(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 12)

[Hanzo K.]

>"Guess we'll call it a draw then."
>Let's lay off the girl for now, and let her take care of things.

[DracoOmega]

>"Guess we'll call it a draw then."
>Let's lay off the girl for now, and let her take care of things.

>You declare a truce, then step back and give Kyouko room to stand upright again.
>Kyouko nods. "A draw!" Then she quickly dashes out to the kitchen.

[Oldmansour]

>Well, that was... bit of a surprise.
>Probably safe to put out pillow back to its old role of being a pillow, rather than a flail, so go put her back in our makeshift bed.

[DracoOmega]

>Well, that was... bit of a surprise.
>Probably safe to put out pillow back to its old role of being a pillow, rather than a flail, so go put her back in our makeshift bed.

>You pause for a moment to take in the sheer incongruity of what just occurred, surveying the strewn bedding and discarded pillows with a mixture of uncertainty and a curious... satisfaction? You're almost not sure what to make of it.
>Then you shrug and go back out to the main room where you return your pillow to its rightful place. Your own bed has not escaped the ordeal unscathed, but you gather up the sheet you flung off at the start of the fight and put it back tidily, tucking in the corners just as Kyouko cheerfully summons you for tea.
>It is lemon, it turns out, with just a hint of cinnamon - a beverage you honestly appreciate more than you did the sake, pedestrian though it may be. The soothing drink seems to settle Kyouko's lingering giddiness but she remains in unmistakably good humor for the rest of the evening. At least twice you have to thwart attempts to foist more mochi upon you, and then a variety of other snacks when you refuse the first - as tasty as they might be, you've really had quite enough already tonight. Kyouko apparently has not, or at least seems content to munch on the things you pass up with little apparent limit. You do accede to a second cup of tea, though you nurse them both slowly.

>After a while, Kyouko excuses herself to go tidy up her room, leaving you to the last of the tea and your own thoughts.

[Oldmansour]

>Now that the.... uh, whatever you want to call it, from the pillow fight has subsided, how tired are we feeling?
>Status check on bittercress.

[DracoOmega]

>Now that the.... uh, whatever you want to call it, from the pillow fight has subsided, how tired are we feeling?
>Status check on bittercress.

>After the multitudinous excursions of the day and now having a place to settle and kick back, you find yourself feeling pretty lethargic, if not quite asleep on your feet.
>You go take another look at your bittercress. It appears unchanged from when you arrived.

[Oldmansour]

>Of course it hasn't changed.
>Well let's finish up our tea and go lie down. Maybe it'll have bloomed when the sun comes up. Maybe.

[DracoOmega]

>Of course it hasn't changed.
>Well let's finish up our tea and go lie down. Maybe it'll have bloomed when the sun comes up. Maybe.

>It is with a bitter lack of surprise that you acknowledge your plant's unchanged condition. But it is what it is, and you're too tired tonight to do anything else about it. Hopefully the morning will bring better news.
>You finish up the last of your tea then settle down to bed, drawing the woolen blanket close to yourself and shifting around to find as comfortable a purchase on your makeshift sleeping arrangements as you can. Kyouko bids you a cheerful goodnight and soon retires to her own room, though you can hear her puttering about for a while afterward -  to her credit she does so quite quietly.
>Your mind is both restless and fatigued as you lie in bed, worries and doubts floating vaguely as they slip the feeble grasp of your waning consciousness. The promise of those seeds feels muted now, the verdant foliage of their growth almost cruel by its omission. You aren't certain what you should do if the flowers haven't appeared by tomorrow; it is difficult to marshall your thoughts. It is difficult even to remember what you were trying to marshall. The weight of your troubles and the warm blanket both press down upon you and soon you are lost beneath them.

>You awaken dully to a bright light upon your face. Your mouth feels thick and your body heavy. There is a sweet smell in the air, like honey, and you can hear something... frying?

[Hanzo K.]

>Eh? Let's shove ourselves out of bed and investigate after properly stretching and such.
>But before we investigate the smells, let's check the plant.

[DracoOmega]

>Eh? Let's shove ourselves out of bed and investigate after properly stretching and such.
>But before we investigate the smells, let's check the plant.

>With a surprising amount of effort, you push your leaden form upright and stretch. Your limbs ache a little and it doesn't feel like your mind has quite realized it is conscious yet.
>But you still have enough awareness to crane your neck around and take a look at your bittercress, resting happily beside Kyouko's bonsai in the warm embrace of the morning sunlight. You squint as the shaft of light falls sharply across your sleepy eyes, then raise a hand to shade them. The bittercress... does not appear to have changed.

[Hanzo K.]

>...Damn. We'd probably verbally indulge a bit if we weren't in pleasant company.
>Well, nothing for it right now, so let's try and wake ourselves up.

[DracoOmega]

>...Damn. We'd probably verbally indulge a bit if we weren't in pleasant company.
>Well, nothing for it right now, so let's try and wake ourselves up.

>You feel a seeping bitterness well up as you stare at your plant, and you have to bite your own tongue to keep from pronouncing it to people you'd rather not hear.
>Doing your best to put that to one side for the moment, you try to roust your groggy self from the bed. Your limbs protest; perhaps you asked more of your legs yesterday than you'd thought. And surely the blanket can't weigh that much....
>From the direction of the kitchen, you hear Kyouko humming quietly to herself amid the sizzle of... pancakes, you think?

[Oldmansour]

>By any chance, during our travels yesterday, did we happen to pick up any info on how much sunlight or water bittercress takes?

[DracoOmega]

>By any chance, during our travels yesterday, did we happen to pick up any info on how much sunlight or water bittercress takes?

>You understood it to be a fairly hardy plant, but you don't really know about its optimal growing conditions any more than that.

[Oldmansour]

>Does it seem to be suffering from a lack of water of sun?

[DracoOmega]

>Does it seem to be suffering from a lack of water of sun?

>You move over for a closer look at the plant. While the soil is not nearly as moist as when you watered it yesterday, it doesn't seem especially dry either. Of course, you're no green thumb. It's certainly not suffering for a lack of sun, though; alongside Koki-san, it is all but enveloped in a wide shaft of the bright morning light.

[Oldmansour]

Okay, gang, since our magic dirt seems to have magically stopped being magic, what's the plan for today?

[Hanzo K.]

I'm not sure. And the fact that we were slower to rise than yesterday has me kinda worried. It could be the exercise and the booze, or it could be that little problem of ours.

[Oldmansour]

Yeah, the death clock's ticking.
So assuming minoriko's dirt was a giant waste of time, that seems to leave us with a choice. Reimu or Yuuka.

[Hanzo K.]

Well, let's consider who might be closer.

[Oldmansour]

I believe that was Reimu. And she's also a damn sight easier to find than Yuuka. And an awful lot less likely to pull out our guts on sight.

On the other hand, Yuuka's the one that's pretty much guaranteed to have what we need. GETTING it might be a thing, but it'd be there. With Reimu, we don't know for sure if she can even help us. It might be beyond the power of her and the sword.

[Hello Purvis]

My instinct is to go for Yuuka, due to the guarantee. As long as we don't get instagibbed, we have a chance. After all, who wants to spill cursed blood in their precious fields?

My other instinct is that it'll take awhile for the plant to flower; if it did a whole growth cycle in a couple of hours, it'll probably still take some time yet to flower, given that only happens every seven days. Likely we have a few days to wait yet.  But, obviously, that's a gamble and I don't see Nazrin taking it unless something comes up that doesn't allow her to wander.

A possibility: Find out if there's any other life cycle things that the bittercress does, or if there are any notable precursors to it flowering. If we can pick up one thing or the other, we might be able to tell if the soil is still doing its thing or not.

[Hanzo K.]

That's probably the best bet.

[Oldmansour]

Shouldn't be hard to get that information, either. Any florist in the city should be able to tell us.
And maybe I'm jumping to conclusions. Maybe it just needs more water. I mean, that's what jumpstarted it last night.

Failing that, much as it pains me to say, I think Yuuka's probably the better bet as well. It's riskier in just about every way, but the guaranteed presense of the flower we need makes all the difference. Assuming we can get there before we get debilitated by the plague. Which means that, if the flower doesn't bloom within the next few hours, we should start heading south.


>Take a look out the window, then go find coffee. Or pancakes. Or both, both is good.


Fake edit: I might add that, it still might be worth our time to visit Reimu up there. Assuming we can revisit this continent after we go back to Easthaven to check on the spiders and Yamame. I'm still curious about this sword and the story around it.

[Hanzo K.]

Yeah, we can come back here after we've gotten cured, and done a few less-risky jobs to amass a tidy little sum so we can actually just enjoy ourselves.

[Majildian]

>Did we remember to take our medicine before going to bed last night?
>Either way, take the morning dose before going to the kitchen.

[DracoOmega]

>Did we remember to take our medicine before going to bed last night?
>Either way, take the morning dose before going to the kitchen.

>You did take another does of medicine before going to bed; you'd have to be a lot more drunk than that to forget something so critical.
>You discretely produce the bottle and knock back another capful of the bitter liquid; it's not really helping the thick feeling in your mouth much. But perhaps breakfast might.

>Take a look out the window, then go find coffee. Or pancakes. Or both, both is good.

>You give your limbs another stretch, then walk over to the window. It is a bright day out, the sun shining starkly in a cloudless sky - a little after ten o'clock, if you had to guess. But the view is... strangely captivating. It is a curious feeling to wake among the commanding architecture of the grand city, even in a district as removed from its greatest opulence as this one. Stretching out beyond Kyouko's humble apartment are rows of impeccably tiled roofs and sculpted cornices amid the orderly cobblestone streets, and in the distance beyond you can see the rising sweep of grander structures, ornamented spires and monuments to wealth and privileged. There is still a faint air of unreality to your current situation - both the good and the bad of it. You've come so close to one of your long-held ambitions than you can almost touch it, and yet the promise waiting on the other side of that glass might as well be a world away. You're not going to let this be snatched away from you now. You're not.

>It takes you a few moments to pull yourself away from the view again, but you eventually turn and head towards the kitchen. Sure enough, that's a pancake sizzling upon the iron skillet and a second resting on a plate beside the stove. Or at least part of one - the cook seems to have been nibbling while she works. The article itself smells a touch burnt, but not enough to be unpalatable.
>Kyouko gives the skillet a little shake as you approach, a gesture that seems more rote than actually productive, then chirps "Good morning!"

[Hanzo K.]

>"Morning. Slept like a log. I might've known it was pancakes though, the smell of honey and the sound of frying gave it away."
>Let's find someplace nearby to sit down. "Don't suppose you have any coffee do you? After the drinking we did last night, I certainly need a bit."

[DracoOmega]

>"Morning. Slept like a log. I might've known it was pancakes though, the smell of honey and the sound of frying gave it away."
>Let's find someplace nearby to sit down. "Don't suppose you have any coffee do you? After the drinking we did last night, I certainly need a bit."

>"How many do you want?" she asks, skewering the first pancake with a fork and tearing off another bite.
>Unfortunately Kyouko's kitchen nearly lacks room to stand; it most certainly has no room to sit.
>You ask after some morning coffee. And while the merry chef is back-on, you can still nearly read her frown from the way her ears droop just a tad.
>"I don't have any coffee here," she says apologetically. "But there's some mango juice in the ice box! And a little fizzy grape, too, I think. And some milk!" She gives the skillet another shake, then scrutinizes the contents a moment before reaching for the spatula.

[Hanzo K.]

>How many do we feel we can eat?
>As for the drinks, they're better than nothing I suppose. Which one sounds the most appealing at the moment?