>>4001267
Today's the day. You wake up in the motel and go to the dining hall where everyone's eating breakfast. Over spoonfuls of cereal you discuss your plans for today with the rest of the gang. Maddox, who despite the events of last night is jovial as usual, although strangely shaken, his pal Ckaro, who is intent and serious as though he has anticipated this moment since coming to this dimension, Sara, whose eyes burn with courage, and Gekky, who is still slightly dubious at the prospect of having to use her powers despite the promise of saving the world. Dlaak is next door. Right now it is eight-o-clock AM.

Mrs. Reynard: Alright everybody, we go to the museum by ten. Meet me outside the hotel.

With absolutely nothing to do, most people talk, some have brought their handheld consoles (Gekky has), and some dudes are kicking a rubber ball around the dining hall. Maddox decides to join them instead of talk with you.

Sara: What a ride this has been. We've fought...

Ckaro: I think Terry alone has been attacked twice. In school and in Centropolis. If they were taken down that easily then there's no telling what kind of freaks Vireen will sic on us next.

Sara: You know... I had to question my faith before I went here. I used my prayers to hurt people, and now i'm part of a prophesy... hopefully it means that it all turns out alright.

Gekky: Speaking of fights, I got my own damn house invaded by one of them eel mermaids. That destroyed my heat lamp so I had to go and-

Sara: Cuddle with Terry all night long?

Gekky & Terry: No!

Terry: I gave her hot water bottles. Nothing more than that. My dad found out and boy, was it fun explaining all that to him.

Ckaro: Well never fear, ladies and gentlemen. We have two hours to do whatever may help us on our quest. But we've unearthed an astonishing revelation.

Terry: What?

Sara: I managed to find Vireen's estate here. We thought she might want to take her revenge on you personally.

Terry: Fight Vireen directly? That's real dumb.

Sara: Not unless we've got this.

She pulls out a small bag of dyed flour that looks like Vireen's pollen.

Gekky looks like she's digested all the food she ate overnight. There's no more bulge in her tail and stomach alike - just what the hell's in there?

> Invade Vireen's house

> Watch Gekky play video games

> Play ball with Maddox

> Ask Sara about the Temples and the Museum

> Ask Ckaro about his mission

>>4001329
> Ask Sara about the Temples and the Museum

We should know what we’re doing before we actually go out and do it or all of that prep will have been for nothing.

>>4001329
>Ask Sara about the Temples and the Museum

>>4001336
You decide that you should ask Sara, since because of her background and afterschool activities she will know the most about what you're going to be facing.

Terry: Yo, Sara. Do you know what them temples put in the museum?

Sara: Well... you know how every few decades there's a kaiju attack on TV? Everything in the forefront of their respective wings were used to defeat them, and each temple has had their time to shine.

Terry: What temples are you talking about? Wasn't very attentive in religious studies.

Sara: See, of the eight, Tomb and Genesis have two lesser aspects beneath them. Tomb has Inferno, signifying quick endings, and there's Decay, signifying slow endings. They've engineered a universal solvent and a symbiotic mold respectively. Genesis has got Spontaneity and Fusion; who have made devices that can create things from thin air-

Ckaro: Steal 'em from other dimensions.

Sara: Thank you, Ckaro. And Fusion, which mixes shit up because that's cool. Also there's Time, which has made a thing that stops time, and Space, which made a teleportation device. Every temple provides security for their own wing, which means in the Tomb Wing I might just run into a few brothers and sisters along the way.

Terry: Anything else about the museum?

Sara: There's a monument dedicated to Theo which was fought over by every Temple - it's rumoured to lead the gateway to his domain. Genesis has been entrusted with it, and you need a VIP card in order to get to it. There have been real bad skirmishes over it. Also, Gekky's found out how to extend her telepathy through sound and technology after accidentally putting her partner in music class in a daze.

Terry: Those are some convenient openings.

Gekky: Sara, don't say that. Darn, battery's low. Mind if I go back to my room to charge it?

Sara: Sure thing!

> Yes

> No

> Write-In

>>4001452
> Yes
Who are we to give orders regarding such things

>>4001485
She goes back to her room to charge her game. You have no objections because what kind of micromanaging megalomaniac would try and intrude on her humble right? There's nobody there except the one only known as Lamb Sauce, who's yet to rise from her bucket in the top bunk.

You chatter about trivial stuff with Ckaro.

Ckaro: There's nothing but stickmen where i'm from, and compared to this place it's violent as hell, given i'm from the Sanguine Sector.

Terry: What'd they tell you about this dimension?

Ckaro: Oh, just that it was ruled by a god who was the younger brother of ours, and thanks to his incompetent craftsmanship and constant theft, he wanted to reset it.

Terry: I'm still unsure as to what makes our world poorly made.

Ckaro: A world is supposed to form as the result of natural consequence. What sets you aside from animals?

Terry: We can talk, and we've got technology.

Ckaro: And since when have you had this?

Terry: Since we were created. The first people to exist knew exactly what to make and what to do, and how to act. Theo put those things in our head.

Ckaro: See, that's where he got things wrong. On mine, we found it all out by ourselves. People changed many times before arriving at where they're at, and even so we have a long way to go. You know why?

Terry: How come?

Ckaro: Because it's the destiny of man to be free, and define and change the world as he sees fit, not let a deity do the thinking for him. The most a god should do is guide his worshippers when they mess up.

Terry: ...damn.

Ckaro: And there's more. He knew that he made your world imperfect. Know why there are mass extinctions that are caused without your intervention? It's because it's his fault and he makes you clean up after him. Also, some species rely on technology that you guys made to survive - they never do well without it. In a natural, evolved ecosystem, everyone has a place, a habitat which provides what you need. You never had any in the first place so you need gizmos to do it all for you.

Terry: Now you've made everything Ollie-Anne's harped on about make sense. Thanks, man.

Ckaro: No problem.

You've been so caught up in your conversation and the clamor of the hall that you don't notice what Gekky had to endure in her room. Turns out one o' them eels burst out of the mains. She bursts out, covered in minor burns, gasping and wheezing. Her tail now slithers in a zigzag patter.

Terry: Oh shit! What happened!?

Gekky: Turns out, trying to constrict an anguillan isn't so good when they're all slippy. And when they have electrokinesis. Good thing-

Lamb Sauce: Lamb SAUCE!!!

Gekky: -smothered her at the last moment.

Lamb Sauce is an ebon slime girl with sheep eyes, very woolly hair and short curly horns.

Gekky: And, though I'll probably be haunted with guilt for the rest of my life, I thought that the eel's ability to turn herself into electricity might come in handy for robbing the museum. And so I-

(Continued in next post)

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>>4001569
Terry: There's no need to feel bad, Gekky. You've gotten her to do something good with her powers for once.

Gekky: I guess...

Terry: What you're doing isn't hurting anyone - I mean, when this is all done any harm you thought you'd done will be balanced out by all the lives you save in the end.

Gekky: So when I make someone carry out a single task, it's not that hard. But when it comes to making them do everything I say for awhile... it takes real time and effort. I reckon she'll snap about it this afternoon.

Terry: Perfect. But we've gotta go help you with the burns.

You call Mrs. Reynard over with the first-aid kit. She applies ointment and channels the power of her third fox tail to accelerate the healing process. Someone behind her is blaring Ken Ashcorp's "Touch Fluffy Tail" through his earphones so loudly you can hear it.

Mrs. Reynard: Grazz! Do you think it's appropriate to bring this sort of music on a school field trip?

Gekky must know this song, because she starts to giggle uncontrollably. Ckaro doesn't. Mrs. Reynard confiscates his data cartridge.

Mrs. Reynard: I'll have this shown to your parents.

Grazz groans and grabs his goat horns in frustration.

Mrs. Reynard goes over to tell Maddox and his friends to stop kicking the ball, now that it's claimed somebody's breakfast already. Later he returns to the table, and proudly shows it to you.

Maddox: Neat, right? If we hijack any speakers, I dibs this be played with 'em.

Terry: Damn it, Maddox, won't she notice when she checks her pockets?

Maddox: Nuh-uh. I replaced it with music that's more to my uncle's liking. No swearing. She'll think she's losing her mind!

Terry: That's genius!

You exchange high fives.

> Watch Gekky play video games

> Play ball with Maddox

> Write-In

>>4001588
>Ask Ckaro how he plans to best Theo.

He’s an incompetent creator sure but he won’t be a slouch in a confrontation, assuming he won’t listen to reason.

>>4001588
>Play ball with Maddox

>>4001588
>Play ball with Maddox

We blue balled him pretty hard last night.

>>4001871
>>4001608
>>4002521
The world's predicament seems like the plot of "Horton Hears a Who!". Some absolute nobodies in the face of aloof divine power. So let's leave it to Ckaro to handle tackling him.

Terry: You do realize, my anorexic red friend, that what we are facing is a goddamn deity with powers beyond our comprehension. Just how are we gonna fight him without getting turned inside-out and send to hell?

Ckaro: When I first met you, I had a sword that the priesthood back home forged for me. Though it cannot kill him it carries the will of Theo's older brother embodied in a seal. Think of it like a bitch slap in a can.

You chuckle at the thought. He shows you the sword hidden beneath his jacket.

Ckaro: You don't need to worry about that. Nobody except me is prepared against extradimensional threats, so when we get in there just stay behind me. You got that?

Terry: Roger, chief.

You go over to Maddox. By the bowlegged way he runs it looks like he's suffering a horrific case of blueballs, courtesy of you last night. Not that you had a "hands-on" experience with it, but you had rudely interrupted his fun with a lamia he'd hired in a run-down building in a godforsaken corner of Sewer Side. You don't intend to fix his problem for him but you gave him enough money to pay for another session this night. Without anything left to do you join him and Hank and three other people aimlessly kicking a ball about.

Now the time has come. You're in the museum lobby right now, and there's a big dome made of multiple sheets of stained glass overhead.

Gekky: Oh, um... Terry.

Terry: Yes?

Gekky: That girl over there, the electric eel... I got her to sit down over there on the bench to be conspicuous.

Terry: Excellent. We can get her to zap the alarms and stuff later.

Sara and Maddox are standing together, looking very tense and expectant. Sara is wagging her tail to make it look like she's excited, but one glance at her face tells otherwise.

Mrs Reynard addresses everyone in the group.

Mrs. Reynard: So we've got eight tour guides here, and each of them are going to be leading a group of nine. I'll let you join any group, unless there are too many in one i'll have to separate you.

Mrs. Reynard: The tour will be rotational. There is a guide for every wing, which are Inferno, Decay, Spontaneity, Fusion, Space and Time. You're free to choose which one you visit first.

> Split up (Describe how)

> Stay together (Which wing do you go to)

> Write-In

>>4003135
>Stick together
>Decay first

>>4003135
>> Stay together (Which wing do you go to)
Long experience in rpgs tells me to never ever split up.
Ever.

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>>4003146
>>4003762

Terry: I reckon we ought to stick together. We're in Vireen's territory, seeing as how her mum's a high priestess of Genesis, so it makes sense that we stay as far away from her as possible.

Gekky: Ditto. But where do we go from here?

Terry: Why, the opposite of Genesis - Decay.

Gekky: Um, Mrs. Reynard, can me, Sara, Maddox and Ckaro join Terry's group?

Mrs. Reynard: Absolutely. But we need some more people, 'cause five won't cut it.

There are four students without a group just wandering about, so she beckons them over.

Among them are:

> Penelope Sombilon, a dusky Anggitay girl with a melancholic demeanor

> Hercules Traverse, a really fat cactus-boy wearing a cowboy hat

> Hisk Tic Ahm, a stuttering scylla with deep red skin wearing a headband.

> Clayton Rosenberg, a clay golem

And leading the group is Ms. Lucius, who is a mermaid in a bathtub on tank treads. She begins to babble about several artifacts, one of which includes the psychic aura detection device on a pedestal, but something happens to her engine and it begins to sputter out, spew smoke and debris all over the ground.

Ms. Lucius: Oh dear, oh dear. You kids get back because I think I gotta call for help.

Maddox: Oh no! It's gonna blow! We're all gonna fucking die!

He makes a mad dash behind the device. Maddox, always the rabble-rouser, scares the living daylights out of everyone else and they run away too. Ms Lucius's bathtub is leaking rapidly.

Ms. Lucius: Come back, it's not that bad. Really sorry but I think I need to go call for- darn. I left my phone at-

All of a sudden, Gekky spasms and flaps, blinks rapidly, and gasps. Then she slithers awkwardly, swaying way more than she usually does, and drawls

Gekky: Ooh, uh, ah-ah, I'll go ask for help.

You're pretty sure something is wrong with her.

> "Is everything alright? I saw you twitch a bit."

> "No, i'll go instead."

> Whisper to one of your friends about what might be going on

> Write-In

>>4003995
> Whisper to one of your friends about what might be going on

>>4004046
You don't want to confront her directly because it'd make you look like an asshole. So instead you go ask Ckaro.

Terry: Hey, any idea what's up with Gekky?

Ckaro: I have no idea. But there's definitely going on with her. To say this is another attack is a far cry.

Gekky goes out into the lobby to ask for some help.

Ckaro: The worst case scenario is that Gekky is being influenced by someone else in this museum. Just be on your guard, Terry.

Terry: Gotcha.

She slithers back and another person comes with another filled tubtank which Mrs. Lucius gets out of and places herself in. The nearly-exploded tubtank is currently being wheeled away, and that seems to be the focus of everyone's attentions. It is very difficult and tedious work for them. All seems well. Your plan is for someone to bypass the fence around it, which isn't that tall.

Terry: Now, which one of us is gonna take the symbiote?

> Ckaro

> Sara

> Maddox

> Gekky

> Terry

> Write-In

>>4004636
>Sara

>>4004636
>Sara

She's the holy one, she'd know best

>>4004679
>>4004746
Sara: I'll go. I've read about this and seen this thing in action before.

Maddox nods and presses his brooch so the jetpack Giantess Rammer appears on her back. Your respective weapons appear in your grasp. Sara braces herself, powering up as steam comes pouring out. The symbiote is contained in a glass box on a small enclosure amid a huge dark round pit surrounded by a neck-high fence. From this distance the amorphous thing writhes every time someone gets close to it, as though desperately attempting to escape its confines. The trouble the staff are having as they are wheeling the tubtank away will only hold them off for so long. So Sara takes off - but she is intercepted by Gekky.

Gekky: Saraaa! Wha'ya doooin'!

It sounds like she's lost control of her mouth. Gekky slurs with every word and at inopportune moments her jaw hangs open. When she first came to Wesflow High she spoke with a lisp because of her fangs, but eventually learned how to speak in a way that got around it. Now it's back again, and almost as bad as it was then. She reaches out with her tail and ensnares Sara by the paw mid-flight. With bated breath, Sara hisses

Sara: You'll break our cover, you idiot!

Gekky: Y'know ya canth use jeppack inne'uh.

Maddox comes over. For once he addresses his problems without shouting. He whispers angrily

Maddox: The hell's wrong with you? Think we can go toe-to-toe with Theo with just my improvised garbage?

Mrs. Lucius is flapping about. Hisk Tic Ahm is trying to help her in with her tentacles, but she's too heavy and not to mention slimy. Every time she falls, she flaps about. This elicits quiet giggles from Penelope. Hercules stands by because doesn't want to do anything to her seeing as he's a cactoid and touching her would leave Mrs. Lucius prickly sore. Clayton doesn't see why this is funny and just looks behind him. Shoot.

Clayton: A jetpack? How'd you get that in your bag, huh? Why're there boxing gloves on it?

> "Check this out, dude! She can do loop-de-loops!"

> "None of your business! Buzz off!"

> Write-In

>>4005254
>"None of your business! Buzz off."

Pretty sure Gekky is possessed by a ghost or similar monster. Can Sara do exorcism?

>>4005270
Terry: None of your business! Buzz off!

Clayton raises his eyebrows as though to say "okay..." and walks away.

Terry: What the heck is happening to her? Aha! She must be possessed or something. Geddown, Sara!

Sara adjusts the controls of Giantess Rammer and spins around, landing carefully on the ground. Gekky releases her, and lifts her eyebrows in an alternating sequence. It's like whomever is in her body is trying to get used to how it works.

Gekky: Posses'd? Watha tolkin' bout?

Terry: Give us proof you're her!

Gekky: Uh hadda stayober atcher houth 'cause hee' lampf broke.

Terry: And what did I give you that night?

She pauses for a moment, then spasms out in mock surprise.

Gekky: Ahhh! Youf founth outf. But thay wo'. When I do thiff!

She removes a few articles of clothing and wraps around your legs. Then she attempts to pry your mouth open. Every movement she does is cartoonish and exaggerated. It would be kind of funny in another situation. There's no question as to what she intends to do next.

Gekky: Hee' goeth your rebutation!

Terry: Darnit, get off of me!

Maddox thinks of letting her at you as repercussions for last night, but then decides for the better. But he doesn't want to hurt you.

Maddox: Sara, do an exorcism or something!

She begins to chant and make a gesture at her, but then Gekky unhands you and slaps Sara with her tail. She goes flying and crashes into a light, and it faces towards the ceiling. For a moment Gekky flaps her arms as though they were wings, but she remembers that she doesn't have any anymore. There are two humanoid figures hanging out on the rafters, and one runs away while the other struggles.

Maddox: Why ain't that one moving?

Ckaro: I think he's got to focus to possess her. Terry! What do you think we should do?

Gekky?: Hmmm...! Howth I do some, uh, payback, ah? Knewth she wassa loser, but nobody's gon' look at you the same when I do, thiff!

> Get Sara to use Giantess Rammer to confront whomever's on the ceiling

> Fire Diarrhea Decimator at the ceiling

> Get Sara to do the pocket sand termite trick

> Write-In

>>4005516
>Fire DD at the ceiling

I hate these names. Damnit Maddox.

>>4005516
>Fire Diarrhea Decimator at the ceiling
NA name

>>4005539
>>4005602
Lugging it above your shoulder, you clench your teeth and snarl. If your overthrowing of Theo went down in history you'd oblige Maddox to change the names of the weapons to something sensible on pain of revealing the events of last night to the world. You pull down the welded trigger and out bursts several kilograms of expired food, including bread that is somehow still frozen. Most of it gets caught and suspended in midair between the rafters, dripping the awful juice that forms at the bottom of compost bins over the other side of the Decay Wing. Some of it splatters on both of them, but no harm is done since the bulk missed them.

Maddox: Goddamn! I doubt that'll hold!

For no reason at all, Gekky begins to belly-dance.

Gekky: It doesnth! But mine doeth! My forketh prehenthile tongue thure comf in hanthy when I gib 'ead to Terry!

Ckaro: Cease!

Ckaro picks up her clothes and throws it back at her, but she swats them out of the way.

Whoever's up there is definitely tauroid. It picks up its bound partner and scampers its way over the symbiote enclosure and slowly descends from a thread - you're now sure you face an arachne, the exact same species as Ollie-Anne Tapwise. You stand at a precipice between your survival and Gekky's dignity, the latter of which becomes precarious as you see Hisk Tic Ahm tap Hercules Traverse on the shoulder with a slimy tentacle.

> Fire Diarrhea Decimator at the Arachne

> Ask Sara for help

> Write-In

>>4005972
>Fire Diarrhea Decimator at the Arachne

>>4005972
>Ask Sara for help

On second thought, these names match the weapons perfectly.

>>4005992
>>4006233
Terry: Saraaaaa! Save her darn dibbly dignity!

Thinking quickly, she twiddles her fingers and little bolts of swirling darkness coalesce around them. Then Sara does several autistic hand-flapping gestures towards Gekky and a stream of black gas surrounds her. Gekky is drawn into a shaded corner and vanishes.

Sara: She'll be invisible - and silent - for about half an hour, because she won't be able to leave that shadow.

Then she pulls out a fingerful of pocket sand, tosses it into Diarrhea Decimator, and utters an incantation. You pull the trigger and the rest of it splatters the Arachne with astounding force. She goes flying and catches the end of the pit, climbing out and scampering out somewhere else. She carries the bound, squirming figure on her back, but skitters over to a huge light, one of five pointing at the symbiote enclosure. The Arachne intends to adjust it.

> Shoot her again

> Run around and confront her directly

> Get Maddox and Ckaro to attack

> Ask Sara for help

>>4006489
>Run around and confront her directly

>>4006489
>Run up and confront her directly.

I can only assume she's planning to use the light to undo Sara's shadow magic, in which case the best way to stop her is to run up and keep her from adjusting it, or cut power if possible.

>>4006515
>>4006597
Thinking quickly, you have Ckaro guard Gekky's shadow should anything go wrong with Sara's spell, and charge around the symbiote enclosure. Maddox decides to go around the other way, Pussy Slayer in hand. The light proves to be so heavy that she needs to use some of her legs to push it around, but in just enough time you reach it. You kick it with all your might and she falls over with it. The noise and the sudden flickering of light startles everyone else in the room.

The Arachne must have spun some webs in preparation for this fight, because she climbs up a few threads to strike an intimidating pose. In her first four legs she holds a cocooned werebat girl, squirming and squealing to no avail. Her eyes are green, like Ollie-Anne's, but they glow phosphorescently. Then with one flick of her pedipalps, she pulls down the webs on her face, revealing her terrified amber eyes and pointed ears twitching confusedly.

Line: So if it isn't Terry, Remaker of The World. Go by Line, these days. I take it you're all too familiar with Hook?

You don't know what's going on, but you're pretty sure there's a Sinker somewhere. You don't know much about fishing, but you imagine that the term "Hook, Line and Sinker" implies that whoever's playing the role of "Sinker" increases the range of the "Line".

She holds the struggling werebat in front of her like a meatshield, as if trying to deter you from hitting her. Judging how she's going up against two armed opponents, you attempt to reason with her so you leave the place with as little blood on your hands as possible.

Terry: Hey, Line. I don't know if Vireen told you why you wanted me dead, but I think I can pay you in advance, 'cause isn't it pretty immature of her to spend that much money to get back at someone over something so small?

Line: It's not that she's worried about. It's what you're after.

Maddox catches up to you, howling and frothing like a dog with rabies.

Maddox: Religious conspiracies ain't my thing!

He jumps higher than you could imagine, cardboard sword held high, brimming with sorcery. Line chuckles when he freezes in midair. It's only when he notices that his fly is down that his face, contorted into an expression of bestial rage, reverts to a poker-face as he notices that all four of his limbs have been tightly bound in Line's webs. Maddox is suspended in midair.

Maddox: It's digging into my crotch! Ow!

Contemptuously, Line scuttles up to where Maddox is and plants her palm on the side of his head. He whimpers when he notices the thickest thread is wrapped around his upper thigh and distantly connected to a girder right above the symbiote enclosure. Both of them are half a meter above you. Before you have any chance to attack, you are intercepted by a catboy whom you fought a few days ago.

You are at the bridge leading across the pit into the enclosure.

> Throw Diarrhea Decimator at Line

> Fight the catboy

> Run down the bridge

> Write-In

>>4007001
>Throw Diarrhea Decimator at Line

>>4007307
You're far too close to her to shoot her point blank, and even so aiming would take long enough to dodge. To top it all off, you're pretty sure that what's in Diarrhea Decimator right now is probably not enough to even make her wince. So you decide to take matters into your own hands and throw it right at her.

It wallops her across the chest and up the jaw. She bites her teeth quite painfully and puts her black-nailed hands to her mouth; but before you do it she pushes him free from the threads that bind him, and the only thread still attached to him is the one that hangs right over the enclosure. As Maddox begins to swing at horrific speeds, his arm is freed and he removes Pussy Slayer from his belt and with all his might he hurls it at you. You dash over to the fence and barely catch it. Then you feel a distortion in the air behind you. As you swivel around it becomes evident that it is none other than Dulevis, whose lips and nose are caked in dense yellow pollen!

He grabs you in a choke hold and slams you against the railing. You kick him in the shins as Line turns loose a shrill ojou-sama laugh, but to no avail. So you throw the cardboard sword back between the railings and catch it between your legs. With one flick of your hips the blade, despite consisting of nothing but paper and magic, hits him in the crotch. He shrieks and leaps with feline finesse six meters away from you. Line is disappointed.

Line: "Come back here! What's wrong with you?"

Line cradles the cocoon like a baby, stroking the werebat's head as though it would stop her muffled screams. All her eyes are primed on you, attempting to find the source of Dulevis's fear. Is it the masculine confidence of your stance? Is it the vivid marker pen inscription reading "PUSSY SLAYER"? Is it the...

Seventeen stale dried-out cucumber slices sellotaped on to the blade?

Either way, it scares the shit out of him. So let's not worry about Dulevis, he's no threat scampering away on all fours like a... pussy. But what's happening to Maddox? He's soaring over the abyss in pendulum motion as the thread thins out with every swing. And he's howling like a fire alarm. The thread breaks and he plummets off into the darkness.

Your breath leaves you. Is he dead? But you realize now's not a good time to mourn. Line gloats her victory.

Line: See what happens when you pry too hard into other people's business? Good riddance!

You're so mad you don't know what to say.

But all of a sudden, he comes flying from the pit on a new pair of eye-spotted bat-wings. Maddox has reached a grand stage in his life - he's metamorphosed!

Maddox: Wahoooooo!!!

You're so busy being awestruck that you haven't noticed that Line and her cocoon has fled to the Genesis Wing. Dulevis has gone to the Space Wing.

> Chase Line

> Check on Ckaro, Sara and Gekky?

> Write-In

>>4007511
>Check on Ckaro, Sara and Gekky

>>4007511
>Check on the others

Gekky still possessed?

>>4007711
>>4007670
First things first, you've got to check on your friends. You run back around the enclosure to the shadow where Gekky? is being contained. Your eyes have adjusted to the darkness enough to see that the object casting the shadow is a bench. You can see Gekky? stirring about beneath it, albeit a foggy two-dimensional imprint of her tail. She soon realizes this and lies on her back so you can see her upper body and hair spread all over the ground, but her facial features are too vague to distinguish. Her voice can be faintly heard.

Gekky?: How do I get out of this? Everything's just an outline here...

She flaps her arms around again as though she could fly out of the shadow. She's possessed for sure, but by whom?

Maddox descends gracefully. Sara is straining her power. It's a contest of wills.

Sara: You... you've got wings!

Maddox: Damn fine ones, at that. For some reason whoever's in Gekky thinks she still has 'em! Can you exorcise her?

Sara: I don't see any evil spirits nearby, let alone in her. I think it's something else.

Maddox: Well, let's find out!

Maddox hoists the bench overhead effortlessly as if it were made of foam.

Gekky?: Ah... that's better. Lots more room.

Maddox: Alright, listen up. I don't know how Sara's spell works, but I'm sure smashing this table will be a tad uncomfortable.

Sara: She... she'll be cut into pieces!

Gekky?: Oh shit! Please don't do that to me!

Maddox: I won't... so long as you tell me who you really are and what you've done to Gekky!

Gekky? doesn't say a thing. Then Maddox begins to fly a good distance, and draws back the bench, intending to fling it across the room.

Gekky?: Fine fine fine! I'm Sinker, and my ability is bodyswapping!

Maddox: Ah! And you flapped your arms about because your original body had wings. Attached to the arms, no less - and what species has that? Werebats!

He descends to the floor and goes up to you, excited and enthusiastic.

Maddox: Aha! I've got it! Line's got Sinker's body, and that's where Gekky's soul is! Trussed up so she can't fight back.

Terry: Does that mean Sinker has Gekky's abilities? And vice versa?

Sara: Then all the better to not let her out.

> Chase Line

> Chase Dulevis

> Get the symbiote

> Interrogate Sinker

> Write-In

>>4008309
>Interrogate Sinker

Where is Line heading? So we can intercept her or get there first.

How does she undo the bodyswap?

>>4008309
>Get the symbiote

>>4008341
>>4008375

You stick your head into the shadow and shout at Sinker.

Terry: Where'd Line go, huh? Tell us or we'll smash you to bits.

Sinker: She's gone to the Fusion Wing! And as for Dulevis, he's gone to Space! The wing, I mean, the wing!

Terry: And how'd we get you back to normal?

Sinker: I've got to touch Gekky while she's in my body.

Maddox: As much as I like the sound of that, it's really a lot harder than it looks.

Terry: Dulevis's in the Space Wing, is he? Then he's primed to take an artifact that will let him teleport anywhere. And that's bad. 'Cause we need that to get in the laboratory for the, uh, final showdown, dudes.

Maddox: Then I hope we catch her first! We can't leave her behind!

Terry: You hear that, everybody? We've got to get Sinker to touch Gekky, but first we've got to free her from Line.

You rush down the bridge, smash open the enclosure with Diarrhea Decimator and then it floods into your mouth. It tastes horrible, but you stop tasting it once it fuses with your body. Now you can form new appendages made from the symbiote that can emerge from anywhere on your skin - with which your psychometry can also work hand in hand. You stick your shoes and socks in your backpack, and two slimy appendages burst out from your soles. You use these as stilts, and you begin to run with perfect coordination, despite how wobbly they seem.

Before Mrs. Lucius and the kids following her can rat you out, you discover a new power. The symbiote can destroy walls using acid, and help you climb up them with ease. In other words, you don't have to use the wing's exit.

> Burrow through the ground to Fusion Wing/Space Wing (Please specify which)

> Smash through the wall to Fusion Wing/Space Wing (Please specify which)

> Use the exit

> Write-In

>>4008913
> Smash through the wall to Fusion Wing

>>4008913
>Smash through the wall to space wing.

I think sinker is contained for a while longer, and we need that teleporter.

>>4009074
Gritting your teeth, you lead the way into the space wing. The symbiote pours out from your collar and sleeves, waves around and flickers, and tears a hole in the wall into the Space Wing.

Terry: Alright boys and girls, let's do this!

Maddox, ecstatic at his metamorphosis, flies several meters up, still holding the bench, and spots out Dulevis sprinting between exhibits. Maddox leads the way, and all of you start marching through, weapons in hand. Your hoverboard is large enough for both Sara and Ckaro to stand on with you, and you speed through the wing to the centre.

There are people visiting this place, who look confused, but since you're a bunch of high school kids wielding lethal improvised weapons, they stay aside.

Most things in here are teleportation devices of some sort, including the dimensional door bio-device that led to the creation of the doorface species, with which you are all too familiar with. Very few of them are in use, except for the really primitive ones that allow you to fire an energy bolt that makes you teleport wherever it hits.

The room is a giant dome, with a tapering cone in the middle that has three flights of marble stairs leading up to a tiny port-a-loo sized building at the top - that must be where the real teleportation matrix must be. How tiny must this thing be? You make it up to the first steps of the stairs.

You hear glass smashing, bricks splitting and people screaming. An energy weapon fires and you hear solid matter contort and bend. You look up and a part of the ceiling has twisted into itself, and a shaft of sunlight cuts through the gloomy darkness of the museum.

Dulevis must be near, so you take off your backpack and don your glass helmet, on account of the pollen-shooter he might have. Sara and Ckaro get off your hoverboard because it's a cheap one that can't go up vertical planes - in other ways, they can't go up stairs so long as each step isn't five centimeters. Dulevis keeps firing more holes in the ceiling, but he's at the other side of the pyramid of stairs. There's no telling where he's firing next.

> Use the Symbiote to smooth out the stairs, then hoverboard up there

> Give the glass helmet and Pussy Slayer to Maddox and tell him to fly up to the building

> Walk around the pyramid and confront Dulevis by yourself

> Write-In

>>4010074
> Use the Symbiote to smooth out the stairs, then hoverboard up there

>>4010074
>Use the Symbiote to smooth out the stairs, then hoverboard up there
Shouldn’t you roll a 1d2 since there were 2 different votes ?

>>4010095
>>4010099
(Oops. My mistake. I won't do that again.)

You decide to remedy the problem by outright changing your surroundings. You reach your arms out and black goo spills from it in a gushing torrent, but you don't feel wet - none of it is soaking into your clothes nor is it sticking to your skin, let alone making it feel damp.

With Ckaro and Sara following you, you jump on your hoverboard and chase after it as it devours the stairs, leaving a shining white ramp in its wake. Hoverboarding at an angle is mildly frightening, but the sheer rush of adrenaline overpowers it. Your helmet vibrates a little as air rushes against it, then you realize that you're going faster than you ever had. You notice Maddox flying in the corner of your vision, with nothing in his hands.

Occasionally a hole twists through the steps but you dodge all of Dulevis's attacks, but then when you're almost up to the building yellow pollen shoots through the last one and it begins to catch up with Sara, who is standing behind you on the hoverboard. She jumps aside and activates Giantess Rammer, and soars ever higher, past Maddox, and through the doors of the building on top of the pyramid. It's tiny! Getting the teleporter must be easy.

You hear Sara gasp as she enters.

Maddox: The hell? You gotta see this, man!

When you finally reach it the place is massive. It's way, way bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The teleportation device is a jewelled diadem that stands on a pedestal in the middle. Maddox gave Dulevis a few bruises, but now he's lying in a pile of yellow pollen which is all over his face and shirt. Dulevis the catboy is wielding a pair of swords and jumps within range of you. The bench is now lying on its side and the shadow is quite small. So you pick it up and yell

Terry: Alright, Dulevis! Let's hear it from you! Are you willing to murder your fellow subordinate in the name of your honey-scented waifu? Are you? Huh?

Dulevis doesn't respond.

He jumps seven meters up and tries to slash the bench in half, but is intercepted by Ckaro with the Mutilatinator R. You can't keep track of its moving parts, an endless whirlwind of spinning blades going left and right, up and down, but somehow - just somehow - Dulevis is quick enough to parry them all. Kitchen knives and anything sharp you can find in the garage go flying off in pieces, and amid the clanking cacophony his proud weapon is slowly whittled down to a nub. Dulevis dropkicks him, sending him flying out the door. He foams and froths like a rabid animal.

Sara reaches into her deep pocket for another handful of sand. She's so frightened that sand dribbles out on the floor as she tries to pull it out.

> Jump over the teleportation device and grab it, then dash out the other door

> Protect the bench, fight Dulevis with your symbiote

> Make Sara free Gekky?

> Write-In

File: facefuckeruppererer.jpg (27 KB, 380x423)

27 KB JPG

>>4010218
Pic related is a rough approximation of Ckaro's Mutilatinator R

>>4010218
>Protect the bench, fight using your symbiote

This is one wily catboy

>>4010218
>Protect the bench, fight Dulevis with your symbiote
>>4010225
Ok

>>4010258
>>4010265
For a moment you consider forcing Gekky? out to see if she can use her hypnosis against Dulevis when she's in direct moral peril, but then you aren't sure if she can still use it - and seeing how Dulevis did a number against Mutilatinator R, Gekky? probably won't fare as well with My Dick. So you jump in front of the bench and whip out Pussy Slayer with a black tentacle coming out of your trousers.

He scratches you really painfully several times, but the moment he sees it he almost shits himself and staggers backwards before running away, but too bad you've made a tendril of black goo stretching across the room to clog up the other door. He crashes into it, you wrap it around him, and toss him against the wall so hard he starts bleeding. Cucumbers are to catpeople as garlic and crosses are to vampires.

You wonder why this is.

He crawls out of the room, trailing blood in defeat. You grab the teleportation device and fit it around your noggin.

Sara: Damn... so this is it, huh. Time to go out and thrash Line.

Terry: Damn right I will. How's this thing work?

You remove it and see a band of black glass. This world's script is rather limited, so there are about twelve possible letters that can be arranged to make a surprisingly varied multitude of sounds. They're imprinted along the sides, and there's a monitor in the middle.

Terry: How. Do. You. Work?

Headband: Tell me where you want to go, then put me on.

> "Right above Line"

> "Genesis Wing"

> "Where Gekky's soul is"

> Write-In

>>4010610
>"Where Gekky's soul is"

>>4010610
>Right above Sinker

Line may have hidden sinker sonewhere safe, and teleporting to Gekky's soul might get all kinds of metaphysical

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4010884
>>4011069
Rolling...

>>4011412
>>4011069
Although thrashing the everloving gata-ma-lata out of Line sounds awesome with a dropkick by teleporting three meters above her sounds awesome, saving Gekky is a more ethical priority. You begin weighing down your options.

Line might have hidden Gekky somewhere, because she probably guessed that we went to the Space wing to chase Dulevis, given how she hasn't seen you in a while and knows there's a teleportation device there.

Even she's not that cocky. With the same attitude you'd have when requesting wishes from a genie, you decide it's a good idea to word your location as precisely as possible. Who knows how it'd interpret your input?

Now is not a good time to ponder about the difference between the mind and the soul, but given how you've heard Sara talk a lot of complicated stuff regarding the interplanar ramifications of a soul that you can't understand the prospect of teleporting to where Gekky's soul is is rendered null, because you probably wouldn't end up in the same plane if you did. So you type into the input:

Terry: "Right above Sinker!"

Before you put the headband on, you help your unconscious friends up.

Maddox: Fuck... he did a number on me. Think he kinda cut a bit of wing, but nothing's lost.

Terry: We gon' save Gekky. Lessago!

Maddox: Unh unh unh! Wooo!

You stick it on, and now you're in a huge room that's dimly lit, and suspended high in the air. Everyone else seems to be stuck the same way along an invisible plane tilting at an angle. There's something - multiple things, all stuck to your back.

There's no doubt that you're in Line's web. Line crawls along a thread, her six eyes glinting with predatory triumph, and leans very, very close to Maddox. You assume it's something about eating him when he blushes not with fear but with mild arousal. It's time to blueball him again.

You reach out with your symbiote and use it to consume the webs. It's only until Line has Maddox tied up in a suggestive manner that she notices. Sara watches with disgust. Ckaro doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Line: No no no! I spent ages working on it! Please, just stop!

You grab the rest of your crew, draw them close, and cut a few threads that make the whole thing collapse and go limp. Line falls for several meters before crashing painfully into the ground. Cardboard boxes break her fall. You catch the bench in midair with your symbiote and create a cushion beneath it in just the nick of time. You do the same with Sinker's body. Maddox is strong enough to carry both Ckaro and Sara while flying. The entire room is so dark that you can no longer see the bench's shadow.

(Continued in next post)

>>4011509
Sinker's spirit appears as a ghostly apparition that floats freely in the dark room. As Line lies unconscious, the five of you watch in awe as it hovers from under the bench across the room. Then it forces itself into the cocooned werebat's mouth and those terrified eyes take on an expression of peace. Gekky's soul, wavering and wriggling serenely, floats out in response and curls up under the bench. Sara's spell is undone and Gekky is unceremoniously spat out of the shadow.

> Teleport somewhere safe (Specify where)

> Teleport into the laboratory

> Teleport to Ms. Lucius

> Write-In

>>4011511
>Teleport into the laboratory

>>4011511
>Teleport to the lab

>>4011527
>>4011978
Gekky and Sinker return to their original bodies. But you've got no time to waste.

Gekky: I saw it... She made me watch everything she made me do... couldn't do anything about it.

She looks at Line's knocked-out body.

Gekky: She held my eyes open - I had no idea what was going on until she told me.

Sara: Good thing I made sure nobody could see you then.

Gekky: I don't know how to thank you, really.

Footsteps can be heard outside the room getting louder. There's a shiver down your spine.

Terry: Oh golly gosh, gee! We gotta skeddaddle!

You type in "Vainglory Inc. Laboratory, past all the security, closest to where I can get to Theo".

You stick the headband on.

For one second, all is silent.

- SESSION END -

>>4012623
Why do we talk like such a dweeb sometimes