[X] Go get more information from Patchouli.
[X] Drop the sword off the house on the way.
Perhaps it's best to visit Patchouli. Afterall, she's likely to
know better than you do about what you should do next. First though,
you should deposit the sword you took back at Alice's house. No sense
flying around with it and looking suspicious. You take a short detour
to float over to Alice's and tuck the sword away in Alice's room. Once
that's done, you leave once again to return to the Scarlet Devil
Mansion.
You land outside the gate, and the gatekeeper girl bows to you. You should know her name, Alice remembers her, but just barely.
"Hello!" she says vibrantly. "Are you here visiting?" she asks.
You nod silently.
"I'm here to see Patchouli." you respond. The woman nods, and gives you a smile as she steps over to open the gate for you.
"Ms. Knowledge is in her library as always. You should greet Sakuya
as well, let her know you're visiting." the gategirl says as you walk
through the opened door. She shuts it behind you as you pass and
returns to her post. Well, she's diligent in her work, though wasn't
she asleep the last time you came? You hope to yourself that you don't
ever end up taking over her body if you manage to jump again. You
continue up to the large doors of the mansion and pull one open,
stepping inside. The large house is still as eerie as you remember it
being, with the dimly lit halls and few windows. The door shutting
behind you creates a resounding echo that unnerves you a little bit.
Just how big is this place?
In any case, you're immediately uncomfortable again. You can't put
your finger on it, but you know there's something not right here. Of
course, Remilia is a vampire, but despite being a vampire she doesn't
seem all that different from a typical stuck up, snobby aristrocratic
child. She definitely doesn't seem to terribly out of place, and she
doesn't give you a sense of being unnatural, but that's what you feel
right now. A very strong sense that something is out of place. You
consider the gate girls statement that you should find Sakuya and greet
her, but being inside the mansion, you feel like you'd much rather skip
formalities and rush to the library. Then again, you could always
leave.
[] Ignore your discomfort and find Sakuya
[] Ignore formality and get to the library
[] On second thought, you'll come back later...
Despite how uncomfortable you are, you decide to find Sakuya at
least. You can deal with a strange feeling better than you could deal
with whatever Sakuya might do if she thinks you're an intruder, and a
strange feeling is better then a stabbing feeling any day. Where to
start though?
You wander down the hallway. Alice remembes where the library is, a
staircase to get to the roof, and the main hall, if her memories are in
order, she's fought in each of these places. You wish you knew a little
more about this as it might be useful insight, but whatever the reason
for such a thing must still be lost in her mind. After a bit of
walking, you come to an open door and look through. Looks like a parlor
of sorts. You decide to go in, and as you do you hear a faint sound of
chittering voices that seem to come from everywhere. A chill runs up
your spine at the sound, as the room is otherwise devoid of life aside
from you. You're about to chalk it up to nerves when you spot something
moving, partially hidden by darkness under a chair.
Well, that's enough of that room. You turn around and begin to
leave the room when you hear the chittering again. You consider picking
up the pace when you hear a voice.
"Wait! Wait!"
You turn around, and see a lone fairy buzzing towards you, dressed in maid attire.
"Are you looking for Sakuya?" she asks. You look around the room
and notice a bunch of fairies that were previously hiding poking their
heads out. They must have been the voices you heard.
"Yes, I am." you reply. The fairy turns back to the room, several
fairies are shaking their heads, but she ignores them, turning back to
you.
"I'll bring you to her. It's best if you fly, you don't want to
waste any time." she says, buzzing past your head and almost colliding
with the doll floating idly behind you. Come to think of it, these
fairies are about the same size as the dolls, and you didn't remember
seeing any maid dolls at Alice's house. In any case, you lift off the
ground and hover after the fairy. Every few seconds she looks back at
you, probably to make sure you're still following. You get the feeling
now that something important is happening, given how the fairies were
hiding and acting.
Suddenly, Sakuya appears out of nowhere in the hallway, giving the
fairy a surprise as she squeaks and bounces off her. You're a bit
luckier, and you stop yourself before a collision. You immediately can
see Sakuya looks a bit annoyed.
"Hello Alice," she says with a rather curt tone. "I'm a bit busy at the moment with some pressing matters, so if you would-"
She's cut off by a loud shriek, followed by a heavy thump that
shakes the house. Several candles rattle out of their holders and fall
to the ground. Sakuya stamps out the wicks, and you notice the fairy
that lead you here has already vanished. You don't blame her, you feel
even more uncomfortable now.
"I'm sure that caught your attention. I'm glad you came to inform
me of your arrival, though I suggest you tend to any business you have
here and leave promptly. I cannot guarantee your safety at this time."
A chill runs up your spine at the sound of that.
[] "What's going on? Can I help?"
[] "I'll be on my way then."
As soon as you finish speaking, Sakuya vanishes. Alone, and now
apparently in danger, you feel worse than before. You should get to the
library as soon as possible, at least there are a few windows in there.
You turn around, and notice that most of the candles for a good portion
of the hallway had been knocked loose or extinguished, pitching a
stretch of the hall into deep darkness. Great.
You float towards the darkness, your doll floating ahead of you.
With a small amount of concentration, you manage to cause the doll to
light itself up, casting a pale glow into the darkness. You can hardly
even see the walls, but little light is better than no light,
especially if something might attack you. Looking ahead, you can see
further down the hallway where candles are still lit, and you can make
out the form of a person that appears to be moving towards you. You
recognize the green outfit, the gate keeper. She stops at the edge of
the darkness, looking a bit flustered, and looking towards you.
"H-hey! Alice! It everything okay?" she calls to you. Is she afraid
to enter the dark? After a few seconds, you get close enough to the
other edge the quickly walks towards you.
"I don't know. Sakuya said something was happening and that she
couldn't guarantee my safety." you say. The gate guard looks a little
panicked.
"She probably got out again, not good." she says, looking down the
hall, then back at you. 'She'? "So... you're going to the library now?"
she asks. You reply with a nod. "Th-then I'm going there with you. If
Sakuya can't guarantee your safety, then I should probably help keep an
eye on you!" she says with a false bravado. She looks back at the dark
hall as you float along, and she keeps up with you on foot. There must
be a reason she was afraid of the dark, but you're reluctant to ask.
Part of you feel it would be better to not know what's going on.
[] "Who is this 'she' you said might have gotten out?"
[] Ignorance is bliss
A better way of asking the question without revealing our lack of knowledge would probably be
[X] "Is the person running around right now who I think it is?"
or
[X] "I hope the person running around right now isn't who I think it is."
Alice doesn't show up until PCB, and aside from IN and IaMP/SWR, I
don't think Alice would have much interaction with SDM. I'm basing how
character's know each other off of appearing in games, which is why
Alice knows SDM's layout at all, because there are SDM stages in the
fighting games. Unless there's some untranslated dialogue somewhere
that someone mentions Flandre to Alice, the only people that should
know she exists are SDM, Reimu and Marisa. For sake of argument, I'm
not counting Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red as a 'canon' material
source, because that would mean that pretty much everyone should know
each other, even Flandre who is supposed to be a 'secret'.
Marisa would probably mention Flandre to her in some way at least,
especially since the two of them make frequent trips to SDM. I can't
imagine Marisa would leave Alice in the dark about Flandre.
PC-98 Alice not withstanding. I'm a bit adverse to using
information and characters from half of the series that, for the most
part, have been entirely written out of existence, especially when
details about what happened in the past aren't specifically mentioned
in later games.
>>40845>>40846>>40847 Alice doesn't enter the new (and improved?) Gensokyo until PCB. Not
knowing about Flandre is entirely possible, even if she does know
Patchouli, it doesn't seem like a subject most people would bring up
casually.
>>40832 [X] "Who is this 'she' you said might have gotten out?"
Marisa never struck me as the type to beat someone like
flan and NOT brag about it. Plus Alice seems to visit Patchy, who lives
in the same damn house as Flandre. It would take nothing short of a
professional cover-up for Alice not to be aware of Flan's existance.
Exactly. At the very least, Marisa would have mentioned Flandre at
some time or another so Alice would at least have some idea of who
Flandre is. We might not know everything about her, but we would
certainly know that she is dangerous enough to be the cause of the
current situation.
EoSD extra dialogue seems to imply that Reimu/Marisa's previous
visit to SDM during the main course of the game was noticed by Flandre,
even though she was locked away in the basement. Granted, they were
there blasting their way through the house, but still they were
surprised for the most part to find another vampire.
Anyway, I guess I'll have to do the write in. I'm just here to see
if I can BAD END you through shady options and clever(?) traps, not to
swing my logic around.
[X] "Is the person running around right now who I think it is?"
The guard doesn't answer. You faintly recall through Alice's
memories something about another vampire, but it was Marisa explaining
it.
"Yes," the guard answers. Damn, why can't you remember her name?
"Little sister probably got out. She hasn't been out in a while and
probably got bored, so-"
Another tremor rocks the house, and a faint echo resonates through
the hallway. The guard looks a little more worried, as she keeps
looking over her shoulder.
"We should hurry."
The new minute passes in silence as the two of you hurry to the
library, only to find the doors locked. Probably a safety measure,
given the circumstances. You knock on the door, expecting to get some
kind of response, but after a few seconds you don't hear anything. You
knock again.
"Patchouli? It's Alice, can you open up?" you call out, rather
hesitant to raise your voice. The guard is standing with her back
towards the door, she looks pretty tense. Not that you can blame her. A
faint echo sounds down the hallway, though the sound is mostly
unintelligible. You knock on the door again, but this time the guard
calls out.
"Patchouli? Koakuma? Meiling is out here too, I'd really like to
come in as well. Things aren't pleasant out here." she calls, quite
louder than you. At this point, you can tell she's really quite scared.
No response comes, and you feel increasingly disturbed, as the house is
deathly silent aside form the sound of you and Meiling breathing. A
sound rings out from somewhere, a loud sound like 'kyu', and another
tremor shakes the house. You hear a crack and a small click sound and
notice the doors to the library literally shook open.
"Meiling, come on." you say, entering the library. She hurries past
you, and helps you close the door. The door looks a little worn, and
you can see some cracks in the frame. Otherwise, the door closes fine
and locks. At least you made it to the library. By the time you turn
around, Meiling has already floated up onto one of the bookshelves and
is looking around.
"Patchouli? You in here?" she calls. You recognize Patchouli's
servant as she appears from behind a bookcase, Koakuma apparently.
"Sorry for not getting the door, but I'm just as scared as you.
Lady Patchouli is also quite concerned, but I lost her somewhere in the
library." she says, bowing her head. She looks a bit disheveled, like
she's been busy. It dawns on you that the tremors are probably shaking
books loose, and looking at the size of the library you already feel
bad if that's the case.
"Well, we should probably find her at least." you say, floating up
to the book shelf. Koakuma nods and looks around, then points off in a
direction.
"That's the north side of the library, I'll search over there." she
says. Meiling turns around and motions in the opposite direction.
"I'll go south then, see if I can find her."
You look around as well. Where the door is located is on a corner,
and the library expands out quite a distance in all directions. You
could search either the west side, or the east side.
If Koakuma took the North, and Meiling took the South. The smart
thing to do would be to take whichever direction doesn't make you
search the area right in front of you because that wouldn't work out to
well. I'm assuming that would be East so eh.
Everyone splits up in opposite directions, and you choose the East
side of the library. As you make your way over, you take note of the
windows on this side. You hear the other twos voices echoing around the
library, calling for Patchouli. You wonder if that's even effective,
since she would be able to respond if she could hear them, unless she
was stuck or trapped somewhere. Looking at the library floor from the
air, you can see that indeed, a lot of books were shaken from the
shelves, many piles bunched up everywhere, entire rows filled with
books. You kind of hope that you don't need any of these books, since
having to find the right book in a mess this size would take a long
time.
As you pass near one of the windows, you hear a knocking sound. You
turn your head to see Marisa outside the window, waving at you. With a
simple push, the hinged window swings open.
"What's up Alice?" she says, floating in through the window. "I
noticed you left early, you could have at least waiting until I woke
up."
You didn't really have an excuse for yourself, since you had just
wanted to leave. You don't need to explain anything though, as Marisa
notices the huge mess the library has become rather quickly.
"Wow, this place is ruined! What's happened?" she asks, floating
down between some shelves. The house shakes again, and a book topples
from a shelf and just barely missed Marisa, who floats back up where
it's safe. "Whoa, going to need a hard hat in here. What's been going
on?"
"Remilia's sister is probably loose, and Patchouli is lost
somewhere in the library. We're trying to find her, I have some
questions I wanted to ask her as well."
Marisa tips her hat.
"Well now, just leave this to me, I can find that girl no problem!"
she exclaims, pulling her hat from her head. She pulls a bulbous flask
from somewhere in the hat and reels back, throwing it up into the air.
As it ascends into the air, Marisa fires a glowing ball of light at it.
The light impacts the vial and erupts into a fountain of coloured
lights with a bang, the balls of light slowly drifting out in all
directions. The fountain of light fades, but the various floating
lights are left behind, casting rainbow lights all over the library,
making it much easier to see through the gloom and dust.
"That would get her attention if she's asleep, so all we have to do
now is find her." she says. She then proceeds to float off towards the
corner, in the direction Meiling took. The new lights are rather
helpful, as it makes seeing the floor much easier. If Patchouli is
buring in books, it might be easier to find her now too. After a few
minutes of floating over rows of books, you hear a noise coming from
below you. You float down to check it out.
The first thing you see is a long tail of purple hair poking out
from a pile. After a little bit of digging, you find Patchouli, face
down beneath a stack of books, apparently asleep. You notice that
despite being buried under books, there's a small space open in front
of her, and in that space, a book is laying open. You ignore it for now
and shake her to wake her up. She comes around and begins to open her
eyes.
"Huh? Alice?" she says sleepily, squirming a little despite still being half buried in books. "Oh, that's right."
A few seconds of moving books later, and Patchouli is able to pull
herself from the pile up and takes a seat on the pile, rubbing her
eyes.
"I must have dozed off while reading..." she said, still sounding
half asleep. You look back down at the open book in the small clearing.
She decided to read instead of try to free herself when she got stuck?
"You were buried in books though," you say, a bit concerned. "Weren't you worried you would be stuck?"
Patchouli looks at you like the thought never crossed her mind.
"Koakuma would have found me eventually. It's not like I'll die of
old age or hunger or anything," she says, leaning forward to pick up
the book, which she starts reading again immediately. "I'd been looking
for this book lately anyway, and when I saw it in front of me, well..."
she said, not finishing the sentence. Truly weak for books it seems.
"The doors were locked, I assume for protection from what's going
on in the rest of the house?" you ask. Patchouli simply nods, already
caught up in her book.
"Well, I should probably tell the others that I found you, and I
have more questions for you about my research as well." you say,
floating into the air. You can already see Koakuma nearby, and in the
distance you can see Meiling chasing Marisa, who from this distance
seems to be carrying several books. You call out to Koakuma, who flies
over to you. A few second later, Koakuma and Patchouli float up,
Koakuma leading Patchouli as she's too busy with the book still to even
look where she's flying. You follow them to one of the many small
tables spotted around the library, where Patchouli immediately takes a
seat. You take the eyes you took out of your pocket.
"I've managed to get some eyes, though I was wondering what it was
I needed to do to be able to use them for my research." you say.
"You'll need to be able to synchronize them with the mind, so that
they will be able to work together with the brain in order to properly
analyze their surroundings. I don't have any suggestions for what to do
about creating a brain though, you can't just use a real brain unless
you want to run the risk of giving your doll a dormant split
personality. Your best bet would be to try to create a complex spell
centered on a small enough object to fit in the head to simulate a
concious, sentient mind. Something like that is beyond the capabilities
of a single magician to cast however."
You're still amazed how quickly she can produce information. You
briefly think that perhaps you should try to talk her into finishing
the research, since she'd likely be able to do it quicker than you
could.
[] "How many would I need?"
[] "Is there -any- other alternative?"
[] "You'd help me cast the spell, right?"
[x] "You'd help me cast the spell, right?"
[x] "I will give you a reward for your effort"
Patchouli looks up at you for a moment. You thought for a moment
you saw her cheeks turn a little red. Ah, that's right, she probably
hasn't forgotten about your last visit yet.
"Considering a spell like that would be incredibly complex, I would
likely be the only one that could cast it. It would take quite a deal
of advancement in magical arts to be able to successfully cast such a
spell. If you're even able to understand it if you write it, there
might be a chance, but it's slim you'd even make it that far." she
says, setting her book aside for a moment to look through a small stack
of books on the table. She pulls one out and hands it to you. You open
it, and instantly realize it's filled with the same incomprehensible
text that determines your limit. You flip through the pages, and find
that the entire book seems to be above you. You close the book and set
it down on the table. "That book is the same level as the basic
knowledge you'll need to be able to begin work on such a spell.
Admittedly, the final result might even be beyond my ability. After
all, of all the things magic can do, creating life from nothing is one
thing that hasn't been successful."
She turns a page in her book.
"Aside from attempting to use an existing brain, which I would
recommend you do not do, the only other easier option would be to try
to bind a soul to the doll. While it would also be possible for it to
backfire or work against you in such a case, it would be much easier
than creating a sentient mind from nothing, and much less distressing
than dealing with tissue that will eventually begin to rot. You might
run afoul of the forces of death for such a thing though."
Well, that wouldn't be very acceptable. You're already on the run
yourself from the same people, drawing their attention would definitely
be a bad thing. It dawns on you now though, why Alice didn't seem to
make any progress on her research into this spell. She was aware that
the most important part of it all hinged on her own ability to cast,
and was studying other magic in the hopes of raising her ability. With
this, you also figure that she was probably purposefully avoiding
having to use either alternative option. That leaves you stuck. If
Alice wouldn't use either alternative, then you probably shouldn't
either, but that means you're stuck until you're able to work on the
spell that needs to be made.
[] No choice but to hit the books, you can't do it now as you are.
[] End your chase, it could take years of research to reach that level.
[] I'll risk an alternative anyway.
Probably the last post for today. I'm feeling tired already, plus
I'm going to need to stop to do a little planning since I'm reaching
the limits of what I had preplanned. Short thread is short.
>I don't have any suggestions for what to do
about creating a brain though, you can't just use a real brain unless
you want to run the risk of giving your doll a dormant split
personality.
We have a few options with a real doll-sized brain: It'd have to be
animal, which limits its cognitive ability; a small-sized youkai or
fairy brain, which probably would have a very high level of residual
personality; and a human neonate's brain, which would have a very low
risk of personality divergence but certainly wouldn't help our karma.
We might be able to prevent problems with the original personality
through different methods: Suppress the original mind with enchantment
magic, wipe the original brain map with thorough electroshock or
excitotoxin, or lesion specific areas to induce total amnesia. All of
these things would likely reduce the brain's original cognitive
abilities.
Anyway, using body parts isn't very doll-like.
>Your best bet would be to try to create a
complex spell centered on a small enough object to fit in the head to
simulate a concious, sentient mind.
There are computers at Kourindou. A CPU would make the perfect focus.
>>40886 >Height is uniformly small, from the
degree where they can fit in the palm of one´s hand, up to the size of
a child below ten years of age. There is hardly any fairy outside of
this scope.
I would field this idea as an Extra mode option allowing nothing
but write-ins, if only to see if Anon can unite to rebuild themselves.
Faster, better, stronger than before.
Also, as a note for future reference: Should you happen to BAD END,
how would you rather go about things? Restart right from the beginning,
from the beginning of a thread, or should I start establishing
'checkpoints' you'd be returned to at the end of each day?
Do want Nitori/Alice-produced magitech. They're both obsessive experimenters; they should get along fine.
We won't have many other chances for this kind of collaboration:
Alice by herself is too timid, Patchy is unlikely to move from her
library, and Marisa is too capricious to stick to a long-term project
that isn't about lasers.
>>40895 I think offering 1/2/3 choices back is usually good. You don't want
to go too far back, just let us change some short-term consequences
while staying on the same long-term paths we've chosen.
Hmm, I guess forcing a body switch would be plausible though it
lacks all real sense of finality. I could always cause some loss of
synch with a Bad End'd character in case you end up going back.
Going with [X] No choice but to hit the books, you can't do it now as you are. Be around Monday or so.
I was thinking a good way to do it is have us bad end, then take us
to the previous time we drempt, and to take away our ability to possess
that soul again. It'll give Anon an incentive not to screw up, and if
we screw up a whole lot, we'll eventually run out of bodies.
or, alternatively, say that Komachi is keeping watch on suspects,
and you can't inhabit the last the people you possess, but as soon as
you get another bad end, Komachi has to drop watch on the first one, so
we only have three people we can't inhabit at any one time.
>>40901 >forcing a body switch
>cause some loss of synch
So if we get a BAD END we get thrown out of the entire story
arc? This is starting to sound like Tetro's idea of reducing affection
points after BAD ENDs. Which he quickly retracted.
I think BAD ENDs should be their own punishment, something horrible
happens and we feel bad and then we go back and fix it. Let us take
some risks.
Ideally, I'd prefer a BAD END to be an actual end. For example,
back at Marisa's if you'd have opened the book, that's pretty much the
most clear Bad End, and you'd have killed Alice. In such a case, you
wouldn't even have gotten a chance to switch, just eternal torment
along side a now dead, permanently enraged Alice.
Pretty much all the Bad Ends I've conceived you can get involve
death and/or capture of your soul, because anything that doesn't end up
with you meeting a final solution should just be a really huge setback.
I doubt I'll use the whole loss of synch thing, I was mainly just
thinking out loud.
If there's ever a point you get 'too stupid', you will definitely deserve to die, so no worries.
On that note though, I should mention that there are interesting
things to see taking some stupid or potentially dangerous options.
Staying in character is fine, though being a little adventurous can
lead to interesting things. Sure, Alice stays inside a lot and makes
dolls or researches magic, but she has to get her materials somewhere.
She also performs shows in the village from time to time.
>>40913 >If there's ever a point you get 'too stupid', you will definitely deserve to die
Given that "too stupid" is Anon's base state of being already, this means all 4channers should be shot on sight.
