Cyke quickly sends you an explanation on how to save vessels, and, to be fair, does mom you a little. Now, you only need to enter the name of a saved vessel to revisit it's current place in the universe, instead of having to hunt it down.

You decide to head to Helios' planet next. However, the game informs you that the planet doesn't exist. At first you're a tad confused, until you remember that you're still at the very beginning of the Space Age; Helios was likely only created recently, if at all, and thus doesn't have his planet yet.

They continue to recite the entire thing. God, you love your friends so much.

Deciding to mess with a few other species before you do any time travel, you go to the other Taia in the universe; Taiaptor, homeworld of the aftiks. The aftik are still, by a large, a mostly-tribal race, living in simple nests, with no knowledge of the stars. Where would you like to go on Taiaptor?

You fast-forward time to about 500 years before the notails arrive on Taiaptor. It is currently the year 237, in the twilight years of the Hope era. Very little about Taiaptor has changed in the 237 years that have passed, other than aftiks now living in slightly larger packs.

[Fortuna rolls a 10-sided dice. A 10 is rolled.]

You zoom in on a random patch of forest. It takes you a bit, but eventually you spot a quartet of aftiks hiding in the bushes, closing in on what appears to be a small flock of sharp-beaked birds, appearing to... graze? Can birds graze? While you're pondering it, all four aftiks suddenly dart out, throwing themselves at one of the birds. The rest of the flock panics, and begins to flee.

[Fortuna rolls 4 20-sided die. A 9, 17, 11, and 4 are rolled.]

One of the aftiks grabs onto the bird's tail, while another grabs the legs. A third lands directly where the neck meets the back, and the last misses entirely, skidding onto the ground. The aftik clinging to the bird's neck quickly breaks it, ceasing the bird's struggling. The aftik who missed their attack, beige and orange in coloration, streaks off after the retreating bird flock. The aftik who killed the bird, this one being tan and dark green, growled, and dashed off in hot pursuit. The smallest of the four aftiks, one of lavender and dark purple who'd grabbed onto the tail, squawked in surprise.

But the small aftik's cries landed on deaf earholes, as Olive continued to run after the orange aftik.

You take control of Olive.

[Fortuna rolls a 100-sided die. A 41 was rolled.]
Olive lopes to a stop. Growling, she stomps back to the others as Flame uselessly chases the birds into the distance. Great. Just, great.

([Unstable] trait activated. Olive has lost 10 sanity.)

When Olive returns to the others, they're already begun attempting to lift the body. The lavender aftik looks up at Olive.

Olive helps the other two bring the bird back to their seeming base of operations, which is made up of three nests touching each other, and one slightly off to the side. Through their random bits of conversation along the way, you learn that the lavender aftik is named Orchid, the brown and purple one who'd grabbed the bird's legs was named Violet, and the last aftik was named Flame.

As Violet got the bird cleaned and cooked, Olive began to get back up.

Olive nods, and heads out into the forest. Instead of looking for Flame however, Olive begins to look for metal deposits.

[Fortuna rolls a 20-sided die. A 3 is rolled, which is bumped up to an 8 due to Olive's high luck.]

No dice. Olive honestly isn't sure why she expected to find metal out in a forest.

[Fortuna rolls a 100-sided die. A 41 was rolled.]

Olive sighs, and begins to search for Flame. Sure enough, Olive quickly finds her, laying on her belly, curled up and fuming. Olive approaches her.

Olive and Flame walk home in relative silence. Multiple times, Flame tries to strike up conversation, but Olive doesn't respond. Flame wrings her talons.

When they arrive, Violet is waiting for them.

Violet retreats to her nest, and lays down to take a nap. Olive and Flame hunch around the body and begin to eat.

[Fortuna rolls a 100-sided die. A 33 was rolled.]

Olive doesn't say anything more, and neither does Flame. The two eat in silence, before returning to the nest, where Violet and Orchid are already resting. You decide to check back in on the group chat before the dream sequence starts.