<Nocturnal Harmonia>

[Bloodedge]

It seemed Yugi was overlooking some small, yet very major possibilities when sorting through System options. Miko suggested taking the bags of gold they were getting throughout this quest dungeon, which Yugi hadn't considered at all yet. "... Oh goddamnit! Fucking soft-boiled brain! Why are you so fucking dumb?!" Yugi asked himself, even punching himself in the head. "Good catch! None of those have been used yet, so there should be enough gold in there to do something. It looks like a consumable though. Gold works more like credit. They'll have to be 'used' individually, but there's not really another way to get around it. Sending the whole stack over," he said while shifting pouches into Tae's personal inventory. At the same time, Miko had some technical praise to offer one of her Bondmates for a potential easy transition. "Not having to explain shit is the best thing ever. I usually prefer skipping that part, because annoying," he said briefly.

Indeed, Makima had a link to the Shop as well. Her questioning that fact was strange. Surely she knew by now that Yugi would understand her desire to see under the proverbial rug. "Of course you get one. How else am I supposed to find all the shit you want?" he asked rhetorically. Beyond that, the Players were reaching an understanding of the horde they had to deal with. Numbers weren't dwindling at all; they may have even been increasing over time. During that moment of shared realization however, Tae brought forth new information. She'd gotten a System notification as well. Edgelord ominous, she called it. Yugi merely nodded along as if he already understood. As for the permanent mark she could apparently place on him and the 'sketchy' vibe she got from the mention, the Players didn't seem too bothered at all. "Oh, yeah. Those are the normal ones; it's fine. The way we approach these things is basically: System says buffs, we take buffs. It's probably just some weird, personalized upgrade for the 75% mark, and I want that anyway. Experiment a little~"

[Apollymi]

Miko was sitting in Yugi's lap and offering a potential work around to the lack of funds based on the bags of coins they'd been finding on the things they'd been killing so far. This sent Yugi into a tirade aimed at himself about the softness of his brain. He even went on to punch himself, and Miko winced and wiggled. "Chii♪~ From mashed potatoes to soft-boiled... your analogies for brains make me hungry I might need you to stop♪!~" Miko joked. Miko was further rewarded with praise for making good catch. She grinned while swaying a happy flush reaching her cheeks. "Hai♪!~ " Miko confirmed of her good catch. Apparently the odd funding they'd collected wound end in a stack being given to Tae, she was finding the fun of actually killing her own creatures, "Hm, this method doesn't damage things very much. Sample collection is getting better by the second," Tae commented absently. At the same time the praise that Miko had for Amamiya Ren was apparently appreciated by Yugi. "I figured you'd say something like that. It'll be good having someone easy going for the talky bit. He's something of a silent protagonist~" Miko said having a pretty good feeling about the whole situation.

Meanwhile, Makima was receiving a link to the shop which she'd peruse casually while the pair were in their resting state. If nothing else, observing their planning state let her know that they covered each other's weaknesses. It was quite interesting for her to see. "I mean asking is technically an option~" Makima said with a hint of tease to her voice. Not that she felt this lad needed to ask her things, he seemed like he took a certian amount of joy in figuring things out for himself. No matter, Tae was slaying monsters but not making that much of a difference in their over all number. Poisoned mana threads, cones of poison and even creatures spreading things among themselves as the pair at the center would have continued being healed was all happening at once. "Sou ka, I don't have to completely abandon healing to take over a bit of combat either, this is quite flexible," Tae decided. As for the message sent by the System. Apparently, Yugi and his partner took all things from the System that implied buffs would be applied. "Sou ka, I mean that's pretty reckless, but... I can see why the decisions work that way... I guess experimenting on my little guinea pig is what I should do~" she said thinking about it, almost playfully. "I don't like the System Remarks though, reminds me of those posers from my school days," Tae commented as more of those creatures fell.

[Bloodedge]

Yugi couldn't properly settle on his analogy for stupid moments. He'd get there eventually, but in the meantime, what he had was apparently going to make Miko hungry. "If things had to stop because they made you hungry, the world wouldn't spin anymore," he asserted. Enough bags were sent Tae's way that she could amass at least a few million gold, including the knights and such killed in the past fifteen minutes or so. It seemed her ability to clear magic beasts was more than sufficient as well; she was easily wiping out more than the Players managed to as a duo.

According to Makima, asking was an option. Their opinions on that matter were split in an odd way. While she understood that Yugi liked finding things out for himself, he understood that Makima could find joy in making direct demands and having them met. They'd have the most interesting game of cat and mouse going by this setup, Yugi believed. "I agree. Asking is technically an option," Yugi replied as if he meant to flip the meaning of Makima's claim. All of that aside, a new development had become available, and Yugi intended to see it through. 75% had to be a very important milestone for routes. What would he get from that 'mark' she spoke of? Yugi didn't have a single clue, but he assumed something fitting Tae's existing theme... which was looking a bit closer to complete as knights repeatedly fell like a horde of crumbling zombies. "Nobody likes the remarks. Sounds like one of those crazy alien bastards with an exposed brain, doesn't it?" he asked, making an effort to slip out beneath Miko and remove himself from the throne. Tae's time was drawing nearer and nearer to its end either way, so he needn't remain too comfortable. "A bite, huh? Am I right to guess that's something drawn out of your subconscious?" he wondered while rising.

[Apollymi]

Miko and Yugi had a playful and biting relationship, as far as the others on the outside could tell. One such biting relationship had to do with the appetite of the small girl whow as currently tucked into Yugi's fore, "Waaah♪~ I'm not that bad♪!~" Miko chirped pouting tersely. A smirk would appear on Makima's face as she would disagree based solely on the lass's sexual appetites, not even knowing about how much she actually liked food. At the same time, a multiple bags of coins were being deposited into Tae's Inventory. "Why are there so many?" Tae asked seeing the count on the bags, but still she was managing against the horde.

At the same time, Makima was having her words turned against her. He could have asked her what she wanted and she also knew he'd rather figure it out. Their kind of dance was a bit more complex than most that Makima dealt with, "Oh? Are you trying to be bad?~" Makima questioned in rhetoric. She would tell him when she wanted things, but she'd also see what he came up with on his own, how else would she find things she liked. Meanwhile, Yugi was beginning to get up, Miko would help him slide from beneath her, but she'd pout about it, just a bit. Now alone in the throne, she'd pull her legs up and sit in a pose a bit more meditative. She was only not complaining because there was a reasonable concern and they would be needing as many things as possible for when Tae disappeared. At the same time, Yug's words were reaching Tae. "Oh... is that why Brainface? I get it," Tae said in understanding, these two were oddly intuitive. By the time he was getting to her he was wondering about the nature of her thought processes. She looked a bit abashed as she began to explain while creating a circle of protection, which was in truth how she was going to keep the knights out while she applied this... 'mark'. "The goth thing always starts somewhere. Dark clothes, dark make-up a pop of color? Vampires are gateway drug... to social suicide. I was even a phlebotomist while I was working through University for the aesthetic," Tae explained only to get a nod of respect from Miko as she busied herself with something else. Of course there was a little something else, it was obvious that Tae was more of a 'Dominatrix' than her previously shown sexual activity would know... and there was a certain muting of that sort of thing because of a situation which happened around the time of her awakening, one which made blood-letting even more taboo than normal.

[Bloodedge]

"Sure," was Yugi's only response to Miko claiming she wasn't so bad. With so much evidence to the contrary of her statement, he saw no point in anything but sarcasm. As for the bags being delivered to Tae's storage, the quantity was brought into question. Why were there so many? There surely weren't that many before they fought Igris; this was at least double the original count... and apparently growing. "Huh, it is a lot," Yugi said as he scanned for details. "Hmm. Shadow Concubines have auto-loot for certain things? That's... dumb. We haven't had auto-loot since the rewards for that first couple of events. See what I mean about this dumb system?"

When Makima asked the lad if he was trying to be bad, it would not be treated as rhetoric. No, Yugi had another quip for that one. "Not at all. Just being a guide dog. I show you to the location, you give me a sniff of something, I dig up what you're looking for. Or something along those lines," he rambled. With that, Yugi was rising and stretching his back. It would be time to reenter combat soon, but first came whatever 'mark' Tae had in store. En route, she spoke of vampirism and its nature as a gateway to social suicide. Yugi made a few inferences based on that little tidbit. The way she approached sexual acts with him earlier paired with the current lore drop, he could assume there was a history in there somewhere. "Sou. So did you actually bite someone, or did you basically accidentally rip someone's spine out? I saw how your fingers curled against the floor earlier. You're the full-latch-and-scratch type, aren't you? That's hot," he asserted, thinking ahead to a more unrestricted session with the doctor. At the same time, Yugi was looking at that ring of poison and how easily it handled knights they couldn't possibly eliminate with such ease. Any that passed through only made it to the other side by... falling limp. Moreover, those who made it that far were the High Knights. "Damn. I need AoE."

[Apollymi]

Miko knew sarcasm when she heard it, and in response to Yugi's most recent utterance, she'd only stick out her tongue in mocking. She was allowed to be a little outrageous from time to time, and she didn't see her need to eat as the sort that would stop the world from spinning. Beyond that there was the issue of things being collected for Tae. After being given a few coin bags it would seem she was collecting quite a few through her actions here. Yugi found such a thing to be a dumb mechanic, and Miko could agree to a certain extent and so could Tae. "It does seem a little crazy for us to get auto-loot but you guys don't," she said such a skill was usually coveted in games and the like. Miko thought about it a bit and shrugged, "Or maybe it's automatic because of Inventory access issues. Like it'd be kinda messed up to have stuff on you you couldn't touch, just because you couldn't sense it at the time," Miko offered. She played quite a few otome games where she had to suspend logic to understand the games mechanics.

Meanwhile, Yugi was also still having a discussion with Makima. He wasn't trying to be bad, apparently his decision was to act like a guide dog. His rambling description was pretty accurate for what he'd been doing for the most part and Makima herself found it amusing. "Ehe~ Alright, since you know your tasks I won't interrupt," she mused almost playfully. There was a certain superficial nature to the things said by her, like she knew there was a wall created between the words and their meaning but none of that mattered. For now, the creatures being feeled by poisons were still falling. The type of damage now down by Tae didn't require her to be physical to deliver offense, such was good. Ah, but that wasn't how she was completely. Yugi seemed to take quite a few context clues from things said and his previous interactions with the doctor. She had the grace to look a bit sheepish, her face gaining a hint of redness that wasn't normal to her standoffish demeanor. "I... don't usually bite. I am more of a hickey kind of person," she stated honestly. "And I didn't rip a spine out or anything like that... you aren't wrong, I am normally that kind of active. I might have flayed someone accidentally... like there was more flesh missing from him than some autopsies I've done. But even now there isn't a lot of consistency to how awakenings work. I'm not even a combat oriented individual..." Tae mentioned honestly. "Though if you aren't bothered I won't accept any complaints about your treatment later. You should both still be careful," she said shooting a gaze towards the reckless girl as well, who held held her hands up in surrender once more. She could hear the justification in the older woman's voice, her hesitance surrounding intimacy without restraint. That AoE was something that Yugi apparently wanted, as Tae turned she looked to Yugi with a raised brow. "Huh, you've gotten a bit taller since I saw you last... anyway, come on time for your buffs~" she said going along with the necessary pretense. They couldn't get too deep into anything, but perhaps a bit of a make-out would do for the intimate contact required to apply her mark. Well that would have to start with a press of lips.