Posts made by FinalDisnerd

"Curiouser and curiouser," Gretchen muttered, watching in awe as the top of the tower was cut away with swift ease, and the evil looking harpies poured out of the tower to begin their assault. All of the enemies did indeed look so small from this position, but she knew that she was small up close, so things might get a little dicey if she tried to get into any sort of actual combat. "Just dislodge them; you don't have to tell me twice." Looking around at the oncoming army, Gretchen made the decision to start at the top and work her way down. "Climbing up is always harder then falling down, right?" With a flick of her wings, Gretchen began scaling her way toward Kama's chest. The clusters below would be a problem, but they would have to wait. It was a race to the top with the ninjas on Kamas other hand, and there was no way Gretchen was going to fail this early. Besides, there were more of these things coming out of the windows, so she wanted to try and stay high to see what they were planning. When she reached the summit of her climb, she took another look around at the advancing foes. It turned out that destruction of the outfit was more important than speed, so the ones she was expecting to meet at the shoulders were still down near Kama's wrist. Climbing a giant's arm while she dug around inside your tower probably wasn't in the standard training manual of... Well, anyone, really. From this position, she took a moment to survey the contents of the tower, and perhaps get a better idea of what was to come. "Hmmm..." pondered Gretchen, a plan beginning to form in her mind. "Hey Roger, could you load up a chip for me? I don't know if this will work, but at least it'll make for a cool entrance."

"A cool entrance? You're going to need to focus more if you're going to make this work." Roger shook his head, but flipped open his newly organized folder. "What chip did you want?"

Gretchen smirked as she bounded across the back of Kama's neck, headed for her right shoulder, "When soldiers attempted to siege a castle that was up on a hill, the defenders sometimes rolled logs down the hill to try and take them out." She began sliding down the shoulder to get a better vantage point for this. "Sure, Kama isn't quite a castle, her arm isn't exactly a hill, and the opposing ninjas aren't really sieging per say, but it's close enough to be worth a shot." Roger just shrugged and slotted in the RollingLog1 chip.

"If you think it'll work, go for it. Just remember, you're not really fighting these guys, so most of these chips will be useless here." Gretchen nodded as the data of two logs filtered down from Roger.

"Your concern is noted Roger." She turned and looked down to the oncoming assault squad on Kama's wrist and grinned. "Look out below," she said, to no one in particular. The pair of logs popped into existence in front of her, and with a kick they began rolling down toward their targets. Regardless of success, Gretchen followed close behind the logs, ready to take out anything still on their way up. This could be a rough fight, and Gretchen wanted to be absolutely sure of her footing and knew that having to backtrack would take far too much time. A little caution could make a world of difference.

Summary
4 pts: Climbing from the hand to the back of the neck
2 pts: Crossing over and down to the right bicep.
2 pts: Pushing logs down Kama's arm
2 pts: Traveling down to Kama's right hand (Follow the logs)
10 pts: Attempting to dislodge ninjas from right hand and staying aware of what was coming out of the windows.

To say that Gretchen was surprised at the appearance (Both the size and entrance) of Kama would be an understatement. As two massive expanses of black rose from the dunes, she lost her balance and slid down the side, and with a bounce landed clumsily a few feet away. As she gazed at the impressive figure rising from the sand, her cheeks turned a slight shade of red as realization dawned on her. That being said, she was taking the situation surprisingly well. As a child, one of Roger's favorite stories had been the "Alice in Wonderland" books, and Gretchen had grown quite fond of them as well. The first thought that crossed Gretchen's mind was not one of terror, but rather fascination. Thoughts of "tents" were quickly replaced with images of mushrooms, and of cakes with the words "Eat Me" as she stared upward at the massive Navi.

Her gaze and silence, must have been mistaken for fear, for Kama did her best to keep Gretchen calm. The initial shock dissipated quickly as alarms from the distant tower reached their ears, and Kama began to quickly explain the situation. After a few moments, Gretchen found herself very sympathetic toward poor Kama's dilemma. "Oh you poor dear..." she began, with many questions beginning to bubble up inside. But before she could ask anything, the sounds of battle began to rise from the tower in the distance. The witch's navi's weren't going to give them much time to discuss before the fight began, so Gretchen made up her mind on the spot. "Well, I certainly can't let them ruin your reputation like that. I may not know much about the ways of ninjas, but I do know a thing or two about modesty." With a flick of her wings, Gretchen scurried up the black cloth of Kama's right sleeve, and perched herself on Kama's wrist, casting her gaze toward the oncoming horde. "Lead the way, and we can figure out the details later!"

Roger, however, had to run and grab a tissue for his bleeding nose, and missed all of this. All that he knew at this point was that Gretchen was staring at a small army, and was wearing much the wrong outfit for this kind of "mountain climbing", not to mention battle. Roger cleared his throat and set out his Binder of Battlechips for the task ahead, not entirely sure of what he could add to the situation.

Wanting to make a good first impression, Gretchen beams into her first mission in her full professional attire: Brown slacks, a white button down blouse, and a green and black striped tie. Standing in the shadow of the monolithic tower protruding from the sand, she felt a little bit like a door-to-door sales navi. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. A cool breeze made her involuntarily take a deep breath. The crisp air of the beach was a nice change from the dark recesses of SciLab, and she was excited to see where the day would take her. She gave her wings a quick twitch, feeling much more energized after a nice rest from her last outing. She bent down and picked up a small pile of sand and watched as she let the particles slip through her fingers and dance away in the wind. "Oh yeah, I could get used to a place like this." Rubbing her hands together to get the last few bits of sand off, she looked back and forth between the two towers, both of which looked very out of place, though the conflicting architectural designs made Gretchen smile a bit. Looking around, however, she seemed to be the only one there. "Roger? Are we sure this was the right spot?" Roger checked the link from the BBS.

"Well, this is where the GNA told us to go... Maybe we're early?" Gretchen tilted her head and looked back at the towers.

"Perhaps..." She shrugged, and crouched down to draw a group of parallel lines in the sand. After about seven or so lines, she switched and drew two more lines, connecting her group like a ladder. She pointed at the tops of these two lines and recited an old child's game, "Eeny, Meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo!" Her finger ended hovering over the right hand line, and she followed the line to the bottom, crossing every beam as she came to it, ending up pointing to the bottom of the left hand line. She stood up, brushed herself off, and with nothing more to go on than luck and chance, started heading toward the bamboo tower.

Roger leaned back in his chair as Gretchen finished compiling the data from the days exploits. A small pile of Zenny, and a few battle chips were the tangible spoils, which was the goal. But we learned three distinct things in the process, each more disturbing than the last. First and foremost, at least in Gretchen's mind, were the viruses with personalities. Two Bunnys and two Cannondumbs had flames painted on their bodies, and they were traveling together as if they were a gang. If they had been Navis instead of viruses, it would make sense. But these were characteristics not usually seen in supposedly mindless programs bent on the destruction of the net, were they? Virus busting is so commonplace; it had become the most widely used form of earning money that he could think of. But if it turned out that these programs weren't just wandering monsters, and could in fact be communicated with, did we really have the right to simply bust away? Roger shook his head. Ethics on the net have always been loose, but something here simply didn't feel right. "Hey Gretchen, why don't you put a post on the SciLab BBS; see if anyone else has seen viruses like the ones we fought."

"Yeah, that one Bunny is still out there somewhere. I hope it's all right..." Roger stood and gave a quick stretch, and started cleaning up some of the mess at his station. His mind was still reeling with the other two problems. Gretchen still wasn't cut out for prolonged battling, and that could be dangerous. The net was filled with dangerous programs, viral or otherwise. If they were going to continue busting, he was going to have to start investing in some upgrades. You had to spend money to make money, right? He couldn't help but sigh as he looked down at the numbers on the PET. Gretchen sensed his frustrations. "Hey, don't get discouraged Roger. We'll have enough money to get you back on your feet. This may not be much, but it's a start. Besides, this was one days worth of work. If we can pull in this much again every day, we'd have over thirty thousand in a month's time. And if we can spend some of that on upgrades, I'll be able to take on stronger viruses, and bring in even more money." Roger gave a half-hearted smile. He was putting her in harms way, and they were still so far out from just being able to pay the bills. Thirty thousand sounded nice, but was nowhere near what was needed for rent alone.

But even worrying about all of that was only part of the problem. The most worrying ordeal of the entire day was that fiasco with the burnt out wire. Roger opened the back cover of the PET again and examined the contents. The yellow wire still had a scorch mark at the connection point, and a slight char had formed on Gretchen's coin. A chill shot down Roger's back. Maybe self modifications to the PET were a bad thing at this point. He carefully closed the device back up, and began to hunt for his coat and cane. He was worried about that, and wanted some answers, but Gretchen seemed fine now, and he really didn't feel like bringing the even up again. For now, he would focus on the other two problems, and keep this one filed away for later examination. "All right Gretchen, let's go and get you some upgrades." He paused for a moment, contemplating their next move, "Why don't you post on the Mission BBS while you're out posting. See if we can't find someone who needs help that could get our funding a little higher."

Gretchen nodded, "Sounds like a plan. A couple of posts, a little shopping, and we'll be ready in no time!"

{{To the shops, then to BeachNet }}

The next step I need to do is figure out the starting decks for an initial test.

I looked up the starting decks from MMBN and MMBN6, and using the RE:RE rules I came up with what I hope is a happy medium. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this part especially.

Side note: Yes, I'm currently keeping chip codes in here, I'm not sure if I'll keep it, but I'd rather plan for it now and cut it if it's too much.

Cannon [A] (x2)
Cannon (x2)
Shotgun [N] (x4)
MiniBomb [c] (x2)
MiniBomb [L] (x2)
Sword [s] (x4)
WideSword [s] (x2)
CrackShot [*] (x2)
PanelGrab [s] (x3)
Recover 10 [A] (x2)
Recover 10 [L] (x2)
Atk + 10 [*] (x3)

First process upgrade nets her a new sig, which meets the dual goals of healing and giving me more wood elemental things to do.


Amber Assault: A small, digital mosquito is thrown in the direction of Gretchen's target. After draining some of the target's life force, the data bug (Pun intended) returns to give Gretchen the spoils. The target will find itself quite itchy later in the day.


20 Wood Life Drain, Thrown Attack (1TCD) [Cost 40 pts]

With a smile and a nod, Roger gathered his new programs and headed out, being exceptionally careful with the door.

Roger nodded to the newcomer, and counted out the required Zenny. He didn't have a lot, but you needed to spend money to make money, right? "You know, this gentleman might be on to something. Sorry, but could I trouble you for one process upgrade as well?"


(Buying 1 Process Upgrade: 100z)

Woah, that sounds a little scary, but could make for quite the adventure... I'll do it! We'll never get any better by turning down missions, right?

A Shotgun for a FireHit it is then! Just be careful where you aim that thing, ok?"

-Gretchen.EXE
ATTACHMENT: FireHit1 BattleChip data

Hey there denizens of the net! The name's Gretchen, and I have a chip here that I wouldn't mind trading away. It's a FireHit1, and while it came in pretty handy in a recent fight, as a Wood Element Navi, I really just don't feel that comfortable using it. I'm not really picky about what comes back in return, so if anyone could use this chip, just let me know!

Attatched chip description:


FireHit1
Damage: 60 + Impact + Double Attack
Accuracy: A
Description: Throws a blazing punch from a distance, Hadoken style.
Duration: Up to 2 uses before the end of the turn
Element: Fire
Special: Double Attack: After spending an action to attack with this chip, you may choose to spend a second action and attack with it again before the end of the turn.

Hello Internet! My name is Gretchen, and my operator and I are fairly new to this whole "virus busting" thing, and were wondering if anyone out there could be of any assistance. You see, I need to get better at this whole thing, because Roger (He's my operator) needs some extra Zenny to pay the bills. Virus busting seems to be one of the quickest ways to get some extra cash, but I'm not very good at it just yet. If anyone has some sort of standard mission that needs to be taken care of, (preferably nothing too difficult, and maybe even with another navi or two?) just let me know. Practice makes perfect, right?

The standard speed is three, which allows for three actions in a round (Sound familiar?). Each combat action you take is directly opposed by the opposing player's actions. Both players will choose all of their actions at the start of a round, place them face down in the order that they want to take them in, and then line them up to oppose the other player's actions (I'll draw this out and scan it in at some point).

The actions will then be revealed simultaniously, one action per player at a time. The results of the two actions both trigger (Again at the same time), and then you move to the next pair of actions. In the case of a player with higher speed (And thus more actions), that player will lay out all of their actions first (Still face down), and the "slower" player will square off as many actions as possible. This will leave some actions unopposed, and that's fine. It becomes a mental game of trying to figure out what types of actions the opponent will play and where.

My biggest concern with this system is that it always leaves one player flipping their action cards up in the wrong order (Right to left), so I'm not sure if this is how ai want to do this part. I could judt have it be a stack that you turn over one by one, with the "slower" player being asked which ones they'll let go unopposed, but then it's easy to mess up (Only the "faster" player should be allowed to ever go unopposed...).

I had mentioned this once before, but I figured I'd put it here for everyone to see. It's still got a long way to go before it's playable, but yes, I'm working on a Battle Network themed board game. The basic concept will have a chess board as the battlefield (Larger than the games, but smaller than the open-endedness of RE:RN), with both players having a constructed deck that defines their actions.

Think of this as a TCG that uses a board for the combat system. Each player will have a set of action cards seperate from their deck (For movement, basic buster attacks, dodging, etc...) as well as a 30 card deck (RE:RN's size, and half the standard TCG deck size) that they build before hand. Deckbuilding restrictions will be based on the games (EG: No more than 4 of one card), and further effected by a unique character card for each player.

This hero card (Your Navi) will have all the information about your character as well as deck restrictions in one convenient location. The card has your Navi's battle stats, such as HP, element and subtype, buster stats, hand limit, and even a signature attack. The flip side of the card has the Navi's deck building stats, including Regular memory (For setting a regular chip), Mega memory (Max Mega class chips in deck), and Giga memory (You guessed it, for max Giga chips).

As I said, there's still a lot to do, and I'm trying to keep it simple enough to allow the game to flow quickly, while still being complex enough for the tactical elements of the game we know and love.

I'll post more updates as I come up with stuff, and I welcome any and all critiques and assistance.

"Hey! Watch it!" Roger exclaimed, as he narrowly avoided getting bowled over as Mira tore out of the shop. Leaning lightly on his cane, he walked up to the counter and inquired, "Pardon me sir, do you happen to have any Element Shot upgrade programs in stock?" In his pocket, Gretchen could be heard quietly singing.

"I'm gonna' get some poison, I'm gonna' get some poison..."

Roger rolled his eyes. "Sorry about her..."

(Buying: Element Shot - 500z)

Hey there everyone! My name's Gretchen, and my operator and I recently ran into a group of Bunny's and Cannondumbs that seemed very different from normal viruses. See, we had always assumed that a virus was meant for one task, and that was pure malice. But the ones we ran into had individual personalities, much like a Navi or an SP. Is that normal? Do Bunnys usually go around with flames painted on their bodies? Oh, that reminds me, if you see a Bunny with flames painted on the side, he seemed like he actually understood me, but he ran off before I could follow him, so don't just bust him away, ok?

As another instance of sheer luck allowed the battle to end just as their chip supply ran out, both Roger and Gretchen let out audible sighs of relief. "Well, I'm glad that that's finally over." Gretchen stretched her arms up as high as she could, feeling the burn of a good workout run through them.

"That goes double for me." She began uploading the victory data, and walked over to examine the CountBomb. "Hey Roger, get a load of this! It's the same thing that the Handy started the fight with, and it's ours for the taking!" Roger looked over the stats as he inserted a blank chip.

"And it looks like something that will actually use your subtype for a change. Nice find Gretchen!" He looked down at the damage output of the chip and let out a low whistle, "That's also a lot more damage than we can currently dish out, no complaints about this chip." He paused for a moment while Gretchen continued her stretch. Assuming she would say no anyway (At least, he hoped she would say no), he asked out of courtesy, "So, do you feel up for another one?"

Gretchen looked behind at her singed wings and shook her head. "You know what? Why don't we call it quits for the day. We've earned a decent bit of Zenny, we got a nice supply of new chips, and I could really use a rest." Roger smiled, glad she agreed with his thoughts.

"Alright then Gretchen, come on back, and we'll switch to research mode. We've got more than one mystery on our hands, and I'd like to try and get some answers."

Gretchen.EXE Jacking out

((Woo!))

As strange as it may have been to use a starfish as a weapon, it had worked, and that was good enough for Gretchen. She couldn't help but give a shout of triumph as she leapt to her feet and spun around once, her fist pumped to the sky. "Woo hoo!" She dropped her fists to her sides and began doing a victory shuffle. Roger simply rolled his eyes.

"Very nice Gretchen, but isn't it a little early to be celebrating? Those bubbles won't last long, and you do still have that handy to worry about." Gretchen paused and looked up at her foes. The Handy was shaking its fist at her. She gave it a sheepish wave in return. "I'm sending you our last two chips, so just get this done quick ok?" He hesitated, looking at the remaining chips, "And Gretchen, just... Be careful with this one, all right?" She gave a quizzical look. "You'll see what I mean." As the first chip data filtered down, Gretchen surveyed the field. She was tired, and a little sore, so she would have liked to enjoy this moment of respite, but there was still work to be done. Her buster quickly took on the shape of a more menacing shotgun, and she looked up at the locations of each individual virus.

"Hmmm, they're a little bit more spread out than I would have liked, but we'll just make do!" With a huff, she hefted the weighty gun and lined up the shot at the most heavily wounded BeeTank. "Pew!" she said, just before pulling the trigger. The sound that came out of her buster was anything but cute, and Roger simply couldn't help but chuckle.

"Get you out of danger for one second..." he sighed, slotting in the second chip. "But seriously, you need to focus for this last one." Gretchen lowered the shotgun, allowing the data to drift away.

"Wait, the only chip we have left is..." she began, but the data was already on its way, and her temperature had begun to rise. "Ooohh dear... We're really- I mean, must we- can't we-" she stammered, but of course the programming had begun to run its course, and the flames had begun to form around her hands. "Ahhhhh... I really don't know about this Roger..." she blurted, sounding more and more terrified by the moment. All thoughts of tactics and priorities were quickly being replaced with flashbacks of her close encounter, and all she wanted to do was to cancel the program.

Roger, knowing all too well what she was going through, leapt in to be the voice of reason, "Gretchen, listen to me. Focus on me, ok? This is a chip data, not another virus attack. The flames aren't going to harm you, as long as you're careful with them, ok? All you need to do is focus the energy into a ball, and send it towards those tanks. If you can do that, you'll not only get rid of the fire, but you'll be taking out the targets in the process, got it? Gretchen?" The little pixie nodded slowly, her entire body trembling with fear. With a deep breath, she focused on the task at hand, and brought her hands together as though she were performing Tai Chi. A small flame formed in her hand, and for a brief second she almost lost her cool entirely, but Roger was right there to keep her attention. "That's it Gretch, you're doing great. Now, just take another deep breath, make the flame a little bigger and send it toward one of those tanks." With a gulp, Gretchen pulled her hands to her side, at least this way she wouldn't have to look as the flames grew in size. She looked back to the sky, found her target, and with a small step forward, she flung the fireball directly at the virus. Without a moment's hesitation, knowing what had to be done, she turned in place to find the third BeeTank and repeated the process. The second fireball out of her hands, the young navi felt the heat leaving her system and allowed herself a sigh of relief.

"We need to trade that chip for something else, I don't even care what it is, I do not want to use that again." she turned and surveyed the sky once more, taking in what still needed to be done and hefting her buster for the task.

Summary
Action1 -> Shotgun: Target BeeTank A: Damage = 50 + Spread 1 [Accuracy = A]
Action2 -> FireHit1: Target BeeTank B: Damage = 60 + Impact + Double Attack [Accuracy = A]
Action3 -> FireHit1: Target BeeTank C: Damage = 60 + Impact + Double Attack [Accuracy = A]

The young navi scowled as the TimeBomb struck the Handy, barely seeming to scratch the thing. "Oh come on!" she exclaimed, "I almost got myself shot to pieces for th-" KABOOM! The TimeBomb finished its count down with a wave of power that almost knocked Gretchen off her feet. In fact, her grip on the shield was the only thing that did keep her from toppling over, and in a mere instant, her only source of protection and stability left her with the explosion. She staggered to her feet, quickly waving away the bit of smoke that had traveled to her position, and surveyed the battlefield. "The Handy is still there..." she remarked, her wings giving a slight twitch of annoyance.

"Yes, but just barely." Roger pointed out. He was honestly surprised that the plan had worked out as well as it had. After such a rocky start to the fight, he was more than a little nervous for Gretchen's safety. "But you see what I mean? These viruses are getting tougher, and more resilient as we go." His eyes traveled along her path of escape she had taken only moments before, and caught a detail that bothered him immensely: only one blast mark. His eyes quickly darted around the screen at the three BeeTanks, noticing that while one seemed to be reloading, the other two were already getting in position to fire again. "Gretchen! The BeeTanks! You need to keep moving!"

Gretchen jumped at Roger's uncharacteristically gruff demeanor. "The Bee..." she began, scanning the skies. One could almost hear the gears clicking into place as she realized what he meant, and could almost smell the fear as she gazed up at the floating virii. The BeeTanks may have hesitated in shooting her, assuming that the bomb would take her out, but she wasn't about to make a similar mistake and assume that they were done firing all together. Her eyes narrowed as about a hundred possible courses of action breezed through her head in a fraction of a second. The longer this battle took, the more dangerous things would be for her. She was already sore from their first volley, and was beyond unwilling to take a second. That meant that her new priority was to stay safe. She took a step to her right, hoping that it would throw off their aim even a little bit, then bolted to her left, rolling into a somersault and ending in a crouch, her buster poised for action. "Roger, send me that new chip. It may be our last defensive chip, but this really feels like a now or never kind of moment."

Roger held his breath as he slotted in the new chip. "If this works, it'll only buy you a few seconds, and it certainly won't be enough to deal with all four of them. And you're right, you'll only get one shot at this, so make it count!" The data streamed into her arm as she focused her gaze and took a few deep breaths. One shot, three targets, and a whole lot of pain if this failed. If she had paused for a moment to realize this, she would have laughed at the irony. Taking yet another big risk in an attempt to avoid damage? She would really have to think out some actual battle strategies if this sort of thing were to continue. Luckily for her, this thought wouldn't come until later, and so her head remained clear long enough for her to take careful aim at the three BeeTanks.

"One... Two... Three!" She whispered, getting a lock on all three of the cannon toting virii. As she finished her count, the data from the BubbleStar chip wormed its way into her buster, converting her standard needles into something else entirely, and fired... A large starfish? Roger and Gretchen both cocked their heads as the starfish serpentined toward her targets. "That... Was not what I was expecting to happen there..."

Summary
Action1-> Dodge (Slight movement left)
Action2-> Aim (BubbleStar isn't very accurate here)
Action3-> BubbleStar1: Target all three BeeTanks, firing specifically at one of the two that did not fire last round: Damage = 20 + Bubble Trap x 3 targets [Accuracy D] <Element Aqua>

If you didn't know Roger at all, you would probably expect his Homepage to reflect his business: Office like, sterile looking walls, perhaps with some scientific equipment in the corner. If you did know Roger, however, you would probably expect his page to look like his home: Piles of junk in every corner, barely enough space to walk around, with files and attachments that have sat unopened for months or even years. But both of these assumptions would be, in fact, wrong. You see, Roger's homepage is in actuality the home of his navi Gretchen. And since Roger is a bit absent minded, and has a ton of messes of his own to worry about, Gretchen took it upon herself to "decorate" the space. Those who know Gretchen, as it turns out, would not be remotely surprised to discover that the homepage looks like a scene taken straight from a fantasy novel.

The entire room is filled with a lush forest, from end to end and top to bottom, completely eliminating even the slightest hint that the room was part of a computer program. The main entrance and exit to the homepage can be found in a small clearing in the very center of the room. From there, four dirt paths lead off in different directions. At the end of each path is a hidden shortcut that leads to the end of one of the other paths. The result is a seamless transition that can't be noticed by the naked eye, resulting in being able to get to the center by walking in a straight line in any direction along a path. Gretchen always loves seeing the looks on people's faces when they leave the clearing headed due west, and find themselves back in the clearing without ever changing direction. All along the paths, oversized mushrooms of all shapes and colors (Most of them with white polka dots) provide "natural" places to sit and rest. All of the support programs here have also taken on shapes to match the surroundings. Instant messaging comes in the form of birds, downloads are carried out by swarms of ants piecing together "leaves" of data, and even an anti-virus bear can be seen slinking behind the trees.

In the center, a crystal clear pond is lined with a few tree stumps makes up the simple gathering place in the otherwise wild forest. The only thing that feels out of place is a stone statue of the Roman god Mercury, his staff lowered down to the surface of the water, a gesture that seems to say, "Enter these waters and be cleansed of your maladies". The snakes from the staff however, seem to have slithered down from their perch, and have wrapped around each other to create an ouroboros-like gate standing beside him, which serves as a gateway to SciLab's net areas