==BATTLE==
At the start of the round, Crystal fires an Elemental Blaster shot at the EBarrier at N16.

The Sleuth is then politely asked to achieve "Diplomacy" by firing Impromptu Caucus at Electrophorus, a Fell Beast, and a Rebel, as well as buff anyone he thinks needs it... and to also put himself in an area where Sepulchritude's final explosion of charisma will do some good damage with the Warp Ring afterwards.

The movement pattern that works the best there is probably moving to N17, using Impromptu Caucus, and then Warp Ring to either J14 to soften up the Rebels or N14 to help take down the Fell Beasts; though the Beasts are already getting attacked a lot this turn.

With that done, Crystal proceeds to basic attack Fell Beast 2, then Sliding Slash to N15.

Pope Bill uses Burrowing Rally to get to M14 and basic-attacks one of the Fellbeasts!

Sorry, wasn't really up to RP this turn. Will get back to it.

Auth moves to D16 and uses his Weapon Skill to heal Leaf and apply Mending.

Irongutta moves to L16 and uses Skeletal Toss on Mitocyst6, throwing it into the Abyss at Q19!

<ROUND 251>

Not!Echoss decides to assault the Stone Face! He attempts to empty his inventory, but oops it looks like I accidentally teleported it to the main inventory already ahahahaha. Maybe I was just saving time in secret? But oh well, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that Not!Echoss decides to jump directly into the Stone Face, before detonating himself! He... instantly dies. The explosion rips the stone face to shreds, fragments of it falling upon the ground. The blast also fractures the ceiling, causing large chunks of stone to fall from the ceiling.

As the rubble clears, whatever was wearing the stone mask heaves a large mass of stone off of itself. A large mass of fluxflesh, covered in dozens of spider eyes. From each of these eyes, a steady stream of fluxblood flows. A maw, messily shaped as if it were modeled after the cracks in the pavement, shudders at irregular intervals. Tortured sounds echo out of its gigantic body. What is this thing, anyway?

---

Cirnooooooooo! Or uh, somebody creates a Cirno plushie! This involves commissioning Chloe for some Glacier Clusters, and some Spiralfloof Floof! Chloe nods, and is off straight away! She returns with a wheelbarrow full of both substances.

CHLOE: Sorry for taking so long!
CHLOE: I found an Ice-elemental Spiralfloof, a-and, well...
CHLOE: I-I couldn't resist it! I-It was too soft, too c-charming!
CHLOE: Do you know how much willpower it took to not just n-nap on its back?
CHLOE: A lot!

CHLOE: ...Maybe I'll ask Maria if I can sleep on top of Cushion tonight.
CHLOE: Oh, I also found this cute lil' plushie!

As Chloe gets lost in thought, 20 Glacier Clusters and a Blizzard Regalia put themselves into the inventory, soon followed by 25 balls of Spiralfloof Floof and a Spiralfloof Plushie (Trinket). With these materials in hand, a Cirno Fumo is made with 9 Glacier Clusters, 9 Simple Fabric, 9 Puresilk, 9 Blue Sap, and 2 Spiralfloof Floof.

---

Venia does a variety of things. First, she continues to discuss Acacia's situation with Cypress. First of all, who was the "he" in Acacia's little dialogue there?

CYPRESS: Likely "he": Spark.
CYPRESS: Acacia: made inactive. No combat. No authority. Still Highchair member. Just suspended.
CYPRESS: Badly received: understatement. Power: craved. Likely a "high".

Cypress simply nods as Venia mentions a potential cure to the burns Acacia's received. She also talks about creating a bomb to blow through the last barricade Acacia's put in place.

CYPRESS: Was mentioned before. Glad to hear.
CYPRESS: Could I witness? Want to study. Make potential changes.
CYPRESS: Exception: cure magical. Pure magical elements. Not my expertise.

CYPRESS: Also, bomb construction. Could do. Plenty of experience.
CYPRESS: Recommendation: fire bomb. Yes, it's unethical. However, barrier: wood. Fire best option.
CYPRESS: Will require crystals. Type: fire. Other complications: working.
CYPRESS: Will discuss. Target: R-8733, yes? Meeting up.

Cypress then heads off. Before he does, he assigns Chi to go and accompany Venia to the crash site. Without any hesitation, she nods and follows Venia off into combat. Mari tags along as well.

Elsewhere, Maria meets up with her father! The two embrace as Maria happily blabbers about her adventures to him. Regalus then asks if if anyone knows where Venia might be. Marron raises an eyebrow. Maria has a dad? I mean, having a dad is obviously true for like, 99.9999% of beings in existence, but it's still surprising to see how different the two look. She tries to get in a word to Maria.

MARRON: Holy gorilla, that's your dad?
MARRON: Not... what I thought he'd look like, can't lie.
MARRON: How the hell did he get here?
MARRON: Or, uh.

She turns to Regalus, locking eyes with him.

MARRON: 'Sup, Maria's dad. How'd you get here?
MARRON: And what's with the horns? They're kinda snazzy.
MARRON: ...Hey, why doesn't Maria have horns, anyway?
MAPLE: Aah, will Maria get cute lil' horns later?
MAPLE: That'd be amazing!

Though Regalus commands the attention of nearly everyone in the room, Maple still works away eagerly at the metals before her, making them into the shape Maria desires. As for the answer of "hey, where Venia", Omorika perks up.

OMORIKA: Ah, you must be an acquaintance of Miss Praefortis.
OMORIKA: I am Stella Omorika. It is a pleasure to meet you.
OMORIKA: Venia should be somewhere down the hallway to your right. According to miss Mari, she's dealing with a situation involving a crashed cable car.
OMORIKA: I could lead you there, if you'd wish. However, it is likely incredibly dangerous, so I would advise keeping one's distance.

OMORIKA: While you seem to be armed, I should warn you that your weaponry will likely not work.
OMORIKA: The presence of the Sphere negates weaponry from outside of what we call the "Thyme Field".
OMORIKA: So if you decide to go after her... please exercise caution.

Finally, Venia and Nidra work together within the boundaries of Yew's Mindscape!

---

Crya mentions to Taeda that she hates this subject. Becoming a god really isn't as glorious as it sounds. There's this whole "game" you gotta play, and it ain't no Animal Crossing: New Horizons. She sacrificed everything to become the Land Goddess of Ice and Ocean. Taeda goes quiet.

TAEDA: A-Ah...
TAEDA: I-I'm sorry. I didn't know i-it'd be that... strenuous.
TAEDA: I probably s-should've figured that becoming a god wouldn't have been easy.
TAEDA: L-Let's... talk about something else?

TAEDA: Maybe we could chat over tea, if you felt like it?
TAEDA: I could go and brew us a cup. I promise it'll be good!
TAEDA: Devouts are specially trained to brew tea... because the higher-ups really, really like their tea.

What sort of tea would a Devout prepare, anyway? Hopefully it's good!

---

The Reflector tries to get Maxim to destroy a turret. Here's a pair of anti-gravity boots. Go crush a turret. They nod, but it seems like they're having clear difficulties with these weird things you call "shoes". What the hell is the point of a shoe? What's wrong with walking around on claws? "Humanoids, am I right?" thinks Maxim, probably. Still, they put them on, and proceed to walk up onto the ceiling. Sneaky sneaky.

They then swap into their Heavyweight Mode, and pull directly on the plug. Bop. Power severed. The turret's movements slow down, before it then deactivates entirely. Maxim drops back down from the ceiling in Lightweight Mode. Mission accomplished! Probably, anyway. Maybe there are still other security devices in the room? Or maybe the text here is just being paranoid. Who knows?

---

Boshi and Friends do some stuff. First, Hannah ends up chatting with Chi. She certainly wasn't digging up details about her past. She then explains exactly what she's been doing to the doctor. She nods, though still confused.

CHI: A-Alright?
CHI: I've seen sentient weapons before, so I'm familiar with the concept... but is there really someone who actively makes people into equipment?
CHI: That's awfully ominous. It'd probably be for the best if we're rid of them. The person who's making them, I mean. Not the weapons themselves.
CHI: ...Okay, maybe some of the weapons themselves.

With that out of the way, Hannah decides to go and do some cleanup. She shunts 20 Refined Wood worth of debris into her inventory, and also yeets a Grey Trickster into the inventory using the Grey Card. These are promptly delivered to Droplet through... some sort of method. Droplet bows towards the visitor.

DROPLET: Thanks. I guess.
DROPLET: Not sure what I'll do with either of these punks, but I guess the flower-thing makes a good guard.
DROPLET: Here's some more gorilla, as we agreed upon.

Droplet drops 500 Credits and the Droplet Cosplay Kit (Armor) into the inventory, as well as one additional surprise! It's a secret, so you'll need to find it! She then goes on about... something.

DROPLET: ...Hey.
DROPLET: No idea who the gorilla you are, but mind telling the Spherebreakers that I want a runback?
DROPLET: Basically, I want to beat the gorilla out of them, but without them ganging up on me like, a billion to one.
DROPLET: One might call it a "duel", I suppose.
DROPLET: I've wanted to smack the gorilla out of them for awhile. And, if they're not convinced, tell them I'll pay them if they win, too.

DROPLET: Just... I don't want to fight right this moment.
DROPLET: Maybe once I get a few more Iti, so I actually have a half-decent roster of allies to choose from.
DROPLET: The only vaguely viable fighter I have at the moment is Yume, and I have no idea how that'd turn out.

Elsewhere, out in a chapel not far from the House, Adria asks Chloe to grab some light-elemental gems. She Adria a smile as she heads for the door.

CHLOE: Will do! See you soon!

She's back surprisingly quickly, with a cart of 20 Shimmering Clusters and 20 Luminous Crystals. And of course, a wheelbarrow full of dirt. She leaves it in the wheelbarrow, parking it outside of the church.

CHLOE: D-Done!
CHLOE: T-The walk was... l-longer than I expected.
CHLOE: B-But... I got it! Hurray!
CHLOE: N-Now, if you'll excuse m-me...

She crashes back into a nearby pew, lying down whilst taking deep breaths.

CHLOE: C-Could one of you prepare the p-planter?
CHLOE: I-I'm... a bit pooped, i-if you couldn't tell...

Finally, Boshi decides to go fishing with a juicy piece of Yggcrawler Meat. He dangles it into the water. It seems like the piece is too big to attract most fish... but what appears isn't "most fish". A fin juts out of the water. It rushes forward towards Boshi's line, tugging on the line with enough force to break it and the rod its attached to. Boshi is left with the lower half of a fishing rod. The fin recedes back into the waters of the lake. Something big is down there. Dare he try and capture that beast?

---

<GENERATOR WAY, ROUND FOUR>
The Chairfriends are now ready to help you! Make use of their help to finish routing the Rebels! Defeat enough of them, and the battle will likely auto-end. This shouldn't be too hard, as Electrophorus decided to get out of dodge. Get this bread, gamers!

<SHIFTING STORAGE, ROUND FOUR>
Infestation cleansed! Keep on exploring this wing of the Sky Labs! Maybe chat with some of the NPC's who partook in the fight, make sure they're alright, and fix Chloe's hair. Poor thing keeps having a bad hair day.

<CABLE CAR CRASHSITE, ROUND TWO>
The Yggcrawler Ancients have morphed a wall in front of the spawn, making it impossible to escape! You'll need to break it down to re-initialize the spawn point, as well as defeat the 5 enemies as the map requires! Shouldn't be TOO hard... but good luck anyway!



...Also, on a maybe related note.. a loud bang comes from the basement of the house! Those in the building may feel the foundations shake and rumble, but fortunately for everyone, nothing ends up collapsing. What could possibly be the source of that noise?

Cable Car Crashsite

Hannah casts Go First!

Hannah swims her way to the shore at (K16), then casts Vampiric Venom on Chi, Venia, Mari, and herself, having just enough MP to do so. This grants Hannah herself Focused thanks to her hat.

She then snipes Yggcrawler 2 and fires the Elemental Blaster (Ice) at Yggcrawler 4. She retreats to (J17).

---

Zone 5 - Hannah

Yewscape stuff

Due to being busy with Chi, a Hannah Mirror Image pops up by Venia and Nidra to deliver the information, working around the bug causing Hannah to accidentally talk to Chi. Other than that, the mirror image hangs about, waiting for something to happen.

Chi

Hannah shrugs, not really knowing what else to say about the Rose Cult's practices regarding shoving people into weapons.

She also notes that... wow, Chi must really despise Yew. And she's not being very subtle about it either. She stares at her for a solid few seconds, slightly frowning. She then looks around for any prying ears, trying to find a decently hidden spot, before remembering that the tower near the Southern Sentinel Bay was pretty much free, save for a few spiders. She whispers to Chi, "...There's, uh, something that needs to be said. Away from... interested parties. Mind meeting me in the South-East tower, near the Sentinel Bay?"

She heads off to wait, looking back as she opens the door out, turning away once she's fully out the door. Hannah heads over to wait for Chi.

---

Chapel - Adria

Adria smiles and nods. "Thank you, Chloe. You've done more than enough! I'll work on the planter. Taeda, dear, could you get Chloe some refreshments, please and thanks?"

She studies the chapel again, looking at its structure closely and ensuring that all the windows are indeed closed and if any other light is coming through from anywhere. She looks for an appropriate spot for the flower; perhaps if they move the altar forward slightly they could fit something in. From there, she starts sketching the design on a piece of paper, swiftly drawing up engineering-style schematics as if she's done this many times prior.

The schematic appears to use a number of items from the inventory. The soil, one of the Shimmering Clusters Chloe got for her, some Luminous Crystals, some Sanctified Bricks, Gold, Silver, Blass, Silverwood Logs, Titanium, a singular Shock Crystal, Wire Scraps... what she comes up with looks like a rather large bed of soil surrounded by Gold- and Luminous Crystal-embellished Sanctified Bricks, with what is effectively a Sun Lamp made of Shimmering Clusters as a light source, a concave mirror of shiny Silver sealed in by Glass, held up by a Titanium and Gold-embellished arm, and powered by a Shock Crystal connected to the light source via wires to provide power to the shimmering cluster.

She spends some time gathering the materials from the inventory when she hears something in the distance and perks up. It sounded like... some sort of explosion? She couldn't tell, but it was immediately concerning to her as it came from the same direction as the house. She stops what she's doing, turning to the other two in haste, almost smacking her hand against one of the bricks. "T-that... can't be normal. Can, um, c-could one of you go check out what made that sound, i-if it's not too much to ask?"

---

Boatshi

...Sharks. There's sharks in this lake. Or is it a shark? Hard to tell. Though he does wonder if he could tame it somehow.

Using a part of a piece of Gravcore, a Shock Crystal, Yggcrawler Meat, and a piece of string, Boshi makes some sort of basic hovering bait drone. He cuts open the Yggcrawler meat as the "drone" takes off, letting the juices drip down into the water to lure the big fish up. Maybe it'll jump up to grab the bait; in which case the string will probably snap. This'll send the drone flying up, but it'll let Boshi get a good look at the big lad. All that's left to do is wait...

---

Misc.

...A note appears in the inventory, detailing Droplet's Duel request for the Spherebreakers when Droplet gets more members for her team. The note is unsigned.

"I think I'm gonna barf." Bauhaus shook his head. "But there's no time for that right now."

- BATTLE: GENERATOR WAY -
Bauhaus moves to K13, performs a Trick Counter on Eviscerator1, basic attacks to the south-west, then retreats to L14. Both attacks are Light-element.

Pionobot +1s his STR


Pionobot still feels a little too intimidated to approach Chloe again, so instead he chats with Maple, who is still standing near where he is.
"Hey, you doing alright? You took some pretty hard hits back there."
Noting her comment on the equipment...
"Familiar? Familiar how?"


Not!Echoss abruptly erupts from the ground in the Yggcrawler exhibit in the Skylabs, growing a giant mouth that swallows the pinati whole. He descends back into the earth before the Yggcrawlers can get at him, dissecting the Pinati with his patented STOMACH DISSECTION KIT.
This unfortunately also dissects his stomach, giving him a stomach ache, but the loot of the Pinati is successfully deposited into the inventory in the process.


Additionally, the Sleuth is commissioned to scan the Cappa and Mitocysts, a purchase is made from the temmie shop but I dunno what yet on account of having not consulted the others, and Not!Echoss decides to be irresponsible with Nia some more and purchases a single Temmie Flake at the standard market price of 3 gold/credits, before handing Nia the temmie flake and a bob epic pop.

Swap First Hat for Cowboy Hat, swap Pro MLG Charm for Infinidagger, -2 STR, -2 SKI, -1 RES, +1 MOV.

oh no

Venia goes up to the second barricade and places the second bomb from the Broke Room in place to breach Acacia's root, before handing Cypress a single Volcanic Regalia. "All we have at the time, Cypress, do you need more or will this suffice? I have one other thing I think is important..."

Venia pulls out the Arsonist's Lashes. "I liberated an inexplicably infinite supply of these from Linseed's person. How he got that many spares is a mystery, but these things demolish the hell out of walls and such, even metal doesn't hold up well. They were designed for anti-structure, so I figure the chemical composition might-"

"Hello, Venia!"

"Venny!"

Venia freezes. Almost literally freezes-her body chills enough that ice forms.

"Interesting hair color! Certainly makes a statement, not sure if it's a serious one. I trust that the fact you're now mostly made of liquid is something to do with curing your condition, given you haven't done any blurring?"

"Y-your majesty!" Venia immediately whips around and kneels to Regalus (and Maria next to him, hovering around his legs). "Y-yes, it is, it is, I figured it out, at great and painful expense, not recommended as anything other than a cure to be frank! A-also, forgive me your majesty, but I, I didn't hear any word of your arrival-"

"-Because you deliberately went off on your own, as you were, to solve everything basically on your own instead of listening to my advice and common sense?" Regalus says. He is still smiling.

"Y-yes," Venia stutters. "Yes." She remains silent.

"I did request therapy for a reason, but it appears that your coming here has done you some good in the end," Regalus says, "But in the future, I recommend you consider the concern I and others have for your wellbeing into your tactical and strategic assessments of any situation. It wouldn't do for all that I've put into you to go to waste, after all."

"O-of course! Of course." Venia says.

"Given that you must have missed the call in advance... I won't be doing much to disrupt your services-Thyme Field and all, you probably have had more time to adjust than I, and I don't want to test if I can outright subvert it, given the consequences, so it'll just be me and my family staying at your place for a little bit. I've already got some arrangements for bedding and food, so I trust none of us will be a bother. After that, we'll be leaving-with Maria-in the morning."

Venia falters at this last bit, but only for a second. "That sounds perfectly reasonable, your majesty!"

"That is all! Return to doing what you were."

"Bye Venny!" Maria says, as she and Regalus walk back.

Venia is silent for several seconds. She rises, slow, uncertain. "... Boss," She utters. "D-don't upset him. Don't upset him."

---

Yewscape

Meanwhile, in a world where Venia isn't being traumatized, Venia-as-Adrea takes the gun from her assistant as she continues to curse at Yew, as she begins to use the Calm Mind Shard. She doesn't unload the gun-the ice crystal within would do as well as anything else. (Unless it was dry. Then she replaces it with a water crystal.)

Venia focuses. It is a mindscape-it is not one hopelessly doused in Entropy, but it is still a mindscape, and this tool was made to interface and alter mindscapes first. Yew never died here, but she failed here (we'll ignore how Venia shouldn't be able to know that because Hannah hasn't come back yet with the info-let's just assume Hannah was bugged or such). Defeat is etched into the very bones of the memory. Defeat-wounds-harm-humiliation. Venia could not kill Yew if this were strictly a memory, but Venia is not in a memory, and Yew will not die-a true death would obliterate the mindscape, but she can deliver a false-death, a memory that ends as it did not before. Venia is not a Chairian, Nidra is not a Chairian, Yew is not a Chairian anymore-all of this is fabricated. What's a little more fabrication? And she focuses on these things and fabricates something else-she puts in a will to harm into the gun, a will to wound, hurt, maim, kill, and focuses-and then swiftly pushes the calm mind shard into the gun.

The gun, surprisingly quiet, bursts into white fire and begins glowing a bright pink underneath it, Ordo enflames it, the psychoactive crystal enhances it, and Venia's will directs it to be more than it was-to make might of what was meager.

"I swear, Yew, tonight you're the one going down!" She shouts in a voice that isn't her own, proper anger pushing through again, as she clutches the gun with both hands and holds it steady. With what she forced into it, any less would be foolish. She braces herself and focuses on the door, turning to the side it would swing open from such that she would get a line of sight as soon as Yew opened the door.

When Yew does open the door-the instant Venia sees her chest poke through, the instant that Yew could possibly cognize that things were not as they were-Venia fires, smirking even as the ferocious force of her shot knocks herself backwards a few feet and onto her back, the Calm Mind shard popping out of the gun the same way it came in. The shard is nigh-on invulnerable in the mindscape without serious psychic mojo, and the gun likely wouldn't break-though the entire crystal would likely deplete itself and shatter, when before it might've taken a few shots to tap it of all energy.

"Get her!" She shouts, even as she tries to get back up as fast as possible.

---

Cable Car Crashsite

Venia doesn't move-she just points her weapon at Yggcrawler 2 and Uses Purge, hitting them for extensive damage. She follows up with an Elemental Blaster shot set to Ice, hopefully downing it if it wasn't already so.

ZONE 5

The Reflector takes out a d20 and performs a Wisdom (Perception) check to try and ascertain if there's anything else off about the room -- anything that would set off an alarm or a deadly trap. If they can't find anything with a quick search, they decide to just go for it and head over to the terminal. Recalling the Spherebreakers' suspicions about Cypress, they type "vedfolnir" into the passcode prompt. And then all capitalized and uncapitalized variants of it, just to be safe.

---

BATTLES: CABLE CAR CRASHSITE

The Reflector moves to I10 and casts Suffocating Hatred centered on L7, inflicting Fear.
The Mirror Reflector stays where they are and casts their own Suffocating Hatred on D8, inflicting Fear.

Yewscape

Nidra hands Venia the handgun, then tries to find some sort of improvised melee weapon in the room. A shovel or some other implement, or failing that a long piece of metal or wood. She goes to wait by the door for Venia to shoot Yew, then bashes her in the head with her weapon. When/if Yew is staggered, Nidra tries to grab her gas mask

Y-yeah, I would like to change the subject...
Crya lightens up a bit at the mention of tea.

Tea, huh? That would be nice to chat over. I would like some, then!
Crya waits patiently for whatever Taeda has to brew. After being served a cup (probably, or whatever happens) she takes a sip, reaction being dependent on the sweetness of the tea, the sweeter the tea the more favorable emote she has. However, no matter the tea, she does not have an explicitly negative reaction.

Thank you very much for the tea, Taeda.
As for something else, what about celebrations? Your people surely must have celebrations of Lord Helix!
For me and the rest the Pantheon, on the second week of every year, we come down to check on humans and the humans have this biiig festival! It’s called The Annual Arrival, and after doing all the consulting with kings and queens, giving a big speech, we all go disguise ourselves and participate in the festivals ourselves! There’s lots of games, food, and all that you would expect in a festival celebrating something so important.
Then, on the fifth and final day, they end the festival with an entire day of sports and competition! Sports like fencing, horse racing, and wrestling are all present. We all get front row seats and it’s a great time!
That’s enough about the Arrival though, what kind of festivals or holidays do your people have?

Destiny looks at herself for a moment after the battle is over, interested in how Historia has affected her.
That is a most interesting power, reminds me of Chrono...
She then decides to check out what's on the other side of the eastern wreckage, taking a detour through the now peaceful Shifting Storage. If possible, she attempts to access the Chemical Labs using keycards.

Auth looks at the small-ish statue the flower is growing in.

AUTH: ...Hmm... do you think the statue itself may work as a pot? Saves trying to extract the flower, right? And it's already growing in there so there must be some kind of soil.

Auth considers that.

AUTH: Yeah, there would have to be. Let's just put it in the inventory and head back out.
AUTH: Unorthodox as it is, it's probably perfect for the flower. Given that it's a godblossom and all. That being said...
AUTH: It's probably in the best interest of the flower we take it with us - looks like it's been recently abandoned...

Auth takes off his coat, and with some effort, picks up the statue, before moving it out into the Inventory.

AUTH: Problem solved. Let's get out of here, yeah?

---

Auth nods.

AUTH: Yeah... if I had to guess, I'd say that she's currently grounded, right? From Highchair duties. Because we kept beating her. I bet that's why she wanted the power boost.
AUTH: Irresponsible of Cypress to install them, if you ask me. Given the damage she sustained... I would say that the grounding was probably for her own good as much as it was damage control for the Highchair. I assume Acacia hasn't calmed much since she arrived? Or, well... she's only been worse than she is now. She was basically catatonic when he brought her up...
AUTH: He shouldn't have given her more than she needed. Incredibly irresponsible to give anything beyond what would save her life to someone as obviously unstable as she was at that point in time. What was he thinking? Who told him to do that? I can't imagine Cypress was foolish enough to overlook such an obvious danger...

Auth seems awfully concerned at what he's just managed to imply to himself. Cypress should be more responsible than that... probably...

As for the rest of what needs to be said...

AUTH: It's not... too complicated? I think. It utilises Godblossom Extract, Gaiadiamond Dust and Yggdrasil Splinters as elements of a ritual. It's probably not the sort of thing Cypress could study, in my opinion.

Auth closes his eyes with a grim expression when Chi responds to what Spark may be thinking about it.

AUTH: That kind of thinking makes me sick. That... butchery. I can sort of see where he's coming from, but...
AUTH: No, no, just... just no. I could tell stories of the sort of damage that kind of thinking does and none of them end happily.

Auth nods to Chi's assertion that no manipulation is being conducted.

AUTH: Well, it's something, at least. Sad...

Auth sighs, and laughs slightly, about the suggestion he could have been here earlier.

AUTH: Well... I arrived because I was specifically requested to do so, but that was only, amusingly enough, around a month ago. It took about three weeks to do requisite preparation work. On my part, at least.
AUTH: The thing is... None of that preparation was any help because of the thyme field which I was unaware of.
AUTH: Which is a pain. I could have been here earlier to help, if I'd known. Apologies.

---

Auth nods with Atalus.

AUTH: If it's coming either way, there's no point panicking over it, right? Getting incredibly anxious isn't going to stop it coming, right?

Auth sighs, nodding.

AUTH: Everyone's going to be fine. I can't blame you for preferring the former outcome, but I can say with reasonable certainty that nobody's gonna get mortally wounded.
AUTH: I can say on my part at least that I'm a capable combat medic. But yes, I will be careful.

Auth thinks for a minute after that. Was Acacia spoiled as a child? As an adult too, considering... but the important question Auth is considering is whether or not Acacia was spoiled.

-1 SKI, +2 SPC

Remiel slides down the platform cables in the Open Bay and tries to get low enough to see the underside of the Skylabs—particularly, whether there's any other open bays (reachable or otherwise).

Whether they actually find anything or not, they then explore eastward towards the chem lab.

Lily moves to S13 and wrecks Magirifler1's face with a basic attack.

Caught completely offguard, Chara barely manages to silence a surprised squeak at Chaos' visit. Right, Chaos, the guy exists. And doesn't know how to knock. Or maybe he did do that, and they were just too focused to notice? Whatever the case, attaching a cat bell onto him might be necessary sometime soon.

CHARA: Yes, uh, greetings, red individual. Yes, 25 is a gender. Odbody set up a system that creates eight more every time someone complains.
CHARA: Sorry for missing the cacaphony, I was busy being dead. Now, what brings-

Having already confirmed that their body is fully awoken, the "child" has nobody to blame for misreacting and slapping the tupperware into their own face but themselves. At least the lid didn't fall off. And at least Chloe apparently cares enough to set aside a portion for them. How thoughtful of her... But before they can ponder the thought more thoroughly, Chaos proceeds to drop the coordinates and promptly self-destruct.

Chara observes passionlessly, mentally remarking that it must be a Monday somewhere else.

Well then. Chloe wants to meet up at the other side of a portal they are hearing about the first time. Or does she? She only gave them the location. Wait, no, why would she tell them where she is if she didn't want them to find her. Pull your head together. Or... perhaps pull it apart?

The smug devil decides to do just that, casually separating themselves into two instances. Handing the breakfast over to the one that is to stay at the house, they rush through the hallways at a speed surprising even for them, practically flinging themselves through the portal when they reach it.

Crystal reads another Poem, granting Bauhaus and Pope Empowered.

He then taps into Universal Cognizance, expending a single use and taking a look at the battle sheet with 'edit' privileges enabled. Ghosts 1 and 3's DGE is way too high at 18, so he edits them down to 4 DGE.

Following that, he moves a single space to O14, before activating Passionate Petals!

He performs a Sliding Slash down to R17, pivoting in midair and bringing down a movement-enhanced War Scythe on Ghost 3! With them already staggered, he plants Nightmarron Custom in the ground and blasts them back a full three spaces with a Dust Blast, then unloads a full salvo of Rapid Rounds into them!

Pope Bill casts Sol, then basic-attacks Locust2 on K16!

+1 AGI for Irongutta

---

With the Shifting Storage battle done, Irongutta decided to get back to building that bomb. He returned to the second oaken barrier, finding R-8 hard at work with Cypress. The ork didn't know Cypress all that well, but he always appreciated there being more hands around.

"Good to see you two gettin' a 'ead start on that bomb!" Right away he spotted Cypress' technical sketches and, true to fashion, butted in a little to get a better look. "Say, these are really good! To think I was gonna reverse engineer the next bomb we found and make a copy. This'll be lots easier!"

Double-checking the sketches, Irongutta noticed that Cypress already got his hands on the Volcanic Regalia they needed. "That gonna be wot gives our bomb its bang? Everything else would just be pretty standard bomb stuff. How's about I lend you two an extra set of 'ands? I don't think I ever got the chance to get properly acquainted wivv ya Cypress, but I can guarantee ya that I'm one of the best meks you'll meet. You won't be forgettin' the name Irongutta any time soon!"

---

Battle: Cable Car Crashsite

Ever attracted to fighting, Irongutta spawned in at I17 with Magnolia in hand. He immediately rushed to N15 to strike Yggcrawler4 with the element of surprise! Of course, the surprise is a basic attack.