Maribel Quest Followthrough - A Z-Machine Adventure

[DracoOmega]

I agree about the dress changing. Or, rather, I wish I hadn't forgotten to do that before we left. I wish I knew how much time we have to mess around with now, and whether we can afford to go back and still cover all our other bases.

We MAY actually be able to argue that the SDM was already aware, and pitch it as us warning Renko about that they already knew. After all, it's not an exaggeration to say that they noticed the absence of faeries, and were planning to investigate (they just hadn't, due to lack of manpower).

[Rin Kagamine]

> Fly back towards the Underground for now.
> If we have our Purple Dress, change into that.  The less recognizable we are to the fairies the better. 
> If we don't have our Purple Dress, quickly move back to the Palace and change into one of Orin's old dresses.

Quoting since it may have been lost on the other page, and we apparently are not that far from the entrance to the Underground.

[Kilgamayan]

Oh God, daring her to do something is probably the worst possible thing we can do if we want to ever be her friend again.

[Rin Kagamine]

Oh God, daring her to do something is probably the worst possible thing we can do if we want to ever be her friend again.

How in the would did you get daring out of that?  The objective is to get under her skin and have her make a destructive decision leading to her own downfall, leaving Maribel completely out of it.

[Kilgamayan]

How are you not getting daring out of "hey I just told the SDM you were coming let's see you take them now"?

[DracoOmega]

How in the would did you get daring out of that?  The objective is to get under her skin and have her make a destructive decision leading to her own downfall, leaving Maribel completely out of it.

If Renko is so confident that her fairy army can overtake the mansion, no matter who's inside, then why not tell her that we warned the mansion straight out, and feed her some line about how it'll give her a chance to really prove her might since "anyone can win a sneak attack, but to go into a battle with your enemy expecting you and still prevail shows supreme skill" or something.

I think that counts as daring someone to do something, pretty directly. I think the only way we could tell her to any potential advantage is to say that we noticed them preparing, while we were there (say, to drop off the pocketwatch from Okuu, for example, which is close to true), and wanted to warn Renko about it. Assuming we think we could bluff that far.

[Rin Kagamine]

How are you not getting daring out of "hey I just told the SDM you were coming let's see you take them now"?

Because that's not the purpose following the intent.  As an example, we could have told her that, but the focus of the plan is to let Renko's megalomaniac out and have her run into a battle with a prepared SDM.  It doesn't matter when the SDM is told so long as Renko is headstrong about her ability to win.  While I'd normally be all for taking her on face-to-face or one-on-one, the concensus seems to be avoiding it.  So inspire her to get overconfident about her abilities and the abilities of the fairies and let her fight it out with an SDM that could wipe the floor with her.

[Kilgamayan]

Where are you getting that consensus? I want a one-on-one pretty badly. I think us taking her down in such a duel is a key part of the best plan of action.

[Thaws]

I really think we shouldn't lie to Renko if we want to keep the friendship, espeically if Koishi is really the secret benefactor....

[Kilgamayan]

Well, Koishi being the secret benefactor would toss everything out the window and give us full license to do pretty much whatever we wanted. Most of my ideas are stemming from the potential that Renko is doing this without outside influence.

Warning the SDM is fine, but after that, I think it would be better to find out who is responsible for this before charging into a fight, because knowing who is responsible will drastically change up our tactics.

[Rin Kagamine]

Where are you getting that consensus? I want a one-on-one pretty badly. I think us taking her down in such a duel is a key part of the best plan of action.

Great, then we need to go to Kanako and find out what we can about Koishi/get her to start the search then go to Byakuren and power-up so we can rest as soon as possible.  You talked about maintaining the friendship, and the two seem mutually exclusive at this juncture, but the point is that we have no idea how Renko will react to a defeat yet.  She may thank us for slapping some sense into her.

Still, action is key

[Kilgamayan]

Maintaining the friendship and stopping the invasion are not at all mutually exclusive I've talked about this at least twice ajhrioeshifohgihernoiehase

[DracoOmega]

Ok, how does this seem like for a rough plan of actions for the moment:

-go warn SDM, letting them know how much discretion is necessary (Sakuya is probably the best to discuss that with)
-go talk to Kanako, see if she can help
-go talk to Renko

Any substantive objections?

[Rin Kagamine]

Maintaining the friendship and stopping the invasion are not at all mutually exclusive I've talked about this at least twice ajhrioeshifohgihernoiehase

I've got plans that go either way!  I really don't care as long as we win!  We just need to make a decision quickly since we have no idea when the assault will begin!  I just think it's better to pitch something to Renko to stave off the invasion until a time when we're fully ready.

EDIT:
I think the best action is to tell Sakuya something about the fairies gathering in the woods and it seems like Dai has plans for all of them.  Short, sweet and ambiguous

[Doll.S CUBE]

Ok, how does this seem like for a rough plan of actions for the moment:

-go warn SDM, letting them know how much discretion is necessary (Sakuya is probably the best to discuss that with)
-go talk to Kanako, see if she can help
-go talk to Renko

Any substantive objections?

No

[Kilgamayan]

That works.

[Rin Kagamine]

So we're not getting changed?

[Kasu]

Purvis isn't online right now, but we probably should get changed first.

> Go back Underground to get changed.

[Hello Purvis]

> Fly back towards the Underground for now.
> If we have our Purple Dress, change into that.  The less recognizable we are to the fairies the better. 
> If we don't have our Purple Dress, quickly move back to the Palace and change into one of Orin's old dresses.

>You decide, if nothing else, being less recognizable to the faeries is a good thing.
>You make a quick loop back to the Underground, and seeing the entrance is still empty quickly change back into your Purple Dress.

>_

[Rin Kagamine]

> Start back towards the SDM, being wary of fairies.

[Hello Purvis]

> Start back towards the SDM, being wary of fairies.

>You make your way back toward the mansion. Thankfully no groups of faeries have manifested, and none of individuals or pairs you met seem all that interested in bothering you.
>The gates of the mansion come into sight without incident.

>_

[UncertainJakutten]

Gonna say now, keeping Renko as our friend is part of our win con. You'd all do well to remember that.

[Kasu]

> Head for the gate.

[Hello Purvis]

> Head for the gate.

>You land near the gate. Meiling is there, currently stretched out across the path and watching the clouds. She glances over at you. "Hey, you're becoming a real popular face around here."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Hey, there. Yeah, I've been running all around today. Just need to speak to Sakuya again for a bit."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hey, there. Yeah, I've been running all around today. Just need to speak to Sakuya again for a bit."

>"Go right ahead," says Meiling.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Thanks."
>Enter the Mansion.
>If there's no sign of Sakuya, try heading towards the kitchen again. You never know.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Thanks."
>Enter the Mansion.
>If there's no sign of Sakuya, try heading towards the kitchen again. You never know.

>You step over Meiling, and head toward the mansion.
>Entering the foyer, you see no sign of Sakuya or anyone else. You head toward the west wing kitchen, and find Sakuya sweeping the hall leading there. Noticing you come in, she nods. "Welcome back, Maribel," she says.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Hello, again. I need to speak with you about something important which concerns everyone here, and... which requires a great deal of discretion. I assume I can trust you on that latter part?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Hello, again. I need to speak with you about something important which concerns everyone here, and... which requires a great deal of discretion. I assume I can trust you on that latter part?"

>"What sort of discretion?" asks Sakuya.

>_