Okuu Quest After - A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

>Any places that would be far enough from the forest not to draw suspicion to us being here, far enough from our home neighborhood to be clear of most of the cops, and ideally mostly uninhabited?

>Uninhabited is hard to come by. Without that, you could think of a lot of places that are relatively private, but nothing is guaranteed. It just depends on how far you want it to be for home, or from here.

>_

[communist unity (comm-unity)]

> How populated are the industrial districts at night? We don't want to put Orin in a dangerous situation, though.

[DracoOmega]

>Are there places in the outskirts that are pretty sparse? We can cover the distance to anywhere probably quickly enough, so it's more important to be light on people, and far from the forest and police

[Hello Purvis]

> How populated are the industrial districts at night? We don't want to put Orin in a dangerous situation, though.

>From what you've seen, there's a fair number of empty places there. But likely there are people like Yuugi's gang, too.

>Are there places in the outskirts that are pretty sparse? We can cover the distance to anywhere probably quickly enough, so it's more important to be light on people, and far from the forest and police

>There are, but they are also very close to the forest. And very far from the Skids.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Aren't there any uninhabited parts at any OTHER edge of the island from the forest? Or is it pretty much to the waterfront on every other side?

[Hello Purvis]

>Aren't there any uninhabited parts at any OTHER edge of the island from the forest? Or is it pretty much to the waterfront on every other side?

>To a large degree, yes. To the northeast of town is a mountain on the edge of the woods, but it has the same issues as the outskirts in general. There was a reason why the forest felt so alien to you when you first came here.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>How crowded is the area around Kawashiro Heating and Air?

[Hello Purvis]

>How crowded is the area around Kawashiro Heating and Air?

>At this time of night? You have no idea.
>You get another text!
>"Checked the news. Buses were shut down."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Seriously? They say why? And can you get me Nitori's phone number?"

>To Ace/Parsee: "She says they've shut the busses down. Was on the news...."
>"Hey, Reimu, you have a tv?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Seriously? They say why? And can you get me Nitori's phone number?"

>To Ace/Parsee: "She says they've shut the busses down. Was on the news...."
>"Hey, Reimu, you have a tv?"

>Orin replies: "Big thing about the break-in. Where's the number?"
>It should be on the nightstand by your bed.
>"Not too surprising," says Parsee, "Limit mobility and all that. It's a classic martial law scenario. Bet they set up a bunch of checkpoints, too."
>Reimu shakes her head. "If I need to see something, I just find a stream."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Text: "Nightstand by my bed."

>To Parsee: "Yeah, but how'd they manage to declare martial law over a break-in?"
>To Reimu: "Well, do you have a local news stream you can put on, or something? I'd like to see this."

[Hello Purvis]

>Text: "Nightstand by my bed."

>To Parsee: "Yeah, but how'd they manage to declare martial law over a break-in?"
>To Reimu: "Well, do you have a local news stream you can put on, or something? I'd like to see this."

>Parsee frowns. "Well, police crackdown, martial law, they're pretty much the same thing as far as the person on the street is concerned. The point is the law's tightening."
>"Bet the military had something to do with it," adds Ace. "That Foundation place, from the data I've screened, is a big deal to them"
>You ask Reimu about a news stream, "I guess. Give me a minute."
>Orin texts you back a phone number.

>_

[communist unity (comm-unity)]

> Write the number down for later (get a pen and paper if we need one)
> Ask Ace to do a check on that number.

[DracoOmega]

>Write the phone number down in our notebook. We might need it while we're away from this thing

>Is there a rendezvous point within walking distance of our house that's relatively isolated?

>"It's going to make getting around a pain in the ass, though. I realize that's the POINT, but still..."

[Kilgamayan]

> It's going to make Orin getting around a pain in the ass. We have a two-person bike, flight capabilities, and, depending on what's still there, a van for an AC company that no longer exists.

[DracoOmega]

(The issue is not the lack of the bus so much as the idea of police checkpoints, everywhere. People watching where we go is not so good)

[Kilgamayan]

Idea.

> Text Orin: "Do you think you could get to Yamame's undetected?"
> Do we have Yamame's number readily handy?

[Hello Purvis]

>Write the phone number down in our notebook. We might need it while we're away from this thing

>Is there a rendezvous point within walking distance of our house that's relatively isolated?

>"It's going to make getting around a pain in the ass, though. I realize that's the POINT, but still..."

>What notebook? You left that at Parsee's with most of your stuff.
>Some alleys, maybe. On the upside, it's nearly midnight, so no one's going to be awake. On the downside, it's nearly midnight and no one's going to be awake.
>Parsee nods in agreement.

> Write the number down for later (get a pen and paper if we need one)
> Ask Ace to do a check on that number.

>You get a pen and paper from Reimu, and write it down.

> It's going to make Orin getting around a pain in the ass. We have a two-person bike, flight capabilities, and, depending on what's still there, a van for an AC company that no longer exists.

>This is a decent assessment, save for the checkpoints.

> Text Orin: "Do you think you could get to Yamame's undetected?"
> Do we have Yamame's number readily handy?

>"Yeah, probably."
>You do have it memorized.

>_

[DracoOmega]

(Remember, we did want to see her in person, in case our current appearance can jog her memory in some way)

>Text: "Can you start walking towards the industrial area? I can find you on the way. Best to meet someplace isolated."
>If the streets are pretty empty, it should be easy enough to spot her from the air, right? Given that we know what direction she's headed

[Kilgamayan]

> This voice would rather meet her at Yamame's. Inside is almost invariably better than outside right now.

[DracoOmega]

>Isn't Yamame's really close to our house, though? Could we even get inside without the cops seeing us?

[Kilgamayan]

> Orin says she thinks she can get to Yamame's undetected. All we'd have to do is fly there from high enough up that it'd take a helicopter to see us.

[DracoOmega]

>Yes, but I figured that would be undetected because they're not looking for her. We're a lot more conspicuous and ALSO a target.

[Kilgamayan]

> Which is why we use flight to our advantage. Police cars aren't going to see us if we're not on the roads, and helicopters would be really easy to see coming. They're bigger than us and have shiny lights that we don't.

[DracoOmega]

Ok, I'm willing to give that a try. We can always not land if we can't see a safe spot to do it

[Kilgamayan]

All right, that works. What info do we have left to gather here at Reimu's?

[Hello Purvis]

> This voice would rather meet her at Yamame's. Inside is almost invariably better than outside right now.

>After much internal debate, you ask Orin to go to Yamame's house.
>"Okay. Does she know?" asks Orin.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Text: "No. But it's a spot they mightn't immediately connect to me that we both know where to get to."

[Kilgamayan]

> "I'll also let her know."

[Kilgamayan]

Going to bed now, so I'll miss when Purvis gets back on (and I won't be around for long when I wake up again). Here's a quick list of who I think is worth attempting to ally ourselves with.

The really obvious ones:

- Rin and Yamame
- Nitori, if we can find her
- The bikers (Yuugi likes us because we're us, they'll probably all like us more now that we've jacked up a major fuzz establishment, Yuugi doesn't seem the type easily intimidated and will probably be more impressed than anything else by our "new" self)
- Reisen and Eirin (Likely key players in this whole escapade, we have their live-in info, and they'll probably be able to get other allies around town without suspicion)

Other optional people:

- Renko and Maribel (We know where they live and they'll be sympathetic)
- Cirno's gang, on the off-chance we run into them again (We "owe" Cirno a debt of fighting honor we can now repay with the promise of the old world, and Chen is likely to sympathize with us after the talk we had with Yukari)
- Yumemi (Now this one is interesting. She won't be happy with us for stealing from her, but the talking heads will be even less happy with her, and Nitori's situation combined with the opportunity to get her prestige back may swing her over to our side. She'd be a useful ally if we can nab her, and is likely to be able to get around town without much suspicion even though she's fallen out of favor. Remember how much all of the Institute's employees lived in fear of their higher-ups!)

People we do NOT want to involve:

- Satori
- Akyu
- Yukari (will not appreciate being woken up at this hour)
- Patchouli
- City Hall
- Anyone else we've only made brief contact with (docks lady, bus drivers, etc.)

And it looks like Reimu will be best left as a safehouse, though we might want to make sure Ace's bike is reasonably well-hidden, like around the back or some shit. (Highly recommend against letting Parsee go anywhere, she's functionally useless at this point. Ace has great informational/communication value, but she may be too much of a flight burden and letting her bike all around town is out of the question at this point.) I also don't trust Rinnosuke, though his back room is definitely worth checking out, so keep that in mind.

EDIT: Hell, while I'm thinking about it.

EDIT 2: Never mind, Ace's bike should be at the edge of the woods. That could be problematic. Wonder if it's worth sending someone out there to retrieve it.

> Assess hindrance to flight capabilities if we're carrying a passenger: speed, agility, endurance, maximum height, etc.