Yukari Quest III - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Yaersulf]

>"Yes, it was quite nice."
>See if she reacts to this.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yes, it was quite nice."
>See if she reacts to this.

>"Oh, you did have some after all?" she says. "I did think I rather had the most of it, when I think back to it."

>_

[Yaersulf]

Ok I think that rules out the someone fabricating things idea, unless they're really good. Now to try and work out some way to test the other two.
>"No, I just ate it with my eyes. You really looked like you were enjoying yourself."

[Hello Purvis]

>"No, I just ate it with my eyes. You really looked like you were enjoying yourself."

>Yuyuko giggles. "Aren't you poetic today, Yukari? Or perhaps this is a roundabout way of asking for an early lunch?"

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"How has your tournament come along?" she asks after a few moments.

>_

[Yaersulf]

Ok, change of plans. Even if this Yuyuko were to turn out to be fake she's obviously real enough to have a conversation with. Let's see if we can't get a second opinion.
>"Oh that thing, I'd completely forgotten about it with all that's happened today. To be honest with you I'm not actually sure if you're real or not right now."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Oh that thing, I'd completely forgotten about it with all that's happened today. To be honest with you I'm not actually sure if you're real or not right now."

>"Oh, I didn't expect that you would be in a philosophical mood today, Yukari!" says Yuyuko with a giggle.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"So why don't you think I'm real?" says Yuyuko.

>_

[O4rfish]

>"Yuyuko, I am going through some difficulty. Being who I am, this puts everything in the world in trouble. Can I rely on you to help me get my head straight?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yuyuko, I am going through some difficulty. Being who I am, this puts everything in the world in trouble. Can I rely on you to help me get my head straight?"

>She frowns, then gives a nod without looking over toward you. "I would be delighted to lend you my help, Yukari."

>_

[O4rfish]

>"The night we ate together, I woke up in a strange place. Perhaps I was abducted. My tools were missing, although I have recovered a few of them since then. It took me a while to return."
continued

[O4rfish]

>"There are many signs that I am not healthy, or perhaps that the world is not as real as it should be. I can't fly like I should. People and objects from Gensokyo who pass through my gaps simply disappear. I didn't eat until I returned: the food here doesn't satisfy my hunger. The world outside the Hakurei Border doesn't seem to exist, sort of like the places beyond your fog here. I am doubting my senses, and wondering of solipsism. I fear some entity has trapped me."

[O4rfish]

>"So, what do you think? Is there a way to tell whether this Gensokyo is real or not?"

[Mr. Sacchi]

>"The night we ate together, I woke up in a strange place. Perhaps I was abducted. My tools were missing, although I have recovered a few of them since then. It took me a while to return."

> Do NOT  mention the tools, otherwise continue as normal.

Remember, not even Ran knows of these tools.

[Hello Purvis]

>"The night we ate together, I woke up in a strange place. Perhaps I was abducted. My tools were missing, although I have recovered a few of them since then. It took me a while to return."
continued

>"There are many signs that I am not healthy, or perhaps that the world is not as real as it should be. I can't fly like I should. People and objects from Gensokyo who pass through my gaps simply disappear. I didn't eat until I returned: the food here doesn't satisfy my hunger. The world outside the Hakurei Border doesn't seem to exist, sort of like the places beyond your fog here. I am doubting my senses, and wondering of solipsism. I fear some entity has trapped me."

>"So, what do you think? Is there a way to tell whether this Gensokyo is real or not?"

> Do NOT  mention the tools, otherwise continue as normal.

>You gush about the past day at Yuyuko, very nearly letting slip something that you shouldn't. Yuyuko sits up as you do and rests against the side of the tower. She rubs her chin as you finish, then says, "My, isn't that quite the mouthful? Hmmm..."
>"Well," she says after a moment, "when you mention the edge of the netherworld, things get rather interesting, don't they? For all we know, you're just lost in there? Oh, have you tried to do anything you wouldn't expect or look into anything you wouldn't know?"

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"Not yet, perhaps that could work."
>What is something we actually don't know?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Not yet, perhaps that could work."
>What is something we actually don't know?

>There's plenty of things you don't know. You are not privy to all the personal details of everyone's lives, nor have you scoured the inside of every home and building in Gensokyo. There are certainly fields of knowledge that at best you are only passingly familiar with; though not many.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"Well then, I'll be right back, I should see if your idea works."
>Go and gap to the human village.
>Open some random doors, ignoring the villagers.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well then, I'll be right back, I should see if your idea works."
>Go and gap to the human village.
>Open some random doors, ignoring the villagers.

>"Good luck," says Yuyuko, "For whatever you consider luck in this case."
>You open a gap to the human village, stepping out into the sunny midmorning streets near the school and the local tavern. People hustle and bustle around, attending to their daily lives. The sounds of conversation, laughter, and the occasional yell blend together into a general babble, punctuated by the bark of a dog and the clucking of a few chickens scratching in a nearby alley between a shop and a house. The air is pleasantly warm, and there is a faint smell of dust in the air, as well as tantalizing scents wafting from the tavern.
>You ignore all this and approach the nearest home, which is the one with the chickens nearly. Without knocking, you slide open the door to reveal a comfortably sized front room, dominated by a non-nondescript table surrounded by several tatami. A charcoal brazier sits off to the side of the table. Plain paper walls hold a couple of doors, but are otherwise without any decoration. The room is quite plain, and it doesn't seem that anyone is home.
>You move to another house nearby, ignoring that a few people have noticed you and and starting to draw attention to you. Throwing its door open, you find a similar scene; a reasonably plain front room where a large table is the main feature. This one seems larger, with a few cheap paper screens set up to divide the room. There doesn't seem to be any here either, or if they are they are in other rooms and haven't noticed you as of yet.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>Hmm, open some more front doors.

[Hello Purvis]

>Hmm, open some more front doors.

>You move on and open another door, aware that quite a few people are watching you now, and someone has shouted "Hey! What are you doing?!"
>The next house presents a fairly similar scene to the first, a large table in a plain room with some tatami. You note this one has a simple incense burner hanging from the one of the rafters, but otherwise the front room is unremarkable.
>Moving on to another house, you throw open the door to see a plain-faced woman faded blue robe, who was in the process of sweeping the floor with a straw broom. She stares at you in wide-eyed silence in that tense moment, but otherwise nothing about her really seems to stand out. You also notice that the room itself is also plain, practically identical to the first one that you have seen.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"Is it just me or do all of you villagers have depressinly dull taste in furnishings?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Is it just me or do all of you villagers have depressinly dull taste in furnishings?"

>The woman stares at you for a moment, before finally speaking in a small voice, "Um...excuse me?"

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"All of your houses, they look so similar."
>Ponder as to whether this is suspicious or not.

[Hello Purvis]

>"All of your houses, they look so similar."
>Ponder as to whether this is suspicious or not.

>She seems to be more gobsmacked than anything at the moment, and is clearly searching for some kind of answer.
>It feels very suspicious. People tend to decorate their homes, and usually have different ideas of what constitutes good home layout, even if they are trying to keep good feng shui.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>"Well if we're lucky it's my fault anyway."
>Leave the village.
>Is there anywhere particularly of note in Gensokyo that we haven't visited before?

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well if we're lucky it's my fault anyway."
>Leave the village.
>Is there anywhere particularly of note in Gensokyo that we haven't visited before?

>"Ah, if you say so?" the increasingly perplexed woman asks.
>You depart from the village, leaving a crowd that is parti
>About the only place you have not visited in some respect or another the Palace of the Earth Spirits, which you've avoided out of your general desire to stay away from the underground in general. You have seen parts of it, though, while you were observing Reimu during the incident some time back. That aside, you have a hard time thinking of any particular place in Gensokyo that is unknown to you.

>_

>_

[Yaersulf]

>If we were to wander around some of the more secluded parts of the underground we would be able to gap back if we got lost right?

[Hello Purvis]

>If we were to wander around some of the more secluded parts of the underground we would be able to gap back if we got lost right?

>You presume so. Normally it would be no problem, and you seem to have not had any problems moving around this place thus far.

>_

[Yaersulf]

>Ok then, gap to the entrance to the underground and walk off down some random tunnel.