Maribel Quest Perpetuation: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, I suppose that mightn't be a bad idea.... I'll admit the thought of it makes me a tad nervous at the moment, though."
>"I'd never actually met her before this, and I hear she can be a little... temperamental."

>"Suppose what mightn't be a bad idea?"
>"Remilia? She's a wannabe princess. As long as you're polite, she'll probably do nothing worse than a little verbal jab here and again. But she'll do her best to be a gracious loser, so don't worry too much. Just don't be a bad winner."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Tea, I meant."
>"Oh, I have no intention of gloating. It wasn't even my victory, for that matter. And I'd hope keeping her place from being robbed will ameliorate matters somewhat, as well."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Tea, I meant."
>"Oh, I have no intention of gloating. It wasn't even my victory, for that matter. And I'd hope keeping her place from being robbed will ameliorate matters somewhat, as well."

>"I don't follow what you're trying to say there with the not a bad idea," says Marisa. "And yeah, this is more advice for Renko. Though you ought to keep it in mind for Alice."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, I don't intend to gloat, period. I stopped her because I felt it was right. That's all."

[E-Nazrin]

>"Fair point. What should I expect from her?"
>"And, I think I'm just puzzled about why you suggested having tea with Remilia. I mean - I guess talking with her afterwards is a good idea, but I'm not sure why you called it tea. Is there a tradition I'm not familiar with?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, I don't intend to gloat, period. I stopped her because I felt it was right. That's all."

>"Maybe you oughta not bring it up at all," says Marisa.

>_

[E-Nazrin]

>"Fair point. What should I expect from her?"
>"And, I think I'm just puzzled about why you suggested having tea with Remilia. I mean - I guess talking with her afterwards is a good idea, but I'm not sure why you called it tea. Is there a tradition I'm not familiar with?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Fair point. What should I expect from her?"
>"And, I think I'm just puzzled about why you suggested having tea with Remilia. I mean - I guess talking with her afterwards is a good idea, but I'm not sure why you called it tea. Is there a tradition I'm not familiar with?"

>"Can't say too well," says Marisa. "She'll probably be polite, but distant."
>"What's to be puzzled about? She'll be coming over for tea."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Yes, but you say that as though this were a matter of course; something taken for granted. Remember, we only arrived here a couple days ago. You can't always assume our understanding of customs."
>"And, uh, do you mean to our place? We... don't really have a very presentable living space at the moment. No tables, no chairs... and no tea."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yes, but you say that as though this were a matter of course; something taken for granted. Remember, we only arrived here a couple days ago. You can't always assume our understanding of customs."
>"And, uh, do you mean to our place? We... don't really have a very presentable living space at the moment. No tables, no chairs... and no tea."

>"What custom?" Marisa asks. "It's what you do. That's like calling eating a custom, don't you think?"
>"Well, I can loan you some tea, but you're on your own for the rest."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "When will they be coming?"

[E-Nazrin]

>fuck fuck fuck fuck

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, uh, not from our perspective, anyway. Remember, the outside world is pretty different. So no, tea wouldn't be the first thing that came to my mind in this situation."

[Hello Purvis]

> "When will they be coming?"

>"Well, if you didn't set up a time they'll probably show up whenever they feel like it. Though it's really rude to make it more than a week after the fight went down."

>fuck fuck fuck fuck

>This might be problematic!

>"Well, uh, not from our perspective, anyway. Remember, the outside world is pretty different. So no, tea wouldn't be the first thing that came to my mind in this situation."

>"I don't see why not," says Marisa. "I mean, you also sleep in the outside world, right?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "We do, and we also use indoor plumbing, which I haven't seen yet here. Not to be rude, but would you know proper indoor plumbing etiquette if you were dropped into the outside world?"

[DracoOmega]

>Painful flashbacks of the science debate with Nitori

[Kilgamayan]

> Previous statement intended to be a question ended with a period. This has since been changed to a question mark. Parser please take note. :C

[E-Nazrin]

>Okay, we might be able to do a week if Alice's gold 'n silver is worth enough.
>"Some things are different, some things aren't. Magic and danmaku seem to be missing entirely, and I don't think too many people in the outer world meet for tea after getting into a fight. I guess if it's that natural here I'll get used to it quick enough, but... oh well."
>Should we invite Yukari over at the same time? Hmm... no, that would probably be a very bad idea. Although she might just hear about it and show up on her own anyway...

[Hello Purvis]

> "We do, and we also use indoor plumbing, which I haven't seen yet here. Not to be rude, but would you know proper indoor plumbing etiquette if you were dropped into the outside world?"

>"What? I don't know what you're talking about or how it compares."

>Painful flashbacks of the science debate with Nitori

>The worst was that she might have been right...

>Okay, we might be able to do a week if Alice's gold 'n silver is worth enough.
>"Some things are different, some things aren't. Magic and danmaku seem to be missing entirely, and I don't think too many people in the outer world meet for tea after getting into a fight. I guess if it's that natural here I'll get used to it quick enough, but... oh well."
>Should we invite Yukari over at the same time? Hmm... no, that would probably be a very bad idea. Although she might just hear about it and show up on her own anyway...

>Hopefully Ari will come through for you.
>"What? That's silly. Of course you do. How else would you end a fight? Do you use sake or something? That's also acceptable with certain people."
>You don't want to imagine what that would cause. Or do you?

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Most fights in the outside world...don't end amicably. Usually one person goes to jail. Sometimes, one person winds up dead, if the fight is bad enough. Professional organized fights, though, usually end in a handshake. Sometimes a hug, too. It's supposed to be a show of good sportsmanship. I'm guessing your tea custom is the same idea?"

[E-Nazrin]

>"So Marisa, if we invited Yukari along for that group teatime, who would she focus on molesting?"
>"It... varies. But I don't think it's often that friendly, or prompt. Still, I guess it's not relevant at this point. Just something completely alien for me to unlearn, I suppose."
>Shrug.
>Or learn to mask, like the science thing...
>"Either way, it's good to know, and we'll have to work out some plan for that. Hopefully we can get together some decent furnishings soon."

[Kilgamayan]

> Mental note: Two new subjects to tack onto Outside World curriculum for potential teaching job at university - living customs and organized competition.

[Hello Purvis]

> "Most fights in the outside world...don't end amicably. Usually one person goes to jail. Sometimes, one person winds up dead, if the fight is bad enough. Professional organized fights, though, usually end in a handshake. Sometimes a hug, too. It's supposed to be a show of good sportsmanship. I'm guessing your tea custom is the same idea?"

>Marisa frowns. "Wow. That is extremely barbaric."
>It looks like she is going to say more, but stops herself.

>"So Marisa, if we invited Yukari along for that group teatime, who would she focus on molesting?"
>"It... varies. But I don't think it's often that friendly, or prompt. Still, I guess it's not relevant at this point. Just something completely alien for me to unlearn, I suppose."
>Shrug.
>Or learn to mask, like the science thing...
>"Either way, it's good to know, and we'll have to work out some plan for that. Hopefully we can get together some decent furnishings soon."

."

>"Yes."
>She seems to let most of your commentary go unanswered. "I might have a chair I something I don't use," Marisa says.

> Mental note: Two new subjects to tack onto Outside World curriculum for potential teaching job at university - living customs and organized competition.

>You wonder how much you'll scandalize your students, if Marisa is any indication.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"It is barbaric. But please don't think that most people there approve of it, either. Most people never get into serious fights. I certainly haven't. It's just that when fights do happen, they tend to be bad."

[E-Nazrin]

I seriously don't think the university job is going to fly, especially if we're teaching that heresies are accepted there.

Also: Nitori was entirely right, we just approached the explanation/justification wrong. Science and engineering are attached at the hip in the outer world, but there's a real distinction. Engineering is making stuff that works; science is figuring out HOW stuff works. Specific science research can help advance engineering, but so does just throwing stuff together and seeing what happens. A better point may have been that science theories tend to be useful generalizations, and ask whether she would expect most things she makes to fly away (reject gravity) on their own, unless they held certain properties that meant it WOULD fly away. But whatever.

It's also important to be understanding of how different Gensokyo is and not be too insistent on keeping outer-world mannerisms. The physical aspects of magic giving physics the finger are pretty obvious. But it sounds like Marisa's touching on social aspects that we've generally been more skeptical about. :V

[Hello Purvis]

>"It is barbaric. But please don't think that most people there approve of it, either. Most people never get into serious fights. I certainly haven't. It's just that when fights do happen, they tend to be bad."

>She nods. "Um, I'll try not to mention it. But now you've got me wondering what other basic things you don't do....sorry, that was rude."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "I don't know. There may very well be other Gensokyo...rules? Should I use rules? You seemed bothered by customs. Anyway, there may very well be more I don't know. The outside world is just a whole lot different from here, and neither of us exactly got a handbook to help us acclamate, you know? I apologize for not being familiar with Gensokyo's rules, but given how different they are, I'm not sure all of them can be reasonably held against us."

especially if we're teaching that heresies are accepted there.

Good thing we said we weren't teaching science, then. >_>

[E-Nazrin]

>Cue Kilga

Suggest:
"No offense taken. Honestly, I'm curious about the differences myself, and I do prefer the Gensokyo version for... well, a lot of the differences I've seen so far, actually. Did you have anything specific in mind? I'd have trouble guessing what would be really basic and different without finding out about the difference first - to me, those weird things are 'normal.' Or were, at least."

EDUT:

Good thing we said we weren't teaching science, then. >_>

Of course. We'll just be a little more subtle and teach about the wonders of the outer world, where science happens to not be a heresy.

[DracoOmega]

Nitori's explanation for things was far more arbitrary than that. I never claimed science and engineering were the same thing. I just said that science explains observations, and no matter what phenomenon you're trying to explain, it has to match the reality of the world. I even directly talked about what you mention about how there might be certain properties an object had that made it reject gravity. And Nitori said there didn't even need to be that. ie: There is no reason. It just is. Not even worth thinking about. The end. I'm not sure how you get through to someone at that point.

>"No, that's ok, I don't think that's rude. It's fair to wonder what 'normal' things around here we don't get, and I'm sure there's still some knowledge gaps lurking around. I'm sure the reverse would be just as true, or even moreso, if you were to end up in the outside world, as well. No one really notices all the things they take for granted without a point of comparison."

[E-Nazrin]

Guess I will go with this.

>"No offense taken. Honestly, I'm curious about the differences myself, and I do prefer the Gensokyo version for... well, a lot of the differences I've seen so far, actually. Did you have anything specific in mind? I'd have trouble guessing what would be really basic and different without finding out about the difference first - to me, those weird things are 'normal.' Or were, at least."