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

[X] Focus on the targets.
- [X] Leave your clones behind to fight the drones.
- [X] Take prisoners if they're smart and surrender. If they think they can take you on after everything so far, they're clearly too dumb to live.


No, better to stay on your targets. If they still have power, they might be able to escape, and stopping that is your mission, and if the AMF is still up then Fate probably can't find the targets and get to them before you. Fighting a bunch of machines isn't worth compromising your good record, not yet. Of course, to get to the targets …. You snarl and throw yourself toward one of the doors that looks like it heads up. A swarm of Gadget Drones moves to intercept you; you lash out with a suddenly-ignited flame blade, then summon your clones to hold off the machines. Then you smash your way through the door and head deeper into the facility.

You couldn't memorize the entire floorplan, especially since the ship didn't have one available, but - if their information was correct - once you get out of the lower maze of small hallways and little rooms there should be some easily-identifiable major corridors that you can use to reach the area the targets should be in. But traveling through the lower maze is extremely frustrating: parts of it lack power entirely, forcing you to tear through doors and spend energy lighting otherwise-pitch-black areas, and there are a number of dead ends. And you're frequently assaulted or ambushed by small squads of Gadget Drones - never enough to be a threat, but more than enough to be annoying … and your clones seem to still be fighting elsewhere, the energy you gave them not having run out yet.

And then you reach a room that is vaguely familiar - it should be right by one of the major access corridors. But as you fly in, the air blurs and you tumble, stumbling on your feet as your head starts pounding fiercely. You look around - several of the odd, large Gadget Drones float near two people dressed in dark green outfits, with several spherical Gadget Drones with legs attached standing by them. Almost too late you notice that the legged machines have extra weapons, bulky cannons mounted on their upper hulls. You throw yourself toward them, ducking low, and barely dodge the barrage of physical projectiles. The two humans rush forward and you shake your head … although, to be fair, they probably think they have some kind of advantage, given that the AMF in this room appears to be strong enough to have a physical effect. Or maybe it's just focused on you? Regardless of what's happening, though, it doesn't stop you from perceiving the eyes of the Gadget Drones, or from crushing them in your hand. One of the humans slows and looks back, but the other charges forward, bringing a huge club overhead to smash you flat. You lunge forward again, slamming into his chest - your shoulder hurts, and he feels a lot tougher than a normal human - and while he's distracted you climb up him and tear open his throat, gluing your mouth to the wound to waste as little of the meal as possible. Of course, your little feast ends prematurely when the man explodes against you, sending you tumbling away, but you still feel much better when you get up.

The other human tosses away a smoking launcher as the remaining shed-sized drones flee. A few clenches of your fist, however, and they explode as the gunner charges toward you - and then something in the ceiling explodes, showering sparks all over the room and shutting off the lights. You dart forward and slam Laevateinn down onto the now-faltering gunner's shoulder. You had intended to rip it off, but instead of a spray of blood, your strike is answered by the shriek of tearing metal, and your victim's right knee folds beneath her. You savor the fear and pain on her face before closing in to feed once more in the dying light.

You toss the carcass aside and conjure a danmaku orb. It doesn't flicker, fade, or even dim noticeably in the otherwise lightless room, so the AMF is probably out completely. Maybe they had to overcharge something to get the effect they were using on you and it took too much power? You shrug and continue on, only to find numerous destroyed Gadget Drones once you reach the main corridor. Fate must have come down already, then. You grin and follow her path of destruction. Flashes of magic - her own yellow, a bright orange, and a sickly green-white - warn you when you get close.

You find her dueling with two mages. One concentrates on ranged attacks, confining her movements a bit, while the mage with the orange magic uses a pair of glowing sticks to fight her in melee, although the two of them aren't averse to throwing out small bursts of bullets or holding spells. Beyond them are four of the targets, missing only one of the men, and a third mage who seems to be focusing on some kind of warding spell. The targets see you; when you wave, two of them simply sigh and sit down on the floor, while a third stares at you curiously, and the fourth just stands with her head lowered. The mage looks at you, eyes wide, then at his partners fighting with Fate - and sags, defeated. His partners, though - the old man throwing out almost enough magic to qualify as danmaku, and the woman barely holding off Fate - they don't give up. The woman surges past Fate, ignoring the slender golden sword that rebounds off her side. The two orange sticks come up, blazing brightly, and the woman charges for you, intending to hit you from both sides. Your wings pop up and forward, sizzling against her magic, and you thrust Laevateinn into her chest, then yank it up and rip out her throat. Fate raises a shield to block against an attack from the old man, but instead of her or you, he turns his beam on the targets … but when it ends, you see the third mage collapse, and none of them look injured. The old man roars incoherently and prepares another spell; you simply charge forward and shatter his skull with a lazy swing of your precious gift, and his magic sizzles away. You glance at the targets, then turn to Fate.

"Wasn't there a fifth? Another man?" She stares at the two dead mages for a moment, then takes a shuddering breath and returns her Device to its axelike form.

"He's already dead." She approaches the targets. "How do we deactivate the security?" The woman still standing shakes her head.

"Can't. We got locked out because Pet tried doing it on his own. Designed it that way, so any defections would need to be a group effort." She smiles bitterly. "It'll calm down in half a day, if you're really concerned about getting the data, but for now everything's just running on its own to boot people who don't belong." The woman who was staring at you hops to her feet and walks over to you, studying you closely - insultingly closely. You glare and shove her back. "Heh. Maybe that's what he sees in her." She grins at you and shakes her head. "Well, if we're leaving, might as well do it now. Unless you want to fight a nearly endless horde of second-rate Gadget Drones for twelve hours." Fate moves so she's in the middle of the group, and a moment later a yellow circle appears beneath your feet - and then you're back on the ship. Security troops move to arrest and contain the targets and the unconscious mage.

"… Good work, Flandre." You smile at Fate and she fails to mask a shudder. "Um, you should probably clean yourself up. I'll take us back to Mid-Childa in a few hours …." Her expression falls, but when you tilt your head curiously she just shakes her head and walks away. Hmm … well, you probably should clean yourself off, first ….


What do you do?

[ ] Talk with one of the prisoners before leaving.
- [ ] The one who stared at you.
- [ ] The one who spoke.
- [ ] The mage.

[ ] See if you can get Fate to explain what's wrong with her.

[ ] Just wait to go back.
- [ ] Timeskip:
- - [ ] See if you can visit Lutecia.
- - [ ] You got mail?
- - [ ] Go shopping.
- - - [ ] Bring Cinque so you can use her as a model.
- - - - [ ] … And Wendi and Nove. You did promise you'd try, after all.

[ ] Other?


DM Note: In case you were curious, here are the other possibilities I had for that roll:

[X] Clean up first
[X] Talk with one of the prisoners before leaving.
- [X] The one who spoke.


You nod; there are only so many ways to respond to someone telling you to clean up, and you weren't exactly planning on parading around like a food vendor, anyway. Fortunately, you were using Loki, so you don't have to do anything about your clothes, only your face, hair, and arms. Magic is so convenient ... you sigh wistfully. Maybe Remilia can make some kind of magic wardrobe thing for you - like a Device with a Barrier Jacket, but without the protection so it doesn't need as much power? You shake your head. Woolgathering, at your age! You giggle and look yourself over in the mirror, making sure you got everything, then walk to the secured area. The man who briefed you about the facility frowns as you approach.

"Hi! Can I talk to one of them for a bit?" His concern turns to confusion and he tilts his head to the side.

"Talk? Er ... which one, and about what?" You shrug.

"The talkative one. Female, reddish brown hair, sort of hazel-green eyes. And about ... I dunno. Stuff. I mean, I have a question about something she said, but after that there's nothing particularly pressing." His frown returns and he taps at his desk for a bit. He shrugs a minute later before nodding.

"I guess it's alright. Give me a minute to have her moved to a private room." He gestures down the hall, back the way you came, and a door slides open. You nod and curtsy before spinning and giggling.

"Thank you!" You scurry into the room to wait. It's a fairly bland room, perhaps an office of some kind, with two chairs on opposite sides of a desk. Of course, you take the large, comfortable chair - but mainly because it spins, and the other one doesn't. So your interviewee's first sight of you is spinning around in the chair, giggling happily. You stop the chair by sticking a leg out to hit the desk and wave. "Come in, come in, sit down. What's your name?" The woman, dressed in the same kind of white outfit that Cinque and her sisters usually wear, gives you an amused look as she takes her seat.

"Asta. And you're Flandre Scarlet. I didn't think they'd start interrogating us so quickly. Elise is going to scream." You lean forward, not intimidatingly.

"So earlier, when that other woman was staring at me, what did you mean about something someone else saw in me? Who were you talking about?" Asta smiles.

"Ah. Well, Elise has a bit of a gigantic crush on a fringe reporter named Korosh Manta. Just about the time she was psyching herself up to write to him, though, he started gushing about you. Not that anyone had any idea who or what you were, then, but Elise has put almost as much effort into researching you and why Korosh might be interested in you as she has into her actual work. Pet used to tease her about it ...." Her smile turns a little bitter.

"Pet was the other one in your group, then?" She nods.

"Yes. My lover, and weapon designer. He's the one who thought about expanding the exhaust shaft and turning it into a magicannon that shoots curving lasers. ... And he's dead, now, because he tried shutting down the facility by himself with a backdoor. Idiot." You wait for a bit as she stares down at her cuffed hands. She looks up at you. "Not going to apologize for bringing up a painful memory?" You shrug.

"I was going to change the subject. Besides, you brought him up." She laughs and shakes her head.

"Oh, that's refreshing. I keep watching those stupid shows. 'Oh, I'm sorry for your loss, now please talk some more about this painful subject.' 'Your husband died doing what he thought was right, so be proud of him!' Hah! Not everyone's a sap-belly, sometimes they don't want fake sympathy! ... Sorry." Not that she looks it, smirking and shaking her head. "Anyway, what was the subject you were going to change the discussion to?" You nod.

"Back to what you said. What were saying that that man might see in me?" She blinks before chuckling.

"You don't care. Rules, traditions, what people expect. I mean, take Elise. She's a prisoner, she's basically allowed to study you all she wants until you actually put restraints on her, but she stares at you for a few seconds and you're glaring back and ready to shove her through a wall. It's more extreme when you fight - I've only seen that sort of reckless abandon on thrill-seekers, and they don't get themselves into fights like you do. That said, you really think it's a good idea to let your boss get into fights, with her acting the way she is?" You shrug.

"I guess the Bureau is still trying to get itself back together. And it's not like I would have taken much time to get to her, so even if she got hurt, she would have been able to hold an enemy off until I got there to save her." She gives you a look, complete with raised eyebrow, but just snorts and shakes her head when you cock your own head to the side.

"Whatever. Although I must say, you guys are particularly good at being really dumb. You've got a manpower shortage, but you refuse to use the explicitly useful and mass-producible Gadget Drones because ...?" You shrug.

"Don't ask me, I'm not involved in policy. I'm here strictly temporarily." Her eyes widen.

"Wait, really? Then - can I get your autograph?" You blink, dumbfounded.

"Huh?"

"Okay, yeah, that was out of stone - but if you're only going to be here a short time, then that means I get a famous person's autograph and pretty much no one else will! Especially if we get it notarized so there's official documentation and video of it! Find the right person, and I won't need to code junky-clunky combat programs for rip-off weapons and can settle down on a nice world, buy a comfortable house and live-in servants so I'll never have to be alone ever again, and mock stupid people until old age finally gets me. The Bureau's pretty lenient, I can get away with working for them under glorified house arrest for a few years or so, and as long as I repent and don't do anything noteworthy they'll let me do whatever." You blink and stare at her, then slowly tilt your head to the side, still completely baffled. She grins. "Well, I guess you don't have to make up your mind right now. And I'm not trying to pressure you or anything; it's not like I can't do anything to support myself, and you did kind of have to fight your way through a hostile facility filled with machines I helped make try to kill you, so it's completely understandable if you don't want to." You'll have to think about it ....


What do you do?

[ ] Find somewhere to nap until it's time to go back to Mid-Childa.
- [ ] Timeskip:
- - [ ] See if you can visit Lutecia.
- - [ ] You got mail?
- - [ ] Go shopping.
- - - [ ] Bring Cinque so you can use her as a model.
- - - - [ ] … And Wendi and Nove. You did promise you'd try, after all.

[ ] Other?