And now let's jump back a little timeline-wise and see where Rufioh is, shall we? His small tree hive and part of the rope bridge leading to Damara's next to it came with him into the Medium. Initially, Rufioh wasn't concerned with anything besides seeing Tinkerbull again. He immediately grabbed Tinkerbull, held it close to his chest, and then made it touch the Fidusprite. The two merged, and the result was Tinkerbull...no, wait, Fiduspull...? No. How about just Fidusprite with Tinkerbull in it? In any case, it looked like a Fiduspan host plush with Tinkerbull's head. Which just made it even cuter!

"bangarang! you're back, t1nkerbull!" Rufioh cried, giving his lusus another hug. Gee, Rufioh has been giving and receiving a lot of hugs lately, hasn't he? Turning to look outside his hive, he found that he was in a forest full of trees with brown bark and green leaves, much weirder looking than normal Beforan trees with blue bark and pink leaves. He glanced briefly at the portion of the rope bridge that had come with him to this place, the Land of Woods and Creatures (LOWAC). He turned to Fidusprite for guidance. It snorted when it saw Rufioh looking at where Damara had been.

"why are you so mad at meg1do? 1f she hadn't been there, 1 may not of known about what happened to you t1l after 1 came here!" Fidusprite snorted again more defiantly.

"aw, come on, she doesn't have a wh1te wand! 1 th1nk you just never l1ked her, 1s that 1t? you're just upset because 1'm all grown up now, 1s that it? don't worry, t1nkerbull, you're st1ll gonna be a b1g part of my l1fe. but now other people have entered 1t, too, and...to be honest 1 don't know how to deal w1th 1t all." Fidusprite turned back to Rufioh.

"1 l1ke Damara. and we've known each other for so long now. but there's also Horuss...he means a lot to me, too. 1 know 1t's d1ff1cult to understand, but we've bonded over the past sweep or so. remember that one t1me 1 went out to see the rest of Beforus? the f1rst troll 1 met 1n sweeps outs1de of the lost weaboos was h1m. when 1 was be1ng chased by a few dudes who thought 1 was some k1nd of fr*ak, he was the one that rescued me. he taught me how to defend myself aga1nst the haters, someth1ng Damara couldn't do. every n1ght 1 went out of the woods to see h1m, and he tra1ned me to be stronger and more powerful, the way 1 am now. and 1 guess he 1s a l1ttle we1rd, but 1 try to look past that. he saved my l1fe, wh1ch someth1ng that Damara never d1d. 1f 1 could have both of them, 1 would. but 1 can only have one. and so 1 guess 1 choose Horuss."

Fidusprite gave a low grunt and nuzzled its head against Rufioh's cheek. There was no way it could make him understand, and so the sprite hid buried itself in the folds of Rufioh's jacket. Rufioh could commune with virtually any lower lifeform, but when it came to Tinkerbull he could only guess as to what he was talking about. Tinkerbull thought about how ironic that was a troll who could talk to anyone and understand them, even Damara, except for the one person that actually knew what was really best for him.

Tinkerbull thought to itself that if it could only say one thing to Rufioh, it would be "You are better off alone." Horuss was harmless, but he was too self-absorbed and rude to be a good matesprit. And Damara had an ulterior motive of some sort; why else had she killed Tinkerbull? Rufioh could certainly take care of himself now, thanks to the efforts of these two others, but when it came to matters of the heart he just charged headfirst into whatever direction his instinct told him to.

In that matter he was as stubborn as a hornbeast. (You were expecting me to say bull, weren't you?)

. . . . .

Jack Noir: Handle prototypings.

You are now Jack Noir, and you do so with much enjoyment, strangely enough. The shorts are loose and comfortable, and so is the shirt. You actually kind of like the cape, the way it drapes around when you turn dramatically. The fact that it's black is a plus. And you never let that plasma pistol out of your sight. It's a loyal weapon, even though you've only had it for a few minutes now. Wait, what's that noise?

Jack: Resist the urge to sweep your cape when you turn around dramatically.

You fail to resist the urge, and your cape knocks off all the paperwork on your desk.

Turns out the noise was Courtyard Droll crashing to the floor after trying to fly. He's handling the prototypings okay, but not as good as you can. He's okay with the plasma pistol, but that's just about the only weapon you can trust him with. And as you've just seen, he's graceless at flying around. But at least practice should keep him from getting into a fit about the fact that no hats have been prototyped so far. Good thing the other prototypes didn't do much. Still, it was a little weird how the shorts lit up two orbs in the tower instead of one. Two people went into the session at the same time? Whatever.

You've got a feeling this is gonna be a wierd session.

You're filling out paperwork and parking citations when the Draconian Dignitary steps in. His cape and the plasma pistol are tucked in with a belt so they don't have to fly around or be carried, respectively. Now why the hell hadn't you thought of that?!

"The seer hasn't entered yet," DD says. You glance up from the paperwork.

"Who in paradox space is that?" You ask.

"You know, the one in the sweater," he says.

"Oh. When's that fish girl gonna come in?"

"She's last," DD replies.

"She better get us something good. Who do we have over on our side?"

"The Thief, the Prince, the Page, the Mage, the Heir and the Witch. They have the Seer, the Knight, the Sylph, the Rogue, the Bard, and the Maid."

"Okay. Thanks for the news. Now leave me be." DD nods in understanding.

The Reckoning is gonna happen real soon. You can tell. But then what? You've got a feeling you're gonna be staying here. But if that's the case, than who's going down to Beforus?

. . . . .

The answer, as I can see with my omnipotence, is no one. The "exiles" that the players will have in this session will be my Master's minions. The Felt, as you like to call them. Their silliness and stupidity will be unprecedented, but they'll accomplish their necessary tasks. Except for Doze, Die, and Matchsticks. They have other tasks.

Oh? You're wondering about the Sn0wman? She doesn't exist yet. In fact, she won't exist during this session. And I myself will have little involvement.

How can I when I don't really exist just yet? I am overseeing the operations from my study across space and time.

But my Master is already here, ready to receive the doom that the players will initiate.

My time as an excellent host has yet to come.

-Doc Scratch

. . . . .

RECAP TIME!

Damara found out about Rufioh and Horuss and killed Tinkerbull in revenge. She then had a brief emotional breakdown when she saw what she was going to go through and went into her session. Under Lord English's instruction, she got Meenah into her session and went to LOTAC. How she and Rufioh's prototypings affect the enemies remains to be seen...

Rufioh, having no clue that Damara killed his lusus or even knows about his relationship with Horuss, went to LOWAC in complete ignorance. Don't worry, he's not gonna be like this for long.

Mituna was told to go into the Medium by Kurloz, and he in turn told Cronus to do so. When he arrived in LOBMAS he translated Rose's walkthrough into Troll so that everyone could use it, he alchemized the Data Freezer and theBurnin Beam and used them to store a bunch of codes in hopes to impress Latula. He then proceeded to go to her hive in a very badass manner, which is on a planet that we haven't seen yet.

Meulin was sleeping when Aranea told her to go into her session, so Kurloz, who was living in the same hive with her, woke her up. The two of them went into the session together, and even though they only prototyped for their shared stuff once, the game was smart enough to know that they were two players and sent them to two different worlds. Meulin went to LOSAD and bought build grist (yeah, you can sometimes buy it instead of killing enemies!) so that she could reconstruct the half of Kurloz's hive that went with him in the session, while Aranea would work on fortifying her own half.

Kankri prototyped some silly reading glasses and scolded some imps for urinating on some ancient ruins. The imps beat him up, and a basilisk swallowed him whole and spat him out in the middle of the forest of his planet, LOTAR. Itchy helped him get back home...quickly!

Porrim landed in LOBAF and spent awhile, in typical sexist fashion, to get ready by making some boots and a neat umbrella harpoon thingy known as Penguin's Bane. Also in typical sexist male chauvinist pig fashion, I didn't devote much time to her as I did with some of the others, but that's just because I don't know what she'll do next just yet, aside from fueling her black romance.

Latula protoyped a toy plasma pistol (don't ask how those exist on Beforus) and is in a currently unknown world.

Aranea was the first to enter the Medium and went into LOFAS. Mindfang helped out a little bit, even though she doesn't actually exist in this dimension. After she went into the Medium, Meenah told her that it was all real, and she got passively aggresively upset. Nelly, her lusus saved her from an imp, and now Aranea's riding on her back to see if she can clear up the darn fog. Dern the fog!

Horuss, after black flirting with Porrim and red flirting with Rufioh, tried to put out the fire that he had started via a baking accident. If only Meenah had been there. Matchsticks saved him and allowed him to enter LOTAS. But he was a little too headSTRONG and was falling down a really tall tower before he knew what was happening. Sawbuck managed to help him out by giving him a magic badge that led him use the power of the void to get back to his hive.

We're not too sure what Kurloz is up to on LOPAT...but he used his shorts to prototype the sprite. Luckily, he had on another pair.

Cronus found that LOJAP is full of hipsters. Yay for him!

Meenah, the coolest troll, after getting her Sburb discs at last, waiting like forever for to enter her session. After fighting a squid she ended up in LOMAD. The imps waiting for her were much tougher than normal. Also, Damara's gonna screw things up.

RECAP OVER!