Clausius

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He has another accent I treat as an "alternate outfit" for him! I call it "uniform for playing Shock Switch Energy Harvesting Duty"

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The Clausius brothers-- the spontaneous unhinged right head named Heat and the smart and serious left head (the one with the extra eye) named Work-- are physical chemists who have been working with Revel in developing a nice efficient energy storage system. And by night, they are a keyboardist at the industrial-metal-slash-New-Draconic-Hardness band called Die Maschine!

Heat and Work have a friendly sibling rivalry, but ultimately they complement each other well. Heat, while wild and disorganized, is bold and daring, while Work is more deliberating and calculating. But in a way that parallels the thermodynamic concepts they are named after (i.e. heat cannot fully be converted to work but the reverse is possible)-- Heat is pretty stubborn and Work eventually capitulates and joins his brother's shenanigans.

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Super awesome adopt by Nookling!

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The cacophonous pounding and flailing of stems against the ground continues. At this point, the whole extent of the control room is visible to the group– but it is not pretty. The screens, buttons, levers, and switches are covered in the twisted mockery of ivy, and the six floral monsters continuously try to grapple at the dragons in the front. The deceptive greenery seems to shift beneath a cabinet; a leafy limb twitches and grows, and soon enough one more plant watchers spring into visibility.

Twelve of these leafy beasts. The odds seem against them.

Passionfruit quivers in fear– he is a mere researcher! These magic-sucking creatures are not what he would expect on a regular day in the field, and with his magical strategies of self-defense rendered useless he doesn’t know what to do. On the spur of the moment, he makes a guess– “Would these things be hungry for magic?”

He frantically shuffles through his bag for a potion. He knew Desertrose carried the bulk of the gear, but she was out there in front, absorbing hit after hit from those things! He could only hope at least one bottle, or even a small vial would be with him. He sighs audibly upon grasping a bottle that was hidden behind his mess of notebooks. He then raises it.

“I’m going to try something out, guys. Stay clear!”

He hurls the potion against the wall. Half of the newly emerged wave turn their stalks in its direction– but the rest divert their attention to Passionfruit himself. He anticipates it– they’ll go and chase him down. He panics, flies off to the corridor ceiling, and tries to conceal himself.

Striker remains focused on his foes. With a mighty swoop, he slashes one of the creatures who turned towards Passionfruit. Desertrose continues to fend off the creatures, and as much as her movement allows, she approaches the cabinet where the creatures seemingly originate. “Aim over here next! This is where they came from.”

With Striker in the vicinity, the creatures once again divert their attention to their nearby target. Revel leaps a few meters away to get closer to the cabinet. She is ready to fire an electrified bolt once if any of them lash upon her first.

The Clausius brothers observe the panicked Passionfruit, hiding behind a ceiling light. “You got anything else to use on them?” They ask in unison.

“No, man, Rose has the rest of the potions! All I have is a teensy-weensy knife that would be dwarfed by those things!”

The Aberration brothers think fast. They take a dashing glide into the fray and nab a large potion bottle. One of the creatures hurls a bladelike leaf in Clausius’ direction; the pair narrowly dodges it and scratches back at it in a sort of riposte with their free hand. They leave the room and once again face Passionfruit. “Get off that light!” Work calls out. “We want you to fly in there, get their eyes on you, and when they’re on your track, YEET that bottle in a direction away from the room.”

In theory, that would help them stall at least half of the plant horde. And if they can eliminate at least the ones within the control room, they could use it as a safe base and inspect the control system as they were instructed.

Trusting his teammate’s judgment, Passionfruit flies closer and receives the potion. He throws the stopper off to the side. “If I don’t make it out of this place alive… may you get yeeted yourself, twoface.”

“Hey!” The Clausius brothers exclaim. Heat wouldn’t admit it, but he understands his friend’s fear; to be a caster without magic is a terror! Work on the other hand takes it as nothing deeper than banter– he focuses on the enemies. Passionfruit zooms past the twins with the potion and some magical gas wafts out of the bottle. The beastly plants turn to it.

“What are you doing?!” Striker yells.

“Distracting them! We’re heading outside!” Passionfruit flails around in the air, trying to catch their attention.

Striker finishes down a few of the weakened monsters. He then vigorously shreds the plant layer on the cabinet, eliminating each trace of the greenery off the cabinet surface.

Desertrose tackles a monster on her way there. Seeing the cabinet bare, she turns back to the door, ready to pursue the distracted horde. None of the creatures strike Revel, but she takes advantage of their diverted state. She fires a bolt on one of the weakened ones, and it drops on the ground.

The monsters try to grapple at Passionfruit, who is barely out of reach. As they are now focused on him, he whooshes out of the door. He is terrified, yes, but he is propelled by adrenaline.

Clausius makes way for his Spiral friend. He then takes a peek into the control room– now emptied of the creatures. He wonders if it’s time to try booting up that computer; although the plant’s general power is still out, he wonders if a jolt of lightning magic could work. There are still plants here and there– but dramatically less than before. He approaches the computer system and tries to infuse it with electricity. Nothing happens for a few seconds, but then a light appears on the screen. It appears to be loading. Revel tears down the rest of the greenery and pushes the fallen plant-creatures aside.

Striker and Desert pursue the plant horde led by Passionfruit. In this kerfuffle, they pay no attention to what’s going on in the upper floors. Passionfruit tosses the potion down a flight of stairs, and the horde goes feral trying to reach it. Striker is flying, so he doesn’t seem to have any trouble, but the successive scaffolding leading downwards seems shakier and shakier than before. Without Revel’s repairs, the dangerous state of the construction is more apparent. If for some reason this plant were still to be revived, much renovations would have to be made to make it up to current safety standards.

An electrified bolt from above falls on one of the creatures, signaling that Revel is firing shots to help them. She remains on the last platform that feels stable enough to hold her weight. After this stand, she thinks she has to go back up. She and Striker look hurt, but still fighting. Half of the total horde has been taken down; the remaining creatures stand behind Desertrose, and others crawl upon the wall, trying to reach Striker.

“We’ll handle it from here, Passion, get back to the control room!” Desertrose calls out.

“Thank you, guys! I’m rooting for you!” Passionfruit nearly sobs, taking a swirling path as he flies back to the control room.

Back in the control room, the Clausius brothers wait for the system to boot up. Passionfruit barges in as well, panting. He curls up in a corner, trying to soothe himself.

“Hey, Passion. That was awesome.” Heat looks to him. “I knew you had it in you.” He flashes a toothy grin. Work turns his head from the computer system to Passionfruit and gives him a nod—a sign of agreement with his brother.

Despite this assurance, Passionfruit still feels agitated. He takes a few more swirls before slumping on the ground for a bit. Eventually, however, Revel returns. She has a focused look on her face. “I’m out of ammo, but there’s just three more of those things left! I’m sure Striker and Rose could beat them. Now it’s time to work on this computer…” She delivers another magical lightning shock to it. The lights return slowly, one by one; the setup seems familiar too.