You've always looked up to her, at least a little.\n\nShe's always been so thoughtful, so calm and focused. Maybe she gets a little carried away with her work on occasion- sometimes you feel like you're the only one who really cares about her crazy space-warping-for-profit schemes. But that's not really a big deal, is it?\n\nYou just... you don't know. Are you jealous, maybe? You probably are I mean come on. Like you wouldn't trade places with her in a heartbeat, if you could. You feel a pang of guilt at the thought.\n\nIt's just that she's out there [[protecting you|nightmaremode]] and you're stumbling around with questionable powers. Your incompetence is putting her in danger and god damn it.\n\nMaybe it would be better if you [[weren't even there to be a burden on her at all|eep]].
You do the spacey claymore ribbon thing and it slices through! While it struggles to heal, you [[follow it up with a|NOIR II]]
Of course you couldn't think of anything when it actually mattered.\n\nYou call out for [[help|help2]].
Bulky, even without the ornate armor. When his power's up his sword can penetrate anything. Seemed to you like a weak power at first, but it's incredibly versatile. Getting through the last gate wouldn't have been possible without him carving a path straight into the teleporter itself. He's a bit older than you, since he trained at the academy for an extra few years before making his first dive. Why didn't you do that? You should have done that.\n\nHe stares out the window, looking much more competent than you feel.\n\n[[<< Back|unrealstart]]
Her back to you, she tosses her spheres into the air, where they drift apart, catch on each other somehow, and hit a stable configuration. All her powers are space- and distance-based. Waving her hands, she directs them towards the top of a nearby spire, and [[combined with the mage cloak the whole thing has a mesmerizing effect|magely]]. She's [[already got a plan|marbles]] and [[you're still not responding nice one wow|strategiesaretough]]. You're so good at this, your [[wands]] hanging unused and your mouth slightly agape. [[Your own costume isn't even that great.|clothes]]
The next maw parts similarly. Maybe if you had been a bit faster with your magic back there you wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe if you hadn't wasted so much time at the beginning before you even made your first cast. [[Are you even going to get through?|center3]]
She vaults out of the center of the decomposed iris, fluorescent mint core in hand, spheres vibrating around inside, reprogramming it.\n\nYou have retreated too far into the realm of fantasy and forgot that she did not in fact expire in the eye!\n\nShe gives you a thumbs-up and says the two of you might not be [[as doomed as she thought|argh]].\n\nIn the center of the gaping mouth to the west, you can hear the rush of displaced air and the growing whine that could mean only one thing.\n\n[[The Gate has been opened.|start3]]\n\nYou see gold armor in the distance, sword held aloft, racing towards the maw, with a lavender figure floating above his shoulder providing gravity assists. Everyone's going for it now.
Your team's mission: Short-term, survive and clear the Fifth Gate. Longer-term, figure out where the Fourth Gate's teleported them to, who's been building these gates, what the purpose of the stone-and-glass colossi wreaking havoc across Earth's surface for the past five years is, and why magic seems to be a thing now. Even longer, get past the Ninth Gate, the farthest anyone's made it so far, and ideally save humanity or something like that.\n\n[[<< Back|nightmaremode]]
You imagine yourself "accidentally" stumbling off the side of a building, down thousands of feet towards the asphalt below. Forced to call in a teleport, being whisked back to Earth mid-fall by your bracer.\n\nSure, the shame would burn. But at least your partner wouldn't have to deal with your horrible fighting any more. Maybe she'd find another companion who she'd work better with. Who knows okay no this is stupid you're stupid for even thinking about this. [[You and her are in this together and you can't just think about giving up.|nightmaremode]]
[[Crushed to death by a monolith of stone aaah this is too morbid go back|alone]].
<<display unrealstart>>
She laughs and you somehow manage to laugh too.\n\nYou actually feel... good. Maybe you weren't as effective as she was. But you helped, and now all of you are through. Your summoner's spawning a shelter and some celebratory booze, and the worst is behind you. From the footage and accounts, Gates Six and Seven aren't nearly as bad as the one you just cleared...\n\nAnd you actually feel like you've learned something. Like maybe next time you'll be able to do a bit more damage, or provide a bit more time.\n\n[[For now, though, the two of you put that out of your mind, lie back in the grass and relax.|end]]
Magi isn't going to do anything except maybe jam up one of the mouths.\n\nNoir is out of the question useless.\n\nGlitch won't work for the same reason as the spheres. Just more concrete to chew.\n\nObfuscate will probably replace it with "impassable death trap". You tried obfuscating the last defense around a gate in the third fight and almost locked you and your companion out. Not again.\n\nThe face shifts under you, now almost at a 30-degree angle. You're so glad this concrete actually has some friction.\n\n[[Try to think of something|thinkmore]]\n\n[[Call for help|help]]
She turns to you while tossing a cube of spheres inside and gouging out a tunnel and says nice one, taking out the security! You don't think it was much more effective than what she could have done with a bit more time but oh well.\n\nBut then she jumps into the tunnel surrounded by a vibrating icosahedron and she says you damage the iris and I'll take out the core and it closes behind her and you're left [[alone]].
You're in a small cargo plane. Out the window, you see mint clouds under a cream-colored alien sky.\n\nTwo by six seats. In each one, a mage in colorful garb. [[Your companion|dgray]] sits beside you, toying with her bag of marbles. In the two seats in front of you, a [[swordmaster with gold armor|gold]] and his companion, a [[teleporter|orange]]. Dread kicks in as you look at the latter.
#timer_text\n{\n\tdisplay: none;\n\tcolor: #000000; /* Jonah */\n\tcolor: #BBBBBB; /* Sugarcane */\n\tfont-weight: bold;\n\tfont-size: 28px;\n\tmargin: 10px 0 20px 0;\n}\n\n#timer_canvas\n{\n\tdisplay: none;\n\twidth: 150px;\n\theight: 150px;\n}
You shake your head and draw your wands, [[nearly dropping one of them in the process. Nice.|clumsy]]\n\nMaybe they're [[a little tackier than your companion's spheres|magely]], which you see her [[working with as you think|com1]]. But they work and you like them too.\n\nYou've got some [[powers]] at your disposal.
<<silently>>\n<<display "Stop Timer">>\n<<endsilently>>You see a green world before you, warped through a fisheye lens.\n\nYou pass through the portal, holding onto Lavender's waist for dear life, your partner doing the same.\n\n[[You made it.|nice]]
END
The Gates are smart. Smarter than people, certainly. Fortunately not drastically so- a team of humans can keep one on its toes long enough to clear it, of course- but smart enough that thinking of them as a faceless force of nature would be unreasonable. And yet, despite the thousands of fractalline human faces atop towers, lurking in crevasses- they never say a word.\n\nMaybe because they don't regard you to be worthy or intelligent enough to deserve it. Or maybe the better to leave you alone to your own thoughts.\n\n[[Back|thefifthgate]]
Y-yeah you say things are fine. Let's take down some monsters.\n\nShe's all like yeah that's the spirit! We got this. The two of you [[hop from spire to spire into the vortex|vortex]]
...\n\nWhat's taking her so long?\n\nOh no. What if she died down there? What if she's crushed between some gears, or some hidden concrete joint? She's dead and you have no companion left and your powers just dropped by a factor of two and you've got nothing left and she's dead and you're doomed and it's [[all your fault]]
Wow hell no now is not the time to be dumping this stuff on her. If you wanted to do that maybe you should have done it while your team wasn't in the middle of a gate dive [[seriously|cleared1]]
<<silently>>\n<<set $weakpoints = false>>\n<<set $own_power = false>>\n<<set $com_power = false>>\n\n<<endsilently>><<display "Timer Addon">><<display "Start Timer">><<silently>><<display "Set Mode To Display">><<endsilently>><<display "nightmaremode">>
She turns to face you and says she thinks that huge face over there looks like the most obvious target, let's go over there and see whether those eyes will hold up.\n\nYou say y-yeah I think that sounds like a good idea too.\n\nShe looks at you and asks if you're okay? you seem worried and she looks a bit worried too which she probably should be given how you've been doing in the last few battles and you say [[actually not really|notnow]] [[no it's cool let's take down some bad guys|start2]].
Third maw down. But the fourth one's not closed yet and it's coming at you from the [[side]] and oh nooooooooooooo\n\n[[maybe you can slip through|center4]]
and not after all you've been through\n\nnot when you were [[this close|ohnooooooo]]
She grins as you step forward, preparing a spell. You aim for the concrete near the seam of the glass- while the glass looks weak it's heavily reinforced, to the point concrete's weaker.\n\nYou close your own eyes and reach out to the four elements and you feel a tingling in your stomach as your vision is filled with dancing rainbow spirals.\n\nWhich do you turn to?\n\n[[MAGI]]\n[[NOIR]]\n[[GLITCH]]\n[[OBFUSCATE]]
[[Is she nervous? You think she might be nervous.|nightmaremode]]
The Timer has been paused\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>\n<<pause_timer>>
You fucked it all up.\n\nOf course you couldn't think of a solution. Your companion sees the desparation on your face and she's wordless.\n\n[[<< Back|start3]]
You look and she's all right. Head bleeding a bit from where a rope of her long hair got ripped out but otherwise [[good|center5]].
Concrete. Twelve miles wide and slowly expanding. You're in the middle of it.\n\nGate One: Neolithic / crude and shallow walls of shifting stone.\nGate Two: Gothic / literally flying buttresses supporting elegant cannonwork done in flowery steel wire.\nGate Three: Baroque / sprawling tesselated boxes expanding faster than you could run.\nGate Four: Googie / horrific curvaceous surfaces of glass and neon, reflecting prismatic arcs of lightning.\n\nThis one is Brutalist. Towers and pyramids of unyielding concrete, swaying far more than they have any right to be, for miles in every direction. Heavy weapons systems coming out of grooves in the walls, spraying uranium rounds at your teammates. Repeated boxy constructs worming throughout the battlefield. The whole thing a whirlpool around an abstract, distorted [[face]] at least half a mile across.\n\n[[This is so much harder and you aren't prepared.|strategiesaretough]]
And you were [[so close too|ohnooo]]
[[Did she think that because of you okay no stop it this self-loathing thing is so stupid|all your fault]]
Not that kind of companion, silly. The bond between two pact makers is a bit more deep and a lot more dangerous. Mass power boosts and synergy attacks in exchange for severe drop in strength when you're apart. Standard contract stuff.\n\nShe sits to your side, dressed in a deep-gray mage cloak with gold trim. She's smiling thoughtfully, weaving a few of her marbles between her hands in complex geometric patterns without even using the space powers to help. She's really good. Maybe even good enough to make it to the Seventh or Eighth gate before getting killed. Not like you could say the same.\n\n[[<< Back|unrealstart]]
The sword doesn't even crack the concrete before bursting.\n\nYour companion looks at you like what was that about since when was magi effective against concrete? Stuff was never really effective against anything too solid.\n\n[[Of course you screw it up. Type matchups were 100-level material back in the academy and you're still not getting them right.|attack]]
The Timer Mode has been set to "display"\nWhen the timer runs out, a custom Scene is displayed\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>\n<<set_timer_mode "display">>\n<<set_timer_param "Timer Ended">>
<<if ($weakpoints == true) && ($own_power == true) && ($com_power == true)>>\n...Okay. You think you have [[a plan|cleared1]].\n<<elseif $com_power == false>>You [[look around for your companion- you're going to need help on this|com1]].\n<<elseif $own_power == false>>But even though your companion's in action as you speak, you're still not fighting yourself. [[Typical|strategiesaretough]].\n<<elseif $weakpoints == false>>But you aren't sure what to do about the Gate yourself. Maybe you should [[check it out|thefifthgate]]?\n<<endif>>
<<set $com_power = true>>The dodecahedron falls on top of and around a tower as your companion flicks her wrist and wires of gold plasma connect the spheres and the concrete exterior of the tower peels away like it was rubber. You toss a shadowy Noirtech into the mechanical inner workings but she's already got to work shrinking the figure and slicing through the clockwork gears. The tower shudders and then goes down.\n\n<<display gate1>>
The speck of gold in the distance hangs in the air for a second, then starts floating towards you. A few seconds later he and Lavender land soft, skidding only a little across the surface. He grabs your companion with the hand not on the sword and passes her up to Lavender, who holds her in place. Then he grabs you, and when Lavender puts her other arm around your waist you feel slightly nauseous as the weightlessness kicks in.\n\nThe four of you start falling towards the [[center]].
version.extensions.cyclinglinkMacro={major:3,minor:3,revision:0};\nmacros.cyclinglink={handler:function(a,b,c){var rl="cyclingLink";\nfunction toggleText(w){w.classList.remove("cyclingLinkInit");\nw.classList.toggle(rl+"Enabled");w.classList.toggle(rl+"Disabled");\nw.style.display=((w.style.display=="none")?"inline":"none")}switch(c[c.length-1]){case"end":var end=true;\nc.pop();break;case"out":var out=true;c.pop();break}var v="";if(c.length&&c[0][0]=="$"){v=c[0].slice(1);\nc.shift()}var h=state.history[0].variables;if(out&&h[v]===""){return\n}var l=Wikifier.createInternalLink(a,null);l.className="internalLink cyclingLink";\nl.setAttribute("data-cycle",0);for(var i=0;i<c.length;i++){var on=(i==Math.max(c.indexOf(h[v]),0));\nvar d=insertElement(null,"span",null,"cyclingLinkInit cyclingLink"+((on)?"En":"Dis")+"abled");\nif(on){h[v]=c[i];l.setAttribute("data-cycle",i)}else{d.style.display="none"\n}insertText(d,c[i]);if(on&&end&&i==c.length-1){l.parentNode.replaceChild(d,l)\n}else{l.appendChild(d)}}l.onclick=function(){var t=this.childNodes;\nvar u=this.getAttribute("data-cycle")-0;var m=t.length;toggleText(t[u]);\nu=(u+1);if(!(out&&u==m)){u%=m;if(v){h[v]=c[u]}}else{h[v]=""}if((end||out)&&u==m-(end?1:0)){if(end){var n=this.removeChild(t[u]);\nn.className=rl+"End";n.style.display="inline";this.parentNode.replaceChild(n,this)\n}else{this.parentNode.removeChild(this);return}return}toggleText(t[u]);\nthis.setAttribute("data-cycle",u)}}};
<<silently>>\n<<set $TimerAddon = \nfunction()\n{\n\tvar div_timer_container = document.createElement('div');\n\tdiv_timer_container.setAttribute('id', 'timer');\n\n\tvar div_timer_canvas = document.createElement('canvas');\n\tdiv_timer_canvas.setAttribute('id', 'timer_canvas');\n\tdiv_timer_canvas.setAttribute('width', '150');\n\tdiv_timer_canvas.setAttribute('height', '150');\n\tdiv_timer_canvas.width = div_timer_canvas.width;\n\tdiv_timer_container.appendChild(div_timer_canvas);\n\t\n\tvar div_timer_text = document.createElement('span');\n\tdiv_timer_text.setAttribute('id', 'timer_text');\n\tdiv_timer_text.innerHTML = "";\n\tdiv_timer_container.appendChild(div_timer_text);\n\n\tvar Timer_Active = false;\n var Timer_Paused = false;\n\tvar Timer_Mode = 'none';\n\tvar Timer_Param = "";\n\tvar Timer_Max = 0;\n\tvar Timer_Now = 0;\n \n\tvar div_jonah_floater = document.getElementById('floater');\n\tif(div_jonah_floater) \t\tdiv_jonah_floater.appendChild(div_timer_container);\n\n\tvar div_sugarcane_menu = document.getElementById('sidebar');\n\tif(div_sugarcane_menu) div_sugarcane_menu.appendChild(div_timer_container);\n\n\tfunction StartTimer(val)\n\t{\n\t\tTimer_Active = true;\n Timer_Paused = false;\n\t\tTimer_Max = val;\n\t\tTimer_Now = val;\n\t\tdiv_timer_text.style.display = 'block';\n\t\tdiv_timer_canvas.style.display = 'block';\n\t}\n\n\tfunction StopTimer()\n\t{\n\t\tTimer_Active = false;\n\t\tdiv_timer_text.style.display = 'none';\n\t\tdiv_timer_canvas.style.display = 'none';\n\t}\n\n\tfunction PauseTimer()\n\t{\n\t\tTimer_Paused = true;\n\t}\n\n\tfunction ResumeTimer()\n\t{\n\t\tTimer_Paused = false;\n\t}\n\n\tfunction SetTimerText(text)\n\t{\n\t\tdiv_timer_text.innerHTML = text;\n\t}\n\n\tfunction SetTimerMode(mode)\n\t{\n\t\tif(mode == 'display')\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tTimer_Mode = 'display';\n\t\t}\n\t\telse if(mode == 'restart')\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tTimer_Mode = 'restart';\n\t\t}\n\t\telse Timer_Mode = 'none';\n\t}\n\n\tfunction SetTimerParam(param)\n\t{\n\t\tTimer_Param = param;\n\t}\n\n\tfunction OnTimerEnd()\n\t{\n\t\tStopTimer();\n\t\tif(Timer_Mode == 'restart')\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tstate.restart();\n\t\t\tif(Timer_Param) alert(Timer_Param);\n\t\t\twindow.location.reload(true);\n\t\t\t\n\t\t} \n\t\telse if(Timer_Mode == 'display')\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tstate.display(Timer_Param[0]);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tfunction OnTimerTick()\n\t{\n\t\tif(Timer_Active && !Timer_Paused)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tTimer_Now = Timer_Now - 0.1;\n\n\t\t\tif(Timer_Now <= 0) Timer_Now = 0;\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tvar context = div_timer_canvas.getContext("2d");\n\t\t\tdiv_timer_canvas.width = div_timer_canvas.width;\n\n\t\t\tvar x = div_timer_canvas.width / 2;\n\t var y = div_timer_canvas.height / 2;\n\t var radius = 65;\n\t var startAngle = 1.5 * Math.PI;\n\t \n\t var endAngle = (1.5 + (2 / Timer_Max * Timer_Now)) * Math.PI;\n\t var counterClockwise = false;\n\n\t context.beginPath();\n\t context.arc(x, y, radius, startAngle, endAngle, counterClockwise);\n\t context.lineWidth = 15;\n if(div_jonah_floater) context.strokeStyle = "black";\n\t if(div_sugarcane_menu) context.strokeStyle = "#BBBBBB";\n\t context.stroke();\n\n\t\t\tcontext.font = 'bold 30px sans-serif';\n\t\t\tif(div_jonah_floater) context.fillStyle = "black";\n\t\t\tif(div_sugarcane_menu) context.fillStyle = "#BBBBBB";\n\t\t\tcontext.fillText(Timer_Now.toFixed(1), 55, 85);\n\n\t\t\tif(Timer_Now <= 0) OnTimerEnd();\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tsetInterval(function(){ OnTimerTick(); }, 100); \n\n\tmacros['start_timer'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tStartTimer(val);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['stop_timer'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tStopTimer();\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['pause_timer'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tPauseTimer();\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['resume_timer'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tResumeTimer();\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['set_timer_text'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tSetTimerText(val);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['set_timer_mode'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tSetTimerMode(val);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n\tmacros['set_timer_param'] =\n\t{\n\t\thandler: function(obj, fnc, val)\n\t\t{\n\t\t\tSetTimerParam(val);\n\t\t}\n\t}\n\n}\n>>\n<<print $TimerAddon()>>\n<<endsilently>>
Fingers to your temples; that sickening lurching feeling and the blur.\n\nThe iris is replaced with "green expanding disk". It starts to leak forward towards you. [[No dice.|alone]]
<<silently>>The Timer has been started with 10 Seconds<<endsilently>>\n<<start_timer 212>>
You're so foolish.\n\nIt's not like you couldn't have waited. Earth sends explorers in waves- you could have spent another year grinding your powers, finding new uses, learning their intricacies. Becoming at least mediocre before making your first dive. As much as you tried to tell yourself otherwise, tried to counter your anxious self-doubt with thoughts about how you just hadn't reached your potential yet, it's all too apparent that Pessimist You was right and your friends were wrong.\n\nMaybe it's something to do with [[your ego issues|egoissues]].\n\nOr maybe it was because your companion was considering going for it and you wanted to come with her, as she wanted to go with you. [[You can't imagine why.|comissues]]
[[The Fifth Gate|thefifthgate]] comes to life. Concrete flesh parts to reveal innumerable glass eyes, spinning to face all of you. Anti-air weapons systems sprout from nests in the walls. Fractalline towers writhe in unison like cilia.\n\n[[It begins|mission]]. You've got about three and a half minutes.\n\n[[Your companion|com1]] looks over her shoulder to face you, [[a vulpine grin on her face|grin]], as she spins and pulls a bag of steel marbles from hammerspace. She looks so... confident. Is she confident?\n\nYour arms dangle limply at your sides, passing over your [[wands]] and sliding across your [[clothes]]. You [[turn your thoughts inward|strategiesaretough]].
A flash of light. You see the remnants of a Glitch cast far more powerful than any of yours have ever been as *billions* of gargoyles fly forth at impossible speeds towards you-\n\n-and your companion looks at you and she doesn't even look angry just *disappointed* as the two of you are consumed.
Your teleporter, dressed from the neck down in sporty orange armor, turns and cracks a joke at you. The Fifth Gate can't be so bad, right? He laughs. You think about how he survived Gate Four with barely a scratch on his plates. The one where you stumbled out with half an arm on your left side because *both* your shoddily-prewritten casts misfired. You got lucky. You laugh haha nice one dude. He pats his companion on the shoulder and walks to the [[center of the plane|teleporter]].\n\n[[<< Back|unrealstart]]
The Timer Mode has been set to "restart"\nWhen the timer runs out, the whole game is restarted, and a custom text will be shown.\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>\n<<set_timer_mode "restart">>\n<<set_timer_param "You have lost">>
You never liked to use this one when you didn't have to.\n\nYou raise your wand to your temples and flip a switch somewhere and the concrete base loses clarity. It's just "beige rectangle" now. Never was anything more than that. Minor spacial anomaly.\n\nFeeling a little disgusted with yourself for your atrocities against spacetime, you tear it away with a Magi ribbon cannon attack, revealing [[steel clockwork]].
The fourth maw slams shut around you and you made it through but Lavender screams and oh fuck your companion's bleeding and you [[couldn't do anything to stop it|ohno]]
You cast LIBELLA SWING on the undulating green surface. It takes POISON III + PARALYSIS, which spreads forth from the shadows where you struck and decomposes the entire eye.\n\nNow that's a catchy tune!\n\n[[Mint light is now visible from beneath.|mint]]
nightmare mode
Oh god you're alone now how do you do this. You [[wouldn't have even lasted past Gate One without her help|gateone]] you're going to die out here and she'll be so disappointed.\n\nThe [[iris]] beckons. What do you do?\n\n[[MAGI II]]\n[[NOIR II]]\n[[GLITCH II]]\n[[OBFUSCATE II]]
The charcoal cloak has an inlaid pattern of twelve golden balls across the back, with lines of thread connecting them. It's a fancy Platonic solid, one which she's [[trying to duplicate right now|marbles]]. You always liked math. Maybe you should have [[stuck with that instead of this whole shitty magical superhero adventurer thing|strategiesaretough]].\n\nHer spherework is so elegant and impressive. You watch, and wish your [[wandwork|wands]] was on that level.
Always a perfectionist before the whole mage thing. Before life actually got serious. You almost feel like you ran this mission as some kind of attempt to relive what you felt back then. "I'm the best, I bet I could even solo that Gate Five! So great!" Haha no. Now you're here and there's [[no way out|eep]].\n\nStupid stupid stupid. You wring at your [[clothes]], brushing your [[wands]].
[[It's sage green and organic, regrowing like crazy whenever anyone throws anything about it.|alone]]
At least one of them didn't explode in your face like that one battle with the thing [[okay not the time|wands]]
You duplicate a chunk out of the iris, but the benefits of removing the chunk are quickly countered by the fact that you just added four more sheets of iris to the rest of the eye.\n\n[[While you waste time up here she's probably getting steamrolled inside without any idea what's happening.|alone]]
The Timer has been resumed.\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>\n<<resume_timer>>
You can control the Addon with this Commands:\n\n[[Start Timer]]\n[[Pause Timer]]\n[[Resume Timer]]\n[[Stop Timer]]\n\n[[Set Mode To Restart]]\n[[Set Mode To Display]]
He shifts slightly and you do too and suddenly the plane around you is gone, replaced with the long slope of a rooftop angled as though it's imminent danger of collapsing. You stumble across the sloped gravel surface and catch your balance on a wall fixture, recoiling when you turn and notice it's a distorted face like something out of a Mayan tapestry. [[You're all lucky to have landed on reasonably stable ground|prebattle]], above the chaotic undulating sea of stone below.\n\nThe jagged terrain stretches for miles in every direction. It's so grotesque.
You open your mouth and the smooth, shadowy beats flow forth. You're really feeling this one. You hear saxophones in the back of your head.\n\nThe shadows move towards the concrete and condense, leaving it with STUN + LvII POISON + CHILLS. The concrete remains unaffected by these status conditions [[argh stupid stupid stupid|attack]].
Gold rides behind the hilt of his sword, plunging it through the concrete. The four of you are past the first maw and everything is dust and noise and you [[don't know if you'll make it|center2]]
<<set $weakpoints = true>>Those eyes look like pretty good targets. Despite their overwhelming complexity, the Gates don't lean towards subtelty in their weak points.\n\nNot like they'd go down even if you dropped a few nukes on their weak points. But it'd buy you enough time to get through, at least.\n\n<<display gate1>>
Yeah!!\n\nGlowing pink ribbons spill forth from your sleeves and form into a broadsword twenty feet long and you cry IRRIDESCENT REDSHIFT CLAYMORE and bring it down and in a flash of [[pastel light]]
<<display "Timer Addon">>\nThis is a sample Page for the Timer Addon.\nNote that in the Jonah Template, a function doesn't work multiple times, sadly.\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>
You call out PENULTIMATE BRACER FINALE and the pink ribbon flowing from your costume, now solid, jams the maw wide enough for you to slip through.\n\n[[Lavender snickers but you don't care, that was so sweet she doesn't even know.|center5]]
Spheres cut but the jaws are moving too chaotically to guarantee a smooth tunnel. Can't jam it open the spheres are too slippery. Her powers won't work here and she knows it, and she looks terrified.\n\n[[Try to think of something|thinkevenmore]]\n\n[[Call for help|help]]
This is bullshit of course. Your clothes don't actually matter. Why are you wasting your time thinking about this it's because you're no good at actually doing the stuff you're here to do so you tide yourself over with thoughts of fancy outfits. You're good at that. You don't know why you've always cared so so much about the whole costume thing and trying to look awesome when you should have been working on not sucking. So [[stupid stupid stupid|nightmaremode]].
The face has its mouth open in a wordless scream. You can count at least five sets of concentric jaws inside its mouth, wriggling and gnashing independently. Two [[large smoked-glass eyes and a collossal stone nose|weakpoints]] top the face, surrounded by smaller auxillary eyes and mouths.\n\nDespite the fact that all of them appear to be screaming, minus the grind of concrete, the battlefield is almost [[silent]].
You look at everyone around you, standing on haphazard spires of displaced Brutalist architecture like this is no big deal, like this insanity is second nature to them and even if they're scared they sure as hell don't show it. You look down and see nested concrete maws twitching and you wonder what it's like to find yourself down there, blocked by waves of needle-thin corundum teeth, crushed to death over several minutes as your clock slowly runs out. You know dozens like you have already died that way. You'll probably go the same way, casting low-level Magi + Noir techs that bounce around in the tiny space doing nothing, without nearly enough room to get a good Glitch off. You look at your companion and all you feel like you can do is hope you don't drag her down with you.\n\nWhy didn't you just keep taking down colossi back on Earth? Just stuck with everything being easy and fun and rad. But it's your fault you decided against it, and now the [[only option left is|nightmaremode-prelude]]
and if you hadn't been just rushing through maybe you could have stopped the maw from [[catching her|ohnooooo]]
And you're there. The two of you standing on a a steel mouth a hundred feet across frozen shut by your cryomancer. The right eye is in front of you; it stares at you, unable to decide whether to close itself or watch. Gargoyles pour out of the mouths around you, nasty shrimpy concrete things with jeering monkey faces and jagged lances. They're not nearly as much of a threat as the eye's weapon systems but they keep you on your toes.\n\nShould you [[join her in attacking the eye|attack]]? Or [[fend off gargoyles while she focuses on the offensive|support]]?
The third gate. You spent most of that battle on support, trying to take out minor mooks while she tore through tesselation after tesselation into the gate itself.\n\nThose mooks were even weaker than these ones are now. Really she could have done it without you and you know it. You feel like [[she probably knows it too|support]].
This one's a little harder to keep track of but it's your thing and you're proud of it.\n\nYou close your eyes to focus, point your wand and fingers like a gun and fire at the base. In a burst of rainbow it and the surrounding ten feet of glass are gone, duplicated inside the [[steel clockwork]] of the machine, jamming it up.
The five concentric mouths around the opening come to life, thousand-foot-wide concrete slabs gnashing open and shut erratically to protect it. Neither of you have ever had to deal with something this heavy moving this fast.\n\nShe turns to you confused, and asks if you can think of anything.\n\nIf you can't think of anything you're not good enough.\n\n[[Try to think of something|thinkmore]]\n\n[[Call for help|help]]
The Timer has been stopped\n\n<<display "Timer Control">>\n<<stop_timer>>
You land on the grass of another world, the four of you coming to rest alongside the other four who've already made it. Hopefully the last pair will make it through all right.\n\nGold runs over to give his companion a hug. Lavender just turns her personal gravity back on and lays on the grass for a while.\n\nYour companion turns to face you.\n\n[[That wasn't so bad, was it?|ohreally]]
<<silently>><<set $own_power = true>>\n<<endsilently>>Your powers aren't nearly as useful as everyone else's. They started out with what seemed like B-list abilities- piercing blade, localized time acceleration, minor cryokinesis. You got pre-packaged high-level casts in the Four Elements.\n\nBy now, though, they've got such a good hang on their powers you look ridiculous in comparison. [[Maybe you should have spent more time studying how it all worked, instead of practicing what you already knew while making up absurd attack names for your Magi spells.|strategiesaretough]]\n\n<<display gate1>>
Taking a few seconds to charge your power, you fire off a Glitch at the nearest group of gargoyles. In a flash of garish rainbow light they're fused with a dozen hastily rendered copies of themselves. Nice!\n\nBut they keep pouring forth, the group you took out replaced with one half its size. Dodging railgun fire, she turns to you and looks a bit [[disappointed|thirdgate]]. Thanks for helping with the gargoyles but [[this thing's way more pressing, could you help me take it out before it closes?|attack]]
You're wearing <<cyclinglink "a gray tunic of +5 GENERIC" "a puffy mint dress with a cityscape print" "smoky indigo ghost armor" "NOW IS NOT THE TIME">>, with a <<cyclinglink "sweet cape" "power gauntlet" "horse head mask" "WHO CARES">> equipped. [[Wow!|clothes2]]