Yukari Quest III - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> Look eastward. Can we see what she's talking about?
> "How far away is it, do you believe? I would rather not let your fire out of my sight, given your condition."

>"Miles," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> How easy or difficult would it be for us to carry Maribel around in our arms?
> Could we keep Maribel kind of half-in-half-out of a pocket gap and have the gap itself tote her around? Or would that cut her in half?

> Nod.
> "All right. Before we go on our little adventure, however, there is something I would like to examine."
> Hold out an open hand to Maribel.
> "Would you take my hand, please?"

[Hello Purvis]

> How easy or difficult would it be for us to carry Maribel around in our arms?
> Could we keep Maribel kind of half-in-half-out of a pocket gap and have the gap itself tote her around? Or would that cut her in half?

> Nod.
> "All right. Before we go on our little adventure, however, there is something I would like to examine."
> Hold out an open hand to Maribel.
> "Would you take my hand, please?"

>You could normally carry Maribel around without too much trouble.  Presently, you are not quite in top shape, and it may tax you after some length of time.
>It is possible to haul her around in a gap, but it would be hard to keep it open long enough to be useful for such endeavors.
>"Well, okay," she says, as she takes your hand. "What are you looking for?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Can we feel that aura abnormality any better?

[Hello Purvis]

> Can we feel that aura abnormality any better?

>It does seem to be a bit more clear now. There's something innately off about her. Not quite malicious or harmful, but rather like seeing someone becoming unusually pale after spending too much time indoors. A closer look may be necessary.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> How could we take that closer look?

[Hello Purvis]

> How could we take that closer look?

>Further examination might do it. Bringing her to a place where the borders are less chaotic may help as well.

[Kilgamayan]

> Frown.
> "...Hmm, that's interesting. Pardon me for a moment."
> Give the strange aura some further examination, then. Can we tell how long she has been changed for? How strong the change is? Is there any physical aspect of her that has changed? Any mental aspect?

[O4rfish]

>Does it line up with, say, someone becoming a youkai?

[Hello Purvis]

> Frown.
> "...Hmm, that's interesting. Pardon me for a moment."
> Give the strange aura some further examination, then. Can we tell how long she has been changed for? How strong the change is? Is there any physical aspect of her that has changed? Any mental aspect?

>"What's interesting?" says Maribel. "What are you up to, Yukari?"
>Taking a closer look you find that this oddity seems to be fairly recent, probably no more than a day or so old. It is rather weak right now, but seems to have the potential to become worse as time goes on. It doesn't seem to affect mental or physical aspects so much as spiritual aspects. With time, though, there will be mental and physical effects.

>Does it line up with, say, someone becoming a youkai?

>You would say so. It seems that she is slowly losing her humanity.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Is it possible she has a 'piece' of us?
> Have we felt a little more human recently? Could we even tell?
> Is the process reversible?

[Hello Purvis]

> Is it possible she has a 'piece' of us?
> Have we felt a little more human recently? Could we even tell?
> Is the process reversible?

>You don't think so. It's possible, you suppose, but you would like to think you would have recognized it sooner.
>You...don't think you would know, actually.
>It may be. You may even be able to do it yourself, but it is not something you would wish to try without all of your tools in your possession, and preferably being back in Gensokyo. Even then, if it gets much worse, it may become the spiritual difference between a haircut and an amputation, so to speak. You imagine a competent shrine maiden could purify it away, if you get her to one before it is too late. It is plausible that a skillful hermit could assist with this as well, but again time is a factor.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Can we tell how and/or why it is happening?

[Hello Purvis]

> Can we tell how and/or why it is happening?

>You cannot tell how just by looking at it. Knowing Maribel, you hardly think it is self-induced, so the source is almost certainly something else. As for why, you imagine there is some aspect of this place that humanity is incomparable with. An ignorant person would call it corrupting or soul poisoning or some such, but you know better than to consider it that. But whatever it is, it is not something a human can do or be exposed to or whatever without losing themselves.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"Has anything happened to you in the past day or so?"
>"Other than the thirst do you feel ok?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Has anything happened to you in the past day or so?"
>"Other than the thirst do you feel ok?"

>"What do you mean by happened, exactly?" says Maribel.
>"No," she says. "My head hurts, I'm exhausted, my mouth feels like it's full of cotton... I don't know how much of that is related. I haven't gone this long without water before..."

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"I don't mean to worry you, but I suspect this place isn't very safe for you to stay in. After we find some water we should get you out of here as fast as possible."

[Kilgamayan]

> Don't say that.

She's already under enough stress. Let's just get a move on looking for the weirdness she found.

[Kilgamayan]

Like, I can appreciate the sentiment, but we need to put our parenting hat on right now. Mary is confused, afraid, and physically damaged, and our presence means the world to her. We're Yukari Yakumo, the (cause of and) solution to all of life's problems, and if anyone can fix her situation, it's us. So I think it is best to avoid mentioning what the environment is doing to her; her stress level is already taxingly high.

> "Hmm hmm hmm. Have you found anything interesting? Anything out-of-place, even for these strange lands?"

[Yaersulf]

Ok, fair enough, I was on the fence about saying that anyway.

[Kilgamayan]

Yeah, I didn't think you meant anything bad or whatever by it.

Also, in retrospect, not checking Turtle House when we were in Genfauxkyo was a stupid move. I'm going to file that on the same shelf as Utsuho not investigating the flowers or letting Wriggle finish her research before taking action, Iku taking forever and a day to talk to Suika, and Nue not grilling the known village thief about where her cards went. >_>

[Hello Purvis]

>"I don't mean to worry you, but I suspect this place isn't very safe for you to stay in. After we find some water we should get you out of here as fast as possible."

> Don't say that.

> "Hmm hmm hmm. Have you found anything interesting? Anything out-of-place, even for these strange lands?"

>You consider being direct, but decide she probably has more than she wants to deal with already.
>She frowns as you ask about interesting things. "Well, what do you think is interesting?" she says. "To be honest, most of this place is weirdly fascinating. Just...I don't want to stay any more, not like this."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

I think we might need to tell her about the tools.

[Yaersulf]

Possibly, but I don't think we need to tell her everything about them. I doubt she's found any anyway, most of the ones we've found haven't exactly been in a recognisable form.

[Kilgamayan]

> "Anything that clearly didn't belong to its environment, shall we say."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Anything that clearly didn't belong to its environment, shall we say."

>"Well...there are the hands. But surely you've seen them by now, right?" says Maribel.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I have seen hand patterns in a few things, yes. What form did they take when you saw them?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "I have seen hand patterns in a few things, yes. What form did they take when you saw them?"

>"I've seen them in plants, I've seen them in rocks..." she frowns for a moment. "They were all over the mountain I climbed to get here. And you could sometimes see them in the dirt out around it, where that crater was. I think even the sky there made some."
>She glances upwards, then continues, "I half expected to find them in the stars, but none there. I guess that's a good thing? I don't even know."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Huh. We probably should pay closer attention to that, should we find ourselves at the floating islands again.
> Nod.
> "All right, then. I think it is time we tried to find that abnormality. Are you ready?"

[Hello Purvis]

> Huh. We probably should pay closer attention to that, should we find ourselves at the floating islands again.
> Nod.
> "All right, then. I think it is time we tried to find that abnormality. Are you ready?"

>She nods.

>_