Hatate Quest Nelja

[Oldmansour]

>Snortlaugh.
>"Does she know?"

>The wolf nods, almost looking ashamed of herself.

[Hello Purvis]

>More laughing.
>"How do you not wave that thing at her every other day, then?"

[Oldmansour]

>More laughing.
>"How do you not wave that thing at her every other day, then?"

>"She doesn't get carried away every other day."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Like that should stop you!"

[Oldmansour]

>"Like that should stop you!"

>Momiji fidgets a little. "That's... not really my style."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Heh, fair enough."

[Oldmansour]

>"Heh, fair enough."

>"And besides, one needs new material after a while."

[Hello Purvis]

"Oh true. But there's some things that people should never live down."

[Oldmansour]

"Oh true. But there's some things that people should never live down."

>Momiji smiles a rueful little smile. "Maybe, my young friend. But if I managed to grab something to needle Aya with, what do you suppose the odds are she doesn't have one on me? Or more. Many more."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Pretty low, because you don't screw up like that."
>"Or if you do, you do a real good job of hiding it."

[Oldmansour]

>"Pretty low, because you don't screw up like that."
>"Or if you do, you do a real good job of hiding it."

>"Now you're flattering me." the white wolf says with a bashful smile.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh hardly. There's a reason Aya made you a top dog around here."

[Oldmansour]

>"Oh hardly. There's a reason Aya made you a top dog around here."

>"She has a point." Ranka adds. "You came closer to catching me than a lot of other tengu when I used to play games with the border guards. Even those Dai-tengu you take orders from couldn't catch me, but came close to it. And that takes a lot of skill and smarts."
>Momicchi actually blushes under the combined praise from the both of you. The woman takes great pride in her work, you know, but it seems she suffers from excess humility when her skills are acknowledged.

[Hello Purvis]

>"See?"

[Oldmansour]

>"See?"

>"Well, yes, but let's not forget that Ranka was talking about the other Momiji." Momiji replies, trying to bring her embarrassment under control.
>"Same girl." Ranka says with a toss of her hair. "You have the same history, right? 'least up to the point where Aya made this world, that's when you really became... different..." The wind spirit's voice fades as she starts to slow, a look of bleak confusion spreading across her face. "Why did I say that?" she asks quietly.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I think only you can answer that. Why do you think you did it?"

[Oldmansour]

>"I think only you can answer that. Why do you think you did it?"

>"Because.... It's.... true?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hm, keep following that line of thought. See what else you work out?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Hm, keep following that line of thought. See what else you work out?"

>"Take your time." Momiji adds soothingly, her embarrassment completely forgotten.
>The blonde takes this advise to heart, not answering for several seconds. "Aya's like you two, right? She came from another place, another world?"
>"That's right."
>"But she isn't exactly like you two, she's... she's a part of this world. Or, is becoming a part of it. You two, you stand out, you're.... different, somehow. And I was different too, I remember now, there was a time when Aya- No. No, she didn't make this world, did she, she wasn't here first. Someone else was here first, someone- No, someONES, there were two of them. .. Weren't there?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yep, you're doing good."

[Oldmansour]

>"Yep, you're doing good."

>"But those two weren't tengu, were they?"

[Hello Purvis]

>Shake head.

[Oldmansour]

>Shake head.

>"Who were they? Do you know?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Who were they? Do you know?"

>"Yeah. And there may be more than that. There's Ran, for starters."

[Oldmansour]

>"Yeah. And there may be more than that. There's Ran, for starters."

>"But this world..." Ranka's head twitches violently, and she presses her hands to her temples. "What is this world?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Just let it come to you. Don't worry, we're here."

[Kilgamayan]

Oh man, finally got caught up on this at 4 this morning. Gonna be useless at work today, but it was totally worth it.

Sadly, I have no particularly useful/noteworthy insights at present, but the path onward seems pretty straightforward outside of finding Greed and Psychuya, so maybe there isn't much of a need for such things. (I did voice some minor concerns on IRC but those have been addressed.)

[Kilgamayan]

Actually, there is one thing I think I'd like a direct statement and/or discussion on.

> For us, is Aya a friend first or a journalistic rival first?

Purvis: If Sour leaves the answer to the playerbase, which would you say?

[Hello Purvis]

I'd say it depends entirely on whether they both woke up in a good mood on any given day. I lean more toward rival, but one grudgingly worthy of respect. Whether we're more interested in winning out or seeing her ruined largely depends on how much she's overshadowed us lately. So at this point in time, less rival and more friend.

[Kilgamayan]

I suppose I'm more asking to see if we'd be willing to sacrifice Aya's happiness (or her soul) for the sake of drastically improving our relative journalistic standing, such as by ditching her here if she's super stubborn.

EDIT: What I mean is that, presumably, we as players don't want to do that, but Hatate may think differently? It wouldn't be the first time any of us has acted suboptimally in the interest of maintaining OCness.

I admit I also worry for the nontrivial possibility that Aya will be woken up but want to remain here anyway.