> "Is it not acceptable for her to merely remain at my side? I rather enjoy the company of my friend, and if you're still worried about an assault, at the very least, you would not be surrounded."
> "I am willing to do this, but you realize you would have to turn your back to us to retrieve your book, correct? Or risk stepping on it as you blindly walk backward. If you are okay with this, then I will move."
> Shrug.
> "Just making sure."
> Walk toward the poltergeist, aiming for the side of her tree shadow that the book is not on. Visually assess the ground near Tenshi on this same side.
> Move parallel to her tree shadow, staying about a yard's distance from it at all times. Keep an eye on the poltergeist while we do this.
> Once we are in line with the poltergeist (such that a line connecting her and us would run perpendicular to our shadows), turn around and walk backwards, avoiding what roots and other tripping things we remember are on the ground in the area, until we are in line with Tenshi. Again, keep an eye on the poltergeist while we do this.
> If the poltergeist makes a sudden move toward us or our, be prepared to jump back away from her.
> Do a visual inspection of the ground on either side of her tree shadow. Does there appear to be any appreciable difference, other than the book?
> And no appreciable difference in the trees or the shadows?
> Look at the poltergeist with a confused expression on our face, then drop it and shrug.
> "And here I thought you'd want me further away from your book."
> "Okay, okay."
> Keep on charging. If we stopped, resume it.
> Move toward the poltergeist on the side of her shadow where the book does reside. Visually assess the ground near Tenshi on this same side.
> Move parallel to her tree shadow, staying about a yard's distance from it at all times. Keep an eye on the poltergeist while we do this. Do NOT step on the book.
> Once we are in line with the poltergeist (such that a line connecting her and us would run perpendicular to our shadows), turn around and walk backwards, avoiding what roots and other tripping things we remember are on the ground in the area, until we are in line with Tenshi. Again, keep an eye on the poltergeist while we do this.
> If the poltergeist makes a sudden move toward us or our, be prepared to jump back away from her.
> Is the poltergeist still standing on our shadow?
> Can we move our hands at all, at least?
> If not, where are they pointed?
> Try to manage a small smile to Tenshi.
> "Yeah. I suppose I should have seen that one coming."
> Can we fire bolts with our hands at our sides, or do those require them being in front of us?
> Watch the Poltergeist while talking to Tenshi.
> "Wait her out. She's done nothing truly aggressive to me yet. I imagine this is just an insurance policy."
> Does the poltergeist appear more angry, confused or worried?
> "I know you do. And when I thanked you, I meant it. But there's no need for violence here. She doesn't act out of malice, she acts out of desperation."
> Frown.
> "If you want to strangle someone, save the feeling for someone that deserves it, like that muscle-bound moron. Or...save it for me, for taking so long to get you free."
>"Just hold back on those times that it really matters, and I think we'll do ok."
> "And like I said, remember Marisa. She beat you up out of mindlessness and prejudice. She deserves your anger more than this girl does."
> Give a small chuckle.
> "We do still have the thing from Aya, if you're so inclined."
> Look at Tenshi and nod our head toward the Poltergeist.
> "Later."
> Turn to the Poltergeist.
> "Is something wrong?"
> "Oh. Sorry."
> Look back mostly toward Tenshi, but angle ourselves so that we can still see the Poltergeist out of the side of our eye.
> "Anyway, Tenshi, I meant her camera, but not for those reasons. I've been thinking about what happened in there, and something has been bothering me. Something other than the obvious, of course."
> "Do you remember how she did that...unpleasant thing I asked her to do without questioning it, but when I asked her to leave you alone, she refused to the point of being willing to stay in the jail cell? Doesn't that strike you as odd? Why would those types of photographs of other people be more objectionable than, well, doing that unpleasant thing herself?"
> Can we tell how the Poltergeist is behaving now?
> "Maybe. But she also kept trying to make the differentiation between a work of art or a cheap pinup, as much as she was willing to lie there and let me do what I wanted. And, to be honest, that foible of her personality aside, she seems to be mostly level-headed."
> "I actually think it might be something else at play. I don't think she does it because she enjoys reveling in simple improper naughtiness. That doesn't gel with what she told us in the prison. I wonder...I think she does it simply to prove superiority to others. To show that she can do it, and that we can't stop her."
> "I suppose the only way we'll ever know for sure is if we inquired further into her so-called 'art'. But I think I like the idea of her trying to prove superiority, in a way. We've both been victimized by her in the past. Wouldn't it be nice to get her back by beating her at her own game?"
> "It would be a fitting response, as it were. And I think I know how we can do it. Momizi told us to let us know anything we learned about Aya's whereabouts. Well, we know where Aya will be this afternoon, and we know she's enlisted Momizi's help in the past. I'm willing to bet Momizi would be willing to help us in exchange for tipping her off on Aya's whereabouts. All we need to do is wait for Aya at the appointed place, wait for Momizi to show up not long thereafter, let them get into a shouting match over the escape, and grab a picture or two while she's distracted."
> Check in on the Poltergeist again, without turning our head.
> Nod and smile.
> "I sure hope so. I can't imagine it failing."
> Can we hear the pages of the book flipping?
> "She might be, but she doesn't have to know. Besides, I imagine Momizi will come alone. She really didn't want to question us that much; her questions were pretty dodgy and she never actually asked if we were responsible or not. To be honest, I imagine she's somewhat glad Aya's free, even if she won't admit it to her superiors. I'm sure those two will work something out that keeps Aya free while making Momizi still look good."
> "I suppose that's possible as well. I felt like my answers were equally dodgy, though, and that she should have picked up on something being off. I dunno, maybe I'm just imagining things."
> "We wait to see what the apparent trouble is."
> Wait in silence for the poltergeist to do anything other than flip through pages in silent frustration.
> Try to catch our breath.
> Look back at our shadow.
> Did the poltergeist actually leave? In which direction did she go?
> "Wait! I can teach you the thing you told Suika about!"
> Try to follow her.
> "Tenshi, can you go get that book and then come back to me? I'll keep this up, but hurry."
> Keep following the poltergeist.
> What is west of here?
> Fly after her, a little bit faster than she is walking.
> Visually inspect our left arm by quickly bringing it up into our line of vision, then dropping it back down. Does it look weird in any fashion?
> Use our left hand to feel around our stomach, where we felt that final blow, for any abnormalities.
> No abnormalities, then? That's encouraging, at least.
> Look back behind us quickly. Is Tenshi still visible?
> Look back at the Poltergeist.
> "Please, let us help you!"
> "Because I'm offering, and because I'm guessing you can't do it yourself, or else you would have done so before and would not be so frustrated now. Whatever information wasn't in that book, I would be happy to provide you as best I can."
>Kind tone.
>"I'm not trying to expose you. I want to help you... and in the process teach you a bit about trust, something we value in Bhava-Agra"
>That last part is true right? cut it otherwise.
> "Besides, how much can I expose you when I'm here with you instead of anywhere with anyone else?"
>Would we need to know anything at all about her to teach her to fly? hypothetically speaking, seeing as we know a deal about her now
> "But there's something I don't understand. Something I still want to help you with. Why do you need to hide from everyone?"
> "I have several reasons for following you. If I tell you why I am here with you right now, will you tell me why you need to hide from everyone? I will even go first, if you don't believe that I will tell you about myself if you tell me about yourself."
> Nod to Tenshi.
> "Excellent, thank you."
> Turn back to the poltergeist.
> "Well, that's a shame, because I'm going to tell you anyway."
> "You want to know why I follow you? Because you ruined my home, and I want it restored. Because you took the kappa and the karakasa, and I want them restored. Because you took from the rock and the tree, and I'm baffled by those choices, because they're completely incongruous with your desire to hide, being only a rock and a tree. But most importantly, because I know how you came to be, and what feelings were forced upon you, and I sympathize with you as a result. I want to help that. No one deserves to be born into the world with such paranoia."
> "I do it to warn them, to keep people in groups, so there are no more like Nitori and Kogasa, attacked because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I also do it because you don't want to hide. You didn't make that choice. Others made you like that."
> "No, you don't. You were made by others to want to be left alone. But your actions speak differently. You chose to leave your forest. You chose to investigate that Bhava-Agra place you read about, despite it being a great distance away from everything. You chose to have a drink with Suika, instead of hiding from her or trying to silence her. You did these things. Not the people that forced paranoid feelings on you. And I'm willing to bet you enjoyed them."
> "There are more like Suika, you know. The man you saw in the shop? Perfectly civil gentleman. He'll make deals with anyone and everyone, regardless of who or what they are. The blond-haired puppeteer carries herself just as well. The green-haired shrine maiden and her goddesses atop the mountain, the Lunarians in the bamboo forest, the spider girl from underground, the redhead gatekeeper at the mansion, all of them are pleasant conversations, whether they're talking to an old friend or a complete stranger. Most of Bhava-Agra is this way as well."
> "I have a couple of theories. If I had only one guess, though, it would be because you were worried about the demiurge that you read about, the one that looks upon everyone as it pleases."
> "Then it would be because you read that our land cast no shadow."
> "But clearly that isn't correct, is it? You did a very neat job of proving it does."
> "It would certainly seem it is not, yes. I've now seen Bhava-Agra's shadow myself. Both here in Gensokyo, after the islands fell, and in the void you sent me to."
> "But, and I'm sure you'll be happy to hear this, that is where things become unclear to me. I can see why you would be interested in such a peculiarity, but I am not sure why you would deign to act upon it as you did. Surely you would not do it for the attention, and you don't seem the type to do something just because you can."
> Laugh.
> Turn to Tenshi.
> "Hey, Tenshi! Do I know everything?"
>"You want to know the sum total of what I knew about you when we met? That you had been seen reading a book by the shadowless tree a week ago. That is seriously all."
> "Just thinking about the past day and a half, and all the times I've shown how little I really know, and all the times you've been there to watch me flop around like an idiot."
>"You want to know the sum total of what I knew about you when we met? That you were a poltergeist, and that you had been seen reading a book by the shadowless tree a week ago. That is seriously all."
> Turn back to the Poltergeist to say this.
> Add on "Oh, and that you had met another poltergeist just recently. But, really, that was it."
> Is the poltergeist still walking away and still not facing us?
> "It is true. There is plenty I don't know. Like I believe I said earlier, I know what you are, but I don't know who you are, and it's the latter I'm far more interested in."
> "And yet, as much as I am interested in who you are, I have yet to even ask one of the most important questions in that regard, and I apologize for being so cold and careless. As I said before, I am Iku. Iku Nagae, to use the full thing. My friend here is Tenshi Hinanai, the Eldest Daughter of the Hinanai Clan of Bhava-Agra. Now, I may know what they call you, but I do not know what you call yourself. What is your name?"
> Did she stop walking outright?
> Regardless, wait a few seconds in silence. If she stopped, stop. If she's still walking, keep following at the same pace.
> "...Could it be...you...don't?"
> "I told you. I want to help."
> Stop and land.
> "A lot has changed between yesterday and today. I admit I've made some mistakes, and I feel bad that they've made you feel this way. But yes, I want to help."
> "After all is said and done, if you wish to never see me again, I can do my best to fulfill that. But the demiurge you read about has tasked me with restoring Bhava-Agra to its proper place, and I have made a vow to those others who currently reside shadowless that I would restore them as well."
> Do we know in which direction Renko and Maribel's house is from here? North?
> How close is our shadow to the poltergeist?
> "You mean Tenshi?"
> What does the poltergeist's shadow look like?
> "Okay."
> Turn to Tenshi.
> "Tenshi, can you fly on back to where we were earlier and wait for me there? If you meet anyone, tell them there's nothing to worry about."
> Nod.
> "I am, yes. And I meant the place where Nitori and Kogasa are. Since we came in from this direction..."
> Walk several paces back in the direction we came.
> "...hmm...it should be that way."
> Point to the northwest.
> Turn back to Tenshi in such a way that we can also see the poltergeist.
> "Don't worry. I will rejoin you soon enough."
> Mentally facepalm.
> "I won't. Be well, Tenshi. I'll be with you again soon."
> Turn back to the poltergeist and watch her while listening for Tenshi's footsteps to fade. Be prepared to jump back and to the side if she comes charging at us.
> What emotion does the poltergeist's facial expression portray?
> What emotion did the tone of her question portray?
> Smile.
> "A number of things, I suspect. To begin with, though, I ultimately want to help you overcome whatever problem is making you think you need to hide from everyone."
> I have now begun the habit of misreading this thread title as "Iku Quest Saddam". Congratulations on turning my mental image of Pocky and Brocky from Ika Musume to Osama bin Laden.
> "Because I know you were created that way, and because your encounter with Suika tells a different story. As did your silence when I listed all those other people."
> "But you still enjoyed her company enough to accept alcohol from her. And admit that thing about yourself that you admitted to her."
> "Are you sure? I can teach you."
> "What you told Suika you can't do. I've been refraining from saying it out loud out of respect, but if need be, I will come out with it."
> "If it was that unimportant, why did you tell Suika about it?"
> "Mmm, yes, I see. That was sake, and I understand Suika has an endless supply of it. It's an alcoholic beverage that's rather popular with the oni and the tengu. Most people usually can't drink too much alcohol or else their mind starts getting a bit messed up. It takes a lot to do any serious damage, but have enough of it and it can hinder your coordination, as well as get you to talk about things you wouldn't normally admit. I can get the same way myself, if I have too much."
> "...Did you like the taste, at least?"
> Nod.
> "I can imagine. Alcohol is an interesting beast in general. It is more Suika's area of expertise than mine, though."
> "Now. Before I go much further, I think I owe it to you to explain where I am coming from, when I talk about what I claim to know about you, and why I sympathize with you. In doing research into the local interests, as well as poltergeist biology, as it were, I have learned that you've only really been around here for a few weeks. A few months, tops. I've also learned that you can't do that thing, and, if earlier was any indication, that you lack a name. A cruel existence to be thrust into to be sure, but I can berate those responsible for your presence about their inconsideration later. I've also heard of your curiosity into things like the man's shop in the forest, as well as your devotion to that book. Given how long you've been here, the circumstances of your arrival, and the subject of that book, I think it's pretty easy to conclude that you simply do not know a whole lot about where you are."
> Our arms are at our sides, correct? If not, put them there.
> Without moving our arms further, rotate our hands so that our palms are open and pointed at the poltergeist. This should be a gesture of peace, not one of combat. Keep the smile up.
> "I want to tell you that you have nothing to be scared of or embarrassed about with me. You're new here, so these things are to be expected. It is a shame that you cannot fly, or that you do not have a name, but these things are not your fault at all, and to expect you to have picked them up on your own would be rather unreasonable. Since you have read the passage in that book about my home, you know what it said about the people that dwell there. I take no pleasure in the suffering or embarrassment of others. If I did take pleasure in your embarrassment I would have talked about these things while Tenshi was here. I want to help you with these things because it is the right thing to do. I would be a terrible Bhavagran if I had someone suffering in front of me and I did nothing to help them. Bhava-Agra does not smile upon sadism. Nor does it smile upon deceit. You don't have to feel ashamed or embarrassed of anything in front of me, because I really do want to help you out with these things, to take you from the existence that was thrust upon you and help you grow from it, to become your own person instead of what everyone blithely assumed you were. It's not what you are that's important, it's who you are. But I can only do so much as I am. I want to help you, but I can only help you as much as you want to be helped. Let me help you and teach you what you wish to know. Please."
>"Those people who are always in the forest, that you think are looking for you? They're not really looking for you. They're looking for an idea. That idea may have given birth to you, but that's not really the same thing. Many of them have even seen you, and they didn't know you were it. Wouldn't even believe me when I said that you were it. They search for the Brocken Spectre, but the Brocken Spectre they search for does not exist. None of them came here to hunt YOU."
>"I never said you are other than who you are. But you are not what the people believe they are searching for. You are not what they think of when they hear that name. To them, the Brocken Spectre is a fantastic creature, a puzzle, a mystery to be solved. It is something larger than life. But it is not a person, like you are. They don't know what it is the seek. If they knew that they were hunting a person who simply wanted their solitude... they would not be hunting you at all."
>"I spoke with the woman who has done more organization in search of what she wrongly thought you were, than anyone else. It might surprise you to know that she feels both foolish and bad about the entire thing, once she realized the truth of it. She has no intention to continue, or organize anyone else to do so. She thinks that the others will stop looking, once it's clear that she has also stopped, and she would be in the best position to know this."
>"And another person I talked to still doesn't feel like believing in 'what' you are."
>"The point is, even if they saw you, they would not think you were what they were looking for. You are not what they are trying to find, though you may share its name. The one I mentioned has stopped, and I am certain she will not try again. It is not you that they search for."
>"Do you, yourself, know what those reasons were? I can tell you."
>"I believe it does, actually. They thought there was something mysterious in the forest. Something interesting. What was it? How did it stay hidden? People wanted to know and understand these things. Curiosity is a powerful drive; you should know that yourself. How does Bhava-Agra cast no shadow? What about it could make it that way? You wanted to know the answer to this enough that it brought you out of your own forest. It's very much the same thing."
>"Is curiosity such a bad thing, though? I think there's a lot to be said for the desire to understand the world around oneself, and the people in it."Say it in this order
>"That's exactly why they will stop, if they find you that is. What they would find is a poltergeist who has been born from their own idea, some people will remain curious for a while, but after they conclude that you are not some mystical thing they have never heard about interest will fade, possibly faster if you make it clear to people that you wish to be left alone. People generally don't go against other people's wishes just for the sake of it."
>"Is curiosity such a bad thing, though? I think there's a lot to be said for the desire to understand the world around oneself, and the people in it."
>"What you have tried to do will not solve the problem, either. Every shadow you steal to silence someone only draws more people in search of what happened to them. And the concern they have for the harm done to their fellows will motive their search more strongly than any curiosity about a mystery in the forest ever could. They alone are the only reason I have not yet left, myself."
> Shake head, but keep the smile.
> "You severely underestimate the tenacity of Gensokyo's residents. They have faced a region-wide chilling red mist, a prolonged and extremely cold winter, total isolation from the moon, rampant destructive earthquakes, psychotic nuclear annihilation and a handful of other major issues. They did not run in fear. They instead opted to seek out the source and defeat them in combat until that source gave up and returned everything to normal. They have defeated great magicians, an incredibly shrewd vampire, the princess of the netherworld, multiple immortals, the greatest genius existence has ever known, full-fledged goddesses, a Hell-born creature that ate a god, and even the final presiding judge of the afterlife, someone with whom not even the grandest youkai here desire to trifle with if they can avoid it. Tenshi and myself are on the long list of overcome obstacles, and to be completely honest, the two of us are almost nothing but footnotes in the grand scheme of what Gensokyo has overcome. And I can tell you first-hand that it is not a pleasant experience. I very much do not desire to get in their way again."
>"If I leave you alone, will Nitori and Kogasa come back?"
> Raise eyebrows.
> "Are you saying you don't know how to bring them back?"
>"Then the problem doesn't stop if you're left alone. The problem doesn't stop until they're back to themselves."
>"The tree would not have hurt me of its own volition. It was simply there. But you chose to take their shadows away. You could have chosen differently, but you did not. You have even demonstrated that you can choose differently. Volition is one of the most defining characteristics of sentience. But it means that we, and no one else, are responsible for our own actions. You chose to turn them into hollow beings, all but lifeless to the world around them."
>"I'm sure that is indeed what led you to do this. But they are responsible only for their own actions, not for yours. When you met Nitori, you were near her own home. She thought you were attempting something malicious against it. Your manner and bearing suggested that you were there with ill intent. She didn't know who you were; she mightn't have even cared, if she'd realized. She didn't want to expose YOU, she just wanted to ensure the safety of her own place. But you weren't attempting to harm or steal from her home. Did you try to tell her? Or did you just attack her when she accused you? There were other ways to deal with her. Yes, she made a mistake in judging your motives, but you also made one in judging hers. The situation never needed to come to what it did."
>"Moreover, the method you used to force her to leave you alone had consequences. It led to more people looking for you. It led to me finding you. And, as I have said, I cannot leave until she is restored. If you had chosen differently with her, and with the others, you could still have had your solitude, and none of the rest of this would have happened. All actions have consequences."
> "And what of the tree you mimic right now? Surely it didn't threaten to tell everyone who you are."
>"I am not wrong. If she had truly known who you were, why would she have needed to ask you who you were? Think about that for a moment."
>"Yes, I believe that you did not come to that hill with the intent of hurting others, or of doing anything else wrong. But your manner and bearing, and the way that you were trying to avoid notice made like LOOK as though you were. Perhaps you don't understand how those actions appear to others; I know you don't have much experience dealing with others. But if anyone else she hadn't known had been in your position that night, they would have garnered the same suspicion from her. Who you are made absolutely no difference to her reaction. It couldn't have, since she didn't know who you were."
>"And if that person had actually been there to steal from her, or damage her possessions, as she suspected, should she have quietly let them do so?"
>"The point is that Nitori thought this is what you were planning. That is why she asked what you were doing there; so that she could confirm or deny this suspicion. And when you responded to her questions by firing upon her, you confirmed her suspicions in her own mind. You gave her strong reason to believe that you had come there with nefarious intent, and she acted upon that."
>"And if you had seen someone sneaking around the place where you had left your book, and you had reason to believe they might be planning to steal it, what would you have done?"
>"And you would not have taken any action until you had seen them physically pick up the book and attempt to leave with it?"
>"Then what of our first encounter? You thought that I had come to expose you, and that I had known your identity and your secrets, when none of these were true. You made a hasty conclusion based on intuition, just as Nitori had done, and then you did not even allow me to finish my sentence before you attacked me."
"I knew you'd been by that tree on the night its shadow was discovered missing. I was wondering if you might have seen something or known what happened, since you had been there. I knew nothing else. Me asking you about it was no different than the fairies I sought out and likewise asked."
>"I do want to help. From the bottom of my heart, I swear that I do. But I'll be the first to admit that I'm not fully sure how. I wish that I were. Knowing nothing but a life of being hunted is a terrible thing, and no one deserves that. I want to help you find a way to feel peace and safety in your own life. A way that doesn't involve harming anyone else. I want to help you learn about the world and find a comfortable place in it. To realize that people do not mean you harm, and might even wish you kindness, if only this cycle were broken."
>"But I also want to help Nitori and Kogasa and Bhava-Agra, and I refuse to believe there is no solution where we cannot all walk away from this happier than we are now."
> Sigh.
> "Okay. Maybe I can clear something up. When we first met, what made you think I was trying to expose you?"
> "I was following the tracks I could find, and I knew that you were in the area. I was hoping you might know something about the missing shadows. Especially after we found Kogasa. I was hoping that maybe you'd seen who was responsible. But no, I did not know who you were at the time, because I did not pay much attention to the Brocken Spectre mystery, and I tend to be slightly behind the times in general. I only realized it afterward, when several coincidences clicked."
> "You claim I was trying to expose you and then say it doesn't matter that I didn't know who you were?"
> "So...you ruined my home and the homes of hundreds of others, people you had never met and had no idea you even existed...and it's their fault for trying to find out why their home was ruined?"
> "You didn't have to bother us, but you did."
> "Really? Have you done any research into what the fall of the islands has done to its inhabitants?"
>Have we ever got a straight answer why she didn't want to be exposed?
> "I will tell you, then."
> Hold our right arm up and bent so that our hand is near our shoulder, in preparation to start counting a list with our fingers. Extend the index finger straight up.
> "The fall itself caused plenty of physical injuries. From what I recall, these ranged from cuts, bruises and sores to sprains to broken bones and internal injuries to people getting knocked unconscious, and it wouldn't surprise me if a few concussions were thrown in as well. Of course, this ignores all the damage to our buildings, such as houses.
> Keeping our index finger extended, extend our middle finger.
> "The fall almost completely destroyed the orchards. The year's crop of peaches has been mostly ruined. There is not enough left to sustain the people of Bhava-Agra through the winter."
> Extend our ring finger while keeping the first two fingers up.
> "The ground-dwelling citizens of Gensokyo assumed we were responsible for the fall of the islands and took it as a sign of invasion. They started fighting us. Most notable for this is the muscular witch in black and white that you may have seen in your travels. She has single-handedly caused further injury to dozens of innocent, non-combatant celestials, assuming they were part of some invading force that doesn't exist. Other skirmishes were only resolved through the peace offerings of peaches, further dwindling our already scant supply."
> Extent our pinky finger while keeping the first three fingers up.
> "And then there are the celestials whose islands were near the Scarlet Devil Mansion, more non-combatant innocents. They were attacked by its inhabitants, and after they lost said fight, they were enslaved to work for the vampire in charge of the mansion as lowly maids."
> Wiggle our right hand a little bit.
> "Our people have lost their food, their well-being, their trustworthiness and even sometimes their freedom because of the fall of our islands. These are people who live in peace, high above the clouds, not bothering anyone. People who had no idea you existed. People who still have no idea you exist, outside of myself and Tenshi. These people did nothing to deserve what befell them yesterday, and they will not survive like this."
> "Physical injury, starvation, suspicion and slavery of dozens of people do not compare to something you said you want to do? Not even need to do, but want to do?"
> "It is for the same reason I have been patient with you, and will continue to be patient with you, and not even be mad at you, despite you being responsible for Bhava-Agra's current state of affairs."
> "I can imagine it is indeed taking a great deal of restraint on your part, and I do appreciate your willingness to hear me out as much as you have. But you're trying to have it both ways, just as I was when I tried to give you your book back."
> "When I tried to give you your book back, I knew what I was doing was innocent, but I offered it back in a manner that kept myself in a tactically favorable position, but would require you to take a tactically unfavorable position to retrieve it. I presume it is why you initially refused to take it. I was not being fair to you, to ask you to do something I was not willing to do myself. This is what is meant by 'trying to have it both ways'. I realized I had to give some to get some, which is why I volunteered to turn around, and then later followed your directions."
> "The situation now is similar in concept. You feel I have wronged you greatly, and this is why you are as angry with me as you are, despite my not knowing who you were in our first encounter, nor bearing any ill will toward you at any time. Other than our fight, if you wish to count that, though I do not, not as anything more than a technicality. Anyway, one can judge for themselves if my being uninformed about your situation is enough to justify how you have been wronged. At the same time, you did not know the celestials, nor did you bear them any ill will, but all the same, your actions lead to great devastation of their land and livelihoods, as I have described. One can, again, judge for themselves if your being uninformed about their situation is enough to justify how you have wronged them."
> "Whatever choice is the correct one is for people to debate until the end of time. A problem arises, however, when one judges in favor of the uninformed individual in one case, and then in favor of the wronged party on the other case. This is 'trying to have it both ways'. You wish to judge me as wrong for what I have done to you without accepting responsibility for what you did to my people."
> "I agree that they do not compare, but I suspect I agree in a much different way. I will again raise the question. Are you really trying to claim that livelihood needs for dozens of people are not as important as the livelihood want of one individual?"
>"I am Brocken Spectre," she says. "Don't you get it? That's who I am. You keep trying to say I'm someone else, and you're wrong. Stop saying it!"
> Has she moved at all?
> How close is our shadow to her?
> "Without knowing why someone wishes to hide themselves? I would assume, in a vacuum, that discovery is preferable to severe injury, starvation and slavery. I might be convinced otherwise, though, if I knew that very important why."
> Clarification request.
> Is this really meant to be "I am Brocken Spectre", or should it be "I am the Brocken Spectre"? I don't like picking on potential typos, but the distinction is important.
> Our shadow is still close? Even after we took several steps back?
> "You won't know until you try. I ask because I'm genuinely curious. I've been around a long time, and met many people, and you are the first individual I have ever known that has wanted to keep themselves hidden with such ferocity. But before we go further into it, I believe I owe you something important."
> Put on a solemn expression. If our hands and arms are still somewhere abnormal, return them to a rested position.
> "For whatever reasons you may have for hiding, for whatever reasons I had for doing it, and for whatever good it will do, I have clearly hurt you by telling other people about you. For this, I am sorry."
> Nod and resume a soft smile.
> "I understand that you would feel that way. And you're right, however heartfelt an apology I may give you, it doesn't fix anything. But think about what has happened last night and today. I sought out and found your book for you, then gave it back. I have offered to teach you how to fly. I have offered to tell you what I know of whatever you were searching for in that book. Had things come to that point, I would have offered to help you select a name for yourself. I have made no attempt to attack you, and have even sent Tenshi away at your request, without a contingency plan, and I have kept my shadow pointed toward you during this entire conversation. All of these offers I still mean, and all of these concessions I do not regret. And now I am offering you another opportunity. I know you don't like me, and I know what you're capable of, but I still stand here, and however misguided some of my intentions may have been before, I still want to help."
> "Wouldn't it be easier to undo the damage with someone helping you than with people opposing you, though?"
> "I don't know. But I could tell you, if I knew why you wanted to hide so badly."
> Put on a confused expression.
> "I'm sorry? What things? My offers to help?"
> Go from confused face to thinking face.
> "Hmm...you mean things like my name, where I live, my tolerance level for sake? Things like that?"
>What do we know of Keine, and by extension, her powers?
> "...Huh. I'd never really thought about things that way before."
> "...Well, I can tell you why I do it, but before I do, I should at least tell you that I believe I can see where you're coming from, and I don't think any less of you for it. I did tell you that you didn't have to be embarrassed in front of me about anything, and I would be a terrible person if I went back on that. But, yes, hmm. It's an interesting level of desire for privacy, at least in the sense that I've never encountered it before."
> "Hmm. I...think I would say that I don't feel embarrassed because it's something everyone I know does. People may have specific differences, but they still have plenty of general similarities. Revealing things about myself may help me find someone with similar interests, too, and that could lead to an expanse in my own knowledge in the subject, or ability in the activity. Just as a hypothetical example, let's say you liked the sake Suika gave you. She loves the stuff, and is very sociable. If you tell her you like it, she's very liable to give you more. It may have cost you telling her something about yourself, but you got some more of something you enjoyed out of it."
>"Where I come from, we value openness and honesty greatly. It is a high virtue to never attempt to conceal the truth. We still have our privacy, of course. But outside of a few small things, we generally share of our knowledge and experience freely with those we truth. There is warmth and community that comes from knowing one another, and sharing in our knowledge of each other. There is a closeness that is impossible to attain without this. And there is a strength from sharing this closeness with others. There are people I know I can count on when I need them. That I can count on to help, or for support when there are problems, or simply to speak with, and trust that they will not use my secrets to harm me. It is a precious thing."
> "It would be very rough to live without it. While I hold my own fair share of knowledge, I do not know how to build or sew, nor do I know how to properly maintain crops. Without the help of others, I would have no place to live, no clothes to wear, and nothing to eat."
>"Is that not an exposure, in your terms? I am telling others about skills that I lack, and about needs and wishes I have. How could I expect anyone to assist me if I did not tell them what it was I needed their assistance for?"
> "And yes, I theoretically could get those things, but only if the people with those talents were willing to expose themselves enough to let everyone else know that they can make those things."
> Take a step back.
> "Wait! Please, let me keep trying!"
>"You read about Bhava-Agra in that book of yours. From what you read, did it sound like a bad place?"
> "Let me try...something else, then."
> Do we know any songs with a slow rhythm, in a major key and about nature?
> Smile.
> "This."
> Pick our favorite and sing it. Preferably something in E Flat, everyone loves E Flat. D, E and A Flat are also all good. Just try to avoid G and C, they're boring.
> Watch the poltergeist for her reaction as we sing.
> Eh, nothing for it. Finish it up. Even if she doesn't like it, we do.
> Sad face.
> "...You didn't like it, did you."
> "Then perhaps I need to find a different subject."
> What other songs do we know about nature, ones that don't focus on any specific subject in particular, like that last song focused on the flower on the mountain?
> How would the current ground serve as a dance floor?
> "Let me try another one."
> Pick one of those songs that we like a lot, a little more upbeat than the first one. Perhaps something related to forests, without being as focused on one specific thing like the first one was. Still in a major key.
> Go ahead and sing it, and watch for her reaction again.
> Smile and nod.
> "Thank you. I was hoping it would be a bit more to your tastes."
> "Now, as for why I did that, well, I need to ask a question of you first, because your answer may change exactly how I phrase it. When you took Bhava-Agra's shadow, did you do it just to prove you could, or was there another reason?"
> Sad face again.
> "Very well."
> "Anyway, the reason I sang for you was to demonstrate one of the things I cherish the most about social interaction."
> Smile again.
> "I have found that, with my songs, and more-so with my dancing, I can make other people happy. Knowing that something I did has improved the lives of other people, even if that improvement is so minimal, makes me feel happy with myself in return."
> "Because there's a certain sense of accomplishment to it. It's almost like a display of superiority. Perhaps in a different fashion than what one might consider when they hear the phrase, of course, but it still is. And, if yesterday was any indication, I know displaying superiority is something you enjoy."
> "No, no, not that. In general, yes, that's what you were doing. But I'm talking about times like when you were first going to stomp on me through my shadow, or when you mimicked the rock, or when you sent me to that void. You weren't just trying to get rid of me. You were enjoying those moments."
> "Exactly. It was a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of superiority. The superiority feelings may vastly differ in style, but the general sense of accomplishment is the same. I look at people applauding me for a dance well danced and I think "Look at what I just did". You saw me get sucked away into that void and I'm willing to bet you thought the exact same thing."
> "Of course it did. The paths and styles may have differed greatly, but ultimately they shared the same general feeling."
> "Now, all this being said, there are certainly times I wish to be left alone, and there are things I don't want people to know. Life is certainly not all extrovert, all the time."
> "Perhaps I need to work in private, or perhaps I wish to practice my dance uninterrupted, or perhaps something particularly embarrassing has come up, or perhaps I've just had a rough day and don't want people to add onto it. There are plenty of reasons why I would want to be left alone, and I've been around long enough to experience a good number of them."
> How often are we embarrassed by something in Bhava-Agra?
> What was one of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to us?
> How often do we get frustrated in Bhava-Agra to the point of demanding solitude, and is there any particular recent event where this happened?
> How important is tolerance to Bhavagran teachings?
> "I'm saying that, even though I enjoy being extroverted, I can understand the desire to be introverted to such a degree, and in fact have enjoyed such solitude and secret-keeping in my time. Each has their own benefits to me, and I can appreciate both."
> "Hmm. Well, that depends. I think I mostly understand where you're coming from, but there's a notable detail I'm still not sure on. When one exposes themselves, is it embarrassing for that person, or embarrassing for the people to whom they expose themselves?"
> "To be honest, I've never really thought about it in the terms you've described. I apologize for being so difficult in that regard. But I would at least like to take a stab at it."
> "I...guess I don't really think of it as ripping out a part of myself. Like, say, my name. I told you my name earlier, but I don't feel like it's any less a part of me than it was before."
> "Yeah, I can understand it that way. Like having hands, or sharing tea after a danmaku battle."
> Put a hand to our mouth for a couple of seconds, then drop it a little bit, enough so that our mouth is uncovered.
> "Oh...I guess you wouldn't have known about that."
> "Well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it."
> What is our favorite kind of tea?
> "But I'm curious about something, then. You just told me your name several minutes ago, and you don't seem to be full of self-loathing about it to me."
> "And what about the circumstances surrounding your coming to be?"
> "I assume you have heard the stories about yourself from others at this point. But how much do you know about why poltergeists in general come to be?"
> "Well, to put it simply, when enough people share a strong enough, deep enough belief in an idea, the force of will behind that belief manifests itself as a poltergeist, who exists to be the idea so strongly believed in. I've been around the Gensokyo block a few times, and I'm still very surprised that a consciousness can be created through sheer force of will, but such is the way of things."
> "Before I continue, by the way, I hope you don't feel like I'm trying to trivialize your existence. I don't think you feel that way, but I want to be sure regardless. Since, as I'm sure you've seen for yourself, you've taken the idea that you represent and given yourself a personality, complete with likes, dislikes and curiosities like anyone else. The circumstances surrounding your coming to be don't make you any less of a person than anyone else."
> "Now. You've seen the large number of people wandering around the forest, explicitly searching for you. Not that you enjoy thinking about it and not that I enjoy reminding you of it, but it's necessary to make the point. Think about how this all must have started. A few people saw something strange and believed in you as a result. They tell some friends, who many have also seen something strange, or may just be willing to believe there's something out there, and then they tell their friends, and suddenly there's a large mass of people, all believing you exist. All believing very deeply that you must be out there, hiding somewhere. And as a result of all that belief, you did exist, you were out there, hiding somewhere."
> "In essence, you came to be because a large number of people shared deep personal beliefs with each other. Beliefs that were wrong when the believers first held them, no less, which shulde demonstrate the magnitude of belief it took those people to share them with others. All these people exposed themselves to one another, willing to work together, willing to learn together, willing to believe together, and you were born as a result."
> Shrug.
> "It's still what it is. And, if anything, that would probably be the best example of how self-exposure can be a good thing; that enough of it from enough people can create life, the most beautiful and precious thing there is."
> "But you ARE here. How can not existing be right and existing be wrong? How is that fair to you?"
> Right the first time? What could she mean?
> What emotion is her face portraying?
> Slightly confused look.
> "What? What was I right about?"
> Go from a confused look to one a little sad and pained.
> Keep voice gentle and sympathetic.
> "No, no! Life is a wonderful thing! How can this be depraved, when you came of it? Your presence here is a blessing, as is all life!"
> "You exist because people wanted you to exist! You blossomed forth from the hopes and desires of the people of Gensokyo! You bring them happiness and camaraderie! You're not going to let a contrary idea that they accidentally forced on you dominate all that goodness, are you?"
> "Then it would certainly be a sad state of affairs. But if I didn't know what I was doing, and what I thought was right and wrong was forced upon me by the people that created me instead of decided by me myself, then I would hope no one placed the blame for the tragedy on me. This is why I told you I wasn't mad at you earlier, and it is why I'm still not mad at you now."
> What is her expression like now?
> "I'd say what doesn't make any sense is getting upset at someone for making a mistake when they'd been indoctrinated to think the way they do. Your actions may have made Bhava-Agra fall, but what happened to Bhava-Agra as a result isn't your fault, because your actions were dictated by feelings that didn't come from you. They came from those that thought you would think that way, and you didn't get a choice in the matter. You weren't even told this was done to you until just now. How is that fair to you?"
> Raise voice somewhat, but still keep sympathetic tone.
> Put on a pained and sympathetic expression.
> "I'm trying to tell you you're right! I know it's hard for you to see it! For as long as you've lived, you've thought self-exposition was a terrible thing! I understand that! But surely you've also always thought your being alive was a good thing! And that's because it is! And now these two inherent truths are conflicting, and I can only imagine how terrible it must be for you! I'm so sorry things had to come to this! I know it's hard! But I know you can pull through it! I know better than just about everyone that you have the determination to pull through a difficult situation! I stand here telling you your origin, how the reason you think many of the things you think are because the people that willed you into existence believed you thought them. And so you do think them. But that was before you were even alive! You didn't decide it! Please, please think the situation through! Take a look at these two conflicting ideas! You can pick the one thrust upon you by others, or you can pick the one that you figured out on your own, you as your own person, making your own decisions, with your own mind, with no one else telling you what's right and what's wrong! You can deny what those that created you thought you thought was correct! Because you won't be admitting that you were wrong! There's no shame in rejecting what you did not choose! Pick the one that you know is right!"
> "But how can you agree with a notion that says your very existence was the result of a series of disgusting, depraved acts?"
> "And if I showed you it was true that your opinions were shaped by what people thought you would think, what would you say then?"
> "You would tell me I'm wrong even if you received testimony from other people on the matter? Such as other poltergeists, who have been around for quite some time?"
> "So if I found a poltergeist for you, and they told you exactly what I told you about how poltergeists come to be, and then I found one of the people that spearheaded the belief in you, and they told you things you knew about yourself that no one else would, you would still not believe that they were responsible for putting even the basest of ideas in your head?"
> Lose the sympathetic expression.
> Raise our eyebrows.
> "Really? Someone effectively reading your mind would not make a difference as to the origin of your feelings?"
> Give the faintest of confident smirks.
> "You say that, and you say that they do not know...is that a challenge?"
> Give the faintest of confident smirks.
> "You say that, and you say that they do not know...is that a challenge?"
>"Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that your beliefs about exposure stem from what the people whose convictions gave birth to you thought you would think. None of these people share your belief that exposure is inherently abhorrent. None of them would agree with it. Do you see a paradox here? How could convictions given to you by people who universally disagree with them, be intrinsically correct?"
>"Yes, but think about it. Why do you know that exposure is bad? That is just how it is, to you, correct? That is something you have always known, and is self-evident. Just like you know your own name. You cannot remember not knowing these things, correct?"
>"We can ignore those semantics for now. My question stands. You cannot remember not knowing these things, correct?"
>"I believe that it does. And that it matters a great deal where this information came from, and why."
>"How far back can you remember? A couple months, perhaps, at most?"
>Pause a moment for an answer. If she doesn't offer anything helpful: "No matter."
>"Your name: 'Brocken Spectre'. You will find this name written of in newspapers dating many months before that time. Many months before you even existed. How do you think this can be?"
>"The knowledge you were born with stems from the knowledge people thought you must have. The name existed before you, but it became yours because that was the name you bore in their own minds."
>"Likewise, you were born knowing that exposure was abhorrent because this is what they thought you must think. But the only reason they thought this was because they could see no other way for you to stay hidden from their searches. But they were wrong. You were hidden from them not because of your convictions but because you did not exist! The shared belief that gave you this knowledge was born entirely from a mistake!"
>"So even if your belief came from the knowledge of others, and it was a belief they did not share, a belief they disagreed with, and a belief which was only even conceived of out of error, you would still contend that it must be absolutely correct?"
>"I do not call it a belief to belittle it. A belief is not inherently true or false because of what it is. That exposure abhorrent is something you believe, is it not? If you did not believe it, I do not think we would even be having this conversation."
>"If it is a fact, how could it have been borne out of a falsehood?"
>"I am listening to you. But the life I have led and the experiences I have shared with others shows me a different reality than the one you see. A reality where sharing with others is a virtue and a strength. No matter what you say, you cannot change the life I have lived, and the joy I have found in it. Whether your views are fact or fiction, they cannot take that away from me. It is real."
>"To us, fellowship is as natural and normal as eating or sleeping. I cannot imagine living otherwise. It would be a cold and empty existence."
>"I have lived a great, great many more years than you, as have the others around me. Has our failure to recognize the reality that you see harmed us? Has it caused us suffering, or denied us happiness?"
>How does The Dragon's presence feel to us while it is with us?
>It can sense our heart and mind while its gaze is upon us, correct? Even at a great distance?
>Does The Dragon hear prayers and entreaties offered towards it?
>Have we known it ever to respond to them?
>"I will admit this is true, but what tangible harm is done to myself by sharing? Or is done to any of those I call friend, by us sharing with each other?"
>Might not paying direction attention keep it from hearing a prayer?
>"Then name it. Name what the harm that is done is."
>"I have not felt degraded by it. I am not seen as degraded in the eyes of those I know for doing it. I have not felt torn apart by it, metaphorically or otherwise. If anything, I have felt bolstered by it."
>"And even were it truth, I think it would bring me nothing but suffering for embracing it. Has knowing this truth brought you any happiness?"
>"And when was this? When could you have been without this worry, in a land full of people? Even if not a single person were looking for a Brocken Spectre, the forest is still full of people."
> How old are we, anyway?
> When we pray, do we pray for something specific, or merely for guidance?
>Have we ever prayed to the Dragon before?
>Have we prayed while having immediate needs?
>Has The Dragon ever helped us immediately in response to a prayer?
>What's the spectre doing?>"I REJECT YOU REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN!!!1!ONE!!"
> What is standard form for praying?
> Did you expect to see this many inputs on the table when you woke up?
> What sort of outward form of devotion would be required in a case like this? Kneeling and putting our hands together, or is that too cliche?
> So good and pure intentions are more important than anything else to the process?
> Do we send our message to The Dragon simple by thinking it and focusing really hard on that thought?
> Go back to the calm smile.
> "No, I believe I can offer something else."
> Are there any prayerful and/or meditative positions where we keep our eyes open, or does vision distract too much?
> Nod to the poltergeist.
> Kneel and put our hands together. Bow our head a bit as well, but enough to keep some part of the poltergeist's lower body in our field of vision. We don't need to be focusing on her, just have her visible, so that if she makes any significant moves, we will be able to see them.
> "Helping, as best I know how."
> Deep breath.
> Focus our empathy for the Brocken Spectre's life situation and how cruel her own misguided truths are to her.
> Concentrate on whatever else we need to for the prayer process.
> Pray!
> "O August One, I am in the presence of one who has never known the joy of love and friendship, of camaraderie and sharing. One whose life truths tell her that her very existence is an act of depravity, life truths that are derived from a chain of the unfortunate mistakes of others. One who holds that social self-exposure is an inherently disgusting thing. My skills and knowledge are inadequate to help her understand these joys, to experience and appreciate all the happiness they bring. I beg you, O August One, to help her where I could not, to help her see, to help her know the true joy that the sharing of the self with others can bring."
> Look up. How is the poltergeist faring?
> Huh. Did she not hear us, then?
> Stand back up.
> Put the soft smile back on.
> "I did not hear what I expected to hear, but I heard what I was supposed to hear."
> "I do thank you for your patience on this matter, by the way. However much it may be born of hoping I fall flat on my face."
> "Then clearly I need to work quickly. Out of pure curiosity - this is not a threat at all - what would you do if your coat ripped down the front?"
> "Of course you would be. I would be too. Certainly we will agree that unwanted self-exposure of the particularly personal parts of the body is a very bad thing. But what would you do about it? How would you fix the problem?"
> "And where would the resources and knowledge to do so come from?"
> "I think the resources would come from another person, and that you would need to purchase them somehow, or otherwise exchange a favor."
> "Finding them may be easy enough, but getting to them? They will be locked away, impossible to get to without causing a good amount of property damage to their owner's house or business, and generating a lot of attention that even I would agree is negative. This is, of course, assuming you could even discover who had the resources in the first place without asking around for information. Or you could hope to find everything you need and then simply figure out how to do it yourself through blind trial and error, but were the craft that easy to both learn and gather supplies for, many more would know how to do it than those that do, and it would not be a salable commodity. I myself have been alive for several hundreds of years, and I do not know how to do it."
> "You would, hmm? When so many before you could not, and when situational analysis indicates you would not? I wonder about that."
> "But there is plenty more to life than repairing clothes. What if you fell physically ill? How would you solve that problem?"
>If we think back on the impulse The Dragon conveyed to us, can we try to narrow down a more specific sense of what it meant? Was it a physical need? An emotional need? Was it a need unfulfilled? Was it a sense of need in the spectre itself or the concept more generally? Or can we simply not tell at all?
> "Really? Hmm. Must be a natural biological advantage for a poltergeist. If not physical illness, then, what about physical injury? Again, not a threat, a curiosity."
>Maybe we should get somebody else to assist us?
> "You would? You could naturally heal from a stab in the eye, or from a broken wrist?"
>What do we know about poltergeist physiology, if anything?
>Do we know whether they need to eat?
>Or sleep?
>They don't actually need to breathe, correct?
> "I'm doing a lot more learning about poltergeist biology than anything else, to be honest. How do you know all this about yourself when you didn't even know how you came to be? That's a somewhat odd disconnect."
Hey Draco your connection sucks 8)
> "I always figured they'd pick it up from their parents."
> How do youkai come to be if they do not evolve from humans or animals?
> How do The Dragon and The Yama compare on the grand bureaucratic scale?
> "That does make me think, though. Even though the case of poltergeists is fairly unusual, surely you must realize the overwhelming need for procreation for most people to even exist in the first place."
>"It doesn't? All peoples that procreate sexually need to expose themselves to each other in a most intimate of ways to even exist. If all of them suddenly accepted that exposing themselves was abominable, and withdrew from each other, what would happen? In a single generation, they would all be dead: there would be no more of them."
>"I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
>It was previously stated that while sex is very rare in Bhava-Agra, it is not altogether absent. Do we know if any children have ever been born to celestials, after they became such?
Just being weird, but couldn't the poltergeist be considered to be enlightened in a way?
She doesn't really need anything and isn't really attached to anything and some of the celestials live as hermits.
So we could offer her a home in Bhava Agra, I mean she could be as isolated as she wanted there if that's what she really wants.
I'm crazy and this should probably be ignored.
You've hit all the reasons why I thought it was not an acceptable idea except one, and added a few of your own as well. The other reason I thought of is - it is very likely that, whether due to ignorance or her own belief system, the spectre sees no reason to follow the spell card rules. In turn, she would not be protected by them. If we were to be evil and set out to cause a fight, the incident squad would have license to kill. And that is probably the worst possible outcome for everyone.
Yet...I still have no better idea that would result in her needing to expose herself to another.
So right now, we should just let her be, and trust in time and the Dragon. There will be a need, and when she realizes its existence and what it is, we will be able to respond in a much more effective way. And since just following her around waiting for whatever need it is to express itself would probably be counterproductive, why not go settle accounts with Remi?
Told you it was meta as hell.
>"It is true that celestials do not procreate, but attaining enlightenment is a step towards transcending mortality, not towards death. We believe that life is precious, and would never seek to end that."
>Celestials must regularly defeat shinigami sent to collect their souls, correct?
>Is it uncommon for a shinigami to actually succeed?
>If they did succeed, would it be expected for the soul to reincarnate on a lower level of being? Say, as a normal human again, perhaps?
>But they do succeed often enough to be more than a freak rarity?
>A real problem in what sense? In that the shinigami would have easier access to Bhava-Agra at its current location?
>"It is not the same. To be enlightened is to live on. Consider two scenarios: if all of those peoples ascended to Bhava-Agra, and if all of them isolated themselves from each other for the rest of their lives. If you were to look at both of these scenarios after much time had passed, the first would still be full of life and vibrant communities, and the second would be empty; they would all be dead and there would be no one left. Exposure is absolutely vital for the survival of entire races."
>"The ultimate pinnacle of enlightenment is escape from the cycle of life and death entirely. It is not an end to existence."
>Without Hakurei Barrier to seal Gensokyo and preserve them, magic, youkai, and the like would probably eventually cease to exist entirely, correct? Just as is currently mostly true in the outside world?
>"Whether you agree there is a difference or not, you cannot deny that countless beings would never have existed if people did not expose themselves to each other. Nor would the creations of those people exist. That book of yours could never have existed. You could never have gained its knowledge."
>"Gensokyo itself could not exist. It took people working together to erect the Hakurei Border and preserve this land. It could never have been done without sharing of knowledge and skill. And without the barrier, fairies, youkai, magic, and all the things that make this place what it is would cease. There would be no youkai. There would be no poltergeists. You would not exist. The world as you know it would not exist."
> Start backing away.
> Begin charging.
> "And what of the Yama, then, if we are all doomed to return to dust?"
> Keep on backin', keep on chargin'.
> "Once the body is dead and gone, her job is to expose the soul, is it not?"
> Keep on backin'. We remember approximately how we got to the point, right? Try to avoid backing into any trees we remember going by.
> "You don't need to wait that long, I can tell you right now that she does. And given she has interacted with poltergeists before, I would say it's a question of when, not if."
> Keep backing and charging unless the poltergeist stops advancing on us.
> "She is impossible to reach without getting a boat ride from her shinigami."
> Dive to the right!
> "So that's it, then? You have absolutely no needs other than privacy and clothing?"
> Is she running at us, or our shadow?
> We were facing west, as our shadow was to our front, correct? So we much have dove to the north. If the poltergeist ran due north from her current position, would she cross our shadow?
> Keep hurrying north.
> Keep charging.
> "And there is really nothing else in existence you need?"
> Are there spaces in the tree line where we can run right up next to a tree and let our shadow fall into it without running smack into another tree?
> So she's actually leaving her feet this time?
> Quickly jump to the west, take flight, and zip upward and westward as fast as we can for a couple of seconds to get our shadow moving westward quickly!
> While jumping, launch a dense cloud of normal danmaku as cover fire at where our shadow was when we were still on the ground.
> Stop flying.
> Keep our eyes on the Poltergeist, but take a happier tone.
> "Tenshi! Where did you come from?"
> Can we see Tenshi?
> Can we see the Brocken Spectre?
> If we can see Tenshi, grin at her.
> "Well, as peaceful as I'd hoped this would be, I'm very glad you're here! In fact, you've given me an idea."
> If we can see the Brocken Specter, turn to look at her. If she's too high, turn to look upward to the column of earth she's on.
> "Poltergeist! If you hate your searchers for trying to expose you for the sake of their own curiosity, why did you expose all of Bhava-Agra for the sake of your own curiosity?"
>"But people live there! Hundreds of people. People who could not have been seen or known by those on the surface until you did what you did. You exposed every single one of them."
> "And you knew it wasn't just a place! You read about the people that lived there! You knew they were there and exposed them anyway!"
>"But people live there! Hundreds of people. People who could not have been seen or known by those on the surface until you did what you did. You exposed every single one of them."
> "But you knew it wasn't just a place! You read about the people that lived there! You knew they were there and exposed them anyway!"
> "That doesn't change the fact that you knowingly exposed them! Or that you had the chance to undo your damage and didn't, even though no one knew you did it!"
> How often do celestials leave Bhava-Agra and visit the surface?
> "Not to the surface, they didn't. Celestials that aren't Messengers almost never leave Bhava-Agra for any reason, and none had left it in recent memory other than Tenshi. All those people that had never been seen by Gensokyo's surface-dwellers before you exposed them..."
> Give chase with flight!
> Beckon Tenshi to follow.
> Shout after the poltergeist.
> "According to you, there's nothing worse than exposure! So is there really something that takes precedence?"
> Was the poltergeist running faster than we can fly?
> Have we ever met anyone that could run faster than we could fly?
> Turn to Tenshi as best we can without losing sight of the poltergeist or the way forward so as to avoid smacking into trees.
> "If she gives up, please stand down. But if she attacks again, go ahead and do your thing."
> "Everything can all be over if you just tell me why it was okay to expose the celestials to the surface-dwellers!"
> Come do think of it, what term do we use for the collective ground-based natives of Gensokyo?
> Does her shadow still look tree-ish? It's probably hard to see with her movement, but...
> "So you're content being a hypocrite, then?"
> Turn to Tenshi.
> "You follow on her left, I'll follow on her right."
> Turn back to the 'geist and continue the chase, adjusting our flight path so we're coming at her from behind her and to her right.
> "Admitting a mistake isn't the end of the world, you know!"
> "I apologized when I thought I was wrong! Can you say the same?"
> "This time you've told me being exposed is the worst thing possible after exposing an entire group of people for your own self-interest! Not seeing why I should think I'm wrong when your actions tell a story different from your words! Something you've accused me of so many times!"
> To Tenshi: "Tenshi, watch your shadow."
> To the Brocken Spectre: "They're not the ones that dropped the celestials' hiding place into plain sight!"
>To Tenshi: "Careful. Don't close too much ahead of me."
>To the spectre: "Sure, it was people from the surface that ultimately came to Bhava-Agra, but you enabled them. Their actions would not have been possible without yours."
>"I don't. But I hold you accountable for your own. This is the consequence of your actions. Set things back, and this can end."
>"Even if you don't care about any of us, then what of Suika? You made her island crash. The tengu are trying to drive her away because of it. She asked me when I would be fixing it. But only you can fix it for her. What harm did she ever do you?"
>If Tenshi was trailing after her, and then the spectre ran over her shadow, does that mean she changed direction?
>Is the spectre still running?
>Does Tenshi seem essentially ok, aside from having the wind knocked out of her?
>Keep following
>"Doesn't need what? Her island? Her privacy? Her peace?"
>Keep following, but try to strike a balance between letting the spectre gain too much ground, and getting too far ahead of Tenshi
>"Tell what it is you've decided she doesn't need!"
>How fast can Tenshi normally move compared to us?
> How much charge do we have remaining?
>Inventory
> Can we call bolts down in forests, or will the trees get in the way?
> Using about half our current charge, aim a skybolt for right in front of the poltergeist's face, in the direction she's currently traveling.
> Continue charging
> Check back on Tenshi using whatever time we can afford to look away and not smack into a tree.
>Keep up the pursuit and charge.
>Where's our shadow in relation to Spectre?
>How's our current charge?
>Can we see her shadow?
>Try to angle a bit to our right so that we are approaching her with our shadow well away from her.
> Does Aya's camera make a flash when we take pictures with it?
> If so, how strong do we remember the flash being?
>How close to her are we and our shadow, respectively?
>Fixed that for ya. =[Whoops thanks bugger
Whoops thanks bugger
> At aproximately what altitude are we?
> Would it be possible to rise a pit so that we can aim lightning bolts in front of her?
> Grimace.
> Talk loud enough so both Tenshi and the poltergeist can hear.
> "This is stupid! Please, everyone, let's stop this! Poltergeist, no one is planning to avenge myself or Tenshi!"
> Ignore.
> Continue the chase.
> "There's no grand contingency plan or anything like that! No one knows where we are! No one could possibly know we're here! We've had no way to contact anyone since you started running!"
> "Then how do you propose anyone knows where we are right now?"
> "How could Tenshi have told them where we are when you didn't start running until she got back?"
> "Look, I'm sorry about those threats from yesterday! You had me in a panic! I had no idea who you were or what you could do beyond what I'd seen happen to Nitori and Kogasa! I was scared of you!"
> "But those threats were for yesterday! There's no contingency today! There couldn't possibly be, with how you made a break for it!"
> Again? Have we made a circle or something?
> "Oh, for the love of - fine!"
> Full speed ahead.
> Assuming we're facing her, to which side does our shadow fall?
> "Tenshi, please trust me on this!"
> List back to the left, so our shadow would fall on top of her if we reached her.
> Keep up that speed. Gotta catch up to her...
> "You wanted my shadow so bad? Here it is!"
> Fly past the poltergeist on the left, casting our shadow over her in the process.
> Are we standing or hovering or what?
> Grit our teeth and endure whatever pain is setting on.
> "Yes. This is what you wanted a minute ago, right?"
> So she has both hands on our shadow now?
> "Wouldn't get what? That I willingly placed myself at your mercy?"
> "You have me right now, don't you? Isn't this what you wanted earlier, when you lost your patience with me? I'm just giving it to you."
> Smile.
> "You'll have to forgive the minute-long delay in delivery, though."
> Maintain a level voice. There's no need for yelling.
> "Oh, come on. Think about this position. What malevolence could I possibly have planned now? If I so much as breathe on you funny you'll put a stop to me right then and there."
> Smile.
> "I've told you how many times now? I want to help you. The problem is that there were hrairfold many obstacles making that more or less impossible over the past minute, including you not trusting me to any real degree. Something I'll admit is not exactly unwarranted, given my behavior over the past 36 hours. But no one was going to get anywhere in anything with what was just going on. I realized after I fired that bolt off that I was trying to have it both ways again. I decided that if I really wanted this, I absolutely could not risk the well-being of two of the three people present here right now, no matter the cost. So I cast forward the one person I could risk, the person that mattered the least to me. Myself."
> "Well, I'd really rather keep it, to be honest, and I'm hoping you let me. But if I want to help you as much as I say, I need to demonstrate I'm trustworthy somehow, right? Certainly something better than that admittedly suspicious book offering. Putting myself at your mercy was the best thing I could think of. So here I am."
> "That would be a pretty stupid assumption on my part. You were certainly prepared to do it yesterday, you had no problem doing it to Nitori, who's no pushover herself, and I can definitely feel that chill from whatever you're doing right now."
> Didn't we just come from the north?
> If so, shout "Tenshi, hold up a minute!"
> Grimace.
> "We are talking things out again. Like I said, Tenshi, please trust me on this."
> "No. I did this willingly. I had to stop what was going on, but I couldn't hurt you or her, so this was my only option. Now please, please trust me on this."
>"No, of course not, Tenshi. This was my decision and mine alone; I take full responsibility for the consequences. Take care for yourself, but please trust me on this, and don't try to intervene for my sake."
>To the spectre: "There is no grand plan. This is not some elaborate deception. I am not trying to trick you into lowering your defenses. If I had simply come here to harm you, I would have done so already. I had opportunities, but did not take them. Surely that could not have escaped your notice? And I would certainly not have put myself at your mercy, like this. You know I am fully aware of what you can and have done. If I intended only harm, it would be a dreadfully untactical choice, would it not? But I have been sincere in everything I have said to you, as I am in this. The next step is up to you. You can end me. Or you can try to believe me."
>"I hope that you won't. I hope that you won't because you can find it in yourself to trust me. And because, perhaps, some part of you would rather not harm me. But I know that you can, if you choose to. I know that you have reason to want to do it, too. I cherish the life that I have, and I know what I'm risking by this. But I have chosen to try and trust you. It is an act of faith."
>Slink off, how? In a way that might be putting her into a better position for a sneak attack? Or just withdrawing?
>"Why? In the hope that perhaps you can trust me in turn."
>"I care because without trust, none of what I say matters. I have been honest in everything I have spoken to you, but if you don't feel you can trust me, my words are little more than breath on the wind."
>"And yes, I get it. You could take my shadow right now. I know exactly what that means. I've seen what it's done to the others. I've felt the start of it myself, before. It is not something I ever wish to experience again. But I have put myself in your hands, because what I have said matters to me. You, Nitori, Kogasa, and everyone else. All of this is all more important than I am."
>"Because I don't believe you're someone who wishes harm to others for its own sake."
>"I simply hope. I cannot say that I know what you will do. That is for you to decide, of course. But I hope that you will believe I have been honest with you. That I wish you no harm. That I wish only for a world where you and all the others can co-exist in peace. I want to do whatever I can to help create such a world. Is it wrong to hope for such a thing?"
> "Not right now, of course. But I hope you will eventually, when you're ready to do so."
>"Then my hope will have been for naught, and I will be saddened. But I have placed myself in your hands, with all that implies."
> "So I had better pray it doesn't come to that, shouldn't I? Hopefully you will find me both useful and sincere enough that you won't feel you have to do that."
> Meager smile.
> "Freeze from the inside out, from the feel of it. I certainly don't remember that from yesterday. Kinda wish I had known this would be this cold beforehand, but what's done is done."
> "But in all seriousness, all of my offers from earlier today still stand. For instance, I would still be happy to tell you whatever you could not find in that book of yours. To the best of my knowledge, at least."
> Where on our shadow are her hands positioned?
>"Perhaps I mightn't. But perhaps I might. The only way to know is to ask. You have noting to lose."
> So right near or over the heart, then?
>"I don't believe I'm in any position right now to spread any secrets of yours, if this is what you're concerned about. And if you're not satisfied afterwards, well... I'm still here."
> "I'll be here as long as you want me here. I don't have a choice in the matter anymore. You can tell me whatever you want without fear of exposure - if I do anything off-kilter you can just make me go away, and no one would be the wiser as to what you told me."
>"It's obvious that you want to know whatever it is that you were searching for. And I want to help you, if I can. I am sincere in what I say. I would not have placed myself here, otherwise. Curiosity is a most natural of things. There is nothing wrong in expressing it."
> "As for whether or not our positions makes things "okay" or not on a core level, I would be glad to help in that regard, but as someone who has only known the joy of sharing freely and not the depravity, I would likely need some help of my own understanding the deeper why. But we can return to that in a moment, because it ties into something else I forgot to mention. I believe you asked me a question earlier, about whether or not I was terrified? I forgot to answer your question at the time, and for that rudeness, I apologize. Would it surprise you to know that yes, I am indeed terrified of what you could do to me right now? I've seen the effects on others, and this time has the added experience of being frozen to my very soul."
> "I likely know less than you do, given our different areas of expertise. I had always assumed shadows were made by opaque matter impeding the travel of light."
> "I'd be happy to learn. Or would that involve telling me too much about yourself?"
>"Well, perhaps if you asked me the specific question you were curious about, it could be more helpful than me attempting to list everything I know about shadows, and hope I hit upon it by chance?"
>"But I can still do that, if you'd rather."
> Do we know how exactly Gensokyo and Bhava-Agra are separated?
> Could one simply fly straight up from anywhere in Gensokyo and reach it eventually, or is access blocked everywhere except Youkai Mountain?
>On a clear day, can one see the surface from Bhava-Agra, but not the reverse?
> Wasn't there some sort of gate between Makai and Gensokyo, presumably before that Sara person left? Bhava-Agra has no such gate separating it from Gensokyo.
> So why would Makai and Gensokyo need a gate and a guard when Bhava-Agra and Gensokyo apparently do not have or need one?
> If Bhava-Agra and Gensokyo are connectable geographically, do we have any idea why the islands might not normally cast shadows? Surely something must be cast, however faint it would be from the great height.
> "I am sorry. In all of my recent activity, I had forgotten one other thing I heard earlier yesterday, from one of the mountain goddesses. She told me that a shadow is a fundamental thing, in that it is an important signifier that the light can touch you."
>"Yes, that much has been made clear by what I've seen over the last few days. I admit that a lot of it has been rather outside my prior experience."
>"If I might ask, were you wanting to know why Bhava-Agra did not appear to cast a shadow, despite evidently having one, when you tried to touch it?"
> "That one, I think I might be able to answer for you. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I may have an idea. There is one important detail that can help us, though. Where exactly did you touch to make Bhava-Agra fall?"
> The differences between Bhava-Agra, Gensokyo and Makai were defined as "spiritual", correct?
>"Did you... not worry that it would fall on you, when you did that?"
>Nod, then give a concerned frown
>"I imagine that must have been quite alarming when you realized what was happening."
>"In any case, the explanation I would offer is this: the fact the Bhava-Agra's shadow is not normally visible in Gensokyo is less a property of the islands themselves than of the fact that Bhava-Agra is a separate realm than Gensokyo. You can travel between them by ascending, but it is not truly physically above Gensokyo in the way that the clouds are. When you look up at the sky on a clear day, you cannot see Bhava-Agra at all, although you can look down from there and see the surface. I imagine the reason you cannot see their shadow is the same as why you cannot see the islands themselves. They are separated by something more than just physical distance."
> "I presume you have read up on how there is a defined spiritual difference between Gensokyo and Bhava-Agra as well? If not, well, I just told you, so. I suspect it is this spiritual difference that causes the discrepancy described in the book. From what I have learned yesterday and today, there is apparently a deep spiritual nature to both light and shadows. Given shadows appear to be a visual manifestation of the essence of the self, I do not think it is a large leap in logic to assume the shadow of a plane of greater spirituality would not deign to fall on the surface of a plane of lesser spirituality, and, as such, the writer of that book would never have seen Bhava-Agra's shadow."
> "But that doesn't quite answer the greater question, does it? Another curiosity comes to mind. If the shadow is a visual manifestation of the essence of the self, why can an object cast multiple shadows? Would they all be the same magnitude of manifestation?"
> "Hmm. Feel free to not answer this if it's too personal, but if someone was standing near multiple sources of light, and they were thus casting multiple shadows, would you only need to touch one to drain them of their essence?"
> "Sorry, sorry! I'm only trying to get as much of an understanding of how this works as possible. Consider the question rescinded."
>"Well, if you had already reached the same conclusion to the question as what I offered... was there some other element of it that was bothering you?"
>"In the strictest sense, perhaps I don't need to know. But I certainly need to know if I am to attempt to help you find an answer, and I would like to be able to do that."
>"What's not working right? Your abilities? Or something else?"
>"Can you tell me what the problem seems to be? Or, at least, the symptoms of it? What's supposed to be happening that's not?"
>"...do you mean Bhava-Agra's shadow? Within you?"
>"I admit I do not fully understand how your ability operates, but isn't it possible that Bhava-Agra's essence is simply too large for any one being to try and contain? Even just the portion of it that you have?"
>"It doesn't? You're one person trying to contain the essence of an entire realm. No matter how adept you are with shadows, surely that has to be hard to hold within you. It is immense beyond the scale of a single being."
>"Not just Bhava-Agra? The other shadows, too?"
>"Maybe they're trying to reach out to the other parts of themselves?"
>"Were they not being as resistant earlier? If so, when did you notice things change?"
>"And you felt this affect the other shadows you held? Right away?"
>"I don't know how the shadows feel to you, when they're inside you, but I have seen some of them with my own eyes, when you... engulfed me. I could tell you what I saw, if it isn't going to be something that you already know full well yourself. I understand that my presence there was... different than the others."
>"The world inside there was a featureless void, with Bhava-Agra was suspended in it. I landed on one of its islands, when I arrived there. It was just like the Bhava-Agra I knew, but without color, or its people. All of it seem to have been preserved as they were before the fall. My own room, and its possessions, down to nearly the last detail."
>"I met Nitori's shadow there, as well. We spoke with each other. Well, I couldn't hear her voice, but she could hear mine, and we managed to communicate after a while. She seems much the same as her normal self, in fact, aside from not having a physical body. She even remembers things that happened in the physical world, after you took her shadow. She saw you drinking with Suika, and taking shelter in that cave in the side of the mountains to hide from the tengu."
>"Is none of that... 'supposed' to be how it works?"
>"As for how I escaped, I'm afraid there's not much more to say than I said when you first asked. I fell through some sort of crack inside the world, and landed outside it. I don't know quite why it deposited me where it did, but there's a great deal about that place I do not fully understand."
>"I'm not sure that whatever I fell through can affect the shadows themselves. I think I may have been an exception, given that I arrived there whole. Nitori was with me when I found it, and she did not come through on the other side."
>"And I'm not sure how much more there it to tell, to be honest. Nitori was the only other shadow I found inside there, but there was much of Bhava-Agra I couldn't reach. It is very hard to fly between the islands without any landmarks on the ground below to guide you. They may have simply been elsewhere."
>"I suppose there was one other curious thing. When Nitori's shadow found me, it somehow became attached to me, and was forced to follow me around as though it were my own."
>"The space around it looked perfectly normal until I started to pass through it. I don't think Nitori saw it at all, actually. She wouldn't have even been able to reach it without me; it was in a part of the void, away from Bhava-Agra itself. She had been unable to leave the island she was standing on until she became attached to me."
>"I don't think I can describe its location precisely. After all, it was in largely featureless space. But it was near the island the Dragon Palace is on. I don't know if that even means anything to you."
>"I'm not so certain of that, myself."
>"I'm not so certain of that, myself. But... can you sense the shadows inside yourself as precisely as that? Or the spaces between them? I have no idea what it must be like. To me, the world was as solid as this one, albeit unusual looking. But obviously you have a different sort of connection to it. I don't know if it was just my mind rationalizing what I saw in terms I could understand, or not."
>"I'm still not entirely sure I understand the 'not behaving' bit. Should Nitori not have ordinarily been able to communicate independently with me when I was with her?"
>"Not important, perhaps, but it's just honest curiosity. I won't push if you don't feel you can tell me."
> Nod.
> "All right, I understand. You certainly don't have to. And really, I must thank you, for letting me help you as much as you have. I realize it's likely very hard for you to do this, even given the circumstances."
> Hard how? Frustrated, irritated, conflicted, sad?
> "Hmm...That spiritual difference between Bhava-Agra and Gensokyo I mentioned earlier. Is it possible that's at least part of the cause?"
> "Mmm. That could very well be true, yes. Regardless, I think it's reasonable to assume Bhava-Agra's shadow was the cause of...this situation, since you were having no problems up until then. The only two differences between Bhava-Agra's shadow and the other shadows you possess I can think of off the top of my head are the spiritual difference and the sheer size. Are there any others you know of?"
> "May I presume this is a spiritual weight rather than a physical one? You have shown no signs of being weighted down in combat."
>"How do you know it should fit? I presume you've never tried to take the shadow of anything remotely as vast as this before?"
>"Well, for whatever reason, this one doesn't seem to. Is it... uncomfortable for you?"
> "...Something just occurred to me. I don't know if this is significant at all, because I really don't know how this process works, but...when I was wandering around the shadow version of Bhava-Agra in that void, I came across material items that were unaffected in the real world. My personal possessions among them, such as my shawls and my spell cards. Both of those things are definitely fully present here - my spellcards worked yesterday exactly as they were made to work, for example. If they were completely unaffected by this process, why would there be a shadow copy of them in that void?"
> "Sure. How would you like me to give it to you?"
>Take out "Dragon Palace Messenger's Swimming Shot" and hand it to her
> "Just to check, I don't suppose it will matter what this card can do, will it?"
>"I take it that it shouldn't have been in that shadow realm, then? I shouldn't have been able to pick it up and hold it?"
>"I did, yes. They didn't function as spellcards when I tried to use them, but their physical properties seemed otherwise the same, aside from lacking color. And they were kept in the same place in my room that I always keep them."
> "I did take one of my shadow shawls since I was lacking one at the time, but I noticed after I left the void that it was gone. I presume it stayed in the void, as I presume Nitori stayed in the void, but I can't even begin to guess where specifically it is now."
> "Is it possible that this different nature of the Bhavagran presence was able to affect the other shadows? When I was there, I asked Nitori was she had experienced before my arrival, and she told me that she felt like she was just floating around, and then suddenly she was on one of the islands. She could move around and such, but she was stuck on the island upon which she landed, unable to fly away to other islands. Then she became attached to me and, when I flew over nothingness, she said she experienced falling, rather than floating."
> "Hurm. That makes sense, I suppose. So that probably wouldn't affect the other shadows to the degree you've mentioned. Still, I think it's reasonable to guess that the extra Bhavagran shadows you somehow picked up are why the shadow feels heavier, and possibly why it doesn't want to fit properly as well."
> "I wonder if it may have been an effect rather than a cause, but you know more about this stuff than I do. I have nothing else to offer off the top of my head. Whatever introspection you have to do is the only thing left I can think of."
>"I'm curious, though. I take it that all of these shadow objects on Bhava-Agra are not something you should expect would be there? Do you have any idea why they might have been?"
> "I wonder why Bhava-Agra's people were not affected, then."
> "That must be a very strong connection, then, if even personal possessions were taken along for the ride. A knife I kept in my desk drawer was a gift from outside Bhava-Agra - its attachment to the land was purely through me, and yet its shadow was still in the shadow of my room."
>"I also wonder at how different Nitori and Bhava-Agra's conditions were. To me, Nitori was nothing but a shadow on the ground, like any other around here, yet Bhava-Agra and all its contents were solid three-dimensional objects, as physical as if I were interacting with the real thing. Is there any significance there, or is that also an expected effect, for some reason?"
>"Strongly divided? Do you mean between the part of her that was there, and her body in this world?"
>"I suppose that makes sense. Oh, another thing: she told me that, from her perspective, she had a body, with normal limbs and such, although from mine, she was just a shadow. Is that normal, too? Was that just her consciousness finding a way to interpret what and how she was, at the time?"
>"I'm curious; could you talk with her, yourself, if you chose to? Or communicate with her in some fashion, anyway?"
>"So, I shouldn't have been able to interact with her, either, and get a response back?"
>"And this is part of what you felt start to change after taking Bhava-Agra's shadow?"
>"She did still have memories of her time in the void before Bhava-Agra appeared there, though."
>"It is possible this is just something that happens over time? You've never held onto a person's shadow for so long, before, have you? Nitori's friends have been trying to reach her since they found her on that hill. She sometimes responds to them, just a little. I think she may be becoming ever so slightly more aware of her surroundings in the physical world as time passes."
>"I understand that your knowledge of how this process works must be largely instinctive, but might it not be possible that there are some differences between theory and practice? That some things might not be as absolute in practice as they are supposed to be? Clearly some factor that the knowledge you were born with cannot account for is at play, here. Whatever that might be."
>"Well, I'll trust your judgment on that one. As for unrelated things, you feel comfortable that none of this could be caused either by the shadows active attempts to free themselves, time passing and your hold on them weakening, people attempting to reach out to these people from the outside, or the shear size of Bhava-Agra's shadow stretching the limits of your own capacity to hold them, correct?"
>"I know the properties of the shadows you hold can affect you, at least when you're manifesting them. I saw it happen earlier, with that rock. Is it possible that holding Bhava-Agra's shadow has affected you in some way, and that might be what's causing this?"
>"Can it never have lingering effects?"
>"And am I correct in inferring that, on reflection, you don't think that all the shadow objects I found in Bhava-Agra are necessarily part of the problem, either? Or a symptom of it?"
>"Is this feeling of 'not fitting' still growing stronger? Do you think it might cause any other problems if left unchecked for a while? I don't mean to pry, and if you don't feel comfortable answering, that's ok. I just thought it might be helpful."
> Give a sad, empathetic face.
> "I'm sorry. I hope we can find the solution quickly, then."
> "May I presume you've been doing your necessary introspection for this crack this entire time? Or is it something you'll want me gone first before you attempt?"
> "There's not much I could plan in my current state, is there? But it's mostly thinking through idle curiosities. There are a billion and one things I want to ask you, but that I also think might offend you, so they sit caged in my head. Some of it is also thinking about potential goodbyes to both Tenshi and yourself, as you still seem unconvinced on the matter of a need for social interaction, even given some of the things both of us have said in this conversation."
> Give a soft chuckle.
> "You give me too much credit. But very well. I've been thinking about what we've discussed, and a couple of things have occurred to me. Now, of course, if I ask anything too personal, I apologize in advance, as I'm still not completely clear on what I am and am not allowed to ask.
> "Anyway. The first thing is that you told me my information wasn't useless to you. Would you have been able to discover what I had told you on your own?"
> "Would you have not even needed the knowledge gained from the spell card in your hand right now?"
> "Mmm, I see. Curiosity the first, then. When you took Bhava-Agra's shadow, did that process itself happen exactly as expected, or did you have to work harder than normal for it? Did it resist at all?"
> "Hmm. I assume you are aware that the islands still cast faded shadows, correct?"
> "...Really? What do you think they are, then?"
> "Have you tried poking at one to see what it's like? Or have you been unable to find one that wasn't in an obvious public place?"
> "Really? Huh. Well, I guess free time yesterday was probably spent looking for your book, so, yeah. And I guess suggesting dragging me along to do it now is probably out, huh?"
> "And I'm not about to leave you, nor are you about to let me go, so yeah, I can see why that would be a problem."
> "What what? I'm assuming you're not letting me go barring something drastic happening. Is that not true?"
> "Well, I can't just leave you as you are, can I? You'd told me the shadows inside you aren't behaving as they should, you've pretty much told me you don't know how to fix them, at least not yet, and you've pretty much told me you don't know what might happen to you if the problem persists. It's only been a day since you took Bhava-Agra's shadow and already all these unpleasant things you've described are happening to you, and even just searching out what I've described to you is going to take 'some time', to use your words. You've told me all these things, and then think I would abandon you to deal with these problems and uncertainties on your own were I given the chance? I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that."
> Deep sigh, followed by a sad frown.
> Stay silent for a couple of seconds.
> Use a small voice.
> "...Okay."
> Raise voice a bit, but not quite back to normal.
> "...But if you tell me to go away before your problem has been solved, and it gets worse for you, please...please come and find me so I can help."
> "Going to do with what? With this problem, with yourself, or with me?"
> "I'm talking about whatever you need to do to investigate that void you sent me to. I just naturally assumed it was inside you, hence the term."
> "Well, with you taking care of that, and you wanting to take care of the fake Bhava-Agra shadow inspection on your own...forgive me if I shouldn't be suggesting this, but would seeing Nitori again tell you anything?"
>"About her? Like, about what kind of person she is? Or about how her physical condition has been since you took her shadow?"
>"Well, she spends most of her time just staring off into space, unfocused. She can still walk around, if you lead her, or eat with assistance. She mostly seems unaware of her surroundings, but if you try to talk to her, sometimes she seems to hear you for a moment or two before losing focus again. Sometimes you can get a one or two word answer to something you ask her, but not much more than that, and not often."
>"The last time I tried to speak with her, I think she was actually looking at me, rather than through me. I think she was a little bit more present to the world around her, although not very strongly. She still didn't really respond to me."
>"You said that her shadow should have been dormant, but isn't. Would it still be possible to get the occasional on-topic response from her if it were?"
>"It is difficult, no argument there."
>"I don't know if this is pertinent, but Nitori is clearly more present than Kogasa is. At least the last time I spoke with them."
>"I don't think there's a distinct difference there, at least in the way that you mean. I had wondered if it might have been partially because I had spoken with Nitori while I was inside the shadow realm, and helped her to understand what had happened to her."
>"As a side note, I couldn't find Kogasa while I was there. I don't know if that was simply incidental."
>"Do you think that would be enough to account for it on its own, or do you think it's likely there's still something else at play?"
>"Did you notice anything odd about how she, specifically, was 'fitting' before you sent me to her?"
>"Is it possible that some of that might be from Bhava-Agra's shadow giving them something to move about on and interact with, rather than falling alone through a featureless void?"
>"It seems plausible, at the very least. I know Nitori didn't seem to have a very good sense of how much time had passed when there was nothing around her, but set to exploring her surroundings as soon as she was able to."
>"Do you really think that might be the root cause of the issue, then?"
>"Is there any other potential source of information that might help you make that determination? Any other question I might know the answer to, or know where to search for such an answer?"
>"Is there any other way I might be able to assist, then?"
>"Well, my offer stands, if you can think of something I could assist with."
>"And if you feel that we've done enough brainstorming on the topic, did you want to spend some time looking within yourself, with those things in mind? Or do you need to figure out what to do with me before that?"
>"After all this, are you at least willing to entertain the possibility that I have been sincere with you from the start?"
>"Well, I shall take that as a step in the right direction. All I wish is that each of us can co-existence in peace and safety without doing harm to each other. There is already enough suffering in the world. I wish to do my part to alleviate it, not add to it."
>"Do you still worry that if you let go of me, I will do you further harm?"
>"If I made a pledge to you, do you not feel I would honor it?"
>"And if I do not use this knowledge to harm you, but only to help where I can, what further harm is done than whatever you feel has already taken place?"
>"I assume you mean by taking my shadow? It is true that I would not be able to interact with the outside world if you did that, but that does not stop one from knowing the things they already know. My conversation with Nitori is evidence enough of this."
>"I'm not saying that I would. But not speaking with someone does not change what a person already knows. Even if I am unable to speak to a single person again for the rest of my life, this does not change. All the shadows within you still have their memories."
>"One can keep one's silence, even when among others. I would regard any vow so made as of the utmost sanctity. In allowing you to hold my shadow, I have extended my trust to you. It would be my sincerest hope that you might eventually feel comfortable enough to extend yours to me in the same way."
>"But if the goal is that certain things not be spread to others, cannot both methods accomplish the same goal? Except that in one, I may still have the capacity to help in some manner, while in the other I am certain not to."
> "Well, if freedom of movement is the issue, what if I simply went with you?"
> "So I can't just put my back to you and plug my fingers into my ears until you're done?"
>"And what if I promised to remain here while you went off and did what you needed to do, until you returned?"
>"I can wait as long as is necessary."
>"I believe we can deal with the future as we come to it. For the moment, it is enough to simply know what to do next."
> Given an incredulous look.
> "Days? Things have gone this strange for you after just a single day, you have no idea what they could keep doing to you if left unfixed, and you want to spend multiple days just investigating what went wrong? What if something happens to you in the meantime and your ability to investigate is hampered? Like hell would I choose to abandon you to be sick on your own for that long, if even you don't know what might happen!"
> "What? I said I wouldn't abandon you, not that I wouldn't go with you. I'm not worried about a few days for me, because I'm not the one with the potential health risk that we're trying to fix."
Completely wrong moment for this, but I might as well put this here before my internet crashes, again.
Okay, so The Dragon gave us a hint, "Need"
However, she says she "Doesn't Need Anything"
Doesn't that remind you guys of a certain sleepyhead?
Maybe make her talk to the screwdriver for a while?
That's all I could come up with.
> "I am plotting nothing beyond what I already have laid before you, throughout yesterday and today. I still hope to restore Nitori and Kogasa to themselves, I still hope to restore Bhava-Agra to itself, and I still hope to show you that joy can be had in social interaction, and that no woman is an island. And even though you may still refuse all these things, I also wish to make sure that you, at least, are safe, as altruism is a valued teaching of Bhava-Agra. I would be remiss if I were to find someone suffering and look the other way."
> Smile.
> "I have faith in both of us. But that can be set aside for now. More important to immediate concerns, I have a curiosity, and then a proposal. You may consider the curiosity personal, I don't know for sure, but I figure I should tell you up front, and reassure that no ill will is intended."
> "Given Bhava-Agra is not a sentient creature that threatened to expose you, its shadow is causing noticeable issues both with itself and others you possess, you do not know what it may continue to do to you if left as-is, and none of its people beyond Tenshi and myself are even aware you exist, why do you not heal yourself by returning its shadow?"
> Raise an eyebrow. If we were still smiling, drop it.
> "But you had previously told me you didn't need anything beyond privacy."
> "You've pretty much admitted you're choosing to risk self-destruction, though. I admit I've done the same thing, but I've done it for others, and presumably you are not. So I am left as curious as ever as to why you'd choose such a path, especially when you've been willing to tell me as much as you have in the interest of avoiding that same self-destruction."
> Soften our expression to one of empathy again.
> "You...do you mean...what I think you mean?"
> "...You need them to survive at all, don't you?"
>"Is... that why you took the shadow of that rock and tree, then?"
>"It must be a terribly frightful thing, to worry that one is slipping away... Did they help? For a little while, anyway?"
>"But can you feel... yourself slipping away again?"
>"Did it ever feel more sufficient at one point? Earlier on? Has it been getting steadily worse?"
>"Do you think something changed? Or do you think you just became more aware of that feeling over time, and that it had always been there?"
>"And taking shadows makes the feeling go away, for a little while?"
>"Gone now? I'm not sure I understand. They're still there, within you, aren't they?"
>"Forgive me if I'm getting things backwards, but did you mean that the feeling of insufficiency was no longer there?"
>"So, I guess you're worried what will happen if you keep the shadow... and what would happen if you gave it back."
>"I guess that feeling... is just something you never want to think about going back to. Even if you don't know what will happen now, either."
>"I wonder what the root cause of this insufficiency was in the first place, though? The other poltergeists I know have managed to exist in the world for a very long time without doing such a thing, and the principles behind both of your existences are similar. I wonder if they would understand better what it is you've experienced..."
>"I mention them because I think it might be valuable to speak with one of them. They doubtless have more insight into some of these matters than either of us. I cannot truly know what it is like to exist, as a poltergeist, and they have all lived many, many times longer than you. They could know something important."
>"All things being equal, I'm sure you would, but consulting with someone else who may already know something offers the chance of both a better solution and a more expedient one. That last point is non-trivial, given that whatever you're experiencing may grow worse as time goes on. I'm sure you'd rather find a solution as quickly as possible, would you not?"
>"I realize this, and I certainly do not suggest it for its own sake. Simply that the potential benefit might be worth the negatives, given the importance of the matter in question."
> "Then what if I go and ask them in your stead?"
> "Of course we don't have to do that. I can ask them about their early life experiences without ever mentioning you. You don't even have to present yourself to them, you can hide and watch somewhere nearby, to make sure I don't ask any questions you do not want me asking."
> "Then you don't have to stick around with me. We can designate a later meeting point."
> "The life essence of my home is now keeping you alive. It is not an issue of what I want to do. I need to return to you, for both your sake and my home's. You have my word that I will do everything in my power to return to you after I have finished gathering the information we seek."
> Nod.
> "Understood. But there are two things I must tell you before we depart, then. They shouldn't take long, but I feel you should know before you decide to let me go."
> Sigh with a small grimace.
> "The first is that I also wish to make a trip to the mountain goddesses again. Not to talk about you, but to gather information about shadows in general. The larger one seems to know of them; I am hoping she will have more of an idea of the details of how they work. I can also ask her where the Prismrivers live, as I have only a faint idea of where they are, and she is capable of detecting people through the wind. It is a very good bet she knows exactly where they are, which will make my journey to their residence all the faster. Both she and the Tengu Lord know I am searching for a solution to my home's mysterious problem; the tengu patrols will not slow me down."
> "I do. Are there any specific questions you would like me to ask her?"
> "Okay. And while we're on the subject of non-exposure and that mountain, I should warn you to stay away from it unless absolutely necessary. The tengu are currently searching for an escaped convict, and one of their patrols found a strand from what I'm 99% sure is your coat in a cave this morning while searching. Their patrol efforts are greater than normal merely because of that escaped convict, and they are none too pleased with knowing that someone made it up the mountain undetected. I imagine it will be much harder to scale the mountain undetected a second time."
> Nod.
> "Good."
> "The second thing is in relation to the meeting place you have decided; specifically, the resident of the house you mentioned. You were referring to the house in the forest, correct?"
> "Right. That house belongs to one of Gensokyo's incident solvers. Due to a mixture of unfortunate circumstances, lies from others forced by her needless brutality, and her own pre-conceived biases and simple nature, she believes that I am responsible for Bhava-Agra's current state. Myself, and anyone I even remotely associate with. If she sees you by yourself, she will likely think nothing of you and either ignore you or wander off to do something else, but if she sees me with you, I cannot guarantee the safety of either of us."
> "Oh. OH! That house. Okay, yes, that will be safer for both of us than the house I was thinking of. Apologies, there are multiple houses in the forest with junk outside them, and the rock whose shadow you possess is near her house. Okay then."
> In which direction did we last see Tenshi?
> Nod.
> "I will do my very best not to fail you, Shuuei."
> "Shuuei. It is a name I thought of back when I wasn't sure you had one. I may be biased, but I must admit I like it more than the one thrown upon you by the belief founded in the rumors. It feels less...artificial, I guess I would say. More fitting for you."
> "It may sound weird, but given the written characters that compose it, it basically means 'autumn shadow', which is very much more you, in my opinion. Of course, no one else needs to know of the written characters that compose it."
> "Regardless of weirdness, it may also make avoiding discussing you easier. You actually encountered a Prismriver sister yesterday - a small blonde girl in a black vest with a conical black cap. If I see her again and she wonders what became of you after you shot at her, I can use that name and she will be none the wiser as to who you really are."
> Smile.
> "Give life some time. I speak from experience when I say that you might be surprised how quickly things can grow on you."
>Nod
>"Indeed. I wish you well, and hope that the next time we meet, I will have good news for you."
>Head off in the direction Tenshi withdrew to and see if we can find her
>Call out: "Tenshi? Are you still around?"
>Head back to Maribel's
>"Password? What password?"
>Do we recall being told of any such password?
>If not: "I hope this wasn't something Tenshi was supposed to convey to me, when she came for me? Because I'm afraid she said no such thing."
>"Swordfish. The password's ALWAYS swordfish."
>Quickly put our hands up
>"It was a joke, sorry! I'm alone and unharmed, I swear."
>Don't move an inch
>"It's me, I swear! Ask me anything else you like."
>"It was a joke. In very poor taste, admittedly, but I didn't expect you to react like this so swiftly. I am truly sorry."
>"She let me go. With more than a little reluctance, of course. We're to meet again later today. In the meantime, I'm hoping to find out some more information she might find useful. Well, useful to all of us, hopefully, if it can help me make some progress on the larger problem. She is... very difficult to negotiate with."
>"Well, generally when you approach someone assuming they're insane, they generally are no matter what they do. I decided to try to approach without such baggage, and it seems I've made some progress."
>"She is... operating under a very different world view than most of us. Although I think many people would call such a thing crazy from our point of view, yes. But this is just a consequence of the knowledge and instinct that she was born with. From her perspective, what she does is sensible and right. Sadly..."
>"If any harm comes to your shadow, I will castigate myself in equal measure, I promise you. I have pledged to prevent anyone else from coming to harm at her hands."
> "If you still don't believe it's me, I have the plunger device that I talked to Renko about earlier today."
>"I am unharmed. Although I was very cold for a very long length of time... It is a distinctly disturbing sensation, when she has her grip upon you. It is good to be back among friendly faces."
>"I didn't, I said. She agreed to let me go, on the condition that we would meet again later. I'm hoping to find out a few relevant things about her and her shadows between now and then."
> "I am doing this for the good of everyone involved. I cannot go into details because I have promised to respect her privacy, but I believe this can all be solved in such a way that works out for everyone - Nitori, Kogasa, our home, and yes, even her. Like I've said before, she does not act out of malice, and if putting myself in the hands of such a person means the chance to make everyone happy, I will gladly take that risk."
>"Assuming she would be put out to be asked to refrain from using force, perhaps so. Would that this situation could be resolved as simply as that. But the spectre is extremely resolute in her beliefs, and I do not know that any amount of force could compel her to release her hold on the shadows. I still see hope for a better resolution. While such hope exists, I am determined to pursue it."
> "Hopefully she's doing it to someone whose name is on that list she gave me. I feel kinda bad about it, but I'm having second thoughts about agreeing to do that. This whole ordeal has given me even more of an appreciation for life than I already had...I don't think I have it in me to simply beat someone up for the sake of sending a message."
> "My current itinerary is to head up to Kanako, and learn as much as I can about the nature of shadows from her. After that, I need to find a Prismriver sister, who I can ask about life as a poltergeist. I don't know where they live, so I will probably ask Kanako about that as well, unless any of you happen to know. Once I am done with them, I will be meeting our shadowy friend at our designated meeting place, and regardless of what happens between now and then, I will be meeting her alone. Given that, I would like to meet with Tenshi in private before I leave here, but that can wait until it is time to go."
>"No, I don't think so. I won't need to search for her the next time, and I'm not planning to overpower her if I can possibly help it. I would still be cautious, however. She has not changed her tune a great deal from the last time."
>How large a somewhere are said mountains? Given that the building we'd be trying to find is relatively large.
>Do we know the general area the Prismrivers live in more specifically than what Tenshi said?
>Do we know anyone off the top of our head that would probably be more likely to?
>We do know how to reach the Netherworld, correct?
>How out of the way is Reimu's, between here and there?
>"How've Nitori and Kogasa been, anyway? Any change? Nitori seemed a little more aware than before, when I spoke with her last night, but I suspect that was simply due to our conversation last night, and her learning what had happened to her."
>Nod
>"Fair enough."
>"Well, we should probably best be going. The sooner I can put all of this to rest, the better."
>"Very good. Hopefully this can be a quiet day for most of us. Be well."
>Leave and start to head towards the Hakurei Shrine, assuming Tenshi falls in with us
>"As I said, I am planning to speak with the Prismrivers and Kanako, in the hope that they have information that I can use to help end this. About the nature of shadows, and what it means to exist as a poltergeist.The spectre believes that holding onto those shadows is necessary, for more reasons than simply the matter of her own exposure. I want to find an alternate answer to that problem, so that she might consider letting them go."
>"Hmmm... think of it this way: I want to help her find a way to be content in her own life, without feeling the need to harm anyone else's. That is a tall order, to be sure, but the best way for everyone to have a safe future is if she no longer wants to take others' shadows."
>"Well, like I said, I'm hoping I can learn something that will helpful both to her and to us. And maybe some of it might even help sway her mind a little, when she hears it. Or, at the very least, my attempt to gather it on her behalf might foster some modicum of trust. Some of this may be a long shot, I admit, but it's the best shot I can think of at the moment. If it turns out not to matter, I'll just have to think of something else."
>"That is a large part of it, yes. But this does not explain the shadows of inanimate objects, who can neither know her nor speak of her. Suffice it to say, she believes it is absolutely vital that she keep them within her, and has an honestly understandable reason for wanting to do this, if her facts are true. This is what I intend to investigate. I would say more, but I swore to her that I would not, and I intend to honor my word. She started with the assumption that everything I said was a lie, and none of what I do matters unless she can trust me."
>"I'm going to ask them about their early experiences as a poltergeists, what they know about how they came to be, and its connection with their continued existence here. On that topic of what it is like to live as a poltergeist, I'd say they are among the foremost experts in Gensokyo, wouldn't you?"
>"Well, it's worth a try, regardless. If they can't help me, then I'm no worse off than I am now. And it will be a more than welcome change to discuss the matter with someone less... hostile."
>"On that note, I wanted to thank you again, Tenshi. For coming back for me. And for being willing to step aside again. You don't know how much of a smile it brought to my spirit when I first realized you were there."
>Frown
>"I should certainly hope not. The call was mine and the consequences mine. You did more than was even asked of you, and if anyone had said otherwise, I would make quite certain to set the record straight as soon as I was able. You have my word on that."
>"And a good thing she did not take the opportunity to steal my shadow when she did. I am sure it was extremely tempting. But the mere fact that she was willing to let me go on my word is a promising thing."
>"Why would she need a trap? She had my shadow in her hands. All she needed to do was pull a little harder. I'm not likely to be any more at her mercy than she already had me then."
>"In any case, I was thinking we'd stop in at Reimu's on our way north, and see if she can give us better directions, rather than flailing about in the general vicinity. After our encounter last night, I'm not expecting there will be any problems from her. Unless you can think of someone less touchy who might also know the way?"
>Do we know of any venues where they have tended to perform? And people who might have organized any of these ocassions?
>"Well, I suppose it mightn't hurt to ask a couple people there anyway. It's occurred to me that Reimu may not respond well if she asks for details about why I want to speak with them that I have pledged not to provide. I don't want to give her any further excuse to believe we're hiding our own responsibility for this."
>Head to the human village
>"I was actually thinking of asking her. You have a rather good reason to be unavailable at the moment, but would you rather wait elsewhere?"
> Who owns/runs the tavern, anyway?
>"Fair enough. I'll return shortly."
>Head to the tavern
>Do we recognize this woman?
>"Actually, I was just hoping I could find someone who would be able to give me better directions than I already have. I don't suppose you know where the Prismrivers live? Or know someone I could ask?"
>"A... what? No, I just wanted to ask them a question or two. And not even about that."
>"Do you know if their place is hard to find if you wander up about in that area?"
>How much do we know about the terrain in that area? Or have we pretty much just gone directly to the Netherworld and back again?
> Recall known details of and encounters with a Fujiwara no Mokou.
>"I have been to the Netherworld before, but not stayed off the direct path."
>Do we know the pass to which she's referring?
>Do we know how to dodge being shanked yet? It keeps happening so I'd like to think we've figured it out by now.
> "So you're immortal, right? That must be nice to not have to worry about getting shanked."