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

[X] Lecture.
- [X] Discuss some control methods. Maybe she could set her feeding to a regular schedule and quantity, so she neither starves herself nor gluts herself.


You let her sob against your chest for a few minutes until you make your decision. Exhausting her would be a temporary fix - but it would only be a temporary fix, and if you let her start thinking it's something she can use long-term, you'll need to get your sister to convince her of reality. In a similar fashion, forcing her to drink blood might clear some of her reservations about hurting people, but if she did make some noise then everyone might find out what's going on and just how close to the edge she is, which would be … impolitic. Of course, her being so close to a breakdown is, itself, a major problem. Finally, you gently push her away and hold her up until she calms down a little.

"I- I'm sorry … F-Flandre-sama …." Her voice is soft and weak, a you let her go and sigh.

"Satsuki, you have a problem, and it's one that you need to start working on right now." She nods miserably.

"I … I will. Self-control …." You close your eyes and sigh more forcefully, more frustratedly, and when you open your eyes you see Satsuki leaning away from you, frightened.

"Self-control may be a problem you have, Satsuki, but it isn't the one I was referring to. I suppose that problems may be the correct word - plural, you understand. So I'm going to try and explain things to you, so you know where you stand. First, Satsuki - you aren't human. Human morality no longer applies to you. You are a vampire, you are a monster. Human blood is your new food, your new source of life and existence! They are to you - to us, you and me and my sister - as cattle are to them." She shudders and shakes her head, and a thought occurs to you. "Satsuki, what use is a cow?" Surprised by the sudden softness in your voice, she stares at you for a moment, lips quivering, before responding.

"They … their meat. And milk?" You stare at her for a long moment before sighing in disappointment as she hangs her head.

"Food and drink. And you didn't mention cheese or butter." You laugh bitterly. "But what about their hides? Leather is a material for clothing, furniture, and light structures like tents. Cows are animals that are suitable for the harness and yoke, so they can be used for field work or transport. They can be ridden, as well. Their dung can be used for fuel, building materials, or fertilizer. Their horns make useful decorations, or can be used as cups. Their sinew can be used for cord or rope! And that is all without getting into the magical properties that they can have. They provide almost everything that a human needs to survive. In much the same way, Satsuki, humans are our cattle - and like the aurochs of old, humans can be a threat to a vampire. And like the kine of today, they must be cared for and treated well so they don't become useless. Remember all this, Satsuki - cows are not bread. The one is more valuable than the other." She nods slowly - then you lunge forward and jab your finger into her chest. "But! Back to the issue. You, Satsuki, need to stop thinking like a human. You are a vampire, and you must conduct yourself as such if you want to survive. Concern over some humans, certain humans, is fine. But to fear the consumption of blood so much as you do - that is wrong." She shakes her head.

"I - I don't want to lose myself! If I drink blood - if I - I - I …." You reach out and slap her cheek gently. She flinches, but she isn't thinking in a rut anymore.

"Did you not tell me that you needed to consume the blood of humans because you were human? Because the makeup of a human is required to keep your body from breaking down? Why not, too, your heart and mind? Is not your own humanity restored by savoring the life of those whose kind you so recently were?" Her mouth works helplessly. "Yes, Satsuki - both your natures draw you to consume human blood. Your vampire nature, for survival; your human nature, for remembrance. You must feed, Satsuki, but death is not a requirement - not unless you fail to keep yourself healthy, unless you fail to take care of yourself." You stand and spread your arms. "And, Satsuki - consider me. I am a monster, the sort of creature you probably do not wish to become. But which of us was it that nearly lost control at, not even the presence, but the depiction of blood? Which of us was it that lost control and was driven to a feeding frenzy? Can you truly tell me - can you look me in the eyes and say that it was the monster who accepts who and what she is, and not the girl who keeps trying to be something she no longer is?" She doesn't even bother to meet your eyes.

"No … it … it was me. I …." You reach down and carefully cradle her cheek with one hand, making her look up at you.

"There is … another issue, Satsuki. Imagine yourself, not as you are right at this moment, but - a few minutes ago. Immediately after we had finished watching that movie. What if, at that point, instead of coming out here with me, Shari had asked you to come into the kitchen with her while she made something. What if you had accepted … and, what if, Satsuki, what if she had cut herself with a knife, entirely by accident?" Her face takes on an aspect of terror, and you nod. "I am not so fast that I could get to you before you killed her, and she is no mage able to defend herself. That would get you into some amount of trouble - and it would get me into a great deal of trouble as well. You are my servant, Satsuki Yumizuka, and I am responsible for you. What you do is my burden as well as yours. Therefore, Satsuki, so long as you are my servant, you will keep yourself fed. You will not let yourself become so hungry that the mere depiction of blood puts you on the verge of a breakdown. Am I understood?" She nods.

"Y-yes, Flandre-sama. I … I'm sorry, Flandre-sama. I … I …." She tries to fight back tears, and you gently wave her forward. She hesitates, then hurls herself into you, crying, fingers almost clawing at your back before your wings dip down to give them something to latch onto that won't bleed. You slide down to a sitting position and stroke Satsuki's hair once more. After a few minutes, however, you hold her up again.

"Satsuki, we need to work on this problem, and that means we need to talk about it. Sooner, rather than later. Okay?" She wipes her eyes, now dull red, and nods. "Alright. When do you normally drink blood, and how much do you drink?" She looks down.

"When … when I get hungry. And I drink enough to make … make the cold go away, and so I'm not hungry." You shake your head and she hunches her shoulders defensively.

"Satsuki, you know that's making things worse, right? Getting hungry is your body telling you that you aren't taking care of it. When you were human, did you wait to eat until you got hungry?" She shakes her head. "Right, you had roughly regular mealtimes. And you didn't really feel hungry unless you exerted yourself, right? So why did you change your method when you became a vampire?" She sniffs and wipes her eyes.

"Ci-Ciel-senpai said … most of it was in my head, that I could control it. That …." She shudders and wraps her arms around herself.

"She may be right," you say, and Satsuki gives you a pleading look, on that begs you to just tell her what to do. "Humans get addicted to things that make them feel a certain way - drugs and alcohol, mainly. Maybe, because you used to be human, you have a sort of addiction, and a lot of that is mental desire rather than a physiological need. Of course, there are physiological consequences to stopping the intake, so it gets complicated depending on the severity of the addiction … but if that woman was thinking about your need for blood in those terms …. Well, anyway. The point is, that's not going to work. What we should do, Satsuki, is get you on a schedule of feeding, one that you do not stray from unless you expend a lot of energy. How much do you usually drink to feel better, and how often?" She hunches over and wraps her arms around herself tightly.

"It's … I don't know." She shivers and you force your breathing to remain steady. It's … it's a lot. And … maybe … once a week? I was - was going to drink some tomorrow, or tonight before I went to bed." You sigh. Well … you take out your blood flask. Whatever became of Tarbin, anyway? The last time you saw her, she was sleeping in the hospital. She was one of your servants - of her own desire, no less! - but considering what people said happened to Marino's unit after you left …. You shake your head. You'll keep the flask. Your clones slip out and one heads into the kitchen to retrieve a modestly large mug - a blood pack would barely fill half of it. You set it down on the table next to Satsuki.

"Satsuki. You see this? From now on, you're going to use this mug to drink blood. The question we need to work out is how often, and how much. What are your thoughts on the matter?" She looks blankly at it and swallows nervously.

"Not - not every day! Please!" You stare into her dim red eyes and nod once. She droops, relieved, but you simply cross your arms and wait for her to continue. "Ev- every other day? Um, half-full?" She tenses, waiting for your approval or denial.

"Will that be enough to keep you satisfied without you drinking far more than you need?" You see her face collapse before she ducks her head to try to keep you from seeing how broken she is.

"I … I don't know!" She presses her hands against her eyes. "I don't, don't know! Don't know, don't know …." Your mouth twists in irritation. You got by on two teacups of bloody tea a day for decades … but then, you have a real biology to help keep maintenance down. Satsuki probably doesn't, and in any case she's still so young, and she didn't know anything about youkai or magic until a few months ago.


What do you do?

[ ] Half a mug, every other day, when she wakes up.
- [ ] Send her to rest and relax.
- - [ ] Wait quietly until the piano people come.
- [ ] Teach her something.
- - [ ] Politics.
- - [ ] Etiquette.
- - [ ] Singing.
- [ ] Go for a run.

[ ] Half a mug, every other day, before she goes to sleep.
- [ ] Send her to rest and relax.
- - [ ] Wait quietly until the piano people come.
- [ ] Teach her something.
- - [ ] Politics.
- - [ ] Etiquette.
- - [ ] Singing.
- [ ] Go for a run.

[ ] Other?

[X] Half a mug, every other day, before she goes to sleep.
- [X] Teach her something.
- - [X] Politics.


You shake yourself, take a calming breath, and then put one hand under Satsuki's chattering chin. She stiffens, freezing and going silent, and you nod. "Alright, Satsuki. Let's do it this way: starting tonight, every other day, before you go to sleep, you'll drink half a mug of blood. And after a while, maybe a week or two, we'll talk about it and see if we need to change the frequency or amount, okay?" She nods. "Good. Now, go in the kitchen and wash your face, calm down a bit, then come back out here."

"Y-yes, Flandre-sama. … Thank you, Flandre-sama!" She scurries into the cafeteria. Pretty soon you'll need to start using more specific examples in some of your lessons; it'll probably be more worth it to set up one of the conquest games to demonstrate the situation rather than describe it entirely in words, but … for now, you'll leave it alone. Let Ginga and her charges enjoy some more free time by themselves. You review your subject until a refreshed-looking Satsuki walks back out onto the balcony. You wave for her to sit down and take your own seat across from her.

"So, Satsuki, what do you think is the most important part of politics?" She stares at you for a few moments, blinking at the sudden question.

"Um … compromise?" You nod to yourself.

"A nice choice. I can understand the reasoning behind it. More important, however, is the ability to determine what your party or the other party actually wants. After all, politics governs all interactions between states, including war, and in a lot of cases compromise is either unnecessary or undesirable. But knowing what you really want, and what your opponents and rivals really want - that is invaluable. For example, let's say you control an independent city that has the only local source of a resource that is necessary for making particularly effective weapons, and I control a modest country that hasn't indicated any expansionist desires. Then I declare war on you with intent to conquer your region. Why would I do that?" Satsuki frowns at you.

"Um … because you want that resource?" Again, you nod to yourself - then you grin.

"Ah, but what if I don't want the resource, but only want to deny it to others? Or if I've decided to start expanding, and am simply going after your city because it's small and presumably easily crushed, and the resource is simply an extra bonus? Or maybe it's because I think your buildings look silly. Or maybe it's not about the military resource at all, but about the fact that your city has a large harbor that does a lot of sea trade, and my country is land-locked so I lose a lot of trade profits to your tariffs and because I have to go through middle-men." Satsuki stares at you for a moment, then scowls indignantly.

"You never said anything about those things, though!" Your grin widens and you shrug.

"Politics, Satsuki. What I actually want is for you to think about and understand that politics is an extremely complicated field. There is almost never only a single reason for anything - if someone tries to justify an invasion based on a single, relatively limited resource, poke around to see how else that invasion would affect that person's state. Or his personal affairs. Maybe I don't want the invasion at all, but several of my important advisors have personal loans to investors in your city that are coming due, and they can't actually pay them off, so they want an invasion to take those loans off the books." Satsuki's expression changes from one of moderate outrage to one of contemplation.

"Oh. That's …." You nod.

"Yep. Most youkai are actually really bad at that sort of thing - we have low imagination in general, and a lot of them aren't too bright, so they only see the blunt and direct options and reasons. Those who are good at that side of politics normally also have a great deal of experience, so they can look at how humans act in certain situations and make guesses based on apparent similarities." You sigh. "I really don't like this sort of thing. Thinking out all the possibilities and the ramifications of each - it's just so difficult and boring. And if you don't have all the information you really need to make a guess … then you're just out of luck."

After that, you start moving into a general discussion of all the important things that go into politics - negotiation, diplomacy, and compromise; logic and passion, and how they can be used to sway both the populace and rivals; the importance of consistency and character in your dealings with others, especially honesty and keeping your word; a very brief foray into the value of economics. It's all far, far too much for a single night - even a single subject could easily take up weeks, if you were thorough! - much less the half-night or so you have with Satsuki, but she pays attention and asks questions that show she's actually thinking about what you're saying, so when it comes time for her go to her room you feel like you've gotten something accomplished. Of course, with her gone you don't really have anything external to occupy yourself before the piano people arrive, and you're too worried about it to be good company for Headless and Giltless, so you simply curl up in a room overlooking the front of the building so you can watch the road coming in. You can be patient, after all ….

---

You keep near the technician as he finishes putting everything into place, making sure you aren't so close that you're annoying. It's not that you don't trust him to do a good job - he handled everything up to now as perfectly as a human could, after all - but you really want everything to go extra perfect, and now that you almost have a working piano ….

"Alright. All that's left is making sure everything is in tune. Shouldn't take more than ten more minutes, then she's all yours." Excited as you are, you can't help but be surprised at how quickly he thinks it will take.

"Eh? Only ten minutes?" He gives you a surprised look before grinning and nodding.

"Yep. I mean, my Device does the hard work. It's got a program for tuning, so I don't have to do anything except press the keys. Come watch." You skip closer and watch as the floating box hovers over the keyboard. The technician runs through the piano keys, letting the Device record the sound, giving you a brief explanation of what's happening. And then, after setting the Device with the piano's information, he starts at the beginning again, and the Device creates several magical manipulator arms to dampen the excess strings and tune the current string. Your eyes widen - it's certainly much faster than doing everything by hand and ear, and he is indeed finished in less than ten minutes. "There. All tuned up. Care to play something?" He smiles as you slide onto the bench and hover your fingers over the keys. Of course, he isn't the only one listening ….

You grin and flex your wings and fingers, then launch yourself into Night on Bald Mountain. It's not quite the same as a solo piano piece - your favorite instrument doesn't have quite the range to do everything justice - but it's still quite impressive, and the technician stares open-mouthed at you until you turn your head to grin at him, at which point he simply goes white. Not too surprising, considering you're on one of the more intricate parts when you do that, and you don't miss a single key. But all good things come to an end, and when you finish the song you bow to the technician. "It's wonderful, perfect! Thank you." He tries finding his voice and settles for a nod before swallowing.

"It's … it's my pleasure. That was … amazing." You giggle and bow your head, accepting the compliment. You glance at the doorway out of the corner of your eye; Nove and Wendi are both in danger of having their jaws hit the floor. But now … now you have a piano. And Fate is supposed to be back today sometime, too.


What do you do?

[ ] Play the piano. Forever and ever.
- [ ] Time-skip:
- - [ ] Mission.
- - [ ] Visit Lutecia.

[ ] Arrange something for Fate.
- Write-in.

[ ] Other?