Iku Quest Edi'nayset: A Z-Machine Adventure.

[Suwako Moriya]

> Lose the smile.
> "Not as well as they could be. Remilia is willing to accept the idea of an outside party being responsible for Bhava-Agra's fall, but she feels the resulting confusion has embarrassed both her house and Bhava-Agra's people, so she desires recompense from the responsible party for this embarrassment."

[Hello Purvis]

> Lose the smile.
> "Not as well as they could be. Remilia is willing to accept the idea of an outside party being responsible for Bhava-Agra's fall, but she feels the resulting confusion has embarrassed both her house and Bhava-Agra's people, so she desires recompense from the responsible party for this embarrassment."

>"I don't understand," she says. You can practically see the frown despite her mask.

>_

[Suwako Moriya]

> "Do keep in mind that Remilia knows very little about you personally. She has only been informed that an outside party exists, is capable of taking shadows, and has no desire to meet personally with anyone. You will recall that I mentioned your ideal society, where people communicated purely by written word, was largely predicated on everyone involved trusting each other? This is a case where that trust does not exist. She wishes to see you for herself, and will be largely unsatisfied with anything else coming from you."

[Suwako Moriya]

Before anyone asks, I do not plan on forcing Feisty Geist to go if she really doesn't want to. If she balks or outright refuses, then I will mention that Remilia will accept another party taking responsibility on her behalf, which will quite obviously be us.

[Hello Purvis]

> "Do keep in mind that Remilia knows very little about you personally. She has only been informed that an outside party exists, is capable of taking shadows, and has no desire to meet personally with anyone. You will recall that I mentioned your ideal society, where people communicated purely by written word, was largely predicated on everyone involved trusting each other? This is a case where that trust does not exist. She wishes to see you for herself, and will be largely unsatisfied with anything else coming from you."

>"I suppose I can understand what you say," says the poltergeist. "I guess if she is used to exposure, it would make sense that more proper methods of communication wouldn't be something she would like. But I don't quite get those others things you said."

>_

[Suwako Moriya]

> "I cannot recall if I ever mentioned this to you or not, but when Bhava-Agra fell, many people in Gensokyo felt it was a war-like invasion on our behalf."
> Frown.
> "Never mind that the very code of conduct necessary to attain enlightenment would forbid such a thing."
> Return to a normal expression.
> "One of these people was Remilia Scarlet, the vampire in charge of that manor. Since she took our presence as an invasion, she staged counterattacks on our innocent people, conquering two of our islands and conscripting the celestials that live there. As I have known all along that we were not responsible, in response, I assumed her to be a power-hungry malevolent force intent on enslaving as many of my people as she could. Both her assumption about Bhava-Agra's actions and my assumption about her intentions have been shown to be incorrect, and she considers this an embarrassment, that she was more or less tricked into taking a rather dishonorable course of action. She wants the party responsible for Bhava-Agra's fall, which would be you, to compensate her for this embarrassment, a compensation that would begin - but not end - by you presenting yourself to her."

[Suwako Moriya]

So I have a little bit of time now with my lunch break.

I expect Feisty Geist will want nothing to do with presenting herself to Remilia, so I see one of two things coming out of this situation. The less likely is that she flies IntraSkirt Airways and has a broken conversation with Remilia from between our legs. The more likely is that we accept responsibility for her, but when this happens, I want to make sure she knows that we are doing it, so that she fully appreciates the buzzsaw at which we're throwing ourselves.

This then necessitates what we would actually present as recompense. As I've already stated, servitude is out of the question because that is The Dragon's decision (and if Remilia insists that we ask The Dragon about it, we will warn her that we will be telling The Dragon exactly why we are in the situation we are in, with the implication - or outright statement - that angering The Dragon by conscripting its followers is not really the best idea in the world). Monetary payment is similarly out of the question simply because we do not have any. (Or maybe we still have that 1 currency unit? I forget exactly what happened to that Maybe it appeared on the most recent inventory update and I've forgotten already.) We do, however, have a fair number of marketable skills; dancing being the most obvious, but we are also a qualified singer and painter. These are what I primarily plan to offer as potential recompense, as they would not interfere terribly with The Dragon's affairs.

It is worth noting that Remilia likely considers the offense of conscripting a large group of innocent people and the offense of assaulting her chief assistant to be a wash, so I doubt we will get anything further from her on that front. At the very least, trying to get something extra for our people without offering Sakuya anything in return is very likely to piss her off. (In looking on the bright side, it is actually very likely that Remilia's conquest has helped this particular group of people, because she would have kept them fed during their time under her control, meaning that our currently meager harvest was not depleted further.) I would not press this overall point unless she does first. I also feel no remorse for Meiling's duel beyond general sympathy for someone that gets knocked unconscious, and would be willing to argue that point with her should she mention it again.

[Shadoweh]

That may have worked with Yukari. Remilia is more likely to start shooting at us if we ask her to have a conversation with the ghost under our legs. Even masked isn't likely to be satisfying. Since you prefer to have Iku pay personally I agree on using her own skills. If she brings up the Meiling duel again I suggest telling her when the tea will be.

[UncertainJakutten]

Hmmmm...perhaps you can count the servitude Remilia gained from the Celestials as at least a part of the recompense?

[Suwako Moriya]

She might not be entirely happy with still not being able to see Feisty Geist face-to-face, but I think she will at least appreciate the incredibly undignified position we are putting ourselves in. At worst I expect she will reject the given proposal of talking to our legs and we'll have to accept responsibility right there.

I really do not think Remilia is going to attack unless she is attacked first, as she is in a very advantageous negotiation position but a somewhat disadvantageous combat position, what with being outside during the day. (Maybe if she gets her undergarments photographed, she might fly into enough of a rage...) There is also the fact that there was one combative encounter between these two before. It was indoors and Iku still won.

Fake edit: Don't have any more lunch time to properly address UK's post, will get to it on break, short answer is "unlikely".

[UncertainJakutten]

Well you'd have to sell it properly. But she's already admitted things were a misunderstanding. So if she has a right to recompense for embarassment, you have a right to recompense for unpaid labor.

[GuyYouMetOnline]

True, and I'd support trying that, but I don't think Remilia will accept it. Of course, I didn't think she'd agree to negotiations at all, so who knows?

[Shadoweh]

I'll be out most of the day anyways. You're right about the attacking part. It's just Remilia has made clear she wants to see the person and I can't believe I'm saying this but it could be anyone under Iku's skirt. If that route does become available how about from the other side of a tree? I stay in favor of accepting responsibility and it's good that you're making Shuuei aware of it.

[Suwako Moriya]

It's not entirely unpair labor in the sense that it can be equated in the fuck-up department to Sakuya being taken out of commission. We can demand recompense for the unpair labor, sure, but then Remilia has made a mistake and rectified it, and what have we done as the Bhavagran party (not the poltergeist party - it is quite important to make the representation distinction when determining who owes who what) to rectify the mistake we made in assaulting her chief assistant?

Think of it analogous to the cliche situation where the little boy accidentally hits a baseball through the old lady's window, so he does yard work for her to "pay" her off for the damages. In this case, our Tenshi baseball broke old lady Remilia's Sakuya window, so our celestials do her yard work for a day. (That it happened in the order reverse from the norm is irrelevant.) We can even complete the cliche where the old lady makes the boy dinner as a "reward" for his hard work in that Remilia has fed her celestial workers several meals at this point (theoretically 4 or 5 for the first batch she captured).

[Suwako Moriya]

Also, in thinking about it, this whole equivalent exchange thing very annoyingly takes Reimu and Marisa's debt to us off the books, because they have assisted in preventing further celestial conscription.

[Suwako Moriya]

Also also in thinking about it we technically have a situation where Tenshi caused a fuck-up (permitted by us, granted, but the fighting was her idea in the beginning) and her fellow celestials ended up making up the difference.

That's sure to go over well if anyone else notices it.

[Hello Purvis]

> "I cannot recall if I ever mentioned this to you or not, but when Bhava-Agra fell, many people in Gensokyo felt it was a war-like invasion on our behalf."
> Frown.
> "Never mind that the very code of conduct necessary to attain enlightenment would forbid such a thing."
> Return to a normal expression.
> "One of these people was Remilia Scarlet, the vampire in charge of that manor. Since she took our presence as an invasion, she staged counterattacks on our innocent people, conquering two of our islands and conscripting the celestials that live there. As I have known all along that we were not responsible, in response, I assumed her to be a power-hungry malevolent force intent on enslaving as many of my people as she could. Both her assumption about Bhava-Agra's actions and my assumption about her intentions have been shown to be incorrect, and she considers this an embarrassment, that she was more or less tricked into taking a rather dishonorable course of action. She wants the party responsible for Bhava-Agra's fall, which would be you, to compensate her for this embarrassment, a compensation that would begin - but not end - by you presenting yourself to her."

>"Oh..." she says. While you cannot see her face, you can definitely see her slump a bit.  "And then what?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "That depends on what Remilia decides is sufficient compensation. She mentioned both payment and indenturing as possibilities, the former of which I imagine is not a possibility and the latter of which I imagine you would loathe with all your being."

[Hello Purvis]

> "That depends on what Remilia decides is sufficient compensation. She mentioned both payment and indenturing as possibilities, the former of which I imagine is not a possibility and the latter of which I imagine you would loathe with all your being."

>"I see..." she says in a small voice. "You wouldn't want me to run, either."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "It is true that I would appreciate this issue resolved, because she will not free my people otherwise. But ultimately, the decision is up to you. If you decide to not appear before her, then..."
> Look away.
> "...Remilia has deemed it acceptable for someone else to take responsibility on your behalf."

[Hello Purvis]

> "It is true that I would appreciate this issue resolved, because she will not free my people otherwise. But ultimately, the decision is up to you. If you decide to not appear before her, then..."
> Look away.
> "...Remilia has deemed it acceptable for someone else to take responsibility on your behalf."

>She tilts her head just a bit, you don't think you'd notice it if you could see her expression. "I'm not sure I understand how that would follow..."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Look back at the poltergeist.
> "She knows I have comparatively reliable contact with you, and she knows that you value hiding yourself above everything else. From her standpoint, I am actively protecting the true culprit against a party that will force that culprit to step forward, admit their mistake, and being the reparations process. Since I am making the active decision to not simply hand you over to her, I am effectively your accomplice in this incident, and therefore my taking responsibility on your behalf would be sufficient satisfaction for her."

[Hello Purvis]

> Look back at the poltergeist.
> "She knows I have comparatively reliable contact with you, and she knows that you value hiding yourself above everything else. From her standpoint, I am actively protecting the true culprit against a party that will force that culprit to step forward, admit their mistake, and being the reparations process. Since I am making the active decision to not simply hand you over to her, I am effectively your accomplice in this incident, and therefore my taking responsibility on your behalf would be sufficient satisfaction for her."

>"Oh," she says. "I understand, now. What would she do to you, then?"

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Likely the same things she would have asked of you, though I am no better off than you in regards to payment, and I am not in a position to offer myself as a servant, given I already serve another being. So...I do not really know."

[Hello Purvis]

> "Likely the same things she would have asked of you, though I am no better off than you in regards to payment, and I am not in a position to offer myself as a servant, given I already serve another being. So...I do not really know."

>"Mmm," she says, with a brief nod.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "...Shall I tell her you will not be taking responsibility, then?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "...Shall I tell her you will not be taking responsibility, then?"

>"...I don't know," she says in a small voice.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> "Mmm...I suppose I should also say that she is likely interested in why this happened. I did not tell her. May I presume this was the correct course of action?"

[Hello Purvis]

> "Mmm...I suppose I should also say that she is likely interested in why this happened. I did not tell her. May I presume this was the correct course of action?"

>"Yes," says the poltergeist. "Thank you..."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Nod and smile.
> "You are quite welcome."
> "...If I may ask...since we are far more likely to understand what Remilia wants when she is around...would meeting her with an arrangement similar to Lady Yakumo's house be acceptable? Or is that too much for you?"