September

Kiran dreams of that dungeon again.  This time he tries focusing on the cells instead of the big web.  He can vaguely make out some shapes in the gloom.  Humanoid shapes.  Something about them... feels familiar.  What was Somnis talking about before?  A bunch of missing people?  Is this... them?

When Kiran wakes up, he has a message from Leia.  "Paint Theory tested.  I was wrong."

Huh?

"Hello, everyone. I hope you're ready for another week here at Newvit High. Let's see, this week's events, this week's events... Huh, they forgot to list them in my script. Well, lucky for all of you, your president's on top of things. This Friday... The Drama club will be holding tryouts for the winter play Friday after school. Get a part and you might even have the honor of being worked on by yours truly. And Saturday the Cooking Club will be holding a cook-off competition. Oh, this is going to be a fun week, hm?"

Yeah, great.  Real fun.  More importantly, Alice is back - on crutches, but back.  One more pretty lady to flirt with...

(A) Robotics
(B) Art
(C) Cooking
(D) Gardening
(E) Go ask Leia what that message was about
(F) Go looking for Alice
(G) Invite ____ to ____

As much as flirting with new girl is important giving Leia that hug is even more Important Strong E

B 2. Time to activate cool dad.exe

Kiran rounds the corner and finds Leia coming out of the cooking club. "Leia!"

"Oh... Oh... I'm sorry... I... I... I jujujujust need to answer this... Then... I'm all yours!" Leia says with a smile and a note of panic in her voice. She taps away at her phone, then turns back to Kiran. "Hey Kiran! Long time no see heh?"

"Not really?" Kiran says. "We're in the same class. Guess it's been a few days since we got to chat? ...Is a hug too much, or do you want to just head over somewhere private to chat about the thing you did?"

"Huh... Well... Well... If the thing is still a secret... The... The answer should be easy..." Leia says.

"I take that as a... yes, I think?" Kiran says. He leads Leia into a small room and makes sure no one is inside to overhear the conversation. Then gives her a small hug. "So, good job doing the thing you did. It sounds like you learned something useful. Um, what exactly did you do?"

I learned nothing. I wasted my time. I am useless."

"Now, now. You didn't learn what you expected to learn but you learned something that didn't work. That's not useless, that's just, uh... science!" Kiran says. "...Right?"

"I...I... I learned that... that... color doesn't fififififix having no color?"

"Yeah, exactly!" Kiran says, adding in another hug. "So no more of this useless talk, 'K?" Kiran waits for a bit before backing off. "So... Let's see. What does that mean? I guess it means those crab-thingies sucked out more than just color. Something that makes color... Um... And also whatever makes water move and stuff?" Kiran's brow furrows. "Before we can fix it, we need to figure out what it was. Thanks to you we know it's not just the color... It's something, but... more than color..."

"Essence. They stole the essence of everything in that area."

"Not quite everything..." Kiran mutters.

"If you're talking about Mr. Butterfly, he didn't seem on our side either..." Leia mutters.

"Yeah, him! Why'd he attack us?" Kiran asks. "Oh. Wait. Bigger question. Why did he still have color?" Kiran scratches his head. "Did you see him while you were painting?"

"No... No... I haven't saw him... All I know is that he wanted the colors back, but didn't want out help."

"Weird, right?" Kiran says. "That guy was kind of a dick. I'd still feel a little bad if he got the color drained out of him, though. How do you put someone's color - um, essence back in them? Or in a rock or something? Is there someone who might know? Does it need to be a specific type? Do we need to beat those crab things to get it back? Do you want to hug some more maybe?"

"I think defeating those things is the only way. I'm not strong enough for that though. She seems to have a really subtle smile about the hug question, but doesn't acknowledge it.

"Who is, though?" Kiran asks. "Seriously, it's like our attacks weren't even hurting them. Maybe we should try getting everyone together again and see if we can't win together? I bet if we split them up and all kicked the crap out of one it'd go down. I think. Probably."

Leia suddenly laughs hysterically. "I'm sorry? Trying to get everyone back together? You mean exactly what I've been trying to do? Because everyone's busy? Busy with what? What does "busy" mean when we're talking about the end of the world?"

"Uh... Busy with school and stuff? I know Nat's super-worried about her dad finding out. Plus she was grounded... And Buttons is the same. And Somnis. So we have to, y'know, pretend everything's normal? ish?" Kiran says. "Plus the world might not be ending, y'know? If that angel lady's lying just because she... well, uh, I guess something is definitely going on with... stuff? But I don't think everyone really agrees on what we need to be doing... and stuff. The last meeting didn't really end with anyone agreeing on stuff. I'm saying stuff a lot, huh? But my point is you're going to get yourself hurt and make everyone sad."

"I... I... Last time I fled from getting hurt... I... I..." Leia seems frozen in place. "Maybe I just want to stop being sad by leaving myself occupied."

"Um... maybe?" Kiran says. "I don't know, you're the only one who can really answer that, aren't you? But I don know I'd be really sad if you ran off alone and got hurt. You don't want to make me sad, do you?"

"I... I'm so sorry... I... I didn't... I didn't want to make anyone sad... I just don't want to lose everything... everyone... again..."

"It's OK. Everything worked out. Just be careful from here on, 'K?" Kiran spreads his arms out. "'nother hug?"

Kiran and Leia reached Relationship Rank 2!

(A) Power (physical)
(B) Multi-hit (physical)
(C) Multi-target (physical)
(D) Hi-speed (physical)
(E) Power (magical)
(F) Multi-hit (magical)
(G) Multi-target (magical)
(H) Hi-speed (magical)
(I) Buff
(J) Debuff
(K) Status effect
(L) Healing
(M) Support
(N) Defense
(O) Passive

(1) Mercia
(2) Death
(3) Phenandran
(4) Nova
(5) Dragon
(6) Hinoh
(7) Shacegroth
(8) Vega
(9) Fionn
(10) Inbrimmer
(11) Lamia
(12) Nirver
(13) Vaazim

Don't be creepy but, sure why not 11 and also think we're missing a B