Outside of Castle Oress

Jaidyn missed the person's shoulder and landed flat onto the grassy ground. It didn't hurt as much as he expected since he was small but it still hurt nonetheless. Immediately, Jaidyn rolled away and barely avoided getting squished, he then collided with a tree back first.

So much for that attempt. Now how the hell am I going to turn back Jaidyn thought as his eye began following a fluttering fly. Snap! and it was gone. It tasted better than he expected. Jaidyn shook his head tossing out the idea of eating flies and little insect for the rest of his life and began thinking of a way to turn back to normal. He visualized his human self and projected to the world. Nothing happened. In extreme frustration, he started hitting the tree wall with his webbed hands thinking only of becoming human. That worked and Jaidyn began returning to his human form however he was still naked.

Even if he didn't have any unique part he still felt uncomfortable. For no apparent reason he shouted at the tree, "Give me some clothing you stupid tree." The tree responded, "No, and how the hell can I make clothing, I'm an ordinary tree idiot."

A talking tree was very ordinary indeed. "You are a tree right? grow me a pair of pants and t-shirt." Jaidyn said still kind of oblivious to what was taking place.

"I'm a maple tree, I can only grow maple leaves not..." The tree stopped talking stunned as a pair of pants and a t-shirt with a pattern of red maple leaves on it grew on one of its branches. "What did you do to m..."

The tree stopped talking and returned to normal as Jaidyn turned away from it after plucking the pants and the t-shirt from the branches. He put them on with satisfaction. At last, he noticed the bizarreness of what just happened. A talking tree that grows clothing what the heck?. Jaidyn walked back to the tree and hit it a few times and waited for a response. "Hey you talking tree," Jaidyn said, "Wake up or I'll turn all your leaves to underwear."

It felt odd to be talking to a tree but everything that just happened is odd enough for this to work. "Oh please don't do that. I'll do anything" The tree responded. What could a tree do? but then there was something odd about a talking tree. "What is your real form and what is this place?" Jaidyn asked.

"A wood nymph," She said and a face appeared on the tree and a thin crescent of moisture can be seen under her green eyes probably from the fear of having her beautiful leaves turned into underwear. Jaidyn had no idea how to do that though but as long as he could get some answer about this place it should work out.

"This is Lila." She said, "It is a place were the 'tested' compete. But there isn't much of a competition going on really. Though, you are immortal and the environment it great here. It feels so wonderful just to stay here and enjoy the day. I'm a tested as well but I m just...."

She continued to ramble on but Jaidyn stopped her and asked, "What are the tested?"

"Oh just random people from random worlds chosen by random to compete with other people who are chosen by random by Them" She said.

The way she said it was annoying but at least it emphasized that he wasn't anyone special. "Who are Them?" Jaidyn said.

"The Them are Them." The wood nymph said.

Jaidyn gave her a threatening look. She quickly added, "Them, are a group of omnipotent beings that hosts this competition. They do this to keep themselves entertained. Still, I have a feeling that most of them have lost interest and went away."

"And what is this," Jaidyn said as he showed her the orb attached to his neck.

She gasped before saying, "Mikimi. No wonder."

"What?" Jaidyn said.

"That is an Oress," She said, "It is given to the new competitors to assist them in the competition."

"And what is with that 'No wonder'?" Jaidyn said.

"The holder of the Oress is able to use certain abilities. Your which I've seen only a few times is called Mikimi. It allows you to transform things. That is how you got your clothing." She said. The last sentence was said with a touch of loss and anger.

"What is the goal of the competition?" Jaidyn said.

"Stay alive." She said.

"That will be easy to do with this ability. Thanks for the info." Jaidyn and started walking out of the garden.

"Eh hem," The nymph said from behind him. Jaidyn turned and looked at the nymph who seemed to look up. Jiadyn followed her gaze and saw that all the leaves on her branches were turned into thousands of different colored underwater and panties. "Oh, I must have let my imagination run wild there" Jaidyn said, "Let me fix that. Hocus pocus alkazam...thanks for the info goodbye!"

Jaidyn turned and ran out of the garden trying to ignore the angered scream of the Nymph. When he was far enough, the scream died down and Jaidyn prayed that the leaves will return to normal (which it did).

((Outside Castle Oress))

ELIA DID NOT TAKE DURNAM'S HAND

Elia took his hand, and enjoyed the ride. Even though Durnam was sent flying several feet, Elia was jumping up and down in excitement. "Mah! I wish I had Oress powers to do cool things like that! It's so invigorating!"

((Umbra's Mansion))

"Make sure no one kills me in my sleep, Ara..." She nodded off, still leaned against the door.

---

Narelle narrowed her eyes. This wasn't supposed to happen...oh, why did she have to let Niya teach her about climbing trees, of all people? Either way, she couldn't let her motives be known so soon...

"You don't need to know my name." she answered, standing up and brushing herself off. Almost immediately, the portion of the tree that wasn't directly behind Narelle was riddled with bullets, naturally freaking the shit out of Narelle. For some reason, Peylet seemed unnaturally on-edge today...

"Answer the question." Peylet demanded quietly, aiming her Mikimi-powered gun back at Narelle.

"A-All right, geez! Calm down! My name is Narelle." Narelle replied, looking like she was about ready to run off.

---

Sileny continued her staring, remaining completely still and focused to the point where one could probably mistake her for a statue...until she suddenly gave Yorito the 'I'm watching you' gesture. Mere seconds later, Mr. Thorren sneezed, but her expression didn't change. If it was physically possible for her to, she probably would've been all 'FGSFGDLGF', but it's not like Yorito had any way of knowing that her silent, emotionless reaction was normal.

After she recovered from that, she happened to notice Garune. A faun, huh? Must be another one of the new Tested. Because spreading the paranoia is always a good idea, Sileny slowly shifted her stare away from Yorito and towards Garune, at least temporarily.

---

Naturally, being a FLO and all, she said yes. Apparently comforted by the fact that Durnam wasn't here to finish off what Tzila started, she popped all the way up from behind her desk and got to work.

"Ah, that was just Tzila being Tzila. She's got a thing for causing havoc whenever she can, you know, but He's usually around to distract her from murdering and all. But, what are you gonna do?" she shrugged, speaking as though Durnam was supposed to know who Tzila was.



Larya didn't look too bothered...it seemed like their hatred of each other was a one-way street. Knowing Larya, she probably just stole stuff from Tzila a few times. Speaking of Tzila, she clapped her hands together, excited.

"Ah, fantastic~! I'm going to be a star~! Oh, and don't worry about morals. Stealing, lying, cheating, torturing, killing...really, I'm fine with anything. Where do we start? ♥" she asked.

Clearly, they're perfect for each other.

---

"Ah, my apologies. My name is Muri. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir." the curiously-polite shadow lady introduced, holding her hand out for a handshake. IT'S A TRAP

---

Sprinkles just stared...the stare started out as one of anger, then became one of annoyance, then morphed into an uncomfortable one, and eventually evolved into the most disgusted stares possible. He was so disgusted that he didn't even bother to cut into my narrative for once!

"W...WHAT THE FUCK, MAN?! I-I DON'T SWING LIKE THAT, YOU PERVERTED ROBOT FREAK! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Sprinkles asked, clearly horrified at the thought of 'assuming the position' for this CRAZY FUCKING ROBOT GUY.

---

Still not entirely sure how Julias reacted to lolis, Ara decided it would be a good idea to slowly (not wanting him to potentially topple over due to the lack of her supportive loli presence) get up and take a step back once he woke up, being sure to give him her signature adorable loli curtsy once she had given him some space. Once that was over, Ara put her cutesy loli smile back on and nodded.

"Yep!" Ara beamed, proud that her first experience with LOLI RESPONSIBILITIES went well. She immediately pulled out the letter, scanning over it quickly to make sure she didn't forget anything. "Oh! Mister Ignis (d'awwwww) said that he needs to see you soon, too, to recharge your...um, weapon thingy." she said, the mountains of sugar in her voice probably giving everyone within a five-mile radius diabetes. (:



Back in the main room, Halyn came inside the moment Charles left, dragging along a clearly traumatized Lun and...holy shit, is that a scythe? That stick-thing...hot damn, is that what he got stabbed with? Scythes...scythes don't work like that. That's not how you stab someone with a scythe. Not unless you want their sweetest dreams to be full of tears and misery.

After causing an awkward silence once more, chokeabitch!Halyn dropped Lun and the scythe, putting on a smile and immediately lightening the atmosphere.

"Ah, how lucky! It turns out that it wasn't a Tested. I suppose I have a problem with Her now, though. Again."

"my soul hurts"

---

Vitara looked at the scars in a manner that suggested that memories were flowing back. I was going to make this cool and pull back examples, but I can't find Vitara and Exuro's last meeting in those 1,000+ pages of the last cycle for the life of me. Also because I'm lazy. Mostly the lazy part. Speaking of something only mildly relevant, Seraye (who was still watching the group from the other table) had to turn away when Exuro rolled up his sleeves. Unfortunately, by now her memories of their encounter with Umbra's Alliance were the most vivid ones she had.

"Ooh...I definitely remember this. Poor thing...well, if I could heal these up before, I suppose i can do it again! ♥"

Vitara gently placed her hands on the scars, almost immediately causing them to begin healing with a pleasant combination of warmth and cozy glowing. Assuming nothing was different this time, of course.

---

It's quiet. Too quiet. Shouldn't someone be here by now? Shouldn't someone be making Ignis a sadface? What, are they waiting for him to wake up or something? Are they afraid to wake him up and then proceed with trolling? Are they delaying their entrance on purpose? Does this narrative actually hold any purpose aside from fluffing up the word count? N---yes? Oh, it also serves to delay the response for some reason? I see! But what is this reason? You don't know? Well, if you don't know and I don't know, then does the person who should have been here by now know? Probably? Well, all right, that's good enough for me. But when will they make their appearance? Next post, probably? Well, why can't they appear in this post? Ask the author? I am the author! So where the hell are they? Why can't they...you know what, I don't care. I don't even care anymore. Just...just leave me alone. D-Don't try and comfort me! I don't need your love! I DON'T NEED YOU )'''''':

uh, so

Nothing happened. For now, I guess. I don't entirely understand what just happened, but there's probably a purpose for the delay.

---

AND THEN IT WAS TIME TO WAIT FOR MANTIS

---

When Charles arrived, he'd find Loret huddled against a tree, apparently terrified of what just happened. Unfortunately, Halyn and Lun were already gone, so Charles wouldn't get to see anything mentally scarring. ):

Anyways, her mood changed immediately upon seeing her lover Charles. She jumped up immediately, smiling.

"Oh! You found out where one is? Where are they?" Loret asked excitedly.

---

"I'm not going to tell you why I'm---" Before Narelle could finish, Peylet's grip tightened and her generally emotionless face started showing some signs of anger. Backing into the poor little shot-up tree behind her, Narelle gulped and decided that maybe it would be best to cooperate.

"All right, all right! I've just been watching this place because important things usually happen here. It is a hub for Oress Holders, after all, and Oress Holders generally attract the most attention."

"You're saying we're a target."

"Right."

"Of who?"

"Pretty much every alliance out there. They always take out the Oress Holders first, and worry about everyone else later."

Ouch. Sounds like being an Oress Holder sucks.

---

Sileny continued observing silently for a little while longer...she was a bit concerned that any move she made would provoke the group, especially after all of that ominous staring. She decided to make her move while the group was busy making introductions and watching Mr. Thorren burst into flames, slowly inching around the perimeter of the pool in a manner that probably looked more suspicious than she would have liked.

---

FLO scanned Durnam's Seraye's card and handed it back to her him.

"Well, the last I saw of her, she was heading towards that ice cream shop over there." she said, pointing over towards said ice cream shop. "Judging by the screams I heard a couple minutes ago, I'm guessing she's still there, admiring her work."

Sounds like fun. (:



Tzila posed dramatically in an instant.

"I have many names, most of them either too disturbing or inappropriate for our younger viewers...but amongst them, I'm known as..."

The area immediately set on fire because fire's cool.

"...Tzila~!"

---

"DAMN STRAIGHT! LIKE, EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID SO FAR JUST MAKES ME WANT TO KICK YOUR ASS! SERIOUSLY, DUDE, WHAT'S WITH YOU? ARE YOU...ARE YOU HIGH OR SOMETHING? IS THAT WHY YOU KEEP SAYING STUPID SHIT? OR ARE YOU JUST NATURALLY A DUMBASS? BECAUSE...I'M CONFUSED, BRO. LIKE, NOT EVEN JOKING. I'M SERIOUSLY FUCKING CONFUSED. I'M I THE HIGH ONE? THAT WOULD EXPLAIN THIS." Sprinkles continued on, starting to sound progressively broken.

---

There was something wrong here...she didn't let go. It didn't feel like she was gripping him that hard...almost like they were stuck or something.

"Pardon?" Muri frowned, looking rather bothered by his response. "You are aware that you're dead, correct? And that you're on your way to Hell #346?"

...Oh, so that's what happens when you mash buttons. Man, if that's the case, I'm going to Hell, like, a million times over. goddamn prinnies

---

"Oh, you're embarrassing me! It's not that big of a deal! All in a day's work, you know." Vitara blushed and waved her hand at Exuro. Once he finished speaking, she looked back at Dysis as well.

"Right. In these 'cycles' there were other Oress Holders...some are new this time, some aren't here this time, others were in both of these cycles...well, if there are more, then I suppose---ah, I'm getting ahead of myself! Long story short, Mr. Exuro here was an Oress Holder in the last cycle, but not in this one...while you, who I don't recall seeing in the last cycle, is! Isn't that strange? Ah, the Test Reality's such a funny place..." Vitara sighed happily.

weirdo

---

Ara was so ridiculously ecstatic that she didn't even notice those creepy guards being creepy. She didn't even bother to realize that Julias essentially just implied that Ignis was nicer around lolis! Clasping her hands together so tightly that it seemed they'd never be apart again, Ara put on her cutest loli smile yet.

"R-Really? You mean it? I'd love to go!" she squeaked, her vibe just screaming of sunshine and butterflies.

Oh, Julias, what have you done?

---

Loret followed him up into the sky and looked around for a moment before pointing to a convenient neon sign pointing out the location of That One Cafe.

"Ah! There it is! ♥"

(Elsewhere, Day 4)

Ignis kicked back in his chair when Ara brought up the topic of the endgame to him, taking a few seconds to ponder.

"...You know, I really haven't put much thought into that. The first thing that I know I'm going to do is break all of the seals that Black is keeping on me, my powers, and my realm as a whole. I haven't decided if heading back into Tyria and wrecking up what's left of the Brotherhood would be worth it, what with all of the bitching I would get from the rest of Them for interfering with a lower Reality and all... but of course, my Promotion request could always be immunity from repercussions for that sort of thing. It's a really good question... but I'll decide more when the time comes."

---

(Castle Oress Elevator, Day 4)

Lokk stuck to the back of the elevator, observing what buttons Vers pushed to send the elevator to the main floor.

"The bookahs who constructed this place obviously were not considering any ergonomic factors in the planning. Have you ever noticed the utter lack of a second floor? I tried for hours to decipher the meaning behind that."

---

(Outside of Castle Oress, Day 4)

With his signature .44 in hand, Exuro continued up the path towards the aforementioned castle, glancing down at his longcoat-clad Chilly companion.

"You know, you're becoming more and more like one of my companions from back home. At this point, all you would need is a name and a weapon, and you could practically blend in inconspicuously over at the new HQ building. You know, minus being kinda short and all."

As he was talking, they would round a convenient bend in the forest path leading up to the castle. Preston would likely be able to see the two of them clearly at this point, if not hear them. Considering Preston's sharp vision, he'd likely take notice of the multiple pieces of weaponry visible outside of Exuro's coat - namely the .44 magnum in his right hand, the sheathed combat knife belted to his hip, and the hard-to-miss anti-materiel rifle strapped across his back. Despite all of that, there's the issue of the lack of an X on the back of his left hand, but he might be too busy staring at the walking armory to notice.

(Outside Castle Oress, Day 4)

"...Well, looks like we just stumbled across the macabre jackpot here."

Exuro cautiously raised his weapon and he approached the grisly scene of Unreal remains scattered about. Though he kept the sight of his magnum trained on Narelle for a brief moment, he eventually sighed and lowered it when he knelt down to examine the corpses. Well, after he raided the supplies of the first aid kit close by for good measure, that is. Wasteland etiquette.

"I'm not exactly a medical expert... but judging by the lack of X markings and general uniform Test Reality style they all possess, all of these folks were Unreals. That's a bit of a relief, but the murders themselves aren't the disturbing part. These cuts were surgically precise. Whoever did this either possessed an absurdly sharp blade with lots of driving power or unnatural abilities that could make up for it. I can't think of any Oress abilities that would be capable of producing this aside from maybe Priste, but I'd be able to tell if that were the case."

At this point, Exuro realized that he had two prime witnesses to who might have caused this. One had already made his way back to the castle, and another was still standing close by. After holstering Painkiller in an attempt to reduce his intimidation factor some, Exuro made his way over towards Narelle.

"You wouldn't have happened to notice whoever did this, would you?"

---

(Elsewhere, Day 4)

Ignis raised an eyebrow at Ara's sudden pause before speaking again, but really didn't think too much of it once she continued on with her talking. Once the topic of Umbra's memories came up, he suddenly looked a lot more interested than he had before.

"Well, that's awfully convenient for us, isn't it? Does she have something planned or what? I didn't think she kept a routine of going places outside of the Mansion... never struck me as someone who would like to be predictable, for that matter. Something new to her behavior this time around that I'm not aware of?

---

(Castle Oress, Day 4)

Lokk trailed along after Vers, occasionally glancing up at the camera installations that he had placed along the route when they passed underneath.

"I've actually wondered that, ymself. My theory is that it harnesses the raw power of the Test Reality itself to carry out any necessary functions. The major Asuran cities above the ground in Tyria have a similar setup, harnessing the natural energy present at an atmospheric level to provide free fuel for just about all daily functions of life. The humans and such claim that the setup is unnatural, but what harm is it doing?"

(Elsewhere, Day 4)

"She never did like leaving loose ends hanging. So you'll need a hint of my presence at the cafe, will you? I think that I can manage that, between the memories of the dress, the blade that I gave you earlier, and Julias being around. But just in case, let me try something else out. I'd be downright foolish to let the opportunity to help Umbra recover her memories, so I'm going to make sure that she damn well remembers."

Ignis hopped up from his chair and headed over to the glass display case near the office's back wall. After unlocking it and moving aside a few assorted pieces of jewelry, Ignis returned to the desk with a platinum pendant, inlaid with a familiar purple gemstone.

"Here. The stone in this particular necklace is about as potent as the ones in all three of Julias' rings are combined. I had two of them crafted, but I only gave one to Medea. Now is a good time as ever to give this one away... and I think you deserve it anyways, Ara, what with everything that you've done since this cycle started up. Just have it on when you need the memories to come flooding back."

So wait, did he just give Ara a gift that he's only ever given to his daughter before? Seems like it.

---

(Outside Castle Oress, Day 4)

"So wait, the guy that was just nonchalantly walking away like nothing happened here? Either he understands the concept of Unreal people, or he's just utterly unhinged. Either way, I'm not too keen on finding that out for myself. Thanks... well, whatever your name is. Come on, little man, you're not doing the coat justice by clinging onto my led like that."

With that, Exuro continued on towards the castle at his usual pace, albeit drawing his .44 once again. Once he reached the front door, he lamented the lack of sliding glass doors for a moment before entering. Anyone in the lobby would probably be in for a bit of a shock.

---

(Castle Oress Pool, Day 4)

"It's the same concept that the humans of Tyria believe they draw their power from. As foolish as it seems, it has shown some degree of success as far as preserving themselves from extinction."

When they reached the pool, Lokk's attention immediately fell upon Thorren - his injury, to be specific. For a brief moment, a look of disbelief crossed his face before reverting back to the usual curious expression. Not wanting to seem threatening, he just stayed next to Vers with his staff lowered, not realizing the potential conflict that could arise from Vers and Yorito being present in the same room.

---

"You said it, boss!" the Chilly agreed, still following along. "These new Tested are crazy! It's like they can't go five minutes without fighting! Well, at least that means this Competition will probably end soon."



"Ah, of course!" Poice adjusted his glasses and looked at the orange orb, admiring its cute little sparks before allowing Kilii to get in on the starefest. Once that was over with, the two returned their attention to Nago once more.

"There's one little problem...we're still not entirely sure how the signing process works. We're getting close to finding things out...but if you really want that Oress, then you'll need to get an audience with Opine Frazil: the creator of the Test Reality." Poice explained.

WHY DOES EVERYTHING INVOLVE OPINE TO SOME EXTENT

---

"Your Mirror, huh?" Cel sounded kind of concerned, mainly because pretty much every Mirror she had met in the Test Reality ended up being a terrible person at some point. Not wanting to bring up an awkward silence, Cel quickly changed the subject. Well, it wasn't really changed...

"So, how can you be sure he remembers you?" she asked.

---

As Fellmund was carried away by Spark and the cute little Pikachu caught up with Larya and the Chilly film crew, Seraye stuck her head out of the door and waved.

"Oh, don't worry! It'll only last until tomorrow morning!" she called out, not wanting to let up on his 'punishment' so soon. What a meaniehead. )':

---

CopyCat stared for a moment, his mind naturally disturbed by this place and its lovely residents. After a long period of silence, extending beyond even the pain from Benny's bite, he looked at the fanged rabbit and spoke up.

"You know what, man? Do it. Kill me. Seriously, come at me, not even kidding. At least if I'm dead I won't be stuck with you losers!"

---

Luckily for Charteuse, RPG rules promptly made things end. Naj smiled at the trippin' Space Overlord as if nothing horrifying was just happening.

"Hi, Trippy Chick~! I'm glad you're back! ♥"

---

UNANIMOUS SHRUGGING IS GO

"I don't have the slightest clue! I can't believe she put on that thing willingly! Joe over there has a point, too...she hates heat! What is she up to...?" Halyn wondered.

"Actually, Umbra's been doing this since around the end of the last Competition." Dicro pointed out. "She gets all dressed up and then goes to the cafe...and just sits there."

"Well, that's ridiculous! Not the dress thing, of course, I don't mind that at all." Halyn commented, raising an eyebrow. That seemed like a pretty random thing for Umbra to do...

"...Yeaaah. Well, you're creepy and we want to ditch you we got what we came here for, so...guess we'd better head back home now." Dicro shrugged, backing towards the door in a manner that suggested that the strikethrough text was completely true. Before Halyn could even ask for good-bye cuddles, pretty much everyone was out the door. (':



Good thing Ara is used to unnerving things by now! (:

Luckily for Julias, Umbra didn't seem to be in a particularly stabby mood right now. For better or worse, she seemed downright apathetic about his presence.

"Well, what is it? I'm busy." she asked, not exactly harshly, but also not exactly gently. Umbra seemed rather in-between about the situation, as if she'd be more annoyed if it wasn't for the fact that she kept feeling this familiar vibe...



It was a good thing that the chair was super-comfy - holy shit, was this a massage chair?! Is this room really for interrogation? - because everything else about this situation was super uncomfortable. Being locked up in a small, dark room with a creepy guy who controls shadows and a psycho chick who controls crazy soul daggers (and an unconscious angel chinchilla)...

"All right, first things first..." Ciess began, her eyes drifting down towards Puppy. "Where the hell did you get that thing?"

---

Verity was still distracted with Elia, so yeah.

---

Before Muri could respond with an enthusiastic "fantastic!", Charles approached them. She seemed rather pleased with Charles' question, and immediately got back in Koren's grill.

"Oh, of course! So wonderful of you to notice! My name is Muri, and this is Koren. And, are the two of you a couple? ♥" Muri asked, referring to Charles and Loret.

Although Charles and Loret probably couldn't tell, Koren's shadow slowly started extending towards the group.

(Castle Oress Pool, Day 4)

((Waiting on Zetta to decide what happens with the teleport. Yup.))

---

(Outside Umbra's Mansion, Day 4)

"It was originally concerning your choice in attire for the evening and the sudden departure that accompanied it, but I feel that whatever reasons you may have for that are most likely personal. If anything, we can just continue on with the other questions of mine wherever it is that you're going."

Smooth as ever. Not even the trauma of Halyn creeping can diminish his way with words, it seems.

---

(Outside Castle Oress, Day 4)

"Alright, our best bet to find Vitara would be to check out her usual spot here in the Test Reality. That One Cafe comes to mind, but who knows if she's still there..."

As Exuro continued leading a short distance ahead of the three, he glanced down at his ever-present, longcoat-clad Chilly down by his feet.

"Say, if she turns up to not be around the Cafe at this time of the day, where exactly would be have the best chance at finding her? Considering that you've had more experience in dealing with Them than anyone else I know, you'd seem like the one who'd know. Come to think of it, I'd actually love to hear more about how you ended up getting arrested and Chilly-fied in the first place."

---

Peylet remained both completely still and completely unhelpful, her fixation on the flowers likely caused by whatever was dragging DBA away.

AND THEN HE GOT EATEN BY THE PLANT MONSTER, THANKS A LOT PEYLET ):<

It wouldn't take very long for the vine to drag DBA away towards the end of the tunnel...which was a larger room that otherwise looked exactly like the tunnel area. Well, there was another noticeable difference...a plant-lady was slumped over a flowery table, looking rather lonely and depressed. She didn't seem to visibly notice DBA, but the vine eventually released him.

sad flyri is sad )':

---

And then Muri cuddled him throughout the whole night. (:

---

"NAME IT SMUGLEAF" Larya suddenly demanded in her sleep. Also we're assuming that the bench Fellmund, Meliss, Larya and Spark are chillin' at is different than the one Julias is chillin' on, because then they would all have to go on a magical misadventure involving thievery and POKEYMANS.

Speaking of Julias, it wouldn't take very long for a(n unfortunately) familiar angel to pop up right behind his bench, clearly not caring for politeness and professionalism as Julias did. Regardless of whether or not Julias detected her sudden presence, Arella would immediately begin poking at the back of his head.

"Well, well! You sure seem to be doing a lot of late-night work these days, Julias~" she pointed out in a sing-song voice that, despite its ominously cheerful sing-song-ness, indicated that she was really only here for herself.

why does julias attract jerks )':

---

CUDDLE CUDDLE CUDDLE CUDDLE~

It didn't take much longer for everyone else to disperse as well, leaving Cinda and Fredericks in the main room to sleep adorably and stuff.

AND THEN MY NEXT POST WOULD PROBABLY BRING THIS PLACE INTO DAY 5 WHEEEEEEEE DAY CHANGING



Ara focused in on the conveniently-mentioned bloodstain, her LOLI RESPONSIBILITY INSTINCTS kicking in almost instantly. Deciding that she might as well do something nice for Julias while she was here, Ara quickly zipped off to get her LOLI CLEANING SUPPLIES and returned at the speed of LOLI ENTHUSIASM. I mean light.

Humming some kind of adorable loli tune, Ara began furiously scrubbing away at the bloodstain, clearly determined to be all helpful and lolicious and stuff.

SO CUTE (:

Assuming nothing crazy happened and the bloodstains were vanquished under Ara's mighty loliciousness, the overly helpful loli would immediately notice that that little section of room now looked cleaner than the rest, if only by a little bit. Not content with the rest of the room being slightly less unclean, she immediately turned to look at her LOLI CLEANING SUPPLIES and knew what had to be done...

oh, ara

---

After a flustered "Oh, well, you know...", Tintra decided that she didn't have much of a choice and followed Exuro's Chilly who was following Exuro who was following---wait, no, that's it. Poice and Kilii, meanwhile, decided that they had some work to do, and did that vanishing trick They seem to be so fond of. What this work entails - including if it's actual work, work, 'work', or "work" - shall presumably remain forever unknown to the world.

FWOOOOOOOSH

Anyways, once the group arrived at the Doll Shop, Seraye waved as she kept her attention on Charles, obviously not thinking much about the situation.

---

---

The Mighty GSG isn't sure if Nago's in Day 4 or 5, but either way he'd end up noticing a bunch of sleepy sleeping people. Well, potentially not Lorelei, because needs more Lodnir postin' up in here.

---

Cel snapped out of her thoughts the moment she heard the knocking, bolting up at the sound of Vers' voice. As suggested, she immediately rushed over to the window, spending a good, long time staring at the strange 'weather' before deciding to address the second part of Vers' excited message. After closing her window and getting dressed, she hopped downstairs and strolled over to the lab with an improved mood.

---

"Daniel? Daniel! What a lovely name! I'm Flyri, pleasure to meet you!" she introduced enthusiastically, shaking DBA's hand with almost enough force to rip his arm from its socket. Good thing Tested don't actually have bones and stuff...

"Oh, it's been so lonely since the Flower Shop got destroyed...I've had to take up residence down here to get my mind off of it! But my mind's never really off of it...I mean, I haven't heard anything from Mr. Thorren or Kim-Ko or even Puppy since then! What if they're dead? What if they're dead? What if they're dead...?! Wouldn't that be something!" Flyri rambled on, all of her words quickly turning into jumbled messes sprinkled with unstable laughter.

ಠ△ಠ

---

"What's up, Nago?" Nette greeted with a yawn, obviously unaware of his purpose in being here. "The name's Nette, don't wear it out! I'm not an Oress Holder myself - too busy chillin' with Them and stuff - but I'm pretty sure this is where most of them chill or something. So yeah." she explained, shrugging.

---

As the robot neared, Cel had to use her Oress to keep herself brave enough to not run away in fear...

...And then it turned out that Vers was just being a Vershole again.

"H-Hey! That wasn't funny!" she pouted, folding her arms. Still, she figured that there were more important things to do, and took a moment to think of what fantastical things she could say to activate the message.

After a dramatic thinking session, Cel finally came up with a fitting phrase for activation:

"Um...strawberry sammiches?"

---

Neren smiled once more, the sunshine expressed on her face melting away any doubt that she had definitely changed from her icy, death-personifying self. And if that wasn't enough, she laughed a bit at Aita's enthusiasm: not a forced laugh, an awkward laugh, or a malicious laugh...a joyful little laugh indicating genuine amusement.

"My, you sure have a lot of questions...where to begin?"

The elevator opened up, revealing a fancy lobby area with halls presumably leading to the other rooms. From the view outside of the huge windows everywhere, the two were very near - if not on - the top floor.

"It's a bit difficult for me to remember...I'm very, very old. I'm so incredibly old that I can't find the numbers to express my age...yet, I still remember a bit from before I became the Head Reaper. I can't remember what my name was before people feared to speak it, nor do I remember the name of the place I came from...but bits and pieces still linger in my memories." Neren began.

"I remember the world as being very quiet, very sparse, completely incomplete...it was a young Reality, and I was one of the first beings to be created there. As existence - at least the portion of it that my Reality was born in - was relatively new at the time, I couldn't really be born in the traditional sense, you see." she continued.

"I don't remember names or faces, but I remember a surreal life...a life spent watching the world around me grow. Sometimes I would help...I don't quite remember how, but I made things happen."

Neren stopped herself, struggling to recall things from almost literally an eternity ago.

"I'm afraid everything else is fuzzy...but, speaking of fuzzy, a cute little rabbit that I'm sure you know gave me a job offer eventually. He spoke of 'Them', this organization of some sort that a friend of his was trying to get going. Bunny offered Vitara - another woman from my Reality - to become Life and Death: the beginnings of Them." she explained. Of course, there was still more to go, since some of Aita's questions were still unanswe---

...Wait, wait, wait. Bunny was involved with Their creation? Who's this friend of his? And Vitara and Neren were (at least among) the first people to get Promoted...?!

---

AND THEN IT WAS SUDDENLY MORNING, at least for my characters because yes.

It had taken a long time for Seraye to fall asleep that night. The apartment blew up? How? Who did it? Why? Was Tintra somewhere else at the time? What about the rest of the alliance? Were they safe? Where were they? Should she call one of them, send one of them a quick text...?

After plenty of conflicted tossing and turning, she had finally managed to fall asleep. It was a relatively restless sleep with a short dream she couldn't remember, but it did its job. Once the sun rose, Seraye dragged herself out of her bed and made her way over to the window to let in the sunshine...oh, wait, that wasn't the sunrise. That was the sky on acid.

Whatever.

Resisting the urge to sleep some more, Seraye decided to check the Dead List just to be sure everyone was okay. To her relief, no one was on there: Dicro, Fray, Tintra, Lun, and Soleil's names were all absent from the list.

...Wait a minute. There were two new names on the list...

"What the hell? What the hell?"

Seraye rushed downstairs to the phone on the wall, apparently unaware of the fact that her cell phone was in her hand. Of course, I suppose she's too distracted by the Dead List to let it leave her sight...

---

Ardin shrugged.

"Sort of, I guess? I mean, I know a little bit about her...not that much, but I suppose she forgets a lot. Why do you ask? Is there something you needed to know?" he asked.

"Is my hair green?"

"...Yes, Mariol, your hair's green."

"Oh, good! I had to make sure...I thought that maybe it changed while I wasn't looking!"

oh mariol

---

Arella listened intently, actually looking rather interested in what Julias had to say for once. Personally, Arella had always believed that Opine was up to no good...so she found it easy to convince herself that every word Julias spoke was genuine, his status as the lackey of who-might-as-well-be-Satan notwithstanding.

"...All right, I'm in. But, what the hell does your 'Lord' actually expect me to do? A future under Opine or not, I have better things to do with my time than wait around."



Larya continued to be a bossy jerkface, until she noticed something.

"Wait a minute, I'm confused...why don't you just steal all of the items and equipment and junk so you can beat the Gyms without wasting any of your precious monies~? Hell, why don't you just steal the badges?" she asked, apparently new to MAGICAL WORLD OF POKEYMANS.

Also, those film crew Chillies were totally filming this because they had nothing else to do with their lives. Way better than working for Arella, though...who they were blissfully unaware of even though she was in sort-of viewing distance if you squinted hard enough.

---

AND SO THE OFFENSIVE SPIDER WAS KILLED, NO LONGER OFFENDING PEOPLE WITH ITS OFFENSIVENESS

Ara slowly opened her eyes, her face instantly lighting up when she realized that the spider was definitely gone for good. She looked over at the Infernal Guards with the most absolutely adorable look of loli gratitude possible. Temporarily casting fear to the wind, she hopped up and got as close to the closet as she possibly could without freezing up out of intimidation.

"Thank you very much!" she quickly blurted out - although Ara sounded genuine as usual, being this close to them was disconcerting and she was eager to avoid suddenly panicking and causing an especially awkward silence - with a loli curtsy. "I really appreciate it! I usually don't like it when things get killed, but spiders are just so icky and creepy and scary..." she explained, sounding a bit conflicted.

"I-I'm not a bad person for saying that, am I?! I'm not a bad person for not feeling bad for the icky spider, am I...?!" Ara asked rather frantically, half questioning herself and half wondering if those creepy closet bros were even capable of speech.



POKE POKE POKE POKE POKEMON

---

"Is that so?" Flyri asked, hands shaking a bit. "You should look for her, or find a way to get in contact with her! Making new friends is very nice! Oh, I love friends, I really do..."

This is getting kind of creepy now... ):

---

Cel jumped, obviously not expecting Vers to show concern for another living being. Not wanting to let know Vers about this crazy mess, she decided to play it cool...

"O-Oh! Yeah, I'm fine! I'm just...uh, tired, is all. Yeah, I get kind of sad when I'm tired for whatever reason, pretty weird, huh? Anyways, anyways, you need anything? How about a strawberry sammich? I'm great at making strawberry sammiches!" she spoke, her speech rushed and clearly suspicious. Playin' it cool.

But, still, strawberry sammiches...

---

"Gross." Nette frowned, clearly concerned for Kresnik's well-being. Narelle, meanwhile, shot Nette a glare before returning her attention to the wounded stranger.

"Well, you look like you might as well be dead...but this isn't Limbo, so I think you're good. What the hell happened to you? How'd you even get here? I just saw you pop up practically out of nowhere while I was outside..." she asked, apparently figuring that questions were more important than medical care.

TESTED WOULD MAKE TERRIBLE DOCTORS

---

Seraye eventually gave up on trying to reach Soleil and turned back around, looking rather pale.

"Yeah...yeah...we should probably find the others...I don't know where they went, though. If the apartment wasn't an option...then I guess they'd probably be at Umbra's..." she explained. Apparently Halyn and Umbra's alliances are all bff-y in this round or something...

Charles temporarily distracted Seraye from her despair, which was actually a pretty good thing.

"That? It's just a cell phone---" she started, thinking that he was talking about it being some kind of newfangled future contraption...until he mentioned how low-tech it was.

"Uh, I guess it's kind of old, but..." Seraye just kind of trailed off with a shrug, wondering how the hell a cell phone could fit transportation technology. Clearly, she hasn't been one of Them long enough.

Tintra, meanwhile, walked downstairs with a yawn, not noticing Durnam yet. Of course, it wouldn't really matter if she did, since she somehow hadn't deduced that he played at least some part in the explosion...

---

"Well, the Chillies usually take care of thi---"

Aaaaaand that was about the time Aita started rambling on about Bunny. With a smile, Neren started speaking once more:

"That's right, Aita...Bunny is a being beyond Us. I don't believe he's alone at the top of the Chain, but I've met only one other person to solidify that fact. I wouldn't worry, though. Bunny would never do anything bad with whatever abilities he has...if anything, he'd be willing to help anyone who needed it." she explained, sounding rather nonchalant about the whole thing.



Meil noticed the weird doll-y blushing, which he figured wasn't natural. Curious and clearly not very valuing of his fingers, he poked doll!Fellmund gently. Actually, it seemed like he did value his fingers, given how hesitant that poking appeared to be...

---

Ardin looked over at Mariol, who shrugged.

"Well, I don't think so...I guess her unstable soul might be kind of useful to someone out there, but I don't know of anyone around here with interest in souls, be it collecting them or diving into them or whatever. Well, okay, I know a couple of people interested in souls, but not for malicious purposes or anything. Pretty sure they've already had a look at Mariol's soul, anyways."

"Aww, but I wanna be a key to the universe! I like to unlock things, and I like space, too! sometimes. I think..."

---

The two listened intently (well, one could only assume Cieux was listening intently), apparently not knowing about Preston's misadventures during the previous day. So if he wasn't being constantly being watched...well, Preston didn't say their names, so how did they sense that they were being called? Were they specifically waiting around or something?

Oh, almighty beings. You never cease to confuse us!

"Oh, I see...sounds like a crazy day, eh, CiCi? Better than paperwork, though! Speakin' of paperwork, we went through some stuff and got that info ya wanted!" Xantha began, her words burning into the back of your mind as we speak. I hope you like seeing yellow everywhere you look! At least it's a bright and happy color! (:

"Turns out that all o' you new Tested died the same way: you all got your lives revoked!" she shrugged, looking pretty happy for someone talking about death. "Basically means that someone 'cifically plucked you out o' life on request...apparently for the Competition! So I'm guessin' Opine was behind it. As for your body...well, your soul or whatevs was kind of ripped out without and all, so you just dropped dead! Pretty funny stuff for anyone who was lookin'!"

Yeah. Hilarious.



Arella laughed in a manner that would probably sound pretty similar to Julias...it wasn't as terrifying as one of Ignis' laugh, but still pretty high up there and plenty disconcerting in its own right.

"Ha, I love it! Pretty smooth, bending contracts like that. And, if I'm hearing things right, it doesn't even have to be a major conflict...yeah, sure, I could probably get a little spat going, no problem! Got some people that owe me, anyways. Anything else?"

---

Naturally, Ara's little loli heart swelled up with joy at the thought of Ignis doing something nice for someone, even though it still technically involved evil and stuff. It's the thought that counts, okay? ):<

"Oh, that's so sad! I'm glad Ignis took you in...that was nice of him!" Ara smiled, probably ending several universes upon mention of Ignis being nice. "Have you been working for him for a long time? And, I guess while we're on that subject, do you have a name?" she asked.



Kim-Ko wouldn't have long to think about Mr. Thorren: Ciess and Shan popped up right in front of her. Not quite literally...I mean, they popped up suddenly and all, but it was sort of off to the side in the shadows. Still in front of Kim-Ko, so shut up.

"Sheesh, you sure wake up late." Ciess grumbled, apparently unaware of the fact that most people Kim-Ko's age woke up more around noon. "Let's just get this over with."

Obviously not a morning (or noon, afternoon, evening, night...) person, Ciess silently led the group into the main room just in time to see Fredericks nearly fly across the room in surprise at Joe's sudden awakening. That's kind of what happens when you poke people...

"FGSFGDLGFoh, we were just trying to wake you up and stuff."

Fray jumped back a bit as well, but Dicro was more interested in Ciess, Shan, and their mysterious semi-loli companion. WHAT ABOUT PUPPY ):

"Where are you guys going so early?" he asked, sounding both genuinely curious and genuinely desiring to avoid going wherever Ciess and Shan were planning to go.

"It's none of your busi---!"

"We're out to get punch and alcohol."

"Uh...huh...have fun with that...?"

---

Opine remained perfectly calm and collected, quite used to random glowing eyes by now. Once Ignis woke up, her facial expression twisted into something that...well, let's just be grateful she always wears a mask.

"OMG OMG OMG I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN FFFFFF ♥♥♥ What a shame." she spoke up in a whispery yet audible voice...it was like she was intentionally trying to keep her true voice from being heard much, if at all..

"We haven't met, but I was hoping that you would've done enough research to be able to recognize me. Perhaps I've overestimated you, Mr. Phasmatis." Opine sighed, figuring that the bitchiness factor would be enough to give away her identity.

---

She took a seat on an uncomfortable-looking piece of wreckage, framing Her face with Her hands as though she found this scenario to be amusing. Of course, given who we're talking about, here, that was probably the case.

"Why, yes, I have seen some of Them! I've even seen Flyri and Kim-Ko!" She exclaimed dramatically, intentionally not getting specific because She figured a smart-ass answer was as good as any.

---

When Dysis awoke, she'd find that Muri was uncomfortably close to her, almost as if the shadow-chick had been observing her. Yeah, that's totally not uncomfortable or anything. Thankfully, Muri backed away once she realized that Dysis wasn't asleep anymore. She didn't say anything...she just kind of glared.

What a jerkface, glaring at people for no particularly obvious reason! ):>

---

CopyCat reluctantly put on the watch, although he immediately considered taking it off. At this point, he could deal with being stranded with bunnies forever...these bunnies were way more sane than anything else that he had seen for the best several days...

Naj, meanwhile, seemed surprised with Charteuse's sudden scolding, wondering what happened to her beloved trippy friend! About to question her change in personality, Naj suddenly noticed CopyCat just across the little field of fluffy bunny sparkle flowers.

"Look, Trippy Chick! It's that mean kitty who tried to kidnap you!" she gasped.

---

It took a few moments, but Peylet's eyes eventually started to open. Once she was awake, she sat up and rubbed her eyes, standing up once she realized where she was.

"What...what happened? Did I fall asleep?" she asked, clearly confused as to why she would randomly fall asleep in a MAGICAL FLOWERY TUNNEL OF DOOM.

---

Nodding at Vers, Cel turned to Narelle, who seemed surprised that Cel wasn't surprised about her being here.

"Would you mind getting Mr. Kresnik here somewhere more comfortable and not full of knives? I have to go make some strawberry samm---uh, I mean, I have some important things to do!" she requested, zipping off quickly. Once she arrived at Castle Oress' fancy kitchen, Cel immediately began preparing a RELATIVELY LARGE AMOUNT OF STRAWBERRY SAMMICHES.

Meanwhile, Narelle made her way to Kresnik's side because she decided that being nice is cool.

"Follow me. If I'm right, there should be a hospital thing somewhere in here..." Narelle began, walking towards the hallway. Once they were far away enough from everyone else (including Nette, who was just waitin' for Lodnir chillin' on Lorelei's shoulders), she spoke up again:

"So you're really from another world, huh...? Not a Tested?"

---

Xantha blushed a bit, waving her hands as if embarrassed by Preston's bowing. Luckily for Preston, this meant that she didn't pick up on his suspicious silence...although, given who we're talking about, she likely wouldn't have noticed it either way. Cieux, on the other hand...well, if he did notice the silence, he sure wasn't pointing it out. You know, because he doesn't have a mouth. Bet you ten bucks he can still talk, anyways.

"Aw, it's no big deal! We like talkin' to lower beings, and it's not like we think of you as inferior, anyways! Up There, We see everyone as equals! Weeeeell, okay, not all of Us...but, either way, you ever need me or CiCi again, just call out for us, mm'kay?" she replied.



Larya leaned back, thinking some more.

"I wonder if someone could make something like that that worked on everyone and everything...imagine how rich they'd be!" she grinned.

nothing good can come out of this

NOTHING

While Larya was scheming, those film crew Chillies were starting to shift nervously, whispering things amongst themselves...

---

ADORABLE SLEEPING CHILLIES ARE ADORABLE

Seraye stopped a few steps from the door and immediately returned inside, grabbed her bat, and then walked back out again. You can never be too sure.

After looking around at the strange weather for a while, Seraye spoke up.

"Going to Umbra's place isn't going to bother you, is it? I mean, if it is, we could always just make them visit us, or I could go alone..." she looked back, apparently concerned with how Exuro would mentally handle going back to the place where he was tortured to death. You kind of tend to not be happy about things like that.

---

Neren's memories came flowing back as well...although she remembered a lot, the memories were mostly just bits and pieces: now the picture was complete, and Neren could fully appreciate what Aita was saying.

"I have reason to believe you're absolutely correct. This round of the Competition has reset itself multiple times, you being present in most - if not all - of them. As for people remembering this...that's exactly what I need to happen." Neren explained, voice a bit quieter now.

"If everyone remembers, and the people who weren't in the other cycles are taught how important this is, we can go against Opine Frazil...the woman behind the Competition. I have no personal qualms pertaining to the Test Reality or the Competition...only against Opine breaking Our laws. We are not supposed to interfere with lower beings in such a manner...and she somehow managed to lock away even Our memories, which is very troubling. With the first reason being friendship, investigation of Opine Frazil is the second reason I brought you Here."

---

WAITING WAITING WAITING~



Ara was either really tired or was thinking really hard about this, because she didn't respond. It could have easily been both...despite the fact that her little loli eyes were struggling to stay open, even loli sleepiness wouldn't normally prevent Ara from responding to something. That's just rude, and Jesus Lolis should never be rude!

"I see..." she finally responded after an adorable loli yawn. "Well, I think that's it for my questions! Thank you very much for taking the time to answer them!" she thanked, struggling to her feet so she could give him an adorable loli curtsy as usual.



Opine didn't seem very amused, but she didn't seem entirely irritated...it was as if she was expecting Ignis to react this way, but decided it was worth a shot anyways.

"You act as though you were supposed to remember the previous cycles. We wouldn't have this problem if you had just forgotten like everyone else, but, alas, here we are. Now, normally, I wouldn't have a problem with this...but your interference with the Test Reality is corrupting it. People are beginning to remember their previous lives, which had been kept locked up so tightly, mostly thanks to your vibe. Because it's present in the Test Reality, people have an easier time remembering things...at least if they met you at any point." she explained.

"This is a problem for two reasons: one, it taints the flow of the Competition with outside sources constantly disturbing its natural progress. Two, and most importantly, what I've done to the Test Reality...it doesn't exactly comply with Their rules. At this rate, if this memory-recovering continues, I'll have to reset things again..." Opine sighed, "And I'd make sure I locked up your memories as well, this time. Maybe I'll even try removing memories instead of hiding them this time..."

---

Peylet nodded and went into one of the side entrances, starting off towards the pool. After a silent moment or two, Peylet turned her head towards DBA.

"What exactly happened while I was out?" she asked, sounding slightly concerned.

---

Nette cocked an eyebrow at Nago and let her adorable semi-loli head flop down on Lorelei's.

"What are you looking at? I know my stares when I see 'em, and that's not the usual 'you're so cool, Nette!' stares I usually get! Go give your creepy stares to someone else!" she huffed.

MEANWHILE, IN NARELLE AND CHARLES WORLD

"Okay, okay, fi---wait, you're dead...but you're here? You're a Tested?!"

---

The Chillies fell pretty easily...and instead of being impaired by pain, they were distracted by gathering the snow together and throwing mini-snowballs at each other. So adorable! Well, Arella looked pretty angry, so I think they'll be adorable furry blood puddles in a minute or two...

Fredericks was still totally concerned, and didn't slow his pace at all.

"Good job! Now, WHEREDOWEGOWHEREDOWEGOWHEREDOWEGOFFFFFFFFFF"

Stan, meanwhile, didn't seem too incredibly concerned. So far, today had been only slightly abnormal for him...

"What, those? They're called Chillies. They're the servants of that angel chick over there, but she definitely doesn't act like an angel. They're captured and transformed souls from around Entirety, so I'd watch out if i were you. Unless you dig being an adorable angelic rodent and/or slaving under psychotic angels."

COMFORT

---

FLO proceeded to hand him something labeled with a skull and crossbones. If that wasn't enough of a signal, there was a warning on it that read: "Don't drink this and expect to come out of it with your virginity, sanity, soul, and/or internal organs intact. Seriously. Don't.".

Suddenly, confetti rained from the sky and FLO gasped.

"Oh my goodness! It looks like you're our millionth customer! That means you get...free punch~!"

FLO suddenly punched him wheeled out a table covered with jugs of DELICIOUS PUNCH. Sure is convenient around here!

Ciess, meanwhile, seemed flustered by Kim-Ko's apologetic-ness for a brief moment and wondered why she wasn't bffs with Ara yet, but quickly locked that expression away.

"'Just, um,' what?"

Before Ciess could bother Kim-Ko any further, the mall blacked out and Muri was happy. The familiar clicking of heels against the hard floor could be heard before someone suddenly tapped Mr. Thorren's shoulder from behind.

"Is there a problem, here~?"

---

Opine settled back into her seat, lips immediately curling around her pipe again. One dreamy exhale later, she nodded.

"Ask whatever you'd like."

---

"Okay. )':"

AND THEN POICE WAS SUPER HAPPY YAAAAAAAAY~

Cel followed Vers out, amused by Poice's happy reaction to getting to help Vers.

"Seems like you guys are pretty good friends! Is that how science works...? Well, anyways, got any ideas on where to go next? Know any places where Tested hang out a lot, maybe...?"

---

Ignis officially owed Fellmund hardcore, because Dicro and Seraye were still focused on that crazy magician. Even if they did notice 'Fray', they probably would've just assumed that she wanted to be cool and threatening too, since that was a pretty semi-loli thing to do. Long story short, knife get! Hesitantly. Very hesitantly. Clearly having an understanding of what was going on here, it was more difficult than usual to control Fray...still not much of a struggle, but the effect was rather noticeable.

"U-Uh...what are you doing with that?" she mentally asked, really hoping that Mr. Mind Creeper was just trollin' her or something.

Meanwhile, Seraye shifted a little, wondering if this was worth it. I mean, if Fellmund was a doll he couldn't do any harm...after a moment or two, she hesitantly lowered her bat.

"I've changed my mind. I think that the Test Reality is probably better off with you as a defenseless little plush doll..."



If it wasn't for the fact that GSG was assuming that said awkward position didn't really allow for much movement, Halyn would've slapped the hell out of Julias (literally?) right then and there. Instead, the creepiest creeper known to the Test Reality had gone completely pale.

"T-This can't be happening...am I dreaming? This is all a crazy dream, isn't it? It certainly can't be reality..." she mumbled, quite clearly broken.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE JULIE

---

Bunny didn't seem to mind the cuddles, but whether that's because he loves the ladies or because he loves his children remains to be seen. :3

"Why, yes, I am a talking bunny! Pretty crazy, am I right? So, what's up, g-skillets? Just wandering around, or were you lookin' for me? Got lots of connections and all." :3



SPRINKLES AND SKAR PROCEEDED TO FORM A MANLY BROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP THAT WOULD SURELY LAST ALL OF ETERNITY UNTIL SPRINKLES FOUND SOMEONE COOLER TO BE FRIENDS WITH.

---

Slowly starting to understand what was going on, Mariol nervously returned to head-clinging. Nika, meanwhile, seemed rather amused by this turn of events and took a step forward.

"Very well. I accept your challenge. Definitely an interesting way to solve a confli---"

Nika broke off in the middle of her sentence and rushed towards her jewel-self, aiming to stab 'her' in the stomach.

---

AWKWARDLY DEPRESSED TINTRA OBEYED DURNAM'S ORDERS IN AN AWKWARD AND DEPRESSED AND DETAILED MANNER

Quite.

Durnam remained silent for a minute or two after Elia asked her question. In a rather solemn voice, he spoke up. "No, I don't. Even if I do plan for something like that, it's not like I can predict my mental state after that. Despite everything I've done, Elia, I'm only mortal, and that means that I've got my limits. I've come a long way, Elia, and I've already lost more than most men would ever want to. I can only endure so much more before I lose it, and I think that would be more than enough to break me. Even if I do retain my sanity, my projections of the following events are still fairly grim. Still, I hope that you last as long as I do in the Competition; and. I promise, I'll do everything in my power to make sure that you never have to worry about such a thing. After all, that's the least I can do for you, and I might as well put all of my training to good use."

Once Castle Oress was about a few hundred meters away, Durnam stopped, and looked at her. "Now, Elia, what if I was killed before you? What would you do, in that case?"

---

CEL CONTINUED FOLLOWING WITH SUCH DETAIL THAT IT'S A WONDER THAT YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR THROUGH THE POST WITHOUT HAVING YOUR MIND ABSOLUTELY BLOWN. I MEAN, SERIOUSLY, WHAT'S GOING ON? YOU SHOULD BE DEAD RIGHT NOW. IT WAS ALL APART OF MY PLAN THAT WAS EVEN MORE DETAILED THAN THIS POST! STOP RUINING MY PLANS, GUYS! I...I WORKED REALLY HARD ON THEM, AND I JUST...I JUST WANT TO BE SPECIAL! SERIOUSLY, WHERE THE HELL AM I? WHY WON'T YOU USE ME, GSG?! WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME?! JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE! COME OOOOOOOOOON! DON'T MAKE ME EAT YOUR HEAD! DON'T ACT LIKE I WON'T!

YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M JUST GONNA GO. I'M JUST GONNA GO BACK TO BED. FORGET THIS, I DON'T NEED YOU. I DON'T NEED ANY OF YOU! THE ALMIGHTY FREAKIN' SPRINKLES HATES ALL OF YOU! DON'T TALK TO ME! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!

SLAMS DOOR!

WAIT, SHIT, THAT WAS A STAGE DIRECTION

FUCK, ROLEPLAYING IS DUMB. YOU GUYS ARE NERDS! GO OUTSIDE, DAMMIT! DO SOMETHING WITH YOUR LIVES! GET A JOB, MAKE FRIENDS, GET LAID!

---

Mariol blushed when Fellmund called her pretty, but she was on the King's shoulders so yeah not much time for conversing. Narelle pulled herself inside just in time to see the King try and take over, and immediately stood up and put her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me? Take over? I don't think so."

OOOOOOOOOOH GURRRRRRRL, NO SHE DI-IN'T!

Flyri waved over at the King and beckoned for Charles to come over and be FRIENNNNNNNNNDS~. Her expression suddenly changed when Vayd expressed his lack of knowledge about the Competition.

"W-What?! You don't know about the Competition...? Why, it's the whole reason you're here! You're supposed to be the last Tested - you can tell who's a Tested by the X marks on the backs of their hands - standing, and then you become one of Us: a being above gods!" she explained, voice dramatic without being silly.

---

"MY HERO" >:'X

Banny was stunned as the power of BROSHIP became known to the world. Cornet wasn't expecting such retaliation, so he didn't have a defense in case of bunny-to-face attacking. Once Benny was officially all up in his grill, Cornet started trying to yank the deranged rabbit off of his face. 'Cause that's usually a good idea.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF"

cornet's silliness continues after this commercial break

---

Cenedra turned even redder when DBA attempted being friendly, although it seemed to be more because of the crouching part. AWWWWW IS SOMEONE SENSITIVE ABOUT THEIR HEIGHT

"T-Tch! Whatever!" she turned her head away before continuing. HOW DID SHE GET SO TSUNDERE SO FAST

"Well, did you enjoy the secret rooms or what?!" she added on quickly, almost tempting Peylet to turn her hat into a flyswatter...

---

"Nah-ah-ah!" Vitara scolded, wagging her finger at him. "I want a full explanation before I do anything! Why'd this happen? What'd you do? How long has it lasted? How long would it last if I didn't help? What are the symptoms? How did you manage to walk all the way over here from where you live?! A doctor needs to know these things before administering treatment, you know, and I won't rest until this is done properly!" she huffed. She's so irritatingly caring. (':

"Oh, and why would you want my cell phone? Don't you have one, dear?" she asked, pulling out the phone and handing it to him regardless. Once she did that, it suddenly occurred to her that Durnam asked her another question. Well, it was more of a statement, but the question mark was implied!

"The Competition? Well...it's just my opinion...but I don't mind it at all! In fact, I think that the Competition is a wonderful thing, and Opine has a brilliant mind for it! I know it doesn't seem like she cares, but I know she does...after all, her Promotion was dedicated to creating 'the perfect game'! And, I mean, look at all of the beautiful people it's created! The Tested have some of the most gorgeous souls I've ever had the honor to feel...just looking at you guys makes my heart swell with joy!" she rambled on dreamily, hands clasped and eyes closed.

what



As promised, Meil and Meliss were right where they were yesterday, patiently waiting. Meliss noticed Mr. X coming from a distance, so she poked Meil and pointed in his direction. After fgsfgdlgfing as always, he immediately shot up and waved frantically, apparently in a pitiful attempt to look friendly instead of xenophobic. Or maybe he's having a seizure. Who knows?

---

Fredericks was successfully knocked aside, sending him careening towards the wall. The needle flew up into the air, giving Poice two choices...save the needle and stab Koren with it to send him to sanity dreamland, or save his beloved Fredericks from potentially getting a minor bruise.

It was a tough choice, but Poice knew what had to be done. Showing no regret, Poice rocketed over to Fredericks and saved him from hitting the wall at the cost of letting the container holding the MAGICAL SLEEPYTIME JUICES be destroyed. Man, what a cheap-ass needle! Is this guy really a doctor? Wait, no, he isn't. Moving on!

Holding the traumatized Fredericks close, Poice looked over at Kilii.

"Plan B, plan B!"

Kilii nodded and pivoted on her heel, suddenly looking deadly serious. After a moment of stillness spent observing the seemingly-nonexistent patterns of Koren's erratic movement, she...

...glomped him and immediately proceeded with the sexy succubus cuddling?

---

"W-Well, I---"

As expected, Ara didn't have a chance to respond before getting dragged away by Aita, and they were practically in the main room by the time Aita made her comment towards Neren.

Meanwhile, outside, Raine wanted to ask Exuro to elaborate, but Rahn pushed her and Lilita inside before she had the chance to say anything. After shooting Rahn a glare, she brushed herself off and noticed that the room was completely empty aside from (a rather suicidal-looking) Dicro and (a rather irritated-looking) Fray. And Aita and Ara and Neren. So it wasn't empty at all. Pretty crowded, actually. Yeah...

Lilita didn't care much for Raine's spiteful misadventures or Aita's terrifying loli-ness, instead being surprised by Dicro's presence.

"N-No way! You're that guy from that...from that God conference or whatever! You're Death, aren't you?!" she gasped, naturally surprised to find someone she knew here. Dicro seemed equally surprised, both at meeting Lilita again and the fact that Raine was here for some reason.

"Uh...yeah. Well, I was just taking over for my Mirror that day...but, yeah, same person. You're Raine's successor, aren't you? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, you know, Raine just wanted to bitch at people. Like always."

Raine simply "hmph"'d in response, turning her gaze towards Aita's group, presumably because of the whole crazy Mirror thing she had going on with Elia. Neren didn't make a response, while Ara seemed suspiciously on-edge...



Seraye and Exuro's Chilly seemed rather curious as to how Exuro knew Flare, but figured their conversation would answer that and listened in carefully.

DETAILS~

---

Due to the pig-latin, the message seemed to be mostly lost on the Oress Holders, who slowly started fading away as the morning's light grew brighter. Eventually they vanished altogether, the only sound remaining being Nette's dramatic crying.

"That...that was beautiful!" she sniffled, "You really get it, don't you? You're such a hero, Lorelei! Don't you ever change!"

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Ardin, meanwhile, was busy writing down notes as requested. I mean, HE WAS BUSY BEING BORING AND WORKING PSSSSSSSH.

---

"You don't know? Well, you're dead...and this is Limbo! More specifically, you're in Limbo's waiting r---"

Ola was cut off by Jane's screaming; although she was an almighty being with Tested anatomy like most of the other residents of Limbo (well, the dead people just had Tested anatomy, and the Chillies weren't lucky enough to be almighty or Tested-licious...so they wouldn't be resisting when Jane started stomping on them), she wasn't immune to 'FUCK THAT'S LOUD', especially with those big ol' bunny ears. That sent her reeling back, unable to respond...well, that was pretty much everyone's reaction, plus glaring.

Due to not even having ears and being SERIOUS BUSINESS about his job, Cieux promptly went to halt Jane's rampage by simply holding her arms behind her back. More as an experiment to see if further 'convincing' would be needed, but, you know.

Xantha was relatively unaffected by the screaming due to the fact that she's Xantha, and was busy trying to position Beatrice into a, well, position more suitable for...cuddles?

"Finally, finally, finally, finally!"

---

Shan was silent for a decent stretch of time, his only response coming in the form of a tighter grip on Kim-Ko's hand, which he noticeably refused to let go of. After such a long time without a response, Kim-Ko probably would've forgotten that she even asked a question when he finally answered her:

"Kill everyone. Win."

well, damn

---

By now, Larya had resumed poking Spark. (':

DETAILS

---

"Thyx, huh? Fascinating! That's the one that zaps things, right? That's pretty cool!" Loret exclaimed, still following Mr. Thorren like a lost puppy looking for its owner. After a while, she started twiddling her thumbs and started looking even more like a lost puppy. LOOK AT THOSE CUTE FLOPPY EARS DAWWWWWW

"U-Um, hey...I don't want to be a bother, but have you seen a talking olive anywhere around here?"

---

"Hmm..." Bunny started pacing around the room, thinking LIKE A BUSINESS MAN like a business man. :3

"Well, a lot of people just get their demonic nymphets for free these days, so I wouldn't shoot too high. I'd say...probably only 200 bucks, max." he nodded to himself. :3

After absentmindedly "what"-ing at the odd narration from a possibly present Sprinkles, Vers proceeded to lead Cel and Lokk to the Mall.

INCREDIBLE DETAIL, GUYS



"Alright, then. In that order: I needed to release some of that magical energy or risk burning up. The only way I can expel energy from my body is with fire, which is why I've got burns; I called upon my Marionette's power, which isn't exactly compatible with my soul; It's lasted since about 11 PM last night; it doesn't heal normally; the burns are fairly standard, except that they don't heal normally; and, I needed to do this. A few burns isn't going to stop me. I need your phone for the Dead List. I don't have it on mine," said Durnam as he looked through the Dead List on Vitara's phone - quite noticeably, he froze when he saw Elia's name on there, but he'd eventually snap out of it - before handing it back to her.

If you're dead, why didn't you come back?

"I see. Well, I won't go any further than that. But, I do have one more request. It's personal, but... Well, I'm just downright worried. Could I see the paperwork done for Elia's death?"



And then Koren "fgfdbghtjuc"'d and started flailing around 'cause he's insane.



And Rahn just leaned back against the wall, being the ULTRA-RELIABLE BODYGUARD that he was.

Vers, deciding that it's probably a good idea to be a little bit dramatic, went for the extreme choice of entrance. After a brief click from the inside of his mechanical suit, a heavenly choir played... well, something befitting a heavenly choir. Slowly, with a dim aura of light surrounding him, Vers descended with his arms spread, like some kind of inventor-in-a-mechanical-suit god.

"'Sup, Poice."



Ignis would find that Durnam - after all, he's the only person in the Test Reality who can produce black fire - was steadily edging closer. And Dicro and Fray could probably feel him as well, with all the crazy amount of energy required for that little speck of fire.



Koren took this opportunity to wrap himself in several telekinetic barriers.



Once he was done scrying, Rahn felt like being even more of an asshole. Carefully, he glanced out the window, and ensured that Raine was in his field of vision. Without moving a muscle, Rahn prepared Sytel, ensuring that he could launch Raine again.

And then he launched her. What an asshole.

Vers glanced at Nago with a rather irritated (although it wasn't visible 'cause mechanical suit) look on his face. First, this fool was being a jerk to Poice (which really shouldn't be excused); and, second, he referred to Vers (albeit indirectly) as a commoner.

Prep lock-on at target 09;
Load pulse blasters;

Vers turned and faced Nago (with his mechanical suit making these cool whirring noises), and spoke up in a distinctly distorted voice.

"Look, I don't care about the flagpole shoved up your ass, but you'd better watch yourself. I'll give you this one warning."



EVER SO SLOWLY, DURNAM CONTINUED TO CLOSE IN ON IGNIS' POSITION. CAPS LOCK, YEAH!

Oh, Neren and Ara should be able to pick up his vibe when they're lurking around in the Park and stuff.



Koren collapsed to the ground, and pointed to the sky.

"Fifteenth Brigade, attack!"

Without much warning, a swarm of telekinetic rocket-piranha-sheep would converge on Arella's position.



Disappointed, Rahn decided that he'd drop a telekinetic anvil over Raine's head. After all, you can't really see an invisible, anvil-shaped column of air falling down, right?

"This guy's being an asshole to Poice."

It's probably worth mentioning that something seemed fairly wrong with Vers, considering how much of an asshole he was being lately.



Conveniently, after Ignis finished speaking, Durnam emerged from behind some trees and shrubs and typical park foliage.

"In the middle of something, are we?" asked Durnam, extinguishing that ominous black flame hovering over his clenched fist. Judging by how none of his weapons were drawn, he probably wasn't here to pick a fight.

"Unlike my predecessor, Ignis, I'm not about to start a fight the moment I see you. Tell me this, Ignis: Wouldn't you agree that fighting each other would be a pain for both of us? A waste of energy, I'd say. Energy that would be better spent working toward other goals. I'd say that an alliance between the both of us would be mutually beneficial. What do you say?"

inb4endoftheworld



Unfortunately for Arella, her choice to bring out her Chillies meant that she'd be assaulted by both the rocket-piranha sheep and flying Chillies.

Ouch.



Rahn sighed, picked up the note and walked back downstairs when Umbra was staring at disbelief at Dan's Scrabble board. Being the somewhat lazy person he is, he just sat down on the couch to watch things unfold.

Somewhat disgruntled by Nago's reaction, Vers moved away from the crowd and went into Castle Oress, heading straight for his lab. Whether Cel or Lokk followed him or not was completely up to them.



The moment Durnam heard Aita's voice, he was forced to wrestle with his own internal rage. The two of them would probably be able to feel both his anger - which was very noticeable, and a fairly good sign that Aita should've just stuck to eavesdropping - and a noticeable jump in his vibe.

Slowly, he turned to face Aita, his hand dangerously close to the revolver attached to his belt. "I have only one thing to say to you."

"Fuck off, bitch."



Disappointed that his techniques weren't working, Koren began waving a white flag.



Rahn glanced from Umbra to Dan, and just sat back to observe the madness from a safe distance.a

"I'm betting fifty bucks on the mailman."

---

YES

"Yeah! You tell her, bro!" Banny encouraged. >:X

Mariol hid behind the King, officially afraid of the mean bunnies. "W-What are you talking about?"

Shan and Kim-Ko, meanwhile, would arrive nearby. Flyri was plainly visible through the door and the windows, but Shan was hesitant to get much closer. It would be so easy to just kill everyone inside, it just took one flick of the wrist...

Shan stopped himself there. If it was for Ciess' sake, he'd do whatever was needed to ensure Kim-Ko's happiness...and killing everyone inside Castle Oress probably wouldn't put a smile on her face. He didn't understand why, but whatever. Little girls were weird.

Not wanting to take the risk, he stopped, let go of Kim-Ko's hand, and gestured for her to go reunite with Flyri. Puppy was already halfway there. (':

Meanwhile again, Poice and Fredericks made their way over to Kilii, who looked rather excited.

"Ooh, what a fun assignment! Of course we'll help! We'll have to take Mariol back to the lab, though...would you like to come with?"

---

Peylet nodded and the duo finally arrived in the main room, where Cel followed Vershole and Lokk over to the lab and Flyri was busy making flowers grow out of the walls.

"That's...strange. What's going on here?" Peylet asked, not intentionally to anyone. Flyri stopped, however, and twirled over towards the two.

"Oh! Don't you know the news? There's going to be a wonderful wedding, and everyone who can come will come! Even the two of you are coming~! ♥" she beamed.

that's not creepy

---

Cenedra paused before responding, wondering if this was supposed to be a secret or not...

"Well...it's really only a matter of time before Opine erases this place, and she'll probably make a new one after that! I want to ensure that things go as smoothly as possible, so I'm gathering opinions on all kinds of things. But especially the visual things..." she said, already going off into a (fashionable) daydream.

Huh. So is that why her questions don't make any sense?

---

AND THEN IT TURNS OUT THAT THEY WEREN'T FOLLOWING HER

They'd end up crash-landing in the Graveyard and then they all died, somewhat fittingly. It seemed creepier than usual...were those voices? oh god oh god oh god

Anyways, Spinet was rather frazzled because crashing is kind of frazzling, while Cornet immediately picked himself up and gave her a thumbs up. He said something that was muffled beyond recognition, so Spinet translated:

"He says 'Good job! Crashing is the best part of landing!'."

---

Umbra contemplated Dan's terms for a moment, eventually deciding that they were reasonable enough. Besides, how hard could this game be? [/temptingfate]

"All right, it's a deal. I'll even let you go first!" she offered, brimming with overconfidence.

---

"By that I mean I'm going to devour your soul and use your corpse to increase how much area my shadows - AKA my digestive system - can cover."

Oh.

---

Upon hearing her name, Ilys dramatically flipped her hair. This is probably going to happen a lot.

"Ah, so you've heard of me! Yes, it's true...I'm Ilys Teneil, queen of all succubi and embodiment of love! I must ask...why were you trying to sell them? That isn't very polite, you know. Very...unattractive." she huffed.

Bunny shrugged. :3

"Don't look at me, chick. I'm just the accomplice. The adorable, fluffy accomplice." :3

---

"U-Um...thank you! I will!" Loret nodded, turning to leave...but then she stopped and turned back, enchanted by Mr. Thorren's flower saving. Curious, she quietly knelt down by Mr. Thorren, looking at the flower intently.

"Ah! How did you do that?" she asked, her speech being more gentle than the exclamation point would imply.



Fray's relief (well, the Infernal Guards were pretty creepy, but she liked Julias for distracting Halyn) was totally ruined by Durnam and Aita's respective arrivals: Durnam's because he prolonged Ignis' presence, Aita's because she was Aita, and both of them together because of the fight-is-imminent vibes floating around. Of course, she didn't do anything to stop Aita...but then, at the speed of LOLI PROMISES...!

...Neren walked inside cautiously, Ara clinging to her like a blanket. Once Ara saw what Aita was doing, however, her attitude completely changed. Breaking away from her MILF-y companion, Ara stood in front of her naughty blffl, hands on her hips.

"Aita! What did we talk about? Rape is bad!" she scolded.

---

As usual, Ignis would end up in the first layer of Fray subconscious: the wonderful land of grabby hands! Oddly enough, Dicro didn't seem to be he---

Without the slightest little hint of anything resembling a warning, Fray's subconscious apparently spazzed the fuck out. In addition to the falling sensation, millions of images suddenly went flashing by. It was a difficult thing to describe accurately...riding a rocket through an acid trip would probably be the best comparison. Mercifully, it only lasted a second or two - at the end of it, Ignis would find himself in a room full of eyes. Oh, and there was a tightrope. And the ground wasn't visible. Fun.

Dicro didn't seem to be concerned in the slightest about the tightrope; aside from the fact that he was walking backwards, at second glance he wasn't even touching the tightrope.

"Just ignore the rope; there's a clear floor. The eyes are still going to stare at you the whole time, though, so you should probably get used to that."

Being abrupt is always fun!

---

The two listened in quietly, their eyes wide. This guy was crazy! He probably had the most massive balls in Entirety! Except not literally because that's not physically possible for Tested. Although, Joe was so ballsy that he probably broke that rule.

"W-Well! That only leaves one thing left!" Ola brought up, breaking the amazed silence. "Where do you want to go from here? Do you want to hang around here in Limbo, stay over There for a while, or become a ghost in the Test Reality?"



"I-It's just that...everyone hates me! Cit thinks I'm weird because I'm an Emere instead of an angel, Venera thinks I should appreciate humans more, and Amelio only cares about Charie and her stupid kid! And that stupid kid...agh, everyone at that school is just awful! They don't appreciate me at all! Even the demons won't try and kidnap me! I just don't fit in anywhere! I'll never please Father!" Aracely sobbed, totally revealing stuff about another series of mine yaaaaaay. I mean, totally revealing parts of her semi-tragic backstory.

---

Laleh and Stan backed away from the scene and the Chillies stopped their attacking. Arella looked between Koren, Cracka Jack, and back, wondering what she should do. Koren surrendered, but...

"Sure! He's all yours!"

):>

---

You could say pants. That's always a good thing to say.

"True. There's not any guarantee that---" Seraye opened the door to the shop and walked in as she spoke, stopping abruptly when she noticed the red-headed murderer spinning around in the chair at the front desk. Tzila stopped her spinning with her back faced to the group, leaning her head back to see them.

"Oh, hey, Raye! Spades was totally looking for you earlier. Told me to stay here until He finished interviewing dead people. Something about...uh, bicycles? I forget." she shrugged. Seraye remained terrifyingly still for a moment, the only movement being a twitch. Remembering that the past was the past, Seraye took a deep breath, loosened her grip on her bat, dug deep for her shopkeeper smile, and turned back to the group.

"Well, anyways, the guest rooms are upstairs! Make yourself at home, Flare!" she said almost frantically.

---

Oh, princess. What would we do without your logic? Or lack thereof...

Anyways, Niya was suspiciously silent and Sprinkles didn't have anything silly to say, so this post ended up being ridiculously short!

Outside of Castle Oress > There
------

Of course, Cinda didn't wanna be left behind again, so by the time they were There, she stopped clinging onto Poice, with headache and everything. Besides that, she's gotten pretty attached to them by now. So... yeah. BACK TO BEING IN THE BACKGROUND

The Mall
------

Meanwhile, Spark sat in the background with a bucket of popcorn. Where the hell...

---

Something rather strange happened...first, foremost, and definitely most noticeably, the entire Test Reality flickered. It was brief, but definitely impossible to ignore: for a second or two, there was nothing but white. As soon as it happened, it ended; things went back to normal just like that.

The second thing that occurred was a pleasant feeling, but only the Oress Holders (Mirror Oress Holders included) could feel it. It felt like having a weight lifted off of their shoulders...like some terrible monster they never knew was feasting on their souls just straight-up vanished. It was almost like a sudden shot of ecstasy, like the sun suddenly burning up the clouds; the sweet euphoria of being free.

Remember, kids: Opine is a depressant! Take Dicro instead.

---

Peylet continued off towards...somewhere, but her pace kept slowing down and she couldn't keep herself from glancing back at Shan (who was still staring at them as they left) every other second. Eventually she stopped in her place, not bothering to look back again.

"I think...that man is intending to kill us. Long-distance, somehow."

HOW DOES SHE KNOWWWWWW

Truthfully, her concern was brought up by the fact that she was starting to feel like a bunch of shadowy tendrils were going to rip her apart from the inside out, but she didn't want to worry DBA.

Peylet was so distracted by being terrified of Shan and Shan was so focused on staring through Peylet's soul that neither of them had any noticeable reaction to the flickering...although Peylet loosened up when that MAGICAL FREEDOM kicked in.

---

+1 CEL HAPPINESS

She was so +1 happy that the second rush of happiness distracted her from the flickering.

Anyways, Seraye picked up her phone and stuff because that's usually a good idea.

---

When Charles returned, Flyri pointed Kim-Ko towards him excitedly.

"Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that I made a new friend! Say hello, Charles~! This is Kim-Ko!"

Naturally, she was too delusional to notice the flickering. (':

---

Arella raised an eyebrow.

"Do I look like her fucking babysitter or something? How the hell should I know where she is?" she asked.

"U-Uh, master...my sources tell me that she's at That One Cafe..." one of the Chillies spoke up, not making it clear what their sources were.

"Well, there you go."

HELPFULNESS~

AND THEN SUDDENLY FLICKERING

"...The hell was that?"

and the chillies were all "idk lol"

---

AND THEN SERAYE ANSWERED THE PHONE AS PREVIOUSLY IMPLIED

"Hello?"

Once the flickering occurred, Seraye shook her head in the hopes that she was just seeing things, while Tzila sat up straight and rubbed her eyes, wondering if that actually just happened.

Meanwhile, Banny ignored that stupid flickering shit and nodded at his bro. >:X



"Sounds like a good idea to me, boss! Even if that chick is creepy...and didn't she say something about her waiting for Him to come back, anyways?"

my awkwardness senses are tingling

this is awkward

Thankfully, the flickering made things less awkward! Or more awkward.

"Uh...did everything blank out for a second, or am I just seein' things, boss?"

---

so true

Anyways, Kilii was about to respond with something undoubtedly revolving around love and sappy stuff when Poice returned to the room, helping along a stumbly (TOTALLY A WORD) Mariol...who, as promised, was no longer a mere semi-loli. Now she was only slightly younger than the King as opposed to younger by 20 years, although if what Kilii said was true, then she was really still barely a fraction of his age...

BUT ANYWAYS

"Well, here you go, valued customer! You two crazy lovebirds have fun! And...say, when's your wedding? Kilii and I love weddings!"

"It's true~! ♥"

"My head feels like a cloud...!" Mariol said, dazed and derpsmiling as usual. (:

MEANWHILE

"No problem! I think they're just jealous. Poice doesn't experiment on a lot of us these days, so..."

They...they like getting experimented on?



Meanwhile, Cracka Jack was alone. ):

---

Only if you aren't drowning in frills! Well, sometimes both...

"Ah, yes! Every proper team of superheroines needs a fanservice loli!" Neren agreed. Soleil nodded at them kind of slowly like they were crazy or something (PSSSSSSH) and then returned to drawing. THAT'S WHEN GSG REALIZED SHE REALLY NEEDS TO FIND THAT GODDAMN USB CONNECTER THING FFFFFFFFF

Lun's jazz hands became even jazzier: they were so jazzy that he started lifting out of his seat.

"Lun, if you break another ceiling, I swear..."

"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T RELEASE THE JAZZ WITHIN"

FLICKERING TIME FWOOOOOOSH

The group looked at each other, then looked around for a moment before slowly trying to ease themselves into whatever they were doing before the flicker.

---

"Yeah, yeah..." Muri mumbled, sinking down into the shadows so that only her eyes were visible. So sad. )':

"Ohhhh, I get it! That's why you seem so familiar! You work for Ignis, huh? Haven't seen that guy since back in the Bitlands days! Good times, good times..."

Isn't that breaking the 4th W---oh, nevermind.

"Yeah, I guess I'd be cool with a meeting. If anyone's missing any cash at the end of it, though, don't expect to get any of it back." Larya warned with a lighthearted shrug. Afterwards, she nudged Spark in a manner that said both that Ignis was the Entirety-taking-over-guy she was talking about earlier and that they should keep that info on the DL and just play it cool.

That's a very informative nudge.

FLICKERING IS FUN WHEEEEEE

Muri was too hungry to care, but Larya glanced around for a moment.

"Huh. That was wacky."

---

WORKS FOR ME

Anyways, the door opened pretty easily, and this time there weren't a bunch of butterflies flying around!

No, no, there was just a layer of dead butterflies on the ground that would at least come up to Ignis' ankles. That isn't creepy or disgusting or anything like that, NOPE. Either way, that was probably a good indication that Opine's connection was gone. There were other noticeable things besides the dead butterflies, though; for one, it was almost pitch black beyond the door, the only light source being the frequent flickering of the ceiling. Said flickering wasn't really 'flickering', per say...bursts of light occasionally popped up here and there, as if responding to pressure...as if indicating that something - or someone, rather - was trying to hack their way back in.

There was also the familiar silhouette in the near distance (THERE I GO AGAIN WITH THE NEAR DISTANCES, DO THOSE EVEN EXIST?) miserably attempting to stand up, each chain constructed to serve as a support falling apart in seconds.

How pitiful. )':

---

Truth be told, most of Umbra's talent was stemming from Nette's advice, which she had only been able to follow thanks to her slowly increasing mental fog. It was becoming increasingly difficult to hang on to her inhibitions, and while that was certainly helping her in this ridiculous whatever-the-hell-this-was, she was as concerned as she could be in this state. The last time she felt this way was when---

Just as Umbra was about to make her next move, she felt some terrible kind of feeling...it was like getting your heart ripped out, which was rather worrying considering Tested don't have hearts. After impulsively recoiling, Umbra collapsed, unconscious on the spot.

And that's what happens when people fuck around with your soul while you're still conscious and in the middle of a card game. Board game. Game.

How anticlimactic.

Anyways, the flickering and so on occurred immediately after Umbra collapsed, cementing the fact that the weirdness had something to do with Opine's connections being cut.

---

Unable to watch him be depressed, Loret gave Mr. Thorren a big ol' cuddly hug, the sudden euphoric feeling triggered by the flickering helping.

"Maybe you should just learn how to control your Oress! If that happened, then you could reunite with your friends and keep them safe! I bet they miss you a lot!"

---

Aside from the room that Joe, Ola, and Mate went into, pretty much everything else was locked up...

---

That's when I realized I never put that song in my favorites list after listening to it excessively a few months ago! Thanks, TCC!

-THUMBS UP-

Anyways, Ilys vanished with Sev and Naj (SO SAD), but it was okay. Bros before hos, right?! At least he still had Bun--- :3

Bunny was silent for a moment, picking up on the weirdness in the Test Reality 'cause he's cool enough to feel that stuff. :3

"Whoa, sorry bro, I gotta get out of here...mind watching the place for me for a while? Cool awesome thanks bye!" :3

Bunny vanished in a heartbeat, leaving Rokkskar alone with BB and a bunch of illegal things and a bunch of computers and monitors monitoring the Test Reality and the game Ricardo and Charteuse were in and cheez burgers and a bunch of fancy bitchin' stuff and--- :3

Vers and Cel would find the bike land somewhat roughly (which really didn't make much sense 'cause it was floating and whatnot), but the two of them would be relatively intact. Hopefully. Once Cel (presumably) stopped being shaken by the crash, Vers got off the bike, and detached the carbine from the weapons mount on the top.

"Cel, I want you to take the bike and head over to the Ritzy Apartment Building's ruins. Keep away from the place, though. I don't think you want to last through this, only to die of radiation poisoning. It shouldn't be too hard to ride the bike, and I shouldn't take long here," said Vers, making several adjustments - complete with greenish, Craya-induced flashes - to his weapon, and hiding behind a tree. Carefully, he observed Ignis through his rifle's scope.



Since it was his own subconscious, Durnam didn't have to worry about his own security measures, and easily ascended to the topmost layer within minutes - relatively speaking, considering that time isn't of much consequence in this place. His top layer - the roof of the temple that represented his subconscious - overlooked a large plain, with the northern (although direction didn't matter) edge revealing a large body of water. Durnam took a seat at the golden throne in the middle, and waited for his various incarnations to settle down before speaking.

"As many of you are aware, a certain part of ourselves has, for an incredibly long time, stalled the progress of our soul. Now, I haven't realized this until now, but since we all draw from the same, subconscious source of knowledge, I believe that you know my solution. I'm not completely sure of our chances of success, but everyone here is well aware of the outcome if we are successful. So, what do you say?"

The crowd muttered amongst itself, taking in Durnam's request and carefully processing it. One by one, Durnam's (sapient) incarnations agreed to his plan - whatever it might be.



"You'd really be surprised, then," said Koren, picking himself up and walking inside.



"If this is normal, I'd hate to see what abnormal is."

(Outside Castle Oress, Day 6)

With Flare demonstrating her obvious hostilities, both Ignis and Julias tensed up for the inevitable conflict. Beckoning to the still-present crowd of Infernal Guards that had remained off to the side, Ignis' smug look of satisfaction remained ever-present as he and his cohorts turned their attention from the rebuilt castle to the red-tinged Assassin.

"You know, I wouldn't expect this amount of reckless abandon from you, Flare. I swear, it's like you're just trying to get sent off to Grenth as quickly as possible. Eager for a meeting with Deadly, are we-"

In the midst of his gloating, Ignis hadn't noticed the pair of glowing green cylinders that had handed at the feet of himself and an unaware Julias. The exasperated look on his face the moment before the devices erupted into a searing blast of green plasma pretty much summed up his reaction.

"You're a lowlife sonofabitch, that much hasn't changed! Hope this is a reminder of the good ol' days, you flaming purple bastard!"

Sure enough, an unsurprisingly displeased-looking Exuro had finished whipping out the light machine gun inexplicably stowed within the depths of his suit jacket. The moment he finished speaking, he let loose a rapid-fire spray of bullets into the diminishing cloud of plasma from his grenades. By the time they had dissipated, he had already emptied the entire drum of the weapon into the crowd. Ignis was visible still standing, though the same couldn't be said for Julias or the Infernals, the latter of which seemed to have thrown themselves in front of their superiors. As for Julias, he was visible sprawled out on the ground a couple of yards from where he was originally standing. Judging from the plasma burns in his outfit and the numerous bullet wounds oozing blackish blood, he hadn't fared quite as well as his boss.

This has to warrant some absolutely insane reaction from Ignis as retribution from Ignis, right? Right? The self-described Lord of Torment was over to Julias' side in the blink of an eye, kneeling down to drag him to his feet. With a scathing glare in Exuro and Seraye's direction, he...

...Vanished into a cloud of purple flames? Well, that certainly was unexpected.

---

(The Park, Day 6)

In a split second, Ignis and Julias reappeared inside of the cave where they had vanished. Laying Julias out onto the stone floor of the cave, Ignis wheeled around to face those who were already present.

"Someone with restoring capabilities get over here and heal him. NOW."

The way he said that would sound more like an enraged command than a plea. That can't be good.

" . . . "
Flare stood up straight, staring at where Julias and Ignis had been.
"...What. The hell. Did you just do?"

(Outside of Castle Oress, Day 7)

With the sun rising, Exuro nodded to Seraye to head back in the direction of the Doll Shop. Then, of course, Flare had a rather unpleasant reaction to the whole shooting up Ignis and Julias deal. Stowing Cemetery Gates back within the depths of his inexplicably physics-breaking suit jacket, he went over to examine the tattered remains of Infernal Guard robes - and loot what he could - before kneeling down next to the pool of blood where Julias had been.

"What is this guy, anyways? Not even Super Mutants bleed anything close to resembling this. Either way, I could use some rest about now. If you're planning on following us, feel free... but just remember. You aren't the only one who's been put through the ringers by this asshole."

---

(The Park, Day 7)

"Your blue-haired subordinate's little attack dog happened. Feel free to go and snap his neck or something of the sort."

Ignis kept watch over the still-unconscious Julias through the remainder of the night in utter silence for whatever reason. By the time that his wounds were fully healed, the both of them were out cold, though that lone Infernal kept watch over the pair.

---

(Random Body of Water, Day 7)

By the time that morning rolled around, a smoking impact crater and some strewn bits of machinery would be visible all along the sand of the beach next to the indeterminate body of water.

"Don't act like you're in charge just because your aim was good! I had them both and they're gone again! Now they'll run off to come up with a new way to ruin life for the rest of us!"
She began striding off in the direction of the Doll Shop.
"Sure, rest up. Nothing big at stake here. I'm getting my things and going back to doing real work. For fuck's sake."

---

"Oh, totally. They're pretty strict about stuff blowing up over there in Limbo." Bunny nodded. :3

AND THEN BUNNY NUKED HIMSELF AND DAN :3

...Except they actually just seemingly popped right out of existence after Bunny finished waving farewell to Charles, because Bunny wouldn't waste nukes on simple transportation. :3

Seraye and Exuro's Chilly wordlessly stuck by Exuro, while Halyn's Alliance had decided to get out of here and go somewhere that made sense and wasn't traumatizing (as if a place like that existed!).

---

Raine's eyes narrowed at the King, and she didn't even answer the King's question! What a bitchface. ):<

"What are you doing with that...thing?" she asked, glancing at a now rather sadface Mariol. By the tone in her voice, Raine wasn't trying to insult her, nor was she expressing disgust...she seemed quite curious. Of course, it's pretty much impossible for Raine to phrase things nicely, so you know.

---

By now, He, Neren, Sileny, Ola, and Mate were flying through paperwork and kicking people back over There (or back to the waiting room or Test Reality as necessary).

Bunny and Dan would suddenly arrive by the front desk, but Bunny quickly got lost in the crowd because he's an adorable little bunny OH WELL, Poice was pretty visible with all of that purple. :3

"Because I'm one of Them, silly!" Poice laughed. "And We live forever! Well...technically, We're all dead. Being one of Them is actually an afterlife!" he explained.

Meanwhile, Loret raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? How come? Are...are we going on an adventure?!" she asked excitedly.

IT'S AN ADVENTURE ALL RIGHT

oh yeah and arella walked in

She was mad.

---

Rahn and Kim-Ko would probably both notice that Shan was asleep in the chair nearest to the couch Kim-Ko had spent the night on (there's more than one couch, of course!), presumably because watching little girls sleep is cool. Given his personality, this somehow managed to be sweet and terrifying all at once. (':

Umbra arrived in the main room, fiddling with her phone because phones are cool. So are fiddles. Anyways, she looked rather disappointed.

"You know, that attack last night only killed two Tested. Depressing."

She glanced up and noticed that Kim-Ko was in the room. Oh.

"To think, it was that close to being casualty-free." Umbra added on, deciding that a double meaning would work better than feigning sadness. "Well, nothing we can do about it now. Either way, we're that much closer to the end of the Competition." she shrugged.



Ara was already kind of used to this, so she wasn't as startled as usual by Aita's...awakening strategy.

"U-Um...okay, y-yeah! We'll be together until the end! ♥" she smiled, the amount of loli friendship between the two causing instant diabetes everywhere. (:

---

Peylet quickly calmed down, feeling quite silly.

"O-Oh, yes, I see...it never snowed where I'm from, and on the day we met...well, I suppose I was distracted with that. After that explosion, everything seems rather terrifying..."

WIMP

---

Cel followed him out, collapsing face-down next to the couch. (':

"Aaaaaaand that's why I'll never pursue a career as a scientist. Stuff blows up too much." she mumbled, voice muffled by, you know, the floor.

EXCEPT CEL WON'T EVER BE A SCIENTIST BECAUSE SHE'S NOT EXACTLY THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER

---

Halyn was instantly conflicted. She wanted to strangle...one of her own alliance members?!

Too conflicted for silly things like responses, sleeping, and showing signs of life, Halyn remained completely frozen for the entirety of the night and, apparently, through the morning.

silly halyn

Naturally, Larya took this opportunity to snatch up her monies~

By the time morning rolled around, Dicro had returned to his own body (he still didn't look to be in the best condition of his life, but it didn't look like he was in immediate danger of passing out anymore) and was busy texting (the Test Reality's favorite pastime) next to Fray (who had achieved her wish of being able to go back to sleep). ((((((Hey guys I like parentheses btw!))))))

Larya was struggling to reach his pockets on account of the fact that one of her arms was chained to the wall. Well, chained through it. As in, there was a chain going through her hand and into the wall. (':

MONIES~ ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS

---

The FLO handed Durnam a lighter of that exact description without hesitation, looking quite on-edge for a FLO...

---

oh god oh god She looked at them

That look could kill children.

RUNNNNNNNNNNN

---

Arella had mysteriously vanished...

...Or...or did those two kill her?! ಠ△ಠ

Given the fact that the Chillies were cheering for the trio, probably.

"When you're older, huh? Sounds exciting! What kind of powers are you going to have, or do you never know until you've got 'em?" Cornet asked, sounding genuinely interested.

~Day 7~

Charles/Beatrice/Skar
~Outside Castle Oress > SOMEWHERE AND THE RITZY APARTMENT BUILDING~

Charles floated off through the air, off to some random building. I don't know which one, but I'll know next post. Yeah.

===

Beatrice awoke angrily. She gets very irritable without sex, y'know. She also hates snow. She noticed her master waking up, so she ran to his side and.. bitch-slapped him with a tentacle.

"Graaaah! What was that for?!" Skar snarled at his potato-y creation.

"Find me a loli. Now." she glared evil-y.

Skar reluctantly got up, and started trudging through the light snowfall, looking for a loli for Beatrice, who happened to be following closely behind Skar. They stopped outside of a certain apartment building, where Beatrice picked Skar up with her tentacles and threw him through the doorway. She then sashayed in after Skar, hoping to find a loli so she could make sweet, sweet loli love.

WAS ANYONE IN THE LOBBY AT THAT TIME?

Fellmund/Benny
~The Park~

Fellmund woke up to see Larya's hand chained through the wall. Oh dear god.

"Problem? Let me take a stab at it, hehe.." Fellmund smirked at her, deciding that making puns was a very knife thing to do. "That wasn't exactly the sharpest thing for you to do, now was it?"

Oh, the sweet taste of revenge.

"I'd help you, but I can see you're a little chained up at the moment."

>:)

===

Meanwhile, at the bunny bros' bench, Benny just woke up from a dream where he blew shit up.

"BRO, I JUST HAD THE MOST FUCKING BADASS DREAM EVER. I BLEW SHIT UP. WITH MY FUCKING MIND!"

cool story bro

Mr. Thorren
~Limbo~

Mr. Thorren continued glaring at Nago, even going as far standing in front of Loret, to protect her and stuff.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY FRIEND ANYWHERE!" he shouted, because shouting is cool. "Flyri, get us out of here."

It's out of love for his friends! :)

Ricardo
~HFBW GAME WURLD~

"That.. is a good question." Ricardo said, which caused a time-rip to occur and a certain stone question mark to fall into existence, making the ground shudder from his weight.

"Did you call for me?" Q asked, which caused Ricardo to reply by pressing a button on his bitchin' remote, causing Q to start punching himself in the face. And then Ricardo pressed another button and Q stopped. "Why so hostile?"

Ricardo used Facepalm! IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE.

so yeah

((Outside Castle Oress))

"The superhero thing probably doesn't shock you all that much..."

"Hmmm... Maybe we should go check once we're done looking for a way into the second floor..." She looked over to Umbra, "We wont die because we've gone crazy trying to get into the second floor, right? Like, I'm sure there is a simple way in that we just haven't discovered yet..."

((UNDERWATER WORLD))

"Wow, this is amazing! Who knew that things under the water would be so homey and sheltered... But uh... how did we even get here? I mean, we were on grass and dirt a second ago..."

[NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHING! Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

For those with good eyesight within the Castle Oress area (or inside of Castle Oress, looking out the window... or something), they would see a small, green, human-sized speck falling from the sky... literally. Whatever that thing is, it fell through the clouds and it is heading right toward the ground at a very high rate of speed. Gravity does not seem to like whoever or whatever this falling object is. About two minutes later, it looked like the object had crashed landed right into the more forested area behind Castle Oress.

Anyone nearby said "crash site" would hear a short roaring sound... like the sound a jetpack would make when it shuts off. Anyone who did not see the green speck in the sky would likely hear the jetpack roar.

Do you have the guts to investigate the location of this object? It could be an alien from a different planet... from spaaaaace!

[Krysis, Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

A bit of smoke is seen coming out of the location of where ever the person or object had crash landed. Either a smoke signal or a shrub was accidentally lit on fire... still, it fell from the sky. It has to be something interesting!

Meanwhile, Krysis put out as much of the fire as he could. A bit of a smoke trail remained, but that is from the remaining embers on the ground. Krysis is royally pissed off... He was just about to walk right into his home and spend time with his family after a long day of bashing sleeping troops over the head with a mallet. But no, Opine just had to screw his life over this time. No way to contact his family, no way to contact Dark Land, probably very little ways to get back home... he just simply stared at the direction of Castle Oress as the nightmare he once went through begins again.

[Krysis, Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

Shaken, not stirred. Krysis immediately gained back his balance once Q's shockwave faded away. As soon as seeing the one unfamiliar person and a... what the hell is that thing? A floating question mark? Whatever it is and whoever they are... they are not recognizable, nor do they look friendly.

He ran for cover behind a thick tree and equipped his pistols. The Hellion on the left hand, Electric Eye on the right hand. And to make himself less obvious, he ditched his Fat Man catapult weapon and hidden it behind an untouched shrub. Cue the waiting... and due to his armor being mostly green, it may be pretty hard to pick him out in this situation.

---

"What was that noise? Did someone fall from the sky? Do you think they survived?" Q questioned Ricardo, who merely responded by turning her left arm into a Megaman-esque blaster which she used to shoot him in his non-existant face. This knocked him back several feet, and he ended up falling down onto his back, causing yet another small quake.

"Honestly, Q, you really need to learn to shut the hell up sometimes." Ricardo sighed, as she walked into the smoking clearing.

She scanned the area, sensing that there definitely was some form of life around here. But before she could react to it, Ricardo changed from female robot form, back into his normal brain-in-a-jar form. Unphased by this, Ricardo drove on his tank-tracks that were on his underside towards a suspiciously untouched shrub. He stared at it for a few seconds, not realizing what was behind it and everything. But then Ricardo changed back into female robot form, cursing a mechanical curse that would not be able to be understood by ears of any kind. Ricardo then opened up a small compartment in her chest and was distracted by a wire that conveniently happened to be split in half. Ricardo attempted to repair the wire, but left herself wide open in case any certain gun-toting Koopas wanted to ambush her.

Hint hint, cough cough.

[Krysis, Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

Ricardo is grabbed from behind and both of it's arms are put into a restraining hold. Both of it's hands are forced behind it's back as well as being knocked face-first to the ground. Most of the weight of the sudden attacker is then pressed against Ricardo's back... and DAMN, he is heavy! A cobalt-blue pistol is pointed right at the transforming android's (or whatever it is) head. Click click. Whoever this is, he is good at holding someone down.

"Don't you even dare go near that bush, for the sake of our lives. If you decide to cooperate, I will let you go. If not, then expect to be the next pile of scrap metal! I do not want to kill you, nor do I plan on killing anyone... but what you almost pulled off could've nuked us. Now, are you going to cooperate? Will you?!"

Oh dear... a standing, talking, heavily armored (and armed) turtle with dual-wielding revolvers (plus more!)... what has the world come to? And obviously, he is not a happy camper at the moment.

---

"...A killer bush, huh?" Ricardo laughed a mechanical laugh, Look, I know I'm not in a position to negotiate right now, but since I was trying to fix a wire that could potentially cause a lot of problems, and you interrupted me, a whole lot of weird shit is going to happen. Just warning you."

Immediately after Ricardo had said that, Krysis would find that he suddenly had a sombrero on his head. And it started squealing the highest pitched squeal that's ever been squealed. I wonder what that feels like with a helmet on, which would just amplify the sound. Ricardo, being a robot and all, was completely unaffected.

Meanwhile, Q got back up again with the help of the Madness Accelerator. That just means he got floated up and softly landed on the ground by Ricardo. The stone question mark then waddled over to where his friend was being restrained. Q started waddling a little faster towards the turtle-y figure, but was stopped in his tracks by a spontaneous brick wall. It also squealed.

Q was affected by this too, mind you. But I wonder what it feels like to be Krysis...?

[Krysis, Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

Krysis knocked the random sombrero off of his head and, using his equipped revolver, shot the screeching hat two times. Both Elemental Bullet Bills filled that sombrero with a painful, electric death.

"Right into a nightmare of madness... again... but now five times worse with you and a giant floating question mark around." Again, huh? What does he mean by that?

Well, Krysis had gotten up from Ricardo's body so he/she/it/whatever the hell it is can fix the faulty wiring. However, as soon as he got up, the Captain ran through the untouched shrub (turning such untouched shrub into a ruined shrub) to grab the "Fat Man" tactical miniature nuclear warhead launcher that he had hidden back there. Once the deadly weapon was back in his possession and slung onto his back, he calmed down a tad.

"Its better to have random crap happen than being nuked, y'know."

---

"..W-why are you carrying a nuke?" A dazed, but otherwise unharmed Q asked the turtle-y fellow, although he was still on the ground.

Ricardo, meanwhile, got to work on fixing that wire. When she was done, she closed the little compartment on her chest, and pulled out her remote, and pressed one of the buttons to make sure it still worked.

It did, since Q was slowly being lifted off the ground and onto his cartoon-y little feet. There was a slight shudder on the ground, but other than that, it was a soft landing.

"There. Much better." she said, putting her hands on her hips and giggling. "So what brings you here? Are you like us, accidently ending up here instead of some other place that you actually wanted to go, or do you have a different reason for falling out of the sky?"

[Krysis, Day 7, Outside Castle Oress]

"Nukes. Well... mini-sized ones. I had an old friend show me a big crate containing this old thing and I immediately took interest of it's capabilities... and after using it once, I didn't want anyone else to even lay a finger on this thing. And it's not like they're going to pry it off of my back anyway." He then took a deep breath.

"Long story short, I know where I am and it is likely that I will run into the people that I met before here. I used to take part of the whole plot about two or some years ago... and I recognize that building any day." His tone then became a bit angrier... "So you can say that I am a veteran who just happens to be forced to part-take in this shit once again. And I just wanted to be home and take care of my family like I always should! Obviously, I want to get the fuck out of this reality right now and go back to my normal life! ... Now, if you excuse me, I might as well see your leader."

And with that, Krysis simply began walking right toward Castle Oress and make a proper entrance by using the front door.

---

Cautiously, Lilita poked her head out the door, unaware of what was going on outside. Raine lingered nearby, not really caring because she's a bitch and stuff.

"U-Um, Ricardo? Did you find anything...?" she called out.

---

Ricardo was busy trying to escape from a time-rip which conveniently just popped up. But those time-rips are persistent bastards, and Ricardo gave a slightly mechanical shriek before being pulled in by those greasy, naughty tentacles.

Oh, and Q was dragged in there too for the lulz.

All that was left behind was a small screw and the corpse of a poor, unfortunate sombrero.

WHERE WILL THEY POP UP NEXT FOLKS, PLACE YOUR BETS NOW

---

SILLY KRYSIS, RAINE AND LILITA ARE CHILLIN' RIGHT THERE BY THE DOOR

WHICH IS STILL AN AUTOMATIC GLASS SLIDING DOOR LIKE IN THE OLD DAYS

HEY GUYS I LIKE CAP

AND DETAILS