Triumph and ecstasy surged through them; Ananke's fanatic joy shared by all. It emboldened the small sifaka, putting a little extra energy into their leaps as they sailed through the trees deeper into Eridanus. They had pulled away from Ananke now and could no longer feel the bolstering effects of her magic, but the divine fungus connected all their minds, and they never had to feel alone.

Their next target were the cave bats that roamed the Maw of Mosses. While the birds served Mother during the day, the bats were her eyes at nighttime. Besides, Yellow knew that they weren't all as scary as they looked. The flying pitch rats were rather shy, and treated one another well, and the worst the crawlers ever did was make a lot of noise. The pixie bats were the most harmless of all, and were quite wonderful to look at as they darted between flowers at night. Yellow would be happy to welcome them into the family.

They tried to mimic the screeches and chirps of a bat colony that had found a food source to draw them in, but what came out was a hacking cough, like a cat throwing up a hairball. Their throat was suddenly so itchy, and the poor sifaka nearly fell from their treetop perch as they bent over, coughing so hard their ribcage hurt. Whenever they tried to draw a breath in, they only coughed harder, and they desperately wondered if they were going to die from oxygen deprivation.

By the end of it, not a single bat had come to eat their fungus-laced fruit. In fact, they were pretty sure they'd scared away every bat in the vicinity.

It was with careful consideration that Jinyi decided on his next course of action.

The deer master and his ally the crab were coming. The deer used fungal magic, and could likely run down any land-based lesser he infected--or at least get close enough to use his magic on it. He would be able to sense and remove the nodes they planted with the same magic. It would take time, yes, and it would hopefully be a terribly tedious and exhausting effort for him, provided they made good progress here with the time they had--but he could do it. Farina could likely hunt and kill what they infected in the water.

Jinyi's goal, then, was to spread the infection in the most annoying way possible; to do whatever it took to make the Masters' task as difficult as possible. A treetop node would certainly be difficult to root out for either Master, he thought, but he was not an especially adept climber. Nevertheless, he sent out the idea along the link: "Perhaps we could hide a node far up in the canopy? It would be difficult for the Masters to reach, I think."

For now, he would try his hand at a second idea. Bats could fly, which neither deer nor crab were capable of doing. And the larger ones were sharp, aggressive, dangerous. Maybe one of them would have a chance, however slim, of wounding the forces of Chaos when they came.

He wound his way into the jungle, taking whichever path was darker whenever there was a choice and scanning the ceiling for eyes that glinted from the darkness. The sound of a vicious quarrel caught his attention, and he froze, his face shifting into a fearsomely glitchy expression as he squinted into the darkness. A haggard dragonbat flapped down from its roost, chased from its position by its grouchy colony-mates, and Jinyi seized his chance. Come here, he urged it with his magic. Eat this bag of chips.

His heart sank like a stone as soon as the bat froze and stared right at him. Without a further moment's hesitation, he turned and sprinted away from the colony. A heartbeat afterward, the dragonbat screeched with rage, diving at the Drone with claws extended. It did not stop attacking until Jinyi had run in his panicked state for nearly a kilometer, leaving the fabric of his robes torn to ribbons and multiple lacerations that cracked the exoskeleton of his back.

At least he didn't have to worry about blood loss. Still hurt like crazy, though.

Imagine this: yer jus' walkin' through the tunnels one day, mindin' yer own business, and suddenly ye see yer OLD MATEY from AGES BACK! Isn't that great?!

"ASTRAEA?!" Captain blurted as the stag sprinted past him through Tunnel I. What was the stag doing, running so fast? Where was he going in such a hurry?! Captain still wanted to have a nice warm reunion with his matey!

"YAARRRRRR! AHOY! OL' SEA DOG! ME HEARRRRRTIEST OF HEARTIES! WAIT! WHERE'S IT YER GOIN?! I'LL COME WITH YE, MATEY!" With little to no idea of what was going on, but knowing in his heart of hearts that he would follow his heartiest of hearties anywhere (because that's what a true pirate crewmate did!), Captain broke into a run, charging after Astraea. "SOMETHIN' RUNNIN' AWAY FROM YE? NEED TA GET SOMETHIN' DONE FAST?! WHATEVER IT IS, I'LL HELP YOU, BESTIE!" At this point, Captain was gasping for breath. It was not easy to yell at full volume and sprint at the same time, but he was a fit water buffalo in his prime. He could manage well enough to tell Astraea all about how he would support his crewmate!

(Captain is not here yet, but will arrive next round)

Whether Halcyon succeeded in drilling his hole or not, Lamia would do her best to spread more fungus on the trees and move on, so that they were not bunched up in one spot.

She heard screeching sounds and whipped around, just in time to see Jinyi escaping an attack by a dragonbat. A glance further and she could see Catalyst failing as well. Anxiety rose up in her chest. They needed to work faster. If they lagged too much, the Masters would know it was a ploy.

With Ananke's speech motivating her forward, the intensity of her devotion like a spark igniting Lamia's own passion, she dove forward, grasping at whatever tree or bush was in her path, letting the spores of Mother's fungus spread rapidly across them. She would paint Eridanus white if she had to, for Mother and for Order!

Ah, yes, Halcyon responded to Lamia's offer of assistance. A warm appreciative hum resonated in both mind and throat. Thank you.

Their attention returned to their hand, its palm upturned to meet scrutiny. The scaled surface was unbroken by the presence of any projection crafted by Order's will. This time, they would try to be a bit more forceful in urging the required tool to form. Hopefully it'd be enough to avoid further hindrances to progress.

First came an itch, restricted to a single tiny spot. Then followed a crawling sensation that radiated outward from it. Slick webbing crept over the entire expanse, bunching together and rising up to create a glassy spiral. Now armed, they took this and laid its point against the exposed inner bark of the tree. Deft twists bored a hole, small but suitable for situating a clump of fungus. They retrieved the necessary insertion by shimmying down the trunk to where Lamia had left some to grow, gathering a generous pinch for their use.

Once the procedure was completed, all that remained was repeating it. While others pursued Lessers to sway to the Hive's influence, Halcyon scoped the forest for similar trees whose canopies rose high above the leaf-littered floor. Each acceptable candidate they scaled so that more holes could be drilled and fungus planted. In doing so, Order would thrive in Eridanus and consume from the inside out.

ORDER VS CHAOS

THE DISTRACTION

Here was one Caroller infected--one, single Lesser bird.

The rest--failed, by levels of 'spectacularly'--from being attacked to falling in a cascading skid on their backs. Mother... was not disappointed. But she was pensive, worried for her children, and it came along the link.

Were they... okay? Was something wrong? Perhaps something was interfering with her touch, in this place. "Fear not... simply try again," she murmured in their minds. But then, here was a carpet of it growing at her daughter's touch--and Halcyon, drilling it directly into the trees. "Clever," came her warm praise, bubbling in both their minds--in all their minds, by definition. "My clever, resourceful children. Well done."

Then Mother opened a link of another kind: a vision, an image of a stag charging toward the little bat she had keeping watch, there. Her creatures were silent sentinel at every entrance to Eridanus. Another creature was rushing up alongside him. She cut the link from then--let it not be a distraction to them--and urged them onward. "Be swift. Just a little more... enough to draw him in... and then you must flee. Now, my children-! Finish your work, here!"

In the vision, the stag paused, one hoof rising. Uncertain. "Push on! We must draw him here!" Urgency, an exhilaration edging on panic, flooded through the Hivemind like a tide. ACT, it said. ACT! ACT!

---

Astraea paused, nostrils flaring. Something was not right. The magic he was sensing... it was weak. He might, even, have happened upon exactly what it was, had Captain not barreled up at just that moment in a crash of hoofbound muscle. The stag's head swept toward him, ruby eyes narrowing, distracted. "-Captain." His greeting was curt. Eyes cut up and down the buffalo's form. He could be useful. Astraea had, after all, earned the title 'heartiest of hearties,' though he was still rather unsure quite what that meant. And perhaps he'd have asked how the 'high seas' of Hydra were going, had he not been so intent upon his task. He turned back toward Eridanus, nodding off ahead."I sense the forces of Order at work within this cave. I intend to destroy them; but as you recall, I am built for magic. Would you like to ensure my body remains safe, as I work?" he asked.

Then again--this was the bull who tripped across his own hooves. Astraea winced.

Ruby eyes shot upward, suddenly. Senses screamed. With a sneer he snared his magicka outward, grasping, gripping, tearing--and a Pitch Rat bat, squealing, fell heavily to the floor. It squealed, thrashing, as white fungus bubbled from its mouth, eyes, ears--and then Astraea stepped forward, stamping down into its head with a sharply pointed hoof. "Ugh," he murmured. Disgusting.

---

The unforeseen tied score has paused Astraea with confusion on the spot, with the help of an unexpected arrival.

The drones and allies may count this thread a complete success should they manage to reach 100 Order points before Astraea's arrival! They will fail should they incur more Fails than Barely+ rolls, thus losing Astraea's attention entirely. Astraea will arrive in Eridanus in one more turn, if all goes well, having been delayed by the last round's tie.

---

SCORE TALLY
This will be updated as the thread progresses.

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@Pallas @Ananke @Lamia @Jinyi @Halcyon @Yellow @Catalyst @Captain

Mother's concern washed over them, soft and uncertain. Yellow felt quite silly--they might have laughed at their own failure had the situation not been so serious. But what Mother said was true. There was nothing to do but pick themselves up and try again.

Perhaps it was time to try a different strategy. Eridanus was warm and humid, and supported so much life. Surely Mother's fungus would grow well, wherever it was planted. The problem now was distribution. Infecting Lesser Gembound one by one, moving from tree to tree and stopping to plant fungus in them was slow, and they had so little time. The sense of urgency sweeping away all other thoughts from their mind sparked an idea. Could they make the winds themselves carry the fungus to every corner of the room?

Just as Mother's compulsion be swift sounded in all their minds, the sifaka pushed that imperative onto the very air around them. As a warm, humid wind picked up and swept across the Maw of Mosses, bending ferns and young trees in its path, Yellow leaped onto a high branch and scattered handfuls of the white fungus they carried into the currents. Be swift, they urged the thermal current. Be swift, and spread our fungus throughout Eridanus! Hopefully, wherever the fungus landed, it would sprout, and it would take whoever the deer and buffalo were a good long time to root it all out. The fungus could travel effortlessly in the air, but they would have to run around and find it on foot.

Mild embarrassment flooded through him as Mother's worry touched at his mind, like a child who'd fallen quite comically and was now being fussed over. He was okay, he reassured Mother; it had been nothing more than a slip of his focus, a slight magical mishap. It was no big deal, really! He did not bleed, and he would heal.

The pain of his wounds was secondary to the warmth of Mother's love, after all. Jinyi craved her approval, and like a proud, stubborn child he resolved to gain it successfully this time. He thought--foolishly perhaps--he had one more dragonbat run left in him. If he failed, it might hurt, but he didn't think he would die. The desire to gain her praise as his more successful siblings had became a burning need in his mind, driving out the fear.

He stood, and resolutely strode into the dark of the towering ferns and impenetrable canopy once more. This time, there was no noisy quarrel to draw him to the colony, but he spotted their eerie shining eyes near the ceiling and focused his magic on one of them. Come down, he urged it, drawing out a bag of meat-flavored chips from his tattered robes. Eat these chips.

Exhilaration flooded through him as it obeyed. "That's right," he murmured to it as it tore into the bag and crunched noisily on the Order-tainted snacks. "Take these back to your colony, too, and share it with the rest of them." He drew out two more bags of meat-flavor chips, one deer and one fish. "Bon appetit."

Captain had absolutely no idea what "the forces of Order" were supposed to mean. He vaguely got the idea that Order probably wanted you to follow rules, and as a pirate born with a free spirit meant for the high seas, Captain automatically disapproved. He did, however, know what the word destroy meant, and bellowed an enthusiastic "YARRRRRR, MATEY! WE'LL TURN THOSE SCURVY DOGS TO SHARK BAIT!"

"AYE, MATEY, I'LL LOOK OUT FOR YE! I'LL GIVE WHICHEVER LILY-LIVERED IDIOT TRIES TO SNEAK ATTACK YOU A HEADBUTTIN' THEY WON'T FORGET!" he promised. "LOOKIN' OUT FOR EACH OTHER IS WHAT CREWMATES DO, ME HEARTY!" He, too, turned up his nose with disgust as the flying pitch rat dropped to the ground and writhed, bubbling over with fungus. He didn't know what was going on there either, but he knew that gross fungus wasn't good!

Catalyst hissed as she stood back up, coughing spores. Her body ached from that fall. Catalyst shook herself out, a slight wince as various spots ached in protest. She was definitely bruised. A claw flexed. Yes, definitely bruised in multiple places. The lack of disappointment from Mother washed over her in a wave of relief. Yet she couldn't help but feel...embarrassed. She should provide for her pack--her family.

"I shall try again, Mother." She whispered to herself, her voice a hard hiss. Her eyes, normally dilated, shrunk with her focus and determination. This would be her last chance to spread Her influence. She did not have the power to spread Her as easily among lessers as her siblings could. Not the spell prowess, and she'd definitely move slower after bruising herself with that fall. But a thought came to her--why chase down the lessers, when she could simply bring them to her? Her head cocked in thought, killing claw tapping.

A small chirp left her as an idea came. The red mice, they were everywhere! She hadn't seen them as food in a long time--not since she was a hatchling at least. But she remembered that they always carried things that shone with them. Catalyst dug a small ditch into the ground, sinking her claw in. And she willed gems to form. Small pebbles rose from the ground, shaking, and then stopped. Nothing.

Perhaps it was the urgency neutering her, or the bruises damaging her gem. Ever more likely the threat of Astraea. Mother's constant dopamine prevented anger, but Catalyst still felt the frustration. She gouged the earth with a single foot, a single controlled expression of her frustration, before shaking herself out. She sent her will along the link to her siblings. My magic protests. It is up to you, siblings. Spread Her will!