[ ] Aye, if she asks, you must trust your dear dollmaker.


In the end your mind swiftly streams through trammeling twists, for this question is no question at all. So you nod slightly, so with a small smile your dear dollmaker draws back and the two of you walk after the shield-thane once more.

"I don't think anyone's going to like what they see, when we gat back out however." Alice then tells you her voice surprisingly flat for soch a grave announcement.

"You know this well, I would wager." You answer her, the words bringing a chuckle from the Seven-Coloured Sorceress.

"I left Shanghai to keep an eye on Marisa." Alice answers you with a sly smile. "It's a trick we use sometimes."

You steal a swift glance at her and see that it is how she tells, the small puppet is nowhere in sight.

You feel strangely disappointed by this fact.

/o====================5====================o\\

Current Strand: 5.875

Previous Strands:
1 - missing
2 - missing
3 - missing
4 - missing
5 - missing
5.8 - >>29818
5.85 - >>30272

\\o===================875===================o/

"Fire on deck!"

The shrill cry goes out and a bell tolls somewhere deep within the ship, clanging out a warning. Dirty orange flames tinged sooty black seep across the smooth steel deck rolling around with the list of the ship sending the fire rolling as it singes the mist, the thick black smoke billowing into the hazy white air, smog that reeks of sulfur conjuring images of a blazing hell.

"Why is it always fire?" You mutter bitterly at the ship sailing past your vision, a tiny vessel no bigger than a fishing boat with a pathetic engine that chugs in protest to it's work load, it drifts almost leisurely through the towering flames. As it sweeps past you notice the hull hasn't been touched by the heat or even the smoke, the bright red paint of humble wood is spotless, perhaps treated to be resistant to it's own weapon? You're amazed that anyone would attempt to attack a ship of your size and class in a civilian vessel, yet seconds ago is sprung forth from the fog with no warning or lights to spew gouts of that sticky orange flame at you. Mounted upon the prow of this petite pirate ship is a mysterious device seemingly made of pumps, tanks and tubes set in gleaming brass that spits fire like dragon's breath with a steaming hiss.


"Return fire! Don't let them get close enough for a second strike!"
"Enemy vessel has already left visual range, captain!"

Of course, to deny you any retaliation the smaller ship has slipped off between the narrow channels between the towering islands here, you had hoped these foggy straights would hamper pursuit or even make them lose the trail entirely but now it seems your ambusher is using the terrain against you. By moving through the small, almost porous gaps between the crushing gray rock your opponent can perform a surprise attack from almost any direction while you are forced to follow your prescribed "safe" course through it all.

The bridge is a flurry of activity as all hands do their duty with admirable diligence, but wide eyes and panicked energy reveal the under current of nerves, or even fear, present in your girls at the prospect of an

**This was written late at night while just as sleepy as Marisa. Future installments will be shorter, but more coherent.**

You are Marisa Kirisame. Ordinary Witch extraordinaire, kleptomaniac, and self-proclaimed best girl of Gensokyo. Also not a morning person. Then again, when being a "morning person" means waking up with the sun, who would? That question rolls through your head for the thousandth time as you attempt to climb out of bed. "Attempt" is the key word, here. You don't really manage to make it out of bed before tripping over the blankets you forgot to push back and tumbling headfirst into a pile of (stolen) books.

*That* gets you awake. Nothing like a headache to start off the day! With a grimace, you grasp your head with one hand and start re-stacking the books. Some of these you don't even remember taking. "Cryomancy vol. I: A Study of Entry Level Ice Magicks" you *definitely* don't remember taking. And to top that off, you don't think you have a real reason to be taking it. Ice magic doesn't interest you except for dealing with a cranky Cirno, and even then a few well placed lasers work just as well. Better to just blast her and let her reform than try to reason with a fairy. Never mind that last time you tried to "reason" with Cirno in one of her moods you ended up in the Misty Lake having to swim back to shore. Setting that thought line aside, you arrange the stack neatly and read the titles on the spines, seeing if there's any you should actually read instead of setting them aside in a "to-do" list. Surprisingly, there is, in fact, one book you like: "Warp vol. V: A Study of Advanced Spatial Manipulation and Other Dimensional Magicks". Sure, the title is a mouthful, but anything about how to get into other dimension should be an interesting read, no?

The headache and your sleepiness forgotten, you open up the book, prop yourself against your bed, and start reading.

**Where will you start?**
[]Chapter 1: Spatial Magicks in Review
[]Chapter 13: Wormholes and Other Shortcuts
[]Chapter 20: Creating Pocket Dimensions

/o====================5====================o\\

Current Strand: 5.85

Previous Strands:
1 - missing
2 - missing
3 - missing
4 - missing
5 - missing
5.8 - >>29818

\\o====================85===================o/

So, third time’s the charm, right? I’mma give this another shot, and hope that I can actually…you know, finish a story this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are days where you just don’t want to get out of bed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you still gotta, but sometimes you really, REALLY wish you could lie in bed and tell the world to buzz off. Maybe it was the training I had back at my last home, or living out in this ‘magic forest’, but something had tipped me off that I needed to get up and moving.

NOW.

Had I been anywhere else, or any other time, I would have told my instincts to shut it, but with a groan, I dived out of the hammock. That got me a few seconds to think before the little girl who had been hunting me for the last three days brought her jaw down where my arm had been moments ago..

“Really, again?” I sighed, jumping to my feet and stretching.

“Yeah! They told me you taste like jerky!” The little girl was practically bursting with excitement as she spoke. She flashed me that little devilish grin, and I knew talking would be just as pointless as the last three days. “I want another bite! All I got was smoke and chalk last time!”

That made me chuckle. Poor girl tried to bite my left arm in a surprise attack the day before yesterday. Unfortunately for her, I had lost that a few weeks ago in an accident. Fortunately for me, I have enough control over ash and smoke to make a working replacement from it.

[X] Which means you've got responsibilities, here. Estimate as truthfully as ya can.

Which means you've got responsibilities.

Regardless of any douchenozzle tendencies this dude in front of you's displayin'.

Nuts. “Eight dollars,” ya say, puttin' the disc back down. “I'm gonna say 'bout eight dollars.”

Rika does a squinchin' of the peepers, royal. “You paused,” she says.

“I didn't pause.”

“You paused,” Rika says again. “Before you named your price, you paused.”

“That wasn't a pause,” ya say. “That was more like a happenstantial ellipsis.”

This is the restart thread of "Tales of the Flower Youkai's Mansion - Tale of the Outsider". Keep that in mind. Now, let's restart this tale!

---------------

It was quiet one moment, quiet the next. Such was my life. Day in, day out, always the same process.

Suddenly, I could hear a quiet song being sung, yet I could not figure out what the person was singing. Then, there was darkness.


"Hello...What...here...Spark..." What? "Why... are you... garden..." I can't understand her, and I think I'm slipping in and out of consciousness. I couldn't run away, nor move at all, to the best of my knowledge.

"Can... hear me? No? ...Mugenkan... go!" ...Something something what? Mugenkan?

-----TIMESKIP-----

I'm digging through a pile of books in the corner of one of my non-study rooms when I hear the knocking at the door.

My name's Marisa Kirisame. I'm an ordinary magician who likes to make potions, read books, and have a good Danmaku battle. People say I'm a kleptomaniac, but really I just like borrowing stuff.

I'm also not really in that good of a standing with many people in Gensokyo, meaning that no-one really knocks at my door, and the people I'm friends with don't really care all too much for formalities anyway.

Except Alice, but she told me today that I should stay away from her home or she'd kill me. I don't see why she always needs to say something like that, though.

Anyway, the knocking at the door catches my attention. For a moment, I consider going back and rifling through all those books again, since there's probably nothing that I need to do right now. But that's not me; I'm more of a living in the moment sorta gal. So standing up, I take a deep breath and dust off my hands, then raise my voice to say 'Coming!'

I take my time tiptoeing around the small piles of books scattered around the floor, alongside the few relics that I stole borrowed from Kourin. That guy's a bit kooky even if he did help raise me when I ran away from home.

I step into the hallway and turn towards the door. Taking a few steps forward, I put on my best smile and open the door. 'Morning.'

'Good morning, Marisa.'

You heard... some sort of lyric. They were also the last thing you heard up until this point. Suddenly, you blacked out.



"Why... in my garden...? Get... or you... I'll do..." You are going in and out of consciousness, and it sounds like you're being threatened. You can't even move, or talk...

"Hey... hear me... No... I guess... take you... Mugenkan Mansion..." ...Okay? What does this person want with you? Sounds like they're taking you to a mansion named 'Mugenkan'... or something of the like.


????? HOURS LATER...

"Can you hear me now?" You nod. "Good. Now, who are you...?"

[X] Alex
[X] Travis