China Grove: Thread 1, Post 20: Stalled Beginning Kurzov !pN44dO.qiE 2018/03/31 (Sat) 04:39 No. 198860 <ROB>
...Out of the corner of your eye, you see an object in the sky. It is a strange portal-shaped object, with sparks flying, and bright yellow lines go throughout it, as if it was lightning, or something else electrical...
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You keep running nonetheless, until you hear the voice of the maid. "So... we meet again, for the final time." You look the other way to see who she was talking to, and you see a figure that looked much like the portal, with the bright yellow lines and the sparks facing her. The figure also had what looked, from behind, to be five bronze disks that formed a half-circle around her, each connected with the same lines. "Perhaps it is yours, too." "Alright, enough dilly-dallying. You're gonna be dead any minute now." The maid retorted. After this, you could hear the sound of many, many blades being thrown and, by the sounds of it, just as much crackling.
Thinking that this was the chance to get Mima back, you run back to where you left her, but she's just... gone. There is no sight of her at all, except for one thing laying on the ground: a thin rod with a depiction of a crescent moon on its end, all painted a drably gray. You don't recall Mima keeping this with her for the time that you've seen her, leaving you asking how this got here. Confused, you pick up the rod and head back outside of the house that you were in, carrying it like a walking stick. Even at this distance, you can see the battle between the maid and electric-girl. You're not sure who's winning at the current moment, as it continues to look more and more like a standstill. You're too weak to intervene, and you'd probably just get shredded by blades and electrocuted into nothing but ashes if you tried.
So all that you're left with doing is just waiting, watching the battle as you do so. As the battle goes on, the battle seems to become more and more of a blur, until you're unable to keep up. You were never that good at seeing even moderately moving things, which didn't help either. Then, seemingly all at once, you hear the sound of glass breaking all around you. Looking around the corner of the building you were standing in, you see a collapsed maid and the electric-girl looking proud.
Turning to face you, she starts a conversation. "Kid, you got here at a really bad time... to say the least." "Well... obviously," you note. "So... who was that, what happened?" "...Well... I'm not sure myself, but I do know that there's yet another incident going in 'sokyo." "Eh, 'sokyo'? Where is that? What does that have to do with how the maid went ballistic?" "...Oh, you're an outsider, I suppose... I'll explain in a minute here. Now about the maid, it has to do with events from the recent past. Her name was Yumeko, by the way." "Alright, thanks for that." "None needed," The electric-girl replied, whilst trying to hang on your shoulder. Unsurprisingly, you jump back from the shock.
"Whoops." She states, stepping back. "So, how is this going to fix itself?" "It won't, additionally, the few sources that I still have note no sign of the typical resolvers, the whole world is colorless and gray." "What?" Her statement just went over your head. "By and large, the typical ones that would fix things like this are nowhere to be found." "That second part, though... I never got your name." "Yuugen-Magan, you can just call me Yuugen. Yours?" "Robert, Rob, same difference." Yuugen nods, as she walks back and forth. "By the way... what's with Mima's staff in your hand?" "Oh, it's hers? She just disappeared between when you showed up and when you knocked out Yumeko." "Interesting. Anyway, what do you say about... fixing this thing ourselves? It's been a while since I've seen the place." "I mean, if it's what you want, then I have no choice but to accept." You reply.
"Then off we go." Yuugen says, walking back to the gates that were locked earlier. You follow her there, she somehow opens the lock without a key, and the two of you begin to walk out of the murky lands. "So, what were you talking about earlier by 'sokyo'?" "It's where we're headed, Gensokyo. Eastern lands of the forgotten." "That's helpful." Yuugen noticed the sarcasm, and responded in kind. "Yep, it's real helpful. Joking aside, where do you want to check first?"
...where do you want to investigate?
[_] The shrine in the distance.
[_] The other cave that's nearby.
[_] The forest.
[_] The village.
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<HATATE>
[2] Discuss the lack of color.
The first order of business for you was to see if anyone knew what was up with the gray world. "So, Patchouli, do you know anything about the lack of color?" "Personally, I don't, although there might be something in the library about it, I'll go and check." Patchouli gets up, with the unusually severe cough continuing, and walks off to one of the shelves. Koakuma tries to strike up a conversation with you, and you answer as you wait. "So, how is it like back on the mountain?" "Well, not good at all. Suwako, Kanako, and Sanae are completely missing, the kappa are gone, and I haven't seen Aya nor Momiji in about a week, for what it's worth." "Terrible, real terrible." Koakuma mutters, as she goes back to shelving books.
Patchouli eventually returns to her desk. "I haven't found much, surprisingly... the only remotely similar occurence that I've found is where a massive turtle painted a world gray, and the hero of that world had to team up with a sentient paint bucket to return the color to the world. However, it's a western tale." "Thanks for helping, while I'm at it, I've heard that Reimu and Marisa have disappeared, no word on Sukima." "...Well, this rabbit hole just got a whole lot deeper."
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