+iny ©at people

>GREEN

Apparently we're taking the yellow-green path.

The recursive adventure areas only go two deep, right? Any more gets hard to keep track of.

The cats enter the passage on the right, surrounded by yellow-green crystals. The hallway is rather short, quickly leading into a small chamber with some strange equipment in it.

On the left side of the room is a candle, giving off a bright yellow light, with some sort of metal stand next to it. The stand has two little faceted glass windows, with a space in between, focusing the light from the candle.

On the right side of the room is a huge green crystal. You can see the shadow of a box embedded in the middle of it.

Finally, against the wall, is a table. There are three thin, square cuts of crystal on the table: one blue, one green, and one pink.

Tasty notes that there isn't really anything else in this room, besides a faded, tattered note stuck to the table. When your TCPs look at it, you can see what it reads.

SpoilerShow

--RYSTAL REACTS STRANGELY TO MATCHING LIGHT. YELLOW LIGHT FROM A CANDLE WORKS BES-----------EN OVERLAYED WITH----ALVES OF TW-----ORS PRODUCE TINTED LI---

hold the green crystal pane in front of the yellow window to make yellow-green light. it will melt anything that's yellow-green

(stand in front of it windy)

-CRYSTAL REACTS STRANGELY TO MATCHING LIGHT. YELLOW LIGHT FROM A CANDLE WORKS BEST------- WHEN OVERLAYED WITH-- HALVES OF TWO COLORS PRODUCE TINTED LIGHT

But that was obvious in a puzzle dungeon.
> Hold the green crystal in front of the yellow panes, behind them, put it between them, replace one of the yellows with the green. Experiment in order of reversibility until the big crystal yields its box.

Fennel takes a try at this puzzle first, sticking the blue crystal into the glass frame. It clatters a bit, and the light turns a bright cyan.



...which doesn’t seem to do anything. Fennel looks a little disappointed. Windy and Tasty ponder this for a moment, and then Windy notes that there’s space in the frame.



Windy takes a turn at this puzzle, taking the green crystal and sliding it into the frame next to the blue crystal. The light focusing through the frame turns a lime green color...



And the matching colored crystals in the room suddenly turn translucent as the light hits them. Notably, the treasure box inside the giant crystal suddenly falls out, bouncing into the other corner of the room.



Fennel bends down and opens up the box, revealing a small note and a little grey box.
Tasty claps her hands, and says it’s all yours. She’s going to go to a different room from Windy and Fennel next, so she can get her own treasure.

(You have obtained your TRACKER! This item allows you to keep track of your TCPs and spawned creatures.)

> Check how many TCPs you have.

"eye out"? that's very mean to windy

>CHECK TRACKER



Fennel plays with the Tracker a bit, pressing the buttons and seeing what it displays. One button brings up a little map of the current area, one button brings up a list of the TCPs you have, and the last button brings up a list of other creatures you have.
The map, in particular, shows little icons for your TCPs, and the cat you created earlier, but not Tasty.



Windy, after looking at the list of TCPs under your care, lets out a long, deep, whistle, not unlike a very heavy sigh of relief.

perspective shift. perspective shift

If there's nothing else left in this room, take the crystal cuts with you, go back to the crossroads and go into the purple crystal room.

If there's nothing else left in this room, take the crystal cuts with you, go back to the crossroads and go into the purple crystal room.

Take the lamp with you too so you can make other stuff invisible.

Windy takes all three slides and puts them in their bag, and Fennel takes the lamp with it.
All of the cats then leave the room, your cats heading to the red crystal room while Tasty splits off to the blue crystal room. She tells your cats she’ll be waiting outside of this room's entrance if she solves her puzzle before you.



Your cats go down the short hall to the red crystal room, finding a new setup entirely.
In the center of the room is a large puddle of sticky, clear-colored sugar water, with a large dark red crystal growing out of the center.
On the right side of the room is four large crates, filled with four different colors of little opaque, sandy rocks: pink, orange, purple, and blue.
Finally, on the left side of the room, near the door, is a barrel full of clear, uncolored crystals.
Attached to the barrel is another tattered, faded note.

SpoilerShow

THIS MAROON CRYSTAL REACTS TO MATCHING FLAVORIN--------------OTAL OF FIVE FLAVORING AGEN--------------------K CHERRY FLAVOR. FLA---------S MULTIPLY EACH OTHERS FLAVO--------------------E TASTE. PURIFYING CRYSTALS REMOVE ALL FLAVOR WHEN ADDED.
WARNING: MELTING C-------------HLY ACI-------------UCH!

>apparently the water needs to be flavored the same as the crystals, which is cherry flavor
>careful as it sounds like something is highly acidic

aw sick sugar water, cats love that shit. start lapping it up

THIS MAROON CRYSTAL REACTS TO MATCHING FLAVORING. --------- TOTAL OF FIVE FLAVORING AGENTS--------------BLACK CHERRY FLAVOR. FLAVOR AGENTS MULTIPLY EACH OTHERS FLAVOR-------------------E TASTE. PURIFYING CRYSTALS REMOVE ALL FLAVOR WHEN ADDED.
WARNING: MELTING CRYSTAL IS HIGHLY ACIDIC DO NOT TOUCH!

> We need to add a total of five flavor rocks, but for now put in a purple and a pink and see what happens.
> Do not touch the crystal and use an object to test the water for acidity before touching it after every change. (No need to test if you are not going to touch it, though.)

Pity purple+blue != maroon or I would have tried the light again.

Windy tosses in a pink and a purple component. They dissolve rapidly, immediately tinting the water a medium red-violet tone.

Some foam starts building up around the base of the crystal, where it's submerged, but not much else happens... the sugar water isn't powerful enough to dissolve it yet.

To quickly test the properties of the crystal and the water, Fennel pulls the chalky sand stick it got from the tower maze out of its backpack. It taps the stick against the crystal, no effect. It dips the stick in the water, no real effect... touching the foam, however, very lightly eats away at the stick.

Windy wonders out loud for a bit. How can we get the treasure chest out of the crystal without hurting it, if the most straightforward way is to solve a puzzle that will make the crystal turn into an acidic solution?
They suppose if they must solve this puzzle, they could try to quickly grab the chest once it's loose... if they can figure out what components to add next.

>EAT SUGAR WATER

Your cats all make various confused noises... Windy asks you if you're aware that Tiny Cat People don't eat, or breathe, or do other things you seem to think they need to do.
The "cat" makes a noise that's kind of like a meow.

i think we need a little more teal

Do the purifying crystals have any sort of effect on the acidic foam? We have a lot of flavour components to test with so it shouldn't set us back if we accidentally remove the flavour we already added. I'm guessing it would be safe to assume that the chest is acid / liquid resistant, since the only way to remove it would be to expose it to a acid liquid.

If it does neutralise the acid then we can chuck one in after the crystal is dissolved then grab the chest by hand, just be sure to test the acidity with the chalky stick.

>toss a neutralizing crystal in the seecond the chest becomes exposed, and break the crystal with a rock
>add another violet crystal

>Perhaps Windy could use his fenestration powers to get the chest out?

> Can you knock the crystal over so that the chest is not above the pool?
> 2 pinks, 2 purples, and something else is probably the dissolution solution.

> How about we try finding a blend that is less acidic?

> Failing that, try going back to the other room and getting it to match the color of the crystal in this room.

>Once you find a match, take one of the frames out, and bring the light, stool, and stand over.

>Set it up so that the light shines through the frame, and onto the big crystal. Don't put the second frame in just yet.

If it worked on one crystal, why not this one as well? We still want the liquid to match this crystal, so that the frame can make both the acid and the crystal intangible at the same time. That way we can safely get the chest without melting the chest. Or our cats.

I think I've found the solution.

SpoilerShow

Using lots of multiply layers in SAI and the dropper tool, I believe I've determined the solution to be

3 pink
1 blue
1 purple

The resulting color isn't exactly right hex code-wise, but it's still pretty close, within a few bits or so. That may be due to different multiply algorithms and such though.



To confirm that theory, multiplying just one pink and one purple gives us the color that the pool is currently, with exactly 1 bit error (CF46A6 instead of CE46A6).

I'll note that you can get a pretty close solution using 2 pink and 1 of the rest, but it's not quite as exact as this one.

authors note @ earthexe

SpoilerShow

that actually totally is the solution, good job!!! i already wrote the update before you posted that, though, so uh. idk PM me and i'll give you a prize if you want? :y

Windy tosses another purple component in; the sugar water takes a more purple tinge… but the crystal doesn’t get any foamier. Fennel decides to toss in one of the purifying crystals to watch how fast the crystal removes the flavor; it turns out, pretty fast!

The two TCPs agree, if they went through all the trial and error to melt the entire crystal, they could neutralize it pretty quick and get the treasure chest, with minimal damage to the treasure and to themselves.



But then, you tell Windy to use their power on the crystal.
Windy is quiet for a moment… but they say, well, that should get the job done quick. They probably won’t have to do anything strenuous between now and whenever they get a chance to rest.
Just, please, take it easy on them after this.



Suddenly, Windy begins glowing very very brightly, and their clothes seem to fade away? And they start growing very rapidly.



The room is filled with a thunderous whistling sound as Windy takes on their Ascended form.



Fennel screams and braces itself against the wall, right in Windy’s line of sight… there’s a deafening sound like nails on a chalkboard as a cylinder of the crystal is highlighted.



But then, as soon as it came, all the light and sound vanishes, as well as a chunk of the crystal. The treasure chest slides out of it and lands in the water with a dull splash.



Windy leans back against the wall of the room, letting out some raspy whistles. Their health has gone from Good to Poor, and they would rather not use their power again until their health is better, lest they end up in severe pain.

Fennel pulls the treasure chest out of the clear sugar water, and brings it to Windy… Fennel tells Windy, it is pretty scared! It thought it could have been hurt by Windy’s powers, but it seems Windy’s power is focused on one material at a time, so it was safe after all… and now the treasure chest is free for them to open! Fennel sits down beside Windy and puts the chest in front of them, and opens it for them.



Inside is another ominous note, as usual, and a small black and green device. Tapping the buttons on the side simply brings up some text, reading “NO OUTGOING CALLS CAN BE MADE YET”, while tapping the bottom buttons just lets out some little beeps. Fennel lets out a quiet, crunchy laugh, amusing itself with the beeps for a moment to get its mind off of its own mortality.

(You got the COMMUNICATOR!)