<ROUND 298>

---

Echoss asks Omorika if there's anything she can do for her. She nods, looking up from her various diagrams. Many of them are scribbled out. It appears she's trying to figure out how to concentrate Calypse's energy. Preferably without breaching the glass and letting Calypse out.

OMORIKA: Absolutely. As for what I might need...
OMORIKA: Well, I'd say the main issue is that it is hard to augment Calypse's current containment without the risk of catastrophic failure.
OMORIKA: We have sealed an Eliti in a glass container. An Eliti that may be restoring its connection to the hivemind.
OMORIKA: At the bare minimum, we should move Calypse to a more secure unit that still allows us to harness and focus its energy.

How hard would that be? Probably not the most difficult thing in the world.

Elsewhere, Eren decides to send out a general broadcast. It is time to create an emergency broadcast! But, where will he summon them to? Let's assume that he's selected the Security Hub as a location, as that seems to be hip with the kids at the moment. Anyway, a bit of waiting later, Cypress and Omorika are the first to arrive.

CYPRESS: Greetings, sir Eren.
CYPRESS: Rest assured. Can deliver broadcast. But know this. Only one shot.
OMORIKA: Correct. We almost certainly only have one shot at delivering this message.
OMORIKA: I'm not entirely sure how much you know, but our broadcasting system is rather primitive.
OMORIKA: Cypress is the only one with the technical know-how to block out a transmission like the one we are about to deliver.
OMORIKA: Without him, Spark will likely have no choice but to utterly destroy the transmission network to prevent us from getting out message out.
CYPRESS: Correct.
CYPRESS: This must count. Make it good.
CYPRESS: Will begin preparations. Will modify equipment. Signal takeover: simple. Relatively, anyway.
OMORIKA: We will also require a place to actually prepare and film our message.
OMORIKA: Perhaps I will work with miss Aoki to create a suitable stage, and do some speech writing?
OMORIKA: If you have a specific message you would like to deliver to the people however, please deliver it to myself or miss Aoki.

Not too long after, Acacia is marched in on the back of Freja. Trailing behind her pet is Hersilia.

ACACIA: ...Let's ruin this gorillahole's day.
HERSILIA: While that shouldn't be the main focus of the broadcast... I concur.
HERSILIA: Let's ruin Spark's day, shall we?
HERSILIA: I am afraid I won't be able to contribute much to this discussion at all, but I'll watch over Acacia for you.
HERSILIA: She's still incapable of walking properly, so...
ACACIA: If I didn't want to ruin Spark so badly, I'd have stayed in bed.
ACACIA: You're lucky, Eren.

Finally, Aoki arrives. Fashionably late. Or just regular late. She bows to the group as she arrives.

AOKI: Apologies for my tardiness.
AOKI: I am unfamiliar with the layout of the Central Labs. I don't believe I've been in this part of the laboratory before.
AOKI: It's odd, navigating these halls without a full entourage of guards and other attendants...
AOKI: But rest assured. I shall deliver your message flawlessly.

As a final note, Echoss shoots another message up towards Monika. >Codex Updated!

---

The Reflector pokes Wattle. Apparently, they'll be lifting the lockdown soon. He nods, taking a moment to discuss a few things.

WATTLE: Copy that.
WATTLE: We will not move out right away, however.
WATTLE: I am only in possession of five men, including myself.
WATTLE: We shall wait for the best moment to move in. Ideally, when the enemy is engaged in combat with your frontal force, my men will move in and flush out their healers and other vital support units.
WATTLE: Of course, if you wish, we can charge in immediately. You are the frontal force, after all.

Ooh, options! Perhaps it'd be best to have them enter immediately? Anyway, Wattle then barks an order to his men.

WATTLE: Ready up, men!
WATTLE: Cypress has a mission for us, and we shall deploy shortly.
WATTLE: Ready yourselves! And see if we can get that old combat walker working!

Seems he's referring to the Exosuit stashed away in the corner there. Perhaps he can get it working?

---

Calibri removes the Antimagic Generator from Grandifolia. Though the removal of the weight prompts a relaxed grunt from him, he's still tied up and unable to move. Soon enough, his restraints are undone, and he's allowed to leave. He is of course, given the warning to not incinerate any more civilians and the like.

GRANDIFOLIA: ...OF COURSE.

Silently, he leaves along with his (surviving) men. Was he really sincere with that departing statement? Who knows? At the very least, without his Praetorian armor, he'll be unable to return to wherever it is Praetorians go when they escape. Perhaps now he's just a non-threat. At least, one can hope.

Elsewhere, Verdana spends a bit of time t-posing on a Fellbeast. It growls and snarls at Verdana, fairly aware of the raw amount of disrespect it's being shown. And, were it not in a cage, it'd probably land a staggering series of critical hits on Verdana for the conga disrespect. As for what else he can do now... well, a situation is unfolding downstairs, isn't it? Perhaps it's time to commandeer a ship.

Then, down in the Everground, S.E.D takes notice to the maggots crowding the Itisa Bait! Firing a rapid-fire barrage of precision lasers, the remaining Netwyrm maggots are swiftly removed, flaming biomass now scattering the floor. It then zooms up the walls, approaching Vulcan rapidly. Perhaps he can help out up there?

---

Sophia introduces the Author to Sythia. But, as she does so, Sythia shakes her head. She remembers him from back in the library. Back when... well, perhaps it's best to not dwell on the circumstances. What she has been asked however, is to try her magic again. Much like before, she sits down, and enters a state of concentration. With no warning, the proverbial audio dial of life is set to 0. Silence permeates the ears of everyone in the area. If silence could be deafening, this'd be the silence. For whatever reason though, Sythia is gently blushing this time. Odd.

Elsewhere where the sound effects are actually working, the trio of Adria, Mari, and Chloe work together on manufacturing a railgun! Adria has decided to manufacture the inner systems, and the ammunition! For Chloe and Mari, the metalworking process is fairly simple. With the assistance of Mari's drones, wielding and morphing metal is a breeze. Cross-referencing with Adria's work, they're able to design the frame of the weapon whilst also allowing ease of integration. Mari also decides to install a rangefinder system upon the railgun, to help improve accuracy. Once set up, it'll be able to feed targeting information to the pilot with ease.

Adria meanwhile, gets to work with the ammunition. Taking a piece of Durasteel, a chunk of Gravcore Ore, a large amount of Teleportium from a barrel, and a Statipear, Adria creates a... single sabot! Presumably, this is a reusable bullet that'll rewind itself back into the gun.

CHLOE: Oh, wow!
CHLOE: I didn't think one could go so far with ammunition, of all things!
CHLOE: This is amazing, Adria!
MARI: Huh. Nice.
MARI: I guess we're going with the Megaman principle of "one lemon at a time", then?
MARI: Then again, railgun rounds travel stupid fast. I seriously doubt we'd be able to have more than one in the air at a time.
MARI: But still. Awesome.
MARI: Perhaps we could make more use of your chrono energy to create a sort of... "railgun LMG"?

While Mari's not entirely sure on how that'd work, she can't help but fantasize over launching three time-rewinding durasteel slugs a second at some unfortunate soul. Chloe meanwhile, questions whether such a weapon would even be reasonable. Anyway, Adria creates an acceleration system with 5 Electrum Ingots, 5 Crystalline Conduits, a Nanostorm Drive, 2 Electromagnet Clusters, a Cyan Diamond, and a hunk of Starite. Chloe and Mari help her load it into the main body of the railgun itself.

A somewhat dirty Mari and Chloe take a moment to marvel at their fantastical piece of engineering.

MARI: Welp, it's official. I'm aroused.
CHLOE: M-Mari! Don't say such things!
MARI: Yeah, yeah. Whatever.
MARI: Anyway, Adria. Wanna take this for a test drive?
MARI: She's all yours.

After a few moments, Mari's hooked up the railgun to the mecha. She's designed a whole arm for it, which in conjunction with the rangefinder, will ensure that the accuracy of the shot is pinpoint with minial user effort. But what sort of calamity will this unleash upon firing? Adria feels that however she describes the shot will affect how it works once it's translated into a proper weapon for the Exosuit.

---

Auth immediately gets to work on healing another gash. As he works, he comments on how he's actually needed to deal with rigor mortis a bunch as well. Sympathy!

VULCAN: Are you a piloted corpse as well?
VULCAN: Odd. You're certainly not giving me that sort of impression. Where's your soul canister?

Auth also notes that they can probably turn off the Itisa Bait. As he mentions this, a few Predators sneak into the bottom cavern, hellbent on getting to the Itisa Bait. There must be other small tunnels for them to slip in through! Take them out before they cause any damage! Also probably switch the Itisa Bait off. Or destroy it. One of the two.

Elsewhere, the Author asks Nana about the musical scene on Sussui. What sort of instruments tend to be common, and what might it sound like? Nana ponders on this for a moment. How might she describe this? A bit of thinking later, a gentle blush crosses her face, and she begins.

NANA: Compared to w-what you might hear in T-Tabletopia, Chairian music is quite softer on the ears.
NANA: Our instruments don't make use of any technological components. W-We mostly use standard stuff, like guitars, drums, violins, wind-based instruments... those kinds of things.
NANA: And, despite us b-being known for magic, our instruments rarely make u-use of magic. There are exceptions to this, but m-mostly you'll see unenchanted instruments.
NANA: Most of our music, probably as a result of our instrument choices, is fairly gentle and melodical. I-I think you'd enjoy it!
NANA: It's a-also why I learned how to play the flute! It's a very calming instrument, a-and sometimes when I'm really stressed out, i-it helps me calm down! U-Unfortunately, I don't have one on me, s-so I can't play you anything...

NANA: O-Oh, "idols" also tend to be fairly popular! With soft music, the voices of singers can truly shine through! A-Aoki's voice is really beautiful, a-and it complements her violin and w-windflumes really well!
NANA: Though, Tabletopian "rock" music has been getting more popular a-as of late. I-It... r-really hurts my ears! H-How do people like that sort of t-thing? I-It's not calming at all!

If Nana knew that humans loved their "rock concerts", she'd probably freak out just thinking about it. So loud. So seat-shaking. It's generally unpleasant. For some types of people, anyway.

Finally, the Author meets with Gibbet. Can Gibbet understand what he's saying? And is he ready to come out?

GIBBET: (hello! friend! let's go play!)

With no provocation, Gibbet lets out a tweet, and flies on top of the Author's head. It promptly roosts there, ruffling his probably well-kept hair. Gibbet's, uh... getting a bit heavy for this. Still, it's not neck-breaking or anything. Just a bit discomforting. Anyway, perhaps it's time to take Gibbet for the bird equivalent of a walk?

---

Irongutta rallies his troops for combat! Magnolia insists that she was not snoozing!

MAGNOLIA: Magnolia wasn't sleeping! Magnolia hasn't slept in a long time!
MAGNOLIA: ...Or has she? Magnolia doesn't need to sleep, but sometimes she does anyway! Since I wasn't sleeping, I'm ready! Always!
R-8733: I can't imagine not sleeping! Sleeping is great!
R-8733: The best plans come forth while you're sleeping!
MAGNOLIA: But sleeping is no fun!
R-8733: I beg to differ!
R-8733: But let's get going! Let's blast some skulls!
MAGNOLIA: Yeah, yeah!

The trio rolls out, Magnolia happily humming to herself as she prepares for combat.

---

Asha crowns Marron as the Goddess of Baked Goods and also War. Marron blushes ever so slightly, a gentle smile on her face. That sounded good. Incredible violence and incredible eats. That's what she's good at, she thinks. Crossing her arms, Marron smirks.

MARRON: Yeah, that's right!
MARRON: As the goddess of Baked Goods and War, I can beat you up with the deadliest of weapons- a stale baguette!
MARRON: Countless have fallen by my hand, whether through my superb cooking or my sheer lethality!
MARRON: You wanna mess with me, nerd!?
DAWN: BY ASHA'S DIVINE BEARD, I AM SORRY FOR MY INSOLENCE!
DAWN: WHAT IS MY PUNISHMENT, MY SUPERIORS? I HAVE SINNED FAR TOO MANY TIMES.
MARRON: Ooh, um...
MARRON: Since we are kind, merciful, and very cute gods, we say that your punishment is minor!
MARRON: You must, uhh...

Marron turns to Asha, peeling her own sunglasses up for a second. She talks in a slight whisper.

MARRON: I... don't know.
MARRON: That's a crystal golem thing. What do you wanna make it do?
MARRON: It kinda hurts to look at, so maybe we should send it away to do... something. I dunno.
MARRON: Also, you have a divine beard?

A tough decision. Is there anything productive they could do with Dawn's presence?

---

With their brief sojourn to the Security Hub, Cypress and Omorika exchange a few quick words.

OMORIKA: Ah, Cypress.
OMORIKA: Please return to your office for a moment. If I recall, we need to input the command to lift the lockdown at near the same time.
CYPRESS: Certainly. Will press, soon. Estimated: one minute. Please prepare.

Cypress runs off back towards his office, while Omorika mans the station's security terminal. Ash helps her navigate to the proper location, and exactly a minute after Cypress left, she sends the command. With Cypress working at the same time, a synthesized, feminine voice bellows throughout the Sky Labs.

ANNOUNCER: The lockdown has been disabled. Have a lovely evening!
CYPRESS: You too.

---

Over in the northern side of the Central Labs, gunfire rings throughout the halls. Chairians are blown over and apart by constant barrages of beams and aeroblasts, and every so often a drone finally has its shields blown to shreds, along with its chassis. Xavier sighs, glaring up at the vents as warfare rages on and splinters streak pass a column he's using as cover. These Chairians, they won't let up. No matter how many he takes down, they just won't stop.

Glaring at the ventilation again, he sighs. He's definitely running out of time. Far as he's aware, he's running out of places where he can hold the Chairians up. Diverting Iti. Closing bulkheads. Hacking defensive emplacements. If only it weren't for those Tabletopians. Who were they, anyway? What'd they have against him? Whatever. It'd only be a matter of time until-

Thlup! A mess of sparks and metal falls through the ventilation. The drone he had sent to the Spherebreakers had finally perished, but it had completed its mission. One of his surviving drones flies over to the wreckage, and throws a hefty device towards Xavier.

XAVIER: Oh, finally.
XAVIER: Should've sent this earlier, Spherebreakers.

The Antimagic Generator. Just the tool he needed to break out of here. Looking south, he witnesses a marvel of magical engineering... that has been wasted on a "death puzzle" of sorts. One could only describe it as a ball of lasers taped to a second ball of lasers, with a few sporadic mirrors around the room. One misstep would cause the lasers to ricochet around the room, vaporizing whoever was in it. But, if his suspicions were correct, this device was the ticket.

He activates the device, and chucks it into the room. Immediately, the laser matrix deactivates, and sparks surge throughout the room. With a fizzle and a small blast, the door slides open. Wasting no time, he throws himself into the deactivated killbox, and through the door. His remaining combat drones, as well as his God Hands follow him through. Once on the opposite side of the door, he retrieves the Antimagic Generator, saving it for a rainy day. The defenses implode upon "reactivating", rendering the puzzle an impossible to navigate mess.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the Security Hub, a variety of warnings flash into position. Ash springs up from his chair, his drones taking off from the ground and following him.

ASH: OH, OKAY. I guess we're doing this now!
ASH: Commencing orbital drop in... thirty, twenty nine, twenty eight...

He runs out from the hub, his drones moving in a single file line behind him. He's really not moving all that quickly.

ASH: Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen...

Once at the overlook near the Dream of Unity, he hunkers down behind the plaque.

ASH: F-Four, t-three, two, o-one...

Each drone rushes by his head, rustling his foliage with their sheer speed. They careen downwards with immense speed, curving and twirling around the Dream of Unity towards the ground. Polished tiles crack and shatter as the drones make their impact, and their screens flicker to life with lively static. There's a hushed silence among the troops down at the Base of Unity. Cautiously, a few members from each squadron located down there are sent to investigate the static-laden screens. As the troops arrive, the voice of Ash booms from the speakers of each television set, loud and clear. He's clearly out of breath.

ASH: M-Members of the Chairian Legion! W-We bring news, and a warning!
ASH: There'll be r-room to answer questions later, but please w-witness the following footage...

The screen flickers and changes scenes. Security camera footage. The last moments of Acacia's (prior) life flash by in an instant. Spark's blade plants itself directly in her head, sap spewing from the wound and staining the blade. She drops to the ground, completely lifeless. Gasps can be heard from among the crowd as Ash's voiceover resumes once more.

ASH: What you have just witnessed is not doctored in any form.
ASH: I-Indeed, Chairheir Spark has taken the life of his most loyal subject, Acacia Aneura.
ASH: If even the almighty, ever-loyal Acacia is disposable t-to Spark, then what of you all?
ASH: This man will do whatever it takes to secure his ambitions, even if it means trampling over every single last one of his loyal subjects, whether it's a soldier or even his right-hand woman.
ASH: So, please. Stand down. Don't fight for this man any longe-

One screen is bashed with a mace. Another, blown to bits with a burst of fire magic, and one with a flaming shield. The final screen has a volley of three arrows put right through it. Praetorians. They do their best to manage the situation, even with their troops in a panic.

AMABILIS: Troops! What you have just witnessed is a lie, designed to turn you against your own people! Do not be deceived!
AMABILIS: Spark would never turn against his own!
CATALPA: yes. it is a carefully manufactured deception.
CATALPA: stand strong.
CEDAR: Surely, this is a ploy by the Spherebreakers to shatter our will.
CEDAR: We are better than their underhanded tactics.
CEDAR: Though it seems bad, we shall bring their lies to the light!
PLASTIC: LIES
PLASTIC: LIES
PLASTIC: LIES
AMABILIS: Now, steel yourselves!
AMABILIS: With this act, the Spherebreakers are sure to arrive in great numbers!
AMABILIS: We shall not-

There's a scream from the north as a somewhat mangled Chairian skids across the floor, into view of the army. Smoke drifts from the breached northern entry, lights and screams from behind the obscuring clouds being the only indication of the incredible violence taking place behind them. One by one, the screams are silenced. There's complete silence for a moment, soon shattered by the rushing of air as the smoke is blown away.

From the smoke comes Xavier. His actual physical characteristics are fairly unclear, as he appears to be veiled by a sort of skintight verdant battle suit, geared to the nines with absorptive adaptive plating, nanorobotics, and an incredible variety of lethal weapons. Whatever technology holds this beast together surely eclipses the Tabletopians in terms of raw might. A single, violent, vibrant pinprick of red light surges from the visor, observing and sweeping the battlefield. A set of two gigantic booster jets, sort of resembling wings keep him aloft in the air.

Though he doesn't wield any sort of weapon, his hands are directly linked to the two God Hands that float beside him. Each one is a monolithic piece of engineering, standing taller than Xavier himself. They're incredibly blocky hands, like one might see in the Nintendo 64 era of games, with a jade gem embedded in the palms of each of them. Built from silvery metal, it's clear as day to see that the green paint that seems to adorn each palm is... certainly not paint.

The many Chairians down at the Base of Unity tremble in fear of this thing possibly more machine than man. The Praetorians stand firm, weapons at the ready.

AMABILIS: Oh, it's you.
AMABILIS: The one that's been trying to claw into the Sky Labs for... what, a week now?
AMABILIS: You're nothing. You'll die by our hands, scum!

Though Xavier speaks, there appear to be... multiple layers of distortion over his voice. Though what Echoss heard from the radio was quiet and slow, the words that emerge from him are only just legible. His very voice rumbles the ground.

XAVIER: CHAIRIANS.
XAVIER: YOU SHALL NOT STAND IN MY WAY.
XAVIER: DELIVER THE GLYPH TO ME, OR BE TORN APART.
XAVIER: THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING.
CEDAR: We will not be intimidated.
CEDAR: We will defend this Glyph to our last breath, fiend.
CEDAR: Prepare yourself.

A deep laughter emerges from the suit. More than a few of the soldiers in the area are the slightest bit faint. But perhaps, Xavier thinks to himself, this may be a bit more than he can chew. So, without a moment's hesitation, he activates the Spawn Point scroll. A small structure formulates itself, a gentle azure light scattering across the ground near it.

XAVIER: SO BE IT.
XAVIER: THIS PLACE SHALL BE YOUR GRAVE.

Xavier's weaponry flairs to life as the Chairians rush into defensive positions. This is it, then. Their last stand. The last line of defense before the Creator Glyph.

- = S T R I F E ! = -

...Alerted by all the commotion, Chloe sprints across the Sky Labs. Approaching the second floor lobby, she looks over the railing. Her eyes go wide with terror. It's him. And he's about to get himself absolutely slaughtered. With absolutely no hesitation, Chloe vaults the railing. Landing on the wing of the Dream of Unity, she skids down, jumping off and landing by Xavier's side. Her blade is already drawn.

CHLOE: GET AWAY FROM HIM!
XAVIER: CHLOE, WHAT THE-
XAVIER: Wait, right. Sorry.

Xavier's voice abruptly changes to what Eren heard on the radio prior. Far quieter, too.

XAVIER: Chloe, what the gorilla.
CHLOE: X-Xavier! I-I'm so glad you're-
XAVIER: Yes. I'm glad you're okay too. Heartwarming.
XAVIER: You're going to hug me. Don't. Absolutely not.
XAVIER: I have an image to maintain at the moment.
CHLOE: B-But-
XAVIER: Later. Okay?
XAVIER: Be a good little sister.
CHLOE: O-Okay...

A pout crosses her face as she steels herself for the upcoming combat.

---

<FUSION DEVELOPMENT, ROUND 4>
Well, uh. RIP in kill this encounter. I still can't understand how you carve through everything so fast. With the Payload destroyed, the Iti's plans to blow up Fusion Development have been ended! The Cowboy El Iti (or, El Iti "prime") has been captured as well through a Purge, so perhaps someone can make use of that?

<BASE OF UNITY, ROUND 1>
Oh my. That's a lot of Chairian troops. Really, many things here are stacked against you in general. The map has a weather condition that'll poke you unless you're beneath the ship, there are FOUR Praetorians, and more reinforcements will be arriving. Fortunately, Xavier is a beast of a unit, sporting powerful crowd-control effects and massive damage. In addition, Wattle's troops will be advancing in soon to help you out! Make use of both of these, and things might go smoothly! Ultimately though, your goal is to access the Vault, and obtain the Creator Glyph. Will that end the battle?

...I have no idea.

Aoki, prior to being brought into the battle, is upgraded to full T5 (and while we're at it Gibbet is upgraded to full T4). This costs 2400 credits and 32 samples.

The Grey Amphi is delivered to Droplet's iti box.


Omo research assist:
Before Echoss can do his thing, the Reflector chimes in.
Echoss glances at the Reflector, then over at the corner where Calypse is. He sighs and rubs his forehead somewhat guiltily.
"You're correct, of course. Now that we know that the eliti are capable of holding their own consciousness and are just having their wills subsumed by WARE it wouldn't be right to keep Calypse locked up in there.
Miss Omorika, perhaps a safer and less morally negligent task would be to take some of the equipment we have that uses the same energy as Calypse, and see if we can use our own resources to make a cannon that doesn't require using a living being as ammunition.
Reflector, if you intend to take them out of their cage and communicate with them, would you mind doing so somewhere with fewer delicate instruments and valuables? I am not presently ready for potentially hazardous situations, and Omorika's lab is best kept intact."
[RECRAFT OF THE CALYPSE CANNON INCOMING]


Broadcast Work: (if this is still missing Eren's color thing I've been doing pretend it isn't. I'm not doing too hot and actually finishing the post takes priority)
Eren nods at Omo and Cypress's comments, and points back at Ash.
"Yeah I got the heads up on the 'one shot' thing.
I think this works out in our favor though, if Spark's reaction to us flooding the airways with this is to destroy the communication network... Not really any better of a look for him than if he let us just keep broadcasting, yeah?
And at that point... almost everyone who could hear will have already heard. And they'll spread it.
Sabotaging all of LOCAA at once to try and save his own reputation isn't going to be a good look for him."
When Acacia speaks Eren rubs the back of his head sheepishly.
"Ah, sorry about that. I'm used to our in-combat rezzing, it completely skipped my mind you'd been dead long enough to need recovery time. Sorry.
Thank you for coming though, just rest for right now, and give input if you have ideas or thoughts. In terms of the main presentation we're probably mostly just going to need your testimony."
Eren nods and gives Aoki a thumbs up. And also shows her how to find and use the team's maps so that finding her way around will be a little easier in the future.

And then Echoss walks in, not long after Aoki.
"Apologies for my tardiness.
I was in the middle of something back in the house when the call went out, and finishing took a little longer than I anticipated.
Regardless, I'm here to offer what I can to this work."

I'm going to postpone deciding exactly what to put in the message, gotta chat with other people OOC, but... at the table Echoss looks over Aoki's requests.
"Hmm... Miss Aoki I'm afraid I have an issue to raise, but also fortunately a potential solution.
We're unlikely to be able to provide these exact makes and models, most of our equipment is 'kitbashed' so to speak, and while our exceptional individuals and circumstances allow us to quite frankly go absurdly beyond the quality that would normally entail, I think this is a case where our usual approach to crafting is not ideal.
That being said: do you know the specifications for these items? Or at the very least do you know what specifications we need for an ideal production here?
While we may not have access to the brands and items you're used to, I have access to my home realm's resources. Limitedly, thanks to the thymefield, but not enough to make civilian cinematography technology beyond reach."


Assist in the Everground:
Suddenly in the everground loud yahoo'ing, whooping, and various other cries of elation come from off in the distance, along with gunshots. Suddenly, a large van (which is very clearly the ice cream van from before but repainted to look like an old farmhand vehicle) comes screaming across the ground, running over both of the blossoms on one side before starting to do donuts around the opening (hitting the other two blossoms in the process).
In an unintelligble waterfall of hillbilly speak, two of Not!Echoss (except dressed up as rednecks) climb out of the van, a third leaves a brick on the gas pedal and duct tape on the steering wheel and climbs out with them. All three of them set up on the roof of the van and begin opening fire with shotguns, skeet shooting their way through aellos and harpies until they run out of ammo, at which point they start loading other stuff into their shotguns like buckshot and candy cigarretes wads of chewing tobacco, which still work just as well.
Eventually however, the rocky uneven ground causes the brick to rattle off of the gas pedal. Instead of making the car stop, this screws up the steering, and the van goes careening away into the darkness once again, taking Not!Echoss(es) with it.
When it explodes, a single tire bounces along the ground, coming so fast that it flattens one of the aellos as its coming and trying to hit Vulcan.


Just Monika:
>Hah, that's fair enough I suppose.
>I think I have some idea on the first item, I'll ask the others if they have thoughts on the latter. Either way, it is appreciated.
>Thank you for your assistance Miss Monika, I assume that if you need to make contact again Creation will enable it in some way.
>Or after your apprenticeship that you could likely accomplish it yourself.
>I doubt that I will be hard to find at the very least.
>Take care of yourself, alright?


BATTLE ENTRY RP
Eren steps out from the spawnpoint during Chloe and Xavier's exchange, he seems unamused at Xavier's final lines. (if this is still missing the color thing I've been doing pretend it isn't. I'm not doing too hot and actually finishing the post takes priority)
"An image huh? Is this the same image that's drawn down even more soldiers on your position over and over again and made our job harder because there is yet another psychotically murderous outsider tearing their way through the Legion?
Here's a hint Elem: these people are literally fighting against a nearly unstoppable monster apocalypse on a daily basis, if you think that being another monster is going to make them stand down and not fight back harder..."

Eren points out at the wavering soldiers.
"Look, you see them? We've been spending all day getting these guys to realize they're being treated as disposable toys by their leader. And we're finally getting some pay-off for it. Between the ones who we might get to defect here, and the ones who we got to agree to help us beforehand we can not only weaken their defense here but get covering fire for while we're in the vault, and do that without killing people who just think they're trying to defend their homes and families. Like Chloe is trying to protect you.
But that won't happen if you prove Spark and the Praetorians right.
Cool off on your mass murder schtick, at the very least until we've gotten the last Glyph. It's not doing you any favors and it's definitely not doing any for us.
Please do not screw this up for us right as we're reaching the finish line. If we're lucky and careful by this time tomorrow we won't have to fight any more of the legion, even with having to trek through the Citadel to get to the Sphere in the first place.

BATTLE ACTION:
Spawn in with Water Scythe. Wait for Remiel to go. Move to G12, Cast Siege Spire on Saint 2. If hit lands, Saint will be Stasis'd for a round thanks to Armistyx.
Proc Poetry Pamphlet, Eren gains himself Luxaveil3 for three rounds and gives Destiny Guardian3 and Enlightened3 for three rounds.



To-do List:
Also maybe chat with Creation?
Also hand the Subspace Grocery Box to Cypress when he heads back to the house
Anti-Spark measures (anti-magic in progress, have anti-artillery to deal with airstrikes and conventional artillery support, signal blocking to prevent Praetorian or Sentinel summoning, lots of EMP options, be ready for BOSS)

Make sure party prep is ready. (save for near the end of the day)
Properly seal up Linseed's room so he can't try to dig out. (save for near the end of the day)

Asha glances askance at "The Scion", acknowledging that she's likely responsible for this. She briefly wonders whether to address Marron's allegations of cheating on her, or Dawn's allegations of Marron being a lesser being, and settles for the one that won't get her gf vaporised.

"Well." She puts her finger to her lip, thinking about what to say. "For a start, don't incinerate Marron. After all, she is the goddess of..."

She glances at Marron and remembers what they originally came back to the house for. "...Baked goods! Like, um, pastries and stuff." Before Dawn can discuss the merits of a goddess of baking, Asha quickly adds, "Also war, she's really good at that. So uh, as your creator, I royally sanction her to be able to like, speak and stuff."

She nods confidently, despite still not entirely understanding what's going on.

Unity

before combat:

Daskter spawns in and moves to (F12) and summons construct: Pikemen at (F11).
They eat a manabloom biscuit they have.

Settings:
Tactics: Sabotage
Attack: Piercing
Resist: 10% Fire
Weak: 30% Water

BATTLES - BASE OF UNITY

"The Scion" spawns in at J8 with Scrambled (rolled by Eris earlier), ready to commit some war crimes I mean what

She moves to G14 and casts Living Plague on Darkmorph 2 with Elemental Mastery. Assuming it at least glances, she uses her trait to plague herself, then uses a bonus action to Virophage-spread the plague to Holyblade 1, Permafrost Robe 1, and Cedar (who are all within Range 1-3 of the Darkmorph or herself). She then uses her item action to summon a Nanotechnician with the Drop Pod at G12.
At the end of her turn, the plague spreads to Cedar, Saint 1 (eating their divine shield I believe), Darkmorph 1, and Permafrost Robe 2.

---

OMO'S RESEARCH PLACE

While Omo and Echoss discuss how to contain Calypse, the Reflector smiles and taps the desk they've apparently been sitting at the whole time.

THE REFLECTOR: forgive my interruption my intrusion dear friends but i well we had a thought.
THE REFLECTOR: if you are quite so worried about calypse reconnecting to the hivemind, reconnecting to ware's influence well why not let it out?
THE REFLECTOR: i do not suspect the creature enjoys being trapped in a cage and toyed with and while yes we do not know how intelligent it is most eliti at least desire something.
THE REFLECTOR: we have two eliti in the party already perhaps soon to be three with the reisz project and not to mention the new gray recruit.
THE REFLECTOR: and calypse is quite weak all things considered so if negotiations do break down we can assemble a group of spherebreakers to be ready to knock it out again do you not think?

---

ZONE 0 - HANNAH CHAT

"The Scion" responds to each of Hannah's statements and questions in turn. First, about the feasibility of the empire-usurpation plan.

"THE SCION": Oh, we're not worried about whether Venia goes back or not!
"THE SCION": Her claim to the throne is sketchier than Scion's, and she has more enemies there than us.
"THE SCION": If she wants to claim the throne after we're done with our objectives, I guess that's fine... although I don't envy her the task of putting out the fires we're going to start, hehe...
"THE SCION": And I doubt we'll be there long enough for someone to figure out how to kill Scion if they couldn't kill Regalus for years.
"THE SCION": He's not the only unkillable person around...

Next, she asks about the Seventh Symphony.

"THE SCION": The Symphony is... my home.
"THE SCION": Some people with nowhere else to go, united by the Conductor's vision!
"THE SCION": He's going to change the world, and he believes that all of us can help to do it.
"THE SCION": We look out for each other, and we fight for the "great work."
"THE SCION": ...That's what Warlock calls it. She's a little obsessed with that hermetic stuff.

Battle: Base of Unity

A voice comes from on high-Venia's. "It is true! Every word and every scene! Spark slew Acacia Aneura in cold blood the instant he felt her an obstacle! The disgusting amorality you see is utter truth, and your Praetorian commanders only press on because they cannot reconcile that image with their oaths! To which I say-that oath is an oath of fools! It wastes their great talent and intelligence to willfully obey these orders knowing they are injustice incarnate!"

She draws her breath. "We are the Spherebreakers! We shall obliterate the very fundament of the corruption Spark has bred, and we shall annihilate the Sphere and the putrid false-gods of madness within! There will be peace, and co-existence! And to this goal we dedicate ourselves totally and utterly! If you think our avoidance of murder is a sign of softness or naivety, if you think our victories were luck... Allow me to correct you! We may follow our path, but we haven't even brought out our biggest guns! We are the greatest soldiers, sages and strategists on Sussui!"

"And if this does not deter you..."

A shadow is cast overhead-one that isn't the Dream of Unity.

"Allow me to introduce you to our FUCKING TANK!!!"

Venia recreates anime and comes crashing down at L11, clutching Rosie (who has centered in at N10). Venia slides over Rosie to O13, activates her one-time free Ordo from Kickstart My Heart and summons a Vic Viper (V2) at Q11 as well. (stats for Vic Viper V2)

Catalpa better not have gotten his hopes up regarding fighting the Spherebreakers. Rosie is in fact able to act right now. "Prepare the use of a Sanctified Shell!" Venia says, giving Rosie the command to use Insecticide right out of the gate. Insecticide is technically an AoE... But just in case, Venia uses Hope Rides Eternal, targeting Catalpa for a very fast Lethal-knocking the man directly into his own shield! Sadly, being in Range 1 of allies his Trait should kick in to save Catalpa...

... Whereupon Venia uses Hope Rides Eternal to drag Catalpa to N14, out of Cover entirely and nose-to-nose with the 2.5 meter colossus. (This does not occur in the Black Swan incident that Rosie has missed completely-even a Glance would still trigger Very Lethal.)

"... We have not even begun to fight you!"

Rosie will use both her Gatling turrets to (safely) ping off Catalpa, downing them safely. At which point Venia will bonus action toss the unconsicous body to Xavier's tile. The Saints won't be able to reach Catalpa at all. "Xavier! Fine time to meet you in person. We have a lot to discuss personally, but we'd really appreciate the help. Just resist the urge to paste these people and we're more or less golden, got it?"

O2

"Plastic, you Rose-obsessed loon, the Cult is dead, and that ragged moth is next! Come forth and be purified!"

---

Others

-to be edited this round damnit-

Destiny spawns at J10. She waits for Calibri to Fury her then moves to F15. She observes Cedar and uses Heat Death on K22. She retreats to H13.

Heed my words, followers of Helix! Faithfuls and Saints, I have heard the lies that hath been fed to you by your leader! He is a fiend that uses the words of your Lord to control you! He has forced you to stand, blindly guarding the keys to save reality! It is disgusting, as a Lady myself! I implore, let us through, and we shall spare you a fight, and more importantly, the destruction of all realms!

NPC ORDERS:
CYPRESS: Move to L13, Pinning Shot Darkmorph 2.
CHLOE: Move to M14, Swordbeam, basic attack Holyblade 2, retreat to O13.
MAPLE: Move to N13, True Heroine Blades.

Nidra puts three points in HP.

Base of Unity
Spawn at J10.
Toss pillow at Chloe.
Power Nap Xavier.
Use Sheep Counter on self.
Move to G14.
Last Dream Saint1.
Retreat to G13.

Dreams of a Better World

Adria was right behind Chloe after she suddenly burst towards the center of the second floor, freaking out as she vaults over the railing and running over to see for herself.

Well, at least Chloe landed safely. But who's that with her...?

It also looks like there's a bunch of Chairians on the floor below. Adria looks on with a determined frown crossing her face and already in the Exosuit. With a massive bound towards Chloe's side and landing with a few broken floor tiles, Adria immediately begins buffing Chloe to the nines, somehow paying zero mind to Xavier.

ADRIA: Chloe, dear, that was extremely reckless!
ADRIA: Please be more careful next time, you almost gave me a heart attack!

Once Chloe's all buffed, only then does Adria actually pay attention.

ADRIA: ...Oh. So you're her brother, then?
ADRIA: That explains that, at least.
ADRIA: I must say, I'm quite impressed with the technology you have on hand! ...No pun intended.
ADRIA: Looks... familiar, somehow, though...

Then she finally pays attention to the probably extremely freaked out Chairians and completely undeterred Praetorians. She groans as she looks at the Praetorians.

ADRIA: (Ugh, this again... What is their point? How blind are they?)
ADRIA: (...No, none of that, Maddy. Focus on the little guys.)

Deep breaths now. One shot at this. She equips a speaker to her mech for now.

ADRIA: ...You all have dreams, don't you?
ADRIA: Something you all aspire to be.
ADRIA: Something you want to fulfill in life.
ADRIA: ...Someone special you want to be with.
ADRIA: Dreams and aspirations... they're something to be cherished. They keep you going through the toughest moments. Something to look forward to.
ADRIA: You all became soldiers to protect your dreams. To hopefully see them become a reality.

ADRIA: And, yet...

Adria glances at one of the busted TV Screens before returning to the soldiers.

ADRIA: ...I want you all to really think about it for a moment.
ADRIA: Are you confident in those you look up to as leaders? Those that would presumably help and take your best interests to heart?
ADRIA: Are all these battles against us, or your own kind, in your own best interests?
ADRIA: ...Have any of you already lost something in these skirmishes? And if so, what have you lost, where, and how?
ADRIA: I cannot answer that for you.

ADRIA: ...But. I know one thing.

Adria picks up the railgun she just made with Mari and Chloe. She glares straight at Amabilis with a cold stare.

ADRIA: I know what I believe.
ADRIA: Time and time again, whenever I witness any sort of war, both sides suffer.
ADRIA: Dreams die in the blink of an eye.
ADRIA: Ambitions are shattered.
ADRIA: Lives are... burned to cinders.

ADRIA: Internal strife is the worst of it.
ADRIA: Those who you may believe to be acting in your best interests...
ADRIA: ...Well. You've seen it for yourself.
ADRIA: While we have been in conflict, countless monsters from the Sphere - the Iti - gain ground.
ADRIA: Not to mention the tell of the Sphere itself being a large bomb.
ADRIA: Whether you choose to believe that "rumor" about the Sphere or not is for you to decide.
ADRIA: Either way, it is a threat capable of wiping out everything as you know it. Whether through droves of monsters or a world-ending explosion.

ADRIA: Meanwhile...
ADRIA: Your superiors apparently intend to send it away for more war. All the while obfuscating the truth about themselves and their warcrimes, hiding under the blanket of "protecting the people" while they use fire and corrupt powers, whether to merely threaten or incinerate their own.

She briefly gestures to Plastic, their mouth dripping with Fluxblood.

ADRIA: There is no refuting the truth. Even if it were not shown here, displayed here... it would come to light eventually.
ADRIA: They believe you to be mere pawns in their game.
ADRIA: A number, to them.

ADRIA: But to us?
ADRIA: People.
ADRIA: People with dreams of their own. Dreams that don't deserve to be wiped from existence. Dreams that don't deserve to be ignored.
ADRIA: We have saved countless from their fates so that their lives may continue on - their dreams may continue on.
ADRIA: From Iti, from a mad cult...

She levels her Railgun at Amabilis. Her glare goes utterly nightmarishly frigid.

ADRIA: And from lunatics like you.
ADRIA: If I see you attack one of your own soldiers, your own people, with either words or actions, because you believe them to be "traitorous scum" or some drivel like that...
ADRIA: You'd've brought this upon yourself.
ADRIA: If you won't protect your own people...

ADRIA: Then I will.

Adria makes sure to put a ton of emphasis on that last bit. She unequips the speaker from the mech.

ACTUAL ACTION

Adria slams down at (J10) with the Exosuit (Modules: Timelock Railgun, Auxiliary Shielding) and immediately gets to accumulating Accelerate.

Adria herself activates Full Attention to Praise! and Spell Feast to cast Symbiote on Chloe. Adria targets Chloe with her Trait. Adria swaps Ace In The Hole for Alter Reality. Adria Specials Chloe.

Symbiote uses Hardened Carapace.

Chloe is now god.

New Project: Single Target, Buffing (Autorevive), Boring (Name: Booster Shot)

---

...The Old Pass?

...Someone clears their throat behind EN. Should she turn around, she'll come face to face with Michaela. She looks a lot like an older Hannah... not that EN would have interacted with her quite yet.

SHELLY: *ahem*
SHELLY: You've been blankly standing there for an awful long time.
SHELLY: Something the matter?

---

Distant Chapel

Dorothy got ignored. :dorothysad:

Nevertheless, after a confused attempt to say "huh" and suddenly realizing that there's no sound, she's utterly enthralled with Sythia's demonstration, exactly as Sophia predicted. She even instinctively says "oooh" despite now knowing nobody could hear her.

Once sound returns, Dorothy softly claps, very pleased with the demonstration.

DOROTHY: Ooh, that's really good!
DOROTHY: I-I... might try something like that later... using m-my air magic.
DOROTHY: I-it can get kinda... noisy in the house sometimes.
DOROTHY: I-I just hope I don't accidentally... make a vacuum-

Dorothy very mildly freaks out at the thought.

DOROTHY: A-actually you know what maybe I'll start super small right now yeah

After a few deep breaths, she's calmed down. Sophia watches intently as Dorothy gets into a position very similar to Sythia's. A soft blue glow forms around her hands as she relaxes them into a meditative position. She closes her eyes...

And then every sound in the air stops dead in its tracks around the local area around Sythia and Sophia.

Sophia tries to clap, but no sound comes out of them. Much like Sythia's version. However, unlike Sythia's version, the silence doesn't extend to Sophia's heartbeat, or whatever Chairians hear internally. It's also harder to breathe in this "bubble" of silence, though not unbearably so. It's more akin to being high up on a mountain where the atmosphere is less dense.

Once Dorothy lets go and sound returns... there's no playback of anything like Sophia's clap. Nothing. Not even the sound of wind plays back. Dorothy relaxes into a normal sitting position.

DOROTHY: D-did I do it...?

---

Basement I

Hannah hums and tilts her head at the Unkillable bit.

HANNAH: ...Unkillable, huh?
HANNAH: Heard a lot of that during my visit here, and so far it's always ended the same.
HANNAH: Even with mr. "unkillable" idiot emperor with an annoying thing for titles.
HANNAH: Not saying she'll end up like him... but tell her to be careful anyway. Alright?

She listens on the description of the Symphony. She can't help but giggle a little bit.

HANNAH: Hah, wow. Imagine if we met during the year after Sophie trounced me that one time.
HANNAH: ...O-Or if Dorothy here didn't decide to come back for me.

She gives her friend a quick squeeze and a smile.

HANNAH: I'd've been all over the offer to join if given the opportunity!

HANNAH: ...But nowadays I'd probably just want to visit every now and again.
HANNAH: ...That's allowed, right? I mean, I don't see why it wouldn't be.

---

Exosuit

ADRIA: A Railgun LMG or minigun is actually a lot more feasible than you may think!
ADRIA: It just requires a lot more chronological energy than we have on hand right now.
ADRIA: ...Granted, we also have less material variety back home, so maybe it would require a lot less with materials from here?
ADRIA: Hmmm...

As Adria ponders this, Mari wants Adria to take the Exosuit for a test drive. I mean, technically she's already obliged, but time's weird okay?

ADRIA: Sure thing, but...
ADRIA: To be honest, I figured you might want the first shot instead...
ADRIA: Are you sure?

How nice of her to ask! If the answer is still no...

ADRIA: Ah. Alright.
ADRIA: But I'll make sure you get to use it next, okay?
ADRIA: You can definitely still come along, though!

Adria jumps into the mech and heads out.

---

Adria and Sophia

Adria meets up with Sophie outside of Machining and Fabrication. Adria was curious as to why Sophie would be up here, and with some strange disc in her hand.

ADRIA: So! What's going on, dear? What's with the disc?
SOPHIA: Wellllll... lemme show you!

She extends her hand with the disc in it. Adria takes it as the disc reads itself. Adria seems... confused?

ADRIA: Sophie... what exactly have you come across here?
SOPHIA: Oh, just a thing from a fren.
SOPHIA: It's some incomplete "fusion" of three people.
SOPHIA: I think it was meant to take on The Butterfly?
ADRIA: ...Butterfly?

Sophia facepalms. Right, of course nobody told her yet. She quickly gives her aunt a rundown.

ADRIA: ...Why in the world has nobody told me of this!?
SOPHIA: Iunno. But you know now!
SOPHIA: Anyway, I wanted to ask you to try an' complete it for them!
SOPHIA: ...Can you?

Adria sighs. This might be a bit more than she can chew. But, to turn down Sophie, her beloved niece...

ADRIA: ...Okay. I'll give it my best shot.
SOPHIA: Yayy! Thank youu!

Sophia hugs Adria's leg, grinning ear to ear. Adria smiles too, rubbing the top of her niece's head affectionately. She'll have a good look at it later.

Battle - Base of Unity

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The slow and measured footsteps ring out from the northern end of the room. Calibri walks onto the scene, twirling a blue rose between the pointer and middle fingers of his right hand, ignoring the brief pricking from the thorns as they poke against him. He stops advancing once he's gotten into proper conversation distance, then cracks a faint smirk.

"...So, this is Chloe's brother, Xavier."

After a pause, Calibri stops twirling the blue rose, closing his hand over the stem. Despite the pricking of the thorns, he does not let go.

"I've heard a lot in the past. Some... involvement with Nia's condition, some work on certain entropic entities... It's almost funny, that combination of genius intellect and getting in over one's own head. Wonder if that had a part in how we got here now."

Calibri chuckles quietly. Then, he twirls the rose one more time. The thorns have detached from the stem, remaining embedded in his hand... which, quite noticeably, is glowing with the power of Ordo. Mind you, so is the plushie at his side that looks suspiciously similar to a more fantasy hero version of Chloe.

"Well. Let's get this sorted out. Just try not to kill any of these guys, I guess. You might have an image to maintain, but so do we, and our image has gotten some great results. I'm not just talking about the Rebel Scarlets turning into a giant Chloe fanclub (well deserved on her part, by the way). Cool as that is, nah, I'm talking some damn near revolutionary things. You'll see."

With that, Calibri flicks the de-thorned blue rose over to Chloe if she wants it, then flashsteps past the Elem twins and wanders into battle. The Incandescent Key appears in his hand, and at about the same time, Verdana descends from the ceiling, landing next to Calibri with a floor-shattering thud.

"Hey! There sure are a lot of them. Now might be the time to do the thing."

Calibri pauses. Then, he cracks a strong grin.

"Alright then. Let's show them what three siblings can do."

A pulse rings out. Elsewhere, someone awakens. She takes a moment to observe the world around her, then refocuses on the subtle signal and moves to join the fight...

A yellow-clad warrior lady wielding a blazing staff slams into the ground between, and slightly behind, Calibri and Verdana. They turn to her briefly, raising one eyebrow each, then nod. All three siblings move together, placing their hands on top of one another in a small circle.

"Justice."
"Mercy."
"Duty."

A black swirl appears in the midst of them, flickers violently until it becomes a blinding white light, then expands outwards and completely consumes the trio in their entirety, shining bright for a surprisingly long time until it eventually recedes again.

Standing where they once stood is a trichromatic titan, one that easily dwarfs the height of pretty much everyone else in the party. With Calibri as the primary initiator, this fusion appears to have taken mostly on his appearance, through it still shifts about to partially incorporate the others. For the most part, it has settled on Calibri's body, Verdana's armor, and Lato as a weapon clutched in one hand - specifically, she manifested as a spear.

The fusion opens its eyes, all manners of colour flashing through them. Blue irises with orange sclera, red eyes with green sclera, yellow eyes with purple sclera. The transparent image of three pairs wings manifests behind the fusion, one pair being blue and sleek, one being red and feathery, and one being apparently made out of sword blades...

Supposedly, this is an imperfect form. So what would they have once they have mastered it?

No time to ponder that, there's a battle to be fought. Before preparing to act, the fusion decides to speak. What would make a suitably dramatic line... Thankfully, it thinks of one pretty quickly.

"This is our power, unified as three and amplified threefold!"


AND NOW FOR THE ACTUAL ACTION PART OF IT

Calibri spawns at J10, gives a suitably grandiose speech, moves to J13, sacrifices 15 HP to give himself Ordo, then activates Memorian Fusion. The order matters here, given the HP he sac'd to get Ordo will refill as part of the fusion benefits. The Special Sol Aeterna manifests in Lance form.

IMPORTANT: The special is out of date. Updated (and clarified) information as follows:
-Intellect should be 5, not 6
-Sol Aeterna's current base damage should be (28-29), same as the key
-Sol Aeterna's current CNT should be (3 + 5 + 2) = 10 (functionally this adds +5 to Calibri's CNT substat)
-Sol Aeterna's current HIT should be (9 + (8 + 6)/2) = 16 (functionally this adds +6 to Calibri's HIT substat)
-Since Sol Aeterna starts in Lance form, his spells give Manafuelled2 until he swaps off of it
-Inheriting both weapon effects means she has the Ordo/Purge/flux mutation removal power of the Key, and the Divine Shield granting and Skirmisher/Slip5 of the Magenta Prism

Then since transformation specials are a free action apparently, he uses his full action to cast a significantly powered up Fury, which targets Destiny. He also uses Shared Rage to give himself the same buff. He also gains Focused4 and 20 SP from the Charged Consciousness passive on his hat.

---

The Old Pass

"...Hmm?"

EN turns around. Then she blinks once she sees she's got company.

"...Ah. Eh... Last ah checked, ah was bringin' some kid o'er 'ere as a distraction so they'd'n't go get tangled up in an assassination plot... An' now ah guess tha's been dealt wit', so now ah jus'..."

She shrugs.

"Ain't done much else yet."

---

The Everground

Seeing that Vulcan has been hurt, S.E.D... turns and also sees that the Itisa Bait needs to be turned off. Perhaps both problems can be solved at the same time, somehow...

The drone makes a beeping noise to let Vulcan know of its presence. Then, it pulls up a screen with a diagram that shows its current desire for her to go down and recover/turn off the Itisa Bait. After that, it firmly roots itself in place where it sits, waiting and ready with what appears to be dual machine guns and a quad rocket launcher.

henlo yes am sentry

Remiel enters the fight at L10 with trait active, moves to M15, selfcasts the handy dandy Exertion it rolled for Abyssal Runes, and basicattacks HBlade2. It also tosses a Lumipod at Saint2.

Across the field it notices a familiar face. Why control someone with MP when you can do the same with a monologue? Might as well embellish the story a bit—these Chairians don't actually know exactly how much it can and can't do, especially with their wills shaken this much.
REMIEL: Well, well, well. If it isn't Amabilis. I do believe we've met, no?
REMIEL: We laughed, we cried, you threw rocks at your teammates and then gave me a top-secret potion. I don't think I ever thanked you for that, by the way.
REMIEL: Have you ever heard the stories about a puppeteer who, after controlling someone enough times, could hijack them effortlessly? From cities away? Without so much as a thought?
REMIEL: I can't quite remember the name the puppeteer went by. Was it Remorse? Remote? Regent? I do believe it was Regent.
REMIEL: Regardless, such a feat might be reproducible even while my control is restrained by the thymefield. Certainly would be rewarding, permanently "recruiting" someone relentless enough to get controlled twice and still believe they can resist a third in a single day.
REMIEL: But that's just something to think about. To return to the matter at hand, I'll let you reflect on a Remiel Fact: I'm 10 tiles from your location, and approaching rapidly. Stand down or start running.

Auth considers the question that Vulcan poses to her. He formulates the answer to the question as he works on the Remnant's last wound.

AUTH: Not exactly. I wouldn't call my body a soul vessel. Mostly because my soul is distinctly separated... it's a thing where I come from.
AUTH: I have... something that allows my body to recover from normally fatal events, but when I had first started to use it, it took me a while to understand it. By the time I had returned the first few times, I had to deal with it.

Auth decides that he can't let any of the Iti go about distracting him, continuing to heal the Remnant. The others can... probably help fix the bait and Iti presence.

---

Auth flicks open a blue notebook that he produced from his coat, and rapidly takes some notes detailing what Nana tells him about Chairian music. That being said, he writes relatively slowly for Tabletopian music... he hasn't heard it before. Is it electro-dance-funk-whatever that he doesn't particularly have the taste for?

AUTH: I learned to play the piano and the violin, and I enjoy the sound of those instruments... from the sounds of it, I don't think I would enjoy Tabletopian music.
AUTH: Truth be told, I can't really imagine how musical instruments would be used with magic. I mean, I suppose I am not exactly experienced with magic, which may explain why.

Auth considers, briefly, whether what he imagines a flute to be the same thing in both of their minds. He has a faint, ominous whine appear in the back of his head. He seems surprised when Nana mentions that Aoki sings over violins and an instrument known as a "windflume".

AUTH: Oh! Can she play? I suppose it should have clicked earlier that an idol would perform with music.
AUTH: I think I've said already, but I live in a library. I do enjoy that sort of music, it helps with the ambience. I'd hate it if there was nothing... I can't stand it when it's too quiet.

Auth shudders.

---

Auth's eye twitches slightly as Gibbet decides that his head is an appropriate place to roost, messing up his hair that he attempts to take care of with some effort. Oh well. Auth is only mildly uncomfortable with Gibbet on his head.

AUTH: Is there anything that the others told you that you needed to bring with you before you left? If not, yes. We can go. Just make sure that you don't get too far from anyone you recognise.

---

First, for a battle action. Auth floats into the battle and moves to P12. He casts Perseverance - Fire on Maple, and sets his own Variable Resistance to Water. He also then slides Xavier about eleven death glares.

Auth then prepares to deliver one of his famous utterly sanctimonious speeches, floating high in the air (while still being under the Dream of Unity - safety first).

AUTH: Please excuse me! I have more I would like to say.
AUUTH: I'm sure that some of you have something tugging at the back of your mind telling you that, despite what you superiors tell you, that something that is going on is deeply wrong. Something deep in yourselves know that what you have been told to do isn't right.
AUTH: You should listen to that voice! Because it's absolutely correct. Spark subjects his own people to the whims of the god of the Rose Cult, as can be seen in Plastic. He is scared - scared enough to turn to a faction that we have already defeated to attempt to defeat us, damn the consequences on the people who he subjects to it.
AUTH: Consider those Legionnaires who come back to you having been defeated by us. What consequences were put on them? Spark has sent other Praetorians to execute some of your fellow Chairians who had barely interacted with us! Not because they were particularly aligned with us, but because they had existed in the same area as us and did not fight us. We defeated Grandifolia and his compatriots to protect them.
AUTH: We wish to protect you all from a tyrant who is losing his grip on reality as his irresponsible plans come closer both to fruition and failure. We don't want to fight you, and we don't want to hurt you. We hold ourselves back, as much as we can, to avoid that. We want to help you, but in order to do that we need the Glyph in that Vault.
AUTH: Please help us in this, the stakes are far greater than you could possibly know.

Battle: The Base of Unity

Seemed like he was right on time to spot Chloe vault the railing and drop down to the first floor. And also everyone else. "For once you lot 'ave the roight idea. Down we go!" Irongutta then vaulted over the railing and dropped down.

"Hup!"

Of course he landed with a proper thud. A suitable entrance for one such as himself, he thought. It was time to do what he did best!

Irongutta spawns in at J10, ready to start some trouble. He moves over to G15 to guard The Scion and casts Fury on himself.

<ROUND 299>

whoa that's close to 300



Ah, as an extra note, I've installed a bunch of new research options in the Lab, and also added the perk I forgot to add for killing El Iti. Enjoy!

---

Eren and Echoss continue doing a wide variety of tasks. To begin, the Grey Amphi is shoved into Droplet's deposit box. It immediately flies out, deciding to go vibe down a floor, where it's safe. Droplet does not offer a word of thanks, instead taking time to mount the Amphi and go for a little ride. wee

Over at the labs, Echoss proposes to Omorika that they perhaps make use of some similar energy to Calypse to completely redesign the Calypse Cannon to... not make use of Calypse. Though, wouldn't that just make it the "Cannon"? Nonetheless, Omorika nods gently, her hazy gaze dragged away from her various schematics.

OMORIKA: I suppose that could be a task.
OMORIKA: I will admit I don't have the slightest idea on how to perform said task, however.
OMORIKA: Save of course, for a general outline.
OMORIKA: First, we would need to remove the Eliti from the mechanism. Being a monolith of cosmic death, I'd assume that Calypse is highly hostile, even when disconnected.
OMORIKA: Second, we would need to find a suitable material to replace Calypse's energy signature. Perhaps a Blackhole Regalia would suffice, but Calypse is a fairly unique individual.
OMORIKA: Finally, we would need to mount said weapon to the airship. That last part is probably not an issue, but whatever device you create should be lightweight enough to mount on the vessel.
OMORIKA: Solve those issues, and we would probably get a more reliable weapon than the Calypse Cannon ever was.

That all could be rather difficult... or not. Really, the first point's the hardest. Solve that, and there's a fair chance the entire conundrum is solved. Just don't let Calypse laserbeam the entire room, even if its delayed. Matt, Natalie, and Lance would like to remind you just how lethal its laser can be.

Then, over at the Security Hub, a meeting regarding the broadcast continues. Eren notes that Spark destroying their communications system might even be ideal, given how bad it'd look for him. Cypress agrees, though not without a bit of hesitation.

CYPRESS: That'd be correct. However, potentially dangerous.
CYPRESS: Communications: multipurpose. More than propaganda. Also helpful broadcasts. Relocation notices. Updates, helping morale.
CYPRESS: After message, action. Must be swift. Secure Citadel's safety. For the people.

When addressed herself, Acacia just nods. Somewhat exhausted, she flops forward onto the table, resting her head on her arms. Soon enough, Echoss walks in, and decides to assist Aoki with her equipment acquisitions. Perhaps he could get some equipment with similar specifications? Aoki is quick to jot down a list of parts, complete with specifications. A bit of know-how, perhaps?

AOKI: Here are the exact specifications of my usual equipment.
AOKI: While I'll admit to not having the slightest idea of what these words and terms mean, they are exact. I can assure you of this.
AOKI: Please get something that meets or exceeds these expectations.

Having a quick look at what she's requested, what she wants is... actually rather low quality compared to Earth's standards. Perhaps that's just the best the Chairians have access to? This however, does not include the microphone- that is of Tabletopian make, with exceptionally high specs. Still, perhaps Echoss could pull something better?

Then, down in the Everground, Not!Echoss becomes the calvary! Storming onto the scene in an ice cream van(?), a swathe of Not!Echosses rain fire (and eventually, the truck itself) upon the Harpy swarm! This wipes out every last one of them, leaving only the Blossoms! Snatching the truck out of midair with a hand of crimson energy, Vulcan uses the truck as a hammer, slamming explosive nails into the earth. Said nails are the Blossoms, and by "explosive nails" we mean "nails that explode on impact". Soon enough, the entire truck is naught but a pile of scrap and fire, and the blossoms are nothing.

VULCAN: That should be all of the Iti up here.
VULCAN: While I doubt we've cleared out the Everground of Harpies, that should be most of the Iti on the lower levels of this floor.
VULCAN: In a moment, I will return down to the Remnant.
VULCAN: How is the situation down there?

As she ponders that, Eren arrives at the Base of Unity. He decides to take a moment to address Xavier's so called... "image". Xavier sighs.

XAVIER: Oh. You're the person on the other end of the radio. Hello.
XAVIER: You appear to be one of those Pionobots, but you're not killing everything within a fifty light-year radius. Interesting.

XAVIER: But... as for what I've been doing... you should understand that what I do is all purely tactical.
XAVIER: As a now-lone operative, fear tactics have been by far my beast weapon against the Chairians. By instilling fear into them with my actions, many soldiers were hesitant to go after me.
XAVIER: Even up in the Sky Labs where more elite soldiers are in use, it has served me rather well. Dare I say, these tactics have resulted in less casualties than there would be had I simply attacked normally. Those who I made choose flight over fight live to see tomorrow.
XAVIER: While I understand your anger, surely you can rationalize my own actions.
XAVIER: However, with the presence of many Praetorians to bolster their morale, it's rather obvious my usual tactics will not suffice. Naturally, I will cooperate with you until I am rendered a lone operative again for whatever reason.

Finally, Eren sends one last PM to Creation. >Codex Updated!

---

Venia graces the Base of Unity! She shouts out to the already wavering troops that every last scene they just witnessed was true. She then states that they are the Spherebreakers! The ones that will obliterate Spark's all-consuming corruption, as well as the Sphere!

AMABILIS: Oh, quit the gorilla! You're nothing but terrorists, here to destroy what's left of the Chairian race!
AMABILIS: We are thirty strong! We shall not waver, even in the face of our greatest enemy! All those who rally against Spark shall meet their end!
CEDAR: Were Spark a perfect leader, we would not be dealing with a rebellion.
CEDAR: But, he is the one and only hope for our people. Our one shining light of salvation out of this nightmare.
CEDAR: We shall overlook his mistakes, as his good outweighs the bad.
CEDAR: We will not let you snuff out our hope, Spherebreakers!
AMABILIS: I question your loyalty, Cedar!
CEDAR: We shall discuss that later.
CEDAR: For now, we should probably question how they intend to deploy a tank-

Rosie promptly crashes through the ceiling, landing right next to Venia. The eight spider legs, the key feature of a Duneyrr's design, bend and bounce like shock absorbers as she lands. The primary barrel pulsates forward and backward, emitting an intimidating but ultimately non-functional loading noise.

CEDAR: ...and take measures to prevent it.
AMABILIS: How the hell did you-
PLASTIC: UNCLEAN
PLASTIC: UNCLEAN
PLASTIC: UNCLEAN

Plastic shrieks at the sight of Rosie. They almost manage to spit the Fluxblood dripping from their mouths onto Rosie, only landing like three tiles short. Yuck.

CEDAR: We'll require more troops for this.
CEDAR: Call in the other guards situated on this floor. It's all or nothing here.
CEDAR: Fail here, and they will march upon the Citadel.
CEDAR: We cannot lose!

A radio transmission is sent to the sides. Prepare for those reinforcements to arrive later...

---

Destiny preaches to the Faithful! The Faithful, the Saints, the Devout (who are not currently present)- Spark is using their devotion to their lord Helix to lead them astray! Obviously, as blind loyalists of Spark, their faith is barely shaken-

FAITHFUL: M-My word.
FAITHFUL: H-Helix supports their claims! Look!
FAITHFUL: H-He has descended!

From the heavens, a glowing apparition of Lord Helix themselves gently hovers downwards, sitting itself upon Destiny's head. It circles around on the spot much like a cat. Unbeknownst to the clergy of Helix, Taeda sits on the second floor, overlooking the battle. With all the concentration she can muster, she controls the apparition, making use of Echoss's "butterfly magic" to do so. Though, it's not really clear if the Saints believe it. Perhaps the Faithful will go and instantly convert? Or maybe this'll stop additional Faithful from joining the battle.

---

Adria decides to make a speech! Sitting within the bounds of her Exoskeleton Suit, her voice sweeps over the frantic combat. Are the soldiers truly confident in those they look up to as leaders? Have any of them lost something in these skirmishes they've been forced into? Like with many of these speeches, dissent raises among the troops. Amabilis, as per usual, is generally pissed.

AMABILIS: HEY! CAN IT!
AMABILIS: What's with you all and making long, dramatic speeches?
AMABILIS: Speeches that ONLY PROVE WHY WE'RE GOING TO END ALL OF YOU.
AMABILIS: What have we lost? We have lost so many good men to all of you!
AMABILIS: We can't forgive that, and neither will Spark!
AMABILIS: Right? RIGHT?

A few uneasy "yeahs" and "oks" come from her division. Well, perhaps they're more "completely unconvinced" than "uneasy". When called a lunatic, Amabilis continues her yelling.

AMABILIS: Lunatic? Lunatic? Who's the lunatic here!?
AMABILIS: You preach your "truth", your "justice", while you trample over all who stand in your way!
AMABILIS: You pretend to have good intentions, when the scores of people you've killed have proven otherwise!
AMABILIS: People from an already dying nation!
AMABILIS: You make me sick.

Should Amabilis survive to her action, she'll probably obtain a fair deal of buffs. Her troops however, still aren't entirely convinced. Perhaps a few more of them will obtain that wavering status?

Elsewhere, Dorothy attempts to replicate Sythia's own magic. Creating a sort of vacuum or something, Dorothy manages to stop all non-internal sounds. Claps, shouts, those are all silent as expected, but one can still hear the (hopefully) rhythmic beats of their heart. Once sound returns to the room, Sythia gives a gentle nod and smile towards Dorothy. She did in fact, do it. Her Chloe Plushie claps its hands together rapidly, no actual sound coming from the cotton clapping.

Over with Mari, Adria notes that a Railgun LMG is probably possible. It'd just take an incredible amount of chronological energy- something which they lack. Mari salivates. Just a little.

MARI: Hey, uh.
MARI: Want more of those pears? Because if it means we can unleash disproportionate retribution on everything in our path, I'm totally game.

She also gives Mari the offer of taking the first shot. She shrugs.

MARI: Well, if you insist.
MARI: Can't say no to firing something like this, can I?
MARI: ...Just, uh. I don't know how to pilot this thing.
CHLOE: It's not that bad! Here, I'll help you.

Chloe hops on the non-gun arm, sitting there while Mari slips into the Exosuit. Chloe gives Mari a few pointers on controlling the device. Though, without much in the way of actual fitness, Mari quickly works up a sweat piloting the machine. Still, she's able to take aim with the railgun, aiming at a large pile of crates that were set up prior. Constant pulses ring from the railgun as it constantly blasts its single bullet again and again, storing kinetic energy. About three "shots" later, Mari lets the shell loose. The crates don't stand even the slightest chance of survival. Not only does the slug pierce straight through the crates, instantly turning them into clouds of splinters, but it digs at least a few dozen meters into the floor.

MARI: Holy gorilla, I love you.
CHLOE: T-The gun, or?
MARI: Obvs.
MARI: Adria's alright too, though. I guess.

She grins as the bullet rechambers itself within the gun, chronological rewinding undoing all of the damage the sabot suffered. Then, still incredibly sweaty, Mari clambers out of the mecha. Chloe hops down after her, offering her a Waterdrank™. Mari immediately snatches the bottle, giving a nod of thanks as she chugs it down. Whew! Anyway, this leaves the GM to wonder where to take this. I'd assume this can wrap up, as the battle's starting and Chloe's going to run off? I dunno.

---

Like others before him, Calibri informs Xavier to not kill anybody. Once more, he nods. This is immediately followed by a long, drawn-out sigh.

XAVIER: So I've been told.
XAVIER: You have more power in this situation, so I will follow along.
XAVIER: I am more than capable of precision if required.

Then, down in the Everground, S.E.D informs Vulcan, asking for them to pick up the Itisa Bait. Responding with only a nod, she immediately dispels the barrier below her. She blitzes past a storm of falling corpses, rocketing down towards the Itisa Bait. With a swift motion, she positions her blade in front of her, immediately impaling the Itisa Bait. It lets out a large pulsar of essence as it loses function. With a flourish, she frees her blade from the machine and immediately beheads a Predator that attempted to take her own.

VULCAN: I'm not the most familiar with technology. That being said, that should suffice as "turning it off".
VULCAN: I apologize for the damages.
VULCAN: Let us finish cleaning up the Iti in this sector, whilst the Author continues his healing process.

Meanwhile, a few dozen meters up, S.E.D am become sentry. Though, there's not really much coming their way. They brush off a Harpy carcass from themselves, and continue their watch. Hopefully something comes by. Otherwise, this'd be mighty boring.

---

Remiel greets Amabilis, again. Her expression immediately shifts to that of "NOPE".

AMABILIS: OH HELL NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.
AMABILIS: At least, that's what I'd say, if I didn't have something prepared for your dumb gorilla.
AMABILIS: BEHOLD!

Amabilis equips a Tinfoil Witch Hat.

AMABILIS: This hat has been created of a material that'll foil all of your attempts!
AMABILIS: It's also been warded with magical runes.
AMABILIS: I'd like to see you try your gorilla again.

The hat does not appear to be too snug. Perhaps one could blow it off with an Air attack?

---

Auth continues a variety of conversations. He notes to Vulcan that while he is not a "soul vessel", he still has the ability to recover from death. And with death, comes stiffness. Vulcan nods.

VULCAN: You're an immortal, then? How fascinating.
VULCAN: I suppose ultimately, nothing is impossible. Whether through innovation, the powers of the Rose, or yet unseen forces.

Then, tuning out the distractions (like the additional Iti), Auth continues healing up the heart, sealing up the last of the massive gashes. A sort of... "purring" emanates from the heart. It is satiated, save for the various Predators gnawing at its eyestalks.

VULCAN: ...Don't celebrate just yet.
VULCAN: Something is coming, and it is coming fast.
VULCAN: Western side. Probably bigger than anything you've seen down here before.

From the shadowy, unexplored depths of the fifth layer, a triad of shrieks can be heard. Those of Chairians? How'd they get down here? The source soon comes apparent as three serpent's heads rip from the shadow. They scream aimlessly, Thyme Matter spilling from every orifice. Each appears to be an extension of a gigantic tendril of Thyme Matter, which whips around the room erratically. And finally, from out of the dark, comes the source of this madness itself- a gigantic feline-type creature. Its body shimmers with pale scales, probably reinforced with some sort of crystal. Thyme Matter spews from its body at every angle, in a thick smog. Whatever this thing is, it looks hungry.

VULCAN: Prepare yourselves, and defend the Remnant!
VULCAN: Just how many of these damn things live down here?

The Lamia Queen has arrived!

Elsewhere, Auth wonders how musical instruments would be augmented by magic. Nana does her best to convey what she means, waving her arms on occasion to try and help him visualize things. Not that this'd actually help, but it's probably cute.

NANA: W-Well, some instruments make use of c-crystals to amplify their sound, or to produce all sorts of weird sounds!
NANA: T-The "windflume" for instance, is like... a jar with a powerful wind crystal in it. T-That's a v-very simple way to put it, but there are various holes and tubes that the performer can unplug and plug to create a beautiful, harmonic sound!
NANA: Though, I h-hear playing them is very hard, b-because you need to consider the strength of t-the crystal, a-air pressure, a-and a lot of other things!

NANA: As for Aoki, I think s-she can play the violin, and she s-sometimes does so on stage, but... mostly, s-she just sings.
NANA: S-Some people try to play a guitar and sing at the s-same time, b-but frankly I find playing an instrument h-hard enough! How do some people m-manage both?

Can Auth do both? Well, he can play two violins at once, so maybe.

NANA: I appreciate that her music is on the quieter side, t-though.
NANA: Maybe i-it'd even fit in a library, like y-you'd like?

Elsewhere, Auth asks Gibbet if they need to grab anything before they leave. They shake their head. They're a bird. What else could they need? All they need are some snacks, probably. Anyway, they remain perched up on the Author's head. It's very comfortable there. Nana would probably be horrified at the state of the Author's hair, though. Especially since there's a few sticks in there now. Where'd they come from?

Finally, Auth addresses the armies at the Base of Unity. Isn't something deeply wrong? Spark has resorted to using members of the Rose Cult as members of his army. And, probably from personal experience, the Legion can note just how freakin' odd those people are. To say the very least, anyway. Many members of the army stare at Plastic. He points to the... Dream of Unity? Okay.

PLASTIC: LOYAL
PLASTIC: LOYAL
PLASTIC: LOYAL

...It probably goes without saying that some of the soldiers are probably realizing that having a Rose Cult member among their ranks, especially one that is a Praetorian, is probably rather shady at best.

---

<BASE OF UNITY, ROUND 2>
Nidra's been incinerated by mass AoE attacks, and a lot of you are on fire. However, thanks to your moving words, many enemies have turned against the Legion! Press this advantage to obtain victory! Don't forget to break the vault down, too! As for other things to worry about, there are new enemies- Exoknights! They're not that scary, but they're durable and armed with a wide variety of maneuvers. Foes are also beginning to gather at the north. Unless you have a way to rip at them, they'll keep building until that barrier drops. Bleh.

...A voice echoes from the Dream of Unity. Is there an onboard intercom system or something?

SPARK: You've already lost, Spherebreakers.
SPARK: More troops are converging at this location as we speak.
SPARK: In addition, I will have more airships in position to begin firing upon you.
SPARK: Surrender now, and your deaths will at least be merciful.
SPARK: This of course, also applies to all of you who, through some unknown thought process, decided that siding with literal terrorists was better than working with your country.

Looks like you're being watched. Though, is he not always watching at this point?

Zahlia +1s SPC

Uh she joins Base of Unity and uhh
Idea for action not coming to me yet

I guess she goes to F11 and Meditates? That seems a course of action.

Omo research assist (Calypse Cannon remake)
Echoss sends a couple of butterflies (one of which slightly larger so that it can pull a portal rune out of the inventory if needed) with the Reflector.
"Indeed, I'll bring in others if I hear explosions or other sounds of attempts at fighting, does that sound acceptable?"
I assume it is because Echoss is doing what the Reflector wanted him too, so I shall cut back to main Echoss trying to assemble a replacement gun.

Resources expended:
Blackhole Regalia
x13 Darkmatter Clusters
x4 amphi extract
x2 amberroot logs
x8 Arkalloy
x20 Gaiameld Ingots
x10 Plasteel Ingots
Starite
x2 Hardened Glass
Circuit Boards/Wire Scraps

Blackhole Regalia is the power source for the cannon, infused with amphi extract to make the power more condensed and volatile (resulting in the delayed but larger explosion) with the darkmatter clusters surrounding it acting as supplements and stabilizers so that the volatility can be vented safely when the weapon isn't in use. The Amberroot logs have been divided into a number of enchanted runes/glyphs/additions to act as containers and modulators for the entire thing.
The Starite piece is combined with the Hardened Glass to make the 'focusing lens' needed to give the weapon its range and keep the 'magical containment' active on the beam until it hits the targeted areas instead of exploding outwards (we want a Doomsday cast, not a dark-element airship flamethrower).
The Gaiameld and Plasteel are used to make the weapon cage, with the innermost parts made out of Arkalloy. This is probably completely overkill, but it makes sure that even if the weapon were to catastrophically backfire the only actual damage that would be done would be the weapon's internals being rendered inoperable, and also makes the whole thing steady enough that in a pinch perhaps the whole thing could be overclocked, expending the weapon permanently but doing a ton of extra damage? Who knows. Would probably need an extra power source and a small upgrade to the Cosmic Lens to get the most out of such an act though.
Finally, the circuit boards and wiring are just to hook the thing back up to the targeting system the original calypse cannon used, allowing the whole thing to be slotted into the original mounting with ease.


Broadcast work
Eren nods.
"Ah, yeah. Sorry I figured that was obvious enough I didn't need to say it.
I sorta assumed we'd be sending it out as we're gearing up to go into the Citadel tomorrow, the Citadel is being sieged by the iti pretty constantly, right? We don't want to leave the defenders holding off with their comms down for days on end."

Echoss smiles softly.
"Entertainingly, it would likely take me longer to find items that fail to meet these expectations. Well, for the most part, the microphone is tabletopian make I presume? Regardless, this shouldn't take longer than a few minutes, let me call up someone back at base to use the portal system to send the items."
Echoss pulls out his team communicator and phones home.
"Hello, if there's anyone back at the house who could run the portal me and Chloe have been using for resources for just a moment, that would be appreciated.
I can give you basic instructions on how to make it work, it should be fairly easy."
Echoss presumably finds someone, and gives them the instructions as well as a note on what stuff he needs.


Everground assist:
Not!Echoss rubs his hands together giggling at the thought of all the insurance money he can cash in since technically Vulcan's the one who finished wrecking the truck, not him, and fades into the background.
...Then reappears in the Harpy Nest, holding a chunk of ~8 gravcore ore, or rather 8 chunks of 1 gravcore ore wired up in a most certainly unsafe arrangement with iron ingots and joltwire (x8 total, one for each ore piece) to use them as small anti-grav engines for propulsion. He sticks these all over the "light" crystal at the top of the harpy nest, and hangs off the side of it looking at his handywork.
Then he grabs 10 fluxfuel cells, 2 crystalline conduits, and then an orchid jet thinks better of using one of the orchid jets and then 4 airship weapon parts. Pulling the airship parts into a sort of massive laser cannon with unreal amounts of recoil to the point that a sane person wouldn't even put it on most airships, but also using unholy amounts of energy... which he quickly wires the fluxfuel cells and crystalline conduits together to do. It'll only last for a minute or two but really that's all he needs.
Having made his super engine gun, Not!Echoss mixes together a vial of void liquid with 5 pieces of darkweave, then drinks it, somehow giving him the power of a Potion of Noclip (that 'somehow' being because it's funny) and latches onto the massive light crystal, which promptly drops out of the ceiling since it, along with Not!Echoss, is now in noclip mode. The harpy nest is plunged into darkness as the light crystal phases through the bowels of the earth.
Not!Echoss activates the gravcore engines and starts pulsing them to line up the light crystal with his target, then grabs a crafting charge of the Edge of Dawn. Which he then uses to cut the light crystal into a more appealing shape. With the power of the ultra-sharp edge and creative energies, the tip of the light crystal is honed into a sharp point, like a nail, and the excess material is pulled off into sharpened barbs that while not slowing the impact of the giant crystal any, will make trying to pull yourself free much more difficult and much more painful for anyone impaled by it.
Finally, he uses the Edge of Dawn to put a holding spot on the top, where he presses in the fluxfueled cannon engine, which he promptly turns on, accelerating the crystal's descent to its final target. This abrupt burst in speed makes Not!Echoss drop the Edge of Dawn, where some lucky archaeologist will find it in five hundred years and be extremely confused but also probably very rich.
Speaking of, the Potion of Noclip wears off perfectly timed with the exit of Not!Echoss and the massive light crystal from the ceiling of the Heart of the Abyss. Already traveling at unbelievable speeds, the crystal plunges straight through the Lamia Queen's body, nailing it to the rocky floor of the chamber. Just to be sure, as the cannon engine sputters and dies, Not!Echoss slams a Nanostorm Drive into it, overcharging it and driving the crystal nail all the way into the floor, leaving the lamia fully impaled and also slightly wedged into the rock.
Fortunately, the ceiling is not damaged by the cannon, it turns out that the reason for the unreasonable recoil is because the energy is very poorly directed, the end result is just that side of the chamber heating up to "uncomfortably hot", like an unusually warm summer's day, for a few minutes.
The cannon, its power spent, falls apart. RIP


Creation
With the Monika conversation finished, Echoss decides to ask Creation a few questions.
>Question, Creation.
>Looking through the things you've left here in the Codex, it seems like you market materials and products in some way?
>Could I possibly request more information in that regard?
>Since you likely were watching my conversation with Miss Monika I will assume you are not interested in idle banter unless told otherwise, but I am still rather interested in what it is that you do.


BATTLE
Eren winces at Xavier's comment, and sighs.
"Alright. Then we're good.
Hopefully you don't get rendered a 'lone operative' again though, the others say the Sphere's set to detonate in a day or two, if you get permanently separated from us before then either you're not going to make it to the Sphere with us tomorrow or something's gone catastrophically wrong at the last moment and we're all sitting ducks for imminent universal destruction.
...My name is Eren, by the way. I'd explain but you already seem to be aware of what it is I want to distance myself from."

And then Cedar and Amablis respond to Venia and the others. Eren's eyes flicker and flare.
"We're terrorists? We've had to stop Spark and your fellow Praetorians from incinerating civilians... what, three times today?
And you two were part of the killsquad Spark sent after Cypress because... as far as I can tell Spark's only official reason is that Spark 'found' some Rebel technology in the Skylabs, right before turning it on in the middle of Acacia's backline I might add, you saw some of that footage, and that clearly means that Cypress is a dangerous radical insurgent, of course it's not just because Cypress is the only High Chair member left who hasn't been manipulated into mindless devotion by that point.
Nothing suspicious here at all, especially after he executed Acacia for surrendering when yet another of Spark's attempts to kill us failed miserably.
Oh right, and need I remind you that the only reason the Sphere wasn't dismantled when it started disgorging awful cannibalistic monsters right into the middle of your heartlands was on Spark's orders because he decided it was more important to try and kill the Tabletopians with a B-movie supervillain plot than keep his own people from being eaten!?
Where in this entire chain of events has Spark made any of this better than it was before he got his grubby little manchild hands on it?"
He turns and points at Amablis specifically.
As for you, lunatic. Do you know exactly how many chairians we've killed, both legion and rebellion, since the Spherebreakers arrived on Sussui? Not counting Xavier he's just a relative and not a Spherebreaker.
I do. Somebody decided to keep track, it's written in the corner of one of our group planning files, it's been ticked up every time we screw up, and someone dies because of it. To remind us to do better, to not give up on the importance of who we're saving even if we don't know them personally.
Twenty three. Twenty-three people who we'll have to make restitution for once the Sphere comes down.
But that's only twenty-three between all of us, a far cry from the 'scores' you're accusing us of. Tell me Amablis, how many are you personally responsible for killing? How about the praetorians as a whole?
How about Spark and his little pet doomsday device?

Action:
Eren moves to I14, casts Eagle Eye with Shared Perspective to grant himself and Irongutta Focused and DirectHit.
Then he uses Elemental Eclecticity to switch his Luxaveil to Igniveil.
Finally, Eren switches his Armistyx element to Ice.

Also I give an OOC prompt for Aoki to talk at the other songstress maybe?

Also an OOC note: if Cedar stands down because TALK (however unlikely that is), people in the discord should probably be notified to change their actions. Beating up the praetorian AFTER they surrender because of input weirdness would suck.



To-do List:
Also hand the Subspace Grocery Box to Cypress when he heads back to the house
Anti-Spark measures (anti-magic in progress, have anti-artillery to deal with airstrikes and conventional artillery support, signal blocking to prevent Praetorian or Sentinel summoning, lots of EMP options, be ready for BOSS)
Anti-Propaganda: use the Infinite Shadow for the stealth gear.

Make sure party prep is ready. (save for near the end of the day)
Properly seal up Linseed's room so he can't try to dig out. (save for near the end of the day)

Base Of Unity

If Adria snapping from Amabilis's comment and Spark's little intercom stunt were audible, it would be heard across the whole room. Adria's face suddenly gets extremely intense, eyes focused straight on Amabilis.

ADRIA: CASE. IN. POINT.

Adria barrels towards Amabilis in her Exosuit, stopping just at the cover.

ADRIA: This is how you get your soldiers to stay in line!?
ADRIA: Fearmongering!?
ADRIA: Those are some bold tactics coming from someone in ANTIMAGIC DISTANCE!

Before Amabilis could react, Adria fires the newly-completed Elemental Blaster: Antimagic at her. That should knock the wind right out of her sails. Though it's clear that Adria takes no pride in this.

ADRIA: Not so tough without your little escape route now, are we?
ADRIA: I warned you.
ADRIA: You didn't listen.
ADRIA: And now, a lesson.
ADRIA: Loyalty does not come from terrifying your platoon into submission.
ADRIA: That only breeds bitter hatred in the long run.
ADRIA: They're people too. And you would rather abandon their wellbeing in the name of "loyalty".
ADRIA: You make me sick.

ADRIA: Ladies. Gentlemen. Those of neither persuasion.
ADRIA: Don't be like this lunatic.

She's so busy with her little speech that she doesn't notice the kitty behind her. It's a pale green and bristly, somewhat like a cactus, though still quite fluffy. The bristles near the top of its head look a lot like a wizard's hat for whatever reason.

Once she's thoroughly addressed the lunatic in the room, she suddenly eases up into a very standard intensity. She addresses the Permafrost Robe who was scared into submission in a startlingly calm voice.

ADRIA: Don't worry. We won't hurt you, if you won't hurt us.
ADRIA: And we'll make sure they can't hurt you either.

ACTUAL ACTION

Adria in the Exosuit barrels to (I15) and shoots Amabilis with the Elemental Blaster: Antimagic. The Exosuit abstains from attacking, as there are no good targets. It builds up Accelerate. Adria "casts" Familiar on (I14), consumed by Spell Feast for no benefit to it. A meal is created, targeting Adria, the Symbiote (Chloe) and the Cat (whoever that transfers to, if at all). A Chronoshade appears at (I21), set to Basic Attack.

The Symbiote attached to Chloe waits. Chloe is still a really unappealing target right now for everyone it seems. Once she's in her final position, it uses Spike Burst.

Familiar: Cat (Chimera: Nuzzle -> Energy Channel (Wisp))

New Project: Single Target, Buffing (Autorevive), Boring (Name: Booster Shot)
Booster Shot (13 MP). Restore (19-19) HP, and apply (Autorevive5, 2). Range 3-6.

Spell Feast Spell Gain: Abduction (16 MP). Target a foe within Range 5-8, with Wallhack. Teleport them to a tile within Range 1 of you, and deal (20-21) Slashing Damage to them. Large Head. Surprise!

---

Hannah

Hannah takes the key that has been set upon her bed, and... nonchalantly stuffs it in her shadow? Uh. Well at least she won't lose it. Dorothy definitely looks confused at this out of nowhere(?) ability.

HANNAH: So a few things I can't see when I decide to visit. Gotcha.
HANNAH: ...Thanks. I'll definitely visit sometime.
HANNAH: And don't worry about the "secret" thing. We won't tell~

---

Sythia

SOPHIA: You did it! ...Sorta!
SOPHIA: It's not quite the same, a-and it's... a little hard to breathe in.
SOPHIA: But you did it!

Dorothy smiles and bows.

DOROTHY: U-um... thank you!

She hops up on the bench with the other two.

---

Old Pass

Shelly nods at EN.

SHELLY: Ah. So a distraction for one of the emperor's children.
SHELLY: Yep, the emperor's dead now.
SHELLY: That leaves both of us without 'work'. Sooo...

She looks out over the horizon.

SHELLY: A little Scarlet blurted out something... interesting earlier today.
SHELLY: A Fell Beast bigger than a Fell Behemoth. A "Fell God" if you will. Probably the mother of all of the little pecknecks.
SHELLY: ...Wanna go hunting?

---

Machining & Fabrication

Adria shrugs at the mention of Mari finding her more pears.

ADRIA: If you want to, be my guest! But if you don't want to gather all that many right now, that's also okay.

She stands back as Mari takes the mech for a spin. She also notices that Mari was tiring out exceptionally quickly. Once she fires the shot from the railgun, though, Adria seems ecstatic at the result, giving a hearty round of applause.

ADRIA: Excellent! We make a great team!
ADRIA: ...Are you alright? You're clearly exhausted.

Adria half-sighs.

ADRIA: I think you should rest for a bit. Don't worry about the sabotage stuff by the way. I can work on that.

---

The Fusion

Adria mulls over the disc Sophia handed her, pacing back and forth as she looks through its contents.

ADRIA: Vengeance, happiness, duty... three people manifested out of the thoughts of someone else.
ADRIA: Gods, where do I even begin...?
ADRIA: ...I should ask someone. Maybe one of the three...?
ADRIA: ...Hm...

Adria sends her drone out to scout out the area. It catches Verdana doing their thing, and pings Adria, who walks over to meet them. She waves hello once she's in distance.

ADRIA: Um, hello there!
ADRIA: Verdana, I presume.

She stops a short distance from them, and nods.

ADRIA: I have a question. It's... about this disc.

She pulls it out for Verdana to see.

ADRIA: My niece brought me this. Said it was from a friend of hers.
ADRIA: It also details some form of "fusion", and that that "fusion" is broken, somehow.
ADRIA: You wouldn't mind elaborating on that, would you? Like, how you would perform this "fusion".

She patiently awaits a response.

---

Everground

/maybe?

Destiny uses a Apocethary's Remedy, moves to F15 and uses Starstrike before attacking Cedar, retreating to F18.

CYPRESS: Act first, move to I15, use Precision Focus and fire at Darkmorph 2.
AOKI: Use Holy Dew on Destiny before she acts.

Battle: Base of Unity

"Chloe, move up and drag Plastic forwards a bit!" Venia shouts.

Chloe moves to M19 before taking a swing at Extinguisher2, then uses the Warp Ring on Plastic to drag them to N18. She retreats to N20, pinning the Songstress down.

Venia moves to O14 while Vic Viper moves to O13. This gives Venia the benefit of the Vic's Shoulder Angel passive, which she uses with the Elemental Sniper set to its brand-new Antimagic setting on Plastic-twice if the first shot misses. If she misses both times, the Vic Viper also uses it on Plastic, twice if necessary. Once that has fully processed, Venia then uses Purge on Plastic, which will 100% down them as Plastic is Entropic and it therefore cannot miss.

"... I can hear the tension in his voice, almost. Disguisting piece of shit He knows its all true and he knows he's in a corner, and all he can do is lie and cower to let you do his dirty work. Only thing he has left is fearmongering. It's the only justification he ever had. You gonna let this stand? After all he's said and done? Let's drown out his lies with our actions, eh?"

Venia "retreats" to P15. The Vic Viper self-casts Recon Flight and then "retreats" to O14.

---

Mariaaaaaaa

Meanwhile, after some time-skipping, Maria is winning at Snakes And Ladders: Chaos Edition. I have no clue what this entails. The arcane methods of Snakes and Ladders are beyond all non-Irecreeper comprehension at this moment in time. Free us, Ire. Describe Snakes and Ladders: Chaos Edition. Free us all.

---

The Everground

Venia looks at that nasty Queen Lamia in all its nasty glory through the eyes of her Maid.

She promptly utilizes the remaining force of Ordo from before to supercharge her key to full power and shoot a single blast directly into the maw looking upwards at the eyestalk, obliterating it swiftly and reasonably, and putting the key into reloader.

"Jeez, you think you've cleared out everything, then this happens..."

-will expand later-

---

Others

-later?-

BATTLES

scion eats her flux mutation i guess

---

CALYPSE

The Reflector takes the Calypse Cannon to some empty room in the Rosen Catacombs, since that's our default fight-proof staging ground for now. They set their Dark resistance to a number bigger than 100% thanks to Protean and prepares to dismantle the Calypse Cannon. They also poke Echoss, for backup calling purposes.

THE REFLECTOR: perhaps you should wait outside should prepare in case of well a rather violent outburst.
THE REFLECTOR: i believe the spherebreakers should be more than capable of easily quite easily restraining calypse if the monolith does not react very well to my overtures which of course is very possible.

Once Echoss has gotten out of range of an imminent laser blast, the Reflector pries open Calypse's cage and, if necessary, calmly absorbs a beam of darkness with their dark matter-attuned shields or blocks a slam attack with their SHP.

THE REFLECTOR: hello hello hello.
THE REFLECTOR: i am the reflector, and you are calypse, or at least so called by the chairians of sussui i suppose.
THE REFLECTOR: i am not here to use you as a weapon a killing machine.
THE REFLECTOR: all i want is to help you, calypse.

The Reflector's ghostly pale skin shifts and transforms into a solid black, and thin lines of red and purple energy crack across their body.

CALYPSE REFLECTOR: the thymefield prevents me from fully reflecting you of course you are far too powerful but this should still be enough.
CALYPSE REFLECTOR: how can we help each other?

They extend the Sight of Smoke, which begins to form into images of Calypse's thoughts.

---

EL ITI

Meanwhile, another Mirror Image of the Reflector takes another form and studies the Purged El Iti in the inventory. They bring the suspended cowboy Seeker's corpse over to Mari.

"THE METALLURGIST": Hey. Mari.
"THE METALLURGIST": Number six has got it in their head to try to make peace with as many Eliti as possible.
"THE METALLURGIST": Can't say I blame them. Locaa's going to be in some trouble if it still needs to fight off the Eliti after the Sphere goes down. Having some on our side can only help.
"THE METALLURGIST": Anyway, getting to the point. This purged cowboy specimen seems to be "banned". Probably because his team "cheated" at the nonexistent game he was playing against us, and WARE or the Operator or whoever disconnected him.
"THE METALLURGIST": But our team cheated, too. Cheated first, actually. So it only seems fair to appeal the ban.
"THE METALLURGIST": Software's not my specialty. You have any ideas on how to solve this? Considering I'm pretty sure Sussui doesn't actually have a video game developer to contact.

---

HANNAH

"The Scion" chews her lip for a second before responding.

"THE SCION": Well, technically the organization's supposed to be secret... but we do let guests into Symphony Hall sometimes.
"THE SCION": There are things you're, um, not allowed to see. Like our secret plans room.
"THE SCION": Which doesn't actually have any secret plans. It's just, um, Warlock's fanfiction storage room.
"THE SCION": Oh, and you probably can't see the Conductor! Which is a shame.
"THE SCION": But other than that, you can stop by!
"THE SCION": Just, one second...

A shadowy hand wraps around "the Scion"'s like a glove. The shadow-hand plucks a beautiful, twisty golden key from thin air and sets it down next to Hannah's bed.

"THE SCION": Just use that key on any door with a keyhole, and you can visit us! As long as one of us is home to answer the door.
"THE SCION": If you lose it, no one else will be able to use it, but neither will you, obviously, so, um, I... yeah. You get the picture.
"THE SCION": And, you can bring Dorothy, but maybe not anyone else? We don't like huge crowds.
"THE SCION": But no pressure! If you don't want to come, we won't hold it against you, so, so, don't feel bad...