The Pool: Moving things along.

Mary and Jacob continued to struggle with the gate, but seemed to be making little progress. After a while, the three onlookers lost interest, turning back to among themselves. "Well, seems like they're getting nowhere," Sonja observed. "Agreed. They're making little progress, and as their changes continue they'll only slow down further," Iwalani said. "It's time to get back to business." "Well, what can we do? While our groups have managed to get far enough to produce us, none of them are really complete. Only Daphne's has a full compliment, and half of them are only half done," Sonja said. "Our own groups will fill out in time," Iwalani said, glancing around at the two chairs. "But in the meantime, I think we should try to get purple and yellow to catch up with green. It would be best if we could continue to keep things in trios." "So you assist one, Sonja another, while I help my own?" Daphne asked. "Precisely. Help Jay and Athena with their changes, then you can move the group into the fourth stage," Iwalani said. "Meanwhile, you can go help purple, while I will assist yellow," Sonja said to him. The three newcomers nodded, their tasks in mind, and split up to handle their respective tasks.