Flandre's Quest (Touhou) World - (Madness Quest)

[X] See what mundane entertainment is available.
- [X] With Satsuki


Meal finished, you grin and clap your hands. "Okay, clean-up time!" This, at least, Satsuki already knows how to do - if she's not as efficient and thorough as you are, it's only through lack of experience.

"Are you going to teach me something else tonight, Flandre-sama?" You tap your lips for a moment, then shake your head.

"Nope! Let's go see what kind of fun things there are here." She follows you as you start leaving the kitchen, head cocked curiously.

"Fun things?" You bob your head and spin around so you're walking backward.

"Yep! In case I can't take you with me somewhere and you want to play something, or if it's raining and I can't go outside. Fun stuff!" Fortunately, you already have a good idea of where to start, and you head toward the room where Nove and Wendi were playing that 'game' involving cars crashing into things. When you get there, you find Wendi already inside, playing a different game - this one seems to be nothing more than matching patterns displayed on the screen. You knock on the door to get her attention.

"Nove, just tell her. The longer you put it off, the worse it'll …." She trails off as she turns away and sees not her sister, but you and Satsuki standing at the door. She stares at you, face locked in a rictus grin of embarrassment, then shakes her head. "Um, can I help you with something?" The screen behind her lets out an angry tone and she jumps, startled. "Damnit! Um, sorry." You brush it off and walk into the room, looking around. There are a few likely-looking cabinets against the wall - but as long as you have someone here who can help you, why shouldn't you use her?

"What games do you have around here?" She stares at you for a moment before blinking and shaking her head.

"… Um, games? Ahh …." You nod, then shrug.

"Or any other fun things to do to pass the time. It sounded like you don't have any movies." That seems to be something she can focus on, and she nods.

"Yeah, at least, nothing long-term. Ginga brings some stuff sometimes - I think we've actually got a couple that she hasn't taken back yet. Let me see …." She glances at the screen, shakes her head at her defeat, and walks to one of the cabinets. You and Satsuki follow her, standing over her shoulders as she sits on the floor. "Um, let me … yep. Right, I don't recommend this one - it's some big-hit culture film from some other planet, but it's literally a flower. I don't know if there's some context we missed, but it's literally just two hours of watching a particular flower in a field. And then someone steps on it. I don't know how Cinque didn't sleep through it. This is about a group of high-schoolers trying to put a band together. I don't think it was bad, but Nove was in a bad mood when we watched it and wouldn't stop complaining. And this is about some guy getting recruited to help save some other group from raiders. Well, except he dies halfway through. It's actually pretty good - lots of budget to show magic and stuff." She closes the cabinet and slides over to another, but pauses with her hand on the handle and takes a deep breath. "Um, I'm sorry about … in the kitchen. Before. It's just … I was looking forward to doing something for Cinque and Nove, and then you were just there, and Dieci still has nightmares about you, you know? Cinque wants us to at least try to get along with you, but she's … she's so grown-up, you know? She can …." She trails off, wringing her hands in front of her. Even though she can't see you, you nod.

"And you haven't heard much about me that isn't about my violence." Satsuki looks back and forth between you.

"… Well, we heard a bit from Miss Lu and Agito, when they got to talk with us, but … yeah." And unless they left out a lot, they'd have had a lot to say about your violence, too. "A-anyway, with Nove and me, a lot of it's stress and worry, because everything's gone upside-down. We're trying, it's …." You grin.

"It's just that I'm me." Wendi nods silently, and you pat her shoulder. If it makes things smoother for you, less of a hassle, there's no reason you can't 'at least try'.

"A- … anyway. We've got some video games - some head-to-head racing, pattern and puzzle games - but they're pretty basic. Nothing with a real story, it's mostly just stuff to keep your hands busy. Lot of board games, for some reason. Most are just some variant of 'go around the big shape and do managing things' - I think Ginga said someone called them 'Monopoly clones', or something, but I don't think anyone knows what they were talking about. Some strategy and diplomacy games - controlling a country and trying to get a certain win condition, or building up some fantasy army from the ground up and becoming the winner either by beating everyone or doing some other absurd thing. And some of those really look interesting, but they're actually designed to be played over a long time or with a large group. So we haven't gotten much use out of them. And then there's music." Your wings twitch and you cock your head.

"Music?" She nods and finally looks up at you.

"Oh, yes. So much music. I don't know who set it up, but the music library here is gigantic. If you played them one after the other without stopping, you would be listening for centuries." Satsuki moans at the thought; you can't help but wonder if there's a youkai for cataloging music somewhere in Gensokyo. "And there's a news channel, but that's not really entertainment. Cinque makes us watch it, though."


What do you do?

[ ] Ask Wendi to show you:
- [ ] Some of the board games.
- [ ] Some of the video games.
- [ ] One of the movies.
- - [ ] The flower.
- - [ ] The band.
- - [ ] The fighting movie.

[ ] Thank her for taking the time to explain things and leave.
- [ ] Teach Satsuki something else.

[ ] Other?


DM Note: If you want to teach Satsuki something, you'll get about half a lesson done before she has to sleep.

[X] Ask Wendi to show you:
- [X] Some of the board games.


"Hmm … if it's not too much of a bother, would you mind showing us the board games? Or at least where they are?" You try to make it very clear that it's a real request, and you won't hold it against her if she refuses, but you see her hold herself very still for a moment before letting out her breath and nodding.

"… Yeah, I guess I can. Cinque would probably be more help, but she's sleeping right now." She smiles wanly and shrugs. "Come on, they're in another room." You glance at the screen, still frozen with a 'Try Again' question, then follow her to the room where Ginga and Cinque played their tower-collapse game. Wendi walks over to one of the walls and turns an innocuous handle - then slides the entire wall to the side, revealing a rather spacious closet.

"Wow! So many …." You nod, agreeing with Satsuki and walk up to the closet. Wendi nods.

"Yeah, that's a lot. I mean, there are a good forty of those 'clone' games alone, with slightly different rules - how many spaces there are, what you do with the 'properties', how you move, and so on. Not counting different versions of the same game, of course. And here in the middle we've got some pretty quick and easy games." She makes a face at one of the boxes and tosses it aside. "Well, usually pretty easy. A couple of them are pretty heavily-stacked in favor of one side or the other. And Cinque is way, way too good at that puzzle-question game." She pulls down another box and opens it up. "Let's see … 'There is an ancient invention still used in some parts of the world today that allows people to see through walls. What is it?'" She makes a face and shakes her head. You glance at Satsuki and put your hand over your face when you see her struggle with the question.

"Hm. So is that one just questions?" Wendi nods.

"Yeah. I mean, there are points and technically you're moving along a path, but really it's just asking questions of varying difficulty until one side gives up." She takes out another small box. "This one's pretty fun, though. Basically simulates a duel. Depending on the character you have, you can use certain moves and stances, and maybe some special abilities. Nove's actually really good at it as long as she doesn't get upset. But like I said, there are some games that are designed for long-term gameplay or bigger groups. Like … this." She hauls a rather large blue box with the word Gigant on the front and sides out from the floor of the closet and carries it over to a table. You float up so you can look over her shoulder as she opens it, and Satsuki watches from across the table. "Basically, it's some - ah, weird imitation of the Sankt-Kaiser Unification Wars. You pick a faction and build up your armies, then try to win the game. How you do that - well, you can beat everyone else. There's also a Lost Logia that you can try to control, but with the power limitations on the players, basically the only way to do that is to cooperate with someone else - and there's no guarantee that either of you will survive the battle anyway. She takes a folded-up piece of board out of the box and spreads it over the table. You slide over to study it.

"So you travel between worlds, which have their own effects in play, and you fight on different terrain boards depending on the geography of the planet in question, which affects your troops differently, and you have to manage logistics and transportation …." You sigh and shake your head - you got fed up enough with all that just thinking about perfectly normal humans in a small part of one world!

"Yep! I mean, it's actually really simple, just … a lot of stuff to keep track of. And there are rules for what happens if you forget something. And some of the factions are stronger than others - the Belkans get the Cradle, for example, so they aren't reliant on a home planet, and fighting them where the Cradle is gets really hard if they build up at all." She shrugs. "It's not particularly historically accurate, though - half the factions are completely made up, and most of the others are only loosely related to the historical reality. But the guy who gets to use the army made up entirely of replicating dragon-robots seems pretty fun to play as, and there's an army that leaves the worlds it conquers lifeless husks that other players get no use from. You can't really mix-and-match units a whole lot, but there are rules for mercenary characters." She shakes her head. "And Ginga said there's a, ah … modern version that's more focused on getting the Lost Logia, because some of the players actually play the part of Bureau agents and others play the part of dimensional criminals. We don't have that one, but it's apparently more focused on cooperation between the Bureau members, and doesn't have as much of a 'critical failure' point as this one does." Satsuki clears her throat nervously, and hunches her shoulders when you and Wendi look at her.

"Um … um, do you have any games that are … just cooperation?" Wendi smiles and nods.

"Yep. We do, actually, and there's a good one that we haven't played much because it's designed for a six-player minimum. Hmm …." She ambles back to the closet and takes out a green box. This one actually has a cover, showing a walled city in a storm, and is apparently called Stormwrack. "Basically, you run this city that's isolated by some weird magical storm. And as resources start dwindling - well, the game starts with you allocating resources to different areas, like social services, military, luxuries, and finding out what's causing the storm. And after a couple turns … something starts happening. Depending on what bad guy you get, you see." She grins and shakes her head. "And different threats require different responses - something that's just trying to overrun the city is going to need different resources than one that tries subverting the population. But you're supposed to cooperate, based on what the character card you have says you know and care about." You nod.

"And I suppose that last part is what makes keeping track of different characters per person tricky? Because you have to argue against yourself if they have opposing beliefs and goals." She nods.

"Yeah. Ginga's actually pretty good at it, but even she gets tripped up sometimes." She stretches. "And there are a few games that aren't really either cooperative or combative. There's one where you're basically different countries with different resources, and you're all trying to build some particular building or monument. And you need to trade with other people, because you don't have the resources to build the monument on your own, but it's still a race to build it first. I'm not sure it's really balanced well - either that, or there's something we're missing." You nod and look back at the closet - there are still a lot of games you could look at - then turn back to Wendi.

"Thank you for showing us where to find them. When we're done, we just it all back in the closet?" She blinks, then relaxes a bit and nods.

"Yeah. If there's anything you particularly want to play, you can just leave it out. I'll just go back to my game, then. Unless there's something else …?" You shake your head and bow politely.

"Thank you again." She nods and withdraws, not quite fleeing … but definitely relieved to get away from you. You shrug and float back to the closet. The games seem to be separated by number of players, which is as good a method as any. "So, Satsuki, what do you think? Is there anything you want to play?" You smile at her.

"You mean … right now?" You shrug.

"Or later - I mean, we'd have to make sure we know the rules, and it's getting a bit late for anything complicated." She nods and slowly walks over to the closet, looking helplessly at all the different games - and when she turns a pained expression toward you, you smack your forehead. "Right … I'm sorry, I forgot you can't read this. It's not your fault, Satsuki," you say forcefully as she starts to look down at the floor. You jab her with your index finger and she squeaks.


What do you do?

[ ] Have her tell you what kind of game she wants to play, and you'll find some that seems appropriate and copy down the rules for her.

[ ] Apologize again and ask her to think it over, and tomorrow you can go through the games with her.

[ ] Put everything away for now and go do something with Satsuki.
- What?

[ ] Other?