Iku Quest Deka: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> "Okay. But a final bit of prelude before the question; given how committed you are to the isolationist position, I would say that there is still plenty of room for you to feel like you've fallen. There are a plethora of things I have meant to ask you over the course of just the last 24 hours, because you are such a fascinating and mysterious person. I have likely forgotten more things I have wanted to ask you than things about yourself that you have told me, to be honest. And given my curiosity this is not something you need to do for survival, and it is a question about some aspect of you about which I do not know, I would say that it would certainly qualify by what I perceive to be your standards on the matter. So please do not feel like you've hit rock bottom, because you are still doing a whole lot better on this front than anyone else I know, and I am still practically bursting at the seams with curiosities. Besides...I don't like seeing you depressed either."

>She nods. "Fine, just ask."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "All right. What is your favorite color?"
> Come to think of it, what is ours?
> Also, how long is our dress? Does it reach our feet?

[Hello Purvis]

> "All right. What is your favorite color?"
> Come to think of it, what is ours?
> Also, how long is our dress? Does it reach our feet?

>"Why would you have a favorite color?" she says.
>What is yours?
>It is ankle length.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Do we not have a favorite color ourselves?
> "Some people enjoy the aesthetics of certain hues more than others. Perhaps they get a sense of warmth from red, or a sense of serenity from blue, or a sense of passion from yellow, or a sense of joy from pink. Or one of a multitude of other potential reasons."
> Ankle-length, huh? That's good. How spacious is our dress?

[Kilgamayan]

I hate to leave for bed now, because I actually am going somewhere with this (depending on the response), but I don't have much of a choice. Needless to say, I would prefer not to leave Shuuei alone to go back to Yukari just yet.

[Hello Purvis]

> Do we not have a favorite color ourselves?
> "Some people enjoy the aesthetics of certain hues more than others. Perhaps they get a sense of warmth from red, or a sense of serenity from blue, or a sense of passion from yellow, or a sense of joy from pink. Or one of a multitude of other potential reasons."
> Ankle-length, huh? That's good. How spacious is our dress?

>Do you not?
>"Oh," she says. She shrugs.
>Fairly spacious. You can move and dance pretty freely in it.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "So you do not have one, then. That's...an answer in and of itself, and it kind of works for what I was going for, but not really. Let me try another question, with all the same stipulations as before. Do you prefer sunrise or sunset?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "So you do not have one, then. That's...an answer in and of itself, and it kind of works for what I was going for, but not really. Let me try another question, with all the same stipulations as before. Do you prefer sunrise or sunset?"

>"I'd rather not answer that," she says.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Nod.
> "Okay. That should at least make you feel a little better about yourself, then."

[Hello Purvis]

> Nod.
> "Okay. That should at least make you feel a little better about yourself, then."

>"No, not really," she says.

>_

[Suwako Moriya]

> "Then I will ask something a little more drastic. This time, your answer is important to helping yourself, so I request that you do answer it, okay?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Then I will ask something a little more drastic. This time, your answer is important to helping yourself, so I request that you do answer it, okay?"

>"I won't promise anything," she says.

>_

[Suwako Moriya]

> Nod.
> "Very well. Let us suppose, entirely as a hypothetical situation, that the messenger girl returned here with a new message. There is a third party present, who holds no allegiances to anyone that is here. You are hiding nearby and watching. While I am distracted by the letter, perhaps because I was putting it somewhere secure, she sneaks up behind me and pow!"
> Pantomime a punch without hitting the poltergeist.
> "She blasts me in the back of the head. I fall to the ground, unconscious. What would you do?"

[Hello Purvis]

> Nod.
> "Very well. Let us suppose, entirely as a hypothetical situation, that the messenger girl returned here with a new message. There is a third party present, who holds no allegiances to anyone that is here. You are hiding nearby and watching. While I am distracted by the letter, perhaps because I was putting it somewhere secure, she sneaks up behind me and pow!"
> Pantomime a punch without hitting the poltergeist.
> "She blasts me in the back of the head. I fall to the ground, unconscious. What would you do?"

>She frowns, looks toward the ground, as though focusing on it. "I'm not sure. Um, if it doesn't look like she's doing anything else? I guess I'd wait for her to go then check up on you. If it looked like she was going to do something else, I'd probably shoot at from where I was hiding. Or if her shadow was close enough, I'd do something to it to make her think twice about carrying on."

[Suwako Moriya]

> "Then let us say she leaves, but the indifferent third party does not, because their business is not concluded. This third party will see you if you come out into the open, and they will be conducting their business for a while."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Then let us say she leaves, but the indifferent third party does not, because their business is not concluded. This third party will see you if you come out into the open, and they will be conducting their business for a while."

>"I'd have to drive them off, too," she says. "Though I don't see why they would ignore what had already happened and gotten out of the way for the sake of their own safety."

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"It's just a hypothetical."

[Suwako Moriya]

> "What is more important is that you have made a choice. Presumably it bothers you to see me lying on the ground knocked out, but at the same time, it would bother you to run out in sight of a couple of strangers to tend to me, so you had to choose between one or the other. Now, of course, I did not ask this to become offended if you chose privacy over helping me. I asked it to set up the details of the overall idea I have had."
> "It seems to me that, if two concepts that are taken to be universal truths conflict with each other to the point where they cannot both apply at the same time to a given situation, that means one is not actually a universal truth, and it would be the one that subsides so that the other may apply. Do you agree with this idea?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's just a hypothetical."

>"It's not a very good one," she says.

> "What is more important is that you have made a choice. Presumably it bothers you to see me lying on the ground knocked out, but at the same time, it would bother you to run out in sight of a couple of strangers to tend to me, so you had to choose between one or the other. Now, of course, I did not ask this to become offended if you chose privacy over helping me. I asked it to set up the details of the overall idea I have had."
> "It seems to me that, if two concepts that are taken to be universal truths conflict with each other to the point where they cannot both apply at the same time to a given situation, that means one is not actually a universal truth, and it would be the one that subsides so that the other may apply. Do you agree with this idea?"

>She nods, then says, "You're not quite right. Just because people ignore a truth doesn't make it any less true. But...it would be a problem if you were attacked. But, the person doing it would have no idea it's me handling them. So both things are hopefully handled at once."

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Which only means that neither absolute is necessary. You can aid me without truly exposing yourself, and you can keep yourself mostly concealed while still aiding me. You wouldn't choose the extreme of coming out into the open or the extreme of staying hidden and doing nothing. You would instead increase your risk of exposure-as minimally as possible, but still an increase-in order to do something to aid me."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Which only means that neither absolute is necessary. You can aid me without truly exposing yourself, and you can keep yourself mostly concealed while still aiding me. You wouldn't choose the extreme of coming out into the open or the extreme of staying hidden and doing nothing. You would instead increase your risk of exposure-as minimally as possible, but still an increase-in order to do something to aid me."

>She frowns. "I guess..."

>_

[Suwako Moriya]

Agh, that was the exact opposite of where I wanted to go! :C

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Sorry. That's where it looked like you were going to me. I think this'll make some progress, though. And the opposite would be that there are only the extremes, which for some reason I don't think is the best approach to take.

>"In thinking about what you want to do, would I be correct in assuming that you have concentrated on the two extremes? On the options of complete concealment in the manner you have been doing and complete exposure?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"In thinking about what you want to do, would I be correct in assuming that you have concentrated on the two extremes? On the options of complete concealment in the manner you have been doing and complete exposure?"

>"Well, any is bad," she says. "You know that."

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Yes, but my point is that none is also bad. In this case, none would result in my injury, something you do not want to happen. By instead aiding me from hiding, you would aid me and still remain mostly concealed. Sure, losing even the smallest bit of concealment would be bad, but if you're willing to do it to assist me, then clearly you would consider doing nothing to be worse."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yes, but my point is that none is also bad. In this case, none would result in my injury, something you do not want to happen. By instead aiding me from hiding, you would aid me and still remain mostly concealed. Sure, losing even the smallest bit of concealment would be bad, but if you're willing to do it to assist me, then clearly you would consider doing nothing to be worse."

>"Maybe," she says, "But they wouldn't know if it were me or someone else, they would have no way to tell. So I would still be safe."

>_

[GuyYouMetOnline]

>"Exactly. You would take a middle ground. Yes, they wouldn't know who you are, but they would know someone was there, and they'd probably start trying to find you. But you could likely evade them without difficulty. You do increase your risk of exposure, but only by very little. The fact that you would do so implies that assisting me is more important than avoiding that tiny amount of risk."

[Suwako Moriya]

I was going for the approach that I outlined at the very end of my last post. I want to present with a situation where her two established truths - exposure is a wrong thing, and she cares about us - conflicted with one another, and forced her to make a choice, in the interest of showing that one of those didn't necessarily always apply. Ideally, she would choose the former, at which point we could point out that there may be other situations where it doesn't apply.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

Well, my thought is that neither is an absolute truth. The fact that compromises between the two exist prooves this.

[Suwako Moriya]

Whatever it takes to get her to realize that the exposure thing isn't an absolute truth is fine, I guess. But I'll be home in about an hour to better explain my ideas.