Keine Quest (Part 3): Broken History

[DracoOmega]

>Ah, that's the stuff.
>"Not fixing it."
>Stride in. Have a seat.
>"So, like I was saying, we have a lot of catching up to do, I think?"

>You hate to admit to yourself that it actually felt good to break something at this point
>You confidently stride into the house and sit down on a chair next to the table where Ran herself was sitting a moment ago. Ran stares at you wide-eyed, looks back at the door, then back to you again.

>"So, like I was saying, we have a lot of catching up to do, I think?"

>Ran reaches out an arm out tentatively and grasps your own, then immediately retracts her hand as though the contact burned.
>"Um..." she begins, "let's just pretend you're actually here, for the moment. Is that ok?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Ran. Is something that isn't here going to be able to kick down your door? Go on, check it. I'll wait."

[DracoOmega]

>"Ran. Is something that isn't here going to be able to kick down your door? Go on, check it. I'll wait."

>"I believe that I see it," she nods. "I just don't believe what I see."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Go feel. Walk through the doorway. Gnaw on the wood a little bit if you want to."

[DracoOmega]

>"Go feel. Walk through the doorway. Gnaw on the wood a little bit if you want to."

>"One sense is no less fallible than the others," she replies. "But this is a pointless argument. Unless the point of it is simply to have no point. Either I am arguing with myself, in which case I already know what I'm about to say, and thus this is unnecessary, or I am arguing with someone else, in which case my argument itself itself is faulty and thus unnecessary." She sighs. "But I suppose imaginary company is still better than none at all. If I am going crazy, I may as well indulge myself. What did you want?"
>She gingerly pokes your shoulder with her finger, just the same.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Ran go walk through the damn door so when you don't break your noise you'll realize this is real, please. You are not going to hallucinate out of or breaking your nose."

[DracoOmega]

>"Ran go walk through the damn door so when you don't break your noise you'll realize this is real, please. You are not going to hallucinate out of or breaking your nose."

>"I already said you could speak," she says. "And I think you underestimate the ability of the mind to fool the body. I could be sleeping right this moment, or any of a number of things. But if it makes you feel better...." She gets up, walks through the broken door, then returns to her chair.  "Now, can we trade explanations?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Thank you. And, I'm Keine. I came from outside, the human village to be precise. You probably don't know me, do you?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Thank you. And, I'm Keine. I came from outside, the human village to be precise. You probably don't know me, do you?"

>"I'm afraid not. You're clearly a were-hakutaku, though. I haven't seen one of those in... well, a very long time. You knew my name, however. I'd probably be surprised at that if I wasn't more surprised by your being here at all."
>"Assuming you are," she adds, under her breath.
>"How did you get here?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I stepped through the barrier. It seemed to be separating the timeline outside from the one here. I think...it may be because I'm not part of the timeline outside."

[Doll.S CUBE]

> "By the way, is Yukari around?"

[DracoOmega]

>"I stepped through the barrier. It seemed to be separating the timeline outside from the one here. I think...it may be because I'm not part of the timeline outside."

>"Then you mean-" she practically leaps out of her seat with enthusiasm, then seems to catch herself and sit back down again. "That- That might actually be possible, if what you say is true. I'd never thought it would happen. So... you can come and go freely?" You can hear a hint of hope resonate in her voice.

> "By the way, is Yukari around?"

>"Yukari is.... Well," she says as she stands up, "you can come see for yourself." She walks off towards a back room.

[Doll.S CUBE]

> Follow her.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I think I can leave freely."

[DracoOmega]

>"I think I can leave freely."

>"I hope you can," Ran says. "I certainly have not been able to."

> Follow her.

>You follow Ran down the hall. She stops in front of a door on the right, pauses, sighs, and then opens it. "Here," she says.
>Looking into the room, you dimly note the presence of a bed, a dresser, and various other furnishings you'd expect to find in a bedroom. They all seem singularly irrelevant in contrast to what you find yourself staring at now. You cannot help but be momentarily stunned and frightened by what you see.
>A complex angular mesh of gaps and barriers dominates the room, sufficing it with a harsh purple glow. It is at once both chaotic and orderly, precise geometries inside other geometries, at odd or impossible angle. And in its center, you can see Yukari, suspended in midair, her eyes closed. The mesh envelops her like some terrifying spider web.
>"And there she has been for seven years, now," Ran says. "Never once moving."

[Hello Purvis]

>Grimace
>Stare impolitely
>"...Is she awake?"

[DracoOmega]

>Grimace
>Stare impolitely
>"...Is she awake?"

>It really is hard to figure out what to make of that... and pretty impossible not to stare. It's truly captivating, in both the good and bad senses of the word.
>"I... don't know that she's aware," Ran says. "At the very least, I haven't been able to communicate with her in any way since this happened."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Disrupting her, no doubt, would be cataclysmic."
>Stare some more. "What happened, here, anyways?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Disrupting her, no doubt, would be cataclysmic."

>"I don't know that I could. But... you are correct that I would be reluctant to try."

>Stare some more. "What happened, here, anyways?"

>"I... wish I could tell you the full story, but I've had very little information to use, myself. It was a perfectly ordinary day, as far as I could tell, when Lady Yukari bolted out of bed, suddenly. She shouted something about how she hadn't woken up, how she would never wake up, how everything would break. And that... is when I thought the world was ending." She stops for a moment, her eyes distant. "I don't know how to describe it, exactly, but I could feel reality shattering around me; could see the land being torn apart. Something was rippling backwards through time. But then Yukari did something. She did... that." Ran gestures towards her. "I think... she froze the border between the past and the present, at that point seven years ago. She held reality together with sheer will. Since then, I've been sealed in this house and have not been able to communicate with another living soul. I don't know what happened after that."

[Hello Purvis]

>"How do you know that time was being affected, exactly?"

[DracoOmega]

>"How do you know that time was being affected, exactly?"

>"I may not be able to replicate what Yukari does, but I have observed her very carefully for a very long time. And I've had seven years to stare at this. I can't say I know what she was stemming off, but I'm fairly certain of what she did here. Essentially, she prevented whatever happened from propagating back any further in time than this."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"Let's go back to the front. I have a story to tell you that you may be able to make some sense of."
>Head back to the front. Tell the whole sordid tale. The winged youkai, the child, the altered timeline, disappearing bits of land, the thing in the crater, the lot of it. Don't bother with personal things like fixing the moon or delve too deep into the altered timeline, unless Ran asks.

[DracoOmega]

>Nod.
>"Let's go back to the front. I have a story to tell you that you may be able to make some sense of."
>Head back to the front. Tell the whole sordid tale. The winged youkai, the child, the altered timeline, disappearing bits of land, the thing in the crater, the lot of it. Don't bother with personal things like fixing the moon or delve too deep into the altered timeline, unless Ran asks.

>"Very well, I'll do my best."
>Ran closes the door and you head back to the table where you were discussing things earlier.
>You give Ran as much detail about what you think are the most relevant parts of your recent experiences. She nods thoughtfully and attentively as you continue.

>"Those fissures... what you describe does sound very reminiscent of Yukari's techniques... were she to exercise no finesse at all in their application. Particularly those tiny gaps left in the wake of the explosions of energy. I... do not know of anyone else who has that sort of power, I'm afraid. But what you say about their cause existing outside of the current flow of time... I think they probably were, at the very least, a symptom of whatever was rippling backwards in time. They may all even have originated at the same moment, despite occurring at different times in our own frame of reference."

>"I don't believe I know of a youkai that matches that description, either, I'm afraid. But you said she spoke of a 'waking dreamer'? The sensation of reality shattering around you that you experienced then reminds me of what I felt happening here until Yukari stopped it. Yukari too spoke of being unable to wake, despite being awake. I'd wondered if she was delirious somehow, but... Is it possible that youkai played a role in this, somehow? Or will play a role? I can offer even less explanation for her shadowy doppelganger, however."

>"In terms of the divergent timeline you've experienced, my theory is that the reason the divergence, from your frame of reference, starts at seven years ago is because Yukari prevented history from changing even further back. But this didn't stop the effect of the original trigger that were to have resolved after the point she froze things."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"So, your observation is that this is something from the future, then? And, I ponder if there is some coincidence between her slumber, and the way these things have of forcing it?"

[DracoOmega]

>Nod.
>"So, your observation is that this is something from the future, then? And, I ponder if there is some coincidence between her slumber, and the way these things have of forcing it?"

>"I think there's a good chance that whatever it was that started to alter the timelines happened in the future." Ran pauses. "Happened? Will happen? Sorry, grammatical tenses really weren't designed for this sort of situation. In any event.... if you are thinking that the reason she is now 'asleep' is because of these youkai... I don't believe so. I think that it's simply taking every last bit of herself to keep this boundary frozen."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Rather the opposite. I am wondering if her dormancy is affecting them."

[DracoOmega]

>"Rather the opposite. I am wondering if her dormancy is affecting them."

>"I'm not sure I understand what you're implying. Are you suggesting that those beings are somehow creations of hers? Some side-effect of all this?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"To be frank, it makes a great deal more sense then them coming from someplace that doesn't exist. But, I freely admit I'm grasping at straws."

[DracoOmega]

>"To be frank, it makes a great deal more sense then them coming from someplace that doesn't exist. But, I freely admit I'm grasping at straws."

>Ran ponders in silence for a moment. "I can't see how... but even I don't understand much of what Yukari does, or what effects it could have outside of here. But you... you can leave. You can investigate things that I can't. If you can find that youkai again, perhaps speak with it, we may be able to discover how they're connected to all this. If they even are, of course."

[Hello Purvis]

>Ponder for a moment.
>Take out one of the spellcards we looked from our house in the alternately timeline. Check it's history.