Okuu Quest Next - A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

>"To each their own. Who knows? Maybe some day."
>Even if we don't especially care, it's probably best not to give them that impression.

[Hello Purvis]

>"To each their own. Who knows? Maybe some day."
>Even if we don't especially care, it's probably best not to give them that impression.

>"Shit," says Yuugi. "I could probably find one somebody wants to unload that's in good condition. They aren't too hard to keep running, either.
>Yeah, even if you don't care, they most certainly do.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Sure, you can keep me in mind if you find something. You do have my email, after all."
>Hope they don't actually do this. One has to wonder the legality of any vehicle a friend of Yuugi wants to 'unload'

[Hello Purvis]

>"Sure, you can keep me in mind if you find something. You do have my email, after all."
>Hope they don't actually do this. One has to wonder the legality of any vehicle a friend of Yuugi wants to 'unload'

>Yuugi shakes her head. "Naw, I don't mess with computer shit. That's Chiko's job."
>"I'll keep you in mind," says Chiko. "As long as Yuugs reminds me."
>Legality would most definitely be up in the air for her.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Glance at the clock.
>"Well, I should probably be heading out, actually. I've got someone expecting me, and I don't want to keep her waiting too long. Thanks for the help, again. And the beer."
>Assuming we're not accosted for any other reason, and no one says anything requiring a calculated response, head back to Parsee's place.

[Hello Purvis]

>Glance at the clock.
>"Well, I should probably be heading out, actually. I've got someone expecting me, and I don't want to keep her waiting too long. Thanks for the help, again. And the beer."
>Assuming we're not accosted for any other reason, and no one says anything requiring a calculated response, head back to Parsee's place.

>"Shit," says Yuugi, "Barely partied at all. You better be back tomorrow!"
>"And bring some gin," Sui adds.
>"And a pizza!" says Chico.
>Despite their protests, you are able to escape without any real trouble. You find your way back to Parsee's apartment without any real trouble. You make your way through the empty lobby to the second floor, and knock on the door. It opens a moment later. "Oh good, you're in one piece," she says. "C'mon in before Nue or someone sees you."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Step into the apartment, and flop on something soft.

>"Phew... Well, that wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid of, actually. They were rather friendly, actually, although kind of brusk. You'd almost get the impression they liked me for some reason. Telling me to come back tomorrow. Yuugi's evidently keeping an eye for a bike for me to buy, because this is something all real women need, or something. Who knows."
>"Glad to be out of it, though, just the same."
>"Might have found a lead, anyway. Someone who goes by the name of Ace. Yuugi gave her my story about Nue. She seems like a secretive type, and certainly into some shady business. I've been left with the distinct impression that if I rat on her in any way, she'll ruin my life in the process. Ha, although who knows where it's going at this rate, anyway."
>"And, uh, it's kind of hard to rat on someone you know nothing about..."
>"Anyway, this Ace person is evidently going to leave me an email if she cares enough about my situation, which is anyone's guess at this point. Hmmm... I think I might have to pay her, too, but if she finds something good, it's probably worth it."

>Take the stungun out of your pocket and hand it to Parsee.
>"Here. At least I didn't have to use this."

[Hello Purvis]

>Step into the apartment, and flop on something soft.

>"Phew... Well, that wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid of, actually. They were rather friendly, actually, although kind of brusk. You'd almost get the impression they liked me for some reason. Telling me to come back tomorrow. Yuugi's evidently keeping an eye for a bike for me to buy, because this is something all real women need, or something. Who knows."
>"Glad to be out of it, though, just the same."
>"Might have found a lead, anyway. Someone who goes by the name of Ace. Yuugi gave her my story about Nue. She seems like a secretive type, and certainly into some shady business. I've been left with the distinct impression that if I rat on her in any way, she'll ruin my life in the process. Ha, although who knows where it's going at this rate, anyway."
>"And, uh, it's kind of hard to rat on someone you know nothing about..."
>"Anyway, this Ace person is evidently going to leave me an email if she cares enough about my situation, which is anyone's guess at this point. Hmmm... I think I might have to pay her, too, but if she finds something good, it's probably worth it."

>Take the stungun out of your pocket and hand it to Parsee.
>"Here. At least I didn't have to use this."

You head into Parsee's apartment and find it is kind of messy. Not in the sense of the biker's pad, which was full of trash that needed to be thrown out, but rather in the sense that there are things that need to be put away. There are books and papers strew about, laundry that hasn't been properly put away,  and odd little knickknacks here abouts. Looking around, it doesn't seem she has much storage space. The room you're in comprises most of the living space of the apartment; there is a little kitchen off to the side; thankfully less cluttered than most things, and what looks like a separate bed and bath in a room to the side; the whole thing is L-shaped. Not far from the bedroom is a computer, set up so the user's back is to the wall and exposing its cables. You see a couch in the middle of the room, folded out into a bed. You flop on it.
>You tell your story to Parsee, and return her stungun. "Well, it's progress," she says. "You can use my laptop if you wanna check your email and surf around and stuff."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Sure, thanks."
>May as well check out email, although there probably isn't much chance she's gotten back to us, yet.
>If there's nothing of note there, we may as well check out that URL Reimu gave us. We're not expecting much, but hey, why not. Besides, idle downtime would be appreciated at this point.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Sure, thanks."
>May as well check out email, although there probably isn't much chance she's gotten back to us, yet.
>If there's nothing of note there, we may as well check out that URL Reimu gave us. We're not expecting much, but hey, why not. Besides, idle downtime would be appreciated at this point.

>Parsee hands you a laptop that was resting on the counter. "I figured you'd need it, so I got it ready for you," she says. "I need to get to work on something, myself, so I'll be sorta poor company for a bit." With that, she goes to the computer in the corner and starts typing away.
>Starting it up, you find it is pretty bland-looking, at least as far as the desk and start menu go. No games, not much fun on it at all. The desktop is just one of the defaults; a close-up of a flower. Probably just for net surfing. Too bad, you could fit a few things on it... But it has a good browser and that's really the important part.
>You check your email. Nothing interesting there. You hardly use it, anyways.
>You then check the shrinemaiden.org url. You come to a website in Japanese, with a simple layout in neutral colors and advertising itself as place for holy people all over the nation to meet and discuss. There are subforums for general discussion, proper debate, shrine maintenance discussion, and so on. Looking around, you find Reimu's assessment is pretty spot on, it's mostly full of older people (many of them using their actual names as screennames) who seem to be of a very socially conservative mindset, you don't think they would approve of you at all. You find a few threads have gone on for many thousands of posts over the months, the ones about politics and spirituality are particularly popular; nattering about some issue or other. You note the admins; three are three of them: Alphamega, Test_Pilot, and MinaseDate; the third seems to own the site.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Hmmm.... Test_Pilot rings a bell. It's only a screen name and all, but today's the kind of day that makes you look into any co-incidence.
>Look at Test_Pilot's profile, or posts or something, and see if this might plausibly be the younger miko from the Moriya shrine

[Hello Purvis]

>Hmmm.... Test_Pilot rings a bell. It's only a screen name and all, but today's the kind of day that makes you look into any co-incidence.
>Look at Test_Pilot's profile, or posts or something, and see if this might plausibly be the younger miko from the Moriya shrine

>You check Test_Pilot's profile.
>Her location is not listed. But her profile does have a link to a picture you recognize as the Moriya Shrine.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Scan though some of her posts. See if we can find anything interesting. Or at least get a sense of her attitude / thoughts on the supernatural

>Also, check out that Box Car's URL while we're at it

[Hello Purvis]

>Scan though some of her posts. See if we can find anything interesting. Or at least get a sense of her attitude / thoughts on the supernatural

>Also, check out that Box Car's URL while we're at it

>You go through her post history a bit.
>She seems to be fairly easygoing, which isn't hard compared to some of the people there. You don't find anything especially interesting, she doesn't even hint that her name refers to anything. But she does have a few posts in the thread on spirituality, and she seems to believe in the precepts of Shinto fully. As well, she seems to synchronize it to other religions, referring to the major figures of the main world religion as kami and aspects of the same being interpreted in different ways with different creeds attached.
>You check Boxcars URL
>This takes you to a blog, called Boxcar's Observations. There is a motif of dice on the sidebar, one of the sparse decorations, showing a motif of pairs of dice showing sixes. You read the latest entry, "Strangest Night of My Life."
>"So typically, I tend to talk about things in an apersonal manner, but that's usually because these things don't affect me directly. In fact, this story is so unbelievable that I really don't expect anyone to believe it whole hog. But that's okay, I really just have to write about this. Call it bullshit if you want. I don't  care.
>"I went on a date tonight. See, she's the sister of one of my classmates, and apparently just had to ask my out, by proxy. Well, we all have our quirks, and I knew this classmate to be clean, so I figured I could take a little risk with her sister. Oh man, was I ever wrong about that! It turns out the sister has some kind of thing where she has this nagging feeling the world is "wrong". Yeah, like we don't already know this? But it's really bad for her, it extends to personal things, even her own memories and stuff. She almost broke down telling me about it. We don't have any idea how or why it happened, just she woke up this way. But she's been exploring around, and she swears to god she saw a ghost in the forests near where we live!
>"Now you know me, I don't buy into that supernatural distraction stuff, but she is convinced she saw it. Not even for like a second, either. Apparently it was there for nearly a minute! Yeah. I can only imagine what the real cause is. And that's not even the worst part! So we were just hanging out around town, and it turns out someone was following us! Following her! We managed to shake her, then we caught her off guard and confronted her. I left to go find proof, and this agent pulls a runner! Luckily, my date was able to catch her and gave her one hell of a black eye. The agent "confessed" everything; that she was following her, that she was paid off, and she tried to finger the government for it....
>"I'm not going to get into too many more details here, last thing I need is to give myself away to them, but suffice it to say she went and confronted the people who were fingered; well, she confronted one of their appointees. That person put up a good story, I honestly don't know what to think! But yeah, here this lovely girl just walks into my life, full of weirdness and just having her eyes opened. I just don't know what to think..."
>There are comments as well, quite a few of them. It seems Boxcars is rather popular. Some of them are along the lines of "Wait, you're thinking the government ISN'T behind it?!" and "Watch out for snipers!". Others are suggest that you are not to be trusted, and that you're just setting her up. There are a few that simply make you shake your head and marvel at how the internet brings all kinds together such as "Is she hot?" and "Check her for morgellans with your tongue, it is the most sensitive part of the body. ;)"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Hmmm.... well, that's two suspicions in a row, confirmed. Probably best not to let on to Parsee that we know she's Box Car at the moment. Don't know how guarded she is about that. Wouldn't want to make her more uncomfortable.
>Actually, on that topic: delete that page from the browser history
>Make a note that it might at least be worth visiting this Test_Pilot. If she takes her spiritualism seriously, maybe we could talk about the forest spirit with her a bit. There's also the military connection, whether it means anything or not...
>Did we ever find out when the next Moriya Shrine dinner was being held?
>If not, I don't suppose they have a website? Everyone has a website these days...

>Check the time
>Was tonight a new moon?

[Hello Purvis]

>Hmmm.... well, that's two suspicions in a row, confirmed. Probably best not to let on to Parsee that we know she's Box Car at the moment. Don't know how guarded she is about that. Wouldn't want to make her more uncomfortable.
>Actually, on that topic: delete that page from the browser history
>Make a note that it might at least be worth visiting this Test_Pilot. If she takes her spiritualism seriously, maybe we could talk about the forest spirit with her a bit. There's also the military connection, whether it means anything or not...
>Did we ever find out when the next Moriya Shrine dinner was being held?
>If not, I don't suppose they have a website? Everyone has a website these days...

>Check the time
>Was tonight a new moon?

>Not to mention she probably wouldn't want you to see some of those comments...
>You delete it from the history.
>She might have some interesting things to say.
>You did not find it out.
>You check around for a website and...well hey, they do have one. It's not very interesting, but there is an event listing. Looks like the next dinner is this weekend.
>It is getting close to eight oclock.
>Yes.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Make a note of the time and date of the dinner. Baring nothing happening in the meantime, it would probably be good to check out.

>Are we hungry?
 >If so, ask Parsee about the possibility of some food.

>Try to relax a bit, and hopefully wait for a call from Renko. I wonder if they found that tree....
>We offered to tag along on the investigation of possible mysterious animal in the skids during a new moon. I don't think we actually got an answer back on that one, though... The way today has been, it's probably best to look into everything, no matter how peripheral.
 >Did we actually jot down the specific location of that pin?
 >If we don't hear anything back from them for a little while, consider taking a look around that area ourselves (if we know specific where we're supposed to go)

[Hello Purvis]

>Make a note of the time and date of the dinner. Baring nothing happening in the meantime, it would probably be good to check out.

>Are we hungry?
 >If so, ask Parsee about the possibility of some food.

>Try to relax a bit, and hopefully wait for a call from Renko. I wonder if they found that tree....
>We offered to tag along on the investigation of possible mysterious animal in the skids during a new moon. I don't think we actually got an answer back on that one, though... The way today has been, it's probably best to look into everything, no matter how peripheral.
 >Did we actually jot down the specific location of that pin?
 >If we don't hear anything back from them for a little while, consider taking a look around that area ourselves (if we know specific where we're supposed to go)

>You make a note of the time and date of this dinner. It is saturday evening, at 5.
>You are not especially hungry at the moment, but something to eat a little later wouldn't be unwelcome.
>"Oh, sure," says Parsee, "There's some stuff in the fridge."
>You relax, ruminating on the investigation of the mysterious animal. You did write down the location as well as you could; it's an alleyway not too far from your house. You never did get an answer back, but you're pretty sure they'll be down with it.
>"Feel free to turn on the TV," Parsee notes, as she sees you've put the laptop aside for now. "I don't use it much, but knock yourself out."
>You don't have much time to do that before your phone rings. You answer. "Yo, it's Renko," says the voice on the other side. "The tree's a mixed failure."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Hmmm.... at least it's not a total failure, I guess. How'd it go?"

[Rin Kagamine]

> "Mixed in what way?"
> While we talk to her, pull out the laptop and check MinaseDate's site.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hmmm.... at least it's not a total failure, I guess. How'd it go?"

> "Mixed in what way?"
> While we talk to her, pull out the laptop and check MinaseDate's site.

>"Took us a little while to find it," says Renko. "Mostly because Maribel kept freaking out over the snakes."
>You hear Maribel shout, "Shut up about that, already!" in the background.
>"Anyways, we found it. Nothing weird happened. I checked the tree over; it didn't set off a geiger counter, a metal detector, or a smoke alarm. I took a bit of bark from it and burned it, it burned like any other bark; I tried it with some other trees too. I tried touching it, it didn't feel warm. So I'm pretty sure the ghost is elsewhere right now. There's tens of thousands of trees out here, and who knows which one she's hiding in? We didn't see any footprints but yours, either. Maribel is convinced there's something special about this grove. Nothing to it but a hunch on her part."
>"It's not just a hunch, dammit!" you hear Maribel shout.
>"And that's the mixed part of it. I don't put any stock in that instinctual stuff like Maribel does, but is she says there's something here, I'm willing to give her the benefit of a doubt for awhile."
>While Renko talks, you look around that site a bit. It is...very threadbare. Apparently it was meant to be some sort of hub for Shinto in general, but after the forums took off, she never really got around to actually fleshing it out. You suspect most of the users don't even know there's an outside site.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Hmm... well, not quite what we were hoping for, but maybe it'll be worth going back to have another look at some point."
>"On that note, were you guys still planning on looking into that odd animal report in the Skids tonight? If so, think I might be able to tag along?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hmm... well, not quite what we were hoping for, but maybe it'll be worth going back to have another look at some point."
>"On that note, were you guys still planning on looking into that odd animal report in the Skids tonight? If so, think I might be able to tag along?"

>"Yeah, I'm not going to give up on this one just yet," says Renko. "We just need a new angle of attack. "
>"Oh! That thing! Just a moment..." The phone goes quiet for a moment, you can hear the two of them talking, though you can't make out what they are saying. "Yeah, we're still on for that. And sure, you can come. Meet us by the bus stop near Mad Mart around 11:30 or so?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Sure, sounds good. I'll meet you there, then."

>Tell Parsee about our plans to check that out with Renko and Maribel

>We're made an appointment with Tenma for 10AM tomorrow morning, but aren't we supposed to be into work at 8:30 the same morning?
 >Is there some way we can get in touch with Nitori to ask if we could have a brief bit of time off work during that period, to follow up on the house condemnation business?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Sure, sounds good. I'll meet you there, then."

>Tell Parsee about our plans to check that out with Renko and Maribel

>We're made an appointment with Tenma for 10AM tomorrow morning, but aren't we supposed to be into work at 8:30 the same morning?
 >Is there some way we can get in touch with Nitori to ask if we could have a brief bit of time off work during that period, to follow up on the house condemnation business?

>"Right," says Renko. "Call if you need anything."
>You have. In theory, you're supposed to be in tomorrow from noon til seven. But given circumstances, you may want to do something about that. You could probably call her.

>_

[Rin Kagamine]

> Current time

[Hello Purvis]

> Current time

>Just a little bit after eight.

>_

[DracoOmega]

(Hmmm.... is that a retcon on the work time? ^^;)

>Honestly, barring something urgent coming up, a little routine might be pleasant or reassuring at the moment. And, frankly, if we're planning to get into university, we probably need whatever money we can get. Probably best to plan to be at work tomorrow.
>Let Parsee know that we're heading out to meet Renko and Maribel later tonight. Invite her to come if she's interested, although you can tell her that you're not necessarily expecting to find anything. It's just, given the situation, you want to look into anything that comes up.

>In the meantime, relax, watch a little tv, maybe. Eat. If we're not too mentally exhausted, maybe page through one of the textbooks with us.

[Hello Purvis]

(Hmmm.... is that a retcon on the work time? ^^;)

>Honestly, barring something urgent coming up, a little routine might be pleasant or reassuring at the moment. And, frankly, if we're planning to get into university, we probably need whatever money we can get. Probably best to plan to be at work tomorrow.
>Let Parsee know that we're heading out to meet Renko and Maribel later tonight. Invite her to come if she's interested, although you can tell her that you're not necessarily expecting to find anything. It's just, given the situation, you want to look into anything that comes up.

>In the meantime, relax, watch a little tv, maybe. Eat. If we're not too mentally exhausted, maybe page through one of the textbooks with us.

>Sometimes there are database errors.
>It might not be a bad idea. At the same time, repairing AC units probably won't take you any closer to figuring out why the world is wrong. But who knows?
>You tell Parsee about your plans. "Alright," she says. "I'll probably be asleep when you get back. I guess I can leave the deadbolts open, but close 'em when you get back. Are you sure that you should be going out alone at night?"
>You decide to get something to eat.  Checking Parsee's refrigerator, you find the predominant foodstuff are a number of microwavable meals. You pick out one at random and heat it up. It's not too good, to be honest. There's an art to doing these things right. Afterward, you relax a bit. You check TV, but don't find anything of interest; it's all boring American sitcoms from the 90's. Aside from the news, Gensokyo really doesn't have any domestically produced TV. In the meantime, Parsee types up something else long, before settling into a more stable routine.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, I won't be alone when I get to where I'm going. Besides, the neighborhood is near where I live, anyway. I know the place. It isn't as bad as some people think it is."
>"Of course, if you're concerned about my safety, you could always lend me your stungun again. Hopefully I don't run into anyone else out hunting for me, though..."
>"And thanks again, for everything. I know it's a lot to dump into someone's lap on short notice. I do appreciate it, really."

>If nothing happens in the meantime, wait until whatever time is required to make the arranged meeting with Renko and Maribel