11:00AM.

  The storm is slowly calming down.

  “Niiiice and slow now, it's not running away”

  After changing (again), and asking Jophiel to dry his clothes (AGAIN), Joshua is now spending time with the newest member of his little group.

  Uriel, the Blitzle, the not-horse-but-still-a-horse-horse.

  Because of her malnutrition, he's had to prepare something more specific to make sure she doesn't get sick.

  Applesauce, milk, and wheat. Obviously not mixed up, but set in small bowls he's been spoon feeding to the lethargic zebra.

  The berry bushes have grown, but no berries have sprouted out of them yet, so it's just a matter of waiting before he can add them to their diet.

  “Blitz…”

  “I know you're hungry, but we have to be careful with what you eat, you know. You don't want to get sick, do you?”

  Uriel's half-lidded blue eyes blink slowly, and a small bleat of understanding comes from her.

  She's so sweet.

  “Okay, so you SHOULD be recovering. The Joy Cn has been screaming suggestions at me since I found you, and it looks like all you need is… let me read that again… yeah, just the diet and rest. Don't you feel like a princess?”

  Her weight is still WAY under what it should be, and it's definitely showing in the way that she doesn't seem to be able to gather any sort of energy. But aside from that, she's fine.

  Joshua is worried if the malnutrition would affect her growth, or cause permanent damage in some way he's not seeing, but that's mostly his vet-brain being paranoid. Worst case scenario is Uriel being shorter than average, but even that seems unlikely.

  Pokemon are weirdly consistent in their endurance.

  Uriel's eyes glint in slight amusement. Still weak, but not catatonic. Progress.

  “Blitzle…”

  This Zebra is doing untold damage to his heart.

  “You're welcome. We may have just met, but I'm looking forward to you joining us, even if we're in… wherever this is”

  He clears his throat to change the subject.

  “Oh, right. I don't think I've introduced myself. I'm Joshua, the pink one in the suit who's not here is Gabriel, and one who probably looks pretty scary right now is Jophiel”

  He hears the unicorn sputter close behind him before she pokes her head into his view.

  “P-Pony!”

  “Well then stop staring at her”

  “Ponyta!”

  “What? Are you still upset about that?”

  She shakes her head.

  “Pony…”

  Huh.

  “...well, alright”

  That's how Joshua found himself spoon feeding TWO mares. One that needed it, one that just wanted to try it.

  This has been a very odd week.

  …

  [What's with the strange symbol you keep building, Joshua?]

  Oh dear. Joshua pauses from whittling away at a block of wood.

  “You mean the cross?”

  [It's even on your neckce, what does it mean?]

  At the mention of it, he habitually runs his thumb over the almost too-sharp edges.

  “It's… complicated. But it's a symbol of my faith. There's a lot of nuance to it, as to be frank it's been… a while, since I've read the texts”

  He fiddles with the wood for a bit, finagling with whatever he has in his hands seems to be a habit for him.

  “But to keep it simple, the crucifix is the physical “representation” of the infinite love God has for his creation, mankind. As his son, died on the cross harboring all of humanity's sins, so we could make it into heaven”

  It's not lost to Joshua that, from an outside view, wearing the execution device of the person you're worshipping seems a little odd.

  [Heaven?]

  “Afterlife. Eternal paradise. To BE with God and his creations”

  [What do you have to do?]

  A lot. But simultaneously not that much.

  “It's… a process. But it's all about redemption, and acknowledging that as a human you are inherently prone to sin. While… yeah, it's about not sinning in general, repenting for those sins and growing from them is equally if not more important”

  Mostly it's about keeping true to the spirit of the Bible.

  The “mb” metaphor is the best example of this. If a sheep wanders from the flock, the Shepherd (Jesus) would be overjoyed if they found their way back.

  “God is patient as he is loving, but he's not coddling. He doesn't give solutions, he gives opportunities. He may scold, but never abandon. The “Heavenly Father” title isn't just for show. It's just through his son that you find salvation”

  At least he thinks so. Most of that was from what he can remember from his mom.

  [What happens if you don't?]

  Joshua looks out the window again, wood shavings littering the ground beneath him.

  He exhales slowly.

  “Nothing good”

  …

  12:00PM

  Still fucking raining.

  He sees that the berries and pumpkins have grown outside, but he's not getting rained on for the third time today.

  So Minecraft logic works on berries, cool.

  Still not getting rained on though.

  Fuck that.

  He slumps over to his workstation, which is essentially a crafting table… area. He keeps all the things that give him crafting UI nearby, as well as a ft top so he can do things himself.

  Idly, he reaches down and scratches Uriel's head, thinking of what he could do.

  He still needs amethyst for the navigation device, but he still has a load of pis.

  Joshua brings out the radio set-up he made a few days back. The wires wrapping the open shard of pis are burnt.

  Okay, pis generates heat when going through a wire, if very little. Good to know. Lapis seems to be a very stable power source, only really reliant on how much is provided.

  [LAPIS BATTERY]

  He stole this from Ace's drill. How in the hell did Ace manage to create a battery that sted YEARS without burning out.

  Leaning in, his UI gives him the details of the device.

  It's just made out of copper alloy, gold, and steel. Built in yers in a tube-like shape.

  …why copper? He understands if it's part of the conduction coils but the outer shell is made out of copper, wouldn't that…

  “Oooo, that's clever”

  Now that he's peeled back the yers, he's getting a better image.

  Okay, so the entire outer shell is acting as a sort of barrier, basically it keeps the pis energy inside, very simple.

  There's a slot in the side where you insert pis, which there's built in prods that channel the energy into the batteries internals, which amounts to a rge amount of gold coils.

  Why gold? Joshua remembers that golden gear in Minecraft gets better enchantments, so maybe gold just… resonates with pis energy easier?

  Why it had to be coils though… he's not sure. Maybe it's to keep the energy on a moving path? Budget issues? Maybe Ace just thought it looked cool, he doesn't know.

  But why isn't the energy conducting into the copper and steel? Joshua knows it can conduct, maybe not with steel but there's btant parts of the device where charged golden coils meet the copper frame.

  Wait.

  He's fucking stupid.

  “I'm treating this like it's electricity. Of course it works differently…”

  Maybe once pis energy is conducting through a material, it “sticks” to it? It would expin enchantments (y'know, if enchantments use pis energy).

  Seems like it.

  He could just chalk it up to pis energy being less votile than electricity, but this device seems… barebones. What's keeping it intact?

  Joshua sighs, to be honest, he's learning a lot. He's already getting a few ideas, but a part of him isn't sure that he should be pying around with a foreign energy type.

  But hey, it's not like he's known to make good decisions.

  If pis energy generates a small amount of heat over time, how are the coils still fine?

  Copper just seems to be an inferior conductor, but once Joshua fully inspects the inside walls of the shell, seeing a small string of runes, that he can't help but chuckle.

  “Oh you sneaky motherfucker”

  [LAPIS BATTERY (FIRE PROTECTION V)]

  Of COURSE Ace is abusing the enchants! That's genius!

  He didn't even consider using them for machines, and this is for a battery, he can only imagine what kind of bullshit they've cooked up during their time here!

  Joshua ughs to himself, he doesn't care that he must look a little weird right now.

  He may have lost some adventuring time with the rain, but…

  This was definitely worth it.

  Not only did he get a better idea of how things work.

  Now he has another piece of enchanted gear. Which may not seem important, but having a reference point makes transting the runes easier.

  He would stand up right now, but the mare that managed to crawl into his p makes that impossible. Resting her head on her forelegs and bnkly watching him work.

  Thank God he doesn't have to pee.

  “You do know you have a bed, right?”

  “Pony” She's aware.

  “...”

  It's not like Joshua dislikes it… so…

  “Well can you at least hand me the screwdriver?”

  “Pony?”

  “The uh… the one with the ‘t’ end”

  It floats over to him.

  White is proving herself that not only is she exceedingly violent.

  She's also, sometimes convenient.

  Who knew.

  Wonder if she's feeling her Best Pony position being threatened.

  “PONY?!”