PETALDIVE

The t(aaa)skforce is blindfolded (except for Arial because she doesn't have darkvision) and tied up to rolling office chairs with a surprisingly strong chain of paperclips, and Aglet talks to their captors the whole time because they didn't knock her out.
When Alric and Arial wake up, it's to a small spotlight shining over the 3 of them, and a host none of them can see announces that interns must battle some employees to defend their vacation days in a game called No Vacation, No! Also this is all happening in front of a live audience.
They're wearing blindfolds to protect the anonymity of the other participants, and so Alric and Aglet work with Arial based on what little she can see.
Nobody asked for the rules of how to actually play NVN so they kind of got whaled on at first, but after losing a good chunk of his vacation days Alric asks for the rules.
Rules: Vacation attackers goal is to steal the interns' vacation days by saying a compelling argument for why they need them. Vacation defenders need to convince them that their reason actually sucks and can try to get attackers to give them their vacation days. No physical attacking is allowed, but a loss in Vacation Days results in a loss of HP because working sucks the life out of you. The game ends when one person completely runs out of vacation points unless the audience wants to keep watching the battle (they do).
Arial is too busy formulating a plan to tell the others what she's seeing, so Alric uses his powers to see out of her eyes (they're not very good at teamwork yet). She doesn't like that he's in there, so she tries to take his blindfold off with her tongue (they're still tied up, and it's as gross as you think it is). She did succeed in pushing up half the blindfold, so Alric can see out of one eye now.
"Kidney Stones": Guy with 4 kidneys who had a kidney stone in each of them. He wanted more vacation days to see his wife and recover from the stones but Aglet starts yelling at him about how he shouldn't ask permission to do what makes him happy (but like in the meanest way possible) and gets him to quit his job, giving up all his vacation days.
"Buisneyland": Guy obsessed with going to business themed amusement parks. Keeps trying to take Alrics vacation days, so he convinces them to give him his vacation days on the condition that he will go to buisneyland and take lots of pictures (he won't).
"Naughty Little Baby Daddy": Father (his title was self proclaimed) who wanted to take time off work to see his daughter. Arial got pissed because "My dad never talked to me and I'm FINE. The daddy issues will make her stronger," and somehow convinces the man to disown his daughter, so he longer has a reason to need vacation days.
After winning NVN Arial sends a coworker satisfaction survey — Aglet replies very enthusiastically, while Alric isn't too happy about her performance.
Alric tries to learn a coworker's name but they keep focusing on the stack of papers they're carrying, so he stealthily trips them so he can help them pick everything up. It would have worked if the stack wasn't all glued together, but Alric sees the name Mayo Chaize signed on the top of the stack. Mission failed successfully.

After Hours:

The t(aaa)skforce gets their own company provided studios inside Petaldive HQ, all 3 are connected on the inside too for friendship reasons. Arial gets the middle room bc she is the friendliest ♥ and the doors connecting them lock on Aglet and Alric's sides.
Aglet and Alric go to the Petaldive shopping arcade to buy furniture for their rooms. Arial is also there.
Alric buys: A really fancy looking 3-mirror vanity table, a coffee table with some cushions for his living room, a lot of tall white candles, and an ornate cauldron (that says hocus pocus on the inside) that will allegedly be used as a cooking pot. He tries to find a fancy couch, but the one matching his vision was left outside for free because it has lice in it (he considers taking the couch frame without the cushions anyway, but he's not that desperate).
Aglet buys: a rusty heart locket (to hang her scissors on, the locket has a photo of Naughty's disowned daughter), scented wooden wick candles (in the scents Fuschia Peppermint, Sweaty Santa, Reindeer Velvet, Pine Tree), beetle-shaped garden shears, 2 live laugh love decals (she splits the second one into three so Arial gets live, Alric gets laugh, and Aglet gets love), and a thanksgiving themed grinch kitchenware set for the 3 to share.
Arial treats the taaaskforce to Protein Marchioness. Alric orders a Seamonster Toffee milkshake and Aglet orders a Bugbear Tracks milkshake. Arial buys a $1 promotional drink sponsored by Big Mass X that tastes really bad.

Clocking in:

Everyone's alarm rings at 6AM (their shift starts at 7AM)
Arial begins her morning routine by doing door pull-ups at the door in between her and Alric's studios while he's in the shower.
Alric tries to read up on the Business Terms Glossary provided by Petaldive (everyone has one in their nightstand drawer) so he can act more convincingly, but he can't focus because Arial's working out Right There.
Alric tries to get Arial to work out somewhere else but she doesn't want to, so he just closes the door on her while she's doing her pull ups.
Aglet walks into Arial's room right after she falls off the pull up thing on the door and she's very concerned.
The t(aaa)skforce eats breakfast at the canteen, when Alric persuades Aglet to let Arial work out at their shared doorframe. Aglet is very excited about it, but Arial is not enthused.
Once they clock in for work, Kon gives the t(aaa)skforce a presentation on Ethics, Workplace Harrassment, and Conflict resolution. He draws on a whiteboard as he presents, and accidentally makes one drawings phallic shaped somehow. Alric tries to warn him but everyone can already see it, so it just embarrasses Kon a bit.
After the presentation, Alric asks Kon what his favorite paper color is (it's teal). It sounded more flirtatious than intended, but how flirty can office small talk even be???
Taro (she/he), a member of Kon's original taskforce (and their bestie) shows up after the training. She was supposed to attend the training as a punishment for something, so Kon was like -_- and has her leave with him.
The party is then led by another coworker, Emini, to complete the application portion of the training. Their task is to utilize Ethics and Conflict Resolution to silence two whistleblowers that have broken their NDA with Petaldive.

Taskforce Orientation Battle:

The t(aaa)skforce is fighting 2 whistleblowers who broke their nda with petaldive, Alric and Aglet tried to find non-violent solutions but they really wanted to fight
The party is able to defeat Rumei, the crossbow user, but Cathia, the swordfighter, is strong as fuck and started whaling on Arial for dealing the final blow to their Partner
Aglet manages to do a really good sneak attack despite being in direct view of everyone
Arial gets slashed twice in the chest by Cathia. Rip to her supreme dress shirt :( but also new top surgery just dropped!
Alric heals Arial when she has low hp, and stabilizes her when she's knocked out, but Cathia is still going for the kill. Arial fucking dies?!!??!
As they begin to swing their sword some sirens blare, declaring the combat session over
Rumei gets up and she and Cathia are both like Wow good sesh guys! :D and Alric realizes they're both undead
Arial gets healed but she's still kinda fucked up about it. Then her shirt gets mended but she actually liked the supreme triangle crop top better :(
At Kons office, Alric and Aglet fill out Arials coworker satisfaction survey!
Aglet and Alric make fun of Arial for getting her ass handed to her, and Alric even offers to spar with her (Arial will remember that).
Arial was like "Wait so like do you guys wear armor to work??!!???" and aglet and alric were both like "lol you don't" Unfortunately for Arial this is not the normal office job she was expecting, and Aglet and Alric literally didn't know what to expect from an office job and came prepared
Alric tries to find any files under his name in the office since he doesn't know what information would be on there, but didn't find any
He asks the other two how their interview process was like, and they both said they were surprised that the interviews were contactless

Supervisor Meeting:

Kon arrives and tells everyone that their individual and team performance was pretty good, and that their combat assessment went well. They send Arial and Aglet back to their cubicles, but asks Alric to stay because there seems to be an inconsistency in his application paperwork. (negative nancy voice) Uh oh!

As Kon walks around to sit next to Alric, they take off his glamoured earring – revealing his true appearance and exposing him as Vesper. They then ask if he'd prefer to be called Alric or Vesper when they're alone, to which Alric replies whichever they want. He does, however, ask that his identity remain secret to the rest of the t(aaa)skforce and other coworkers. After their reintroductions, its time to talk business!

In the meantime, Aglet wheels Arial back to their cubicles using the chair she had been sitting in. When they arrive Aglet realizes Arial is sitting in a chair from the HR department...but she already has a chair with her name on it in her cubicle! (All the interns have their names written on a piece of tape on their chairs). She picks Arial up and places her in her actual chair, and wheels the other one back to HR.

While Arial is at her cubicle, Taro from IT (the sole IT employee) comes over to explain some accounting programs that Arial will be using during her time at Petaldive. Even though Arial is a little out of it (taro leaning over her shoulder to explain things didn't help lol gay), she manages to learn the ins and outs of her programs very quickly! Taro also brings her a coconut coffee after their work, because the company accidentally had a shit ton of it shipped over compared to their other flavors.

Back at Kon's office, they reveal themself as Vesper's newest Patron – the one who had requested that he infiltrate Petaldive as Alric Starbrand. This comes as a surprise to Vesper since he very rarely meets with his Patrons in person, let alone as himself. He isn't complaining though, especially as Kon leans in close and...flicks him in the forehead, giving him the spell Wish (hell yeah) – which Vesper can only use once he figures out the secret requirement needed to use it. Kon also throws in the Ray of Frost and Fire Bolt because they like him (double hell yeah).

Then Kon reveals their true assignment for Vesper: The Herald of Darkness, Vesper's sworn enemy, has been attempting to absorb Petaldive into his own company and giving them a hard time in the process. Since Kon had been following Vesper's work, they knew of his history with the Herald of Darkness and figured that their interests would align for long enough to knock him down a peg.

He also mentions that his mother Gardenia – the current CEO of petaldive – has gone missing, and he suspects that the Herald is involved in that too. She looks exactly like Kon and really young for her age, Taro has referred to her as a certified milf in the past.

Anyway, Vesper is enthusiastic about getting a chance for payback, especially when backed up by another powerful being. Kon also mentions that the point of the t(aaa)skforce combat evaluation from earlier was meant to gauge if all three of them would be up to the task, meaning that Vesper will be working with backup.

Before sealing the deal, Kon gets a phone call from none other than the Herald of Darkness himself. It is then that we hear his voice: The awful fantasy Missouri falsetto of none other than Ricky Rat, the Devil who owns Buisney and has a claim on Vesper's soul. He asks to hang out but Kon politely declines, as they're reluctant to even speak to him. After the call, Kon and Vesper shake on it, and as they do all the details of their conversation are transmitted to Arial and Aglet - save for any information pertaining to Vesper's existence.

After the Meeting:

Arial's at her cubicle resting after her hard work, and when the conversation gets beamed into her head she forgets everything that Taro taught her.
Aglet's on her way back from dropping the HR chair back, and she's so shocked from the conversation that she trips and falls over.
Alric makes his way back to his cubicle, when he realizes he feels pretty shaken about the conversation that took place. Kon didn't hold back on his powers and Alric sealed some of his powers before entering Petaldive, so he was feeling the effects of exposure to a higher being.
He stops by The Water Cool~ to calm down, and texts his taskforce that they can ask him questions about their mission back at their apartments
When Alric goes back to his cubicle, Arial walks up to him and asks if he and Kon are limp wrists
Alric was told her that she literally saw how that conversation went (it was extremely fruity but they're just business partners right now) and that was answer enough for her
He also asked her if she and Taro were limp wrists but her eyes just glazed over and she walked back to her cubicle
Aglet didn't really remember most of that conversation but she tried being supportive of Alric. Like so happy for you or sorry that happened
They all head over to Alric's room since it has more locks than Arial's
Kon comes out of Alrics bathroom like "Hey guys! :D" It turns out that he can teleport to any part of Petaldive because it's his domain
Alric tells them they have to knock if they're gonna keep doing that, and Aglet and Arial are worried that Kon will just walk into their rooms whenever too. He assures them that he'll only teleport directly to Alric's room since they're ~closer~
Kon answers any questions that the t(aaa)skforce had regarding their task
Alric asks Kon for his personal number woahhhhhh. That's a surprise tool that will help us later! but probably not

The Weekend:

Arial and Aglet decide to have a girls night and not invite Alric </3
Aglet takes Arial to Likea and buys a lootbox for 100 credits with 3 boxes and a plastic ring inside
Aglet gives the ring to Arial like a fruit and Arials like "I'm never buying those fucking lootboxes"
Arial treats Aglet to dog biscuits from Petzmart, they get baseball and tennis shaped cookies respectively but they literally taste like what they're shaped as
Aglet actually liked the tennis ball biscuit but neither of them liked the baseball one
They both agree not to tell Alric they went out to eat without him because he'd make fun of them for eating dog food forever
Alric texts Kon to ask if he's down to play pool so Kon reaches through Alric's TV screen to pull him into the bowling alley where the pool tables are (bc that's a thing he can do)
Alric tries to convince Kon to buy him a drink because he worked soooo hard at pretending to do office job work (he hates the actual office job part of his job) but Kon was planning on getting him something anyway. They buy him the most expensive fruity drink on the menu ahaha...
Kon beats Alric at pool on the first round (without ever having played it before) and Alric doesn't even get the chance to play. Alric's not even mad it was honestly kind of impressive.
They play bowling afterwards and they both try to figure out the most fucked up ways to throw the bowling ball but Kon still gets so many strikes somehow. Honestly not fair tbh it's almost like they're an archfey and Petaldive is their domain or something.
For the bowling game Alric makes his initials ASB (for Alric Starbrand) and Kon makes his initials CUM (bc he thinks its funny)
Alric takes a selfie of the two of them with the bowling scoreboard in the back and sends it to the t(aaa)skforce group chat with Kon and Taro in it and Aglet was like "WHOS CUM" and Kon took Alrics phone and responded "OURS ♥"
Arial takes Alric up on his sparring offer. She won but it took a lot out of her and he was completely fine somehow. Probably because of the injuries she got in the fight with Cathia and Rumei.
Arial lies down on her bed with her feet kicked up in the air and texts Taro asking him what his favorite paper color is and then and then throws her phone across the room in embarrassment. He responded with "burgerdy" (burgundy).

Monday:

Kon gives the t(aaa)skforce their first official task: Go to the embroidery event being held today and help the social events department head Seo Jihoon with whatever she needs.
The t(aaa)skforce heads over to where the event is being held and sees some employees and Taro :) Seo sees everyone and guides them to some open seats.
As she gets them seated, Seo talks about how happy she is that employees make the effort to attend the events she organizes because she really wants to facilitate making friendships.
She tells the t(aaa)skforce that they seem like really good friends, and that they need to take care of each other or they could end up like this: an old watch with scorch marks and an almost broken clasp.
Alric worries that Seo meant that as a threat, but realizes that she was 100% genuine about her warning.
The three of them feel the same magic that affected Alric on that one couch in the lobby (in Session 1), but he realizes that it's not coming from the chairs themselves. They are all restrained now rip
Seo needs a volunteer to demonstrate an embroidery technique, so she picks Aglet and leads her to the front.

CW NEEDLES

Seo takes Aglet's hand into her own and inspects it gently. She traces her planned embroidery pattern on the back of Aglet's hand with a sewing needle. It happened faster than Aglet thought. Seo is experienced in her craft, there's no denying it.
However the burning feeling of each stitch being pulled through her skin made every second of embroidery feel longer. The brevity of Seo's craft left no room for other co workers to interfere.
Stitched into Aglet's skin was the word Friendship in cursive, embellished in flowers. The beauty of this embroidery is overshadowed by Aglet's darkened, wrinkled, and stretched skin contorting to maintain the structure of the design.

END NEEDLES CW

CW MAGGOTS

The magic makes Alric especially sluggish, so Seo tries to make him feel better by feeding him some oatmeal! The oatmeal is uncomfortably cold. It tickles to even feel it on his tongue. The flavor didn't even compare to the texture.
He wishes it was stale pop rock candy, but it's hard to deny reality when it's wriggling around in your mouth. There sure is a party happening in Alric's mouth, and the maggots are hosting!
Alric actually swallows it like a champ but he tries to avoid another spoonful by telling Seo he feels better already. She insists that he have 3 bites though, so she feeds him a bigger spoonful and warns him not to waste any of it.
Alric manages to swallow it all, and is somewhat comforted that the maggots will at least be dead in his stomach. Seo prepares his last "spoonful" that's just her shoveling the rest of the bowl into his mouth with her hands.

CW EMETO

Seo feels that Alric needs some support to finish his oatmeal. Like the kind colleague she is, Seo takes it upon herself to rearrange the contents in Alric's mouth to better savour the maggots.
Alric was doing impressively well to not vomit, but that ended once Seo pushed a particularly juicy maggot into the back of his throat.
His eyes had already teared up from gagging on previous spoonfuls. He focused on the tears and sweat rolling down his face in hopes it would distract from the convulsing sensation stuck in his throat. Shawty couldn't keep it down what a quitter smh.
Seo gets really mad at him for wasting "food" so she commands him to clean, forcing him to get on his hands and knees and start licking up the mess. The spell ends like immediately though for obvious reasons so he respectfully doesn't actually clean it.

END MAGGOTS + EMETO CW

Watching that entire ordeal makes Aglet and Arial snap out of the trance they were under, so Aglet tries to calm Seo down by telling her they're all friends.
That reminds Seo of an embroidery pattern meant to help friends feel closer together and has all three of them sit in a circle and stack their hands on top of each other

CW NEEDLES

Seo takes their hands and starts sewing them together in a really complicated embroidery pattern that somehow avoids all their veins and bones and shit.

END NEEDLES CW

Their hands are now bound together. It's Seo's epic friends forever embroidery!
The taaaskforce tries to get out of what just happened to them by saying they already have friends they're close to, so Seo's like "Oh yeah? Then name 5 of your friends"
Aglet names Arial, Alric, Seo, Kon, and Taro – but upon hearing Kon and Taro's names Seo starts to freak out because she doesn't recognize who they are, which doesn't make sense knowing that Kon is her boss and Taro is currently in the same room as them.
Seo keeps repeating Kon and Taro's names while freaking out, so Alric tries to find Taro and have her come over to Seo.
They find him sleeping in the opposite corner of the room, so Alric repeatedly calls out his name and for him to wake up.
Taro eventually wakes up (he was really sleepy) and Alric yells at him to come over, so Taro makes his way over to the coffee machine and makes a cup (while everyone yells at him) before slowly walking over towards everyone.
Alric takes some of Taro's coffee because he wants to get the bad taste out of his mouth and then Taro drinks the rest of it.
Seeing Taro snaps Seo out of what was happening to her, and she proceeds to add Taro to the hand embroidery stack that the t(aaa)skforce was in.
Taro really has to pee after that coffee, so she tries to get everyone to the bathroom with her, but then Seo's like "You're all leaving me? :( But youre my friends..."
They all start freaking out like "Omg noooo we're not leaving you ahaha" and Alric tells Taro to just pee in the coffee cup she just emptied so that Seo doesn't get pissed again.
Taro pulls his pants down all the way for some reason and when he tries to pee in the cup he pulls on everyone's hands and they all fall over, causing Taro to fall into Seo.
When Seo falls she drops her watch and it breaks, so she picks it up and starts muttering that it wasn't her fault.
Alric uses an illusion to make the watch look like it didn't actually break, and while Seo is still confused he mends it to get the watch back to normal.
He accidentally mends it too well (near mint condition) and so when Seo has it in her hands she walks away to check on some people's embroidery...and then rubber bands back and quickly transforms into a giant white snake monster.
Kon peeks through the TVs in the room and says "When I said to help her...this isn't what I had in mind. Good luck!" and gives everyone temporary hit points so she doesn't rock their shit.
They all frantically use Aglet's scissors to cut the embroidery thread connecting their hands together, and it kind of takes a while so they have a hard time avoiding Seo's attacks.
Alric and Aglet get hit by her laser beam but Arial is able to dodge it. Once they're all freed Taro ducks under a table after giving Aglet a healing potion (but it's probably just another coffee). Aglet takes Arial with her under the table too.
Alric tries to reason with Seo by telling her she shouldn't hurt her friends, but she's too far gone to be reasoned with.
Alric picks up the watch from where Seo dropped it after transforming, and tries to break it again so it looks like how it did at the start of the day. Kon notices and throws in a picture through the TV for him.
It's a picture of a girl in a yellow dress with white hair, who's wearing the watch that Alric's trying to "fix".
He realizes that Seo's friend wore the watch in near broken condition, and Seo had intentionally preserved it in that state instead of getting it fixed.
He's able to recreate the damage that the watch had in the photo with the world's smallest eldritch blast (woah they did surgery on a watch)
He puts the watch in front of Seo and tells her that they'll all take her warning to take care of each other and not end up dead seriously. He then runs under the table alongside Aglet, Arial, and Taro.
Seo inspects the watch, and doesn't notice that the damage the watch sustained was recreated, so she starts turning back to normal.
The t(aaa)skforce + Taro climb out from under the table, and approach Seo to make sure shes ok. Seo's still a bit pale, so Aglet reassures her that they're friends now, and Seo makes her promise that she is invited to every girls' night from now on. And also Alric is invited for one girls' night only.
Seo looks kind of confused, but she walks towards Aglet, jumps to grab her horns and pull her towards her (Aglet is 6'3 and Seo is 4'11) – and when she opens her mouth, Ricky Rat's voice whispers "Don't think I don't know :)"
Seo snaps out of whatever was making her act weird, and she says "Good embroidery event guys..." and walks out of the room.
After that whole thing, the t(aaa)skforce goes to the canteen to get some food and recharge. They text Taro if he got to the bathroom or not and he sends back a picture of Shinji NGE sitting on the chair except on the toilet.
Then they go infirmary to get all the thread in their hands taken out, Aglet falls asleep while holding her food.
On the way back to their rooms Alric asks Kon for free drinks once again bc frankly he deserves it and Kon sends a selfie of them with Winzy of The Water Cool~ fame along with his phone number. That's a surprise tool that will (not) help us later!
Once they're patched up, they head over to Alric's room and Kon meets them in there for their team meeting
The t(aaa)skforce lets Kon know that the mouse was in the house (Seo was the house)
Alric explains that he couldn't figure out the scope of Ricky Rat's infestation (haha) since Seo left so quickly, but Kon reassures them that he already knows – the HoD is only influencing the department heads and not outright possessing them – and just needs the t(aaa)skforce to scout things out.
Then Kon's like Good job team you did it!1!1!!1!! Go get some rest ♥ and then they do. The t(aaa)skforce decides to have a girls' night in, so Arial sleeps with Aglet (she's trying to maintain a respectful distance) and Alric sleeps in the next room (Arial's room) with the door open because he doesn't wanna interrupt whatever is going on between them.

Girl's Night:

Wednesday Evening

The t(aaa)skforce goes on a girls night and hopes that Seo just forgot about their promise.
Aglet chooses the spa as their girls night hangout spot.
They all get their hair washed together by some golems in one of those big tubs so all their hair grime gets mixed together.
Seo shows up mid-hair wash like "Omg i found you guys!!1!!1" and Alric invites her to join them so she sits in between Alric and Aglet.
When Seo's hair is washed a bunch of glitter and hair clumps come out. By the time her hair is done being washed there is an entire head of hair in the sink but she still has the same amount on her head.
Arial starts getting waterboarded by the tub bc shes kind of short. When she finally gets out her skin is so soft though so everyone else tries it too.
After getting their hair washed the t(aaa)skforce gets their hair styled! Alric and Arial are all fancy with their hair slicked back and done up respectively but Aglet ends up with more of a scene look. None of them like the styles the Golem Stylists chose for them.
Arial challenges Alric to see who can last longer in the spa sauna and wager 100 credits over it.
When Alric feels like he can't handle the sauna anymore, he walks up to where the steam rocks are, and dumps All of the water available over them.
And the gasp that followed rang throughout the entire world bc he was not prepared for the consequences of his actions.
Arial walks up to Alric in his steam prison and throws him out the room so that she wins bc fuck staying in there any longer. He lost but it was worth it.
Arial gives Alric 5 credits while he's recovering from getting ragdolled and tells him to "buy himself something pretty"
They get a big pink lemonade pitcher at the spa's bar to cool down.
There's another patron there and Alric feels kinda weird but he doesn't really think anything of it...it's probably just bc he's still overheated?
Then they all get massages to finish off the Girls Night. Alric and Arial especially have a lot of knots in their back, ouchies.
Seo thanks them for hanging out with her (she really needed this <3)
They all head home, and Kon is waiting for them at Alric's studio.
They explain that there's a bit of an emergency, Taro hasn't cleaned the IT department in so long that the company needs it fixed urgently. As in right now.
The t(aaa)skforce decides to get it done for that sweet overtime pay and also bc they like Taro <3
Before leaving Kon gives Alric a once over and then slaps him really hard. Wtf!!!!
Alric sees Kon put something in his pocket that apparently was on his face but he literally could not see what he was holding. That's a surprise tool that will help us later!

IT Department:

Wednesday Night, Overtime

Taro meets them outside the IT department and leads the t(aaa)skforce inside through a vent.
Apparently working in the vents is good for Taro's yoga...whatever body part the yoga is, anyway.
The entrance room has some computer parts and fake windows drawn on the sides with a hanging yellow lightbulb as the "sun" because sunlight is good for her yoga too.
The rest of the IT department is a series of rooms connected by a ventilation system and they're all so grimy and disgusting that the janitorial staff refuses to touch it.
Arial is really good at cleaning, Alric and Aglet are okay at it.
Alric thinks about freezing one of the rooms and then unfreezing it so the water can carry away all the dust (he's mildly allergic) before he remembers it's filled with computers.
Arial has to pick up a bunch of dead and alive rats and shit with a plastic bag like dog poop. Super gross :D
Taro helps Arial pick up the dead rats by putting his hand over hers which functionally does nothing but it's about the moral support. They're almost holding hands.
Aglet cleans the cobwebs and ofher gross shit on the ceilings as the resident Tall Girl.
Taro tries leading them down a really long chute but something on the other side turns it into more of a slide so they slide through it.
Since all of them were crawling, they all fell through the chute head first and fall on top of each other (Taro, Arial, Aglet, Alric)
Arial gets sandwiched once again and both Aglet and Taro were like "Omg are you ok ^//^"
They end up on the opposite side where the vents were distorted by something way bigger than them all, but at least they don't have to crawl anymore!
They enter a room with computers that are morphed into a spider shape and big computer mouse thats also an actual mouse at this point.
Aglet gets pretty fucked up, Alric gets a little fucked up, and Arial is mostly fine from that whole thing. Taro hangs back the whole time he is not a fighter.
When the injured computer mouse is the only enemy left it begins to wail loudly, and Alric tries to calm it down bc he KNOWS that little shit is calling its mom or something jfc.
Taro leads them all into the next room bc she knows they're about to get fucked up if they don't and the t(aaa)skforce is surprised to see that they've entered some sort of mancave? Welcome to Taro's Hole!

Taro's Hole:

Thursday, Sometime Past Midnight

The t(aaa)skforce has another Girl's Night In to wait out the monster so they decide to marathon the Papa Pia movies.
Alric takes a selfie of everyone to send to Kon so he knows they're hiding from a giant mouse monster.
Kon sticks his head in to check on everyone and they all start yelling for him to get out of the way because he's blocking the screen.
Alric goes up to the tv and pulls Kon into the room so that they don't block the screen anymore and Kon's like "I was just planning on popping in but ok ^^"
All 5 of them squeeze into Taro's big reclining couch to watch the Papa Pia movies.
Alric leans in close to Kon (he doesn't whisper into their ear tho bc telepathy but for when Kon responds back yk?) and asks If theres no such thing as stupid questions. And Kon's like "Lol you wanna ask me smth??"
Alric admits that despite being a salesman for a week and a half he has no idea wtf he's selling to people and Kon just starts laughing at him bc how tf does he not know??? And then Alric's life flashes before his eyes and he realizes they totally told him at orientation and he just was not paying attention at all <3
Apparently Petaldive sells information woahhh who knew??!?! And Alric's actually good at that bc he knows things!!1!1! But he wont give out the info for free bc like...business. But Alric and Kon have a business relationship built on mutual respect and trust and business (Omg its a relationship?) so perhaps...
While this is happening Taro tells Arial and Aglet about how she's not really liking the movie so far because she was expecting it to have pirates because they're on and island and there's no pirates??? 6/10
He also asks Arial if she really likes the movie because she's like sobbing her eyes out at this point and she's like "nnnoo iiveve nnwver wattchedd thisi bbefoere" (like a liar).
Taro sympathizes with Arial and is like "Yeah sometimes you just get emotional during movies yk?" and puts his hand over Arials in an attempt to comfort her and Aglet puts her arm around both of their shoulders its a very tender and beautiful moment actually, you had to be there.
Once they finish the first movie they put in the sequel and Arial keeps pausing the movie to explain the parallels between both of them (still sobbing btw) and it's honestly more interesting with the movie itself it's a really good tedtalk.
Also Kon tells Alric to hold out his hands for a surprise and puts something warm and squishy and invisible in his hands?
The t(aaa)skforce signs another NDA to learn wtf it is and it literally looks like a loose ballsack now that they can see it.
Apparently its a surveillance item used to track suspicious people and Alric's like D:= over being considered sus (haha) bc like it's really suspicious to see balls on someone's face yk?
Anyway Alric keeps it bc he's going to reverse engineer it also he unknowingly already took it home the first time so that ship has sailed.
They all start falling asleep after the 2nd movie bc its well past the middle of the night by then.
Taro and Aglet sandwich Arial so she barely sleeps (lol gay).
Alric falls asleep on Kon (he is starfishing) and sometimes when he dreams the audio gets randomly broadcasted (sleep telepathy).
Kon gets to hear clips from random Buisney movies as Alric is the bearer of The Rat's curse. Also he leaves at some point as the busiest Petaldive employee so he leaves Alric the blanket (that all 5 of them were sharing btw) to starfish over.
The next morning Alric wakes up and is like "Oh shit did I fall asleep on top of Kon???" bc turns out he is a sleep cuddler lol
Once Aglet gets up Arial leaves to go wash her face bc she was sandwiched for a few hours and keeps thinking about gay shit. Then she comes out to pump iron but there are no dumbells.
Aglet tries to wake up Taro but he starts shitting and crying bc "NooOoooOoO I don't WANNA wake up yet 5 more minutes pleaseeee"
When Taro starts getting up Alric tries to check the elusive weather channel that Taro checks every morning but he can't find it so he just says it's cold (a lie) and Taro cries a little bit bc it's not actually cold. She crawls back into the couch.
Aglet convinces Taro to get up by telling him that she really likes spending time with him <3 and he says he'll only get up if she carries him bc that's how bad he doesn't wanna get up
Aglet gently lifts Taro off the couch with the strength mothers get when they lift cars (she's a beanpole) it's very sweet (again, you had to be there).
Arial and Alric are looking at eachother like "U see this shit?" and then Arial makes Alric come over so she can use him as a dumbell bc she needs to be strong enough to carry Aglet and Taro at the same time she needs to.
Once shes tired of weightlifting Alric she just drops him bc she forgets he's a person but then he grabs onto her so he won't fall and then they both end up falling. Task failed successfully!
Also Arial gives him 5 credits for his service. He'll make his wager back in no time!
Ok now they're ready to finish cleaning the last big room in the IT department!

IT Department:

Thursday, Early Morning

The t(aaa)skforce has to navigate over some bugs that line the vent like retracting spikes.
Alric freezes them so he can walk over/around them while they're not moving.
Taro uses Baxe Body Spray thinking its Braid but it still works actually.
The last room they have to clean is a massive storage room that seems kind of ok at a glance...until they look up.

CW SPIDERS

On the ceiling is a giant yellow spider with hearts and smiley faces on it surrounded by a shit ton of other large spiders (and the spikes outside were the babies).
Everyone's still sleepy from their late night so Alric decides he's gonna fumigate the room by using Flame Strike sideways bc he's built different.
Alric also gets his arms super burnt from using a spell above his level (he has access to a shit ton of spells but with consequences) and is feeling a lot weaker but it was worth it! probably!
He unsurprisingly sets the room on fire and does kill many of the spiders but the Big One is fine and makes a hole in the other side of the room and escapes ohhhh noooo.
Also there's just a lot of screeching, burning spiders that are trying to make their way to the doorway the party is standing in front of it's pretty gross to watch.
Oh no the giant spider is chasing them and the fire is spreading to other parts of the vents ooooohggg shjittt
They're lucky that the spider is going over the spikes slowly bc she doesn't wanna hurt her babies.

END SPIDER CW

Alric and Aglet are surprisingly fine despite the smoke and Arial gets a bit fucked up by it but Taro helps her out.
They all leave the IT Department and frantically tell the receptionist the IT Department is on fire but she just nonchalantly dispatches the janitorial staff to finish cleaning things up (they have fire fighting gear at least)

After Hours:

Thursday, Late Morning

They go back to their rooms and shower to get the soot off. Taro goes with Aglet to her room because the status of Taro's Hole after the department fire is unknown.
She has her own living quarters apart from that but doesn't feel like going to them for some reason.
While Alric is resting from the strain he put himself under to set the building on fire, Kon pops in and is like "Is this a bad time?"
Alrics like haha yeah i set the bulding on fire <3 and Kon's like yeah thats fine. Literally doesn't care about property damage best boss ever.
Kon also asks Alric about the spider monster and Alric says he didn't kill it and tried asking if it was Kon's or like learn more information about it but learns literally nothing.
Everyone meets in Arial's room after for a Team Meeting afterwards and Kon sends out an employee satisfaction survey.
Kon asks Taro if he said hi to Her while they were in the IT Dept and Taro was like "Ahaha yeahhhhh" but was obviously lying and wanted to avoid the subject. Possibly about the Spider?
Alric and Arial look at eachother like WTFFFF because all 3 t(aaa)sk members PROMISED that what happens in Arials coworker satisfaction surveys stays there!
But they cannot ask Kon if they know about the surveys or not because then they will know. They do notice the t(aaa)skforce acting weird though.
After that Taro, Aglet, and Arial pile together on Aglet's bed for another Girls Night In.
Alrics invited too I guess but he doesn't really fit so he just sleeps in Arials bed with the door open again.

van and kat did the minutes but i edited them a little bit so this one was a team effort <3 go us

DAY OFF

Thursday

Taro slept with Arial and Aglet (woah) bc he was too lazy to go back to his residence
The t(aaa)skforce gets to skip work today and they get a +500 credit overtime bonus LETS GOOOOOO
Aglet and Taro are starfishing each other on Aglet's bed. They have Arial ensnared in their sexy little saw trap but she's sleeping like a log <3.
Aglet gets up before everyone else. Alric (in Arial's room once again), Taro, and Arial are Peter Griffin Dead.
Aglet's antlers are still too small for the beetle shears to fit on there </3
She ends up making paper cut outs of the whole t(aaa)skforce for funsies in her freetime (including Kon and Taro)
She accidentally makes them Not to scale at all so Alric and Kon’s cutouts are way bigger than Arial and Taro’s (kinda true to life but also not really)
As soon as Alric wakes up he calls Kon for Business. He Wants Answers. "haha kon do you have time for a one on one right nowww"
Someone else answers Alrics call and Alrics like "w h o a r e y o u ." He gets a Boogle Calendar invite and sees the meeting with Kon is scheduled three months later. After everything they've been through </3
He decides "fuck it" and just starts calling out to the tv like "kooooon omggg" he's reaching through the screen!
Kon texts Alric saying "noooo dont poke the screen you'll let all the gay people ouuutttt anyways haha just text me with your questions"
Alric asks Kon for a 3 bedroom apartment rather than the 3 studios. But like a freak. That gets sorted and then Alric asks them for another in-person meeting later for another matter.
Aglet notices Alric is awake and gives him the cut out she made for him :) She also gives Alric Kon’s cutout because she knows he talks to them more (lol)
Arial's cutout is the smallest and Kon's cutout is the biggest. How sad... How Hilarious.
They talk about their other artistic pursuits and ALRIC TELLS AGLET ABOUT HOW TO DRAW MANGA BOOKS. THATS SO SICK.
Arial wakes up very suddenly and jumps out of bed. Aglet hides the remaining cutouts because she wants to surprise everyone.
While she’s showing Arial her cutout she’s glaring at Alric not to show his because it is Way Bigger. He ends up doing it anyway but she can’t notice that it’s way bigger because he’s holding it so far away lol
Taro is sleeping with his ass in the air. Twister Position. How Guys With iPhones Sleep. Alric and Aglet Try To Wake Him Up. He wakes up for a second and Aglet shows the paper cutout of him.
Taros like "Looks just like Ronic" and then flies high. Goodbye Taro </3.
Aglet puts a blanket over his ass because she doesn’t want it to get cold.
Arial treats the Taaaskforce to lunch... at the BungaloDepartment (god damn it). They only sell industrial-sized buckets of mac & cheese. With straws so you can slurp up all the cheese.
Arial makes another wager with Alric for 100 credits if he can eat the whole bucket of mac & cheese.
Arial and Aglet share a bucket together. Arial gets the "D".... straw. Aglet is on her last one.
Aglet casually sips the cheese out of the bucket but Arial immediately feels like she has to fight for her life. Ruh roh!
ALRIC IS SO LACTOSE LOVING... HE CLEARED THE BUCKET... 100 CREDITS IS 100 CREDITS! Arial pays up
Arial manages to find her way to the bathroom. While she’s taking the shit of her life, Alric and Aglet decide to browse BungaloDepartment
Aglet gets shears (they're a little blunt though) and Alric gets a nice fern. Arial gets lactose intolerance.

WORK (Aww yeah it's about drive)

The Whole Next Workweek

It's a normal work day! None of them know....... None of them know that we've been embroided together or fought computer spiders.
Alric gets the Most Improved award (not literally he just rolled nat 20 for his work performance so he did so much better) because he knows he's selling information now <3
Friday morning Kon sends a message asking the Taaaskforce to come to his office when they clock in.
Aglet sees Alric’s MSPaint drawings and decides to give feedback (he forgot her scissors. like it was a good drawing but she felt so naked)
She becomes more inspired to start doing her own art <3 hello bitzelsart.com
Uh oh she gets so invested in it that the t(aaa)skforce forgets about their meeting with Kon!!
Because they were a whole hour late to the meeting, Kon just left a recording updating them on their next task (rip alric)
Taro is fortunately in his hole :)
For Alric and Arial it's another day on the ranch... But for Aglet she feels this tingly feeling... A little tickle in the butt.... She notices that recently the customers who she's been helping out have been similar to each other..... There's an itch in the back of her mind.....
Aglet reflects on the work day and realizes that the customers she had to deal with were unusually monotonous. On a typical day, she would be able to gather a wide variety of information and issues from the people she works with. It wasn’t like that at all today. Each patron was like one another, but slightly to the left or right.
The repetitive nature of it all made her head pang. She feels like she’s done this before, though she doesn’t understand how that could be. She takes psychic damage :( She decides she wants to go back to the residence and let her headache pass

DAY(S) OFF... 2!

Woah the Weekend

On Saturday Kon texts everyone to GET READY FOR MONDAY. MONDAY NIGHT RAWWWWW
The Taaaskforce have a threeway. A threeway spar. Arial solely targets Alric and Smash Bros throws Aglet away whenever she gets close! Alric infuses his cantrips into the prop stuff and throws them! Aglet is evasive and shit!
Arial won the ladder match in the end. It was ugly as fuck. I can't NOT f-

WORK... 2!

Omg it's Monday

Monday morning Kon wakes everyone up... Like Nagito Komaeda on the beach with Hajime
Kon tells us they want us to fix the departments because they're kinda fucked up. The Taaaskforce gets assigned to go check the Surveillance department first. That's where the ballsacks are from!
Kon tells us that we're going to meet one of their assistants, Arisa. Those damn A names!
KON INTRODUCED THYME SO WE CAN BUY NEW STUFF YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! WELCOME TO THE UNDER ROSE BRANCH OF PARADISO!!!!! YEAHHHH
The Taaaskforce doesn't know what the fuck Thyme is exactly but they reach through the screen and pop outta there. HE'S HERE.
Thyme sells Aglet a lobster claw polearm... THE CLAW... The Catch that we deserved tbh!
ALRIC GETS A HAMMYPACK DJGSDFKJG THE MATERIAL MATCHES HIS SUIT....
Alric tries to persuade Thyme to make it cheaper but Kon is so whipped for Thyme that he was like omg noooo I make sure the t(aaa)skforce is compensated really well <3333 so Thyme charges Alric even more for it D:< Kon will HEAR from him.
Arial got The Bucci Briefcase... 750 credits... Gone...! Her soul is leaving her body.
Because we're first time customers, we get a free item... We get Bibito the little skrunkly omg crab of guidance awwwwwwww
Thyme manhandles Kon into the TV. Alric is THINKING.

WOAH FIRST REAL ASSIGNMENT

Still Monday Morning

kons new assignment is to fix up the surveillance department, which is grouped with the security and it depts
taaaskforce meets w arisa, they will be reporting to her for as long as they are working in the surveillance department
arisa is such a girlboss omg
she brings everyone to the building they'll work in and asks how comfortable they are with being watched.
aglet immediately starts shitting her pants but she doesnt know why the idea of that scares her so bad, arial is fine with it, alric is pretty used to it so he thinks he'll be fine (lol)
all parts of it are see through so you can see every part of the building regardless of where you are
there is a hollow area in the center of the building that connects all the floors, dont fall in though! (you wont guess what happens later)
theres also a huge orb in the center that responds to audio and visual stimuli. it gains colored dots on it that match what it sees, and grows spikes that rise in the direction sounds come from.
ok now arisa tells them to Investigate (investigate what?????) and fucks off
oh and she also tells alric not to talk to anyone bc hes too suspicious and alric takes that personally (and he remembers that SHE put the surveillance ballsack on him WTF!!!!!)
the taaaskforce is surrounded by people just working so theyre like Damn idk what to do
someone approaches them asking if theyre the taskforce that was sent in to fix the cameras and they, with 0 camera fixing experience, said Yes <3
they couldnt find any cameras to fix until they realized the cameras were extra eyes on surveillance employees bodys. godspeed aglet they are all Looking
the party tries texting taro to ask her if she knows how to fix cameras but he said to just turn it off and back on again. thanks it did not work you are the best
aglet hangs back bc shes scared shitless and alric hangs back bc hes too suspicious apparently so its up to arial to be the it person. shes like never seen a regular camera before let alone this shit
arial approaches someone to fix their camera and when she tries to turn it off and back on she accidentally pokes them in the camera eye and her sus meter rose oh noooo
they ask arisa what to do but arisas like Tch you guys are still on this floor? you need to cover more ground so they're like Damn ok we'll go to another floor

GOING TO A DIFFERENT FLOOR

as they try to leave the floor some karen office employee tries to get arial to fix her camera but since she doesn't actually know what shes doing aglet and alric try to help out
they all try to be like Hey we'll be right back but shes really insistent and thinks she is the most important person ever and needs her camera fixed so she can make enough money for her and her many husbands to go to a nonas brothers concert
arial is like husbands??? whaaaaaat
anyway aglet musters up so much bravery and strength to look this lady in the eye (her camera is a third eye so its extra difficult) and respectfully tell her to fuck off. she is so customer service she was born for this.
this lady literally does not care at all and she's getting kinda nasty (and as the conversation gets more heated the party can feel more and more eyes looking at them)
aglet tells her if she keeps pestering us to fix her camera before they're ready they could fuck up her vision
but the karen is not intimidated by her camera vision getting fucked up because she still has eyeballs lol
and then alric (who was getting kinda antsy bc of all the cameras) says that if she keeps talking shit She Won't.
everyone in the building turns to look at him LMAOOOOO it was very much a "put a finger down if you fucked my boyfriend steve in the burger king parking lot moment"
bless his heart this is exactly why arisa told alric not to talk bc he would threaten people if he had to do customer service. literally proved her point
anyway all 3 of them are standing there like Oh God Oh Fuck Oh God Oh Fuck so alric looks at everyone and is like WHAT? and then he tells the rest of the taaaskforce to run so they all run down the stairs LMAO
that just makes them look worse so theres a small crowd following them and people on different floors are staring at them as they go down
alric and aglet are both freaking out because They Won't Stop Staring. arials just there like Man wtf
eventually alric stops walking down the stairs and just sits on the steps like head in hands. and the crowd stops following them but theyre still standing there. watching.
so alrics like fuck this guys im going to the bathroom, which thankfully is the only part of the building that isnt see through (theres cameras though)

T(AAA)SKFORCE PEE BREAK

arial and aglet go with him and the small crowd of employees waits at the bathroom door for them but some of them go inside to watch alric pee (in case he was lying or smth but he really did go pee wtf guys)
alric also calls arisa in the stall like Bro theyre watching me pee what do we do???? and arisa was just like Idk this is your fault you fix it
once they all wash their hands some of the people watching them decide that wasnt sussy of them so they stop following but theres still some people left
arial goes to drink from a water fountain and aglet makes fun of alric for being sus
aglet tears alric a new one bc hes really stupid with relationships and should be honest with himself about how he feels about kon and their hot boyfriend thyme bc she saw the way he was looking at them that morning lmaoooo
alric retaliates by asking about all the girls night sleepovers aglet, arial, and taro have that hes in the next room during like "aren’t you guys...you know..." and aglets like "omg no its not like that...yet" (YET?!??!!?!?)
arial is too busy rawdogging the water fountain water to hear that shes being talked about as aglets crush
anyway after hearing the hot goss about alric and aglets love lives the remaining surveillance employees realize theyre not evil, just really stupid, and leave them alone. but many employees are still passively watching
unfortunately that karen actually chased them down the floors to where theyre currently at and shes once again demanding that they fix her camera
alric totally tried to just pay her the money for her concert tickets so shed leave them alone (he was gonna ask kon for the money as a bonus LMAO) but it was like 5000 credits so he was like nah this ones up to aglet and arial
the lady hands them tools to fix the camera but its actually just the tiny glasses tools that aren't actually meant for that? so they just try their best
they manage to take out the camera part so theres just an empty socket on her forehead and you can kinda see her brain through there its pretty nasty
while arial and aglet just kinda stare like Uhhhh what do we do alric investigates what kind of magic the camera eye has
the karen gets impatient and yells at them for not knowing what they're doing and they were like Uh yeah we tried to tell you
they put her camera back and she leaves a terrible review to their supervisor including "the pink one called me ugly!!!" to which a couple employees stare at alric and hes like WTF I DIDNT SAY THAT! and then she leaves
now that alric's calmed down he was able to detect that the magic in the cameras is the same type of magic that the orb was emitting so they go in an elevator back to the top floor

BACK TO THE ORB

they walk up to the orb and alric tries to check out the magic it has to see if the root of the camera problem lies with the orb and he gets sensory blasted into the next dimension so he doesnt really learn anything
arial throws a pen into the orb and it disappears. and then after a few seconds it comes back. that tells her all she needs to know bc then she backs up a little bit...and then runs up to the orb and jumps in
aglet and alric watched this happen like WHAT THE FUCK??????
aglets about to cry bc she thinks arials just dead and alric doesnt know if he should laugh his ass off bc that was the stupidest shit hes ever seen or be upset because she's totally dead
aglet tells alric she really wants to jump in the orb and asks him to hold her back and hes like you got it chief so hes just kinda hugging her from behind while she tries not to lose her shit. he totally wants to jump in the orb just to see what will happen though he wants to understand the orb so bad
aglets like mmmmm actually i wanna jump in the orb ;; and alrics like mmmm me too so they ask bibito if they should do it and bibitos like Have fun and be yourself
so alrics like Ok lets jump on 3...THREE and he jumps in and pulls aglet with him
meanwhile in the orb arial ricochets around the orb a bit (ow) and absorbs like Everything the ball is perceiving and its a very overwhelming amount of information but she manages to pull through
inside the orb is a baby beholder whos like Hi im peeby <3 this is peeby's orb
immediately after that alric and aglet bounce in
a few minutes passed outside the orb but it was only a few seconds inside woahhhh
theyre both also bombarded by everything you can see and hear in the building but theyre also able to withstand that amount of information fine
peeby is like Hi im peeby <3 This is peeby's orb. Peeby understands you. and alric knows what beholders are about even though this one is really adorable so hes like omg thats crazy were also peeby to not piss them off
they chat it up with peeby and learn that this orb is where all of what peeby sees is recorded
peeby also shows them everything including kon in his office (he waves hi), thyme at an anime boy going insane angle, and taro asleep on the copier (it keeps printing out copies of his titties)
peeby also shows something but then is like Oops! and takes it off almost immediately
alric asks about the oops but peebys embarrassed so alric tries to reassure them by saying that everyone in the taaaskforce has embarrassing moments
for alric several embarrassing moments are shown including when everyone watched him pee and when he pulled up to the building in his illusory lambo which definitely doesn't show up because peeby has truesight so hes just levitating in a sitting position like a loser. he realizes that with the truevision hes his true height in peebys recordings and not the height his glamour makes him so that definitely freaks him out
for arial they showed her dumping her bike in the bushes because she was embarrassed she didnt own a car (she still doesnt). the bike is rusty now...its still in the bush
for aglet it showed her licking the shit out of that salt lamp her first day of work and also when she had an ibs attack
peeby also mentions that they shouldnt worry about the embarrassing stuff they do being seen because peebys the only one who can see the surveillance footage...unless someone buys it
alric asks if anyones bought it recently bc that could land him in really deep shit
now that peeby has been comforted they show alric that its a guy in a business suit with a rickey rat pin on his lapel, this was what peeby accidentally showed them earlier
alrics like Haha im in danger!
they ask to leave the orb now that theyve gathered sufficient intel so peeby gives them food (its garlic parmesean fries) and then sends them on their way
and by that i mean they open a hole through the bottom of the orb and send them plummeting below, and as they fall through they see someone else visiting peebys orb

EXITING THE ORB

OH SHIT THEY'RE FALLING??!??!??!

they are all free falling through the center of the building oh shiiiiiiiiiiit
aglet is able to maneuver herself onto one of the floors just fine
alric ends up hitting a bunch of shit on the way down so hes able to break his fall 5 floors lower than aglet
arial cant find anything to stop her fall so she just keeps going and aglet is freaking out because she can see this happening. alric is on the ground freaking out for unrelated reasons sorry arial he has no idea
one of arials business cards slips out of her briefcase and it burns into a different business card offering products, services, and solutions, with a phone number on the bottom
arial calls the number and asks for them to help her stop falling so she doesnt die
thyme comes out of a portal right above her so theyre both free falling while they calculate how much it costs for her to stop falling for a couple seconds
then hes like That'll be 200 credits and arials like yeah ok fine just do it already, so then thyme grabs her and they both teleport to where aglet is watching this all happen
aglet throws herself onto arial because this is the second time she's watched her almost die (except this time it was for real) so shes pretty shaken up
alric hears the commotion higher up so he asks thyme to bring him up to where theyre all at bc the fall he took kinda hurt ngl (thats another 200 credits)
once thyme brings him up alric asks him to get rid of the buisney guy who has the recordings that doxx him because if rickey rat gets his hands on it and sees alric he is so fucked (again, another 200 credits)
after a few minutes thyme comes back and gives alric the pin the guy was wearing and then asks him to give kon's handkerchief back for them
they try to report back to arisa in person but the karen waited right outside the elevator doors just to harrass them so theyre like Nah and just call arisa on their way back to their office instead
they go get taro from the paper copier because hes still sleeping there (and theres a line behind her)
alric grabs a copy of his titties for arial because shes too embarrassed lol also shes too busy carrying taro (whos still sleeping) like a fruit

AT KON'S OFFICE

alric goes to kons office and gives back the handkerchief (omg peeby did the embroidery on it thats so cute)
then thyme materializes behind alric and locks the door. the world is not ready for what happens next
so thyme and kon explain the true circumstances of alrics recruitment to petaldive:
it turns out that alric's grandfather, durayin – the one who made a pact with a devil that was strong enough to make all his descendants tieflings – owes a large sum of money to paradiso
he's in his sunset years though (allegedly) so he and thyme agreed to have alric pay it off (thats what happens when ur peepaws favorite grandkid lol)
coincidentally, alric happens to be a warlock that takes on jobs like what kon needed, so thyme suggested that alric work for kon in order to pay off the debt instead of paying out of pocket
he also has to pay full price for any goods from paradiso (whereas the rest of the taaaskforce gets a pretty big discount)
he also makes a deal with thyme that'll let him earn back the levels he sealed away when the time is right (so hes level 5 but he's technically level 9)
thyme jokingly says to think of their deal as a marriage contract so its easier to sign and kon and alric are both like mgs exclamation point sound
when alric signs his contract between him and thyme he automatically starts signing it as Mangus Agnus and then he stops like what the fuuuuuck
thymes like Its just to keep you accountable :) and that was the last straw lol. he still signs it though
alric kind of loses his shit at both of them because thats a pretty large bombshell that just got dropped on him and he was already having a really shitty day
what with all the people watching him (turns out that makes him super uncomfortable) and almost getting sniffed out by the rat
and now his grandpa sold him to one direction :pensive: they're both so hot though
kons just kinda like Damn this is awkward im gonna go...and climbs inside his computer screen
thyme snaps back but isn't actually mad hes just like Ok bro and sits down on kons couch like chilling while alric's still like Man Standing

T(AAA)SKFORCEPARTMENT

back at the taaaskforce apartment (oh yeah it was upgraded into a 3 bedroom apartment while they were out instead of 3 connected studios YAY) aglet arial and taro are taking a nap
but taros the only one sleeping because aglet is still reeling from watching arial almost die (she's pretending shes asleep though)
arial is also having trouble sleeping because she didnt realize people could care about her that much
eventually aglet opens her eyes to talk to arial but she sees one giant eye staring back at her.
Peebys like hi im peeby. this is your orb •)
aglet gets jumpscared so everyone else wakes up and theyre like holy shit hey peeby
they all decide to get fry king and get alric some bc they didnt know his situation with rickey rat was so bad until he freaked out about it earlier that day
peeby and taro share a giant bucket of garlic parmesean fries and they inhaled that shit the bucket had a few bite marks too
aglet and arial share a smaller bucket of bbq fries because of arials horrible lactose intolerance
alric goes back to their apartment by the time everyone else is back and hes in a terrible mood
when he sees peeby hes like omg hi peeby i love you also everyone treating him to food does cheer him up (they dont know how low on money hes about to be LMAO welcome to the broke side alric)
when alric goes to sleep that night peeby is chilling in his room and after reviewing how alrics day went peeby was like "Peeby doesn't understand you"

Hi guys kat did the minutes this time bc ive been lazy but i'll eventually write a version that you don't need context to understand :thumbs_up: for now...you just had to be there.

AFTER HOURS

Monday Evening

alric takes a nap (its actually a full sleep lol rip)
6 PM he is now normal <3 he has thymes phone #
he texts them like “heyyy you sell like luxury products right.. you got any cigs cus i ran out lol =:P
thyme: you interested in a certain brand or what
thyme sends a pic of the living room from outside
they meet on the balcony ahahaaa
alric and thyme smoke break woozyface ahahahaaa haaahaaa aahahaahahaaaaha aahaaa haaahaaaa
thyme offers his lighter to alric woozy face alric leans in omg they lit them at the same time oh my goddd oh my god alric is not looking at thyme except now it looks like hes looking at thymes mouth bro howd i catch you lacking this hardddd
alric asks thyme how much they know his grandpa
thyme says they don’t know his grandpa personally
alrics grandpa is famous within... you know
thyme asks if alric gets along with his coworkers
he also asks if alric gets along with his boss
god
god
god
alric stumbles is it billiards or pool
THYME CALLS ALRIC EYE CANDY’
ALRIC HAS A NOSE RING?!
alrics face is so different
DONT YOU LOOK LIKE THE DEVIL HERE?
You.
thyme fixes him <3
thyme leaves behind another pack where they were
meanwhile aglet is lying in bed on her back eyes glued to the ceiling wide awake “I’m actually whipped for one of the stupidest recklessest people”
arial is on the toilet unable to get up and decides to text kon about the policy regarding relationships in the workplace
and then she asks what to do if theres 2 people you like
kon says Just date 3 people
arial gets trolled

SURVEILLANCE DEPT DAY 2

Tuesday Morning

wake up taaaskforce its 6 am!
back to the surveillance dept. yugirismoke
arisa yugiriwoozy yugirismoke yugiriwoo
we recall peeby’s orb
alric and aglet are super fucked up (for different reasons but like... no good horrible very bad day) so they miss some important finer details
arial could pinpoint major problems but misses some important finer details
they did the bare minimum yay go team
arisa asks them about peeby
main goal is to restore surveillance department to more palatable conditions
we lost connection with our surveillance systems and floor
peeby :) we can keep track of and use many of our cameras
the camera eye people get paid extra to have cameras installed on them, its a different contract
bc we lost other head of surveillance we are unable to have a consistent view of other parts of the building without peeby (go peeby)
arial catches a glimpse of someone she feels is relevant to this task
in a place with many screens and overgrown plants growing everywhere
person slumped back in the chair looking at all of the screens
arisa “you know they really like soup!” “bright orange thermos”
aglet asks if arisa is into art and arisa says no. embarrassing }:(
arisa draws a blond person with spiky hair spiky ears and an orange thermos with cat ears
name: Mogi Cattcomber
upgraded all our security passes yay go team
specify that we are the taskforce assigned to this area and there is only one taskforce assigned to this area (unless specified by higher-ups)
archives is in the void under peeby’s orb, elevator all the way down
arisa gives us all peach flavored (not sugar free!) gum because she received peer feedback to be nicer (we get one stick each)
alric aglet and arial hate peach gum they got the worst sticks of gum ever. oh well. they appreciate the gesture since arisa is being nice for the first time
we take the elevator into the deeper floors
the descent is really fucking long it takes 15 minutes
aglet does baton tricks with the claw shes really bad at it she hits herself in the head
alric is doing fire tricks and Thinking Flushed emoji
arial holds a stance in front of the door and commits to it because she’d look kinda dumb if she stopped
archives are in a circular formation where other elevators circle the center
other elevators are currently not in use (since we’re the only taskforce authorized to work here until further notice)
bro the archives is an island library building the bridges that connect the elevators to the archives are over water? that’s so cool
the orb is a light source whoaaa
omg pretty lampposts and bioluminescent lights in the water (its very dim though)
aglet perceives all... there’s no other employees in this area so we Are the only workers here. not entirely sure about non-workers tho. she doesn’t sense anything
we make it to the island and the giant building has these different giant arches that correspond to each of the bridges coming in (accommodates for lots of foot traffic but god it is so empty right now)
there is a giant stone spiral staircase heading down in the building (it goes REALLY low)
arial picks up a torch and tosses it into the pit
aglets like wow this is just like when alric set the vents on fire i wonder when i’m gonna have my turn
arial has a rhythm goin down the stairs and nudges alric to go down because shes so into it >:)888
alric is heaving and sweating and about to pass out god hes so sweaty god its so gross god =:(
aglet is taking a stroll }:)
arial had the rhythm going down the stairs! but alric stumbled on one of the steps. he tried to grab onto arial behind him so he doesn’t fall and he almost brings her down with him
he somehow manages to catch the torch holder on the side god fucking bless
alric tells aglet “I closed the door this time =>:)” (see the time aglet tore alric a new one at the water fountain yesterday)
aglet looks at him like }:\ Haha thanks i appreciate it
water fountain! arial starts rawdogging it immediately
aglet notices a discolored wall with a consistent gap in the middle
alric doesn’t see the door that aglet sees but sees a huge door behind the water fountain
huge door with 2 statues of knights kneeling in front of the giant door
in the middle is a smaller statue
the floor has a bunch of panels on it
smaller statue has a plaque on it (
the floor is. twister.
alric approaches the small statue and the eyes light up. they yell QUIZ TIME!
the statue sheds the suit and is just some generic gameshow host with a tacky tie
alric “Do i look like that.”
the two knights carve in a tie into their chestplates to match
aglet flashback 1
The taskforce was left with this riddle as their last question: Circles three, a heart? I have none. Your kin may smile but you grimace tongue to tongue. Beloved by my loves and vermin to my enemies. Do you have the courage to say my name? Aglet immediately recognizes what this means and feels her heart sink a bit. Alric is a bit lost, so Aglet instinctively draws the Rickey Rat head silhouette with her polearm. This helps Alric realize what the riddle was referencing, but Aglet finds herself experiencing a LOT of whiplash. Arial notices that Aglet seems fucked up AFTER drawing the logo, and is able to gather that whatever is upsetting Aglet is related to Buisney.
After winning entry into the archives, the gameshow host statue guy hands Aglet an 8-pack of vintage Napping Hottie pencils. They tell the t(aaa)skforce that nobody really comes down to visit, and it gets lonely and boring down in the archives :( Aglet replies “We’re happy to have entertained you!” and Experiences Consequences.
She has a disturbingly vivid flashback to her life as a child actor except it’s in third person oh god. She sees a younger version of herself backstage, being told that she has a library performance immediately after a show. She is told that she’s everyone’s favorite star, but the company of which she is a star of is warbled out with white noise in the flashback.
She sees herself in the mirror wearing an absolutely god-awful outfit. It feels so foreign on her, but she realizes that this is actually something she’s done in her life. Oh god
As she’s experiencing this, Aglet is on the floor Staring at the Napping Hottie vintage 8-pack of pencils and having the worst time of her fucking life. Alric notices pretty quickly that Aglet is Fucked Up. He picked up the pencils, grounding her a bit. She looked up at him and looked absolutely Hollow. She wants to go home and take an 8-hour nap so fucking bad.
Alric tries to break one of the pencils in to make Aglet feel better. He couldn’t do it so he ended up just lighting it on fire lol. It still works though!
Aglet then gets up and heads towards Arial, who didn’t previously notice how fucked up Aglet was, getting her attention.
She places a hand on Arial’s bicep, prompting her to turn around. She asks Arial if she’s strong. She starts caressing her arm and in the most desperate sexy fruity way she tells her how strong she is and how she needs her to break these vintage Napping Hottie pencils for her. She tells Arial that she knows she can do it and because Aglet is super fucked up right now it comes off Really desperate sexy and fruity so Arial absolutely pulverizes the pencils in her hand. All 6 of them. She smashes the pencils into dust with her briefcase for good measure.
Also Alric notices that Aglet is having her sick and twisted moment. He’s wide eyed. She’s going through it oh godddd
Aglet snaps the last pencil in half and asks Alric to burn it for her. Good group therapy session guys Aglet feelings better :thumbs_up:

THE ARCHIVES

the t(aaa)skforce enters the archive and a little map with a guide tells them that the archives are currently under renovations. they also see where they are yay
archives look like a normal library with a ton of books! a bit dusty but pretty uneventful overall
the t(aaa)skforce entered in an area where they can walk on top of the shelves (which are 30 ft tall jesus!)
on the opposite end, there are stairs going down towards the floor being level with the actual bookshelves
aglet does notice there is a note stuck onto the map directory: it’s a mini report, torn out of someone’s notebook!
Expedition 2A Report - The popularity of the information era has been underestimated. As humans we think ourselves as the apex of society so often that we forget that there are creatures besides us that crave knowledge. Recommended action to icarus: maintain your position to the arrogant sky
aglet and alric notice a low rumble throughout the room. it feels like it’s coming from a large creature that’s like. breathing.
alric can tell this message is targeted towards a specific audience and icarus is a codename, but he can’t really parse what exactly they’re referring to
the t(aaa)skforce notices a weird fucking paper animal and aglet thinks its a mule or donkey. alric thinks its a horse.
regardless, alric notices a the runes on this paper animal. the ones he does recognize are something to do with knowledge life and power. many of the other ones are unrecognizable or gibberish
once he realizes this, alric realizes that this animal is a bookwyrm
arial looks up and notices this beautiful ornate glass chandelier. there’s multiple smaller chandeliers spanning from this main one. a lot of them look like stars! and the big one looks like a sun! the connection between the icarus myth, the note, and the chandelier.
the t(aaa)skforce approaches the chandelier and god they don’t see shit
aglet takes out bibito and raises him to the heavens like a dumbass! alric takes bibito and asks him about Everything
with references to icarus are made about humans with hubris
maintaining position to arrogant sky: it’s recommending to the expedition groups that they should maintain a higher ground above the floor and above other beings they may encounter
the t(aaa)skforce hears the rumbling its a bit louder and faster and closer oh no oh god oh fuck oh no oh no oh no h no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no
the bookwyrm hasn’t seen us on top of the bookshelves
the group tries to find a way to their objective, and aglet and arial notice these columns that they can jump down from to reach this stairway with extension cords leading into it
they all get caught trying to traverse these columns and get caught by the bookwyrm
luckily the bookwyrm is someone that actually needed help from the t(aaa)skforce
aglet looks for a painting book
alric looks for a book on mosaic art and the paradiso records
arial follows aglet around and randomly picks up the book Polynomial Relationships (its polyamorous relationships) she thinks its about love triangles what a stupid bitch
she puts it away and then she picks up another called “My Boyfriends the Space Tyrants?”
god arial doesn’t know about polyculing and aglet comes back from the art section to see what her and alric are up to
she reads thru the bf book and is like “do you see. anyone having to make any decisions here. hello.”
aglet gets kind of embarrassed now that she knows that arial doesn’t know what polyculing is because she was rlly forward about being fruity... ahaha
they follow alric to see the paradiso invoices and holy shit his grandpas debt. so many 0’s. alrics jaw drops.
while hes losing it over this debt arial sees a REALLY old paradiso book and in it theres a picture of thyme omg <3 he is so fucking old.
the t(aaa)skforce spends a bit of time trying to parse how old thyme is and alric goes a little crazy like Yes a lead...
they go to check out the books
arial tries to sneakily get the polynomial relationships book
she succeeds with bibitos help yay she can actually learn about polyculing <3
aglet and alric positive relationship sign they are so art

BOAT TOUR YEAAHA

Tuesday around noon

the taaaskforce goes down the staircase in the archives and come across a river
there’s a boat omg it can fit 5 people there are 3 of us it’s perfect <3 ><
aglets so excited to get on the boat and alric checks to make sure its in good condition. it is <3
theres a sign with really shit handwriting thats like
FREE
HALF OFF. GUIDED
FREE. BOAT TOUR
they get in the boat (one per row) and are instructed to put on their seatbelts
QUIZMASTER IS BOATMASTER <3 WE’RE IN THE SPLASH ZONE FUCK YEAH
omg this is just like the buccaneers of the carribbean <3
theres a fork in the river and aglet gets to choose where to go! she chooses right. alric wanted left. sucks
arial and aglet notice that the walls are made of an incredibly tiny material. like pixels. wtf!
some of the pixels light up different colors than the rest woahh so pretty
they’re also listening to boat master wow alrics fake and isnt paying attention
boat master brought a girl he liked to this tour but she was claustrophobic :(
the water is information and it tastes bitter
alric takes a fucking sip he loves this shit so much
aglet thinks it’s okay
arial drinks this shit up
the boat master arrives at a part where the t(aaa)skforce can look under the information water!
alric and arial dont see shit but aglet sees the roots of this mangrove tree ITS MASSIVE!!! lol alric didn’t wanna stick his head under the water and arial can’t open her eyes underwater
there’s schools of fish swimming around and plants growing underneath... she does see the bottom and it’s visible because of the different bioluminescent organisms... she also catches a slight move in the shadows... eyes emoji

OH NO THE BOAT :(

OMG ARIAL AND AGLET BOOBASHOONGS <3

the boat stops working oh no! the boatmaster goes to retrieve a pool cleaner thingy and the t(aaa)skforce can’t break the boat!
aglet decides to go for a swim SHE LOSES THE SHIRT! omg arial does too ahaha breasts
aglet swims so beautifully wow she’s so dolphin heart emoji!
arials like How do you like my swimming ;)888 its really bad
the two reach the mangrove roots on the surface and alric records the WHOLE THING and sends it to taro “haha these ur girls?”
taros like omg nice! and alric is so fucked for staying on the boat i think
while arial and aglet are at the tree they speak to this voice who thinks aglet is a fish and arial is pretty (aglet: aw im not pretty? }:( arial: i think youre pretty ahahaa)
anyways they climb up the tree arial looks like hot (woozy) garbage and aglet looks so tree omg hi shes REALLY good!
aglet voice God ei caen’t not fuck her @ arial
there’s a naked lady at the top of this tree! she hugs arial and aglet. aglet hugs back WITH PURPOSE and arial is like omg omg no i cant touch boobies no non o
she leads both of them to some leaves to lie down on yay! they introduce themselves to her
she says she woke up in that tree a few days ago and doesn't remember anything holy shit she’s so old? she doesn’t know what customer service is. she doesn’t know what cambria is. crazy!

OMG HI ALRIC MISSED U XO

WAIT NOOO DON’T GET IN THE WATER

alric is still texting taro and while he asks him how to fix boats holy shit hi sexy kon is here OMG KON HI
woahhh kon just wanted to go for a swim
he put alrics hair behind his ear like “idk maybe your hair would look nice if it was wet ;)”
alrics like noooo i can’t start f kons like Start what? alrics like fffireeessss
alric hates the water and he tried to justify it by saying its harder to start fires bc hes less flammable and kons like ur not setting urself is on fire so u specifically dont need to be flammable???
kon convinces alric to go swimming and ooh hes in the undies now! kons wearing nothing hi mr sexy is alric finally gonna get pussy from a ghuy omg
alrics slicks his hair back once he dives in ahahaa
alrics like ahaha i missed youuu what have you been doingggg sorry for missing your meetingg ahahaaaaaa how can i make it up to you
kon brings alric along and talks to him about his work (office work :()
alric apologizes about his outburst that one time omg that was yesterday whoa
kons like its ok if youre having a bad day...just ask how i can make it better ;)
alrics like omg im having a terrible day ;) but then he remembers the paradiso receipts and its fr
kons like omg no dont think about it too hard youll get a headache! and places his hand on his forehead and alrics like AH
kon has one hand on alrics shoulder and one hand on his forehead omg they are face to face
alric knows that you can’t check a headache by placing your hand on your forehead that’s for fever kon you are so <3
“hey did you know thyme’s fucking old? i just learned that like. an hour ago”
kon guessed it was a genetics thing like that thyme just ages well...bro he predates record keeping
kon asks if hes interested in thyme...
alrics like im not gonna lie to you... yes :woozy:
kon asks if alrics interested in him too... :woozy:
kon is cupping alrics face. im going to shit my heart out of my asshole
alrics like god is this actually kon? we’ll find out...
god alric’s so fucking dumb. he doesnt care if this kon is real or not hes in too deep (literally he can't swim that well kons been helping him)
“kon” covers alrics eyes...... and the rest? well.
suddenly alric is in a fucking cocoon AND HIS PUSSY IS OUT!
OH MY GOD THIS PERSON THING STOLE ALRICS LOOK NOOOOOOOOOOOOO THEY TOOK HIS CLOTHES TOO WTF
alrics being completely restrained in the cocoon... ew ew ew ew!

OK BACK TO AGLET AND ARIAL BOOBILOONGAS

the lady theyre talking to is named ru-ru :)
ru-ru calls them pretty aheeeheee
ru-ru has green-ish hair its a bit lighter like seafoam color hair
ru-ru starts to have a heart to heart :) she places arials and aglets hands on her titties (right above the heart!)
she shares about her day and prompts arial to do the same shortly after (and moves her and aglet’s hands to arials boobaloongas)
arial is stuttering but she’ll be okay soon enough!! anyways
so the girlz are having their heart to heart and then ru-rus like ok time for consumption!
aglet and arial are stuck in the booby trap and they try to get away but are pushed/dragged into A HOLE respectively
ARIAL NOTICES WE LANDED ON A BUNCH OF RU-RU BODIES?!?!??!
aglets too sleepy to get up and shes like omg you saved me ariall that was crazyyy OH GOD THE BODIESSSS
aglet and arial go into a tunnel and are singing cpr by cupcakke but only the two lines aglet knows and then OH MY GOD ALRIC?
"alric" found them by singing the lines of cpr that the other two forgot
aglets sus of alric bc he has ALL his clothes on and they’re soaked and she knows that he hates the feeling of his clothes being wet so even he would’ve taken them off. she tries to ask why this guy’s got his clothes on and she gathers it’s for gay reasons. she sighs and is like fine that checks out but she’s still skeptical
meanwhile alric’s dreaming in the cocoon sauce and omg hi grandpa! hes dreaming about the last summer festival he went to with grandpa durayin (the human one)
grandpas talking to alric about boys and alrics like Lets talk about something else <3 bc hes single and doesn't want to talk about it but durayin just wanted to advise him to find people he can trust
he also brings up "sneaky rickeys" and alrics like ??? and durayin explains that people who have pissed off the herald of darkness will have these little parasites living inside them that are physically harmless but buisney collectors are willing to tear people apart just to get to their sneaky rickeys
alrics like Uh Oh Im In Danger :) because he super pissed off rickey rat that one time and surely has some of these
he tries asking durayin if theres a way to detect them in people or if theres a way to remove them...you know...just out of curiosity
durayins like oh yeah theyre usually removed through medical procedures and there are devices used to detect them but i dont have one on me lol
alrics just kinda like Oh alright and doesnt really press further because durayin has no idea that sneaky rickeys would be a concern for him
durayins like Oh the fireworks should be starting soon lets go watch them manny :) and they both get up and the dream ends

THE T(AAA)SKFORCE OPENS UP?

fake alric and the girls are walking aimlessly and they end up in this small server room thats pretty well water-proofed despite how many electronics there are
The server also hosts several green, opaque cocoons. The light they emit is similar to the bioluminescent plants they've seen on the way here. Various shapes can be seen within the cocoons. They stir every now and then.
Aglet is taken by her curiosity and rips one of the cocoons. A liquid spills out and envelops her in a mass of gelatin-like material. Not a second later, the liquid disperses and flows down the drain. Two Aglets are left looking at each other and the drain to wonder what just happened.
Alric experiences a similar situation, creating three Alrics in total instead.
Arial is left as the only uncloned person in the room. SO about those clones (looks at the two Aglets and becomes a hole)
One of the Alrics slash open another cocoon and splash the liquid on Arial to create a total of six of them.
alric is so woozy he got out of the cocoon and hes seeing double right now oh my god
All the Arials are feeling distressed. They all feel compelled to call their mom.
AND LIKE LUCIDA PICKS UP AND ARIAL WITHOUT HAVING ANY AGENCY BLURTS OUT WHAT DID YOU SAY TO DAD WHEN YOU LEFT HIM????? and like lucida’s NOT gonna tell her at first but then arial blurts it out again like No tell me the words you told dad when you left him
“You don’t deserve to be the father to my children. My children and I deserve the best and you’re clearly not giving us that.” AND A LOT OF OTHER REALLY RAW STUFF WHICH IS SO TRUE FUCK SANS SERIF BUT JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!
then aglet starts blurting out like yeah i dated this girl and it was fun but everything else about my life sucked so i kept thinking about how i was so happy in the relationship but like i couldn’t be happy without it... but now here at petaldive i’m so happy with Taro And Arial aheeheee eeoheoooo she covers her mouth
oh my god she basically admitted that she has feelings for both of them in front of arial oh my god
oh my god she has so many issues she took one hit of psychic damage for remembering how she viewed relationships AND embarrassing herself </3
alrics woozy and oh god he tried to stop himself but noooo he started talking about his feelings about his life and grappling with the fact that his family doesn’t know that he’ll just disappear and die one day like that’s so fucked up literally fuck this
he talks about how they ask him when he'll visit next and that he tries to see them in between patron gigs but he cant bear to tell them that eventually "manny isnt coming home" just because he pissed off the wrong guy
oh shiiiiit everyone heard him say his name lol aglet will remember that but arial wont
the difference between aglet and alric is that aglet never thought about her issues until now and does NOT want to at ALL but alric is already familiar with his but like obvs he doesn’t wanna say any of it jesus christ
FYI arial feels like her dads kept tabs on her but they do NOT talk. they’ve cut each other off.
arial starts to dump about her life... she was 6 and out with her parents on a holiday! she was holding the picnic basket for them and they watched the fireworks together... and she had egg salad sandwiches! those were her favorite!
but she realizes that they’re one of her least favorite foods now. and on that day her dad held her so lovingly, anyone could tell! but the same can’t be said about him right now.
she remembers how, when she was a bit older, he hugged her and it just didn’t feel the same. YOU HAVE ISSUES!
aglet tells them both she Is gonna hug them because it’s super fucked up. like what’s happening right now is super fucked up
alric goes next oh god no! “even before this fucked up stuff i’ve been growing through i’ve had such a fucked up view of power...especially from my grandpa.” and they dont know its not durayin
he talks about how shitty it is to be so low on The Chain (the devil peerage system but aglet and arial wouldnt know that) and how he shouldnt even be in that system (because hes not a devil) but his grandpa didnt have a choice and neither did he
lots of power fantasies...if hes strong enough to get to the top he wont have to worry about being under anyones thumb anymore. and he has been gaining a lot of power through being a warlock but
"i get tossed around like a shiny new toy whenever i’m contracted by a new patron. they treat me like a dog at best or an ant at worst. it’s fine to be normal, but when you're surrounded by entities who are practically gods being ordinary just makes you less than them. and from being around them so often can i even call myself ordinary anymore?"
damn he said so much bless his heart
center of the room: capsules and containers that look like eggs are littered in the room but there’s a metal container here.
it unlocks and this like. cloud of condensation comes out and ru-ru steps out! holy fuck!
ru-ru makes all the fake clones disappear into the juice
turns out the 2nd "alric clone" that falric made was actually him releasing the original alric so thet dont have to look for him anymore yay!
oh god a transcript of what they all said was recorded into the database
IT WAS ALL FOR TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS.
she tested this information gathering prototype on us without being greenlit so we’re getting a bonus <3 that’s fucking right
turns out when ru-ru said she would Consume them she meant their memories and shit not that she was gonna eat them lol
she also tells them that petaldive offers free therapists and based on how theyre forced heart-to-hearts went they definitely need them
when they leave alric asks if they were lured in by something and tbh aglet and arial were not lured in they just went swimming (the lure was actually ru-ru’s booboos <3)
alric tells aglet about how he got lured in without trying to say too much but he absolutely says too much about fake kon and aglet laughs at him
arials texting her mom apologizing profusely and lucidas like “haha its okay honey drink responsibly <3”
aglet and alric start to scheme about how they can skip their therapy appointments

INTERMISSION YAYY

Afternoon Lunch Break

they make it out and YAY THE BOATMASTER! the boat is fixed with a new motor and OH MY GOD THYME FIXED THE BOAT <3 AHEEEHEEE HIEIEEEE
ru-ru handed out pamphlets about the information gathering prototype so they read it:
cocoon fluid creates clones, clones contain info on people, clones get recorded into database
they have a meal with thyme in one of the staff areas and ITS SOOOO GOOD LOVE YOU THYME <3
aglet gets the mushroom sandwich its grilled and veggie and DELICIOUS
alric gets the egg salad sandwich but asks for it discreetly bc arial literally just talked about why she hates them but he was in the mood for smth a little sour you know (like egg salad that has mustard)
arial has carnist pussy <3 so she gets one w a lot of meat in it
alric is impressed w how good the food is because thyme was like yeah im gonna test some recipes on you guys :) and made it sound like he was shit at cooking but he actually isnt
alric asks for the resippys and tells thyme he has simple recipes for him to try out too <3
1 random buff!!! arial gets advantage on all perception checks! so does alric! aglet gets advantage on intelligence rolls! yay! happy new year!

ALRIC AND THYME PLAY 20 QUESTIONS <3

alric slides a paper and asks thyme how long ago the date on the paper was (it’s the publication date of the first paradiso record book and its in an outdated dating system) thyme said alric had to pay up if he wanted to know
alric offers an information trade instead and thymes like "Oh so 20 questions? lol"
thyme answers the first question by saying that date was older than time and alric was like Aight cool
thyme asks “WHAT IS IT ABOUT KON YOU LIKE?!”
alric says its the red marks under his eyes (because he doesnt want to give an emotion based answer) and thyme says its cute
alric asks what thymes favorite paper color is. its green. god. god. god. god.
alric asks about where thyme gets his recipes from and tells alric its from a friend.
they also talk about how alric would probably like working where their friend is at if hes interested in finding a Normal Job after petaldive
alric is like Man i just wanna retire </3 he honestly cant think that far ahead right now
alric asks thyme when he and kon met. thyme met kon 5 years ago!!!! it was after gardenia moved control of petaldive to someone else she elected. kon was doing his best to release himself from the archfey peerage system that they have from where he originally lives (alric notes this)
he didn’t wanna be involved so he was going through all the processes and red tape to get out of there officially and be a normal citizen outside of that society
it was then when he started traveling for a bit that he met thyme
from thyme’s knowledge, kon grew up with noble education but aside from that he did his own physical training
he was not experienced with traveling alone so it was kind of awkward when the two of them woke up and they were in the same bed
turns kon was on the verge of collapsing because they got lost and were trying to find a place to stay but landed in thyme’s travel hut and slept there LMAO
lmao thyme was greeted by a handsome guy in his own bed so he was pretty chill with it
thyme was like “What do you think of me, Alric?”
alric’s like “you’re alright” “you’re fine” “oh my godddd” “i think you’re insane, first of all, you’re really hot though i’m just gonna be honest”
"yeah everybody knows i think you’re hot" and then thyme was like "oh well i didn’t know aheehee" like damn u called alric hot first dont act surprised
alric also mentions how he can tell thyme is Built Different and wants to figure him out (thyme is a great old one lol). which is only fair since thyme knows way too much about him in his opinion
thymes like "once you figure me out, will you leave?" and alrics like no? what if i like what i see ;)
but also like it really would be fucked up if he just left and lets thyme know he genuinely wants to get to know them
alric asks how kon and thyme started dating and thymes like Yeahhhh so were not dating yet because its complicated but ill tell you about how we got to know each other instead
so they get over the misunderstanding and then they decide to travel together because kon is kinda clueless and is trying to visit a friend and thyme has nothing better to do
thyme thought he was a wayward traveler but like kon just sucks at directions <3 like its the first time thymes ever traveled with someone with such a bad sense of direction
Thyme voice “yeah i couldn’t not fuck him” like he was an hour away from his destination when we met but then we ended up 3 months away from where he wanted to go
“yeah everything he wanted to do went wrong in terms of direction...” like he couldn't read maps and when he did the map would tear or his compass would break or hed just fucking misread signs??? how
they ended up where kon originally wanted to go when thyme took over the navigation. kon gets punched when they arrive at their destination like 6 months late bc their friend was worried </3
alric asks if kon was cursed or something but no apparently hes just like that they actually checked
alric asks why thymes letting him off easy for durayins debt and thyme was like I actually dont care about money that much tbh (durayin has the mind of a mastermind and they dont have to pay anymore yeahhhhh)
thyme asks out alric like omg do you wanna hang out with kon and i? and alrics like fuck yeah i do
then he asks what kind of drinks alric likes (he likes sour drinks like fruit juices)
Thyme voice ahaha you like it fruity? that’s cool <3
he asks alric if he likes coffee and alrics like no that shit tastes so bad i just drink it for the caffeine and mentions that aglet has been trying to convince him that coffee is good but he doesnt believe her
aglet’s like “are you guys talking about us” because alric mixed up her and arials names while saying this lol
thyme enlightens alric on good coffee <3 fucking finally SEE NOW YOU UNDERSTAND ALRIC!!! AGLET WAS TRYING TO TELL YOU!!!
thyme makes alric latte art <3 it has a little smug smile and horns and a dreamworks face <3
alric tries to say “it’s Alright” LIKE A LIAR! so thyme was like "oh i can finish it up for you if you dont like it" and alric was like "No its ok..." he drank the whole thing

ARIAL AND AGLET HAVE ISSUES :( BUT NOT WITH EACH OTHER :)

arial slumps her head on aglet’s shoulder and aglet puts her arm around her shoulder :pleading face:
aglet asks if arial wants to sleep in at taro’s tonight and arial agrees they do NOT want to go to therapy.
they text taro
AGLET: TARO }:] AGLET: CAN WE STAY OVER TONIGHT }:]
TARO: if you were in a tree and i was a tree and you were in the tree and i was three would we kiss im asking would you or woulld you ot theres a tree
TARO: and yes
TARO: the holw is open to you always ( , ;) (TN: this is a shiny bald head winking emoji)
aglet genuinely doesn’t know what the fuck taro is saying because taro just woke up from a nap and is thinking about what alric texted him about earlier so he texted that god he wants them so bad
aglet hands the phone to arial to try and figure out what taro said
AGLET (arial is texting): Only if you want??? ,':)8
AGLET (arial): e jv gendkdm
AGLET: OMG THANK YOU TARO LOVE YOUUUUUU
aglet was so excited to not go home and also see taro that she didn’t realize she said that until it was too late. she turns her phone off and turns it over so arial and nobody else sees. fruit.
then alrics like “lmao invite taro to pink hornet fruit” and then she does ahahaaa she turns her phone away from arial tho because she kinda told taro she loves him what a pathetic little f
they rate the lures they all got <3 aglet gives a 4 arial a 3 and alric a 5
aglets like it was pretty good but it would’ve done me in if i wasn’t so whipped ahahaa nice try though she was nice
arials like it is so bad... i wanna give you a 0. but that’s not possible. so you get a 3. should’ve had purple hair and a shitty haircut and undercut to market to me
alric says the same thing but gets a 5 he got baited and outsmarted

BACK TO WORK

Tuesday Late Afternoon

they decided to speedrun work without having to go overtime because theyre all meeting at Pinkhornet (Fantasy Applebees) tonight and THE APPS ARE HALF
alric invited thyme and told him to invite kon too as their hangout ahaha
aglet sits next to arial on the boat <3
they go to the left at the fork this time ooo lets see whats over there
oh shit they’re falling down a waterfall!!!
and theres something...coming up from the water
boat master is the last thing we hear before the crash! “THE APPS ARE HALF OFFFFFFFF”
WE SLAM INTO A CREATURE’S HEAD! AND WE SLAM AGAINST THE BOAT!
this creature.. it looks like nessie.. YOU NAMED MY LEVIATHAN AFTER THE LOCHNESS MONSTER?
WE FUCKING KILLED IT IN ONE HIT LETS GO TEAMMMMM
aglet cuts the vines away from this one door the monster was probably guarding and...
we find the cattcomber guy! hes unconscious
theres one cat thermos and one clear one. the clear one has... A SNEAKY RICKEY?>!?!?? aglet doesn’t know what the fuck it is. arial and alric do. they can all agree that it’s ugly as shit tho i can’t believe buisney nfts exist in the petaldive verse and they are literal parasites </3
they’re about to exit but there’s too many people for the elevator! so aglet arial and mogi take the elevator and alric waits with boatmaster
boatmaster can’t read analog clocks its okay you don’t have to know how to read clocks you’re the best
alrics gonna get him a digital clock! sims positive relationship sign
alric rants about how he’s never learned long division him and boatmaster are really understanding each other right now. sims positive relationship sign!

ARIAL AND AGLET IN THE ELEVATOR

And Mogi is There

Arial and Aglet enter the elevator with Mogi Cattcomber slung over Arial’s shoulder. Arial sets them down with their thermos, and takes a seat on the floor. Aglet does the same. At first, Aglet starts singing those two lines from CPR by Cupcakke with Arial, but Arial is kinda spacey so she misses it the first time. Aglet realizes that the ride up is gonna be a long one so she stops. She doesn’t know the full song so she doesn’t wanna keep repeating the same two lines.
They sit in silence for a while and Aglet, in an effort to try and not think about the Genuinely Distressing things is Only Thinking About The Embarrassing Gay Things. She keeps thinking about how she confessed to Arial (against her will) and how bold she got with her (on multiple occasions) and how Arial didn’t know about polyamory until today (that makes things more embarrassing for her oh god.) She’s like. Really bad at hiding her embarrassment and anxiety and Arial FINALLY notices!
Arial asks Aglet what’s wrong and Aglet starts spilling... She’s superrrrr embarrassed about her behavior today and what she said about Arial and Taro right in front of Arial oh my god. She brings up how she was with Arial when she was NOT having a good time and she was just really ashamed and embarrassed and oh god! Oh god!
Arial holds Aglet’s hand and stumbles on her words SO hard. She’s really struggling right now. She just learned what polyculing is but god you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. She squeezes Aglet’s hand and Aglet’s heart is about to fall out of her own ass she is so nervous.
She finally tells Aglet that she really likes her and Taro. Oh my god. Guys. Guys. Popping bottles... it was slowly... and then suddenly ALL AT ONCE...
Aglet squeezes Arial’s hand a little more and finally gets to tell Arial that she likes her on her own terms!!! They’re kind of losers so they don’t really know what to do. Aglet’s a little embarrassed that she confessed to Arial in an elevator with an unconscious guy. Haha oopsie! That’s kinda funny rip Aglet you’re kind of embarrassing
IT’S TIME FOR 20 QUESTIONS!! god what the fuck even happened here
Arial starts with “What’s your favorite color?” Aglet says periwinkle (teasing Arial like hehe I mean I AM cute don’t you think eheeheeehehehehe) but then she’s like idk I think it’s nice that purple and yellow are complementary };)
Aglet asks Arial which places she actually likes to eat at (because Arial took Aglet out to eat at fucking Petzmart) and Arial’s like Oh God I did that and you STILL like me? YOU’RE GAY!
They start reminiscing and Aglet’s like omg we’re supposed to be playing 20 questions let’s reminisce later (spoiler alert: they’re so shit at 20 questions it doesn’t take long for them to start reminiscing again)
Arial asks Aglet what she likes about Taro and she’s like. I mean look at him. Any lesbian would be into this guy thing. He is sooo sexy. But he’s also really endearing. Aglet recalls the time they visited Taro’s hole and fell asleep together. She was sooo cozy with both Arial and Taro, and Arial lies about sleeping well that night (she was awake literally the whole time.) She starts talking about how cute Taro was when she was just waking up and how he put her arms around her and almost kissed her. Her heart almost fell out of her ass but she was so brave and strong about it. She summoned the strength that mothers get when they carry cars off their children. You just had to be there.
Aglet asks Arial what she likes about Taro. She gets nervous and recites the He’s impossibly strong... and fast... And then recalls the different encounters she had with him. She tells Aglet that he’s kind of a loser but he is sooo endearing <3
She also tells Aglet that she thinks she’s kind of weird and Aglet’s like omg you think I’m weird }<:( and Arial’s like NOOO YOU’RE ENDEARING :woozy: and Aglet’s like Omg so that survey question WAS about Taro and I. Arial denies this but we already know. We already know.
While she’s saying this she’s like ahahaa sorry I wasn’t thinking :woozy: and Aglet’s like whaaat that’s not like you........ actually yeah it is.... Arial gets embarrassed and Aglet goes in for the hug omggggggg Arial you’re soooo many thingsssss
They ditch Mogi Cattcomber in front of the elevator and Arial wants to try and pose him like he’s downward dogging. He’s unconscious so that does NOT work out for them at all. They just leave him to family guy death pose on the ground with his cat thermos and head to Pink Hornet together <3

ALRIC AND BOATMASTER IN THE ELEVATOR

alric and boatmaster are chatting it up and boatmaster asks about thyme eyes emoji...like how long have you and "that guy" been a thing
alrics like we’re not a thing omg and boatmaster is like but you guys looked so friendly with each other <3
alric asks why quizmaster thought he and thyme were dating and he was like “idk you guys just clicked <3”
they talk about it and stuff like ahahaaa alrics kinda embarrassed but there’s a lot of sims positive relationship sign happening right now
then boatmaster tells alric about his two boyfriends mike and Ludis (omg love wins)
eventually they start taking quizzes together bc its a long fucking elevator ride (boatmaster is quizmaster again) and they take the Which Taylor Swift Song Are You Based On Your Coping Mechanisms quiz
Quizmaster got Speak Now and Alric got Fearless which is weird because they put in the same answers and got diffy results???
alric asks quizmaster how his relationship works with the height difference (mike and Ludis are like 50 ft tall statues and quizmaster is normal statue height)
quizmasters just like “I’m a different kinda master” “Yeah baiter lmao” (they really dont call him the master for nothing)
alric asks for advice on how to like...get closer to people because he has a hard time talking about himself since hes a guy pretending to be a guy pretending to be a guy but he doesnt say that part
quizmaster tells him “you can’t expect people to be honest with you if you’re not willing to do the same” and alric’s like “that's really hard for meee =:( but i'll try“
they lose their shit when they see how arial and aglet dropped mogi outside the elevator upside down

PINKHORNET

Tuesday Early Night

Aglet and Arial both make it to Pink Hornet AND TARO AND KON ARE THERE <3 <3
Taro’s wide awake! Kon’s waiting for his drink next to her. The two of them sit down and Taro shows Arial and Aglet his Bionicles Powerpoint. He’s even building them on the bar. God I can’t not f
Aglet orders the fruitiest drink ever (hello Captain Bahama Mama <3) and it’s so good she really needed this
Arial orders some onion rings because she doesn’t drink anymore
While Taro’s explaining and assembling all of the bionicles Aglet turns to Kon to ask about those Therapists... and he’s like Oh great you’re all going to therapy! And after he sees Aglet shaking her head he realizes Oh you don’t want to go to therapy...
After Aglet asks Kon to get the therapists out of their apartment he leaves to go and make the call to them go team
Sometime after Kon finishes making that call, Alric and Quizmaster arrive at Pink Hornet!
Quizmaster goes to join Mike and Ludis on their date and Alric waves hi to the three of them and tells them to have a nice date
Thyme arrived sometime before the two of them and decided to wait outside for Alric with Kon heeheee
they go inside and order drinks (Alric gets the Blue Aloha Mana Margarita or Sea Captain’s Pickle, Thyme orders a warm glass of milk)
They’re like alllll over Alric and ask if he wants to do karaoke... he says no bc he really doesn’t wanna be watched like that he lowkey has stage fright
he says hes happy to cheer them on if the two of them wanna sing tho and theyre both like nah wed rather do smth together
kon and thyme ask alric what hed like to do and hes like i like playing pool im good at it <3
the three of them go over to the pool table and man Thyme is so good at this (this is. Thyme’s first time playing. bro)
Kon asks Alric to teach him how to play because that one time he beat Alric on the first turn was just him being really lucky and hes actually pretty bad at it
Alric teaches kon how to play and u Know hes doing that one thing ppl do when theyre trying to teach someone to play pool
thyme asks alric to teach him too even though they both know he doesnt need it lmao caught ur ass lacking
after playing for a bit they both ask alric what other hobbies he has besides playing pool
he kinda has a hard time giving a straight answer because hes like Uh well its not something i can do here and he didnt wanna like Get Sad because the forced heart to heart made him kinda homesick and his hobbies are related to that
he brings up sparring because hes been doing that with arial and aglet and it is a genuine hobby that isnt family related lets go
the three of them leave to go sparring hall where the t(aaa)skforce normally spars <3
alrics able to fight a lot better because he doesnt have to hold back (since kon and thyme are both wayyy stronger than him)
alric Barely wins lets go gamers and he looks pretty good despite all the exercise but kon and thyme still look perfect even though they lost lmao

GIRLS LOCKEROOM AT TAROS HOUSE

Tuesday Late Night

Taro slings a buzzed Aglet over his shoulder (she got woozy a lil quickly) and a sleepy Arial on the other.
The whole time Aglet’s totally checking Taro out and flirting with her like god he’s so sexy. God. meanwhile Arial’s like oh my god he’s totally a vampire his hand is cold and everything oh my god he’s impossibly fast and strong oh my god I Can’t Not F
Taro brings them to his hole (his actual residence not his room in the vents) and they take a shower! Together! Arial’s a little nervous, Aglet’s fruity, and Taro’s showing them his collection of Hotel Shampoos. They’re like braid-training except washing each others’ backs.
Aglet and Arial have never wanted the strap so bad in their entire life but Taro is so responsible and competent and housewife and boytoy he is taking such good care of both of them. He wraps up Arial in a cocoon of blankets and pillows because she’s sleepy (aw) and he’s feeding Aglet pretzels and giving her water
Aglet is still a lil woozy (the shower and food definitely helped) but she’s more cozy now. She’s struggling a little bit though because she’s a sleep-hugger and her arms are contained in the cocoon.
Taro wraps himself up and punches holes in the cocoon to free his arms. Aglet was able to do the same woohoo!! Arial is super zonked and mumbling her Halflight (like Twilight) dreams out loud
=She brings the other two in a hug and conks out <3

BOYS LOCKEROOM AT KONS HOUSE

Tuesday Later at Night

Thyme, Kon, and Alric take a shower in the most bougie shower ever it has bubble machines and shit.
Alric asks Thyme if he can have something like that and Thyme gives him this 5 dollar bubble gun. He is being considerate of his budget <3
They each showered individually so like kon showers first and then hes out like a light by the time thyme and alric are done he is so mimis
Since kon is asleep alric and thyme are chatting it up on the couch. alric can actually speak freely rn bc thyme already knows stuff about him that kon doesn't
they both spent some time talking about how kon doesn't understand them and they want to be understood so bad but there's circumstances preventing them from doing that easily
Thyme is able to open up to Alric about his Situation with Kon and being like an incomprehensible being
alric learns that he and kon aren't dating because he wants kon to understand him first and its really difficult to explain without exploding his brain
alric actually kinda gets it because hes briefly interacted with a great old one in the past and isn't clueless about what thyme is but he isn't afraid of them either
alric offers to be a guinea pig for thyme if thyme wants to practice explaining themself without the risk of accidentally killing someone
thyme's like no you would still totally die i think but i appreciate it. alrics dead serious though (haha)
alric also talks about how he wants kon to get to know him but it's so hard to open up without saying stuff that could endanger him
but like he genuinely wants to be honest with him the way he can be with thyme (woah)
they realize that while they both like kon (to different degrees bc thyme is in love with him alrics just got a silly little crush) they both understand each other right now more than anyone else does
by virtue of just knowing shit about each other they can't really tell anyone else yet
They have achieved mutual understanding
Bro, We Are Office Workers . Its Ok To Cry Around Me . Im Ur Best Friend . I Love You . ... Bro, We Are Kiss ing Now . . No Dont Stop Bro .. Bro ...

GIRL'S LOCKER ROOM

Wednesday Morning

Aglet and Arial stayed over at Taro’s <3 Alric stayed over at Kon’s place with Thyme.
Aglet wakes up and her arms are so dead. She’s not hungover though! Thanks Taro <3
She lays there with the other two On Top Of Her Arms. Arial is gone to the world. She actually slept!!!
Taro is NOT awake. Snorkkkk mimimimimi in that cocoon
Aglet is the tiniest bit bored because she actually likes doing things in the morning but she’s sooo happy she’s living laughing and loving she wants to roll around in that lil cocoon and lie on her stomach while kicking her feet up in the air
Aglet manages to free her arms from under the other two and gets up from the bed with the sheer force of her will. She manages to stand up in the cocoon.
She notices that there’s something on the stovetop with their names on it... OH MY GOD TOMATO SOUP AND GARLIC BREAD TARO YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE <3
While Aglet is eating breakfast someone knocks on the door...
She goes to check and omg hi PEEBY!!!!!! And Arisa?!?!?!? She’s all sleepy and wearing a nightgown hiii
But yeah they came for the soup . Aglet’s freaking out a bit because she’s actually kinda scared of Arisa. She doesn’t know how to tell her the soup is for her and Arial and Taro. The bowl is fucking huge though she’s just dumb.
Arisa tries to shake Taro awake. Taro’s not awake <3 Arisa gets some soup for herself. She tells Peeby to tell her whenever there’s soup
Aglet closes the door on anyone else who wants soup. there were random employees trying to get some but its NOT for them back i say!!!
Peeby wakes up Taro by slapping him gently with the Eyeball Thingy
Peeby goes to Taro for homework help and soup. They press their closed eyeball stalk into Taro’s forehead and Taro does not understand.
Aglet hears that Peeby does not understand Alric and jumps to help them with their homework. Peeby presses their closed eyeball stalk against Aglet’s forehead and shows her footage of Alric sucking the juice out of a lime sliced in half.
Aglet’s trying really hard not to laugh and she tells Peeby that they don’t need to understand Alric, they just need to respect whatever lifestyle he has going on. Peeby kind of understands!
Peeby starts calling Aglet Aggie because they’re missing some teeth and it’s hard to pronounce Aglet oohghfghfhhgh Aglet’s so happy
Aglet helps Peeby with homework

BOY'S LOCKER ROOM

Alric slept on the bed with Thyme and Kon. HE’S SANDWICHED BETWEEN KON AND THYME <3
Admittedly he and Thyme stayed up so he didn't sleep too much but he slept okay! He wakes up like “Oh Shit This Isn’t My Room”
Imagine waking up next to your boss and he only has the bathrobe on... Thyme is backpacking him and Alric is facing Kon...
Alric’s been awake but he lowkey wants to savor the moment (and would feel bad waking the both of them up) and Thyme just kinda let Alric lie there for 30 minutes.
He decides to say "So when are you getting up?" and Alric’s like *head in hands* UGhghGHghghhh out loud bc he realized thyme was awake the whole damn time and knew alric was awake too.
Alric says he'll get up if Thyme does <3
Thyme’s like omg wake up Kon first you’re right next to him...... <3
Alric’s like I’VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFOOOORE he's like "damn i'd feel bad pouring water on him or slapping him awake" and Thyme’s like "bro you just have to wake him up like a normal person"
Alric’s like “Hey Konnnnnnn <3” telepathically “thyme told me to wake you up hahahaaa” and then realizes that Kon won't be able to hear telepathy while asleep
Kon was just soooo tired after work... Pink Hornet was fun thoughhhh
Alric gently shakes Kon awake bc respectfully he's not gonna talk out loud to wake him up
the only one who has heard alric talk out loud is his bird's nest fern named fernandez. so technically kon has heard alric speak because kon can talk to plants and alric assumed he could do that already.
but its DIFFERENT to know kon can listen in to him talking about random mundane shit to his plant and actually talk to Him specifically in person.
kon purposely doesn't listen in bc he's trying really hard to respect alric's privacy and alric doesn't know ;;
like thats so nice of them but kon will never hear alric's silly little jokes now
anyway kon wakes up like Woahhhh hey vesper :) and alrics like Ahaha hi and kon's like seeing thyme backpack alric like Man i think i missed something important
Alric’s gonna make them breakfast he’s so househusband malewife boytoy
Thyme’s like “alright whatever you’re good withh ;)”
Alric’s like “maybe someone will make me some coffeeee pleading_face” and Thyme’s like Sigh I’ll get it
Kon shows him the kitchen. Alric is gonna make breakfast arepas <3
Alric explains this to Kon in the kitchen and Kon’s like “you’re (fantasy) Venezuelan?!??!” and Alric’s like “That’s Not Important”
They start talking and Kon asks Alric about the task in the surveillance department! Alric tells him about how the taskforce went to Dodondledesh’s library and checked out some books! He asks if what Alric read was interesting and he looks at Thyme like... Yeah... Kon notices
Alric tells Kon about how Arial checked out this math book called Polynomial Relationships and how she was soooo embarrassed... Kon chuckles at this because he knows exactly what this is about
Alric also tells Kon about how Arial read the space boyfriends book and Kon’s like this can be a hard subject for some people... you know I’m so glad that Arial’s here for you she’s such a good friend to you and Alric’s like what the fuck are you talking about
Alric tells Kon about how Aglet checked out some art books! He’s definitely gonna steal them later to look at them. Alric himself checked out a mosaic book bc it was the closest to pixel art.
He tells Kon about how he looked at Paradiso records. Thyme’s sipping his morning coffee and Alric is side-eyeing him.
They ask Alric if this is about his grandpa. Alric said partially... He lost 5 years of his life after seeing the debt. He also saw some stuff about THYME!!!
He tells Kon “Dude Thyme is really fucking old btw did you know that”
Kon’s like “this happens to a lot of people I mean you’ve seen my mom right”
Alric tells the two about the boat tour in the archives and Kon’s like “omg the boat tour’s back up??? I should go visit” and Alric’s taking a bit of psychic damage remembering the fake kon targeted ad that he fell for and THYME SAW IT but promised he wouldn't tell kon
Kon asks about Quizmaster. Alric tells him about Boatmaster. He tells Kon about how things got kinda dicey at the end (in reference to Aglet’s issues)
Kon’s like “Aw yeah I should really go visit them their wedding’s soon!” and Alric nearly spat out his coffee through his nose like “WHAT?!?!?!? He didn’t tell me that!!?!?!??!”
Quizmaster, Mike, and Ludis are gonna have a beach wedding I love them <3
Kon asks if the taskforce encountered any problems during the boat tour and Alric tells him that the boat broke down. He tells them that Arial and Aglet went swimming and that he stayed behind.
Thyme’s like “Yeah Boatmaster gave me a call and a fixed up the boat!” Kon’s like “Aw yeah that’s great! Did anything bad happen?”
Alric begins to unpack what Ru-Ru did. It kinda sucked being referred to therapists!
Kon’s like yeahhhh that only happens in extreme cases. Out of respect for Aglet’s request he swept it aside. Alric thinks about high-fiving Aglet.
Alric begins to talk about the targeted ads. Kon’s very apologetic and puts a hand on Alric’s shoulder. Alric is looking around and shit.
Kon’s glad that the taskforce could find Ru-Ru out there and safe. She went missing for some time. He doesn’t know about the pile of Ru-Ru corpses. She IS an employee at Petaldive though.

BACK TO THE GIRLZ

Arial sits up in her cocoon. Fucking finally.
She’s thrown off because she didn’t wake up at the right time. She actually slept so she didn’t do her workout!!!
She rolls off the bed while still in the cocoon. She keeps rolling back and forth on the floor.
Aglet doesn’t notice any of this because she is helping Peeby with homework.
Peeby shows Thyme and Alric on the balcony from that one smoke break to Aglet. Oh my god she can’t stop laughing.
Aglet tries to explain to Peeby sooo hard she’s tacking the red string onto the board and the board is Peeby’s footage
PEEBY UNDERSTANDS ALRIC they show the footage of people making out in the bathroom like ALRIC WANTS TO BE ATE LIKE THIS!! Aglet is SO proud of Peeby she tells them to always go to her whenever they need help understanding Alric
Meanwhile Arial is watching this from the floor and Arisa is examining her
Like she grabs her face and inspects her
Arial is playing dead.
Arisa’s like “Ah. Now I understand that it’s more proper to greet people in the morning. I don’t have anymore peach gum. Just know that you are an employee of this company... And you are valued for your work. It is morning.”
Arisa leaves and Aglet approaches Arial after she’s gone. Arial plays dead.
Aglet gently slaps her until she’s awake. Arial asks why Arisa and Peeby are here and Aglet’s like Aw yeah there’s soup. It’s really good. Arial’s like god get me out of this cocoon gimme some of that.
Aglet barely manages to get her out of the saw trap. Arial’s slurping down the soup while Aglet tells her about Peeby’s homework.
Aglet’s like Arial you should see this shit and Arial helps Peeby with their homework. Peeby plays back the footage of targeted ad Kon emerging from the water. Peeby’s like Peeby doesn’t understand! Kon doesn’t swim with those clothes on
Aglet’s laughing her ass off and tells Peeby Alric just likes to kiss boys. Peeby understands a little bit!
Peeby leaves and Aglet and Arial get dragged through the floor!

KON'S APARTMENT

Everybody's Here!

They land in KON’S APARTMENT! And overhear Alric talking about the last assignment
Kon begins talking about the next task! The taskforce is ahead woohoo! Thyme gives Arial and Aglet coffee!
Kon tells them they can handle bigger tasks and start killing 2 birds with one stone. Eventually we’ll be handling the Entire Company so this is a great step forward
Kon looks at Alric and is like “You didn’t listen to her either huh.” (Arisa) Kon is nodding the whole time.
Kon gives them the choice between the Sanitary, Production, and Marketing departments
None of the taskforce is sold on Sanitary and once Kon says a part of that department is keeping employee and client memory clean Aglet gives a hard no
The Production department revolves around the production of information and all of the services Petaldive provides
Marketing’s a little self explanatory but Alric wants Kon to explain anyway. Aglet and Arial look at him... Ah... targeted ads...
Ru-ru’s more towards the RND dept. but that’s where the overlap happens between depts.
Aglet tells Kon about the Ru-Ru corpses and Alric is like wtf! bc he didn't see those
Alric explains not wanting to go to Marketing like I don’t wanna show my ass to my boss! Aglet takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Arial with a vein popping out of her forehead trying not to laugh. Thyme looks at Alric and takes a sip of their coffee.
Alric asks Kon if he knows what to do about the rat infestation.
Kon explains that we’re clearing a path for ourselves before clearing out the bigger portions of the mess around the room.
Alric’s like I see you I hear you but let’s say I’m deathly allergic to dust and this place is fucking covered in it. You get the picture? Kon’s like Tell me more
Kon’s like “we’ll deal with your issue as long as you give me more of your time” and Alric’s like “You Promise?” Kon promises <3
Alric and Aglet notice Taro’s been teleported into Kon’s room too! Aglet starts being a fruit <3 she also tears Alric a new asshole in front of Kon and Thyme
Arial’s like guys stop fighting and Kon’s like You Still Need To Pick A Department
Alric and Arial’s bosses actually communicate with them. Aglet’s boss is radio silent. You read the FAQ and if that doesn’t help just give the customer a coupon.
Alric’s boss in particular sends a lot of stuff back to him. Lots of complaints about his sales. They refer Alric to training a lot. He’s not meeting his sales quota. His boss is so disappointed in him.
Arial’s boss tells her she has attachment issues... as in issues with the attachments on her emails. Aglet admits she was gonna say “Ah I guess you don’t need to go to therapy if your boss is already telling you about that kinda stuff”
Alric: My boss is always disappointed in me Arial: My boss tells me about my attachment issues Aglet: You guys have bosses?!
Arial’s department head is Arisainde fer Tempes Lore He Sui Amor Hyuvei or Arisa
Arial doesn’t know this is Arisa because the email cuts off so much of this name and it just looks like “Ar...ei”
She gives department head <3
Alric remembers his flashback with the sneaky rickeys and asks about them
Kon shows the sneaky rickey and god it’s so ugly
Kon keeps them for company safety. Sneaky Rickey collectors are insane
Since they're ahead, Alric asks if they can get their sneaky rickeys removed before moving forward because he does not wanna run into collectors unprepared.
Thyme sees all and tells Alric that he’s a hole made for Sneaky Rickeys right now...
They pull one out from Alric’s ear ew ew ew ew
Aglet has a small sneaky rickey infestation and it’s roots are kinda deep.
Alric's like oh yeah you probably have quite a bit and Aglets like What do you mean??? and Alric doesn't explain because he didn't realize Aglet didn't know...
The biggest danger of having the rickeys is the collectors
Thyme will remove the rickeys and accept them as payment
Alric asks if they count towards his debt and Thyme tears him a new asshole like "oh you wanna pay me back with dirty rat money??? is that it?" and alric's like Bro chill

ARIAL'S PIMPLE POPPING SESSION WITH THYME

Arial goes first because her sneaky rickeys are fresh and will be easy to remove
The two of them are in the KITCHEN??!?!???!?
Arial loses the shirt and lowers the pants because she has a Sneaky Rickey tramp stamp </3
Alric’s like BRO WE JUST ATE HERE and Aglet is NOT commenting.
She chokes down the rest of her coffee
Thyme takes a sanitary swab and rubs it right above her asscrack
Thyme tells Arial it’s bad if she closes her eyes and A BUNCH OF HANDS SHOW UP FROM THE GROUND AND HOLD HER IN PLACE AND AGLET AND ALRIC ARE STARING LIKE WHAT THE FUUUUCK and alrics kinda like What the fuuuuuuuuckkkk ;)
Alric understands Thyme a little more
As Arial breathes out, Thyme plunges their hand right into the spot that was rubbed with the sanitary swab
This looks brutal to everyone watching but Arial only feels like she’s getting a shot. just a pinch
When Thyme’s hand comes out, there’s also a young Sneaky Rickey it’s a juicy lil thing
Arial’s like “it’s not that bad” and Aglet and Alric are horrified.
THYME CRUSHES THE SNEAKY RICKEY AND FUCKING JUICES IT? THEY LIKE PUT THAT JUICE SHIT IN A MIXER AND PUTS SHIT IN IT AND SIPS IT AND WHATTTT
They open the container with the drink shit and in it is a little vial
Thyme then plunges this vial into the spot where the sneaky rickey was. It’s a preventative measure against Sneaky Rickeys but it may have side effects
Arial feels. itchy. She also has a headache. The vaxx got her </3 It’s a really bad headache too ouchies. Her ass also hurts a lot. I mean she got a fucking vial plunged into there. It feels like somethings poking out of her butt.
ARIAL SPROUTS A RAT TAIL?!?!?!?!?? AND THE RICKEY RAT EARS>??!?!??!?!?!?
Thyme: How does it feel to look like the Devil, Arial?
Aglet sees this and it activates some core memories
“Oh my god why is Arial so ugly right now. Oh my god I never think she’s ugly. I would always love Arial for who she is but this kind of weird is a dealbreaker right now oh my god”
Aglet’s vision goes white and oh god it’s flashback time
She hears someone else saying “It’s not permanent.” Over. and over again. She recalls her last flashback from the end of the quiz.
This is another backstage dressing room, but it’s a different set. This memory isn’t as reliable. It’s incredibly distorted. She can’t see her own face, it just looks like the void, but she recognizes that it’s supposed to be her sitting there.
This flashback is in first person, and as Aglet looks in the mirror, she sees someone with her hand on her shoulder. Although she can’t see her face in the mirror, she knows she’s grimacing at her outfit. She recognizes the big, round, ears in the silhouette. They tell her “It’s not permanent. I know you can do it, Aggie.”
The second part of this flashback is shorter, and even more distorted. She’s someplace elevated, and it looks like a stage despite not being one at all. She feels these really hot lights on her. There’s a lot of very translucent circles looking towards her, and she doesn’t know if they’re eyes, cameras, or people, she just knows she doesn’t like how they look at her.
This all happens in the span of a second. Aglet slams her head into the table and doesn’t want to look at anyone. She drops the accent.
She’s so fucked up she’s repeating a bunch of self-affirmations over and over again while she’s murmuring into the table
Her headaches pretty bad from the distorted nature of her flashbacks and she feels like shit about what she thought about Arial like she feels horrible
Kon is a real one and puts a glamour on Arial because god the rat ears and tail are ugly as fuck
Arial approaches Aglet like hey!! I’m not ugly anymore! And Aglet’s like I don’t think you’re ugly I don’t think you’re ugly You’re not ugly You’re not ugly....... She’s still not looking at anything her face is glued to the table
Alric has to tap her shoulder to have her look at Arial and the fog in her brain clears up enough for her to look up at her
Aglet’s not really good at hiding her emotions in the first place and this is especially true now that she’s in such a distressed state. She looks like she’s about to cry
She is able to look at Arial now but she wants to hide her face so she buries her face in Arial’s chest
Like I swear she’s not doing this to rub her face in her tits she doesn’t want people to know she’s crying
While she’s freaking out Alric offers to go next and Aglet’s like yeah please I can’t do this now king

ALRIC'S SNEAKY RICKEY REMOVAL

Thyme lets the girls locker room know that Taro’s on the couch and then goes to the bathroom with Alric because he should probably have some privacy with this
Thyme also puts a chair in front of the door from the outside...not a good sign ngl
Alric asks Thyme how bad it is
Thyme: How attached are you to your body?
Alrics like ok wtf just explain it to me
Thyme explains that the depth of the sneaky rickey infection corresponds to the strength of Rickey rat's grudge
but thyme kinda keeps everything in vague terms since its so hard to put into words so alrics like Just show me what you see.
thymes like Are you sure it won't feel good? and alrics like idc just do it
Thyme has him hold onto something and bite down on a towel And then oh god oh god oh god oh god

CW: GORE AND BODY HORROR

Alric sees...so many things at once. He sees himself from all 3 points of view and it looks like theres a layer of Something? on his skin
he reaches out to touch his arm and this layer peels right off with no resistance
he realizing he peeled off a bunch of microscopic sneaky rickeys and once they dissolve he realizes he just peeled off his own skin. his arm hurts.
his sneaky rickey infestation is so extreme that they've become his skin cells lol rip

END GORE AND BODY HORROR CW

Alric comes back from being mindfucked and he was like Wow cool (is obviously not cool) so how long was that happening for?
Thyme was like about 3 seconds. It genuinely felt like 4 hours Alric couldn't really tell because time was Different but it went so slow
Alric asks how getting soul transferred into a new body would work and if it'd be the same and thyme said "no it would take time to clone your body"
and that's time alric doesnt have so. emergency surgery time!
Alric asks how long the procedure will take and Thymes like about 10 minutes but it'll feel much longer
Alric's like damn can't you knock me out or something I'd rather not feel what you're about to do like I have a high pain tolerance but this is too much-
Thyme just holds ALric's shoulders to stop him and he's like "don't worry, it'll only take a second."
He gives Alric a kiss on the forehead and that knocks him tf out. he briefly dreams about drinking coffee with Thyme.

AGLET IS FUCKING MISERABLE

Aglet stops hugging Arial because it’s starting to get kinda messy with the tear stains and stuff
She can’t bring herself to look at Arial again because she’s still really ashamed and she doesn’t know if she has it in her to actually talk about what’s on her mind because of her headache
She’s still really apologetic to Arial and keeps saying that she doesn’t think she’s ugly because she’s still really ashamed about ever thinking that but also she doesn’t really know what else to say to her
Aglet is so afraid of her memory right now </3
Arial’s very understanding despite not understanding anything about Aglet’s situation and lets her know that she doesn’t have to apologize
Arial offers to carry Aglet to the couch where Taro is and although Aglet doesn’t answer she does need that and Arial understands that
Arial tries to carry Aglet and that didn’t work out. Kon gives her a nudge and she’s able to carry Aglet off the ground bridal style. Kon’s really rooting for her right now.
They sit down and Aglet asks her not to put her down. Arial’s totally okay with this and holds her close <3 Aglet is still hiding her face from her in the crook of her neck
Aglet can suddenly hear a voice that she Kind of doesn’t recognize. It does NOT sound nice. It’s coming from the bathroom. She notices the chair against the doorknob and oh god there’s so much screaming. It doesn't even sound like a person in there.
Is that Alric? His voice sounds so fucked up from not actually being used for so long.
Arial does NOT recognize that as screaming. She thinks someone is mowing their fucking lawn.
Aglet tries to tell Arial about what’s going on in the bathroom and Arial’s so stupid she thinks someone is mowing their lawn
Aglet caresses her face like you are DEAF!!! And Arial’s like “Sorry I’m not wearing my glasses”
Aglet actually starts laughing at that and calls Arial “the stupidest person she’s ever met” and Arial doesn’t even care because Aglet’s actually smiling IT’S ALL WORTH IT!!!
Aglet tries to tell Arial to listen for what’s going on in the bathroom and Arial hears the thumping but not the screaming for some reason. She thinks Alric’s being a freak and turns the TV on. She turns the volume up. Aglet’s taken aback.
Aglet snaps she’s like DON’T YOU HEAR THE SCREAMING!??!?! TURN THE TV OFFFFFFF like she’s not mad she’s whipped tbh but like GIRL LISTEN!!!
Arial approaches the doors and actually fucking HEARS WHATS GOING ON!!!
Aglet urges Arial to go over to Taro to try and wake him up and that doesnt happen at all
Arial makes like slurpy noises and shit in Taro’s ear and Aglet’s like what the FUCK are you doing??!?!?!!?
She starts swatting her in the face because she’s trying to wake up taro like a little freak and like. She decides to try waking up taro herself
She asks Arial to lower her next to Taro and once she does Taro hugs Aglet like a pillow
Aglet tries to kiss Taro’s nose to wake him up but he scratches his nose in his sleep
Arial just has to laugh

ALRIC FUCKING DIES?!??!

Eventually the screaming and banging noises subside and Aglet’s like HE’S DEAD! And Taro’s like nooo he didn’t take his clothes
When the noises die down Aglet breaks free from Taro’s hug and manages to rush over to the bathroom
She asks if she can come in and Thyme gives her the go ahead
She walks in and sees Thyme cradling a very exhausted Alric...in a room COVERED in blood. Don’t know whose.
Thyme causes all of the blood in the bathroom to congregate around his finger and puts it in a vial
He makes Alric drink it (it’s the sneaky rickey’s blood...but thyme said that it Was alric's blood at some point)

CW: GORE AND BODY HORROR

turns out the sneaky rickeys made up his skin and blood cells! gross!
so what ended up happening was that thyme had to rip off his skin and drain all his blood and reform all of that normally. rip alric good thing he was unconscious

END GORE AND BODY HORROR CW

Anyways yeah Alric’s throat is super fucked up but also his entire body hurts so fucking bad
he signals to Aglet and Arial and Aglet offers to get him ice cream
Thyme offers to get them all ice cream and asks for the flavors they like
Arial: Cookies and Creme or Cookie Dough? Alric: Lemon Lime Anything Sour Aglet: Ube
Aglet was like bro it sounded like you were dying in there :( and Alric's like Yeah I almost did lmfao and Aglet just made A Face
thyme tells aglet and arial that hes gonna help alric clean up and theyre like Ok get better soon king
alric is super out of it rn and he can barely move so thyme helps give him a bath so the hot water helps
thyme also keeps him talking so that he stays awake long enough to actually get him in bed but hes talking complete nonsense lmao
alric was like broooo you have so many hands and thyme was like Yes I have two of them and alric was like noooo not those hands the space ones
he started whining about how arial got to see all of thymes many hands before he did and thyme was like thats different bro.
then thyme changed the subject lmao he asked alric about why he didnt like the water since hes getting a bath rn
alric was too out of it to give a straight answer hes was just like "Oh my family loves going to the pool and the beach but I never liked it, it was so boring"
he said his sister bani especially loved the beach and he would go look at tide pools and dig up crabs with her but he'd never go swim with her
Thyme: Oh but you'd go swimming with Kon though? Alric: shut up that's different I hate swimming more now actually
he also said he would get in trouble because hed spend the day digging a pit in the sand and start a bonfire in it
eventually thyme was done bathing him so he put him in a bathrobe and was like Ok where do you want me to put you?
Alric was like oooo Kon's bed is soooo comfy so Thyme was like K and brought him there
Turns out Kon spent that whole half hour or so sitting on his bed in his room with his hands folded in his lap like "Oh god there's so many people in my house what do I do??" god i love pathetic men
Thyme gives Alric some painkillers and spoonfeeds him his lemon icecream so that he feels better when he wakes up.
Once Alrics head hit the pillow he was out like a light it was HIS turn to go mimis
Kon started reading a book next to him so that when Alric eventually wakes up he won't be alone. idk its kinda sweet...

AGLET AND ARIAL PRETEND THEY DIDNT SEE THAT I GUESS

Aglet and Arial go to watch some Oceanvale. Aglet wants to draw and maybe process stuff better. Artists fuck better you know
She asks Kon for some paper and he offers an empty notebook. He tells her there’s spaghetti in the fridge that she can warm up. He’s giving everyone privacy.
Some sliced mangoes show up on the table in the living room (Fantasy Filipino household!)
Oceanvale is on and Aglet wants to draw! Arial notices this and asks her if she can draw her. Aglet’s like oh yeah sure! Arial’s like no like... can you Draw meeee ;) and Aglet’s like whatttt
Before she could properly respond Arial LOSES THE SHIRT OH GOD THE BOOBIES!!
She poses on the coffee table and god this was supposed to be a warmup but Aglet can’t NOT draw her she is so down horrendous. Sweat starts beading on her forehead and dripping down her face. This is the funniest shit ever Arial’s fucking stupid
Aglet draws such a good portrait of Arial with this ballpoint pen and notebook and Arial gets a message from Kon
Kon’s all like “heyy Arial you know you’re a really good friend for helping out Alric and doing all that research to help him and stuff :)”
Arial goes from Dreamworks facing to Premmy
Kon also texts Aglet but she’s too busy wiping the sweat off her forehead
Idk at some point Aglet and Arial actually starts watching Oceanvale but Aglet’s like drawing in Arial’s lap and she’s drawing like these lil collages of what she saw in her psychological hell
She felt kinda bad so she started drawing Alric and Taro skrunklies

ARIAL SOLO MISSION?

It’s still Wednesday Morning.

Thyme lets Aglet know that he cleaned up the bathroom and that he can perform the procedure on her
Aglet’s less nervous about the whole thing now but she looks to Arial for support
She tells Thyme that she’s ready but like she wants to be knocked out and doesn’t wanna be told anything about the procedure at all. Except for like maybe where the rickeys are.
Thyme pats Aglet on the face. She gets knocked out.
Thyme runs down the next assignment for Arial
Basically Petaldive conducts sanity checks and the taaaskforce is deemed too insane to work. Especially after ditching their therapy sessions.
Thyme tells Arial to sneak into the Sanitary departments to forge health documents that say that the taaaskforce is sane so they won’t be targeted
Arial’s like “I’VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE!!!” but she’ll do her best ;)
Thyme hands Arial the forged documents in those big orange document folders
Thyme’s like Yeah you’re the best normal employee to do this task ever you actually do your job good
Arial’s face just says “YEAHHH I’M NOT SUS”
Thyme gives Arial a blue courier hat because everyone in Sanitary really likes those hats (omg Arial you’re so paperboy <3)
Thyme poofs Arial away and BAM she’s in the main lobby for the Sanitary department!
Arial sees a person at the front desk, everyone in the lil courier hats, some directional signs
Arial approaches the receptionist like she’s in a rush. She’s so pathetic about it.
Arial is directed to the infirmary because she’s a little freak
Arial notices a lot in the infirmary, she notices a lot of people lining up for their appointments and vaccinations and shit
In addition to that she notices a long long line of people waiting with the same orange envelopes that Arial has
It’s so packed!!! Someone bumps into Arial and they BOTH drop their briefcases
Arial’s like OMG I’M SOOO SORRY!!! And this person is like WHAT THE FUCK!!! god.
Arial tries to double check the folders but this person already got lost in the sea of people.
Alric and Aglet’s folders are there... BUT NOT ARIAL’S OH SHIT!!!
Arial stuffs Alric and Aglet’s folders into a pocket in her briefcase so they don’t fall out again. She follows the general direction the other person went in.
She gets totally lost. What the fuck. I mean it’s super packed but damn she completely lost where this person is.
She decides to look at the other person’s folder. She gathers the following:

Name: Senifh Tendrice
Hair: Brunette (Brown/Black)
Height: 5'4
Age: 24
Status: Clear to work

Arial circles the back of the line predatorily to see if the person was there. THEY ARE! They’re on one of the free benches in this incredibly packed area. Arial approaches.
Arial strikes up conversation and tries to switch files... But this person turned in Arial’s folder. They say it’s not a big deal because they basically turned in her file for her.
She asks what they do with the file once it’s turned in because she doesn’t know. They just review it and give a pass.
She learns that they’re cracking down on forged documents and Arial has to fight the urge to shit herself.
Senifh tells her that since she’s new she’s probably gonna need a stamp.
They point to a line that’s JUST AS LONG as the other line. It’s the line for an annual Stamp of Validity and they reject documents that don’t have that stamp.
Arial moves somewhere private to look at Alric’s documents. She wants to check if they have the stamp anddddd theyyyyyyy don’tttttttttt.
Like she even went into the bathroom and pulled her pants down and sat on the toilet to look there’s no stamp on Alric’s shit. There’s also no stamp on Aglet’s shit. Arial’s docs are gonna be so rejected.
Arial washes her hands and exits the restroom

AGLET'S EMERGENCY SURGERY

Thyme carries Aglet to the bathroom and puts her on the stool
He takes a look at her and oh goddd the infestation is pretty bad. There’s a few chubs in there.
She had three beefier ones. They’re older. They’re more plump.
In the back of Aglet’s throat... 2 of the sneaky rickeys replaced Aglet’s tonsils.

CW: GORE

Thyme reaches into Aglet’s mouth and rips out the sneaky rickey tonsils. He seals it right away but jesus christ.
The third sneaky rickey is in the tip of of one of her antlers. Thyme rubs down the antlers with a sanitation pad and breaks the tip with the sneaky rickey right off. A lot of blood spurts out but Thyme fixes it up really quick. It hardens and starts growing back.
While she’s sleeping, Aglet grimaces, but she’s not screaming like Alric was. She definitely feels the tonsils and antlers regrowing on her body.

END GORE CW

Thyme wipes her down and carries her to the couch. He sets her down right next to Taro. A simple and clean procedure <3 unlike alrics complicated and dirty one
Aglet’s super woozy from the painkillers and wraps herself around Taro like “ohhh taro you savedd meeeeeeeeeee” and taro’s like “this isn’t my houuusee” in his sleep

ARIAL STAMP GET

Most people turning in their stuff aren’t wearing the courier hat
Arial’s gonna circle the line where people are getting their stamps predatorily and scout someone out. She’s gonna...very naturally try to bump into them and make them drop their envelope. Like. she’s gonna trip on them. Sort of.
She also wants to look at the stamp. The design and shit.
MISSION SUCCESS Arial tripped over this person so boobily!
She sneakily took the envelope and slid out the paper to check what the stamp looked like. She got a good look at it! It’s an ink stamp that’s basically like a seal of approval. It’s in red ink.
She’s all like omgg omg I’m so embarrassed!! I’m so sorry!!! >.< Then she runs into the bathroom.
She takes out a notebook and pen to see if she can recreate that shit.
She does pretty good but she decides she doesn’t wanna do this by herself.
She decides to call Thyme but like there’s so many people in the restroom waiting for Arial to get out... She’s staying in there anyways what a little freak. She’s making it sound like she’s struggling to take a shit.
Arial texts Thyme because maybe she doesn’t want him to hear this.

ARIAL: Thyme could you make a stamp for me if I sent you the design please hurry im not a very convincing shitter
ARIAL: and also give a red ink pad
THYME: 800 credits
THYME: or
THYME: go to therapy and get it for free
ARIAL: Oh my god
ARIAL: Okay fine I'll go to therapy you're so sick
THYME: my wrsits are just so tired from surgery :(

Before Thyme and Arial go through with this Arial decides to call Alric. Who has been post surgery sleeping the whole time.
He answers and she’s still trying to make the shitting sounds

ARIAL: Heyyyy can you like... lend me 40 credits
ALRIC: what do you want
ARIAL: PLEASE
ALRIC: jesus are you shitting right now
ARIAL: IF IT MEANS YOU’LL GIVE ME 40 CREDITS RIGHT NOW YES I’M SHITTING MY PANTS
ARIAL: YOU EITHER GIVE ME 40 CREDITS RIGHT NOW OR I GO TO THERAPY DO YOU WANT ME TO GO TO THERAPY RIGHT NOW ALRIC
ALRIC: dude just lie to the therapist
ARIAL: IT’S JUST 40 CREDITS GIVE IT TO ME NOW.
ALRIC: omg fine im going back to sleep now

She continues texting Thyme now that she has another 40 credits.

ARIAL: Nevermind I just happened to get 40 credits magically I’ll pay the 800
THYME: ok <3
THYME: send me the design? or describe it
ARIAL: sends it

Thyme does sketch it out, and out of some weird dimensional butthole the ink pad and stamp drop down!
She catches it before it falls into the shitter and stamps Aglet and Alric’s papers!
While this is happening Aglet messages the taaaskforce (just the 3 of them) GC. She thinks she’s dming Arial but Alric’s in here too.

AGLET: omgggggggg good funnnn (TN: she mixed up have fun and good luck)
AGLET: arial where are you
ARIAL: Ohhh so glad you had fun in surgery
AGLET: noooo i mean you <3
ARIAL: Sanit
AGLET: who is she
ARIAL: Don’t worry she could never be u
ALRIC: shhhh im sleeping
AGLET: SLEEP BETTER

Arial leaves the bathroom and washes her hand on the way out. She is not looking at anyone in the eyes. Everyone’s like “why is she fake shitting in there...”
Arial emerges from the bathroom puzzle. Everyone knows her asscheeks are intact after that fake shit.
Arial’s gonna pretend like she received Aglet and Alric’s files and puts them down the paper chute. She did it successfully!
While she’s there, she checks if there’s a pile for rejected files.
There is another chute for rejected envelopes. This one is fucking massive compared to the accepted envelopes, which is the size of a book. This chute is like. The size of a crate.
Arial’s gonna look down the chute! It’s pretty steep, but it’s slanted to allow for things to slide down. It’s mostly vertical though.
Let’s say, hypothetically, Arial goes down this chute. Is it, hypothetically, not a freefall and instead like one of those standing water slides? She’s about to find out!
Arial jumps in, briefcase first. Like she throws it down there and goes after it, headfirst. She’s supermanning right now. She’s going in for the dive.
This the most confusing and twisted garbage chute she’s ever been in. (She’s been in garbage chutes before?!?!?) Anyway she’s done like 30 loops in this dive. She hits the curves and corners with an Oof ahh ooh ohh that hurts
The chute ends at an angle that shoots Arial up in a parabolic curve. She catches her briefcase midair, and it broke her fall in the massive pile of shit fire garbage.
Like. The briefcase’s hard and expensive material breaks her fall COMPLETELY. She took no damage.

INSIDE THE INCINERATOR

Arial tries to look around but there’s fucking garbage in her eyes!!! All she can hear is sounds of garbage falling into the place right now!!!! She can kind of hear a timer of some sorts in there. It’s beeping. It’s kinda like a bomb.
She wipes the garbage out of her eyes and sees that she’s in a BIG room surrounded by chutes shooting trash into the room. She thinks to herself “God this is just like fucking Zero Escape”
She sees some Golems picking the trash up and sorting the shit out
Arial finds several doors along the edges of the room, but they’re all barred off with jail cell bars. She goes a little closer to them and sees there’s holes in the bottom of the wall. She gathers that the bars can be moved or retracted, so these doors are possible exits.
An intercom rings out from the roof of this massive room! The voice is like OOOoOoohh oh my god! Hi! Welcome back to burning man! I’mmm Quizmaster and this is my Podcast~ You know today I’m really feeling it and I’m just talking here you know with my fiances Mike and Ludis cmere say hi! (Mike and Ludis: Hii) I just want to talk about stuff ahaaa you know fireplaces in the apartments are kinda a hazard so like I put up these cameras in the incinerator room bc i thought it’d be cool... i thought it was nice... i just wanted to talk about my day you know i like watching the fire works hahaa... you know one time one of my coworkers her name is like Brumisha idk it sounds like a charcuterie board... she threw down some shit and the fire looked really cool... anyway link in the description for those of you listening to this on spopify!
The golems in the incinerators are nodding their heads like yeah I like the fire!
Arial is screaming AHHHH QUIZMASTER!!!!! to the heavens
“yeah you know i really thought about it hard we’re gonna have our wedding on a beach? we could have it on a cliff you know that’s cooollllll”
Arial calls Alric while this is all happening.

ALRIC: WHatttttt
ARIAL: Heyyy you have quizmaster’s numbeer righttt
ALRIC: yea
ARIAL: CAN YOU ASK HIM TO OPEN THE INCINERATORS PLEASEEEEEE
ALRIC: Jesus christ are you okay fine ill get him. dont die (He hangs up)

She didn’t even ask for quizmaster’s number. shes so stupid
Alric’s like "Kon" and Kon is like "Hiiiiiiii hiii Hiiii" and Alric’s like “Call Quizmaster And Put Him On Speaker Arial Is In The Incinerator....” and then he squeezes kons boob
Alric literally doesn't need speaker to talk to people bc telepathy compatible phones exist but he's so out of it Kon should hear it for moral support.
Arial texts Aglet:

ARIAL: Hey Aglet
AGLET: hieeee
ARIAL: Hey
ARIAL: Hey...
ARIAL: So...
ARIAL: Like...
AGLET: whattttatattttattt
ARIAL: Don’t get mad
AGLET: WHERE ARE YOU
ARIAL: Or panic
ARIAL: In an
ARIAL: Incinerator

Aglet calls Arial and she’s super woozy right now. But like she’s worried she’s like whyyy are you in the incinerator it’s not good for your healthhh
Arial’s like Actually it Is good for my health I can get a good tan in here and Aglet’s like noooo there’s no sun you’re gonna get burn skid markssss get outtt I’m not gonna sleep until you’re outttt
Arial’s like Nooo you should sleep <3 and Aglet’s like nooooooooooo get out of the incineratorrrrrr and Arial’s like I’m looking into it... goodnight And then Arial hangs up
Alric calls quizmaster and is like. Heyy. Emergency. Quizmaster is like What’s uppppp Alric’s like Arial’s In The Incinerator
Quizmaster can’t do anything about the incinerator but he Can call a number
They have some news to share with Alric but they’ll talk to him later <3
Alric texts Arial’s number to Quizmaster
Alric asks Kon how long he’s been out for and it’s been like. An hour since Arial left.

Kon: heyy old sport how you doingggg
Alric: You know earlier it felt like I was hit by 3 cars but now it just feels like I got hit by 1 car that backed up on me for good measure
Kon: So you’re doing better?
Alric: ehhh

Alric goes back to sleep and Kon rubs his shoulder like “there there.” Alric has been sleeping on Kon’s boobs for the last hour and Kon just left him there.
Arial tries to investigate the trash pile. She doesn’t find her specific file, but the Golems have been organizing the things in the room. There is a pile for papers and such. That helps!
She manages to find a pile specifically for the rejected health reports. It’s gonna take her a while to actually find it. It’ll take her 3 minutes to get the file. The timer on the wall, which was originally at 10 minutes, is now down to 7 minutes.
With 6 minutes left on the counter, Arial finds her rejected file!!!!!!
Quizmaster calls Arial and omggg she’s on their podcast! She looooves the podcast by the way
Quizmaster knows exactly what to do. They saw it in a video game once. They don’t call them the master for nothing.
Quizmaster’s like “Arial, are you like a girlboss now??? Do you self-identify as a girlboss or something???” and Arial’s like Yes.
Quizmaster starts to tell Arial about the podcast but realizes she is in an incinerator.
Anyways they saw this girlboss do it her name was Aya Won (Fantasy Ada Wong) she was super cool she used her hacking gun to hack the incinerator to get out... They have a vague idea of what a hacking gun looks like so they tell Arial to make one and Arial’s like Yes.
Quizmaster tells her they need to pee and like. Just ignore the pee noises Arial
Quizmaster: Ok so what you’re gonna do is find the basis for your shaft right? Yeah go find thatttt. Do you mind if I put intense music for this I’ve always wanted to do this kinda thing it’s soooo cool you know making the gadget... I think you’re cool Arial (Arial: aww thank you thank you very much) Alright now you gotta find something for the barrel alright? Now you gotta find something to use for projectionnn you know like a wire
Arial finds the shaft thing
Arial finds the barrel
Arial finds the projection
Quizmaster: Alright you found all the parts!!! Just put it all together they should all fit nicelyyy!!!
Arial makes something pretty good!!
Quizmaster: Aw yeah that’s sooo cool you just made a gun!!! I’m not a tech person so liiike that’s just a normal gun isn’t that so cool that’s soo sweet like yeah YOU MADE THAT!!!
Arial has 1 minute left. It’s getting really warm in here.
Quizmaster: alright listen to me arial you only have one shot at this. i think. i don’t know. so you’re gonna take your hacking gun- it’s a normal gun but it’s a hacking gun. Now you have to find a specific breaker box and break it so it releases the safety lock on those exit doors. Make sure you shoot the BLUE WIRE. alright?

Arial: you got it boss <3 how do you know it’s the blue wire
Quizmaster: IT’S THE BLUE ONE

Arial does see some large fat massive wires in this breaker box on the ceilings. She sees blue. And baby blue. And turquoise. And light blue. And a sky blue. And another baby blue. There’s a bluer blurple.
Arial closes her eyes. She’s sweating. Her arm points her gun to the ceiling and she’s putting so much faith in her abilities right now... Time slows for a bit... she fires her hacking gun... and Oh my god... she actually cuts the RIGHT WIRE! It’s this wire encased in black, but it says Blue. She did it. <3
Arial opens her eyes, and sees that the doors are wide open! She gets the FUCK out of the room. As soon as she makes it out of the room, the timer reaches 0, and the heat of the incinerator hits her. She looks back and sees everything in the garbage room get absolutely consumed with flames. She solved the incinerator puzzle!
Quizmaster realizes that their camera is not fireproof so their podcast video is no longer running. It was a cheap camera anyway. Arial couldn’t have done this without them.
Quizmaster tells Arial to not get into another incinerator. They also send her a text.
QUIZMASTER: Are You Gay?~ Take This Quiz and Find Out Now! (it’s a link to an are you gay quiz)
Quizmaster sends a pic of them and their fiances. Quizmaster is in the middle and Mike and Ludis’s legs are the only parts of them in the frame.
Arial got a little singed, so her asscheeks are out. Can I get a bite
Arial takes a pic of her bare asscheeks and sends it to Aglet. With the hat.

AGLET: WOAHHHHHHHHHH INCINERATOR ASS <3
ARIAL: It’s burnt :[888
AGLET: ITS OK I CAN FIX IT <3

As Arial climbs up the stairwell, she stamps her medical records and heads back to where she came from.
She puts her documents in the correct chute yay!
She sends a selfie to the gc with Thyme, Kon, and Taro and also a Mission Accomplished impact font meme from the 2000s
Thyme responds with the confetti under Arial’s message <3

SANITARY STAFF MEETING

these people approach Arial and bring her to this meeting that’s about to start <3 they lock elbows with her on both sides
There’s this guest speaker from Businey speaking at this meeting! They wanted to talk about some merger tactics and Arial really wants to leave but she’s just gonna let herself get dragged by these two people.
They bring her to this lecture hall looking place with a bunch of seats.
She recognizes some Businey personnel with the Rickey Rat headbands and big wide smiles.
She’s seated right at the middle at the very top. She’s stuck there because she’s sandwiched between two people.
These people are super hyped for this meeting and Arial wants to get out.
She sees this person walk up onstage, in a black suit and a very nice red tie. They got the big white gloves. They start talking and oh my god it’s W.W. “Wacky” Wack the Watchdog (Fantasy Goofy)
Arial shoots a text to the taskforce gc:

ARIAL: Guys there’s a weird fuckin dog here
AGLET: HOW BIG

Arial doesn’t answer.
Wacky’s soo glad he’s invited! His presentation is all about company support and togetherness. Hyuck hyuck!
Wacky invites his associate (gawrsh!) to help give this presentation because you can’t have togetherness by yourself!
This person is dressed in a nice brown suit...
Wacky introduces the person as “His good pal and partner, Sans Serif!”
Arial is taking the hat and lowering it over her face. She’s in this man’s line of sight. She’s realllyyy trying to hide right now.
Sans starts giving his piece on the presentation, from the perspective of a “family man like him...” he claims to be a “loving father and husband...” as he gives this presentation on togetherness in families
Arial knows this motherfucker is lying and she’s red in the face. She knows he’s definitely not talking about Arial and Lucida. If he isn’t lying, she can gather that he’s talking about his other family.
Sans starts going on about how Businey integrated them into their “own family” and he welcomed the opportunity with open arms.
He then invites his daughter to the stage. Another spotlight comes down, and there’s a young girl! She looks about 4 years old. She looks JUST like Arial, who looks just like Sans. Except she has a...duck beak?
He kneels down on one knee, catches her, and spins her around a bit before placing her on the floor. He introduces his “lovely and beautiful daughter” to the audience. Her name is Lilac.
He also introduces his “lovely wife.” Another spotlight comes down, and a very Long and Exposed leg emerges... This very Tall woman with a slit cut Jessica Rabbit looking dress sashaying up the stairs puts an arm around Sans and another arm around him in an embrace and oh my god she has the head of a duck. She has huge duck boobs. Why.
Sans Serif, his daughter Lilac, and his wife Snowdrop Swan (Fantasy Daisy Duck) all look so. Family. I guess.
Arial’s Steve Willising as hard as she can under the courier hat. This poor fucking woman. She is gripping the seat with one hand and her hat with the other.
Sans is like "This is my beautiful family. They stuck by with me through hard times. My lovely and beautiful wife, Snowdrop, and the beautiful pride of my life, Lilac, who is also the future inheritor of my company..." My god Arial. I’m so fucking sorry.
Sans has the nerve to say “we always support each other. Nobody gets left behind.” He goes on about how Businey helped him get back on his feet to run his successful business. They welcomed him into their loving, rat-like arms. He hopes that Petaldive can do the same.
Wacky takes the microphone and thanks Sans for the words. He lets the other guest speakers talk, but they don’t matter <3
Sans Serif and his new family are sitting together. In Arial’s line of sight. He’s playing with his daughter, being affectionate with his wife... the smile on his face is one Arial hasn’t seen in years.
Arial doubts this is the same father she had. But. Well. Nope that’s him.
Arial starts to have a flashback... She’s making potions in the backyard like kids do. She smashed a bottle and uh oh! A shard of glass scratched him across a bit of his face. The man in Arial’s sight right now has that exact same scar.
Arial has to go with the flow of the traffic in the room. She doesn’t see the speakers walking around to talk with the people in the room.
They’re all mingling with the crowd and handing out business cards and stuff. Lilac hands out a business card to Arial and it’s covered in stickers. It’s really cute. She has a fucking email and office address. She is 4 years old.
Someone else shakes Arial’s hand. Arial instinctively gives a firm handshake in return. This person points out that firm grip.
Arial remembers how she was in Sans’s office, and he’s telling her about the importance of a good first impression.
Sans brings over Lilac and tells her that A handshake like this will make your dad proud, Lilac!" Arial needs to get tf outta there fr
He pats Arial on the shoulder and hands a business card to her. He says he can see her going places.
Arial accomplishes her mission and she has 2 more business cards than what she started with!
Arial is going to go home.

BACK TO KON'S APARTMENT

She ~bravely~ returns from her adventure in one piece with her ass out. Perfect <3
She gets an A+ on her mission report!! Woohoo! She could’ve gotten an S for Serif but she gets an A for Arial instead <3
She makes it back less mentally sound than when she started.
Arial decides to do some research on Gooble dot com. She thought she had NOTHING to do with Businey. She’s hacking gunning the computer right now.
She finds a few articles. One is from a few years ago, and has a few pictures of Sans shaking hands with a buisney associate and cutting the ribbon to celebrate the Serif Conglomerate’s Rise to Stardom.
This is all Arial can be fucked to know right now. She closes that out and approaches Aglet.
Aglet’s still really woozy but she is feeling happier <3 she should probably be more concerned for Arial but she’s just happy to see her right now
She also asks Arial to turn around and show her some of that incinerator ass <3
She invites Arial to the girls locker room sandwich and she joins in.
Arial starts talking about this like... hypothetical where a cat gets put up for adoption and then 5 years later sees its original owner with a new cat... and Aglet’s like ohhh I love cats they are so cute... I think if I was a cat I’d be very sad if that happened...
She kisses Arial on the nose and is like yoouuuuu had a looooong morningggg and offers to get her some of the ice cream that Thyme left in the freezer. Arial definitely needs that.
Arial goes into Kon’s room and lets Kon and Alric know that there were Businey speakers today. Alric is like. Why.
Kon explains that Sanitary’s dept. head invited them in to promote the merger rickey rat wants between buisney and petaldive
Alric’s not surprised he hates Businey so bad
Alric and Kon are like... “Business is so complicated and dirty" at the same time. woah.
Arial walks out of Kon’s room to find Aglet lying across the coffee table next to their ice cream cups (she’s so sweet <3)
Now they’re eating ice cream together <3 They really needed this
While that’s happening Alric’s realizes Kon was reading the whole time he was napping
Alric's all like "ahahaa what you reading Konnnn" and Kon’s like "Thyme told me his dad is a writer so I wanted to read one of his works <3 I'ts an unpublished manuscript"
It’s a romance book about this person falling in love with this dude. Alric asks if it’s good.
Kon's like "Honestly I'm not sure? It's kind of confusing..." Alric asks why and it turns out the book is in a different language.
It's like Common but to the left, so it is pretty similar to the Common everyone here knows but like if it was a different dialect with different cultural references.
Kon says that Thyme's been teaching them this language so he can understand what is written literally, but it's not making a lot of sense out of context.
Kon offers to read it out loud to Alric (since he wants to see but can't read that language) and he's like omg fuck yes.
As Kon stumbles through the text Alric is using 100% of his brainpower trying to make sense of all the Words
And then he realizes all the weird shit being said are flowery metaphors for...oh no. oh no this is an erotica manuscript.
Kon has no idea he's still trucking through literally translating it.
Alric is trying not to lose his shit laughing does Thyme's dad really write shit like this?
When Kon asked Alric what was so funny he tried to explain and Kon was like "But this book is so unsexy wtf" and Alric was like "yea lol"
When Thyme was asked about it later he admitted he just grabbed a random wip. Oopsies!

POST-SURGERIES

Thursday and Friday, Week 3

The taskforce gets sent to their own apartment after Arial gets back <3 So does Taro I hate to see him leave but I love to watch him get teleported away
Arial goes to work :) she’s really been throwing herself into it.
Whenever she gets the chance, she looks at the business card Sans gave her. She also looks at Lilac’s business card. She moved the business card sticker to an empty space on Sans’s.
She’s REALLY trying to do work and Not think about all that. She’s not unpacking all of that rn
She spends the next few days going to work while her friends recover from their surgeries.

A FEW DAYS LATER

Saturday

Alric is bedridden and Aglet is not mentally sound <3
She doesn’t take painkillers that well and her’s are pretty strong so she’s kinda walking around the apartment with a tanktop on backwards (the girls are taking a walk!)
Alric’s also really out of it because he’s on even STRONGER painkillers. When he sobers up he realizes that all the blood in the bathroom during his operation was his... yikes
Alric’s sister, Bani, asks to get on the line with someone in the taskforce bc Alric has not been answering her calls
Bani (Who is going by Alice Starbrand) has been worried about Alric but thankfully Aglet is there to talk to her!
Aglet and Alice hit it off pretty fast because Aglet has some hot goss on Alric <3 Alice kinda slips up on the whole disguise thing a few times and accidentally refers to herself as Bani once but Aglet doesn’t think about it too hard
Aglet tells Alice about Kon and Thyme and Alice did NOT know about Thyme because Alric has not called her since meeting him. Alice is Steve Willising.
Aglet gives Alice her number. Sims positive relationship sign!
Alice plans on taking advantage of Kon’s kindness to get some hot goss on Alric <3 She promised she would tell Aglet first because they hit it off
Meanwhile Alric is text to speeching Kon. He’s thanking him and apologizing for sleeping on his boobs (but Kon could’ve moved him so like if he doesn’t mind it it’s fine) and also his house is so cool and he’s like “love you bye”
but he’s high as balls and he’s like “ah sorry I say that to my sister at the end of calls by habit” "no wait that made it worse i think. im gonna stop talking now."
Meanwhile Meanwhile Arial is on that GRIND.
Every now and then Arial opens up a new email with Lilac and is like Dear Lilac, Your father is the ugliest most skank bitch e- and then she stops and deletes her whole email
Aglet takes a selfie of her and a bedridden Alric (she’s lipbiting and he looks zonked as hell) and sends it to Arial during work. Arial sends back a selfie and she’s trying to look like she’s okay :( s(he) be(lie)ve(d)
Arial is alone at work because her taskforce is so sickly. She sees someone in the glint of her computer screen behind her... Arial looks over her shoulder and she sees Arisa!
Arisa has her hand on her hip and she’s looking down at Arial all girlbossy.
“I heard recently that you and your colleagues received major surgery. Congratulations or I’m sorry. I notice that you are in deep distress. I sympathize with you and your struggles. Because. I am a sympath. Just know that the company has very good healthcare and... Winzy is by the water cooler.”
She’s looking at Arial while she’s paused. She’s so tall and girlboss.
“Well. I wish you and your colleagues a speedy recovery.” She hands Arial a spring bouquet of smushed flowers. You can see her ass imprint on it. This was in her back pocket. Love you Arisa <3
“Take care of your health. I’ll be in my office. Don’t talk to me. I mean. Don’t talk to me unless it’s an emergency. Today is a day. I saved the day. Have a nice day.” She walked away.
Arial thanks her (it means a lot) and she’s like “God I want to be her so bad.”
Arisa’s like “Please don’t........ Hesitate. To call me.” She doesn’t want to be called.

THE TAAASKFORCE TALKS

Arial messages the group chat like “do we have a vase” and she sends a picture of the smushed flowers

ARIAL: Guys do we have a vase (insert image)
AGLET: WHO IS SHE?
ARIAL: Our boss?
AGLET: OH <3
ALRIC: kon?
ARIAL: ARISA?
ALRIC: oh
AGLET: Oh
AGLET: CAUGHT YOU LACKINGGGGGG
ALRIC: but hes our boss
ALRIC: and im so weak and sickly
ARIAL: You guys didn’t even answer the question
AGLET: DOES A CUP WORK
ALRIC: but like a pretty one
AGLET: YEAH IF WE HAVE
ARIAL: I don’t know I thought you guys knew how to take care of plants
AGLET: THATS ALRIC NOT ME <3
ALRIC: just the one
ALRIC: and its got its own pot i don't have extras
ALRIC: also i dont btw this plants just very brave about me forgetting to water it
AGLET: ITS OKAY WE’LL GO TO BIKEA SOMEDAY (AND I WONT GET THE MYSTERY BOX)
ALRIC: or we could use a tall cup
ALRIC: u wont even notice its all glass

Also Kon replies to Alric’s long TTS message like “Oh I’m busy rn but I can talk in a few hours!” and Alric’s like ahaha come overrrr <3
Alric asks Thyme to come over for a smoke break and he’s like yeahh I’m still bedridden so you’ll have to bring the lighter to my mouth like a dying old man in those shitty mafia movies
Alric’s kinda propped up on his pillows so he can sit up just a bit. He’s got the blankets and water bottles around him. He’s in recovery mode. Sometimes he bugs Aglet for water bottles (he only asks her once a day for Multiple Water Bottles)
One time he calls Aglet and his voice changes so he can recite the Sickly Little Peasant Boy copypasta
Aglet sneakily records Alric reciting this copypasta and she tells him that she WOULD tell him it’s a diagram of an onion because she thinks he can handle it <3 right when Alric says he can trust Aglet he checks the GC and notices that she sent the video she sneakily took and is like You Motherfucker

ARIAL: I’d tell him it’s a very ugly and inaccurate onion diagram
ALRIC: thank you for your honesty <3
ALRIC: wait no youd still be lying
ALRIC: but worse
ALRIC: wow fake
ARIAL: <3
ALRIC: </3
AGLET: PEACE AND LOVE
ARIAL: s(he) (believed)
ARIAL: Wait No
ALRIC: HA
AGLET: S
ALRIC: (HE)
ARIAL: s(he) be(lie)ve(d) (believed)
ALRIC: he lied believe?????
AGLET: HE LIED BELIEVED *
ALRIC: believe
ALRIC: it
ARIAL: Stop making fun of me you’re tearing this family apart

Arial grimaces as she types this, being reminded of the events in the Sanitary Department.

AGLET: OMG NO <3
ALRIC: omg nooooooo
ARIAL: Ok I’m gonna account now bye
AGLET: YOU’RE SO GOOD AT YOUR JOB
ALRIC: work less its good for you

THYME NURSES ALRIC BACK TO HEALTH

With Medicinal Marijuana

Thyme answers Alric’s text and shows up in his sliding closet <3 Alric tries to ask him how he teleports and shit and Thyme’s like “I mean it's whatever you think of it... i guess”
He makes himself at home and is already next to Alric on his bed.
They ask Alric how he feels after his surgery. Alric says he feels like he got hit by a really beefy bicycle. He can’t stand, but he can sit. Kinda sucks because Aglet or Arial (mostly Aglet bc she’s housewifing) have to carry him to the bathroom and Aglet’s not that strong and she’s really tall so like. It kinda sucks.
Alric puts a cigarette from the pack Thyme gave him in his mouth and Thyme slaps it out like “No. That’s kinda weak.” He gives him a fat blunt
Alric’s like omggg thank you Thymeeeee and Thyme’s like “You need a lil pick-me-up after your surgery <3”
Alric usually goes for cigars and not blunts. But this is pretty good too. Thyme asks if Alric wants to hot box his bedroom and since he can’t really get up he’s okay with it. Thyme offers to take him outside but Alric is really comfy.
Alric vaguely remembers what he saw through Thyme’s eyes (modified to not instakill him.)
Alric’s high as BALLS. He is taken <3 by the weed
Alric asks Thyme what they can see. He’s like. Sooooo nosy right now. He knows that if he saw what Thyme sees, he would literally just die. So he’s asking them what they see.
Thyme’s like. I mean I see when you’re here. But I also see when you’re not here? Like in that other place you’re here with that guy. They are NOT high. They’re just a weirdo <3
Alric’s like do you see people outside the context of Time and Thyme’s like “No I’m Thyme <3”
Alric is so onto him but Thyme deflected so hard. Unstoppable Force vs Immovable Object
Alric is trying so hard. He is thinking so hard but the weed is taking him. Thyme is confusing him.
“Okay I’m putting up 3 fingers. Alric do you still kiss boys.” “Ummm is that like an invitation?” “Oh my god he’s confused.”
Alric’s like yeah I kiss boys sometimes... Thyme literally knows that because they literally kissed but he’s confusing Alric right now because it’s funny.
Thyme’s like oh my god no I’m getting secondhand high we have to go outside <3 And Alric’s like Nooooo you’re nottt and Thyme puts his forehead against Alric’s and is like “Nooo look at my eyes they’re so red”
Except like Thyme turns their whole eyes red and Alric’s like “That’s not how it works are you stupid?” and Thyme’s like “no I’m high”
Thyme tells Alric he’s not being a really good friend right now. Alric apologizes like damn I guess you’re high as balls now.
Thyme puts his palm on Alric’s face and pushes him so that he’s lying down on the bed. They’re shushing him. They want to take Alric outside. Alric is so high that he thinks it’s part of the trip.
Alric is the only one that can be high. Thyme is breathing in the weed fumes and telling Alric he’s secondhand high. Alric tells him he’s getting high wrong. He shows Thyme how to get second hand high "properly" but he really just blows smoke rings on his face to fuck with him. They land on Thyme’s face and he’s like “oh nooo you’re secondhand high right now...”
Thyme pushes Alric so that he sinks into the mattress. Alric’s like stop pushing me into the mattresssssss ahahaaaa
Meanwhile, Arial is on the verge of emailing Lilac, trying to think of a good opening. She writes “Hello.” and then “Good morning.” but then she realizes it’s afternoon. Ugh. She’s not having a good time.
Aglet tries to text Taro to see if he can get the vase for the taskforce but he is so absorbed in Lego Narwals. These Narwals are building legos bro. It’ll take him 3 days to get back to her and she thinks FUCK! THAT’S SO HOT <3 (taro voice: that’s why i do it)
She texts Arial and asks if she wants to go out and get the vase for the taskforce. Or if she wants to carry Aglet around for a Girl’s Night Out.
As Arial walks home, Thyme is pushing Alric into his mattress and he’s like. Entering a cell wall.

THYME HOUSE REVEAL?!?!

Saturday Afternoon

Alric opens his eyes and sees that he’s in a pretty big room. On one side, there’s a study, and on the other there’s a magic lab that looks similar to the school he used to go to. There’s a window on the other wall, with a couch built into it. Peak interior design.
Thyme basically took Alric to his house. He asks Alric if he feels like anything’s eating him because he’s high. Alric’s like What
The building they’re in is NOT in Petaldive. God bless! Peeby can’t keep tabs on them. Alric appreciates Peeby’s concern but. You know.
Thyme tells Alric to play Rock Insects with Peeby! Alric’s like WHAT because he thought Thyme was saying ROCKING SEX! But Thyme clarifies that Peeby’s favorite bug is the pillbug.
Alric’s kind of annoyed about Peeby asking everyone about him. He knows that Peeby’s worried about him, but like. It causes problems.
Alric asks Thyme what Kon was like when they started liking each other...he knows they're not dating but he doesn't know how else to say it.
Thyme tells Alric about how him and his dad would travel. His dad likes reading a lot. They would go around as traveling magicians or librarians.
Thyme saw Kon reading in the library. He was really struggling while reading this book since he was still trying to learn the language. Thyme tried to help them understand it. He didn’t really get it.
They both liked to read a lot, and hung out like usual. Eventually, Kon was the one who asked Thyme out. Thyme said...No.
Alric is so shocked that Thyme was the one to reject Kon. Not that he expected it to be the other way around but like wtf...HE wouldn't say no to Kon.
Wait, isn't this a completely different origin story than what Thyme said on Tuesday? And both are true?? Alric's not sound of mind enough to unpack this one.
Alric changes the subject and asks Thyme about how they plan on telling Kon about their Situation, since he knows that's why they're not dating yet.
Thyme’s writing this book to try and find a way to explain their whole existence to Kon in a way that makes sense. Alric thinks it’s kinda sweet. He doesn’t think he can write a book... Kon likes books and Alric doesn’t have time to read... Is he not nerdy enough for him? </3
Alric starts talking about what he DOES read and as he does that he realizes that he talked about his sister... USING HER REAL NAME...
Thyme leans in, putting his hand on Alric’s cheek... He asks him if he likes the name Alric. It’s kinda weird. Alric thinks he does well responding to his worksona name.
Thyme’s like “I’m one of the few people to call you Mangus does that make me special?” and Alric’s like I mean Idk Sure
Alric says that every name he's ever had is still His name even if he doesn't use it anymore. Like he has the same level of attachment to all of them and responds to them all the same.
Thyme asks if he can call Alric Mangus and Alric's like "idk man the only people who call me Mangus are government employees and my parents when they're mad at me lmao. I like Manny better."
Thyme's like Ok so can I call you Manny then? And Alric's like If you want to.
But Thyme keeps asking until Alric gives an explicit y/n answer (he was like Oh my god ok. Yes.)
Thyme now has Manny nickname privileges!
Thyme takes a hit. He is not high at all
Thyme starts bringing out his space hands bc he remembers Alric talking about them after his surgery.
Alric’s like god I’m hallucinating and Thyme pulls out more of his hands and starts fucking with him. They tickle Alric with their other hands and tell him it’s the peepeepoopoo monster oh my god noooo
Alric’s like heheee you showed me all your handsss god I don’t get youuuuuuuu
Alrics like if I get to see your hands now can I see more? eyes_emoji he wants to understand great old ones so bad
Thyme's like Yeah sure and starts taking off his jacket omg. He comes over to Alric and tells him to look up and cough. Alric feels the force in his chest and oh my god his soul popped out of his body.

CW BODY HORROR? SCARY SPACE MONSTER?

He’s free-floating and wondering if he is his soul or if he is his body. He’s like in the void right now. There’s one speck of light in the distance, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. It’s shaped like an eye. Whatever’s inside rolls back (kind of like eyes rolling back into someone’s head)
Alric feels very stuck. Like he’s stuck in peanut butter. He’s REALLY in there. It’s suffocating, even though he can’t really breathe or die.
He can feel things touching him, but the way he perceives it is so weird. It feels like his own intestines have shaped into hands and are touching every part of his body. Alric’s just kinda taking this in what a fucking trip. He’s like woah dude you’re rearranging my insides right now lol

END CW

Alric wakes up in a cold sweat. He’s laying down in the couch window. He has his head in Thyme’s lap, and Thyme is looking over him.
Thyme asks him what he saw. “I saw it but I didn’t but I saw because I felt it but I didn’t.... and there were eyes. You have eyes... Big eyes.....”
Thyme's like Yeah this is why I'm having trouble explaining to Kon
Alric asks why he can’t just show Kon. I mean. Kon would Looove to have his guts rearranged right? He can take the psychic damage hes a big boy.
Turns out it's easier to detach Alric's soul from his body bc his soul is attached to his body with the strength of like. silly string.
Also showing Alric that literally killed him, but its ok he's alive again and he’s not undead
Thyme doesn’t mind killing Alric because he's easy to put back together and Alric genuinely gives 0 shits. but he DOES mind killing Kon, especially since it would be harder to put Kon back together.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT!

Saturday Evening

Arial can’t navigate for shit. Aglet’s slung over her shoulder and smacking her ass like a drum while she tries to find BIKEA. Halfway there she offers to get food and Aglet’s like omg yes.
Because Arial never knows where the hell she’s going, she ended up at... K-nuckles? Aglet swears she saw this place in a dream.
The two of them both see the trail of cars at the drive-thru and decide to get in line. They are pedestrians.
At first they both try to crawl to try to imitate the cars around them, but Aglet decides to get up. Arial gets up with her. What is wrong with them.
After waiting for a little bit, a... tiny echidna on roller skates comes up to them on this balance beam to take their order!
They're completely unintelligible. Aglet asks Arial to order a milkshake for her. Arial orders a large combo (?) of something. The echidna makes lil echidna sounds and flips over. There are tiny roller skates on the spikes on their back, and they roll back to the pickup window. This is so fucking cute.
Arial still feels a bit on edge because of her solo mission. It's been bothering her for the rest of the work week. Aglet picks up on this a bit, but doesn't really know how to confront it while they're both out.
Aglet gives Arial a kiss on the cheek, and puts her arm around her while they both walk in the K-nuckles drive-thru. (Kat: Little freaks I'm sick of them I'm sick of them I'm sick of them)
She starts sharing some hot goss that Arial missed out on. She mostly talks about her call with Alice, and how she hopes that Arial can meet her too.
Arial has a fun time making fun of Alric with Aglet until she starts thinking harder about Family.
Before she can think about it too hard, the two of them make it to the pickup window. The echidna employee there gives her 3 combo orders with 3 milkshakes. She does not remember ordering 3 of each thing.
The milkshake was a strawberry lemonade milkshake, and the two of them figured it'd be something that Alric would like. They decide to leave the last combo for him.
Aglet's a little too tired to walk all the way back home (she's still not at 100% yet) and Arial offers to carry her on her shoulders. Before this, Aglet realizes that Arial got a milkshake, and points out how severely lactose intolerant she is.
This was Aglet's gravest mistake. Arial took that as a challenge and took a fat sip out of her milkshake... and then immediately put Aglet on her shoulders and booked it back home with Clenched asscheeks.

THE GIRLS ARE HOME

Saturday Night

Arial gets home and takes another catastrophic shit. Aglet sets the table while she's in the bathroom.
By the time Arial gets back, Aglet's trying to put something on the TV. Oceanvale comes on, and she's not really feeling that... She changes the channel, and Halflight (Fantasy Twilight) is on. Arial tells her to change the channel Immediately. She changes the channel again and it ends up on the news. God damn it. She tries one more time. Now Arial and Aglet have to watch Small Foot (Fantasy Big Mouth) while they eat.
The two of them eat a little more quietly, and Aglet can't help but notice a troubled expression on Arial's face. This face is already pretty familiar to her.
She tries to ask Arial if anything happened, and Arial immediately denies anything of the sort. Aglet can see right through this.
While Aglet can understand Arial not wanting to talk about her own issues, she definitely worries for her (especially after seeing just how Hard she was trying to hide her feelings.)
Aglet struggles to find the words to tell Arial that she can reach out to her whenever she feels comfortable. She leads Arial to the couch. She rests her head on her shoulder and holds her hand.
Arial tries to reassure Aglet that she doesn't need to comfort her. (She doesn't tell her that she already finds her comforting.)
Aglet gives Arial another kiss on the cheek and falls asleep on her. Arial squeezes her hand and starts to drift off too.

KON COMES OVER <3

Still Saturday Night

Kon shows up with a 6 pack like Omg hey guys I'm ready for book club :D
Woah thyme brought alric to book club AND kon came over like alric asked thats sooo crazy
Turns out book club is just Thyme translating shit his dad has written and reading it out loud. Hopefully it's a better story this time.
This time they're gonna read The Vigorous Argonian Servant! (Please read the Lusty Argonian Maid if you haven't yet it is integral to the experience)
Kon's already started getting sloshed (he's the only one drinking) and as he does that he keeps moving closer to Alric.
By the end of the first chapter Kon already has his arm around Alric and is pulling him closer which would be awesome, but Alric heard something at the end of the book chapter that sounded...weird? It's probably nothing, but he's a little irritated.
Kon asks Alric to explain wtf they're talking about in the book
Alric's like the Me Explaining to My Mom meme (except he's the mom in the blankets bc he's bedridden and Kon's the one crying bc he doesnt understand wtf he is talking about) trying to connect what that guy and the argonian servant were talking about.
Kons like Whaaat thats so unsexy though and Alric's like Yeah it is. but that's what it means.
Thyme trucks through the next chapter he's trying very hard to make it immersive and doing voices and everything it's pretty funny tbh. u had to be there
At this point Kon is full on hugging Alric and swaying back and forward with him. He fucked up that 6 pack so hard. Alric is so red but so is Kon so hopefully he won't notice.
The chapter ends with that one guy saying "Plenty of time, my sweet. Plenty of time" Again and Alrics eye twitches. He really doesn't wanna have a moment over a silly book.
Before Alric can explain what was happening in this chapter to Kon, Thyme lowers the book and asks Alric if he's ok.
Kon stops swaying around and looks at Alric with concern. Alric kinda tenses up bc he does NOT wanna do this right now. They're looking at him.
Alric tries to stay chill like "Oh it's nothing lol let's read the next chapter" But Kon was like "I don't wanna read the next chapter if you're sad :(" and Thyme's like "If it's nothing then you can tell us, right?"
Alric takes a breath. He's having trouble putting it into words.
"It's just weird to me that you two aren't...dating??? Like I don't understand why you're both Waiting for something that could make you happier Right Now."
Kon is like Marina Splatoon Facing rn but is still hugging him. Thyme knows that's not what Alric's upset about. Alric is projecting and doesn't know how to talk about it.
Turns out he doesnt have the choice of putting things off for later because there Is No Later for him. Even some shitty book characters have plenty of time to dick around and he doesn't LMFAO. It's tiring to be constantly reaching for his own happiness when life keeps throwing shit at him that he doesn't have time to resolve.
This is his last job...if he doesn't do the things he wants while he's at petaldive he won't get another chance. He's running out of time.
Kon brings Alric close and he says "You're doing really good!" Alric looks at him like "Really? Are you sure?" and Kon's like "You're doing a lot better than you think." Alric can't tell if he means at his job or something else.
Thyme holds Alric's hand and adds "You have more time than you think <3" Alric does't say anything, but he squeezes their hand back. He wants to believe the both of them.
Alric doesn't know what to say after all that so he just tries to get his breathing back to normal. Thyme kisses Alric on his temple and he and Kon both hold him until he falls asleep. sick of them
Alric is fucking outttt so Thyme and Kon sit at the table to have their own heart to heart
Kon and Thyme hold hands across the table. Kon says "How long have you known?"
Thyme thinks for a bit. "I guess...I guess I've always known." Kon protests, but Thyme adds, "You don't have to go back there, Kon. You don't have to do that anymore."
Alric doesn't stir once. We will never know wtf they were talking about.

DAY OFF

Sunday, Week 4

After Kon and Thyme have their heart-to-heart, they sandwiched Alric in his sleep <3 They both wake up before he does.
Thyme prepared some coffee for Alric, and Kon already went back to work. Before he left, he cooked longanisa for them.
When Alric wakes up, he’s like “FUCK! I wanted to make them breakfast again” but he eats what Kon made and drinks Thyme’s coffee (it’s so good! wahoo! yippee!)
Since Kon's not there, Alric asks Thyme if he can get some Materials for him and writes a sort of shopping list. Thyme looks at the list and he's like Making fireworks?
Alric's like ummm...yeah <3 he mentions he has a hard time talking about his hobbies, but he doesn't really wanna put off doing stuff he likes anymore. Also it'll be easier to just show people than talk about it.
He also asks Thyme if Kon likes surprises. Thyme says he does, like an okay amount. They’ll appreciate it.
Alric thanks Thyme for being there for him yesterday, asks them not to tell anyone about the fireworks materials, and heads back home with the rest of the coffee Thyme made him.
Aglet and Arial are both asleep together on the couch. For the first time since working at Petaldive, Aglet actually sleeps in. She’s resting on Arial and she’s sooo comfy.
Alric gets back home and sees Arial and Aglet asleep together. He sees the food they bought for him from K-Nuckles, and unfortunately the milkshake went to waste. He puts the burger they got for him in the fridge.
He decides to make them both breakfast as thanks for getting him food even though he wasn't able to eat it :(
Alric takes a wild guess as to what Aglet and Arial would both like for breakfast. He makes Aglet a breakfast parfait and gets some egg, bacon, and toast for Arial.
He wakes both of them up. Or tries to. He tries to telepathize into their brains but fails to realize that they can’t hear him.
Arial’s eyes shoot open because she smells the bacon and she gets up because of that. Aglet felt Arial stirring and got up from the couch. Her arms are so asleep right now.
Arial is stuffing her face with bacon while Aglet and Alric talk about their days. Aglet asks Alric if the milkshake they got him is still good. It’s not...
They start talking about how they didn’t miss work but they also got a little restless yk?
Alric starts talking about how he likes fighting and how it’s not fun if both parties aren’t totally into it. Aglet’s kinda confused about that and compares it to relationships. Alric’s eyes open. Relationships???
Aglet catches Alric up on most of the things she did with Arial and he laughs at her for confessing to Arial in an elevator with an unconscious person.
Aglet also tells Alric about Alice calling her landline. She makes fun of him a bit, and lets it slip that she kinda told her about Thyme.
He feels his heart fall out of his ass a bit because he realizes that he hasn’t called Alice in a while.
They keep talking, and Alric starts complaining about how Peeby’s been going to a lot of other people to try and Understand Him.
Aglet tells him that Peeby actually talked to her recently. Alric raises his eyebrow and Aglet takes this as her cue to take Arial and drag her to her room. She locks the door.
Alric’s like bro what the fuck and Aglet and Arial are talking about how Peeby went to both of them. Alric heard them talking and he’s like oh my god what.
Arial reveals that Peeby also talked to her. Aglet’s like Ahaaaaaaaaa and opens the door.
Alric asks what Peeby asked Aglet and Arial, and Aglet says that she tried to explain to Peeby that Alric kisses boys.
Alric’s like “huh? How hasn’t Peeby seen th........” and he realizes what he’s saying. He tries to close the door, but Aglet holds it open.
Aglet and Arial both have an eyebrow raised at Alric while he tries to explain that Kon and Thyme can tell Peeby not to look when... you know... he just made it sound way worse for himself.
He also said that it’s because Thyme knows who he is outside of work, and while that is true, it does make it sound a little worse for him. He’s red in the face.
He really did just mean that he can talk about himself without exposing himself as being vesper and/or mangus (amongst other things) but he can't say that without exposing himself so...lol

PRODUCTION DEPT.

Monday Morning

The taskforce goes to their cubicle and meets Arisa! She tells them “Good Morning.” omg she said Good morning... but like her eye twitched when she said good LMAO
Arisa explains that in the Production department, the taskforce needs to wear a uniform.
The uniform is one of 3 options: A full body rabbit suit, some tight shorts with a detached collar and converse with bunny ears, and a latex skirt bra set with bunny ears.
The production department basically focuses on the means of sending out information and keeping those means secretive
The taskforce’s assignment is to check up on the factory line in the production department, since there’s been some hiccups
They gotta prevent the Gardenia Golems in the factory from malfunctioning or going rogue
Arisa encourages them. She takes her time. It’s really hard for her. Her eye is twitching.
Arial calls for Arisa as she leaves like “ALRIC IS ASKING WHAT YOUR FAVORITE PAPER COLOR IS!” IT’S PINK!!!!!!
Alrics like WTF why did you say I was asking I'm not friends with her she's gonna think I'm weird
Arisa texts the taskforce that the entrance to Production is blocked off, so they’ll be getting dropped off through a vent.
They land in a huge room, and thankfully there’s some sandbags that totally break their fall.
The room’s pretty empty and dimly lit. It looks more like a factory than an office, with sturdier walls.
On the south wall of the room, there’s a big motivational poster that’s all like “Hang in there!” It’s been graffitied a bit with some spray paint, with a message that reads, “run away! :(“
Arial and Aglet are both trying to hear things going on in the room, and they hear a continuous, rhythmic sound.
They assume that it’s the production process for the Gardenia Golems, since they’re not familiar with factory shit. They hear a presence talking in the doorways to the west and east.
Alric notices traces of transmutation magic in the building, which he assumes is being used to create the Gardenia Golems.
He also senses the magic that’s usually within Golems, so he can tell they’re in the area. He doesn’t notice any magic that’s amiss.
They head to the east door, and once they arrive in the room they notice a lot resources.
Alric notes that there’s a lot of base materials used for creating Golems. This is basically a storage room for raw materials.
Aglet notices that the boxes in the storage room are pretty empty. There’s been a lot of foot traffic in this room to collect stuff from it.
She concludes that the department’s been making a lot of Stuff. She also notices that there’s only supplies in this room, and nothing else.
The rhythmic, construction noise hasn’t stopped, regardless of where the taskforce was. The sound is a bit echoey because of the walls being concrete.
The reverb makes it hard to tell where sounds are coming from.
Alric notices Golem Magic from the north side of the room, so the taskforce makes their way north.
The room up north (room 73) has a lot of desks and a few cubicles in the corner, with a few tables scattered around.
Alric and Arial don’t notice shit. Aglet notices ALL. She looks closely, inspecting the cubicles, and notices that there’s plenty of blueprints, notes, instructions, and protocols regarding the creation of the Gardenia Golems.
Since Alric went to school for this kinda thing, he managed to remember some of the things he learned!
He remembers this one time he had a REALLY boring class with a guest speaker. They were talking about transmutations, particularly about golems and how they were made.
Based off of these blueprints, notes, and instructions about how these Gardenia Golems work, they do include some basic protocols as well as more advanced ones.
They’re more intelligent, and do more than basic work golems. These instructions are way more complex than what he’d been exposed to in class, but he still notices that there’s some things about the notes that he’s confused about.
Like, there’s things in the blueprints that you wouldn’t normally expect in the creation of golems.
Some of the ingredients included in the creation of these Gardenia Golems are related to divination. Which is weird. Why would that be there?
The area does look like it’s been used, but there’s no traces of how recent people have been here. It has been well-kept.
Aglet asks Arial how she’s holding up in her stuffy uniform. Arial asks Aglet how she’s holding out with her whole titties out in the air. Aglet’s honestly doing great. She’s so happy.
They take a selfie and send it to the GC with the whole taskforce. Aglet texts “RATE THE FIT”
Taro and Thyme reply at the exact same time: “nice” . They also react with like the down bad emotes
Aglet’s happy to hear from Taro while she’s watching Lego Narwals <3
Kon reacts with the Grin and Thumbs Up emoji
Alric sees Thyme’s reply and is like Nice. Alric sees Kon’s reply and equations show up around his head.
While this is happening, the door creaks open a bit. Aglet and Alric both notice a Gardenia in Arial’s bunny suit with a clipboard. She gets startled, makes an eep, and goes back into the other room to the east.

PRODUCTION ADMIN ROOM

The taskforce enters that room (room 51!) with Aglet leading the way. She walks in, and there’s 5 Gardenia Golems that all get really startled, and they fumble with their clipboards identically. They’re totally synchronized. They’re all wearing different uniforms. Diversity (?) win!
Upon seeing Aglet and her 6 foot+ frame, the Gardenias are all like oh my gosh woah! woah! Wow! We weren’t expecting you Woahhh
Aglet tells them that the taskforce is here to check on the Production department. She points to the sewn on badge/label indicating that. Which is right over her crotch.
Because she’s so charismatic and customer service, they all tell her that they HAVE been having problems lately! They point to a Gardenia in the full-body bunny suit, and tell them that she’ll guide the taskforce. The taskforce can’t tell if this is the Gardenia they saw earlier, because there’s multiple wearing this uniform in the same room.
This Gardenia in the easter bunny suit tells the taskforce about some of the problems they’ve been having. Supplies have been going missing, some Gardenias have gone rogue, some have stopped producing stuff... They need help reaching their quota!!!
All the Gardenias in the room go Wahoo! Yippee! And the taskforce can’t not say it too.
The Gardenia in the easter bunny suit leads the taskforce back to room 1, and leads them to room 2, which is north of where they first entered.
There’s a control panel with a lot of meters, to keep track of the equipment to make the golems. The easter bunny Gardenia tells the taskforce that they’re only at 60% efficiency, and there’s a faction of Gardenia Golems who’ve seized the means of production.
120% efficiency is needed to reach their quota.
The faction of Gardenia Golems have been stealing basic materials for creating GGs, sabotaging equipment (whether by stealing or by damaging equipment used to create GGs)
The goal is to reprogram the rogue GGs protocol to be up to standard, and to get rid of any defects. If the taskforce encounters a rogue GG, it is recommended that they incapacitate them without killing them.
It’s very uncommon to encounter rogue GGs, and anytime there is a breach in protocol it’s corrected very quickly. Most of the time, they don’t have the opportunity to go rogue. Less than 1% of all GGs operate outside of protocol without being corrected.
Alric asks if the protocol error is a fault in programming or if it’s caused by external factors. The GG explains that it’s due to a variety of factors. They strive to create all GGs in the same environment with the same conditions, but there are mistakes made from time to time. She compares these mistakes to cancer cells. Magic’s pretty hard to automate, so it’s kinda hard to pin a single cause.
Alric also asks if the rogue GGs learned what communism was, and the easter bunny GG answers that it’s hard to find out why the other GGs went rogue
She requests that the taskforce find out the reason behind the GGs going rogue. Alric wants to find out because he’s curious. Aglet wants to find out because she’s nosy. They are the same.
The easter bunny GG lets them know that the taskforce can contact them in room 51, where they first met the rest of the GGs.
Aglet’s been really giggly about the Gardenias because she thinks hot moms are hot a normal amount. Arial’s not that into her because she has a hot mom and has been fighting hot mom connoisseurs her whole damn life. Alric thinks Gardenia’s objectively hot because she looks like Kon but he thinks Kon is way hotter.

BACK TO THE DUNGEON

The taskforce try to go into room 3, but find that the door is stuck. The door handle itself is stuck. They go back into room 1 to try to get into room 3 through there, and while the door moves, it’s pretty stuck.
Arial tries to break down the door by backing up and running into it with her sholuder. It budges a bit, but she bounces back because it doesn’t break all the way through. Girl...
She reassures the taskforce like “Don’t worry guys I got this.” (she surprisingly got it!) Although this hit wasn’t her strongest, she was able to crash into the door and barrel into the room. Aglet walks in fruitily and helps her up from the ground.
The other door leading to room 2 was lopsided, which is why it got stuck. It would have opened otherwise.
This room is similar to room 6, being a supply room, but the supply containers in this room are either low supply or completely empty. There’s also some dismembered Gardenia Golem parts (either discarded or dead) in the corner of the room.
Alric thinks there are things in this room. He pokes some of the Gardenia parts like “oh are they gonna move..” nothing happens. He learns nothing.
Arial and Aglet notice that this room was ransacked. A lot of the shelves with containers that originally contained supplies have been smashed. A lot of the crumbled GGs have graffiti on the body parts that are more in-tact. Above that, there’s some writing in the corner. Stuff like “so called free thinkers” and “this is what the bottom of the ladder looks like” and whatnot.
Arial is trying to interpret what the fuck this means. Aglet and Alric are laughing their asses off. Aglet’s all like SO CALLED FREE THINKERS and Alric’s like “so-called free thinkers when they’re told to put on the bunny suit” and Aglet’s like “I dunno about you man I’m feeling like a free thinker right now” and starts tits and assing. Alric joins her and does a Marilyn Monroe pose. Arial is taken aback at how they’re laughing. The Gardenia Golems are having a power struggle and they’re laughing. She takes a picture of them.
Alric can sympathize with these GGs but it’s so fucking funny he can’t not laugh. He's not gonna unpack how he is the "so called free thinker"
After laughing their asses off the taskforce decides to head to room 7, which is directly south of room 6.
Room 7 is similar to room 73, just mirrored.
Aglet’s still thinking about how funny the graffiti was, so she’s a little distracted while looking around. Alric and Arial immediately notice how, similar to room 73, the only difference they notice is that the blueprints in this room are illegible.
They’re unreadable, and in various states of unreadable, with some of them being destroyed or drawn over. The ones that are drawn over were blocked out, with no readable graffiti. They also notice a loose ceiling panel above the cubicles.
Alric decides to move the panel, and hops up to get it down. Everyone can see his ass <3 When he did this, something fell out of the ceiling. He caught it, and sees that it’s a dismembered Gardenia Golem head with something stuffed in its mouth.
Inside is a rolled up wad of paper, and inside of that is a keycard of some sorts. It’s totally blank, and looks like a security keycard.
Alric reads the note the card was in. The note read, “RELAY TO FENCE 42; CONTINUE PLAN U”
They don’t know what the fuck this means. They’re gonna find out what the free-thinkers are thinking.
Aglet’s not a woman in STEMM (the second M is for Magic) and she doesn’t get this shit.
Alric contemplates calling Alice because this is literally her field of expertise (creating life and shit.) like she’s sooo good at it. Nah fuck it he’s gonna call her.

OMG HI BANI

I mean Alice Starbrand.

Alric calls Alice and she’s like omg you haven’t called in forever?!? Alric apologizes but because he asked about her work she’s really excited to talk.
She also sees Arial and Aglet and is like hey Alric what the fuck are these outfits??!?!
Alice asks Alric to bring back a live Gardenia Golem because it sounds sooo interesting! She also asks about the protocol, for context. Alric tells her what they all learned earlier.
Alice explains that there is a possibility that these Golems Are gaining sentience from golems to homunculi because they’re self-modifying
Alice hypothesizes that it’s possible that it started with at least one outside source that affected the machine learning of the golems, which allowed for them to self-modify and give them the capacity to be sentient and evolve into homunculi.
She asks for Alric to bring her one because it would be sooo helpful for her thesis.
Alric asks if there’s a way to find out who the first “free-thinker” is to see if they're changing the others
Also Taro texts omg

TARO: omg heyyy
TARO: just finished walrus leggos
AGLET: HIIIII HIII HIII HIII HIIIH III HIII
AGLET: HIII
AGLET: OMG (TN: she sends this 5 times I'm not puttinh all of them here. down horrendous)
ARIAL: Hi :^)
TARO: i heard you guys were in production
TARO: i have a friend there her name is yard say hi for me
TARO: just tell me how she is doing
AGLET: OK WILL FIND OUT FOR YOU <3
ARIAL: What does she look like
AGLET: OMG YEAH
TARO: shes a gardenia golem in admin for production
TARO: havent heard from her in a bit, not counting the favor she asked for
TARO: say hi for me! love you lovely office workers bye
ALRIC: omg me?
TARO: yes <3
ALRIC: omg love you too taro <3
ALRIC: also im making carbonara next time :thumbsup:
TARO: YAAAAAS

Alric walks over to room 51, trying to get used to the GGs flow of magic. He notices that that same magic flow is further north (room 51.) There is also the same magic flow west of room 1. Neither is particularly stronger than the other.
Alric tells the rest of the taskforce this, and they decide to go to the room east of room 51. They enter the door and see a branching hallway. Since the magic flow is stronger up north, they all head in that direction.
They decide to stay together because the last time they split up... Yeah... Also Alric reveals that Alice likes FNAF and talks to him about it.
They go north and end up in room 46, with Alric leading the way. He notices the presence of Golems in the room ahead, and that the magic is very densely packed. He’s able to differentiate that there’s magic in the door to room 46, and it’s the same type of magic as the rest of the golems. Despite having this magic, the door looks exactly like every other door.
Alric decides to talk to the door. He thinks it’s alive, so he doesn’t go too close. Aglet and Arial think he’s fucking weird. The door does NOT respond. Alric’s like “yeahh sorry guys I’m sussing out this door” and Aglet’s like “yeah whatever big man....” Alric put that in his list of nicknames.
Alric’s trying really hard to see if this door will hurt him. There’s no way of telling that. Arial decides to approach the door.
Arial is being so brave about approaching this door. She’s stanced up. She’s in her easter bunny suit and she knocks on this door FIRMLY. On the third knock... the door turns soft... and her hand is trapped... in door's literal booby trap!
The door starts to pull Arial and is like “GOT A NEW ONE!!!!” and suddenly this door booby trap is running down the hallway!!!
Before Alric and Aglet can chase after Arial, they are stopped by 2 Gardenia Golems. One of them has longer hair, and the other has an eyepatch. Aglet puts the nippie stickies back on.

BATTLE TIME!

Alric is wondering if the Gardenia with the eyepatch has it on because of an injury or because of style. He asks them if they’re the free thinkers.
The Gardenias notice the taskforce’s uniforms and draw their weapons without saying anything. They’re both wearing variations of the Production uniform, but they’re modified. This is not a wahoo yippee moment.
Alric tries to get these two GGs to flee but it doesn’t really work out. He's like man are you sure you wanna do this and they keep icing him.
The Long-Haired Gardenia thrusts her arm into the ground, and out of it comes this spike. It goes to skewer Alric, and it hits him right through his right shoulder. She then pulls it out. Ouchies.
Aglet slashes the Eyepatch Golem right on their thigh.
The Eyepatch Golem presses down on her leg, trying to prevent some fluid (kinda like blood?) from coming out
This Golem presses her hand against Aglet’s head, and she starts to feel some pressure, but she’s able to save. She takes 4 points of psychic damage.
The door that took Arial stops once it bumps into a wall. Arial’s so strong so she doesn’t take damage from the impact <3
Arial’s so mad at this door she’s gonna try to beat the shit out of it.
Arial manages to smash a hole into this door. She did a real number on it but it’s STILL holding onto her with its doobies (door boobies.)
She’s so mad at this door that she can’t see anything else. She’s seeing too much red.
Alric’s gonna fucking get Arial. He uses misty step and goes on the other side of the Gardenia Golems. He manages to move 30 feet past the GGs and is now 20 feet away from Arial.
Arial is cussing out this door. She’s so fucking mad.
Alric ALMOST got stabbed in the taint. He didn’t though the long haired GG missed!
Seeing Arial beat the shit out of that door really fired Aglet up. Arial is such a great example omg <3
Aglet gets a real nasty cut on the Golem’s arm before pulling the Claw out. There’s a pretty bad gash on their arm.
Eyepatch Golem holds out her hand again, and Aglet feels a really bad psychic pressure. It’s horrible. It’s like there’s spikes coming out of her brain.
Arial bonks the door with her briefcase and is all like “Listen here you stupid bitch...you could either let me go and we talk this out...or I beat the shit out of you...”
The doobies release Arial from their grasp after looking her up and down. She’s like omg fucking finally and does the “I’m watching you BITCH” hand gesture thing...she did this in her easter bunny outfit...
Alric tries to Eldritch Blast the Eyepatch Gardenia that's in front of Aglet. He sends 2 blasts out, but only the second one hits her in the stomach.
Alric’s about to get owned but Arial’s a real one and shields him! The Long-haired Gardenia Golem is now going to rock her shit.
Arial locks eyes with this Golem and looks at their open palm. Then they close their hand into a fist. This gives Arial a flashback.
It’s a very blurry flashback, one of Lucida. She’s running her bar, and she usually drinks for fun. Unfortunately, this time wasn’t as fun. Arial sees her mom, wine glass in hand, makeup running down her face, lamenting over how she can’t afford her children’s school photos in this state. She silently returns to her room, giving her mother some space.
When Arial wakes up, she’s incredibly fatigued. She can’t even close her hand into a fist. She feels like she hasn’t had water in weeks.
Alric realizes that if he had taken that hit it would have literally killed him. Like not even with death saves just straight up dead.
Seeing Arial fall onto the floor after taking that hit made Aglet REALLY worried. With the purpose of a whore escaping church she starts frantically cutting up this Gardenia Golem.
The Eyepatch Golem slashes Aglet, dealing some poison damage. Thankfully, Aglet is still sound of mind enough to evade some of this attack, reducing the damage she took.
Alric Eldritch Blasted the Long-Haired Golem twice!
The Long-Haired Golem swipes at Arial twice. They morphed their arm into a blade and grazed Arial a bit. Because of the liquid leaking out of their arm, the hit burned Arial a bit.
Aglet rams the Claw into Eyepatch Golem’s chest with intent! Eyepatch Golem collapsed to the ground! That's 2nd degree murder!
Arial smacks around the Long-Haired Golem with her briefcase.
Alric Eldritch Blasted the FUCK out of this Gardenia. The tentacles from this attack clocked her in the head.
Oops she is dead he didn't think she was that fucked up. That's voluntary manslaughter?
Aglet runs over to Alric to check if he’s alright. After he tells her that he’s pretty much okay, she sits down next to Arial against the wall.
Arial’s definitely phasing in and out, still thinking about the flashback she had during the fight. Aglet recognizes the look on her face well. She takes her hand and squeezes it, and waves the other hand in front of her face to try to keep her grounded. Arial leans into the hand closer to her face and Aglet caresses it a bit.
Aglet notices that the GG that’s face down is wearing the easter bunny outfit with two modifications. This GG has taken others’ production patches and put them on their uniform. The ass flaps are also missing.
While Aglet’s investigating, Alric asks Arial how her head is. She doesn’t want to talk about it. Alric tells her that if her head...hurts, she should pay attention to another part of the body that hurt. He means focusing on physical pain over emotional pain but he's bad at talking god bless.
Arial nods and looks slightly more relaxed.
They hand her some water from her briefcase and take a moment to rest.
Alric looks at the liquid seeping out from the GG corpses and it finally hits them that they were bleeding. In the heat of the fight he didn't realize they were homunculi. Like alive people/ That they killed.
Then he remembers that they aren't supposed to kill people at this job...lol oops
BUT ITS OK because he happened to have revivify today. so he burns his spell slots to bring them back at sonic speed. He isn't sorry for killing them bc they literally tried to kill the taaaskforce but he doesn't want the consequences yk?
There will still be consequences.

AFTER THE FIGHT

Monday, Mid-morning

After reviving the two GGs, Alric decides to call Thyme.
Thyme’s like “calling so soon honey? ;)” and Alric’s like “Thyme we fucked up.” Alric tells him about their lil Situation and asks if they can bring the two Gardenias to Bani, since she'd be able to treat their injuries.
Alric notices that the Gardenia with the eyepatch is barely conscious, and talks to her for a bit, apologizing about killing her. Aglet overhears this, and she does not take it well.
She approaches the weak Gardenia and kneels down. She begins to apologize, but the words don’t come out of her mouth.
She opens her arms, leaving herself open so the Gardenia can take out her anger on her. She's really fucked up, especially since she fucking died and got brought back to life.
She approaches the weak Gardenia and kneels down. She begins to apologize, but the words don’t come out of her mouth.
She opens her arms, leaving herself open so the Gardenia can take out her anger on her. She's really fucked up, especially since she fucking died and got brought back to life.
She leans in close, and weakly cup Aglet’s face. She tells Aglet that if she's really sorry, she'll give her compensation. Aglet agrees, she'll do anything.

CW: GORE + EYE TRAUMA

She slides her hand up Aglets cheek and uses her fingers to open Aglet's eyelids. She slips three fingers into Aglet's eye cavity and grips her eye tight. The extraction is not clean. It takes two pulls. One tug to pop the eye out of the socket - Aglet can feel where her optic nerve tugs at her brain. Two pulls to rend the thick optic nerve connecting Aglet and her former right eye.

END GORE + EYE TRAUMA CW

Aglet gets pushed back from the recoil, but the adrenaline and guilt are kind of helping her cope with the pain. She’s not really focused on that right now. She definitely deserved that.
After seeing Aglet get her eye ripped out, Arial tries to jump the Gardenia. Alric manages to stop her in time because he did NOT spend two spell slots reviving these Gardenias only for Arial to kill them AGAIN.
He also tells Arial that if she killed her, Aglet would’ve lost her eye for fucking nothing. This gets her to stop.
Thyme tells Alric the two Gardenias’ names: Denia (long hair) and Garter (took Aglet’s eye)
Thyme tells Alric to tell Taro to cancel their meeting, since they planned on hanging out. Garter blows a raspberry at Arial for misbehaving.
Alric texts Taro, and he says he was making his tomato soup and wanted to introduce Arial and Aglet to some of his other friends. Alric starts laughing hysterically. Not because it’s funny. Just because this made things infinitely worse for them. He decides not to tell Taro or Arial and Aglet about what just happened.
Garter pulls down her eye and sticks out her tongue at Arial. The eye she pulls down is the one she took from Aglet.
After the adrenaline dies down, Aglet’s eye starts really fucking her up. The pain fully sinks in and Aglet’s tears are mixing with the blood from her empty socket and it’s fucking gross. She’s not handling this well at all. She’s lying down on the floor sideways sobbing her one eye out and it’s not a good look on her.
Arial approaches Aglet and kneels down, not knowing how to comfort her at all. Aglet turns around weakly, but her eyes look... distant. Arial tries to hold her hand, but Aglet’s hand is really stiff. She doesn’t know if she can accept this right now. She’s experiencing a lot of guilt both on Arial’s behalf and for her own actions.
While this is happening, her eye’s bleeding OUT.
Alric realizes that and knows that he can't really heal, but he knows how to stop bleeding. This is gonna suck.
Alric approaches Aglet and tells her he's gonna have to do something about her eye. She honestly didn’t really care to think about that part of it. He asks her if she wants to be knocked out for it, because even though it'll be quick it'll still feel horrible.
Aglet says she can take it and Alric is like F to doubt but he just tells her she should hold onto something.
He cauterizes the wound in her eye and pats her on the face. She doesn’t take it too well physically, but she appreciates it. All better?
Alric remembers how Garter and Denia both had ripped off tags, and realizes they were probably hostile to the taskforce because they had their authorization tags on their uniforms. Oopsies all of this was preventable!
Alric tells Arial to rip off the taskforce’s tags. It works out mostly. Aglet’s tag was like on her crotch so her dick was hanging out for a bit. Alric fixes her pants. It was so bad she wanted to give it a 0 but the weirded out feeling helped her stop being sad for a bit.
Alric tries to come up with a plan, and realizes that none of the taskforce is equipped to talk to the Gardenias right now. Their token customer service person is fundamentally fucked up. Arial is aggressive. She offers to do it, and through gritted teeth she says She’ll Try To Be Nice.
Aglet glares at her to make sure she does good on that. She’s very visibly upset at Arial right now, and as much as she doesn’t want to be, she can’t really help being a little pissed off at her.
Alric and Arial notice debris from broken Golems and the mess from their battle.
Alric notes that there’s traces of ingredients used for Golems, but there’s also core ingredients used to make most Homunculi. It basically creates Homunculi blood.
Alric also notices that the ingredients used to create Homunculi here are very high-quality.
Bani calls Alric. You can hear her yelling “WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCK” over the phone even when he didn’t put her on speaker. A gust of wind blows from the phone.
Alric tells her about the samples he collected. Bani wants him to explain what the FUCK happened.
Alric explains their encounter with Denia and Garter. Garter is yelling in the background tearing Alric a new asshole while he does this. That’s her god given right. She tells him that she hopes he rides a rat’s dick. His eye twitches, but he’s being so brave about it. Arial wants him to put her on the phone. She's gonna fuck her up.
Alric explains that they want to try and meet their demands. Garter tells him “I hope you choke on a dick!” and Alric’s like “Maybe I WILL” and then realizes Alice AND Thyme are both looking at him like "Oh really?" but the intent is different
Alric’s trying really hard to avoid bringing up Aglet and how she specifically killed Garter because he’s her bestie. He also explains how Arial took a hit for him that would’ve literally killed him. Arial’s like “I BET YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO THAT, BITCH!”
Alice is massaging her temples. She also asks who the guy in the bunny suit is (Thyme.) Alric’s like “Yeah Thyme does a lot of stuff...” and Thyme’s like “Yeah I do a lot of stuff ;)” and Alric pinches the bridge of his nose.
Alric also tells Alice about Thyme. She hangs up. But before she does, Thyme’s all like “so about Alric...” This makes Aglet laugh a little.
They ponder where to go next, and Alric’s like “you wanna keep going or you wanna keep looking around and shit?” Aglet looks at him with her one eye. He realizes.
They head into this winding hallway, and Aglet bumps into some of the walls because of her depth perception.
Aglet sees that this is a normal door. She moves to the back of the group. Arial decides to knock on the door 3 times to see if it’ll booby trap her. It doesn’t. The door is unlocked.

BREAKROOM

Room 18 is a circular room, with a copy machine, vending machine, minifridge, microwave, TV, cabinets... it’s a little rest area! There’s no one here.
Alric checks out the TV, and it’s mounted to the wall. It’s above the cupboards on one of the empty spaces on the wall. It has a News Channel on. It’s warm and sunny out, and Aglet remembers how Taro hates warm weather. Alric wonders if Kon’s watching them through the screen. They are gay.
Alric voices these thoughts and Aglet’s like “oh really”
The News channel is like “now onto...” and it cuts to “YOUR REPORT CARD!” and Kon shows up on the TV! He’s like hey guyssss
He replaces the clouds on the weather channel with their faces. He puts a bunch of stickers around the taskforce. Alric asks Kon what he’s doing. Kon is contemplating doing something... He asks Alric to help him decide by picking a number. Alric picks 5. Kon thanks him, and as he’s about to go, Alric tries to ask him a question. He’s arranging the weather channel green screen with a storm, putting Peeby in the middle! Eye of the storm!
Alric looks visibly nervous to ask Kon this question. “Do you particularly care at how we solve issues?” in reference to the taskforce defying the Gardenia’s demand to indirectly kill the rogue Gardenias.
Kon basically says he doesn’t care. Alric’s like “heyyy after this job you wanna meet up? I have something to show youu” and Kon’s like yeah just text me!
Aglet asks Kon if he’s seen her texts. He lets her know that she can reach out whenever she’s comfortable to.
Kon lets the taskforce know that they’re doing great, better than they think. He tells them that he’s proud of all of them, even if they may not be.
Arial fullbody shivers at that because she desperately needed to hear that from someone holy shit. Alric also fullbody shivers because oohhhh. Aglet starts crying because Kon is so kind to them even if they fucked up severely and she’s still grappling with how upset with herself she is.
Aglet notices that Alric is really shaky, and he did say “I wish he’d say what he meant for once” out loud. Although she’s never seen this look on Alric’s face before, there’s a distinct recognition in his expression, and Aglet can gather that this has happened before.
Arial picks up that Alric doesn't believe people when they say they’re proud of him. It gets to her.
Arial looks winded after hearing that. It took her by surprise, and Aglet and Alric can both tell that she probably hasn’t had anyone tell her that they’re proud of her in... a long time.
Alric notices that Aglet was moved by Kon’s talk, but doesn’t notice much else.
Arial sees Aglet crying and very quickly realizes that she’s not just Moved. She knows Aglet wouldn’t be crying the way she was if she was just... moved. She could tell that she was still upset with herself, that she didn’t want Kon to be proud of her.
Aglet knows that even if she keeps denying it, Kon was being completely genuine.
They try to get shit from the vending machines to calm tf down.
Aglet doesn’t want the taskforce to pay for drinks, but Alric insists that he (and Arial) will pay for hers and she can buy his if she really wants to buy one lol
Arial approaches vending machine, realizes that it doesn't even charge you for soda, and gets 30 suck my enegy.
Alric's phone buzzes. It's a text from Kon. Arial can see Kon’s DMs are open. She’s sooo nosy. Aglet also notices. Damn even with one eye she caught him lacking
Alric looks like he’s about to cry tbh and the conversation isn't even bad he's just This close.

KON: also i didnt forget that drinks are on me again (TN: damn thats a callback to like session 5 or 6 maybe???)
KON: ill try not to fall asleep like last time either ;p
ALRIC: hell yeah man you owe me a 6 pack for drinking them all last time =:p

Alric keeps staring at his phone. Also he's had the typing box active the whole time so Kon probably thinks he's typing up a walltext lmao
Aglet’s like hey man I’m not gonna laugh at you right now because you look so fucked up. She puts her hand on his shoulder and asks him if he’s alright, and if he’s out of it. He stops spacing out a bit. Aglet grabs a can from Arial’s briefcase and hands it to Alric, asking if wants to “Suck My Enegy.” Alric’s like HELL YEAH BROOO and they dab each other up. That actually helped him feel a little better!
Kon texts back one more thing before going back to whatever Alric helped them decide on.

KON: ok, and i mean it!
ALRIC: <3

Alric would be so fucking embarrased knowing that Kon totally saw and heard him about to lose it through the TV screen, but also that was kind of exactly what he needed to hear rn. He feels good to go.
Arial takes a peek outside the hallway, and the taskforce heads out.

MEETING MORE GARDENIA HOMUNCULI

Monday, around Noon

They all notice... fucking nothing. This is a door. It’s just a normal door. Jesus christ guys. Arial pushes the door open. Thank god it’s not a pull door.
Room 23 is a file storage room, with tall cabinets in it. Aglet notices some labels on the file cabinets, and there’s a lot of maintenance/inspection related paperwork.
These files don’t have any actual employee information on them, only information related to factory work and hardware.
The taskforce heads into the hallway, towards the next room. Alric hears shuffling and other sounds in this room, some of them being voices. There’s people in here. He manages to stop Arial from knocking, but they all agree that this is really the only way they can go.
There’s a small rectangular slit in the door that opens up. Something’s obscuring them from looking into the room. There’s someone looking at them.
Alric knows the eye-hole slit was transmuted. The door opens up outwards. A Gardenia steps out in a suit, similar to the admin uniform. Alric notes that there’s no tags on this Gardenia’s body.
This Gardenia looks the taskforce up and down, gesturing for them to come in. Before she enters, Aglet asks for her name. She says she was planning on saying it inside, but she says that her name’s Yard. Aglet remembers!!! She remembers to tell her than Taro says hi!!!
Yard and the other Gardenias immediately become friendlier! Yard talks about how she’s been meaning to catch up with Taro, and how she missed the Beluga Legos stage play. She wants to watch the 2nd screening of it.
Aglet really likes how friendly the vibe is and she asks Arial to hand her some Suck My Enegy’s. She holds out 4 of them to the other Gardenias. 2 of them accept, and Aglet takes a sip out of one of them. It’s fucking delicious. Wahoo! Yippee!
Aglet also notices that none of the other Gardenias don’t have the patches.
Alric tells Yard that they’re there to help, and Yard says that helping is... Subjective. Based on whether they help Us or Them. They have their list of demands all typed up!
Aglet’s like sooo how long have you been friends with Tarooo ahahaa... They’ve been friends since they both started at Petaldive, so about 2 years.
She also brings up her friends, Garter and Denia, and how they’ve been working so hard! They were really excited about watching the Beluga Bionicles special. This makes Aglet nervous.
Meanwhile, Alric and Aglet are both reading the demands. In summary, they look like this:

healthcare, benefits, etc.
maintain homunculi status
employee status
compensation (monetary, reparations, etc)
individual autonomy
cease golem protocol corrections

Alric gets pissed that the Gardenias aren’t considered employees. Yard explains that they’re considered equipment. What the actual fuck they’re literally only asking to be treated as beings with consciousness.
Alric asks why these needs haven’t been met yet. Yard answers that it has to do with efficiency. With the amount of golems evolving and achieving sentience, a huge chunk of their golem workforce is being taken away. This reduces the efficiency of production. Production is primarily run by Gardenia Golems and is self-sustained. Employees that aren’t Gardenia Golems are very rare in this department.
Alric asks if there’s a particular reason why they keep evolving. Like, why would they let that happen? You can’t just ask a person to kill themself after doing their job what the hell?
The homunculi powder is not present in the other golems Alric saw before, so it’s an entirely new component. It’s not in the blueprints either. Even those these golems are higher end, they’re NOT structured in a way for them to be able to reach sentience and self evolve.
Alric remembers that the component used to make homunculi is a power called papillion scales. It's cobalt blue and extremely expensive, especially the grade being put into the GGs.
Alric asks if they’re intentionally putting papillion scales in new golems. Yard honestly doesn’t know how anybody’s gaining sentience. As far as she knows, she hasn’t been doing anything to affect other golems. The phenomenon of the Gardenias gaining sentience is a mystery.
Alric’s speculating who could have enough money to do this. We already know.
Alric and Arial asks if there’s a department head to approach. Arial asks if their department head’s missing... in a room... guarded by a leviathan and shit... nothing weird like that right? Right?
Yard’s like I mean. No. Yard says that she WAS the department head, before she defected. They blocked her authority, so she doesn’t know who the department head is.
They start to head back towards admin to tell them about the demands. As they leave, Yard tells them to tell Taro she said hi! And she wonders where Garter and Denia are. Aglet feels really guilty, but she follows the rest of her taskforce out.

BACK TO THE DUNGEON (AGAIN)

Once they get to admin, the Important Looking Gardenia notices they look beat up (I mean Aglet’s missing a fucking eye.) They all find out that there is no department head. They’re on absentee protocol.
Alric asks if he can speak with her about an alternative solution, but she says that he can’t talk about it with anyone until a new department head is assigned.
Alric asks if there’s no way to contact the previous department head. There is not. He asks who’s in charge of determining the new department head. She replies someone higher up in management, and it’s not within her protocol to know. Alric is seeing red. He asks if this Gardenia could let him know where the Gardenia Golems are made, in order to enact their plans to increase efficiency.
The Gardenia says to create a presentation for this plan, and to show it to Admin with 70% approval. But there is no admin. So they can’t approve the plan.
Alric asks Taro for Yard’s number, and lets her know that they can’t. They can’t do shit with admin. There is no admin. They’re useless. Yard sighs. She says that they assign a department head every 2 months.
Investigating the machinery will warrant hostile treatment from the Gardenias.
Yard doesn’t know how the system for appointing a department head works, since it’s automatic. It’s auto reinstated in 2 months.
Alric and Aglet ask how to deal with hostile Gardenia Golems. The Gardenia’s HAVE adopted the real Gardenia’s personality. So if the taskforce talks about something SHE likes, like her son Kon, they’ll be less hostile. Alric can see where this is headed lol.
Yard brings up Garter and Denia again, and Aglet says something really suspicious sounding. Alric is so glad that his phone wasn't on speaker bc that would have gone sooo badly.
After hanging up, Alric tells Aglet to keep that kinda shit to herself. If the Gardenias find out that she literally Killed 2 of them, she'll be feeling worse than guilty. She stops wallowing because she wants to make things right.
They walk into room 17. It’s a locker room, and contains plenty of uniforms as well as additional protective equipment. The taskforce decides to suit up.
The protective gear is Yaoimas (fantasy christmas) themed!! They got Santa clothes and red reindeer noses and everything!
Aglet opens the locker to get some protective gear. Right at eye level, she sees the top level of this locker, with a bright shiny nose. It has a button, and it makes it light up! She’s locked onto this glowing light from the nose. She can’t stop looking at it. Her eyes unfocus, and this time she’s not looking at a mirror.
Instead, Aglet’s looking at this woman. She has the same light up funny red nose. She can tell from the way she’s looking at her.
She’s fixing her hair, her clothes, patting her cheeks, and she steps back a bit. She’s so proud of her.
She tells her “Oh, Aggie! You look so cute in this get up! I always get so happy doing these specials with you. Oh I’m gonna be so sad. When you get older you just... Ahhh you’re such a baby fawn right now! Ah! I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m losing myself.. You’re just so cute right now! You’re gonna be the little Rudolta in the front! We’re usually not on set together, so this is a great chance for family bonding too! And we get to go the theme park too! We get to see the parade too. You’re my pride and joy, Aggie!” The flashback ends with her mom hugging her.
When Aglet’s eyes go back into focus, she’s REALLY confused. She’s not sad or distressed. She just knows there was a woman who had almost her exact face. Except she wasn’t blue. Periwinkle? Aglet looks at herself in the mirror. She’s still periwinkle.
Alric’s like “another flashback?” and Aglet was a little taken aback by how he already knew, but didn’t bother to question him. She figured that he’s just looking out for her. She tells him it wasn’t as bad, and he’s happy to hear it.
Alric and Aglet are so bestie like Alric had to touch her dick for like a second and she didn’t even flinch. They dab each other up.
The taskforce heads into room 59!

ALICE (BANI)'S LAB

Bani hangs up the phone. Thyme is like “so about Alric......”
Thyme is like “has he told you about his situation? that’s not something for me to break to you.”
Bani says that she knows that he does odd jobs, and she tries not to think about it, but it’s kinda staring her in the face right now. Garter’s like “YEAH HE KILLED ME.” She’s pinning the blame on him for not stopping Aglet. He can live with that tbh.
Bani admits that he usually tells her these things after they happen so she doesn’t worry as much. She’s definitely worried because of how he hasn’t been reaching out. She tries to say it’s okay.
Thyme promises he’ll be okay. She believes him. She asks if they’re friends. Like, Friends.
Thyme says they’re good friends and coworkers. Bani is looking at him like “yeah this guy looks like an F slur”
Bani’s like “sooo Aglet told me.... Alric is into some guy, right? but then she mentioned there being... ANOTHER guy. and usually Alric won't tell me about these kinds of things, but sometimes he’ll mention like “Oh this person did this!” and I notice he spends longer talking about people he's into...”
They start to share some hot goss while they help Garter and Denia out.
Bani says that he especially talks about his hot boss, Kon. Thyme nods. She’s trying sooo hard not to embarrass him too hard in front of his good friend (she’s not)
Everyone knows Kon is the hot boss but like everyone also knows Alric kisses boys
Bani asks Thyme how much they know about Alric. They tell her that he referred Alric to this job. Bani’s like omg are you his boss boss (TN: Patron)?
Thyme tells her Alric invites him out for smoke breaks and she’s like ah yeah that’s what he calls them? He’s like Yeah
Bani knows this is the first long term job Alric’s taken in about a year. Thyme explains that his interests aligned with ours’ (Petaldive) and that they’re familiar with his work
Bani is looking at him like Ahhh you gay
Alric didn’t necessarily apply, but Thyme sought him out. Said that his resume was great and all. Bani knows he’s never written a resume in his life
Bani asks him to tell her about alllll the hot goss. Bani now knows he is trying to make fireworks in an office building. Weird for him because he usually avoids bringing up his actual hobbies at his temp jobs.
Thyme is studying Alric so hard. Bani comments that grandpa will get a call at some point. Thyme asks if his grandpa practices firework making. Alric did an apprenticeship under his grandpa and stuff.
He’s kind of not allowed to work for the fireworks company anymore. He’s still passionate about it and likes to invent new stuff that benefits the family, but he never really gets the credit. That does seem to be by his own request.
Thyme says yeah must be nice to get an apprenticeship under Chrysanthemum himself! Bani’s eye twitches like “Oh... you must be GOOD friends......”
(Nobody knows Chrysanthemum's real name outside of his family bc that's his Devil name. He's been pretending to be a Tiefling named Anthe since he and Durayin started living together. No wayyyy this was the other grandpa Alric mentioned in his forced heart to heart!)
She asks how much Thyme knows about that. Alric wouldn’t have told you. Thyme says it’s standard to do background checks on potential employees. Bani’s kinda freaked out damn Thyme’s built so different!
Thyme asks if he should call Bani Alice, and Bani answers that Alric would want that.
She brings up her other grandpa, how Durayin was the one who taught Alric magic. But she honestly talks more to Alric than her grandparents. She knows Anthe was disappointed when Alric was banned from working at his own company, but it’s not really under his jurisdiction anymore since he handed it off to Alric and Bani's parents. He probably thinks he enabled him too hard.
Bani asks if Alric talked to Thyme about fireworks making. Thyme says that the ingredients he asked for are a bit specific. They say he does have a history with arson. He did only light the building on fire one time! They can both agree that that was pretty good for him.
Thyme tells her there was a spider. A big one. Bani was about to laugh, but she understands now. Alric definitely told her about the maggot incident with Seo lmao.
Garter tells them to stop talking about bugs, particularly maggots, when they’re working on her.
Thyme tells Bani that Alric’s close to his coworkers (Bani: Oh! Aggie and the Strong one!)
Thyme tells Bani about Paradiso. Bani jokingly asks if he’s tried to get free stuff from Thyme. The cigarettes don’t count, those are a gratuity item.
Bani asks Thyme how his smoke breaks go. Thyme says that Alric talks about his hot boss.
Bani asks Thyme how they are with the hot boss. They say they’re good friends (same status) but they’ve known each other longer.
Bani asks if Alric’s happy. Oooooh. Luckily, Alric enjoys the presence of his coworkers. And Thyme’s presence. And Kon’s presence. Heart emoji
Thyme and Bani are still patching up Garter, and she finally speaks up!
Garter wants to hear less about Alric and more about her. After all, she IS the nice one! (Bani bats her eyes.) Thyme also wants her to tell them more.
Bani’s like omg stop you’re putting me on the spot!!!
Bani’s like ahhaaaa this is myyy labbbbb..... and Garter is twirling her hair SO hard. She tells them she’s a transmutation wizard (Garter: omg I’M transmutated) and she specializes in prosthetics and researches homunculi/golems and stuff (Garter: omg I’M a homunculus...)
Garter puts her hand over Bani’s. She can’t really hide her blushing. She’s a bit nervous. She assures Garter that she gets a lot of privacy, since she’s the breadwinner of her agency.
Garter says that she’s soooo jealous of Bani having autonomy and rights </3
She says she’s trying to study artificial life and sentience... she looks a bit sheepish. Garter offers to help her out with her work!
Garter tucks Bani’s hair behind her ear like “I’d love to help...” and Bani’s genuinely so happy that someone’s interested in working with her!
Garter gestures to Denia, because she’s a bit conked out. Bani asks for Thyme to help her with Denia. Thyme says they’ll leave as soon as they’re done helping her out.
Bani asks Thyme to make sure Alric’s okay. Thyme offers to send a pic to him, to make sure everything’s all good.
Garter leans in close to Alice while they take a picture.
Garter’s ragging on Alric for killing her lol. Alice’s like yeahhh I know I hear that a lot... Garter’s like I know where all the charisma went! And Alice is like aheeheee
Garter tells Alice that her and Denia are friends at work. They worked in the same assembly line before reaching sentience, and remembered their familiarity from being next to each other. <3
Alice asks if Garter can retain memories from pre-sentience. She immediately apologizes if that’s a weird question. Garter admits she’s still trying to figure that out herself.
Alice is asking Garter about herself and god they’re soooooo
Thyme wants to leave they feel like they are interrupting. He has to leave before they pounce.
Alice is so understanding and aware omggg Garter thinks she’s so sweet it’s so sweetttttttt
Thyme notices that Alice and Alric have very similar speech patterns in the midst of all this. They put together that Alric reuses phrases he can understand from other people, and Alice is one of the people he talks to the most, so it would make sense that he talks like her.
Thyme starts heading out, and promises to let Alice know any hot goss! Bani is now friends with 2 of Alric’s friends.
Alric gets the picture text from Thyme, and Oh No Garter is fucking your sister!
Alric hopes she’s not gonna pounce on his sister just to make him mad. She better actually like her. Bani needs more friends fr.

KON LOSES IT?

Emergency Meeting

Sometime after Kon talks to the taskforce through the screen, they’re in one of the moving-dimensional conference rooms in a one-on-one meeting.
Kon’s at one end of the table, with an indiscernible other person on the other side of the table.
Kon’s looking at papers, and glancing back at the other person across from him.
When they’re done browsing through the papers, he sets them down. He folds his hands together, and looks up at the person across from them.
He tells them that he thinks that they need to do a few revisions — no, he says that they don’t need “this” anymore. They snap their fingers.
Kon texts the GC, but it’s the GC with just him and the three taskforce members.

KON: Hey all :), theres been a change of plans. You could finish up what youre doing right now if youd like but I want to update you guys in person as soon as possible. Hope this helps and take care <3

Alric texts Yard and lets her know that the boss called. Emergency meeting and all. He lets her know they’ll get back to this assignment later.

KON: also, sorry for the mess im still cleaning up

The taskforce reaches into the screen and climbs in. They all land right outside Kon’s office by the door. Alric knocks on Kon’s door, and they let them all in. The taskforce takes a seat on his couch.
Kon makes sure to close the door and blinds, for privacy purposes.
Kon tells them to ask questions at the end. He starts talking about how there’s... a bit of an issue. Mostly for other people, but it can still affect the taskforce. He talks about how there’s a change in plans, and says that the taskforce doesn’t need to worry about the functionality of the departments at the moment. Right now, the taskforce has to postpone this job for something more urgent.
Kon’s trying their best to break this very gently. Their hands are together, covering their mouth.
He shows their contracts to be employed under Petaldive. It has everyone’s information and pictures, and all that. He tells them all to not get mad. He stands up, and he bends over to reach for something behind his desk, and they can all see the huge bloodstain behind his back.

CW GORE(?)

He plops down a head on the desk, for everyone to see. It’s the head of Rinnie Rat. It’s absolutely mutilated. If you tried to move it, it would just fall apart on its own. Everything in the head is just so loosely connected.

END GORE CW

Alric asks if Rinnie Rat’s seen their contracts. Kon assures them that she hasn’t.
Kon says that he’s technically an archduke. Technically, he’s taken Rinnie Rat’s position, with how devil society works and stuff.
From here on out, the taskforce will be taking a different approach. Kon is giving the taskforce the opportunity to back out of this, and sever the contract with him.
The new contract is edited, with an addendum about the new stipulations of their job. They’re still in the process of writing those.
Alric asks why Kon killed Rickey Rat’s wife. He’s not mad, he just wants to know why. Kon answers that they had a disagreement.
Aglet asks what the nature of that disagreement was. Kon answers that she wanted a compromise that they could not afford.
Kon reiterates that the taskforce can back out if they choose, and will guarantee the protection of their privacy, compensation, etc.
Aglet asks what the rest of this... will entail. Kon insists that they all consent to this before getting into details.
Aglet agrees to it, since she honestly doesn’t have anything going for her. Alric kind of has to do this job since it'll directly affect him. Arial asks what they pay is, and Kon tells her that she can live comfortably for the rest of her life. They all agreed.
Kon brings out something from under the desk, and slams it on the desk. He says there’s been a merger. Aglet and Alric think he said murder. Arial thinks they’re stupid.
He slams down a Glove of the rat. It’s wrinkled, and covered in blood. It seems to have belonged to Rickey Rat. It has a stamp across it, with a logo that the taskforce understands, but it’s abbreviated. Tongass-Buisney Property. (TN: Tongass is fantasy amazon)
Alric asks Kon what his last name is. He better not be the Tongass guy that would be so bad.
Gardenia and Kon Attor. Those are their last names.
Alric asks what Kon’s plan is, with the whole. Archduke thing. He says it’s their business, but it’s also kinda his too. He winks and doesn’t explain.
Kon says he never plans on integrating back into a peerage system. But inheriting powers that Rinnie Rat had would be particularly useful.
The Rinnie Rat head collapses on itself, and slides off the jaw. Aglet’s surprisingly okay with this. I mean, I guess she’s seeing the thing that embodied Everything that made her miserable crumble. It’s like a reward.
Alric asks about the Rickey Rat hand, and Kon says it’s not his work. It’s a symbol of their union with Biff Jezos.
Alric asks about the plan Kon has. Kon wants to take this a bit slowly, but the taskforce has been a bit uneasy ever since Kon invited them all in, and want to hear what he has in store.
Kon says that the taskforce will be doing business trips. He fiddles with the papers a bit, trying to find a place to start. The taskforce blinks, and suddenly Thyme’s behind Kon, placing their hand on Kon’s shoulder.
They face them, and say that he’ll take it from here, reassuring Kon.
Kon is taken aback. He doesn’t know how Thyme could’ve gotten in the office, he must’ve done something to keep them from coming in.
Thyme already knew. Knew what? (TN: Omg this is what they were talking about in their heart to heart while Alric was sleeping) He squeezes Kon’s shoulder gently, and turns to the taskforce.
Thyme locks eyes with Alric. He blinks once, and he’s suddenly in a different room with them. It’s similar to the conference room, a condensed one. Thyme gives Alric a hug, and while he’s hugging Alric, he thanks him for all the work he’s done. He tells him he’s done a really good job.
Alric remarks that they better not put him to sleep or do something fucked up without telling him. Alric hugs him back, and asks them to tell him what’s going on, to say what they mean. He’s tired of getting thrown around.
Thyme is still hugging Alric, and he assures him that he won’t put him to sleep. They’re running his fingers through his hair. Alric’s a little shaky while leaning into the hug. He knows some wack shit is happening so he's kind of freaking out.
In basic terms, someone saw something they weren’t supposed to. They want to make it easier for everyone, and do a little clean up and fix it up.
Alric wants to know what they saw, or what they weren’t supposed to see. Thyme tells him that he’d be included, in seeing something he wasn’t supposed to. Alric asks about Kon, and not even he can be included in this.
Thyme keeps assuring him that he knows Alric will be okay, that everyone will be okay. They want him to trust them.
Alric doesn't say anything. He wants to trust him, but he knows Thyme will do what they think is best regardless of what he thinks about it. He's just glad Thyme is saying as much as they can. And that he gets a good hug out of it too.
Thyme releases their embrace from Alric, to face him. He tells him. “Everything you’ve done here hasn’t been erased. Everything is here with me. I promise I will dream of you.”
Alric eyes widen at that. The meaning of that last phrase wasn't lost on him. He knows Thyme's done talking. He tries to reach for them before their conversation ends, but Thyme doesn't notice. (They wouldn't have sent Alric back if they did.)
Thyme kisses Alric on the forehead. He’s not knocked out, but he can tell it’s all. Different. He’s blinking, trying hard to remember whatever happened. Alric, Aglet, and Arial are now... all in the locker room in the Production Department. Suited up, just like they were before getting called to Kon’s office.

AFTERMATH

Alric is trying to remember what happened. The last thing he remembers is Aglet having a flashback. His forehead feels a little warmer than he remembers. He thinks he got a hug and a kiss from Thyme on the forehead, but when did that happen?
He also remembers feeling a sense of urgency, that something is gonna happen to Kon and Thyme, but not knowing where that feeling came from. Was he daydreaming?
At the same time, Kon and Thyme are in Kon’s office. Thyme’s holding Kon on the couch. They’re waiting for Kon to wake up.
He slowly blinks, and when he wakes up Thyme gives him a little kiss <3
Kon is a bit out of it. He’s really groggy.
Thyme holds his hand, and tells him that he’s here, they’re here, this is their office... Everything’s fine. Everything will be fine. They knew everything would always be fine.
Before Kon goes back to sleep, they say “Again?... I’m sorry.” Thyme keeps holding him as he drifts off to sleep.
Thyme's phone buzzes soon after. It's a text from Alric!

ALRIC: hey whatcha doing? thought of youu
ALRIC: wait that’s kinda embarrassing idk what possessed me to say that (TN: but Thyme does lmao)
THYME: no i think its sweettt

Thyme sends him a picture of Kon on his lap, asleep.

ALRIC: lol is he sleeping on the job
THYME: well i think he needed a break
ALRIC: well invite me next time im tireddd
THYME: i will i promise
ALRIC: kk <3

They don't have to suddenly bail on Yard this time around!

the t(aaa)skforce's quest to get coral no. 5 chapstick coming soon! aglet and arial are fucked up. alric has PLANS.

the boys lockeroom breakup reconciliation speedrun any% (and they’re not even dating yet)! the girls lockeroom chills in the hospital and seo is there <3 its been 2 hours.

alric and arial have their pro prosecutor (fantasy ace attorney) moment. guest starring key witness bananice agnus and defense attorney meringue!

Introductions:

Clocking in:

After Hours:

Clocking in:

Taskforce Orientation Battle:

Supervisor Meeting:

After the Meeting:

The Weekend:

Monday:

Girl's Night:

IT Department:

Taro's Hole:

IT Department:

After Hours:

DAY OFF

WORK (Aww yeah it's about drive)

DAY(S) OFF... 2!

WORK... 2!

WOAH FIRST REAL ASSIGNMENT

GOING TO A DIFFERENT FLOOR

T(AAA)SKFORCE PEE BREAK

BACK TO THE ORB

EXITING THE ORB

AT KON'S OFFICE

T(AAA)SKFORCEPARTMENT

AFTER HOURS

SURVEILLANCE DEPT DAY 2

THE ARCHIVES

BOAT TOUR YEAAHA

OH NO THE BOAT :(

OMG HI ALRIC MISSED U XO

OK BACK TO AGLET AND ARIAL BOOBILOONGAS

THE T(AAA)SKFORCE OPENS UP?

INTERMISSION YAYY

ALRIC AND THYME PLAY 20 QUESTIONS <3

ARIAL AND AGLET HAVE ISSUES :( BUT NOT WITH EACH OTHER :)

BACK TO WORK

ARIAL AND AGLET IN THE ELEVATOR

ALRIC AND BOATMASTER IN THE ELEVATOR

PINKHORNET

GIRLS LOCKEROOM AT TAROS HOUSE

BOYS LOCKEROOM AT KONS HOUSE

GIRL'S LOCKER ROOM

BOY'S LOCKER ROOM

BACK TO THE GIRLZ

KON'S APARTMENT

ARIAL'S PIMPLE POPPING SESSION WITH THYME

ALRIC'S SNEAKY RICKEY REMOVAL

AGLET IS FUCKING MISERABLE

ALRIC FUCKING DIES?!??!

AGLET AND ARIAL PRETEND THEY DIDNT SEE THAT I GUESS

ARIAL SOLO MISSION?

AGLET'S EMERGENCY SURGERY

ARIAL STAMP GET

INSIDE THE INCINERATOR

SANITARY STAFF MEETING

BACK TO KON'S APARTMENT

POST-SURGERIES

A FEW DAYS LATER

THE TAAASKFORCE TALKS

THYME NURSES ALRIC BACK TO HEALTH

THYME HOUSE REVEAL?!?!

GIRLS NIGHT OUT!

THE GIRLS ARE HOME

KON COMES OVER <3

DAY OFF

PRODUCTION DEPT.

PRODUCTION ADMIN ROOM

BACK TO THE DUNGEON

OMG HI BANI

BATTLE TIME!

AFTER THE FIGHT

BREAKROOM

MEETING MORE GARDENIA HOMUNCULI

BACK TO THE DUNGEON (AGAIN)

ALICE (BANI)'S LAB

KON LOSES IT?

AFTERMATH