Keine Quest (Part 6): Broken History (Complete)

[Hello Purvis]

>Go to help support Maribel.
>"What happened?"

[DracoOmega]

>Go to help support Maribel.
>"What happened?"

>You move over to help support Maribel. She smiles weakly at you.
>"Nothing happened," she says, breathing heavily. "Nothing... unplanned, anyway. It just... took a lot... of effort. I'm tired." She looks around at the space you're in and all the new occupants that have filtered into it.
>"We... did it. Didn't we?" she says.
>The other Maribel nods. "Yes, you did."
>"But I-" Maribel shakes her head. "Pronouns..."

[Hello Purvis]

>"You both did it, that's the important bit. Good job. Just rest up now."
>Hair ruffle.

[DracoOmega]

>"You both did it, that's the important bit. Good job. Just rest up now."
>Hair ruffle.

>Maribel nods. Both of them. Although one rather more weakly than the other.
>She smiles a little as you ruffle her hair.
>The Maribels make good on your suggestion to rest, sitting down on the floor and leaning against each other. The less tired one spends some of her time looking around the space and at the different Gengetsus, several of which she hadn't seen before. Marisa paces a little, every now and again throwing a wary eye towards one of the hostile fragments, or the columned Maribel. Shadow Gengetsu continues to learn and move among the wisps.
>After a little while, it moves back towards you. It thinks it understands now. It thinks it knows why it is the way it is, why it remembers things it does not remember, why there are holes into which the memories of others fit perfectly. All the fragments are here now, and they all belong together. But it can only see them. It cannot move them. It wishes to be whole. It thinks that's the way it is supposed to be.

[Hello Purvis]

>Smile at it.
>"Now, show what you've learned to the rest of them."

[DracoOmega]

>Smile at it.
>"Now, show what you've learned to the rest of them."

>You smile at Shadow Gengetsu and it gives you what feels like the mental equivalent of a nod, then moves about the larger fragments, touching them each of them in turn and holding the embrace for a little while. It starts with Gruegetsu, then moves on to the rest.
>"I... think what it means to say," Gruegetsu speaks, once the embrace is lifted. "Is that we're like a pane of glass that's been shattered into countless pieces. One can look at all the fragments. One can realize that they belong together, even see a little how they should be put together. But this doesn't mean that they can make things whole again. That part of ourself, it can communicate and transmit memories, but cannot transmit the essence of who we are, or what we can do. Each of us seems to hold some piece of this. Others can see, where I cannot. Some can create danmaku, while others cannot. That shadow can touch the consciousness we share, where others cannot. In fact, that seems to be the entire essence of its being."

[Hello Purvis]

>"For the time being, just getting all of as aware as we can will be a good start. So...can you tell us what happened?"

[DracoOmega]

>"For the time being, just getting all of as aware as we can will be a good start. So...can you tell us what happened?"

>She shakes her head. "Probably not as well as I could if I were whole. I'm not sure I know any more than you do. But I remember meeting Maribel, in those woods. It seems almost a lifetime ago to me. She was something I had never seen before, something in the waking world that was still tied to the dream. I wanted to understand what this meant; how this was possible. So I tried to touch her, to step inside the dream like I've done with countless others. I remember... feeling something was wrong. Even then, I don't believe I knew what it was. And then... I was here, as you see me. I can recall nothing else in-between."

[Hello Purvis]

>Glance toward the maribels.
>"And, neither of you remember that? Or remember me being there?"

[DracoOmega]

>Glance toward the maribels.
>"And, neither of you remember that? Or remember me being there?"

>"I remember a little," one of them says. "When the shadow showed me. I remember being chased by a form through the woods. I ran. I think she caught me, and then I was here. I don't remember you being there, sorry."

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"I called out to you. We spoke a little, just exchanged a few words before Gengetsu showed up. Then she put me to sleep."

[DracoOmega]

>Nod.
>"I called out to you. We spoke a little, just exchanged a few words before Gengetsu showed up. Then she put me to sleep."

>Maribel shakes her head. "I don't remember that at all, sorry."

[Hello Purvis]

>"It's okay."
>"Feeling a bit better? How about you, Mugetsu?"

[DracoOmega]

>"It's okay."
>"Feeling a bit better? How about you, Mugetsu?"

>"I'm ok," the more exhausted Maribel says, still sounding rather fatigued just the same. "Just tired."
>"I'm fine," the other Maribel says.
>"The work was less taxing on me," Mugetsu says. "I simply sensed and guided. I'm used to navigating dreams, but wasn't a great task. It took more focus than usual, but I'm fine."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Then; perhaps you could try to work with me? I think if we find out exactly what happened, we'll be better prepared to undo it. The problem is, well, this place is muddled. So it gets hard to read the history."

[DracoOmega]

>"Then; perhaps you could try to work with me? I think if we find out exactly what happened, we'll be better prepared to undo it. The problem is, well, this place is muddled. So it gets hard to read the history."

>"I'm afraid I don't really know how your sense works," Mugetsu says. "Or if it can work at all in here, the way you'd expect it to. With Maribel, I simply helped her see the paths and places that were already there."
>"Eh, I don't really know much about all this dream stuff," Marisa says, "But your sister tried to enter the dream through whatever part of it was walking around Gensokyo back then, right?"
>"Right," Mugetsu nods.
>"And we went in through the real thing, yeah? She said you'd never seen anything like it before. Maybe you're just really not supposed to go in that way, or something?"
>"I'm... not sure why," Mugetsu says, "But you're right that I don't know."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yeah, but that doesn't really explain why she got all split up. Or rather, wouldn't it imply the same thing should have happened to Marisa, Mugetsu, and I?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Yeah, but that doesn't really explain why she got all split up. Or rather, wouldn't it imply the same thing should have happened to Marisa, Mugetsu, and I?"

>Marisa shakes her head. "We ended up in the same place, sure, but we didn't get here the same way, did we?"
>"I think what Marisa is saying," Mugetsu adds, "is that we all entered the dream through the dreamer. Gengetsu entered it through whatever connection existed to Gensokyo, a very great distance away."
>Marisa nods. "And seven years in the past, too, so they tell me."
>"The past?" Maribel asks.
>"Hey, don't ask me," Marisa says, shaking her head. "I don't know how half this stuff works."

[Hello Purvis]

>"More complications. The world you come from is some years into the future from where you enter Gensokyo. I have no idea why."
>Well, aside from Yukari.
>Look at the pillar again.
>"I'm pretty sure that's a key to this mess. But I don't know if it's a cause, or keeping things from getting worse."

[DracoOmega]

>"More complications. The world you come from is some years into the future from where you enter Gensokyo. I have no idea why."
>Well, aside from Yukari.
>Look at the pillar again.
>"I'm pretty sure that's a key to this mess. But I don't know if it's a cause, or keeping things from getting worse."

>"That's..." Maribel frowns. "I'm not even sure what to say to that."
>Yukari is a good explanation for a great many things which lead to places they really shouldn't.
>You take another look at the pillar. It hasn't changed appreciably since your arrival, despite this space changing around it.
>"Uh, define 'worse'," Marisa asks nervously.

[Hello Purvis]

>"I'd rather not. But frankly, I'm tempted to throw a rock at it."
>Try to remember what Ran said Yukari's last words were.

[DracoOmega]

>"I'd rather not. But frankly, I'm tempted to throw a rock at it."
>Try to remember what Ran said Yukari's last words were.

>Marisa cringes a little, and looks to Mugetsu. "Would that mess anything up?"
>Mugetsu frowns, and shakes her head. "I have no idea."
>"Swell..."

>You recall what Ran said Yukari's last words were. It was something about how she hadn't woken up, and would never wake up, and that everything would break.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Anyways, wouldn't going through history be the same thing as going through space, Mugetsu? Just smoothing out the path between now and then, so I can read it legibly?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Anyways, wouldn't going through history be the same thing as going through space, Mugetsu? Just smoothing out the path between now and then, so I can read it legibly?"

>"Maybe it seems that way to you," Mugetsu says, "but I don't have your senses. A dream should exist at only a single point in time, like everything else. If these paths lead to others times, as you say, I have no idea how, or how to I could manipulate that."

[Hello Purvis]

>"If it existed in a single point in time, then nothing could happen. You need two points for there to be...well, anything. But...well, what does this place look like to you? A normal dream?"

[DracoOmega]

>"If it existed in a single point in time, then nothing could happen. You need two points for there to be...well, anything. But...well, what does this place look like to you? A normal dream?"

>"Well, I meant a single point at any given moment," Mugetsu says. "We all move forward in time. Or we're supposed to. And this has never seemed like quite a usual dream to me. It is made of the same substance, but the paths in it are complex and maze-like, and its form less malleable than most. But I have not experienced time differently than I have anywhere else."

[Hello Purvis]

>"When you say mazelike, what do you mean, exactly?"

[DracoOmega]

>"When you say mazelike, what do you mean, exactly?"

>She frowns. "This place is vaster and reaches further. There are parts of the dreamscape connected in strange ways, or twisted in upon themselves, and places hidden behind the passages of others. I'm not sure how I could describe it any better than this, I'm afraid."

[Hello Purvis]

>"Well, what's a dream usually like, then? Part of what I am thinking is that the land taken from those rifts, like the one you saw earlier, ended up here."

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, what's a dream usually like, then? Part of what I am thinking is that the land taken from those rifts, like the one you saw earlier, ended up here."

>"Ended up in the dream?" Mugetsu frowns. "Physically? But they have no consciousness. Even now you're not physically here. Your body is still asleep in the outside world. Only your consciousness has traveled. No matter how tangible everything has seemed in here, they have no physicality at all. Your consciousness simply perceives it as such."