Nue Quest 8 - Pagan: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Kilgamayan]

> Pull out the last rice ball and hold it up a bit so people can see it while looking around.

[Hello Purvis]

> Pull out the last rice ball and hold it up a bit so people can see it while looking around.

>You produce and demonstrate the riceball.
>"I told them you came from the mainland," says the woman, as she reaches out to take it, "So they shouldn't be too worried about us. Though I have to say, you really were trying to advertise yourself. I don't think anyone could have missed that danmaku."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Can we tell what this woman's hair color is?
> What colors are her clothes?
> Hand her the rice ball.
> "Hey, fight to win. But how do you know about that? Sir Kay's never heard of this language, and the locations he mentioned as being mapped are places I'd never heard of myself."

[Hello Purvis]

> Can we tell what this woman's hair color is?
> What colors are her clothes?
> Hand her the rice ball.
> "Hey, fight to win. But how do you know about that? Sir Kay's never heard of this language, and the locations he mentioned as being mapped are places I'd never heard of myself."

>You can see some of her hair under the headscarf, it is brown, as are her eyes. Her clothing consists of a brownish shirt with slightly puffy sleeves, and a flared, ankle-lenhth skirt the color of bright red rust.
>She takes the rice ball and sniffs at it. "Oh, to feel joy at receiving day-old rice. What a strange blend of joy and remorse that is! And I suppose what you say has merit. And really, you haven't figures it out yet?"
>She starts to walk down the street, gesturing for you to follow.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> That color scheme...
> Follow along.
> "...Wait a minute..."

[Hello Purvis]

> That color scheme...
> Follow along.
> "...Wait a minute..."

>You call for her to wait. She just cackles.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "...Mamizou?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "...Mamizou?"

>Her voice shifts a bit, taking on a familiar tone and accent. "You had me wondering, Nue," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "But...how the hell did you get here? Have you been here all this time? It's been forever since I saw you last!"

[Hello Purvis]

> "But...how the hell did you get here? Have you been here all this time? It's been forever since I saw you last!"

>"And much the same could be said for you," says Mamizou, as she nibbles at the riceball. "As I last heard, you gotten yourself sealed away."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Frown.
> "I screwed up once. It won't happen again."
> Put on something a little more thoughtful.
> "Especially not with how life seems to have changed over the years. It's a lot different now. The Yamato are gone, which is fantastic for everyone. Seems humans and youkai are okay with each other now too."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Well, in Gensokyo, at least. It sounds like things may be a bit more... contentious here."

[Hello Purvis]

> Frown.
> "I screwed up once. It won't happen again."
> Put on something a little more thoughtful.
> "Especially not with how life seems to have changed over the years. It's a lot different now. The Yamato are gone, which is fantastic for everyone. Seems humans and youkai are okay with each other now too."

>"Surely you jest," says Mamizou.

>"Well, in Gensokyo, at least. It sounds like things may be a bit more... contentious here."

>"I am unfamiliar with that name," says Mamizou. "But things here are the same as they ever were. Though humans seem to be quite a bit more ascendant here than can be said for home."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Oh man, it has been that long, hasn't it? You've never been to Gensokyo.  No lie, not even coming from me. Humans and youkai there tolerate each other, if they aren't outright friends. Hell, there's a couple of human kids that just showed up there recently that I have to admit I've taken a bit of a shine to."

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"See, 'back home', magic and youkai and all of that was fading from the world. Gensokyo was created as a place seperate from what's known there as the 'outside world', a place for people like us to live. Or that's what I understand, at least; I was still sealed when it was created."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Oh man, it has been that long, hasn't it? You've never been to Gensokyo.  No lie, not even coming from me. Humans and youkai there tolerate each other, if they aren't outright friends. Hell, there's a couple of human kids that just showed up there recently that I have to admit I've taken a bit of a shine to."

>She gives a laugh. "I had always thought you had a soft spot for humans that didn't have some kine of title. What a strange-sounding place."

>"See, 'back home', magic and youkai and all of that was fading from the world. Gensokyo was created as a place seperate from what's known there as the 'outside world', a place for people like us to live. Or that's what I understand, at least; I was still sealed when it was created."

>"I do remember those days," says Mamizou. "If you think home was bad, you should have seen how the rest of the wprld was faring. It was a no small stroke of luck I found my way here."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "You should definitely swing by, I think you'd like it. I got here from there somehow, so it's not like it would be a trip around the world, or wherever we are in relation to Japan right now, and I plan on going back soon. Though...I suppose if you have your own life established here, it would be hard to give that up."

[Hello Purvis]

> "You should definitely swing by, I think you'd like it. I got here from there somehow, so it's not like it would be a trip around the world, or wherever we are in relation to Japan right now, and I plan on going back soon. Though...I suppose if you have your own life established here, it would be hard to give that up."

>"Oh, it wouldn't be impossible to pay a visit," says Mamizou. "But I would need to take the time to collect some outstanding debts and such."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Well, I don't know how accessible it is. I'm hardly 100% positive about anything in this entire ordeal, but I'm reasonably sure I only got here from home because I happened to have pieces of a broken sword that belonged to someone from here, someone that would have really wanted to return here if they were still alive. It might be a complete open door, or you might need to specifically go with me, and I could hardly guarantee a return."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Well, I don't know how accessible it is. I'm hardly 100% positive about anything in this entire ordeal, but I'm reasonably sure I only got here from home because I happened to have pieces of a broken sword that belonged to someone from here, someone that would have really wanted to return here if they were still alive. It might be a complete open door, or you might need to specifically go with me, and I could hardly guarantee a return."

>"Ah," says Mamizou, frowning. "That would be...inconvenient, to say the least. Well, we'll see what can be done. And I expect that has something to do with why you've come?"

>_

[Thaws]

>"The circumstances that drove me to seeking for the origins of the sword are quite complicated."

>"To keep it short, one day all of our money was replaced by gemstones of all kind, I found the culprit, he did it via pure belief in his own laws of reality, so I needed to find a belief to counter his, and coincidentially this sword's late-owner had the belief I needed."

>"Anyways, you really should follow me to visit Gensokyo once! Although small, it truely is a wonderful and interesting place."

[Hello Purvis]

>"The circumstances that drove me to seeking for the origins of the sword are quite complicated."

>"To keep it short, one day all of our money was replaced by gemstones of all kind, I found the culprit, he did it via pure belief in his own laws of reality, so I needed to find a belief to counter his, and coincidentially this sword's late-owner had the belief I needed."

>"Anyways, you really should follow me to visit Gensokyo once! Although small, it truely is a wonderful and interesting place."

>"I'm sorry?" says Mamizou, as you try to explain briefly.

>_

[Thaws]

>"It's kind of a weird and long story."

>"You see, we have a half-youkai-half-human in Gensokyo that runs a store, but he despises the use of currencies, so he does not accept money at his store, but only trading."

>"We had no problem with trading with him, but apparently he disliked currencies to the point that he wanted to erase it out of existence."

>"All of us were oblivious to his plan until he took action yesterday when we swapped all the money we had with gemstones of equal value. I don't really understand the details on how he did it, seems like he was so mad about trading that he strongly believes that there's energy to be harvested from each trade to the point that his belief became reality."

>"He also stole my spellcards for my essence to aid his plan, which was why I was after the culprit in the first place."

>"So since then I've been looking for ways to beat his belief. My instincts was that this sword will be the key to solving this incident so I began to investigate its history. Turns out its late-owner believes he is superior to everyone else, a complete opposite of our shop owner's belief of equivalence. It might to possible to counter one's belief with a completely opposite one. I am not certain this will work, but I figured it was worth a try so I'm currently waiting for the local smith here to fix the broken sword."

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's kind of a weird and long story."

>"You see, we have a half-youkai-half-human in Gensokyo that runs a store, but he despises the use of currencies, so he does not accept money at his store, but only trading."

>"We had no problem with trading with him, but apparently he disliked currencies to the point that he wanted to erase it out of existence."

>"All of us were oblivious to his plan until he took action yesterday when we swapped all the money we had with gemstones of equal value. I don't really understand the details on how he did it, seems like he was so mad about trading that he strongly believes that there's energy to be harvested from each trade to the point that his belief became reality."

>"He also stole my spellcards for my essence to aid his plan, which was why I was after the culprit in the first place."

>"So since then I've been looking for ways to beat his belief. My instincts was that this sword will be the key to solving this incident so I began to investigate its history. Turns out its late-owner believes he is superior to everyone else, a complete opposite of our shop owner's belief of equivalence. It might to possible to counter one's belief with a completely opposite one. I am not certain this will work, but I figured it was worth a try so I'm currently waiting for the local smith here to fix the broken sword."

>"I am afraid I still don't get it," says Mamizou, "But, unless I'm mistaken, you're dealing with a rogue magician?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Kind of. This guy can do certain things that aren't supposed to be possible simply because he has been insane enough for a long time and has believed he can do them. It's sort of a faith-based magic."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Kind of. This guy can do certain things that aren't supposed to be possible simply because he has been insane enough for a long time and has believed he can do them. It's sort of a faith-based magic."

>"It's no secret there is power in obsession," says Mamizou, "But this sounds quite extraordinary. Sounds quite troublesome."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "You have no idea. Everyone's going varying degrees of nuts. The kappa and the humans are doing more more aggravating hand-wringing than anything else, but the tengu have gone into total lockdown mode and the oni are practically destroying their own village in rage. My place hasn't seen much of that action, thankfully, but I can't imagine the oni are going to just stop until they at least run out of buildings to ruin, so I'm hoping to fix everything while I still have a house. That and I like my money."

[Hello Purvis]

> "You have no idea. Everyone's going varying degrees of nuts. The kappa and the humans are doing more more aggravating hand-wringing than anything else, but the tengu have gone into total lockdown mode and the oni are practically destroying their own village in rage. My place hasn't seen much of that action, thankfully, but I can't imagine the oni are going to just stop until they at least run out of buildings to ruin, so I'm hoping to fix everything while I still have a house. That and I like my money."

>"I wonder if this is not more complex than I thought," says Mamizou, a small smirk creeping across her face. "Surely you are not Nue, for Nue would never voice concern over something like property. Rather, I would expect you to join in the chaos, if with more elegance than a mere rioter."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Sigh.
> "No, it's true. There is another major factor to it, but...I've started to go soft. And there are other factors involved there as well."

[Hello Purvis]

> Sigh.
> "No, it's true. There is another major factor to it, but...I've started to go soft. And there are other factors involved there as well."

>She snickers. "Oh my, oh my. The terror of Heian-Kyo going soft? What has the world come to?"

>_