>>1092066
Ah, so Stargazer didn't get duplicated.

>turn back?
Ask her how she feels about remaining in that form permanently. Though, I guess if she dies during an invasion it'll remove itself when she resurrects? If the weakening period doesn't happen due to the resurrection refreshing her body, there's no drawback to keeping the form that long. She'd just have to make a trip there to regain it.
Only question is if she's better or worse at blacksmithing while like that. That is her primary job, so if she's worse at it then she'll only want to use the transformation for battle, in which case we need to either work on a chamber that connects to Orange Crags, or collect materials from there that she can use for the incomplete transformation.

Can she even fit in her blacksmith shop now? Might have to do some renovations.

>>1092066
I suppose the question is pretty simply defined:

The state in which you present the dungeon should be, ideally, what you want the dungeon to be.

Thusly: can Hin do her main job like this? Can she adjust enough to be a competent blacksmith? Does she mind staying like this, perhaps training an apprentice, if she has trouble?

If you want Hin to be another miniboss and part of your main force and the above issues don't bother her/you, why the heck not?
Otherwise, I'd advise reverting her posthaste, seeing about making that change more rapid (to use as a panic button) and making your workforce more predictable.
Running theme, that last one. Anyone else undergoing massive, chaotic shifts to their entire being we need to know about, or is it just the two?

Maybe male Reisarf can use a slightly different name from female Reisarf, like if he reversed the order of the letters in his name, that would o̷h̸ g̷̛̐͝ͅo̵̪̓d̴ N̵O̵͖̦ N̵Ō̸̬̘͆̈́͆̉͘T̸̞̦̝͕̍̇̎̀͘ͅ T̶͎̟͓̫̺̽̀ͅH̵͕͇̺̳̫͛̀

Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin!

If for nothing else, keep her as is to make Char jealous of the "new dragon" and thus driven to improve himself.

>>1092099
Malesarf and Femsarf

Will Hin fit in the dungeon like this? If she has to spend a lot of time hunched over I wonder if it would have an effect on her body.

>>1092066

Well, Hin's certainly impressive now, we might as well gave her show it off while she's got it.

Deem, if Hin's Light ability bothers you, is there any way you could nudge being a more Earth related, photosynthetic type thing? That's something Slimes can do right? And shes already part Slime...Royalty even.

On an unrelated tangent, I have to point out how thankful we should be for Doyle. He's like our one minion whom we (so far) never have had to worry about running off and doing something crazy, and actually does his job with no major shenanigans. We should give him some kind of acknowledgement soon, his confidence seems real low.

It feels like Elements trying to balance each other out is just going to be A Thing. If we're all worried about Light contamination, I guess, it might be better to find ways to contain it rather than try to excise it entirely. Building valuable Light-based loot is one. It's appropriate for a blacksmith to focus her efforts on that, as long as nothing she makes can hard counter the dungeon build.

1/2 Deem 2024/06/01(Sat)03:46 No. 1092249 ID: ea505d
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>Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin! Lizard-Hin!
Yes, yes, she's very impressive.

>The state in which you present the dungeon should be, ideally, what you want the dungeon to be.
I don't have a decade to get everything in place so this will have to do.

>Given the uncertain timeframe, we should postpone Hin's de-lizzification until after the visit.
"If you don't mind the rest of the week being a little strange, would you mind staying in that form?" I say.

"Ah dress to impress huh?" Hin says.

>This will be our first opportunity to get some practice in with Hin's guardian powers besides. I see a powerful setpiece for the thaumatorium where Hin uses Alkaline's Hydro Pump and emerges from the pool to do battle - once we get it filled back in, of course.
"Exactly." I say. "Reisarf won't be casting as effectively without Stargazer, so I might put you in the Thaumatorium if you don't mind. It should be a nice opportunity for you to properly learn the ins and outs of that form."

Hin nods. "You're the boss, boss."

>Ask her how she feels about remaining in that form permanently. Though, I guess if she dies during an invasion it'll remove itself when she resurrects? If the weakening period doesn't happen due to the resurrection refreshing her body, there's no drawback to keeping the form that long. She'd just have to make a trip there to regain it.
"Do you think you'd want to try keeping it up for a longer stint?" I ask her. "We'll have to see how it interacts with resurrection though. I suspect you'd revert and then have to deal with that period of weakness. It might have other side effects if sustained too."

"I feel awesome at the moment." Hin shrugs. "Maybe I'll evaluate it for another week or two to see how how annoying everything being undersized is, and bad that weak period is?"

It sounds very sensible to me.

>If for nothing else, keep her as is to make Char jealous of the "new dragon" and thus driven to improve himself.
My cave wurm shows up at this point.

"Heya Chak, looking good!" Hin says, stomping over to him.

"Hrrrrrm!" he whines at the sight of another large lizard in his dungeon. He raises his head, jaws half open, and waggles it side to side as he decides what to make of this challenger. Suddenly he turns and rushes deeper into the dungeon.

Hin follows. She must have seen something in that look in his eyes. "Are you scurrying off to my forge? Get back here you! YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ROOM NOW CHAK!"

>Can Hin do her main job like this? Can she adjust enough to be a competent blacksmith? Does she mind staying like this, perhaps training an apprentice, if she has trouble?
She's not outrageously bigger, can conjure tools she needs out of light if needed, and can make new ones. The main headache I'd see is the various benches will be lower.

>Will Hin fit in the dungeon like this?
Just how low do you think my ceilings are?! Some of the doorways will be a bit of a squeeze but she'll be fine.

Hin makes her return a few minutes later, grumbling about idiot lizards though with a smile on her face. The sliems have started trickling in. Alkaline must have been budding aggressively.

"It was pretty rough out there Deem." Hin explains. "I think we were lucky you sent us out when we did. Pissed off frogs everywhere. Most of the other critters were either gone or hiding. If we hadn't given the frogs a bloody nose looking for critters, they'd probably be swarming here again. We nabbed a few interesting creatures.. first though, about Alkaline. She wanted to surprise you but-"

I raise a hand. "Reisarf already tried to warn me that Alkaline has some sort of surprise in stock for me. I'm going to let her surprise me."

Hin blinks. "Are you sure? It's, uh, it's a big surprise."

"Hiiin." I say warningly.

"Alright, I won't say anything more." Hin holds up her claws placatingly. "But you better not fly off the handle when you get your surprise, OK?"

"I don't fly off the handle!"

"Your handle's about to fly off right now!" Hin says.

I take a deep breath. "I don't even have a handle." I grumble.

"Probably didn't stick it back on last time."

I snort. "Really Hin? I might have to make you our potion tester again for that. Doyle's brewed up one that should help overstock all your reserves of stamina, mana, slime, light, sass, and so on and so forth."

"Oh nooo what a terrible fate." Hin laughs.

>On an unrelated tangent, I have to point out how thankful we should be for Doyle. He's like our one minion whom we (so far) never have had to worry about running off and doing something crazy, and actually does his job with no major shenanigans. We should give him some kind of acknowledgement soon, his confidence seems real low.
This seems to demonstrate I am not sufficiently terrorising my denizens. It's true though, he has been dependable and I should recognise that. The problem of course is the question of what a renegade witch's cauldron actually wants.

>Deem, if Hin's Light ability bothers you, is there any way you could nudge being a more Earth related, photosynthetic type thing? That's something slimes can do right? And shes already part slime... Royalty even.
Not immediately, no. And I shouldn't be adjusting something purely for my own comfort.

>Put her to work, then. She treats all the world her forge, it's time she lived up to that. Tell her to get more ambitious with her projects now that she's this strong.
We don't have much time for any more projects sadly.

2/2 Deem 2024/06/01(Sat)03:49 No. 1092250 ID: ea505d
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Alkaline comes into view.

And so does Alkaline.

And Alkaline too.

I should have seen this coming, Reisarf outright told me he was going to try to temporarily split Alkaline before the Potential Void was 'eaten' by her. This was supposed to be to help them get uncursed but I still smell something about them. Multiple curses on each unless I mistake myself.

"Are you surprised?" The smallest of the trio says, looking somewhere between smug and mischievous. She's all wrapped up in a dress formed out of her Toxic Shroud, though her hair and her hands have more of that organic crystal look.

"Hello, Deem!" The slime in the rear waves enthusiastically. She's reminiscent of our trip to hunt the devil bear, an absolutely massive slime sprouting tentacles and looking on the verge of splitting off slimes at any given moment.

"Hey." the last one says. This one seems to have listened the handful of times I told her to keep drinking water so she'd end up big and strong like Hin. She's much more crystalline on the limbs.

>Anyone else undergoing massive, chaotic shifts to their entire being we need to know about, or is it just the two?
I'll have to check on the glossid and the cake mimic at this rate.

----------------------------------------
Alkaline
Lvl 2 Slime Queen (1=>2)
----------------------------------------
Power: C (D=>C)
Vitality: C (D=>C)
Accuracy: D (E=>D)
Speed: C (D=>C)
Wits: C (E=>C)
Skill: C
Spirit: D
Luck: D (A=>D)

A newly developed slime queen seeking to tackle all the paths she might take. Is it aspiration or indecision?

----------------------------------------
Detected Abilities
----------------------------------------
Gelatinous Body: An amorphous form that's soft but can easily heal injuries and reabsorb lost pieces. The weak point is the core residing in the head, though it's protected by toughened slime hair.

Inimical Inversion: Degrades and consumes curses affecting Alkaline with a Luck-based probability of converting them into a positive effect.

Toxic Shroud: Alkaline can form clothes of toughened slime to help protect herself. Her defence grows stronger the more poison and curses she's absorbed.

Slimy Secretions: Alkaline can create small quantities of the following substances.
- Nourishing Goo: Edible slime. Depending on its composition and concentration, it's known as slime-milk, slime-syrup or slime slushies. Superb fertilizer for plants and, in concentrated form, has minor healing properties. Plants can survive and grow embedded in Alkaline.
- Oozy Oil: Slick and slippery slime. It's flammable. Can be processed into a low quality oil.
- Goo Glue: A sticky substance with a moderate adhesive strength.

Delegate: Alkaline can loan one or more slimes a portion of her strength semi-permanently, powering them up and giving them access to some of her abilities. This weakens her accordingly and loaned abilities lose power or become unusable by her. She has to touch the slime to create or cancel a delegation.

NEW - Imperial Ambitions: The rare and powerful slime empress is a royal jelly that's able to spawn multiple subservient slime queens as part of the same colony. Alkaline has taken the first, tentative steps along this path, although the triumvirate rule of her split self is more argumentative than most. The impact on slime colony cohesion is yet to be seen.

----------------------------------------
Overflowing Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
UPDATED - Shadow Slick: An expansion of Puddle. Alkaline's puddle form becomes flatter, like a shadow. She can climb walls in this form but will slip off ceilings. The puddle has a false depth to it, causing objects and people to sink into it and become mired. Intense light can remove the effect. Most of Alkaline's slime mass is buried in her shadow slick and she can expand it outward from her body to release slime and bog down enemies.

Bad Egg: Alkaline ejects a dense blob of volatile slime. The unstable concoction explodes shortly afterwards. She can increase its power by expending stored curses and poison.

UPDATED - Tailored Slime (Stretchy Slime): Alkaline's Toxic Shroud can be quickly adjusted on the fly and even partially crystallised. She's learnt to form complex and layered clothes for extra protection. She can layer it in with her Shadow Slick, Bad Eggs and Slimy Secretions.

----------------------------------------
Overgrowing Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
UPDATED - Gluttonous Goo: Alkaline's continuously growing and storing additional slime mass if surplus food is available. Alkaline can quickly recover health by eating things. As she gets bigger she gains a bonus to her slime and slimy secretion production but she suffers penalties to her agility. She can burn off the additional mass to heal herself or instantly create slimes. While cursed or poisoned she experiences faster growth but she also steadily consumes material stored in her Toxic Shroud.

Stretchy Slime: Alkaline's improved the versatility of her slime. She can stretch out parts of her body and create tentacular appendages.

UPDATED - Spit Shot: Alkaline can propel small objects or small globs of her own mass out of her body at high speed. She can launch her attendant slimes this way, and globs of her mass can act semi-autonomously and will try to return to her.

----------------------------------------
Overloading Alkaline Abilities
----------------------------------------
Hydro-Pump: Alkaline can give a moderate boost to her size and strength by absorbing water. She can also use this to enlarge other slimes.

NEW - Goo Crystallisation: Alkaline has a skeletal structure composed of accumulated toxins and impurities from her Toxic Shroud. It lets her be unusually large and agile for a slime, and resonates with mana, improving her speed and strength at the cost of her stamina. She can crystallise other parts of her body to improve its toughness but at a loss of flexibility.

UPDATED - Unstable Gunk (Unstable Core): Alkaline charges part of her body with energy to explode as a powerful effect. This uses up some of her slime and crystallises more of her body. She can separate the charged goo and throw it, or have it explode outwards from her body.
- Egg Rave: An explosion that sprays out multiple Bag Eggs that release smaller Bad Eggs when they explode
- Shadow Mire: Sprays an area with Shadow Slick-like slime.
- Splatterweb: Spills out a cluster of long sticky strands of slime that create a spider's web. It can't stick to crystallised goo.
- Ooze Zap: Charges up nearby slimes, making them temporarily stronger and faster.

----------------------------------------
Lost Abilities
----------------------------------------
Muddy Mien (Degraded): Alkaline takes on a mud-like consistency. She's physically stronger but becomes clumsy.

Clumsy Mime (Degraded): Alkaline has a chance of successfully repeating a technique she's seen used, at a degraded quality. If successful she can use it once shortly after witnessing it.

----------------------------------------
Spawning Quirks
----------------------------------------
Eggs: Alkaline can choose to create eggs. They keep indefinitely and can be rapidly hatched and grown into full slimes when needed. They can also be filled with any of her Slimy Secretion options instead.

Fusion: Alkaline's slimes can readily combine, allowing larger and more dangerous formations slimes to be created.

Hoplites: Slimes able to shift shape and generate Toxic Shrouds to create shields and other accessories. They are especially skilled at combining and working together.

Craftslimes: Tough-skinned slimes full of volatile alchemical goo with a hydra-like motif. They're able to create Slimy Secretions and Bad Eggs. Due to their extremely active biology, a defeated craftslime might spawn one or more small slimes.

Assassin Slimes: Sneaky slimes able to hide in Shadow Slicks. Their armament is lacking unless given weapons or fused with other slimes.

----------------------------------------

I don't know how to handle this.

This wasn't Alkaline's doing originally but the fact they haven't fused back together means they're running with it. Lately it feels like all we've been doing is fighting. This is a symptom of the same thing: she's still trying to rush ahead, do things on her own, and push her luck.

At the same time it's an impressive accomplishment. She seems mostly stable, but again I'm worried she's spreading herself too thin.

What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?

I don't even know what to call them to tell them apart.

>>1092250
Oh nice, she leveled up! Wits went up a lot, that's good.

>spreading herself too thin
Ah, but her Wits going up so much means she can handle that better. Tell her you are... impressed, and she should focus on improving what she's done. Refine it; make the split completely stable for starters. Don't want any pesky adventurers or sudden surprises disrupting the split. Secondly, she's got a lot of new abilities which is great, but she'll have to practice using them all! Hmm, can she swap the abilities around between her split bodies?
>What was she hoping for by surprising me?
She wanted you to be proud of her, but also probably wanted to see what you look like when surprised, heh. Also Hin said she's touch starved, so I think this is a good time for a hug.

>I don't even know what to call them to tell them apart.
Ask them, then. If they want to be named, maybe something like Alka, Kali, Linea?

Wait, her luck went DOWN?

This is so awesome.

Have the Alkaline triplets work in randomized shifts, see who synergizes best with each Alkaline.

Lithium, Rubidium, and Cesium for names? And then Alkaline is their last name now. Anyways, she seems much happier this way. Don't ruin this for her.

Ok. Yes, this is a handful.

But it's also... kind of perfect?

Alkaline was a big investment and a big piece of your dungeon. We've spent a long time raising her and discussed ad nauseum the future we see for her.

This shows all our theoretical outcomes we desired at once. Not just the things we thought might happen, the ones we were shooting for.

You have the mother slime that focuses on building up something of a slime community, the slime queen, who while a handful and entitled will frankly be more competent and capable at accomplishing things outside your view, even if that'll get her into trouble, and we have the combat focused outcome where we focus on her being competent to actually fight. I know you kind of wanted all three of those in the same package but this... has many possibilities.

Considering you don't want your entire dungeon to be slime battles, they'd obviously need to work in concert, yet seem to not have much trouble not getting each others way at a glance, even if they have different personalities informed by their... forms.

Yeah, as much as it was accidental, this seems kind of like a good thing. Well, other than that maybe this is like having 2/3rds of your personality ripped away for each alkaline, it might mess her up a bit, so be wary of that while you consider how to array these to make a really badass encounter.

>>1092250
>What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?

Well, impressive was your first genuine thought, go with that. Impressed, a little worried, and give her the surprised face she wanted. She seems happy, dont want to put her off by being too down on her.

Ask her about her new forms, if shes tested it out, how it works, show interest. Maybe Alkaline has been rushing so much because she's been trying to hit some goal, or prove something. If you can get her to acknowledge her accomplishment, and feel like shes reached a milestone, maybe she'll slow down.

>>Doyle
>> The problem of course is the question of what a renegade witch's cauldron actually wants.
I dunno, the only thing he's really articulated is he likes helping. Maybe he needs a more active job. Making potions is important, but its probably hard to feel like he's contributing compared to all the other craziness going on in here. If the Cauldron Golem works out, maybe put Doyle in charge of it, like a subordinate.
If he wants a gift, maybe some kind of battle ladle or something would work.

Greet Alkahime, Allkaline, and Tallkaline warmly. Show your surprise, ask how her trip's been, and give her the hugs she's been needing as Hin mentioned.
What are her plans for having three bodies? Will they all fight as one for more power in battle, or will they rotate for each dungeon run? You should lean towards starting with the former, and help them grow together.
Can they all be trusted to share a room? If alternate living arrangements are going to be needed, set them up in the hidden valley, but separation should be a temporary solution only.

>what a cauldron wants
At least make him officially head of potion making, so all cauldron golems are working under him. Let him know that he can't just be replaced.

>it's an impressive accomplishment
If you're impressed then show it. Be supportive and keep your reservations to yourself for now. See how well they work together before you criticize.

Above all else, show some relief for her. The only reason that she would keep pushing her luck, from where you're standing, is try to impress you. Make it clear on uncertain terms that your affection doesn't hinge on her accomplishments, being unable to show affection does not mean a lack of it, and being supportive of her adventures doesn't mean you'll stop worrying after her. Acknowledge she's an adult now, so you can respect her as one.

At least you can be supportive by helping her with her adventuring career. She can't rely on dumb luck, as she is neither of those anymore. Her other stats are looking good, at least. All-rounder builds can work if there's strategy behind it.

>Inimical Inversion
Only reason this wouldn't atrophy is because it can still be used for cleanup, or defense in a pinch.
>Imperial Ambitions
With the ability to do socratic dialog on demand, there's no wonder how her Wits got a big bump. Even better, each form can pick different stats to improve on their own, therefore improving when back together. Screwing with analysis readings, presumably because it averages between the three, is a funny bonus.

That said, your concerns about cohesion are valid do need to be addressed. In the short term, her minions/kids/troops are going to play favorites soon. You might as well settle the issue here and assign which troops are to fall under which command/form. For the long term, she'll have to find or maintain concensus between herselves. It could be better to treat each one as parts of a whole, rather than as individuals. Ideally, she'd develop a core personality across her (currently) three forms, even if it's not what you originally envisioned. (You don't need to literally split your personality to understand the need to have different "faces" for different situations or contexts.) That's a way you could have the classic boss setup where the other forms are empowered as each form "dies", but that kind of ability does sounds like it would be Spirit-based rather than Wits-based.

---
So the situation so far has been chaotic, but ultimately beneficial to your crew with a lot of improvements. You may know better, but one could think Stargazer had planned for this to happen. Considering such, could she have foresaw something that necessitated what she did?

>>1092250
Ahh the Hecate classic; Maiden Mother Crone trio. We should look to develop a sort of Witch Queen of the Slimes persona for her dungeon work.

>>1092250
Might as well ask about names or if they should be differentiated at all. We can't exactly call her Thing One, Two, and Three, after all, aand it's a bit insulting to just name them after appearance. However, there's all sorts of questions we need to ask about things like independence, how they resurrect (do all of them share a coffin? What if they wipe all at once?) how to employ them in the dungeon (she could do a whole section on her own! A whole wing! A sub-dungeon, if you will!) or if we could just have her work the outdoors, keeping our local area more up to snuff and less chaotic.

And this is all before how this has affected her production of lesser slimes. Is it divided among them? Is it faster? Do they each make different slimes? Can they control each other's slimes?

I have so many damned questions, and so little to actually suggest, but here's the big one:

Alkaline is the first of our chaotic mess of a party to come out the other end of this more or less with a complete bonus. She's just More Alkaline, she's smarter, and it's more a question of HOW to apply what she has than putting out some sort of body-modification fire. Gratze, Alkaline, as far as I'm concerned you're in the top billing!

Quiz her on the above. I'd love to use her new slimes and friends with the statues from before to make a truly heinous room that would confound any adventurer, but first we should see how she works. She might just be our new best groundskeeper, really, but as she is, she could do that AND other stuff!

>I'll have to check on the glossid and the cake mimic at this rate.

yeah do that

>What was she hoping for by surprising me? Was she expecting me to be happy? Angry? Proud? Worried?
You've consistently stated to her face that you don't want to be her mother. She hasn't taken that well. This is her trying to conform her mind around that.
The point of this is to try to get some kind of reaction other than a business-like apathy towards an employee. Even hatred would be enough to help her get past her obsession, but you're still not applying that.
She's obviously angry at you for treating her like a junior employee her entire life. Can we compromise? Even treating her like a pet would be preferable - and that's something you've done well with Chakarchelou, so now she's envious of the fact that you treat your animals in a way she would prefer to detached respect.

"Don't you want things to defy your expectations?"

1/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:35 No. 1105716 ID: 30e252
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>"Don't you want things to defy your expectations?"
A lack of nuisance commentary would certainly defy my expectations!

>At least make Doyle officially head of potion making, so all cauldron golems are working under him. Let him know that he can't just be replaced.
In a while! I need to handle Alkaline right now.

>So the situation so far has been chaotic, but ultimately beneficial to your crew with a lot of improvements. You may know better, but one could think Stargazer had planned for this to happen. Considering such, could she have foresaw something that necessitated what she did?
After all that exertion I wasn't about to permit something bad happening to my denizens in lieu of Reisarf and Stargazer's little misadventure.

>Oh nice, she leveled up! Wits went up a lot, that's good.
It has been quite a while since I last properly used the lens on her. It's not too surprising.

>Wait, her luck went DOWN?
Yes. Substantially. It's entirely possible to exhaust one's luck.

>Also Hin said she's touch starved, so I think this is a good time for a hug.
That would be at least three times as much hugging as I am comfortable with.

And it's not needed as she doesn't seem to be going into some sort of hugging frenzy.

2/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:35 No. 1105717 ID: 30e252
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>If they want to be named, maybe something like Alka, Kali, Linea?
"First we'll need to tell you apart." I point to the sitting slime "You can be Alka." Next I point to the tallest "You're Kali." Finally I point to the shortest of the three. "And you're Linea."

I'm unhappy with my own diffidence. I feel as though I should be feeling something stronger. I ask Alkaline if she can describe what happened. Perhaps then I'll have it.

"The frogs were being a menace and the lizards kept trying to kidnap our slimes." Linea says, appointing herself as spokesgoo for the trio. "And it was hard while being so cursed. We talked with Reisarf, and his idea was to try to recreate a splitting spell he had almost learnt, using the Potential Void. But everything went wrong and the void peeled apart." The slimes all look haunted for a moment. "We remembered that Reisarf had been with us all along, and..."

"I knew it would be best for everyone if that void was used up." Linea says.

"I knew everything was going to be alright." Alka says.

"I knew we had to take this chance." Kali says. "And then it was the three of us. A slime empress was something we could do someday, so why not today?"

Alka frowns slightly as Kali takes over the narration.

>Anyways, she seems much happier this way. Don't ruin this for her.
>She wanted you to be proud of her, but also probably wanted to see what you look like when surprised, heh.
>Well, impressive was your first genuine thought, go with that.
"I'm glad it worked out as well as it did." I smile. The larger, reclining Alkaline's smile broadens.

>Ok. Yes, this is a handful.
>But it's also... kind of perfect?
>Alkaline was a big investment and a big piece of your dungeon. We've spent a long time raising her and discussed ad nauseum the future we see for her.
>This shows all our theoretical outcomes we desired at once. Not just the things we thought might happen, the ones we were shooting for.
>You have the mother slime that focuses on building up something of a slime community, the slime queen, who while a handful and entitled will frankly be more competent and capable at accomplishing things outside your view, even if that'll get her into trouble, and we have the combat focused outcome where we focus on her being competent to actually fight.
"I might have expected some inspiration after being temporarily split by Reisarf's magic, but the three of you seem remarkably stable. We've worked before on paths you might have the opportunity to take and you decided not to choose after all and instead go for a path of ambition.

"However..." I begin. Linea, the shortest of the trio smirks at my cautious shift in tone. "I must caution you that not making a choice is, itself, a choice."

The tall one, Kali, frowns. "If you don't approve, just spit it out."

I hold in a sigh.

>Refine it; make the split completely stable for starters. Don't want any pesky adventurers or sudden surprises disrupting the split.
"I don't want to risk the three of you." I say. "I want to make sure you're fully stable. A slime empress normally has one more developed queen producing less mature queens. You need to commit to distinctive roles to maintain that separation, and you might undo all your work if one element becomes too dominant."

"Oh." Kali says, a little shame-faced.

3/3 Deem 2025/04/02(Wed)04:36 No. 1105718 ID: 30e252
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>Can they all be trusted to share a room? If alternate living arrangements are going to be needed, set them up in the hidden valley, but separation should be a temporary solution only.
>That said, your concerns about cohesion are valid do need to be addressed. In the short term, her minions/kids/troops are going to play favorites soon.
"You need to get used to sharing too." I say. "The slime lair is only three quarters the size I intended it to be due to digging into that pocket of Green Thumb spores. Even full sized, it will be inadequate for the number of slimes you'll be producing. You also need to know how your slimes will act in an emergency. Who are they going to listen to?"

My trio of royal jellies exchange uneasy glances at this new information.

>What are her plans for having three bodies? Will they all fight as one for more power in battle, or will they rotate for each dungeon run? You should lean towards starting with the former, and help them grow together.
"Next there's three of you, and you'll have to think how that's going to work in this dungeon.

"My Resurrection Matrix will only work on the final queen slime. Any others will have to be budded off by a surviving queen. This will mean reduction in slime creation until those budded queens regrow to their old forms. Stored eggs would help cover this gap. You in particular will be affected, Alka, as your slime mass would be lost. Delegating Gluttonous Goo to other slimes might help address this."

The three Alkalines huddle and express the opinion in that case either just one of them should fight, or all three. That'll avoid confusion hopefully, and at some point they need to find out what it's like to come back from their weakest possible starting point. Alka says that's fine, she can spread things around.

>Maybe Alkaline has been rushing so much because she's been trying to hit some goal, or prove something.
>If you can get her to acknowledge her accomplishment, and feel like shes reached a milestone, maybe she'll slow down.
"This will be complicated, but these are exciting complications!" I reassure her. "It's time to consolidate things a little, and you'll have a chance to show off what you can do in just a few days."

>Secondly, she's got a lot of new abilities which is great, but she'll have to practice using them all! Hmm, can she swap the abilities around between her split bodies?
I need to think about how to use Alkaline in this upcoming tour, and what she might want to do to prepare for it. There's a lot of new skills she has, and she can even potentially swap them around.

I concur with her opinion it would be best to have just one slime queen or all three battle. I usually would but don't absolutely need to put her in the Slime Pit, and could split her up if I elect to use all three. Tentatively I currently have Hin fighting in the Thaumatorium and I still need to select a final guardian. I should keep myself uninvolved so I might lead this tour.

I didn't bring it up right now, because I didn't want to sour this moment but I do also still need to punish her for being a participant in bullying Doyle into providing supplies for illicit potion parties. I had planned to have her and her slimes work on refilling the Thaumatorium pool.

Alka’s got a lot of slime for refilling the pool, and Kali’s suited for final boss fighting, so that leaves Linea in the slime pit itself. Hm, no, have Alka delegate to Linea for pool refilling. She’ll be the first one to face the party, instead.

>>1105718
>I didn't bring it up right now, because I didn't want to sour this moment but I do also still need to punish her for being a participant in bullying Doyle into providing supplies for illicit potion parties.

Three times the Alkalines, three times the punishments.
After the tour, but let them know it WILL be coming. Might force them to choose their roles with this knowledge.

>>1105718
One thing you haven't brought up to them yet... Do they want to be treated as separate individuals, or as a collective Alkaline with separate sections?

>Have all three fight
>…in separate encounters
That’s basically having them fight one at a time in rapid succession. Hm, is it practical to have them try and pull back to the next queen when they’re routed?
Sounds like expanding the slime cave in a different direction is a priority. Throw it on the pile, I guess.
The pool does give extra room for a larger minion to fight in until it’s refilled.

1/2 Deem 2025/04/04(Fri)01:03 No. 1105816 ID: 23a197
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>Three times the Alkalines, three times the punishments.
>After the tour, but let them know it WILL be coming. Might force them to choose their roles with this knowledge.
I don't know if I can really call work on refilling the Thaumatorium punishment any more, the damage and missing water from Stargazer means it's now something everyone has to pitch in on to get done.

I suppose I will save a punishment detail for when things are calmer.

>That’s basically having them fight one at a time in rapid succession. Hm, is it practical to have them try and pull back to the next queen when they’re routed?
Hmmm, I have been wanting to use my outdoor area better. If I station Kali on the bridge when it raises, she - and slimes carrying delegated power - can fall back when they get too much pushback from the invaders. I can use the current planned golem as a buffer - it may get some easy hits in with the unlucky hammer and otherwise get some time for the slimes to regroup in the hallway behind it.

The sharp corner might make it harder to retreat, so I think Linea would be a good match here - her Shadow Slick should make it harder to pursue. Finally this makes it easy for Alka to remain on station in the Slime Pit. Yes this feels good. The setup isn't ideal but I think it'll work well within our current limitations.

>(Stare)
No Stargazer. Yes I noticed that Linea has lined her Toxic Shroud with a Shadow Slick to store her full slime mass in, but no I'm not going to pull her clothes off just to get a closer look.

I explain to the Alkalines what I'd like her to do as more slimes troop in, and they seem generally enthusiastic. This should hopefully showcase what they can do and let them improvise some. In the meantime, I give them some other projects.

>Have Alka delegate to Linea for pool refilling.
>The pool does give extra room for a larger minion to fight in until it’s refilled.
"Alka, we have a lot of excess fruit from Stargazer and Reisarf's greenhouse adventures so I'd like you to stay in the dungeon and concentrate on slime production. Kali and Linea, you're both well suited to helping move water, but I'd like Alka to delegate some of her Gluttonous Goo to you Linea. I want you to focus on guarding our supply line while they're out Kali, and you to focus on getting the water carriers organised Linea."

"As a side project for all three of you, we need Hin acting as a huge, terrifying pond monster in the Thaumatorium once it's filled as much as we can manage and many of your slimy skills will work on her too. Please work with her on what will help her out."

2/2 Deem 2025/04/04(Fri)01:04 No. 1105817 ID: 23a197
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Linea loiters as the other two get settled back in. "I need to return these." she confesses. "Somehow they got stuck in my slime when I was leaving with Hin and Reisarf, and by the time I realised we were too far away." She holds out my medallion and a little pebble.

How does she have that? She did have some sort of pick-pocketing curse, but I had my Focus Medallion all through the fight with Stargazer... I touch my throat. No I haven't had it for a while, have I?

Agh, I'm going to be dealing with little temporal annoyances like this for days. Well I'm glad she's been upfront about it.

Our hands touch and -

Crown's Burden activated! An affliction is being transferred from Linea to Deem!

Choose:
Hug Dependency: Hug deficiency results in progressive loss of sanity as the subject enters a maniacal hugging rampage.
Sticky Fingers: Randomly acquire nearby items without anyone's knowledge.
Fat Default Shape: No, explode.

>>1105817
I vote explode

I just checked, you didn't have the medallion when you resurrected, but you had it when you died.

Anyway, Hug Dependency.

>>1105817
You can no longer escape your impulses, Deem!
Hug Dependency.

Ah. You totally should have hugged her more.

Hug dependency.

Embrace hug dependency.

…Okay that one’s on us not her, no additional punishment for this okay?
Time to go collect HUGS from your minions.

Hug Dependency of course.

Hahaha, Deem's gonna hate us for this one

hugs hugs hugs HUGS HUGS HUGS

>>1105832
Oh, she doesn't know we have (limited) control over her curses, and won't believe us even if we tell her. Anyways, yes, hugs.

Let there be hugs!

Also, as an aside directly to Deem: We know you think this is bad, but at least it's merely hugs.

Hol'up.
I sense... Opportunity...

Hug Dependency-but:
Swap progressive loss of sanity with increasing risk of explosion.

>>1105838
He's on to something.

>>1105838
yes... yesssss...

>>1105838
>>1105839
>>1105847
For the record, I'm pro-hugs but anti-exploding. I hear exploding is bad for you.

how can it not be hugs? thats just beneficial for Deem's underlings

>>1105838
I'm game.