Arsenic Witch:> What would Yuuka know about dreams?
> Considering the
chat you had with her not a few hours ago, quite a bit. She does live in the Dream Realm still :V
>Hmm... what was Yuuka's relationship with Medicine, again? Ask Mini-Medi-Mari for a refresher if necessary.
> Medi approached Yuuka as a possible roommate, but was probably scared off by her power and reputation. Can't say you blame her.
>There's not much we'd be able to do about the others, is there?
>Try and relax a little bit... we've gone a little far to back down now.
> If you mean Koishi and Yukari, not really. They come and go as they please. If you mean Maple and Mokou...Huh...Marisa. Mokou. Maple. You're the TRIPLE EM BRIGADE! Or something. The thought of this makes you giggle...And yawn.
> Wait. Yawn? When dafuq does a doll YAWN?!
> Before you can answer, it seems your body has made a decision for you...You fall over facefirst into the patch of flowers, because seriously, it's 10PM going on 11 and you should be asleep!!
> ...Mari? You still with us, girl?
> Sorry, let's adjust the picture again...
> *PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE*
> There we go. You are...Well, you're apparently dreaming, because you've felt this floaty, out of body sort of thing before. What you're doing right now is the opposite of floating, however. You're face down in a patch of flowers much like the ones you encountered, but...A quick glance around the area shows you're not in the Mushroom Grove anymore. In fact, this part of the forest looks a lot more open to you, you must be in the TRAIL TO THE OUTSIDE that connects the the FOREST OF MAGIC to the HUMAN VILLAGE and the BAMBOO FOREST. You still have your RADIANT STAFF and all your other dream self stuff you had since you were last here (spell cards, lives, etc).
> As you take in your surroundings, you hear something coming from the not-too-distant south...Music? Very upbeat, very vivacious, very much like a car*LOUD HONK*
> ...Let's try that again, a car*EXPLOSION*
> ...Car*EXTENDED FART NOISE*
> Oy...Let's try this. Cir*ELEPHANT TRUMPETING*
>
Are you fucking kidding me? Is someone futzing around with the soundboard or something?! The parser has to go choke a bitch or two, go ahead and do whatever.
Incendiary Ibis:> Would Keine approve of wastes of time if they got us away from Kaguya murder?
> Keine would probably snark and say that you're wasting your time in a different way. Besides, you kinda buried the hatchet with Kaguya a while ago, now you're just more playful frienemies...Which Keine says isn't much better but whatever.
> Answer Rumia, "Well, I suppose fairies can heal. But not the whole fairy, I kind of like her."
> "Hey Maple, can you give me a hand?"
> You
bacon beckon Maple over, but she sees what you're doing and furiously shakes her head. "I need to watch Marisa-san anyways! What if she sleepwalks or something?!"
> Huh, the witch finally fell asleep? Maple nods. Damn, she must've been really desperate. Oh well. Time for plan B...
>Or maybe we can skip trolling the fairy and consider offering our own. Which is probably still a terrible idea.
>Inventory? We don't have anything edible on us, do we?
> All you have are your CIGARETTES (Vampire Brand), your SPELL CARD DECK, and THE CLOTHES ON YOUR BACK.
> You consider offering yourself as a meal to Rumia, I mean it's not like you can't come back from digestion...But you'd rather go through some less painful and vore-tastic ideas first.
>How bad of a person would it make us to give her a cigarette? Nicotine suppresses appetite, after all...
>Probably not worth giving the nuisance much of anything, anyway...
> Eh, it's not like you can't get any more. Kourin gets them regularly at his shop, but he's kept mum on his supplier. You try offering the
Lady In Black a smoke.
> "...You're kidding me, right? I haven't had a proper meal in months." You ask her to define a proper meal. "Ya know, like...Meat. Any meat, really. But human meat is the best, really." She smiles. "Of course, you'd know that by now..."
> So you ask her the obvious: why didn't she get any proper humans to begin with?
> Rumia frowns. "It's all dis lousy junk food that keeps winding up in my house. I dunno how or why it's there, all I know is that the instant I see it, I eat it, because I'm
that hungry and I need something to keep my stomach calm. It's been days since I ever sunk my teeth into a human...Did something happen to the village or somethin' I'm not aware of? Because if it did...I'm gonna plunge Gensokyo inta darkness, I swear! No one messes with my meals!" She struggles a bit, but you manage to restrain her with little violence, and she stops.
>Actually, what's our full body of knowledge on these virtual game things? Aren't there other, similar ones? Ask Rumia what makes this one so special.
>How much have we actually been warring with Kags lately?
> Oh, this is a story you're gonna love...Kaguya actually approached you one day, and in the most brilliant (sic) of moves, apologized. Yeah, I know, shocker. But while you kinda gave her the business when she said it, you did admit you were tired of the fighting. Even immortals can get bored. But Kaguya said that there was a way to "settle" the score and keep things fun at the same time...
> She told you about these things from the moon called "Video Games," which were considered contraband within the Lunar Capital. Once she showed you a few, you could see why: they were often violent, stereotypical, and just plain surreal. Some of them even came from Japan itself...You sometimes wonder if the humans were smoking the best crack ever (and wondered where you could get some). But as dumb as they looked, you were impressed by the technology, it was nothing like you had ever seen before. Once she had your attention, she uttered the following...
>
"Why don't we take our duels to the digital realm? I mean, I have a bunch of multiplayer games...If you can best me out of, say, five or so of these, I can consider our duel resolved and one of us will feel good about some form of closure."> Of course, she said that with that clever smile you're all too familiar with...Kaguya has something up her sleeve, and chances are she played these games to complete mastery some ages ago. You would most likely lose...If it weren't for the fact that you have the deftest hands in all of the ancient world. Your father suggested taking up ninjitsu training in he case you were ever captured...Who knew those finger exercises would make holding a controller so much easier?
> After spending a week or two getting used to these games, you agreed to the challenge, and the first test was none other than Guildies. You thought it wouldn't be too hard, until Kaguya somehow surged way ahead of you. Partially because Keine kept trying to drag you away from the computer, but the other part...You can't explain. Kaguya was always confident that whatever challenge she issued would never be beaten, but this...?
> It wasn't until you heard from Marisa about Kaguya's condition that you realized how far she was willing to go...This makes you worry ever so slightly. Perhaps Keine was right, revenge, no matter what its intensity, might not be worth it after all...
> ...But is it worth it to keep a rival in the running? Are you the Batman, while she is the Joker?
> Crap, don't you get all sentimental on us now, this wall of text is tall enough as it is!
De-Chlorophylling Fairy:>Scary!!
>Back away from the scary burny girl! And the scary fairy-eating lady!
>... do WE have any food? Paintings wouldn't work, would they?
> Sweet merciful Oberon this is getting too much for you to handle! Marisa-san just passed out
right in front of you, Mokou-sama contemplated
feeding you to Rumia, it's getting dangerously close to midnight, and you could have sworn you heard something in the brush just now!
> Ok Maple, breathe. It's just your imagination running wild...You haven't even had dinner yet, you were so busy scouting out the magicians' household that you forgot to eat something! Thankfully, you have a SACK OF NUTS* and a FLASK OF BERRY JUICE** on you, so you nibble a few nuts and throw back some fluid. There...That has lowered your NERVOUSNESS stat a bit.
> You still back the hell away from these two though. Mini-Medi just stares at you with a "really?" look.
* Anyone making the obvious joke will be electrocuted.
** Anyone making a less obvious but still noticeable joke will be given a slap on the face and a stern lecturing.
> _