Maribel Quest Succeeding - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> "Well, about Yukari, I've been told...quite often to avoid her if I could help it, but also told that if I so move to go back to the "real world" I was born in, I would probably have to talk with her."

>"Which is good advice. Getting entangled with Yukari tends to lead to regrets. And...you come from outside? Hm. Yes,s he could probably get you back there. Yukari finds gaps in things, and then uses them to her advantage. She could almost certainly find a way outside.

>"Well, what would you have me do now?"

>"Sit," she says. "And try it one more time. This time, do not speak. Just concentrate, hold it until the feeling grows too powerful to carry on."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Sit down
>Repeat what we did to stop time earlier
>Make sure we keep our focus and do not speak this time

[UncertainJakutten]

>"ZA WARUDO"
> When time has stopped
> "Toki wo tomare"
> "WRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"

>Do as she says.

[Hello Purvis]

>Sit down
>Repeat what we did to stop time earlier
>Make sure we keep our focus and do not speak this time

>"ZA WARUDO"
> When time has stopped
> "Toki wo tomare"
> "WRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY"

>Do as she says.

>You  have a seat on the bed, finding it to be marvelously soft.
>You repeat the process, focusing on the watch. It takes you a few moments, but you feel the sensation in your heart again.
>"What you have done," says Sakuya, seemingly unaffected, "Is not stop time, exactly, so much as-"
>As she speaks, the feeling of pressure within you grows, as though something huge had reached into your torso and is trying to tear it out. By the time skuya says "as", you can fight it no longer. You feel the shattering sensation within your body again, and color returns to the world.
>"-remove yourself from it," Sakuya continues. "That sensation is time trying to drag you back in. It will always win. You will need to rest a little, before trying again."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"...can I do damage to myself by using that?"
>"And you didn't seem affected by it. Shall I assume you followed me out, in a similar way? And that other people would be as grey as the room itself appeared to be?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"...can I do damage to myself by using that?"
>"And you didn't seem affected by it. Shall I assume you followed me out, in a similar way? And that other people would be as grey as the room itself appeared to be?"

>"If you hold it too long, you will black out," she says. "Other things may happen, as well. I don't know, it's very rare I ever felt the need to push it."
>She nods. "That is all exactly right."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"But no harm has come to you from cumulative use at a moderate level? The sensation in my chest was... rather unnerving, to say the least."

[Hello Purvis]

>"But no harm has come to you from cumulative use at a moderate level? The sensation in my chest was... rather unnerving, to say the least."

>She nods. "If you do not push yourself, you can use it as much as you like. But, there can be side effects if you use it too much. In short, the more you manipulate time, the more it will manipulate you. In particular, I have a hard time looking my age, these days."
>"Also remember, you have to rest afterward. There is nothing to be done about this."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I understand. Or, at least I think I understand well enough."
>How fatigued do we feel after what we just did?

[Hello Purvis]

>"I understand. Or, at least I think I understand well enough."
>How fatigued do we feel after what we just did?

>She nods. "Good. In particular, be wary of the effects of using it too much.It's not harmful, but it can lead to some unpleasant rumors..."
>You don't feel fatigued, or anything unusual at all, really.

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

> "Well, you did say that I have to keep it secret, in which case I would not want to use if often anyway"

[DracoOmega]

>"You said that I would need to rest before doing that again. But I don't really feel tired, or anything. How can I tell when I'm 'rested up', so to speak?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Well, you did say that I have to keep it secret, in which case I would not want to use if often anyway"

>She nods. "I suppose it's okay to use it in emergencies and the like, but please don't treat it as a toy."

>"You said that I would need to rest before doing that again. But I don't really feel tired, or anything. How can I tell when I'm 'rested up', so to speak?"

>"You don't really feel it," she says. "You just have to learn your limits. Try it now?"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Attempt to freeze time again

[Hello Purvis]

>Attempt to freeze time again

>You give it a shot, and feel nothing.
>"Hmm," Sakuya says. "You picked it up disturbingly fast. But, it seems your upper limits aren't that much. This will take a bit of time, but...I do have some break time left. Have you anything else you wish to know?"

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

> "Should I attempt to learn any other tricks, such as slowing time down, speeding it up, reversing it, or trying to localize time's movement in such a way to reverse my own wounds or the wounds of others?"

[DracoOmega]

>"And, more to the point, how much of that is even possible?"

[Doll.S CUBE]

> "Is there anything I should particularly avoid doing when using it?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Should I attempt to learn any other tricks, such as slowing time down, speeding it up, reversing it, or trying to localize time's movement in such a way to reverse my own wounds or the wounds of others?"

>"Not at this time," says Sakuya. "Slowing time in relation to yourself requires you to be able to resist the grasp as it tries to drag you back much more than what you have done. Think of it as being ankle deep in a river and waist deep. As for reversing, I don't believe that is within our capacity. I'll show you how to make it pass more quickly for yourself later, if you have the ability."

>"And, more to the point, how much of that is even possible?"

>"The best guideline I can give you," she says, "Is that time will flow forward. Always. We can move more slowly, more quickly, or we can stop. But, we always continue forward in the end."

> "Is there anything I should particularly avoid doing when using it?"

>"Use common sense about not blundering into the way of things. And, don't push yourself without need"

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Make it pass more quickly for yourself? What frame of reference do you mean for that? Make the world around us pass more quickly? Or make us appear to move more quickly in the world?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Make it pass more quickly for yourself? What frame of reference do you mean for that? Make the world around us pass more quickly? Or make us appear to move more quickly in the world?"

>"The former," she says. "We won't bother with it for now."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Ok, fair enough. I'm curious, though. To an outside observer, would it just look like you were standing very still for a prolonged time?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Ok, fair enough. I'm curious, though. To an outside observer, would it just look like you were standing very still for a prolonged time?"

>"I honestly don't know," says Sakuya. "I only tend to use it when others aren't around. But, I do imagine that is what it would look like."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"I see. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to teach me, and I'll keep all of what you've said in mind. I don't suppose you have any last comments or advice that you haven't already covered?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I see. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to teach me, and I'll keep all of what you've said in mind. I don't suppose you have any last comments or advice that you haven't already covered?"

>"Oh, I never said we were done," says Sakuya. "I intend to take the time to make certain you have this correct. Try again, now."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Oh, fair enough. I guess I didn't know what length of time we were talking for a recovery period. For all I knew, it could have been an hour or more."
>Try it again.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh, fair enough. I guess I didn't know what length of time we were talking for a recovery period. For all I knew, it could have been an hour or more."
>Try it again.

>You try again, and feel it work!
>"For me, it is a few moments. You seem to work more on a scale of a few minutes. I don't think you'd get more than one or two uses out if in a normal danmaku battle, anyways. Next, we'll work on holding that concentration while doing things."
>You spend the next half hour with with Sakuya, and she helps you refine your technique. You pick it up pretty quickly, you thin, and by your fourth try, you're able to maintain your focus well enough that you can move around more or less normally. Sakuya, despite her earlier misgivings, seems to be rather proud of your progress. Unfortunately, you can never really hold it for more than three seconds, which she finds a bit suspicious; feeling you should be able to improve it past that. Regardless, you feel fairly confident in your ability as she leads you back toward the foyer. "You've done well," she says, "But I don't think I'll be able to teach you much more unless you improve."

>_

[Serela]

>"Well... Byakuren had me gather some ingredients for a spell that would increase my magical abilities, if I wanted it. If I do it, that would probably increase my capacity to stop time too, so then you'd be able to teach me more?"

And at this point in time, I'm sort of assuming we're going to do it (Just before we go to sleep, due to it's aftereffects), because either way we're going to turn into a youkai with all this magic doings. And because it'll be awesome. And helpful.

[Suwako Moriya]

"Byakuren's help will require a lot of rest, though. I imagine you'd rather your desertion problem be solved sooner rather than later..."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well... Byakuren had me gather some ingredients for a spell that would increase my magical abilities, if I wanted it. If I do it, that would probably increase my capacity to stop time too, so then you'd be able to teach me more?"

>"I would not be so eager to dive into such things, myself," says Sakuya, her voice calm, but taking an unmistakable edge.

>"Byakuren's help will require a lot of rest, though. I imagine you'd rather your desertion problem be solved sooner rather than later..."

>"If you can find a way," says Sakuya, "I would be very pleased."

>_