the way out of the village, an... interesting roadblock in the ruins of the village. Auth has no opinion either way on the ultimate fates of the villagers, though he does hope they evacuated.

AUTH: It was a three way junction, you say? Odd. You usually don't build a house in the middle of a footpath.
AUTH: It kind of reminds me when I was helping out with a train line, and we came across a city block that wasn't supposed to be there.
AUTH: I'm inclined to believe your map, Taeda. Give me a moment.

Auth flies up into the air, to look overtop. And behind the house, he sees... the rest of the path. That's not a good sign. He floats back down, looking around.

AUTH: Hey, Taeda? Does your map have an alternate path to get around this junction?
AUTH: There's a path on the other side of this building. I think...
AUTH: Is it possible this house is a huge mimic?

Auth thinks for a moment.

AUTH: Surely not. That would be far too obvious.

Auth points the Scanner at the house. If his hunch is right... the three of them probably don't have the ability to handle this, he thinks.

AUTH: I hope I'm overthinking things. Hopefully we can go around, at least...

---

Auth looks aside when Redbud asks him about Anaesthetics.

AUTH: Apologies. I was concerned with unforeseen side effects that may have manifested from their use. I don't usually need to treat such severe injuries on fully conscious patients.
AUTH: I'm sure we can both agree that if I used something that worked on humans but did something severe to Chairians, it would be bad, right? It's not always clear what could have that impact. Sorry, again.
AUTH: Truth be told, I think most of the pain comes from forcing the leg back together, as opposed to the healing itself. I don't really know, though.

Auth thinks for a minute. Healing scrolls, huh? And while he's thinking about it, Auth probably ought to get to learning about what Chairians do for their own usual medicine. This is a library.

AUTH: I can ask the librarian about where, ideally, they should be, if that would help. I'd give you some of the magic tomes in our stockpile, which has some healing spells, but we're out, unfortunately.

Auth proceeds to pause, think, and then pull out the Masterwork Spellbook.

[color=#5300a9][font=Courier New][b]AUTH: Wait, we have this! I dunno if there's anything in it yet, but maybe it'll magically have a bunch of magic spells in there you might be interested in?

Should there be no spells that magically appear in the book, Auth decides to help by exploiting his ability to fly, and try and find some more magic books.

---

AUTH: Rude. I'm already unable to go anywhere, that's just rubbing it in.

The sheer eye-rolling coming from Auth is almost tangible. While he waits for the ability to move again, so he can go rescue and spiders heartlessly thrown off the ship, and then resuscitate Hersilia, he casts Purify on himself. He thinks this is a good moment, since one defence core is about to go down. The other may not for a few turns yet, it's mostly fully healed.

Pope Bill notices the Floofknight4 on K21 and basic-attacks it!

<ROUND 238>

---

Boshi's Daycare Service continues its work. To begin, Boshi properly introduces himself to the fisherman, as a Yoshi. The fisherman nods, clearly not understanding what Boshi is.

FISHERMAN: A Yoshi. Yep.
FISHERMAN: And I thought "humans" were a weird name, but that has to take the cake.
FISHERMAN: No offense there.

Boshi then helps the Fisherman get his gear onboard. Fortunately for him, the equipment is efficiently designed, and isn't as heavy as it could be. Which is to say that it's still heavy, but nothing backbreaking. The two of them working together manage to offload the equipment onto the boat.

FISHERMAN: Once again, thanks for the help.
FISHERMAN: Shall we set sail?

While the duo most likely sets sail, Adria remarks about not having any spare clothing. Chloe gives this a few moments of thought, eyeing up Chaos's shop stall. She sighs. Going shopping there would probably be more pain than it's worth.

CHLOE: Hm.
CHLOE: If you want a change of clothes, we could certainly whip something up.
CHLOE: Marron can produce armor pieces just fine, so maybe we could poke her?
CHLOE: Ette can also then go and wash your old clothes, too!

CHLOE: Also, if you wanna take a shower... go ahead! I'll wait.
CHLOE: ...Or maybe I'll take one, too. I haven't showered this morning...

After a few moments (possibly after a shower), Chloe and Adria advance upstairs! It seems like the marks of last night's scuffle were cleaned up pretty well. No bloodstains, no cracks or dents in the walls... nothing of that sort. The two walk along the hall, Chloe pointing out the sights as they walk.

CHLOE: So, upstairs!
CHLOE: Not much up here, but through these windows, you can reach the roof!
CHLOE: Just please, please open them before you go through. We've needed to replace these things a few times because some people just... don't get windows, I guess.

CHLOE: And to this side, we have two larger bedrooms.
CHLOE: I suspect that before we occupied this house, the northern room was a guest bedroom, and the southern one belonged to the owner of the house.
CHLOE: Right now, Venia and Nia are lodging in this room to the left, and Toast and Marron to the right.
CHLOE: Y'know when people tell a couple to "get a room"? I guess they really did!
CHLOE: I'd show you the rooms, but... that'd probably be intrusive to the couples.

Finally, she points to the center door.

CHLOE: Also! More washrooms!
CHLOE: Before the construction of the side rooms, there were only two washrooms and a single shower in this house.
CHLOE: I'm... surprised we managed!

CHLOE: Anyway... I guess that's all of the house.
CHLOE: Maybe I could show you around outside, but I get the feeling that you want to freshen up n' stuff. Can't blame you if you do!
CHLOE: There's also not much out there, save for some defenses, so... yeah.
CHLOE: Anything else you wanna do?

Chloe looks out the window as she waits for a response from Adria. She can see Auth, Nana, and Taeda off in the distance. What are they up to, anyway? Meanwhile, down in the Everground, Hannah gets Yew to pew pew at the area right in front of the Observer. The rock corrodes about as expected. She then pushes forward a few steps more, until they can get a good look at the other side of the Observer. This results in them walking forward enough that the shield doesn't protect them, so they get pinged for (5) damage. Fortunately, the plan still goes as intended, and the Observer is then sent tumbling into the airstream! It flies backward and gets pinned against the blockage, before getting crushed under a few feet of rock which Hannah caused to fall.

Now, all that's left is to investigate the maw itself!

---

Venia approaches the soldier at the Old Pass. With the Fell Behemoth taken out of commission, they should be safe to leave! The Chairian bows towards Venia.

CHAIRIAN: W-Wow! Didn't think you'd be able to kill that thing!
CHAIRIAN: If it weren't for you lot, I'd be... well, dead!
CHAIRIAN: I'll get going now.

CHAIRIAN: Oh, right! The reason I was here...
CHAIRIAN: I've heard that there's a secret cellar with some supplies somewhere around here.
CHAIRIAN: I think it was inside a building?
CHAIRIAN: I was searching for it, but I didn't get very far, thanks to the...

They look at the mutilated corpses of the Fell Beasts.

CHAIRIAN: Yeaaaaah.
CHAIRIAN: Help yourselves to whatever's in there, if you manage to find it.
CHAIRIAN: Thanks again!

...And they're off. Still, the promises of a secret weapons(?) cache? Now that you know it exists, it should be possible to find. Finally, Venia becomes a proud parent! To a bird. She then immediately decides to teach her "child" how to "kill", except "kill" really shouldn't be in quotes because they're really gonna "kill" the heck out of things. Gibbet chirps excitely.

GIBBET: (okay mom!)
GIBBET: (how do i kill?)

...They're, uh... rather excited to learn how to rip things apart. Must be the whole "being an iti" thing speaking. Be sure to raise your child properly, alright? Feed them a steady diet of EXP so they can beat the snot out of the god of war before they become 18.

---

The Reflector proposes something to Maxim. Simply put, they want to put Maxim to use, fighting against Spark's legionaries. Also maybe other Iti and Rebels. They chitter for a few moments, their blade gently scraping back and forth across the floor.

MAXIM: (THESE TERMS ARE INTERESTING)
MAXIM: (THEY ARE ACCEPTABLE)
MAXIM: (YOU WILL NOT BE LET DOWN)

...Perfect! Now, how to make use of them? Or ensure their loyalty? Why not both?

---

Not!Echoss hands the Legionary a card before they leave. They look at the card, totally clueless. When they look back up to maybe say something, Not!Echoss is already gone. How spooky. Elsewhere, emerging from the warp roughly three seconds in the future, Not!Echoss re-appears, and slams into the wall in the Mollusk Den, seeing what he can find. The Heavenpiercing Drill easily cuts through two tiles, and reveals... a piece of Wall Chicken!

That's probably questionable to some degree. On the other hand, chicken! Yay!

---

Auth, Nana, and Taeda deal to matters of the house. Not like, the group's base house, but that house which Auth suspects is a mimic. He asks Taeda if her map has an alternate path to get around this junction. A few moments of scouring, and she nods.

TAEDA: There is! Although, it'd be a long, long detour...
TAEDA: Maybe we can just... walk around the house?
TAEDA: I don't think that'd be too bad.

Auth then pulls out the scanner, and gives the house a good scan. He picks up one rather large life sign. One which has just taken offense to getting scanned. Large, gelatinous limbs shoot out of the doors and windows of the house. Like some weird turtle-house hybrid, the building lifts itself up, two eyestalks shooting out of the house's chimney.

TAEDA: Helix have mercy on our souls.
NANA: W-WHAT THE HECK IS T-T-THAT!?

The house springs forward, only mere inches away from squishing Taeda. She sprints back, away from the house, before whipping out her SMG and spraying blindly into the house. As it seems, her bullets aren't having much of an effect against the tough wood the house is supposedly made of.

TAEDA: I-It looks like t-the wood is a sort of s-shell for it!
TAEDA: T-This is bad! If we don't deal with it, i-it might move in on our base!
NANA: W-We need t-to fight it then, d-don't we?
NANA: O-Ooh, I don't know a-about this...

She locks eyes with Auth for a moment, trying her hardest to calm her breath, and load some darts into her gun. Despite how shaky her hands are, she manages to load in a full salvo. Standing besides Auth, she prepares to engage the house! Not that her darts would do much. Maybe the group can concoct some sort of plan to demolish the creature?

Finally, over with Redbud, Auth apologizes to Redbud for not using anesthetics, worrying about side effects. Redbud nods.

REDBUD: Don't worry! I get it!
REDBUD: Like... I've heard that outsiders find our habits of bathing in fertilizer or manure really disgusting!
REDBUD: Or maybe we can't compare that to this? Whatever! You probably get it.

As Redbud then scours the library for some scrolls, Auth presents Redbud with a Master Spellbook! There's some expert-level healing spells in there, amazingly enough! Although...

REDBUD: U-Um...
REDBUD: I'm flattered that you think I'm an expert, but... I'm really not.
REDBUD: I'd need like, a few years of magical theory classes to even begin to understand those spells.
REDBUD: I was thinking something more along the lines of... "Healing Magic for Dummies".
REDBUD: Y'know?

Auth then spends a few moments flying around the library, scouting for potential books and the like. It doesn't seem like there's anything of the sort in this area, as it'd be irresponsible to have magical scrolls out for anyone to view.

REDBUD: I bet they keep the good stuff in the back.
REDBUD: Like... is there an office, or some sort of "forbidden archives"?
REDBUD: Every library has some sort of incredibly dangerous forbidden section that'll kill you dead, right?
REDBUD: At least, that's what my books tell me!

It is unclear as to whether there is an incredibly dangerous forbidden section that'll kill you dead. Maybe unlike most fictional librarians, Omorika runs a sane, clean library.

---

<AMIDST THE CLOUDS, ROUND TEN>
Ten? Ten! Wow!

Ahem. Anyway...

With both defensive cores destroyed, the weaponry aboard the defensive emplacements powers down, the guns lowering and retracting into the weapons bays. The spiders that had plagued the area retreat away from the destroyed defenses, some scurrying up the walls of the labs, some down, and some into a conveniently placed vent system.

OMORIKA: The defenses have been disabled.
OMORIKA: We should be free to dock at this location.
OMORIKA: Please weigh anchor just near the western gun.

OMORIKA: ...
OMORIKA: I haven't questioned it until now, but who's been piloting this vessel?
MARI: sup

Mari's head pops through a trapdoor on the deck. Has she been here this whole time...?

MARI: It was me.
MARI: Someone's gotta manage the ship's system's n' junk while you guys are up there fighting.

Out of an entirely separate trapdoor, Nia's head pokes out.

NIA: Also, I'm here too! Hiya!
MARI: Also, she's here.
MARI: In addition, just for next time... could you try and not let the ship get battered by bullets?
MARI: Seriously! Do you know how long this'll all take to fix?
NIA: Not long! We can probably just point the sprinklers down here, and-
MARI: That is NOT how sprinklers work!
MARI: Seriously, what the hell are you smoki-
OMORIKA: Pardon me, but could you dock the ship?
MARI: Yeah, yeah. I've gotchu, fam.

A minute later, and the ship settles down near the edge of the Skylabs. Eager to finally stand upon solid(ish) ground once again, the Spherebreakers pour out of the ship, onto the front lawn of the Sky Labs. Omorika strides towards Hersilia, dragging Ette along with her. She crouches down near Hersilia, and gives Ette the order to immediately begin tending to Hersilia's injuries. The ex-puppet nods, pulls out a whole roll of bandages, and immediately gets to work.

OMORIKA: I'm sorry, Hersilia. This had to be done.
OMORIKA: You're in good hands now.
ETTE: Oh, miss Omo! I found something!

While removing garments that were in the way of the wounds, Ette finds a small little card labelled "VISITOR". It's an ID card! Ette looks it over, noting the words "ACCESS LEVEL 1". Omorika takes the card from Ette, standing up as she examines it.

OMORIKA: Ah, an access card.
OMORIKA: These'll be nice for accessing the labs.
OMORIKA: Various terminals and devices around the labs require these keycards to access.
OMORIKA: I rarely have business up here, so I only have a visitor card myself.
OMORIKA: ...Which I don't have on my person, so Hersilia's card will work fine.

Level 1 Access Card obtained!

OMORIKA: Anyway, shall we advance?
OMORIKA: I'm sure Cypress knows of our intrusion, but I'm not sure whether he'd be our ally or an enemy.
OMORIKA: Nonetheless, I'm sure we'll find him up ahead.

And with that, Zone 5 is open for business! There's not too much to look at for now, but proceed a bit further into the labs, and you'll surely find something of interest! For now, clean up your wounds, patch up your builds, and maybe investigate some of the curiosities around the front of the labs? Either way, things are going to get interesting soon enough!

fffffuck

for above update:

Crystal moves to O11, teleports to E10, and moves to E9. He then uses the Helix Totem and activates Passionate Petals!

The following sequence of actions is performed;
Sliding Slash to E6
Disabling Dust on Defense Core 1, moving to D5
War Scythe on Defense Core 1, moving to D4
Dust Blast on Defense Core 1, moving nowhere because there's a wall