Editing Chuubostuck/Book One (section)

== Chapter Two: A Confusion of Objectives (Posts #124 - 290) ==

It remains Sunday. Ayumu, game discs in hand, slips out of home to join his friends, who are largely gathering in Arcadia. There, Matt and Lily stroll away from Lilith and Riley, who are locked in combat for Riley's disc. Riley wins the battle, successfully suplexing Lilith and reclaiming her discs, and then she and Lilith go to the Arcadia train station to meet up with Ayumu. 

Ayumu pauses in his walking to deliver a mis-addressed package that was supposed to go to a girl named Amber Mack. He arrives at her home just in time to see it obliterated by a meteor. Not as surprised as he should be, he quickly informs the others. Riley decides to race home to check on her family, while Lilith decides to investigate the meteor crash site. She notices that there isn't any debris from the house, which seems to have vanished entirely. Ayumu, deciding that he needs to see what package this presumably-dead girl was going to receive, opens it and discovers that it is actually a glitter bomb, which explodes in his face. There is also a mostly-ruined note from the prankster. The two of them make for Lilith's lab to analyze their results. 

In Horizon, Richard and Fitz (well, mostly Richard) hatch a plan to steal more discs from Entropy II, and depart for School on a mission of theft. Fitz swings by his house to drop off the discs he already stole (belonging to an E-I-I), before joining Richard outside School. The simple plan is that Richard will distract the Principal with a well-placed surprise bullet, and then Fitz will sneak in and steal the discs while Richard is fleeing. The first part of the plan goes off without a hitch, and Fitz recovers several marked copies of SBURB and slips away, but before Richard can escape, Principal Entropy II discovers him. Entropy ultimately recruits Richard to help him in an unspecified task.

Matt and Lily return to Matt's home, to recover Lily's birthday present. Their task is made more difficult by the need to avoid Matt's Uncle, who is on the roof fixing the TV antenna. Along the way, Lily has a phone discussion with Ayumu, about the death of her family and the mysterious letter from her supposedly-deceased mother that she received afterwards. The two manage to recover Lily's present, along with various potentially useful items.

Back on Little Island, Riley takes a moment to relax and calm down before racing over to her house. There, she learns that her brother Timmy has wandered off, and then collects her heroing gear and races back out to help her friends.

As several people converge on the train station, Ayumu gets his friend Rameus on speakerphone, and has a conversation with him, Lilith and Riley. Ayumu tries to convince his friends that the game is critical to their survival, to mixed reactions. They agree to meet up at Lilith's lab. Riley breaks off from the others long enough to buy a computer and assorted goods (including a Power Glove - thanks, Arcadia), before meeting Ayumu and Lilith back at the lab. Rameus attempts to arrive, but is side-tracked by police, fish-vendors, and train conductors. 

In the lab, Ayumu and Lilith prepare for Lily's birthday party, neither very effectively. Lilith also studies the meteor, and deduces that it seems to have arrived not from orbit, but through some other delivery method. Then Ayumu realizes that he needs to be in his house for the game to function, and just as Riley arrives he races off with her to his mansion, to get into the game. Riley has left her own discs at home, but borrows Ayumu's server disc and Rameus's game codes to act as his server. Lilith, now alone again, sets to work building a laser capable of shooting down falling meteors, and a hot air balloon to get it to the roof of School. 

In Arcadia, Matt gives Lily her present, prompting a very-nearly romantic moment, before the two go to join the others. Along the way, they meet a dramatic guy named Donny Dean, with whom Lily flirts. Ultimately, she invites him to come along to her birthday party, and although he has somewhere to be, he agrees to come for a little while. Matt takes the opportunity to go to sleep and visit a magical golden city, Prospit, where he chats with a Watchful Shopkeeper.

Upon arriving at School, Lilith absolutely flips the heck out, and starts threatening local game shops for more copies of SBURB, unaware that Fitz is already acquiring them from downstairs and is coming up to meet her. He is slightly delayed by having to avoid a hall monitor with a parasol, but eventually arrives. Lilith leaves him in command of the laser while she goes to collect the bounty from her game-shop-blackmail, allowing him to direct it at the approaching meteors instead of at the city. Unfortunately, just after Lilith departs, Anya Drago arrives. She is the Vampire Queen of the student body, a SEED member, and a hall monitor, and an old rival of Lilith's. Fitz attempts to heroically tell her off, and manages to delay her long enough to let him blow up a meteor, but ultimately succeeds in heroically agreeing to let her blow up meteors with the laser while he holds her parasol. 

In Old Molder, Riley equips herself with a spear, which she dubs Starsplitter, and connects to Ayumu. After a few mis-steps, she successfully deploys his alchemy equipment, and she and Ayumu set up his house for his entry. To their surprise, the video game is actually able to affect the real world. Riley also accidentally sends most of the mansion's toilets flying into the air in a plumbing disaster. This triggers a time-wasting but hilarious conversation with Lilith, as a result of which Ayumu trips and sends a cloud of glitter into his kernel. This, along with a sword, creates his Sparklesword sprite-weapon. 

While Riley finishes preparations, Ayumu contacts Matt and explains that the ghosts of his deceased potential future selves have been contacting him in his dreams with advice. Matt, remembering his golden city, believes him. Ayumu then contacts Lilith, Lily and Rameus, trying to figure out where they all are and how close they are to entry. Lilith intends to study the old Watanabe Shrine to follow up on an older theory, and Lily promises to bring Matt and her new friend to School as soon as they swing past the current Watanabe Shrine. 

Rameus pledges to arrive soon. He does not. 

Elsewhere, in the sewers, the last would-be member of the group, David Gudmunsson, meets with a young Delivery Damsel by the name of Felicia, who helps him search for a crying child that he accidentally swept into the sewers with his modus. They find the child at the local Frog Temple, and while Felicia escorts the kid to safety, David attempts to recover a package up at the top of the temple, only to be attacked by a red squirrel as it leaps out of the temple's mystical lotus. This action delays him sufficiently that he fails to return to the surface in time to join the others. 

In his home, Ayumu creates his Entry Item, a black crystal ball. As he reaches to smash it, a meteor flies down towards his house. Riley, acting quickly, steps outside and throws a spear, delaying the meteor by precious seconds and allowing Ayumu to enter the game. 


In the second intermission, a mysterious figure called apocryphalConsolation engages in a pesterchat with Donny, and is not impressed by his attempt to shirk his SBURB-related duties. She then contacts Felicia, the mail lady, only to learn that she is also unavailable, but suggests contacting 'Sam'. When AC does so, she learns that he is busy trying to recover his game discs from a giant spider, leading to a minor freakout.