Iku Quest P?t: A Z-Machine Adventure

[Hello Purvis]

> "I see. I apologize for subject you to all this, then. But I'm about to start shouting, so please try your best to cope, okay?"
> After Nitori's written response, get up and fly to the top of the Palace.

>She nods, then writes, "Don't worry, not your fault. I can handle it."
>You fly to the top of the Dragon Place. The roofs slope gently; the tiles well in place. Typically it is considered extremely rude to be up here, as it's not precisely respectful to be clomping on the roof over The Dragon's head. But given it is not here, you feel it should be fine.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Survey the void around this island. Are any other islands visible?
> "Brace yourself."
> Cup our hands to our mouth and yell Tenshi's name as loud as we can.

[Hello Purvis]

> Survey the void around this island. Are any other islands visible?
> "Brace yourself."
> Cup our hands to our mouth and yell Tenshi's name as loud as we can.

>You look around. You can see the Shrine Island, and Orchard Island far in the distance. This confirms that the color difficulties makes things harder to see here; Orchard Isle should be easily visible. There are a few smaller islands around as well, nothing really significant about them.
>You shout for Tenshi at the top of your lungs. You receive no response.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> What is the void like? Is it just a miasma of purplish?

[Hello Purvis]

> What is the void like? Is it just a miasma of purplish?

>It's not really even a miasma. More like a field of not-lavender. It's rather like looking at the sky on a clear day, in that respect.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> So there are no obvious visual gaps between all the not-lavender?

[Hello Purvis]

> So there are no obvious visual gaps between all the not-lavender?

>No more than there are visual gaps a cloudless sky.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

FUCK IT, I'M GOIN' DEEP

> Sigh.
> Return to the ground.
> "Nitori, is it possible for you to close your eyes or look away from me, or are your head motions affixed to mine?"

[Hello Purvis]

FUCK IT, I'M GOIN' DEEP

> Sigh.
> Return to the ground.
> "Nitori, is it possible for you to close your eyes or look away from me, or are your head motions affixed to mine?"

>She writes: "I think so, as long as you don't move your head, or at least don't blink or something."

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Pull out the picture of the tied-up poltergeist from our purse.
> Watch Nitori's shadow as we do this.

[Hello Purvis]

> Pull out the picture of the tied-up poltergeist from our purse.
> Watch Nitori's shadow as we do this.

>You pull out the Picture of the Unconscious Poltergeist. Nitori's shadow mimes this action.

>_

[Kilgamayan]

> Is Nitori's shadow also hold a picture, or is it just posing like it's holding a picture?

[DracoOmega]

>After this, put away the photo again
>Head to the village on this island, and search around it for signs of anything that catch our attention

[Hello Purvis]

> Is Nitori's shadow also hold a picture, or is it just posing like it's holding a picture?

>She is holding what are are reasonably sure is a shadow of the picture. This would be due partially to the fact she is on top of your own shadow. You imagine it's just less of a hassle for her to be there.

>After this, put away the photo again
>Head to the village on this island, and search around it for signs of anything that catch our attention

>You put the photo away and head toward the village.
>The village exists largely as extension of the Dragon Palace. Practically everyone who lives here works at the Palace in some capacity. There is not even a food storage here, they simply use the Palace's Storerooms. Largely this village exists as a place for people to get away from the hustle and bustle of Palace life, which you can certainly understand. Many of the homes are particularly small and unostentatious, being rather that the one-room cell that the scholar you visited this morning lived in. They are charmingly scattered about, no real pattern or planning to their locations. In the middle of the town is a small cistern.
>There is no one here, as far as you can tell, and still no signs of motion.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Head to the center of town, and yell out: "Hello? Is anyone here?"
>Assuming no response, do another little search around it

[Hello Purvis]

>Head to the center of town, and yell out: "Hello? Is anyone here?"
>Assuming no response, do another little search around it

>There is no response to your shout.
>Looking around again, you don't see anything out of the ordinary in the village; save the color and the complete lack of activity.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>In sum, what is the safest known route between here and Guest Island, and which jumps along the way are unsettlingly distant?

[Hello Purvis]

>In sum, what is the safest known route between here and Guest Island, and which jumps along the way are unsettlingly distant?

>You aren't sure. You are most certain of the proper direction leaving from the Dragon Palace. But, that is a lot of distance for you to go just a couple degrees off and completely miss it. Or you could try from the island where you found Nitori's shadow, which would be shorter, but you are much less sure of the proper direction from there.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>Wasn't an island above Hina's forest mentioned earlier as a possible navigational aide?
>If we were to conjure a stationary lightning orb of some sort, how long could it theoretically last in place?
>Given that some of our attacks call lightning down directly from the sky, could we use this ability to determine true vertical, in absence of any landmarks?

[Hello Purvis]

>Wasn't an island above Hina's forest mentioned earlier as a possible navigational aide?
>If we were to conjure a stationary lightning orb of some sort, how long could it theoretically last in place?
>Given that some of our attacks call lightning down directly from the sky, could we use this ability to determine true vertical, in absence of any landmarks?

>Said island could be an aide, but you're not sure if you would recognize it on sight.
>Not very long; lightning is rather an ephemeral thing.
>That would certainly help you determine which way is up.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>If we were to focus on duration as the primary feature, how long could we make some form of danmaku or light that we're capable of creating remain in place?
>Try calling down a bolt, just to make sure that the sky here can still function as we'd expect it to, in this regard

[Hello Purvis]

>If we were to focus on duration as the primary feature, how long could we make some form of danmaku or light that we're capable of creating remain in place?
>Try calling down a bolt, just to make sure that the sky here can still function as we'd expect it to, in this regard

>Not long enough to be useful, especially if you made it stay place. That simply isn't your specialty.
>You try to call down some lightning. It works as you expect, but the bolt is rather anemic and unsatisfying. But it should serve the purpose you have in mind.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>By 'not long enough to be useful', could we get at least 5 seconds or so out of one?
>Is there any way to align a bolt to a particular trajectory, and then recall it later at that same trajectory? Any better than our sense of direction would allow us to estimate this later, anyway?

[Hello Purvis]

>By 'not long enough to be useful', could we get at least 5 seconds or so out of one?
>Is there any way to align a bolt to a particular trajectory, and then recall it later at that same trajectory? Any better than our sense of direction would allow us to estimate this later, anyway?

>You might be able to get five seconds or so out of one.
>Your lighting tends to be manually aimed each time; as much as it can be aimed.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>So, would it be theoretically possible to leave small stationary orbs in our wake while we fly, one at a time at periodic intervals, frequent enough so that at least 3 could be visible at once before they expire, if we looked over our shoulder? 3 being enough to determine if we are still traveling in a straight line at any given time, if they align correctly with each other.

[Hello Purvis]

>So, would it be theoretically possible to leave small stationary orbs in our wake while we fly, one at a time at periodic intervals, frequent enough so that at least 3 could be visible at once before they expire, if we looked over our shoulder? 3 being enough to determine if we are still traveling in a straight line at any given time, if they align correctly with each other.

>You don't think so. These kinds of things are rather removed from your normal methods; you suspect by the time you've made the third, the first might have vanished.

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"Nitori, what's it like when I fly over the gaps between the islands? Can you feel anything, all the way down there? Or do you just kind of lose yourself for the moment?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"Nitori, what's it like when I fly over the gaps between the islands? Can you feel anything, all the way down there? Or do you just kind of lose yourself for the moment?"

>Nitori writes, "It feels like I'm falling and there's nothing I can do to stop it. That's why it got me so bad the first time, it just caught me completely by surprise. I'm used to it now."

>_

[DracoOmega]

>"So, you're falling... and it feels like you keep falling, but never actually reach anything down there?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"So, you're falling... and it feels like you keep falling, but never actually reach anything down there?"

>She nods.

>_